HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Inklings sent me this cartoon. I just loved it because it reminded me of someone I'm having to deal with in my RS president calling. :0) I even sent it to my bishop. Probably a good thing I'm being released in a couple weeks. :0+

TRICK OR TREAT

Halloween was always one of my favorite holidays when I was a kid. I think one reason was because we never really got a lot of treats or candy as kids, except at holidays. Halloween was my chance to get a whole lot of candy just for me. We didn't have fancy Halloween treat buckets or decorated sacks or anything. We didn't even have plastic sacks back then, so usually we would get a used grocery paper bag and color it with crayons or markers by drawing Halloween pictures on it. After doing this for several years, and carrying that paper bag around for a couple of hours (yes, a couple of hours - we were serious trick-or-treaters), the bag would get all ratty or it would tear. It was also not very comfortable to carry, especially after you got a pound or two of candy in it. So I had the great idea of using an old pillow case. It worked great, and so I continued using that from then on.

I can't really remember what my costumes were. I do remember one Halloween I dressed up all in black - black pants, black turtleneck - can't remember what else. I can't even remember what I was supposed to be. That may have been the year I started using the pillowcase. I may have been a burglar. Ooh. Aah. We never went to any Halloween carnivals or Trunk or Treats or Halloween parties. All we did was trick-or-treat. We started on our street and kept going street after street after street after street.

One street over from our street, lived Mr. Applegate. Yes, that was his real name. Mr. Applegate was another person who also loved Halloween. He used to decorate his house really scary. He even had scary music playing. When he opened the door, he was dressed in costume. I don't remember if he dressed up in the same thing every year or different things. I don't even remember how he dressed up. All I remember is that we all thought it was the scariest house in the neighborhood. It was so scary we didn't go by there during the rest of the year. Maybe we wondered what kind of weirdo got that much of a kick scaring the crap out of little kids at Halloween year after year. Lots of kids wouldn't even go up to his house to get candy. They were so scared they just skipped it. I remember skipping his house lots of times, and then finally came the year that I felt brave enough to trick or treat at Mr. Applegate's house. I'm sure I had my friends with me because I would never have dared go by myself. I remember we went up to the door and we were scared to death. He answered the door...the scary music was playing...he was in his scary costume (whatever it was - I was too scared to look at it)...then he INVITED US IN!!! OH NO!! WE FORGOT THAT HE ALWAYS INVITED THE KIDS TO COME IN! We went in and there was Mrs. Applegate. She didn't have a costume on . She was just a normal, nice, non-scary lady who had a HUGE bowl of candy. She held out the bowl and told us to take some. We each took a piece. She said, no - we were all supposed to take at least a handful of candy. A HANDFUL of candy?!! Well heck! This was worth any fear we had had to bear so far! We thrust our hands into that bowl and grabbed as much as we could hold, dropped it in our sacks, said "Thank you" and left. That was it. See, we told each other, Mr. Applegate's house really wasn't that scary. But as we left we could hear the next trick-or-treaters coming up the walk. One little girl was crying that she didn't want to go to Mr. Applegate's house - it was too scary!

THE CATHOLIC VOTE

I'm not Catholic, but watch this video - All I can say is "Wow!"

AN INVITATION

Last night I went to visit an inactive lady. My secretary had called her and tried to get an appointment. She told my secretary: "The missionaries are coming Tuesday night at 7pm. If she wants to come, she can come when they come." (She is a member, her husband is not.) I called the missionaries but they really didn't love the idea of me coming with them because these people haven't been real receptive, so they suggested I show up 15 minutes before 7, which I did. When she answered the door, I could tell she was not thrilled to see me. I introduced myself and included that I was the Relief Society president and asked if we could come in (I had brought one of her visiting teachers with me). She told us we couldn't come in and then said that when the lady called her she told her she didn't want me coming because she didn't feel good. I said, "No, that is not what you said. You said that the missionaries were coming and if I wanted to come I could come at the same time." She stood there and said, "Oh. Yes. That is what I said." So, since I knew she still would not let me in, I talked to her there at the door, which really just involved verifying some records and giving her a Relief Society newsletter and inviting her to church. She told me they were getting ready to leave to go to dinner. I thought, "Well it's a good thing I came early, because she was trying to avoid the missionaries too."

This lady has been on my mind ever since. She recently had a very dire tragedy in her life when her daughter's boyfriend committed suicide in their apartment. All the way home I kept thinking, "Don't you know how much having the church in your life can help you?" Going to church every week is how I keep going in this life. I gain strength by being around people who think the same way I do. I enjoy listening to the speakers and teachers talk about how we can improve our lives by living the gospel. It's comforting to know if I ever needed anything, someone would be there ready to help. Now granted, I am not a person who accepts help readily, but if I DID ever need it, I would get it. I think the other thing about going to church is knowing I am on the path to be able to live with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ again. I want to do that. One reason is because the people who came before me, my parents, my grandparents, etc. were good people. I know they lived good lives and did the things they should do so as to be able to live with God and Jesus. I want to live with these people too. I want to be a good person. I don't think it is hard to be a church-going person who is trying to be a good person. I think when we do not do the things we are supposed to do, we allow other influences in our lives and these things complicate our lives and drag us down. Some people think living the gospel is too restrictive. I disagree. Allowing things in our lives that control us is restrictive.

If I could say anything else to this lady I would tell her to please let the missionaries come in. Listen to what they say. Accept their invitation to come to church. Let the gospel work in your life. You will be a better and happier person

A NEW LOOK

So I got tired of looking at my same old blog and decided to visit thecutestblogontheblock.com and change it a little. They have some cute stuff. Thanks to Gilbert Girl for helping me navigate it.

FIT FOR A QUEEN

When I was in Ireland looking for a house to rent, I looked at one house that was brand new and not quite finished yet. It still needed counter tops and floors put in. My Re-lo lady said if I rented that house I might be able to have some input as to what kind of furnishings I wanted. I told her that I would really like a king-size bed, since that is what we had at home. She looked puzzled and said, "Not a queen?" I said no, the queens were a bit too small for us. She said, 'But the queen bed is bigger than a king." I said, "No the king is bigger." She said, "Your king beds must be bigger than ours." Later I thought about it and remembered, "Oh wait, this is a country ruled by a queen. Ah, now it makes sense." However, their queen-size beds were just as big as our queen-size beds, so I really have no idea what she was talking about.

HOME SICK

Well I came home from my house hunting trip to Ireland with a sore throat. At first I thought it was just maybe dehydration, or from breathing what I call "Airplane Air" (which is dryer air). I called my husband today and found out he has been sick since I left with fever, chills and body aches. So far all I have is a sore throat, but it just keeps getting sorer and sorer. Great.

GRANDBABY #9

Since Gilbert Girl announced this on her blog, I am going to blog about it. A day or two before I left for Ireland, Gilbert Girl told me she was pregnant. This came as a surprise to all of us, since her youngest is 8 months old. The ironic thing is that she has been thinking about having a baby - well actually trying to decide if she should have one more or if she should adopt, or if she should just say she is done. I think the Lord knows the desires of her heart. I think he knows how hard of a decision this would have been for her. And even though the spirit was willing, the body knew how hard it has been with every pregnancy for her. Sometimes the Lord knows we are making a decision subconsciously so He decides to help us along with that decision. So please remember her in your prayers that she will have it easier this time around.