A Bunch of Things That I Never Found Time to Write About

I, once again, have a bunch of stuff in my head. I've decided to see how far I can get. Hopefully Brien will be back from his meeting soon to distract Zarina before she distracts me too much. This is October in review. (I actually have the next 3 posts scheduled throughout tomorrow. I know blog overload.)

Some days were worrisome:

But most were happy:

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As part of my birthday present I guilted Brien into going to my mission reunion with me.

I was able to see one of my favorite companions, Jana:

And stand on my tippy-toes for a picture with my mission president, and his wife. They are like 6'2", I come up to their shoulders:

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In return for Brien's sacrifice we visited his best friend from college. (Ironically, Rob wasn't there until a few hours before we left). Zarina hit it off with Jack, he's only a year older.

Left to right we have Carter, Brien, Zarina and Jack. We love that they have a Brien and Jack.

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We took Grandpa to lunch:

And then Brien cut a huge dead branch out of Grandma's tree. Zarina helped her dad cut the branch into smaller pieces so it could go in the trash.

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Zarina had a small birthday party:

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Halloween 2009

Brien made a great scarecrow for our garden at Halloween.

He also made a toddler scarecrow that was a little disturbing:

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Obviously the ward Trunk or Treat was exhausting. (Brien won the "5-Alarm Chili" even though his chili wasn't that spicy. It was the tastiest overall though).

(Ignore the sink full of dirty dishes). Zarina loved her Ghost Hat, it was the only part of her costume that she would wear for a while.

At first Zarina's costume was a hat with eyes and just a plain shift, but we couldn't get the outfit on her. I saw a beanie baby at the drug store who had the ghost on his belly. After adding the ghost face she had not trouble wearing the entire costume. This is the best picture of the whole costume, it was a pain to try and take pictures. Once she was dressed she just wanted to go trick or treating. Here she is with Eden (Glinda the good witch) and Lilah (a fairy). I love Eden's face in this picture.

Zarina was a bit more forward than her couins; she had no trouble knocking on doors and walking in people's houses. Her "trick or treat" was adorable and loud. She wasn't good at saying "thank you" so we made do with "bye-bye" for most people.