Another Page Done

I won't have internet tomorrow so I wanted to post this before I went to bed. My mom won't like that I posted it but it's my blog. I really liked how these papers look with old photos. The original was a black and white photo, I turned it to antique. One of the things I am trying to do as I scrapbook is to get more heritage pages done.

So, mom, sorry for putting it out there, I know you don't like to be in pictures but this turned out great and I just had to share. Love you mom:)

The tag at the bottom says "You leave an impression on me." All materials are Close to My Heart.

The Colors of Fall

Friday Butch and I went for a drive. We just needed a day "out" of the valley. So we drove north through a little town called Kingston. It's a nice little town with not much in it, the story of central Nevada. We drove through Kingston, over the mountains and made a big loop back through the town of Austin.

I didn't really expect to see much fall color on our drive because all our leaves just froze and blew off the trees. Many of them are still green and the ones that aren't green are brown. Definintely not the pretty yellows and oranges of fall. SO we were pleasantly surprised on our drive to find some spectacular displays along the way.

Just past the lake above Kingston there is a guard station. In the trees just before the guard station we were surprisd by a swing. I wish I could have captured the view from the swing, as I was sitting on it, the trees created an orangish frame to the mountains across the road. It was absolutely breathtaking.

We capped off our drive with a very filling lunch at the Toiyabe Cafe in Austin. The best burgers and onion rings around.

This is the swing at the guard station

This is one view from near the swing, but not the one I saw while sitting on it!

When I worked at REI we had a picture that said simply, "Integrity, leaving no doubt where you stand." I have had the page I want to do in my head capturing that sentiment since before I left, and now I have a picture to go with it. I am always amazed that a tree can grow out of a rock.

Wild burrows at the north end of the valley.

We found the Hot Springs everyone told us about when we first got here. The Forest Service has kept them up pretty well. There were people using one of the tubs, thankfully they were dressed! The water is VERY hot! We didn't dip more than our fingers but now we know where they are if we ever wanted go back. It was nice day out together and gave us a much needed semi day off.

Cooler weather

With cooler weather we are beginning to see the bugs find their way inside. About a month ago, during the ladies luncheon, we found a fairly large scorpion in the nursery. A couple of weeks ago the boys were setting the chairs back up and a large Sun Scorpion was on the wall. I guess it is different because it doesn't have the tail like a regular scorpion.


Well, sunday morning when the boys came in for church, a Sun Scorpion was on the wall by the sound booth. So, boys being boys, they got a jar and caught it.

The pictures aren't great because there is NO WAY I am letting Grady take the lid off the jar to take a picture of it. They caught a moth and tried to feed it to the sun scorpion but apparently it isn't hungry. It keeps running from the moth. They tell me they are going to take it to their biology teacher because the last one he had died. Whatever, as long it gets out of my house, far, far away. Maybe he'll give Spencer extra credit!

I find it interesting that my oldest son who refused to do his science final last year, which consisted of collecting and classifying 25 bugs, now is fascinated with collecting this sunscorpion and even caught the moth they tried to feed to it. Go figure!

We had a Re-Gressive Dinner yesterday afternoon with the church. We started with dessert, traveled to another house for the main dish and sides, and ended at the church with appetizers and a gmae. It was fun. We didn't have a huge turn out but the ones who came had a lot of fun. And all the girls, (really that's all we have other than Grady, Spencer and one other boy) had fun hanging out together all day! They buried Becca in the leaves that are falling out front. Spencer mowed them Saturday and within 5 minutes you couldn't even tell.

The picture isn't great because I forgot to change the setting on my camera to "night." Oh well, we are looking forward to big family photo shoot in a couple of weeks. Hopefully we'll find a place with some fall color. We didn't get much of the turning leaves this year, they just froze and started falling!

Warming up...

Well, it's back into the 70's (woot!). I am actually glad. I refuse to turn on the furnace until I absolutely have to. We are not looking forward to the propane bills this year. Last year we had one month where the bill was $1500, for one month. The church can't afford that right now. So, I am using a couple of space heaters as needed, mostly just in the morning, and sparingly using our woodstove. We don't have much wood yet.

We had intended to get some more wood this week but our schedule just hasn't allowed us to get up into the hills. Butch and I had to go into Reno Monday, came back Tuesday. Then Wednesday we had to play catch-up, Mornings for Moms met today and we have a breakfast meeting tomorrow to help plan an FFA Fundraiser. So I guess we'll go out 2 days next week. Luckily it doesn't take long to fill the truck. I hope the wind stays away.

Grady is doing well on fundraising for DC. He is almost halfway to his minimum goal. We sent his registration in this week and hopefully will get a confirmation on dates in the next few days. He almost has all of his tuition, the other half of what he needs is for airfare and then he will have to raise enough for some "spiffy" new clothes and spending money. He is still very excited about going.

Becca is doing very well on her Oboe. That is still her current highlight. She practices nearly every night for about an hour and is picking it up quickly. She has been frustrated lately because they have a concert Tuesday night and she isn't ready. She is doing as well as she can be with the way band is out here. I told her to just be thankful she has a mom who can help her learn her instrument. If I couldn't help her I'm pretty sure she would have given up by now.

Spencer is well...Spencer! He got off to a rough start in Biology and now has one week to get his grade up to passing. He is doing well in the rest of his classes, maybe not doing his best, but for the most part, he is doing better than last year. We are still hoping he will decide to be an FFA officer. His teacher wants him to but he is undecided. I think it would be good for him to have a leadership role but it has to be his decision. We'll see what happens in the next few weeks.

Church life has been pretty quiet lately. We are busy, but it's because we are doing just about everything. It gets discouraging at times and we just pray that the people here would discover a passion for God and spreading the gospel through out our valley. We are doing our best to keep our eyes fixed on God. We have had some opportunities to help out with concessions at the volleyball and football games. Through that we are able to build relationships with those who do not go to our church. We are praying for God to open doors with these people.

Thank you for praying for us. God blesses the faithful.

First Snow

Well, it didn't snow much yesterday. I say "much" because it certainly tried. Butch and I helped with concessions at the football game and it was sort of snowing when we got there but the wind was blowing so hard the snow wasn't really landing anywhere.

It was extremely cold though. When we went to the game at 6:00 it was 33 degrees and with the wind chill it was probably about 20. I was sure glad I was inside the concession stand, not that it helped much. There is no heat but at least it blocked the wind, a little. We sold about 170 cups of hot chocolate and coffee, and there wasnt even that many people at the game:)

Today it has been making attempts to snow off and on all day. There was a Junior High Volleyball tournament today that we helped with and when we went this morning there were some very dark clouds just north of us. We hadn't been there long when people started talking about it snowing. We saw a lot of cars that had driven in from other areas for the tourney with a lot of snow on them.

When we got home there was just a tiny bit on the deck. At one point it was coming down pretty good but it is pretty dry snow and didn't give me anything to take a picture of. However, we've gotten a good dusting in the mountains. Take a look.......

Notice the flag...yes, the wind is blowing , not quite as hard as last night though:)

Will it Snow Today?

That is the question. Right now it is 24 degrees. Brrr! Snow is forecasted for today and tomorrow. So, will it snow today? Perhaps. Will we see it on the valley floor? Probably not:)

Many people have been guessing when we will get our first snow this year. The Farmer's Almanac apparently says we are going to have a long, cold, wet winter. When the temperatures dip as much as they do here, that generally means lots of snow. We will see if The Farmer's Almanac is correct, it generally is.

I will let you know later if we get our snow!

I kind of hope we do, even though we haven't had Fall yet. The leaves are still on the trees and they are still fairly green.

We're supposed to help with concessions at tonight's Football game, I guess I better bundle up!

Faithbook Class

I have been working on creating a Faithbook Class. It is something I wanted to do for a long time, just for myself, but decided to offer it to the ladies at church as well. I think maybe 5 or 6 will be participating. We will spend the next few months creating and album that scrapbooks our faith. Each month we will focuas on 2 or 3 different topics to scrapbook.


The first month we are focusing on our testimony, Surrender, and Baptism. I have discovered as I have been working on my album, that it is drawing me closer to God because of the focus on my walk with Him. I hope that the ladies who take this class will discover the same thing. The goal for this class is to first of all help the ladies get their testimony written out, but also to draw them closer in their relationship with God as they discover the little things that God has done in their lives. Sometimes we forget about the little stuff, only remembering the big God moments.


Here are the pages for the first class plus one for the second (the last picture:)

What I've been up to lately

Well, the past couple of weeks I haven't been doing much of anything. I got a horrible cold that has pretty much knocked me out. I'm at the tail end of it now but the cough just keeps hanging on.

So, I have been sleeping a lot because I just feel run down and tired all the time. I did get to fill in for the band teacher at Homecoming. That was fun. He needed someone to direct because he had to take his brand new baby in to Fallon to the doctor. (Baby is OK, just a check-up) So I got to direct at the pep assembly and then again at the game that night.

We've also been getting back into our fall ministries. Mornings for Moms started last week and ladies luncheon started last month. Numbers have been few but I think those who came have been blessed.

I've also been trying to get some things made to sell on Etsy.com. My store is Jenscraps. I don't have a lot on it yet, just some layouts and a few mini albums. I am hoping to be able to take one day each week and spend creating cards and mini albums to put in my store.

I got most of our summer pictures scrapbooked, at least the first half of the summer:)

When we go to our Staff Conference in Sctotts Valley, CA, we try to find fun things to do with the kids in the afternoons. This year we went to the Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz. (themysteryspot.com) I like to get postcards from the places we visit and include those in pages. On this layout, it is a pack of 10 postcards that I just put over the page and people can pull out and look at them.

On our way home from Conference we decided to stay in Sonora, CA for a couple of days of relaxation before we came home. One day we went to Columbia, CA, a preserved Gold Mining Town.

On the way home to Round Mountain we went over Sonora Pass. I don't think we will do that again! Spencer, who never gets car sick, was feeling a little queasy, so we made a few stops coming over the pass. One place gave us a spectacular view of mountains, valley and waterfall. This pass is very steep, 16% grade in most places, and very windy. Fun:)