Goodbye September

Helene has mostly moved out, and we saw the sun today

 for the first time in days. I inspected my flowers and my 

Dahlias and my Zinnias made it through the storm.

Truth is, they look better, having weathered the storm.

That's life.

We're all better off when we can overcome and weather

our own personal storms, amiriiight?

Gigs and Christian worked on his motorcycle carburetor.

I'm just kidding; I don't know what they were working on.

I just wanted to type that.

And I did some Halloween decorating around the house.

You know what tomorrow is, don't you?

Goodbye September!

Days are gettin' shorter an' the air a keener snap;

Apples now are droppin' into Mother Nature's lap;

The mist at dusk is risin' over valley, marsh an' fen

An' it's just as plain as sunshine, winter's comin' on again.

But the air is mighty peaceful an' the scene is good to see,

An' there's somethin' in October that stirs deep inside o' me;

An' I just can't help believin' in a God above us, when

Everything is ripe for harvest and the frost is back again.

Edgar A Guest

Oliver in Brazil: September 2024

Well, another month down!  Yahooo!  We just keep marching on!  

In our video calls, I can tell he's tired.

He works so hard.

Both Claire and Jane have told me that they finally slept good 

for the first time in 18 months the night they came home.  

They were not physically uncomfortable on their mission 

(I mean, yes, I know they were),it's just the weight of the calling.

Ollie is carrying much of that weight as he finishes his last few months!

But he's happy and having incredible experiences!

(Like this one!)

Teaching friends:

Food (mostly pizza)

Companion photos:

His district/mission:

Random:

*He was so excited to show me the new Oreo Coke!

(Ollie and I are crazy about cool drink flavors)

I haven't seen it yet here in NC!

I told him to pack me one when he comes home!

*He sees a lot of dogs.

Hygge In The Window

At our recent back-to-school feast, I gave Claire and Jane their own small 

Hygge candles to place in their dorm windows as a reminder

 of home and their Scandinavian heritage.

They each sent me photos of their candles glowing 

from their windows. So cute!

And Lottie has her own little Hygge candle glowing at home. 

When she was 10, she made this cute pumpkin candle holder. 

It's one of my favorite Halloween decorations.

Claire in Virginia:

Jane in Utah:

Lottie in North Carolina:

Studies conducted by the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen found

 that 85% of Danes associate hygge with candles, at least 70% 

of the Danish population light a candle once/week, and 28% 

light candles every single day. 

And we’re not talking one single candle here: the study found that 31% 

of Danes light more than five candles at a time.

That's me!!

Helene

As predicted, Hurricane Helene found her way to Stillestead.

We had lots of rain and noisy wind, but we're generally lucky.  

Our neighbors in other counties and states really got it bad.  

Claire was planning on waking up early to make her noon math class, 

but the rain and flooding were really bad, 

so we made her stay home until around 4:00.

She made it back to school safe and sound later in the evening.

I love that my kids are all spread out doing their things,

being big responsible Nies, but I'm also freaking out

all the time.  My anxiety level has tripled recently.

Hiyyiyiii!

Lottie and I played with Kitty in the evening, watched

A Quiet Place, and drank DP.

Christian was out with the missionaries, and Gigs was at work.

So it was just the girls (and Angus).

Yay, Boo!

 We took the early flight back home this morning.

A hurricane is coming to the south, and I was worried

we'd be delayed, but all flights were running on schedule!

Yay!

We planned to have our layover in SLC to eat at Cafe Rio at the airport, 

but we missed the bag cut-off time and had to reroute our flight through JFK.  

Boo!

We were disappointed.  Like, super disappointed.

But we had smooth flying and got home in time for dinner.

Yay!

At the Raleigh airport, I noticed only one escalator was working,

then I got to the top and found out why:

This made me laugh out loud for a long time.

Then, while I was unpacking, I got a phone call from the school,

and they announced that school would be canceled for tomorrow

in "an abundance of caution".

Yay!

While I am super excited for school to be canceled,

my heart really does go out to the many, many people, families,

and homes that will inevitably be affected by Helene.

Boo!

Goodbye, Portland!

It's been such a wonderful trip.

I've met some wonderful, wonderful people!!

Planning On It

 We did a million things today, but I only took THREE photos.

I completely disconnected from my phone/camera.

It was so lovely.

Photo #1:

The Pittock Mansion tour was magnificent

and overlooked Portland.  

After, we drove around for hours looking at the most incredible houses

in the Nob Hill area.  Holy moly!  Beautiful!

Photo #2

Eating in Downton Portland.

We ate a lot on this trip.

It's been amazing.


Photo#3

Christian and I are at the top of Portland, overlooking

the city.  We spotted Mt. Hood, too!

We attempted to visit the Japanese Gardens, but unfortunately, 

they were closed. 

However, I have a sneaking suspicion that we'll be back!

 In fact, I'm already planning on it.

Comfort Creatures

 This morning, Christian and I were invited to take a Barre3 class

with some of the gang who we met yesterday in the home office.

That was sooo cool.

Then after, the gang suggested a million places 

that we needed to visit.

Today, we settled om going to 

The (Goonies) beach, and

Astoria Column

It took us 146 steps to get to the top, where we made paper airplanes

from the paper that our talks were typed on and threw them off the top.

They twirled down gracefully to the bottom.

It somehow felt symbolic.

Then we visited the beach where they filmed Goonies,

and saw Mikey's house and the courthouse and the road where

Brand rides his bike.

It was cute.

Mostly, it was just fun driving around with Christian,

looking out the window, listening to music, and talking.

We reminisced about the time in 2017 when we spoke 

to a group of sister missionaries

 in New York, stayed in downtown Manhattan, 

and spent our time in the hotel room binge-watching Stranger Things.

IN MANHATTAN!

The place where you can literally do anything, see anything,

and eat anywhere.

What can I say? We're creatures of comfort.