Happy Halloween

Here is the picture, I promised. Aren't I cute? I'm not sure if it was the costume or the effort that I put into the costume but I really enjoyed Halloween this year. I'll have to remember next year to make a costume like this year. Our plans (Christian and I) aren't that glamorous tonight. I think Christian has to work late and we usually don't get many trick-or-treaters. Those that do come by get a nice handful of candy.

Last Weekend

Last weekend, it was just Maddie and I at home. Christian had a continuing education class that his whole work had to attend. Going into the weekend, I didn't have any plans but as it turned out, I had a lot of fun. Saturday morning, I cleaned for about an hour while Maddie kept sleeping on the bed. Then I ran to Wal-Mart to grab some things we needed and also the materials to make my Halloween costume. We were invited to a Halloween party with some friends that evening. When I came home, I turned on the BYU Football game to listen to as I made my costume. I spread out the red felt on the bed and walked into the kitchen to find a pair of scissors. When I came back in the bedroom, Maddie had plopped herself in the middle of my felt. I laughed pretty hard when I saw her. She was only trying to help. I decided to play with her for a little while and then I continued making my costume.
With my costume, I went for easy. I decided to be a lady bug. All I had to make was the red, spotted wings and some feelers on top of my head. I used red felt for the back and cut out black felt for the dots. Then I made the feelers out of pipe cleaners and a head band. For my body, I just wore a black shirt, black pants and black shoes. (I'll post some pictures of my costume tomorrow as I'm wearing it to work for Halloween.
Earlier that day, a friend from my ward had invited me to go with her to a Pet Halloween costume contest with out dogs. So I grabbed Maddie and her costume and met her at the store that was sponsoring the event. When we got there we couldn't believe what we saw. A nearby farmer has dressed up his newborn calf in a dress. Someone else had dressed up their pony as a very large black spider. Unfortunately Maddie didn't win the contest but everyone that participated won a certificate good for $10 of Doggy treats. After spending our $10, we took the dogs over to the off-leash dog park next to the store. The off-leash park is a fenced off area where dog owners unleash their dogs and let them romp and get to know one another. Maddie has always loved it but that day there were a lot of bigger dogs and she was quite timid. Towards the end she met a little puppy and they chased each other around the park for 10 minutes. One of the things I like most about these parks is how Maddie is so exhausted when she comes home. It also gives her the chance to interact with other types of dogs.

Musings for today

Ok, Ok..so I haven't been good about blogging once I started back in August. From the last time I wrote I've struggled with a couple different issues in writing again. The first one is that I worry aobut how much information to write and I'm a little afraid that I'll say too much. The other reason is that: Everyone I know that blogs do little updates on their children and the funny things that they do or challenges that they have. I guess I feel that there isn't any "big" thing about my life. In a way we do the same thing a lot of the time. We both work 40 hours a week, come home exhausted, play with Maddie, run errands and spend time together on the weekends. Perhaps, sometimes, we'll plan a trip or something "notable" on a Saturday but not often. Lately, it's been cleaning, shopping, watching football and going out for dinner in the evening. (it's not that I don't like that because I love a relaxing Saturday) Anyone have any suggestions on my two concerns??

For awhile, I have had this feeling like I need to do more with my life (with the free time that I have). We are still paying off our first attempt with IVF (in-vitro Fertilization) that ended with my miscarriage in July. With each paycheck, a certain percent goes to paying that sum off. I think we have a little less than half left to pay back. This is the ultimate goal/priority in our life so when we are done, we'lll start on a 2nd attempt with IVF. But in the meantime, what do I do? I know Heavenly Father has a plan for us/me in remaining childless for this long. I just wish Iknew what exactly He wants me to learn during this time of my life. I've active in my calling as a pianist for our ward choir and I have learned so much but I want to do more. In the past, I've have tossed up a couple ideas: going back to school for my Masters (but that would be less money to contribute to our IVF loan), starting different crafts, and working more with family history. It's the deciding that has me stumped: Each time I try to decide it comes to this: what is the thing or thing that I need to start doing in order for me to grow the way my Heavenly Father wants me to grow? If anyone has any comments, I would love to hear them.

I'd better quit for now, I wrote this at work because these were my thoughts at the moment and work has been so extremely slow.