Cheese

Jet: I want a piece of cheese.

Daddy: Okay.

Jet:

Jet's Turn

444444444444444+4444444444444444[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[]]]]]

]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

 

../;,',<\./,< *

 *+

 \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\gggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg////////////////////////////////////////////''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''';;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

From Helper to Grouch

One day, Jet was being my big helper. We made jello with berries in it with whipped topping on top. It went along with our French Dip sandwiches we had from A Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 4, by Jordan Page (still going strong). Jet put a bunch of berries in and ate the rest. Cutie.

He was also in charge of FHE treat so we took suckers and wrapped them in paper towels and drew faces on them to make ghosts. He likes decorations so much, we made our own.

The next day, however, he was a grouch. He must have been celebrating the holiday, National Grouch Day on October 15.

We also listened to Oscar the Grouch sing "I Love Trash."

That was a rough day. I picked up Lucky and when I got home, I let him go in while I posted this on Instagram:

Not a minute later, Lucky came back to the van and said, "Jet wants you."

Later before Jeremy got home from work, I texted him what Jet said. Jet was in the same room and must have seen Jeremy's picture on my phone because he told me, "I don't want Daddy. I want Nichole." Grouch.

Catch of the Day

 

Mommy, Look

Look at these decorations.

Comet Hunting

You know we've had varying levels of success with viewing comets in the past. We decided to try our luck again since there was supposed to be a comet around in October. So on Saturday, October 12, we went out in the evening to search for the comet. We went up West Mountain to where we saw the other comet in 2020. Unfortunately it was a very cloudy evening and we got up there later than we wanted to. We saw no comet but there was a gorgeous sunset.

We did, however, see the Y lit up on the mountain in the other direction. Nichole let us know this is the 100th anniversary of "Light the Y." I remember participating in "Light the Y" way back when I was in college.

And the moon looked cool as it often does.

That day was also International Moment of Frustration Scream Day. Often when that holiday comes around, I don't feel like celebrating in the way it's intended. That's a good thing. This year, I did feel it. I had my moment. I went back to my room, had a silent frustrated scream, then put together a shopping list and went shopping.

It was also Breakfast Burrito Day in Denver so we ate breakfast burritos to celebrate.

The next day, October 13, I wore my bow earrings because it was my cousin's birthday.

We had an at home potluck. It had been a while since we had one of those. These were the contributions from oldest to youngest: Stuffing, onion roasted potatoes, mint lemonade (not pictured), apples, and sour strawberry peeps. Jet didn't contribute.

Then we went for a relaxing Sunday drive up West Mountain, this time all the way to the top, to look for the comet again. As we drove, I mentioned that it was International Skeptics Day and Jeremy said, "I don't think the comet's actually a comet. I think it's a projection on the dome of our flat Earth." Heh heh heh. 

It became even cloudier than the day before sadly. We actually did get a glimpse of the comet through binoculars during a little break in the clouds. We weren't able to get pictures, though. We couldn't wait for the comet to come back into view, though, as we got chased off the mountain by lightning and thunder. Not so great on the top of a mountain.

Both nights had beautiful sunsets at least. The observatory was cool to look at.

What a view.

Both nights we drove by a house with some pretty fun decorations. Jet is really into Halloween decorations right now.

Jeremy and I did go out another night with Jet down to the lake and were able to see the comet again way up in the sky... without us being way up in the sky that time. Still no pictures.

It's My Sausage Pizza Party, Girl

October 11 was National Sausage Pizza Day. Jet was a big helper putting cheese on our French bread sausage pizza.

I wished Nichole a Happy International Day of the Girl Child which was also that day.

It was also It's My Party Day so I was singing that song again.

"At Last I See The Light"

One night I made dinner of tamale casserole and easiest Spanish rice, both from A Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 4. That's right. I have been using these books all year and I have reached the last volume with the Fall recipes. Woohoo. I'm sure Jordan Page would be pleased.

Anyway... first of all I forgot I made homemade bread to go with this until after I took the picture and had been eating for a while.

Second of all, I had this conversation with Jr. Jr.-

Jr. Jr.: Why do you have pickles?

Me: I don't know. I thought it would round out the food.

Jr. Jr.: I figured out why you have pickles. Because they are dill-icious.

Mom: Heh heh.

That night I went to a Relief Society activity where I got to make a cute Fall wreath and eat yummy Fall snacks and socialize. I do like to socialize.

When I got home, we headed right out to look for the Northern Lights again, this time with a little better success. They were there where we were at Jordanelle Reservoir overlook this time. It was cloudy, though.

When we first got there and found a parking spot among all the other vehicles who were there for the same purpose (lots of people had been seeing them that night already), we didn't see anything. Jeremy was getting tired and did have work the next morning so we sat in the van and he said, "Let's wait 15 more minutes then I'll check one more time and we'll head home." When our 15 minutes were up, Jeremy got out and looked around and saw there was a change happening in the sky. It was still cloudy but there was definitely something different. Certain parts of the sky were a very definite red that could even be seen with the naked eye.

We got some bad pictures because I don't know how to do really good settings on my phone camera or on our birding camera. But we saw them. Hooray! I would love to get better pictures sometime.

Mommy, Look

Jet: It's a castle.

I Learn So Much from the Library

I like to get "Daily Fun with Your Little One!" calendars from the Orem Library. Sometimes we do activities. Sometimes we don't. Sometimes I learn about holidays that I don't have on our Calendar of Celebration.

I learned from that calendar that October 8 is World Octopus Day. Jet and I watched some Wild Kratts videos about underwater creatures.

Later we read a story about how Oliver Octopus doesn't like olives on his pizza then looked at the accompanying picture showing Oliver Octopus holding a slice of pizza with olives on it. Sigh.

 

It was also Fluffernutter Day. We had fluffernutter sandwiches and Olloch the Glutton's Caramel Biscuit Bars. Gotta have something from the Fablehaven Cookbook on Fluffernutter Day. Oh, and our fluffernutter sandwiches had actual marshmallow fluff this time because Jeremy had to stop by the grocery story anyway.

We tried once again to look for the Northern Lights at Deer Creek Reservoir. No lights but the stars looked cool.

Spooky Story and Picture

To celebrate the anniversary of Edgar Allen Poe's death on October 7, as a family we wrote a "spooky" story and had an AI generator make a picture based on a summary of the story.

 

Here's the story:

A Short Spooky Story

By the Telford family

One day a skeleton was walking in the graveyard. He was looking all around when suddenly he saw… the ghost of a pineapple. The pineapple explained it had been chopped into pieces to put on a pizza and couldn’t move on until such a grievous sin could be resolved. Santa flew overhead and took the pineapple away on his sleigh, yelling hooray. “That’s mine” said a little boy. “No,” said his mother, “that’s daddy’s.” The little boy darted forward and grabbed the arm of the skeleton. Dashing away before the skeleton could stop him and yelling something about putting it on a pizza. “You think that’s humorous?” the skeleton said. The skeleton rattled after him while the mom followed quickly behind. “You’ll end up on the naughty list just like that pineapple,” she yelled. The boy ignored her and continued to run laughing gleefully until he tripped. He tripped right over a tombstone, pizza. The arm bone flew out of his hand and landed on his head. Santa came back for his hawaiian pizza only to find a little boy on it. “Now that’s worse than pineapple,” he said. He removed the boy and gave the skeleton back his tomato covered bone before picking up his pizza. The moral of this story is if you have a bone to pick about pineapple on pizza expect to be sleign.

 

Here's the prompt:

Santa grabs a tombstone pizza that has a boy on it. There is a skeleton with tomato paste on his arm and a ghost of a pineapple. The boy’s mother stands nearby and watches. This all happens in a cemetery at night. Santa’s sleigh is in the background.

 

Here's the resulting picture:

 

General Conference

General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was October 5 and 6. Wonderful conference. So much about staying close to the Lord.

We had our traditional Conference Nachos and we had activities for kids. Conference Squares (Bingo). Snuggles. Note taking. Etcetera.

Since Northern Lights were supposed to be happening at some point, we decided to go out looking, just in case (we had some late nights). Friday night a few of us went around West Mountain to look North over the lake. We didn't see any Northern Lights but we saw a barn owl fly right in front of us. I love barn owls.

Saturday night a few of us stopped at Deer Creek Reservoir to look for the lights. We didn't see them then, either, but we were able to do service for some people late that night. These people were going to watch General Conference on Sunday and their vehicle broke down where we were. We were able to give two of them a ride (the exact number of seats we had since Nichole and Jr. stayed home) to a relative's house while the third stayed to work on their vehicle. It does feel good to do service.

Sunday morning the power went out. We got a notification that it would be back on around 11am so Nichole, Jeremy, and I went out for a drive and listened to the first session on the van radio.

We were able to watch the other session with the boys at home.

Girls' Night Out?

October 4 was Buster Keaton's birthday so I wore my bow earrings while Nichole and I had bonding time.

We found out an event we were going to go to was canceled so we went to the grocery store to pick up some snacks for us. Since it was National Taco Day, we thought about buying taquitos then realized taquitos are easy to make and we had all the ingredients already at home. Shelftember was still having its effect on us. Yay for shelf cooking!

So we went home and had bonding time making taquitos together while watching a movie (besides all the chatting while driving and shopping together). Of course we ate some of the snacks we got from the store.

We wanted to watch In the Good Old Summertime because it had Buster Keaton in it but we didn't have access to it, so we started watching You've Got Mail.

Back to talking about National Taco Day- before we left for our girls' night we tried taco flavored potato chips to go along with our Italian Baked Sliders from A Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 3, by Jordan Page.

Nobody in the family was impressed by the chips but the sliders were so good.

I am getting so much use out of these cookbooks.

It turned out to be good mother-daughter bonding time. Simple but quality.

P.S. It was also World Smile Day. There were definitely things to smile about.