Emergency Preparedness Day

Today Andrew and I had our own little emergency preparedness day. Okay so the ward emergency preparedness lady organized the ordering of water barrels but we bought one... :) So today we cleaned and filled them in our basement. And then we decided to get our 72-hour kits put together. I know we have most of the things that need to go in them, it's just a matter of actually putting them all in one place. I got a few things in it but it's not yet complete. But it's a start! :) (Hopefully we don't have another tornado watch until I can finish though...)

Andrew devised a flashlight water-line method to see where the water level was during the filling process. It was very high-tech.

Truth be told...I did most of the filling while Andrew did the water level watching. :)

And here is where we are storing the barrels--in our unfinished walkout basement--right next to the rough-in full bath. It's fun to think what we could do if we finished the basement but um...it probably isn't going to happen anytime soon. For now it's a great storage place!

Pumpkin Patch...or something like it

A couple of weeks ago when Andrew was at a scout training all weekend, our friends Jared & Emily McCombs were nice enough to let me tag along to a pumpkin patch with them and their one year old, Austin. It's no Thanksgiving Point but it was fun to get outside and take a hay ride. :)

Me, Emily, and Austin pretending to be a ghost and a pumpkin...are you fooled?

Austin...the reason we didn't look like 3 weird adults chillin' at a pumpkin patch. You always need a kid at these things to fit in. :)

This pic is for Mom. Do you like the pig? I know he's not pink!

Jared, Emily, and Austin...and can you see how pathetic this corn maze was? The stalks are usually thicker and typically taller than 5 ft! Don't worry, there were signs all over justifying the sad corn maze due to rain shortages. :) (Not anymore!!)

Rain, Rain Go Away

As you can see from our five day forecast below...our days of sunshine (like yesterday) are going to be few and far between. It feels a little like home... :) Don't you Washingtonians feel closer to me now? Well I got off work a little late today because I had to sit in on a SWOT analysis with the executives. It was actually pretty interesting to see the principles I learned in my capstone course actually being applied. Who'd a thought they actually use that stuff!! (j/k) But my step class is only on Monday nights and starting next month my teacher is only teaching every other Monday. I can't afford to miss a night! So needless to say, I hydroplaned the whole way home on the freeway going 60. I know that sounds pretty fast but I usually go 80 on this freeway and there was no possible way of going faster than 60 in the downpour we experienced. I guess we're making up for the 21 inch deficit from this summer...

Back By Popular Demand

No we haven't fallen off the face of the earth...we just haven't been quite as exciting lately. However, it has been an inexcusable amount of time since we last posted. And thus, you can view this lovely picture of our back yard and if you look closely enough you'll see what was not too long ago a tobacco field. I noticed it a month or two ago just before they harvested it. I had no idea what in the world in was. But have no fear, our neighbors took great care in explaining the harvesting process and let us know how to make the most money off it...haha. I think I'll take that up next year. :)

This? Oh it's actually just a tobacco field in our back yard...yeah, don't you have one too?

It is actually been a beautiful Fall so far--75 degrees or so today. A couple of weeks ago Fall came: It was a lovely 95 degree October day one Monday morning and then Tuesday it was 55 degrees. Talk about an extreme change. I was freezing! But I've acclimated down to the 70's and am looking forward to wearing my sweaters. :)

Anywho...Andrew and I are doing great. Watching BYU games on the Beckstead's cable, working on choosing colors to paint our walls, and just working, working, working! :) More fun updates to come...

(*THIS POST IS DEDICATED TO RYAN BEARDMORE, OUR MOST DEDICATED BLOG VIEWER*)