.tender mercy

On Friday, Air skipped his class and I didn't work (my work schedule is less predictable than the weather). So we went for a drive to look at houses and fall colors. We love to do this.

We were driving through a nearby neighborhood of little older homes and clean streets with kids skipping around in the yards. It was beautiful. Everything looks more beautiful in the fall. I saw a 'FOR SALE' sign in front of a house and made Aaron turn around and go down that street. We pulled up in front of the house and noticed it was empty, so we walked up and looked in the big front window. I instantly fell in love with the place. We walked around to see the back yard. It was fantastic too.

Believe it or not, we are a little weary of this basement we live in. Yes, we have had a great two years here, and it's been such a blessing to have a place; but sometimes we feel like a change would be good. We just have no idea how we can do that. We really just can't. But when I saw this house my brain couldn't stop trying to figure out a way to have it!

That is... until we were sitting in the car about to pull away from the house and Air looked out my window across the street and said these three words: "Hey, there's Andy"

{Background: Andy is one of the handicapped kids who Air works with. You may have heard him tell stories about Andy--he's a really funny kid. But basically he is one of the more dangerous kids in the company too. Pretty much a danger to society, really. Of course it's not his fault--he has brain damage. But he is dangerous none-the-less.}

As it turns out, Andy was recently moved to this new group home, and it just happened to be right across the street from my dream home--which is actually for sale!

I can't even begin to describe all of the problems we'd have if we were to live across the street from Andy. He loves LOVES Air and wouldn't be able to stay away if we were so close.

My dream died right there.

But that's where the tender mercy part of this post comes in, because at least I let the dream go willingly this way... I might not be so lucky with the next house I fall in love with.

.The Spoken Word

Conference weekend was a beaut!

I can't express to you how much I love being a member of the church and having things like conference and meetings and callings to keep my busy and feeling fulfilled. Life would seem so pointless and dreary to me without these things. I love to know so much about where I come from, where I'm going, and what I'm supposed to be doing with my time. This is where I find peace.

My love and I watched the first session on Saturday at home together and then headed down to be with the family for the rest of the weekend. Air, Josh and his Dad went to priesthood session and then to a BNO (boys night out) with a bunch of their xbox buddies from the ward.

I went wedding dress shopping for Tam with the girls: Air's Mom, Tam, Tara and Tessa. After we shopped our hearts out, we came home and had GNO! We all did facials and then I introduced them to North and South. I was so pleased that they actually loved it!

The lady at this dress shop told me I couldn’t take pictures of the dresses (dumb rule) so I took pictures of our expressions as we saw the dresses on Tam…. and then I got a few accidental shots of Tam in the mirror! :)

Tam is going to be a beautiful bride!!

Sunday's conference sessions were amazing! My favorite talk was about the Holy Ghost. I can't remember the name of the speaker; but the words he spoke keep running through my mind. The way he explained that everything we do in our church: scriptures, praying, fasting, attending, serving, etc. are all there in order to have the Spirit with us. They aren't all separate things, unrelated and diverse. They all share the same purpose. God organized his gospel and he created all of these commandments so that we could keep ourselves closer to Him, and to his Spirit.

Conference is a great gift and reminder... I hope you enjoyed it as well!

.the love has returned

And I love it.

.Autumn time

This last week has blatantly become autumn. It seems that the trees are just screaming that fact.

They are vibrant and bright and beautiful beyond words. I love it.

We stayed at Air's parent's house this weekend with the kids while his parent's were out of town. We had a lovely time.... except for when Tiana got a compound fracture on her arm from falling off the long-board ...and except for when I had to go in to work for the entire bright and sunny Saturday.

Other than all that, it was a great time.

We went for a Sunday evening drive through the countryside to look for some color… also, we were scoping out a spot to take Tam’s engagement pictures. We are so excited to have a wedding coming up in the family!!

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Last night we had family home evening. It was warm so we made it a picnic at the park and got to see some more color!

Tiny Tiana Tim was sporting her new cast and the rest of us just LOVE volleyball!

We basically played all night.

Don't be jealous.

Happy Autumn friends! I love you all!

.A few things lately…

Air is in school again. We went to the University the day before classes started a few weeks ago to get some things done. It was a little weird to think that it’s all starting over again. You wouldn’t believe the crazy scheduling the two of us have been doing with one car! We have seminary, Air’s in school and working odd hours, and I’m working even odder odd hours!

We know that we’ve been very blessed though, because Air was able to get his classes all back to back this semester! Also, he has a free train/bus pass from the school, and the train station is really close to Michaels! Awesome!!

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It’s been getting colder here, and it’s been raining a lot. Maybe these are the conditions that produced more slugs scooting around in our yard than I’ve ever seen! In my life! Awesome!!

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On Saturday morning we finally had some free time before I went to work… So we took our three-year-old couch back to Ikea and traded it in!

Goodbye to our old couch! You served us well… sorta

We picked up this beaut:

We are loving it! *Plus* it has a few bells and whistles that make me giddy with excitement! :)

This slides out…

And becomes a twin guest bed!

And it has this huge storage space! Awesome!!

What would we do without Ikea?

Also, what would we do without Air’s dad and his truck? Thanks so much for helping us out Papa Gusa! We love you!