October 2023 Part 7: October Day-to-Day

October started out with our five two hour sessions of our Church's General Conference, which we tried to tune into during football and soccer games on Saturday. On Sunday, we sat in our family room to watch. It's been a tradition for years to use this desk that my dad made me when I was a kid for the drawing and coloring. Michael has outgrown coloring, and Rachel and Gabe are getting a little too big to both fit under it, but that doesn't stop them from trying. 

Here's one of this year's drawings. I think Gabe did this one. 

At the end of September, our Stake (large geographical church boundary) reconfigured most of the ward (smaller church boundary--this is the group of people we worship with every Sunday) boundaries and created 2 new wards. We were lucky enough to be put in one of the new wards after the boundary changes. The Wednesday before the official changes were made, our then current bishop told Brian that if they didn't get a call from the stake by Wednesday, they were probably safe as far as being called into the new Bishopric (we were pretty sure we were going to end up in a new ward, and that means the entire leadership starts from scratch!) Wednesday morning, Brian woke up to a text from the Stake asking to meet with him, and that I would be invited along. We had a day of panicking! We made an appointment to go to the temple to both calm down and be spiritually prepared for whatever call came. We were relieved that he was simply called to be the executive secretary, but we got a sneak peak at the new boundaries and learned who our new Bishop and counselors were four days early. This meant a lot of work in between the end of September and when our ward would officially meet the weekend after General Conference, and Brian was busy busy busy setting up appointments! 

One of the new counselors (Bro Read) invited Bishop, the second counselor (our friend Marcus!), and Brian, plus all the families for Sunday Dinner. At one point, Amalia, Marcus's daughter and one of my former young women, grabbed my phone and took a ton of pictures. This is my favorite. 

Of course, it wouldn't be October at our house if we didn't decorate for Halloween. Here's the beginnings. 

Rachel and Gabe were so surprised to come home to the entryway all decorated while they were at school. 

We got new gargoyle candelabras and a Madam Leota (not pictured). 

Michael invited us over to celebrate Kristina's birthday on the 3rd. It was so fun to be included as part of the family. 

Michael and I ended up at CVS for some reason, and we found these weird Halloween hands. 

Gabe joined me one Sunday in my room for some reading while I was getting ready for church. With our new ward, we now meet at 1:30 p.m. so we have lots of time to get ready in the morning. 

Lots of time to practice piano too. 

And then, we finally got to go to our new building and meet our new ward family--or read the latest edition of The Friend. 

Gracie sleeping in the chair: Halloween Version. 

I had a field trip for my architecture class in Downtown Salt Lake. We measured motifs and had to draw them to scale in our sketchbooks. One of the professors there wanted us to measure and draw these Ionic columns, but we had just done a proper drawing of the Ionic order the week before, so after he left, my measuring partner and I pivoted to moldings instead. 

I did a measured drawing of this stone moulding around one of the doors. 

Brian and I drove to Salt Lake together, and he dropped me off at my field trip and then continued North to Ogden to deliver a piece of furniture to Chelsea. We got back just in time to pick up carpool, but not with enough time to put our seats back in the van. I think the boys thought it was a fun way to travel home after school. 

I started strong in the costume department, getting Rachel and Gabe's robes done quite early in the month. It helped that they were the same exact pattern and that I could do them both at the same time. I ordered the seals for the houses online this time instead of trying to make them myself. 

We went to see Serene as the Mozart's wife in Amadeus. She did an amazing job and got us choked up at the end. 

We were delighted to see that Mozart was played by the guy who played Elder Green in the Saturday's Warrior movie, so we had to take a picture with him to show the kids and also to let him know that he is a regular guest in our house on Sundays. 

Rachel tried the hot roller curlers one Sunday morning. She rocks the curler look. 

Gabe helped us with baking or cooking--actually probably both--throughout the month. 

Brian kept working out at 9 Round with one arm and two legs, despite me telling him to quit due to his wrists, but he loved it too much. Here he is with one of the trainers, Kelsey. 

For one of our props, I needed a couple of pictures of Brian, so even though I hadn't finished sewing the cape, and his vest still needed buttons, I draped him in his cape fabric and we did a quick shoot just with my phone. It wasn't perfect, but it got the job done, and I was able to order the lenticular print from the airport on our way to Norfolk/Outer Banks. (I also sewed his buttons on his vest while we were in Outer Banks.) 

Gabe joined me in my craft room while I was sewing. He'd read or else watch whatever movie I was listening to. 

We got a little snow dusting towards the ed of the month. 

That's when it really felt like October. 

I found bottles of Butter Beer in a store, so I got them for us all to try. 

Mostly, nobody liked it, but hopefully the kids remembered that we tried a thing that could have been cool. 

I got called right out of the gate to be the Activities Chair for our new ward. I have never come so close to saying no to a calling. My time in the Young Women's organization in our last ward took a toll on me. My self esteem reverted back to it's high school self, and I had just decided to give up on trying to be social and put myself out there. I was tired of going to activities and feeling like I was the only one trying to talk to people. At one point, I asked Brian, "Why doesn't anyone ever want to make an effort to come talk to me? What is wrong with me anyway? Why am I so unlikeable?" The leaders in Young Women's didn't help matters. They were the only ladies that I regularly interacted with, and while everyone was nice, I never felt included in their conversations or circle. I felt like I was back in high school with so many people who were nice without letting me in. It all came to a head the night our ward splits were announced, and I decided that I was going to stop trying to be outgoing. I was not going to go to Relief Society Activities anymore, and I would just go to church for Jesus, not to be fake friends with everyone else. But the Lord had other plans for me, and it's good that He did. Our new ward has been such a big blessing, and I've felt inspired in organizing activities. Our first one was a Chili Cook-off. I made this flyer in the car on the way to something else. It wasn't a perfect activity, but we were able to get together right away and start getting to know each other. 

Gabe made this amazing witch from an apple. Isn't it so cute?

I think that's it for October. There couldn't possibly anything else to talk about.

Just kidding. Stay tuned for Halloween!