Ghosts of Halloweens Past

Halloween was never my favorite holiday. It seemed like such a chore to figure out what the kids' costumes would be. I didn't want to spend a lot of time or money on something they would wear just one time, so we tried to buy as little as possible and make do with whatever we had on hand.

In 1978, Seth was a TV, Robert and Lataun were the Lone Ranger and Tonto (we called her "Lataun-toe") and Misty was Miss America

The year was probably about 1980. Robert was a mummy, Lataun was a witch, and Seth and Faren were girls. Seth was not happy about the whole thing!

1981, I think. Faren was a vampire, Robert was a girl this time, Taun was a 50's girl, and Seth was a devil.

In 1983, Faren was Davy Crockett, Seth was the Incredible Hulk, and Taun was a clown.

1990....and Val looked fine in his hula skirt and lei.

I found myself giggling and chuckling out loud as I put this post together. Those were the good old days!

Dr. Mario

I'm not ashamed to admit that over the years there have been a few video games I have liked to play. We got our first Atari system back in the 70's. Roy and I played a game called River Raid a lot, Roy was a PacMan champion, and Robert was extraordinary at Pitfall, even broke the record. Next came Nintendo in the 80's, then Nintendo 64. I played Tetris and Dr. Mario in the early 90's. The old systems seemed to wear out pretty fast. We had tricks to make it work like blowing into it and talking to it nicely. After the 64 wore out, there was a good decade or more of no video games at our house. Then Faren talked his dad into going into business with him by buying 10 XBox systems on Ebay, selling 8 of them for a profit, then they could both have one basically for free. I never did get into the new X-Box games. I tried Tetris but it just wasn't the same as the old one. Then we were able to get some of the old games put on the XBox. The addiction was back! So just about every day after lunch, Roy and I play a game or two of Dr. Mario. We are pretty evenly matched, so it makes it fun. When the whole family gets together, my kids sometimes have Dr. Mario tournaments. They are all a lot better than me, though, but I keep practicing. I don't know anyone else my age who plays video games everyday.....I think we must be nuts!

In a Jam

Our friend, Neil, has been visiting a lot lately. He and Roy became good friends when we lived in Mesa. They hit it off immediately, and have stayed in touch off and on for over 20 years. Neil and his family moved to Utah a couple of years after we left Arizona. He and Roy share the same birthday, so even when they didn't see each other for long periods of time, one or the other always called on their birthday. He's going through some hard times right now, so we are happy to be there for him. He paid us quite a compliment this morning as he left when he said that he feels more comfortable here than he does in his own home.

Anyway, when he came up this weekend, he brought grapes and peaches from his backyard. We made roughly 80 pints of grape jelly and peach jam on Saturday. (No wonder my feet hurt!) With Megan's and Roy's help, we were a jam making machine!

"The Big and the Little"

Neil is 6' 6", and weighs ....who knows. A big guy he is! We took a picture of him standing next to little Jack.

Sister Sneak

Karen came from Monteview, Di came from Boise, and me from Bancroft. Sure wish Brenda could have been there, too. Haily and Megan were able to spend part of the time with us. We met in Pocatello to have two days of fun sister stuff:

Day 1 - Pampering at the beauty college

Lunch at Bajio's

Shopping

Movie ("Nights in Rodanthe"....very good)

Ice Cream

Ramada Inn sleepover, sitting around in our PJ's binding a quilt and chatting

Day 2 - Hiking the city creek trail

Brunch at IHOP

Visit with Aunt Noni

Di, Karen, and me .... getting facials

....and pedicures

From our childhood.....

to our 20' and 30's.....

to becoming grandmas.....

Friends Forever!