Sunshine is coming back

What do you blog about when you haven't posted a blog in over a year, or maybe even two?  I was not sure what to pick, until I logged on and remembered the title of my blog.  Not only is it the beginning of Daylight Savings Time, the sun was looking like it's "normal" self today.  The only snow left it seems is the pile in our front yard that sees only a few minutes of sun each day.  It is not Spring yet, but it seems that I have survived my first real winter!  Hurray! We saw a squirrel just sitting on the fence yesterday soaking up some rays.  I do not think I have ever seen a squirrel stay so still for such a long time. I "dig him" man. Give Me Sunshine has new meaning for me now!

Halloween Happenings

A couple of days before our ward's Halloween party, I was asked to help by cutting out some trees for decorations. The person who originally was going to do this task gave me this template and a roll of black butcher paper. When I got it home, I noticed this problem....
The template was much larger than the butcher paper! We couldn't get in touch with the person who made the template so the person in charge of the party suggested I crop down the template to fit the paper.

This is what I came up with. Much simpler, yet each of the 12 trees took about 40 minutes each to trace and cut out and it was a fun challenge to finish before set up the night before the party. I was having dreams of spooky tree branches for a couple of nights!On the day of the party, I took some time out to go to the local pumpkin patch in between testing participants for a study at school.

I had never been to this pumpkin patch before, but I had seen it from the freeway for several years and it had intrigued me.
I think this was my first trip to a pumpkin patch alone. This was the perfect pumpkin for the van for the Trunk Or Treat party! Earlier in the day I had no idea how I was going to decorate our van for the kids, but when I walked up to it after getting the pumpkin, I visualized this....

A giant candy corn!

Filled with spiderwebs, a giant spider, Minnie Mouse and a crazy welder guy!

After the Trunk or Treating, everyone came inside the church to watch "The Great Pumpkin" movie on a really cool screen!

Then it was time for clean up. I was so excited that the decision was made to save all of the trees for years to come!

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!

Catching up

The summer is almost over. It sure has flown by. Last Sunday I was noticing the glowing tan (and sunburned) faces of everyone around me who had spent vacations at the beach or on the lake. I think we are whiter now than when the summer began! Weekdays I've spent inside studying for the GRE and preparing my Primary lessons and on Saturdays we've been fixing up the shop. Any walks we take are usually in the evening, so therefore...no sun!
It hasn't all been work though.

We took a couple of hikes up to Mt. Pinos.

A couple of hiking fools

Leftovers

The cupcakes are gone and there's still a cup of white chocolate cream cheese frosting left over. What to do? Spread it on graham crackers, top it with blueberries and call it "Mock Blueberry, White Chocolate Cheesecake"!

Tuesday's Fare

Dinner was Bacon Chicken Ranch Salad, inspired by Wendy's or Subway or maybe even both.

It was met by great reviews in my house.

Dinner was followed by White Chocolate cupcakes.

I was given this cupcake kit a few years ago for Christmas by my sister-in-law and I just now made use of it! Thank you Cat! They were a hit!

Okay, I'm done showing off for now. :)

O Pioneers

"Pa and Ma"