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The need to have and to go and to consume have gone out of control worldwide. It takes an entire garbage can to hold the waste generated from preparing our family's food each week (wrappers, containers, cans). All of these discarded items were manufactured which consumed and generated waste. All these items were shipped which consumed and generated waste. Houses have become larger without regard for impact on the environment and society. Water and air continue to become more polluted with only mild solutions offered up. I agree that gluttony is one of the deadly sins and may prove to be the most deadly in the end.
I received the weekly email from Jared this morning. He is doing great. He enjoys the companion that he is working with. He has some good families that he is teaching. And he got to go to the NASA Space Center for the 4th time! He doesn't think he will be transferred, but who knows.... I am grateful everytime I receive his letters for having such a good son. I have been truly blessed with the children I have. It is hard to believe that Jared has been out just shy of 6 months (176 days to be exact which equates to 24.1%). It will be difficult not having him here for Christmas this year. It will be the first Christmas ever that we haven't had all our children at home. But we his Christmas presents ready to place in the mail. We just want to be sure we know where he is going to be for a few weeks before mailing them. He sent a couple of pictures, one of himself and one with his companion, Elder Myrvang.
Leave it to Jordan to carve a creative pumpkin with a message. I really laughed when I saw this. He and his roommates carved pumpkins for their porch. It sounds like they have some festivities planned for the holiday. He is sure having fun (and studying very hard) at school. I am sure proud of him. I guess we will go to the store tomorrow and pick out our carving pumpkins. I like to carve the creative pumpkins from the templates. It is really hard to believe that Halloween is already here. Time is going by so fast it is SCARING me.
I found this funny article and it had me laughing so hard I had to post it here. These are almost the exact same thoughts I had as a kid going trick or treating!
John McCain has finally found the solution to our economic crisis and world image crisis. His new plan is to give every family a $150,000 "accessory" credit. This would come in the form of a prepaid VISA (likely American Express or Discover also) that families could use at high-end clothing stores to redo their wardrobes. This would pump money into the economy, help retain the high-end retailers which would generate more tax revenues so that taxes could be cut for wealthy Americans so that they could spend more money at high-end retail stores and generate more tax money .... In addition, the fashion conscious European states and the emerging Asian powers would look more favorably upon a well-dressed and coiffed America. This is why Sarah Palin makes the perfect Vice-President. She would head the to-be-formed government office of Fashion and Lateral Economic American Stimulus (FLEAS). Given her fashion sense and extensive experience as a beauty contestant and TV personality, she has the wherewithal to oversee the direction of high-end retailers in obtaining styles that are fashionable yet conservative. Remember, accessorize before you VOTE.
Well, today is Deer Hunt Holiday (I've always found that to be a quirky Utah thing - we celebrate the annual deer massacre). I could be at home repainting my bedroom (yes, repainting already, the original colors we picked just didn't work for us so we found some new colors while we were up in Montana), but instead I am here at work. No, I didn't choose to come to work over repainting my bedroom. I exchanged the holiday today for Friday of last week. It doesn't work well when Sherrie and the children get Thursday and Friday off and I get Monday off. This day seems to be dragging on with it so quiet here. I actually feel recuperated from our northern excursion. Yesterday I was feeling it in my back. Every time we go to the cabin it seems that I engage in too much heavy lifting. This was our last trek up there for the winter, so I had to winterize it, which included placing plywood "shutters" over the lower windows. Last year we didn't put up shutters (well, in fact in it's entire lifetime it has never been shuttered), and we lost a window. It was such an inconvenience to get the window repaired that I vowed to shutter the cabin every year now. Lifting the boards into place for marking the hangers and then relifting them to hang them did a number on my back (I guess it doesn't help that I haven't been to the club for almost 4 months). We started the "vacation" on Thursday afternoon, much to the dismay of Jonathan and Sarah. They didn't want to go to the cabin. They are both teenagers and would have preferred to spend the long weekend in the pj's sleeping or watching TV. Being the awful parent that I am I made them go. We arrived at the cabin on Thursday at about 9:00 pm. It was beautiful fall weather and I didn't even need a coat unloading the car that late in the evening. Friday Sherrie, Jonathan and myself went to West Yellowstone. Sarah wanted to stay at the cabin and watch movies. We had a fun time in West shuttling between the boutique and hardware store. We found the paint for our bedroom and Jonathan's bedroom. We had the shutter boards cut and loaded up on antifreeze. Before heading back to Island Park we made our last stop at the candy store to buy our fudge (we thought that would help Sarah feel better). Jonathan had us buy (an overpriced) Parchesi game in West so that we could play it back at the cabin. 
We had a fun round of Parcheesi. It has been a number of years since I played this board game. Of course, Jonathan won and Sherrie came in a close second (they are hardcore gamers). I came in dead last! After that we went for a game of Hearts. Again, Jonathan won, but I redeemed myself with a second place (barely). It was nice to sit up in the cabin with the fireplace going and the quiet of the forest outside. This time of year they are very few people up there so we only saw a couple of cars and a few walkers through the course of the weekend. Saturday we got up and made the shutters and hung them over the windows.
I then hurried to finish winterizing the cabin so that we could head back to Tooele. Sarah had a Stake Dance to attend that started at 8:00 pm so we rushed to get on the road (we had originally planned to return on Sunday). It is always hard for me to leave the cabin. If I could I would live up there for several months at a time. I enjoy eating breakfast on the front porch while watching the squirrels and birds. I enjoy going into West Yellowstone because it is a small town where people are friendly and helpful. I feel a lot more peace when I am up in the mountains. We stopped in Idaho Falls for lunch and to see Sherrie's father. We found out that he had been transferred to a hospital in Pocatello the day before. We were going to try and see him in Pocatello, but Sarah needed to get home. We arrived home at about 8:30 pm just in time for Sarah to get ready and be fashionably late. She made it to the dance and had a good time. We stayed up to wait for her and to watch SNL - poor Sarah Palin, I would have advised her not to do the show, because they made a fool out of her even with her present. After church on Sunday we drove down to my parents home in Saratoga Springs to visit. My brother Eric and his wife Natalie brought their new baby, Tateym, up. Sherrie had a nice baby gift for them (a fancy blanket and "shoe" socks that she got at the boutique in West). We arrived back home tired. We sat up for about 45 minutes "chatting" online with Jordan through Facebook (I still don't have a very good grasp on the Facebook concept, but I am learning - I think I still prefer blogging.) So here I am sitting at my desk, tired and wishing that I did have a holiday today so that I could rest up from the "vacation" taken on the weekend. I've place a slideshow of the cabin after the blogs for anybody interested in seeing what it looks like inside now. Until next time.....
It is hard to believe that it is Wednesday again (I know I say that every Wednesday). They are seeming to roll around faster than they did when Jared first left. He has been out 161 days (22%), but whose counting (well, I can think of at least two people). He is continuing to enjoy his mission and work hard. Jared is now starting to see some of the fruits of his labors. It looks as if they will have some baptisms in the near future. 
He enjoys his new companion. I won't try to spell his name because it isn't one that I am familiar with. He is working as the new Elder's trainer. Sherrie received a nice packaged from Sister Hann and Jared last week. Jared sent her a beautiful bracelet that spells out "MOM" with silver M's and rhinestone O's. Sister Hann sent her a beautiful music box with pictures of Sherrie and Jared in the top and a hand beaded bracelet (Jared must have told her how much Sherrie loves bracelets).
Jared stated in his email that they are trying to divide the Huntsville Stake and they need additional active Melchizedek Priesthood so they are really encouraging the missionaries to step up their efforts (I don't know if Jared could work much harder than he already has). Anyway, we are really proud of his determination, enthusiasm, faith and work ethic. I know he is proving to be a great blessing to the Birmingham Mission. Sherrie and I are already looking forward to going down there when he finishes his mission.
We had our first snowfalls this week. The initial fall was up in the mountains and then on Saturday morning we woke up to about an inch on the lawn and sidewalks (well everything). I timed my fertilizing just right again. On Thursday I mowed the lawn and applied the fertilizer anticipating that it would snow. I find that is works best if there is a snowfall just after application. That cold moisture seems to really put it to work on the roots. I have mixed feelings at this time of year. I am glad to rid myself of the labor of caring for gardens and lawn. But at the same time, I miss the beauty of the gardens and being able to sit outside (I guess I could still sit outside if I bundled up warm).
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