If You Just Smile....

(These are the words to a song that may be familiar to some. You can listen to it on my playlist if you want.... The words are great words of comfort during times of discouragment)

Smile tho' your heart is aching,

Smile even though it's breaking,

When there are clouds in the sky-

You'll get by,

If you Smile through your fear and sorrow,

Smile and maybe tomorrow

You'll see the sun come shining through-

For you.

Light up your face with gladness,

Hide ev'ry trace of sadness,

Altho' a tear may be ever so near,

That's the time you must keep on trying,

Smile- What's the use of crying,

You'll find that life is still worthwhile,

If you just smile.

Quirky Jenni

I was tagged by both Julie and Stephanie to tell 6 Quirks I have. I am finally going to finish up my list.... but just because I was tagged twice doesn't mean I have to do 12... right??


1) When I heat something up in the microwave, the time I set almost always ends in a 7. Instead of a minute, I usually do 77 seconds (which is probably most often used...). Never 30 seconds... it's 37..... or 57......... you get the idea. I have a slight obsessive compulsive behavior there....

2) Often when I'm listening to music, I find myself "leading" the music.... whether it be all out conducting, just a slight swing of the hand, or just a little wave of a few fingers. Often I even find that I am leading the beat with my foot. ........down, in, out, up, down, in, out, up......

3) I..... can NOT dance..... But, I have a little "jig" I do randomly..... its more just a little shuffle of the feet. Sometimes its like a victory dance, or an "I'm happy" dance. Very NOT cute.... you'll probably never see me do it.... unless you are Steve.... maybe my mom or sister.

4) I guess I am what my sibblings like to call a "food monitor." Ever since I was little, I was always keeping track of what everyone ate... "No, you can't eat another popsicle, you already had one!" "Didn't mom just buy these fruit snacks.... and they are already gone???" "Hey, I had 217 Skittles in this bag.... now there are only 216! Who ate one????" "Are you sure you want to take that much mashed potatoes? You're not going to eat it all...." Then as I got older, it evolved into not being able to stand seeing food get wasted.... When my family would go out to restaurants, I wouldn't order anything, because I knew without at doubt that everyone would order too much food, so I would just eat everyone else's "leftovers" or the stuff they didn't want on their plate (the vegetables off of Daniel's plate, the other half of the giant steak on Jordan's plate.....etc.) and, heck, by the end, I would get a sampler platter of all the meals and we wouldn't waste any food!!! My sibblings think I'm a "food monitor" and find it irritating I'm sure. My grandma is proud of my ways and applauds me for being so frugal and non-wasteful. :)

5) If food is intended to be hot, I would rather it be so hot that it burns my tongue than have it just luke warm. I also like my drinks very cold.

6) I love the windshield wipers.... but only if they work really well. There is just something so wonderful about having a splotchy dirty window... and then squirting that washer fluid and watching those wipers wipe it squeaky clean!!! I probably use my wipers way more often than is needed. Sometimes I even reach over while Steve is driving and squirt the fluid and wipe the window!! hahaha.... I'm sure it drives him crazy. But, it's not just windshield wipers.... I find the same joy in taking a paint roller and watching as my strokes change the wall from one color to another! Or how about when you have a dark carpet that is dirty, and you vacuum it..... ooohhh. ...yeah... love that..... watching as each stride makes a path of clean carpet! Wow... I am quite strange.....

7) Just kidding, not really doing any more. I just like the number 7......

Ward Trunk-or-Treat and Chili Cook-off

Our ward had a Halloween shindig on Saturday night.

These were our last minute costumes. I'm all about the cheap costumes for now.... my ears are formed from my own hair, and I just used eyeliner for the makeup.

And for Steve... I bought a stellar mullet wig for a few bucks. hahahaha....

Steve hates getting his hair cut... I pretty much have to force him (and his mom says he's been like that his whole life). He always says he wants long flowing hair.

So, although the wig is hideous, I reminded Steve that he always says he wants long hair...
".....yeah... but not a mullet....." said Steve. But, he wore it none-the-less. Mostly I think it was as a tribute to my younger brother Daniel who came up with a Mullet Equation that Steve thought was absolutely hillarious and genius.

Good Times

Last Saturday, we took a trip to Kirtland, Ohio (about 2 1/2 hours away). The missionaries in our area were taking a trip there and taking investigators with them. Steve is a ward missionary, so we were invited as well. (I'm sure anyone was invited... but.. yeah... we went.) Anyway, it was a neat experience.
Kirtland was the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1831-1838. The Saints gathered there one year after the church was organized by Joseph Smith in Palmyra, New York. Anyway, it is a neat little historic place where many things from church history took place. The first temple was built here.

And it still stands today. It is now owned by the "Community of Christ" Church. But, we were able to take a tour inside and learn a bit about it.

There is a Historic Kirtland little town where there are some replicated buildings and also some originals still there. Newel K. Whitney's original store is still standing, and they have it restored to its 1830's condition.

It was so neat to go into this building-- to walk through the same exact door Joseph Smith walked through... to walk on the same floor board that Joseph Smith and several other well known early church members walked on........ to go upstairs and sit in the room where Joseph received several of the revelations now found in the Doctrine and Covenants...... to walk through rooms where Joseph and Emma lived for a while.... very cool.

It was also very beautiful there and all the fall leaves were amazing.

Speaking of cool leaves... this is a tree out in front of our house, right across the street....

Wow.... Quite red/orange! I love it.

Other events of the week.... hmm..... OH! I am still working at Shoe Carnival, but as of this week, I am now only working part-time! Hooray! So much nicer to not work 40 hours a week... I now only work Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, from 8:30 t0 5. So, no more nights (YAY! I used to work Monday and Wenesday until 9:30...yuck...) I am less stressed now and so much happier. Not that you'd think working at a shoe store would really be that stressful....but I dunno... some how I manage to stress myself out a bit too much. And right now, I am trying to eliminate added stress that seems to result in such side-effects as poor health and depression..... ANYWAY! Moving on.

This week, I got to babysit Madison twice (the baby from upstairs).
I brought out some "friends" for her to play with. It was good to see them getting some use, and Madison seems to enjoy them.

I am glad that Jenny and Jake let me play with her and watch her. It is so fun for me and lets me get a little taste of having a little one and being able to stay home with them.

Changing Seasons

Well, the leaves are changing colors....

Fall is definitely in the air.

Speaking of different colors....

This is a house we passed as we were walking around the park the other day.

Doesn't that house look like a great haunted house??? I mean really... a purple house...? wow. I can't wait to see how they deck it out for Halloween... it has got some definite potential!

We also saw TONS of giant squirrels everywhere while on our walk. They were gathering acorns. One certain squirrel ran part way up a tree to get away from us, but then turned back toward us and was doing some weird dance.... I thought for sure he was getting ready to pounce on one of us...

...so I kept my camera up and ready just in case.... ya know... to catch the action.... it would be funny to have a picture of a squirrel flying through the air towards Steve....

Anyway, yesterday we went to an Apple Butter Festival at McQueens Orchard. Our neighbors the Snows informed us about this event and invited us to go with them.

They make apple butter in these big bubbling cauldrons.... looks like a witches brew to me....

But it sure tastes yummy! We did buy a jar to bring home with us.

There were different booths there with food such as fresh apple fritters.... and fresh cut big huge french fries! Tasty. There was also this booth for National City (a bank) where you had a chance to win stuff-- money, gift cards, etc.

Jake, Jenny, Steve, and I all tried it.....

Unfortunately, we all got the same thing....

A keychain.

Oh well, better luck next time.

It was a fun morning. We had some good food. And it is fun getting to know Jake, Jenny and Madison better. They live just upstairs, so, you'd think we'd get together more often than we do.

They did come over for dinner the other Sunday. I was happy to have someone to play with my toys. I have this horse that I bought about a year ago.... I thought it was really cute and figured I'd buy it and just keep it around until I have a kid to play with it.

Until then, little visitors like Madison can enjoy it.

Madison also liked sitting in the middle of our giant Love Sac. What a cute little girl! I need to get me one of them....

My Family

We got this family picture taken back in June before my sister flew back out to Switzerland and before Steve and I moved out here to Ohio. My good friend Scott Sumner took the pictures for us. He is the one that did my wedding pictures (see the one on the left?), and he's the one that taught me all I know about photography! Thanks, Scott. Check out more of his stuff at www.scottstudio.com. He is amazing. He also has a lot of BEAUTIFUL fine art photography of Christ and such. Definitely check it out......

Okay, now back to my family.....

Awww.... aren't they cute? Here they are, from left to right (excluding me and Steve... you know who we are). Jordan, my 11 year old brother-- we call him Jordy a lot. Cassidy, my cute lil' sis in law. Chris, my 26 year old brother-- the oldest of the bunch.... he's a goofy goober. Then there's my good ol' dad, Mike. And my beautiful mother, Denise. That little white dressed chub, that is my niece Kahri, whom you've probably read about on my blog before : ) She is sitting on the lap of my gorgeous sister, Megan (23 yrs old). She's my hero. Her husband Brady is standing behind her-- we won't mention his age......33. ...... Awww.... there's my nephew Kyler... he's 4... and I miss him... And last of all, my brother Daniel who is 13, going on 14 and I CAN'T BELIEVE how large and old he is..... it kind of freaks me out....
And there you have it, the whole Fam.....
The End