C'mon over!

We will be entering the MTC in two days. From here on out, Ron and I will be blogging on our mission blog Ourmissionispossible.blogspot.com Please come over and see how our mission life begins in the MTC and how it progresses for the next 18 months. I can't believe it's finally here!

And we're off!

On Wednesday Ron and I were set apart by our Stake President, Gary Gessel. He gave each of us a beautiful blessing and wise counsel. Yesterday we left early in the morning for Utah. Tonight we had a family party in PleasantView at Heather and Dan's house. It's always fun to get together with my siblings.

And also with all the kids, cousins, nieces and nephews.

Almost to the starting gate...

This is really what it's all about.

 

 

These are the family members that were with us this weekend.

Also here on Sunday were Larry & Lorrie, and Julie & Dave and their two

little ones. (am I missing anyone?)

This past weekend was a whirlwind... no, more like a tornado of family and food and lot's of fun. 

 

Erin practicing with Peter and Christopher, their musical number for Sacrament meeting.

They added just the right spirit I was hoping for, for our meeting. It was beautiful!

 

Ron and I have so much to be thankful for. We honestly couldn't have pulled this family weekend off without the help of so many of our friends.
Let's just go down the list, in no particular order:
The Shaw's, the Gessel's, the Hartzel's and the Coleman's housed many of our family member's with accommodations that could give the Waldorf Astoria a run for its money.
My dear friend Becki came down to Chamber's Property to take our family pictures on the most beautiful, yet freezy breezy October day.

7 of our 8 kids, our 18 grandchildren and Grandma & Grandpa Talbot

 

 



Our neighbors were so generous. We borrowed folding chairs, a portable crib, a table, a bunt pan, a crock pot, 'fridge space and garbage can space. Every time I turned around I needed something and they graciously came to my rescue!
We were able to keep everyone fed, and it was really fun to see everyone visiting and happy. Chris brought his special friend, Ellen, and it was great getting to know her.

Ellen and Chris

 



They left on Sunday in order to get back to BYU.
The rest of us spent Monday in Seattle going to the Locks, Troll Bridge, and Pikes Market.

William sitting on the troll

 

The Salmon Ladder at the Locks

 

DeeDee & Mark were invaluable this weekend!

 



Then everyone left for the airport and we came home. Sorta.
We were invited to dinner and FHE at Bob and Heather Call's home. It was a lovely ending to a great weekend. Then we came home and crashed.
We are blessed, that is for sure.

Hilarious!

Gracie in Coleman's Halloween glasses

Baptism / Blessing day!

 

 

 Handsome Tyler.   

This is the most photogenic boy I've ever seen. 

Our oldest grandson, Tyler was baptized today. His dad did a really great job preforming the baptism and his confirmation. Look how happy Tyler looks! Lot's of aunts and uncles and grandparents and cousins were there. Ella and Coleman were so happy to be there on Tyler's special day!

Also, Blake was blessed right after Tyler's confirmation, also by his daddy Ben. It's not appropriate to take pictures in the chapel, but we weren't in the chapel for Blakes blessing, so I snapped this picture. It's kinda fuzzy, but I thought it was just a cute picture of Ben holding up Blake afterward. It was a special day, and a fun weekend with everyone staying at Erin's.

Quick trip to Utah

We landed in SLC and went to the Draper Temple to do a session. It was the first time for both Ron and myself to go there. It's beautiful. Then we made our way down to Erin and Ben's in Lehi. Tomorrow is Tyler's baptism and Blake's blessing.

Nature's Halloween decor

How's this for a cool Halloween picture? This is hanging off the CBU (central box unit) around the corner from my house. As much as I hate spiders and everything concerning them, I couldn't help but see the beauty in this as I went to pick up my mail. It's been foggy misty here today and there were tiny jewel-like drops of dew hanging off this web that made it sparkle.

A little baby holdin' time

We got to see and hold baby Lincoln yesterday at the hospital. There's nothing like holding a baby fresh from heaven. While we were there, Lincoln had his  routine hearing test. This little guy passed with flying colors!

He's here!

Lincoln Mercer Williams came into this world at 3:22 a.m. Beautiful! This is numero dieciocho nietos for us. We are so grateful that he decided to come before we left town and that he and Angela are doing well. Around 2:00 this morning Landon came and crawled in bed with us but forgot "Puppy", so as I was retrieving Puppy from his bottom bunk, Logan poked his head over the top bunk and asked "Grandma where is my mommy?" I whispered "mommy's at the hospital having baby brother." Logan got a big grin on his face and laid back down. This morning we printed this picture of his new brother for Logan to take to school and show his class. Landon is still asleep. By the way, after about two hours of having Landon "sleep" in our bed, we put him back in his own bed. That kid is a WORK OUT! Here is an illustration of what he's like to sleep with. (bottom photo) Ha! Love it!

It's 12:05 a.m. I think we might be getting a new baby today!



G.C. on the T.V. in the A.M.

I love love love General Conference. It is a time to renew and recommit and re-energize. And with our mission being just weeks away, you can bet that Ron and I were hanging on every word spoken this morning. Great A.M. session!
Announcements made by our Prophet, Thomas S. Monson, at Saturday morning session of General Conference: Two new Temples, Tucson Arizona and Peru. But I feel the "biggie" was the change in missionary age. Worthy young men can now serve at age 18. Worthy and desirous young women can now serve at age 19. This is wonderful news for young women especially. I think many young women would love to serve missions, but perhaps feel that coming home at the age of 23+ would narrow down the opportunity to get married. (Ok, that's just what goes on inside my worldly head.) As my friend on another blog said, the current Elders serving in the field are going to come back and wonder where all the girls went! Hope you enjoy the rest of Conference weekend!

Problem solved

We've been having a nasty problem with fruit flies around here. I don't know why, we don't even have fruit lying around. It was just becoming annoying to be sitting at the kitchen table talking to someone and have this nearly invisible little kamikaze bug fly in your face. Yesterday I was reading Dooley's Doodles (blog) and saw that her son made a little trap to capture these tiny pests, read  here . I decided to try it last night. It works! Thanks Kirkham Dooley, for this great solution to a pesky problem!

I like art. I like soup.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Andy Warhol's iconic pop art "32 Campbell's Soup Cans". I saw these cans at Target and thought they would make darling little vases or pencil holders or something...and we like tomato soup here at our house. So as we've been eating it, I take the can and rinse it out and modpodge over the label. I've never been a huge Warhol fan, and I don't really care for silk screened art. I think it is cheesy and cheap and for the most part, not too inspiring. However, I was drawn to these colorful little gems. Which just goes to prove you can find beauty in just about anything. And Campbell's Soup Company, what a great marketing idea, using the anniversary of his art to sell more soup. I bought these four cans when I already had a shelf full of soup in my pantry. Genius I tell ya! 

"What could possibly go wrong?"

I tried to watch the Presidential debates, but honestly, it just makes me crazy. Obama saying "Governor Romney says he's going to lower taxes, but he won't tell us how he's going to do it. Governor Romney says he wants to repeal ObamaCare and have states decide what's best for their own people but he won't tell us what that plan is..." Hello! Yer kinda 'the pot callin' the kettle black', aren't ya Barrack? When YOUR Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi says - speaking of the ObamaCare bill- "We won't know what's in it until it's passed"  like she's a Freshman girl going for a joyride with a Senior boy in a stolen car, just because he showed her a set of keys and told her the car was his. Mr. President I find you deceitful, and everyone of your cohorts either ignorantly just going along for the ride or just as deceitful. It's time to tell the emperor he's got no clothes!
Please enjoy this clip.  If it weren't so true, it wouldn't be so funny.
You're welcome.

Yakima kinda-adventure

We drove up to Yakima to a conference where Ron was speaking on litigation. Normally you'd think that would be a big yawner, right? Nope. Ron could make ice cubes melting sound interesting. He did a great job. On the way up...or over...whatever...they closed the highway for rock blasting. We were like the last ones to be let through before they closed the road. Yeah, we could have stopped the car and laid right down on the road if we'd wanted to. It was a little eery. Nothing but beautiful sunset behind us.

...And nothing but beautiful moonlight in front of us.

...We stopped at Mountain High Hamburgers on the way up. Their hot fudge shakes are beyond wonderful!

After Ron's presentation we drove into town and stopped at this little Italian cafe by the train depot, and dined 'alfresco'. It was really good, but the polar opposite of the Italian restaurant in my last post. This food was HEAVY.

As we drove over the mountains, we stopped at the gigantic fruit stand in Thorp and bought some of the most dee.lish.us. peaches! And boy was it windy!

Remember the TROLL dolls from when you were a kid? Yeah, that's my hair! Ha!

Gotta love pose-able hair!

A must Go-To, Cantinetta

Last weekend some friends of ours took us to this restaurant up in Seattle. Not your typical "Olive Garden" variety Italian food. The Hartman's son, Tim is the Sous Chef...the second in command...the under-chefling...the almost Grand PooBah! Whatever you want to call him, he is an artist. The food was DEE-Licioso! Fresh, creative, a marriage of flavors and textures that would bring the Chopped judges to tears. And every course was plated to aesthetic perfection. Seriously.

This place is in the artsy district of Wallingford. It's actually in what looks like a residential area. You drive down the street and see this incredible view of the Seattle skyline over the water, and there it is on the corner. This little old brick building that looks like it may have at one time been a neighborhood bodega. But don't let this unassuming facade fool you. We got there about 6:00-ish and it was pretty quiet. Although it's small, there were plenty of tables to choose from. We sat directly across from the chef's station ( we had to see Rick & Tracie's son at work! ) By 7:30 the place was hoppin' and there were people waiting outside for a table. Would I go there again? Definitely! Would I suggest it to others? GO!!