Buckaroo Tree

The Christmas Festivities are beginning at our house.  Granny Smith finally persuaded us it was waaay past time to get a tree up and decorated.  When we were almost done, we realized we didn't have a star or angel for the top.  He said, "Just a second!"  and disappeared back into my room.  Pretty soon he came back with my hat.  He said, "I saw this at Barnard's.  I think it would look good here too."  and put my hat on the top of the tree.

I like it too.

Happy Thanksgiving

This is late I know!  

Thanksgiving was at Crabapple Farm this year.  I had such a nice time that I barely took any pictures, plus my camera ran out of batteries, which was horrid.  But we did have a very nice time including lovely food, a sing a long, a good backyard football game, and lots of left overs.

Little Honey Crisp was a big fan of the pickles.  I'm not sure about her mom :)

My brother, Gravenstein, set himself up at the kitchen sink and helped with dishes and did the potatoes.

My other brother, Winesap, created an incredible scavenger hunt involving clues everyone was amazed at.  He mined the family trivia, including what Braeburn is doing on his mission.  Impressive!

Nova Spy entertaining Honey Crisp.  (I am a bad photographer!) Sorry Honey!

And Golden Delicious setting the tables.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

The Hopeful Hunters

The boys keep trying to get a deer, or an elk, or anything, really... but no far nothing.

I love how this picture has all the junk from the previous nights book signing (more on that later.) and how it is still completely dark outside. (miracle that I am awake enough to make breakfast and take this picture.) The boys were just waiting for Bro. Burnham to come pick them up.

They've still got a little time though before the season is over.  Maybe they'll still get something.  Our freezer is pretty empty.  I would love some elk roasts for sunday dinner.  That would be really nice... and much less expensive than buying half a beef.  

NaNoWriMo

And here we are:  the super heros of writing, the official contestants of National Novel Writing Month -  the 30 day race to write 50,000 words,  the crazy Miss Delicious and me. 

I was dragged into doing this because because Golden Delicious is writing a book for her senior project and she says she needs a support system.  I thought it sounded moderately easy, how hard can writing a book be, right???  But now we are on our second week and things are getting a bit dicey.  

We did have a hilarious time last Saturday, though.  We decided to go to an official "write-in" at the Villa Coffee House.  We were a bit nervous, having never done something like this.  We parked several blocks away and as we were walking towards the shop we saw a tall, greasy, slightly overweight young man clutching a lap top computer in front of us. 

"What do you want to bet he is going to the write-in too??"

"No!"  

"Yes!"

He walked in the door in front of us.  G.D. and I scurried to the back and hid in a corner to observe... and we can now report that everything you have ever heard about authors being strange is...

ABSOLUTELY TRUE!!

All the authors were seated at one long table.  There was an enormous man with a vintage star wars shirt on with a straggly red beard, our previous greasy fellow, and lots and lots of larger ladies with uncombed hair pulled back in severe looking buns.  We overheard random snatches of conversation such as, "I totally agree, Johnny Depp is the most overcast actor of our generation."  and "Perhaps a small story will illustrate the point I'm trying to make..."

Golden Delicious and I ordered our hot chocolate and decided we'd stay for one hour.  We forced ourselves to work, slavishly writing down lots of words, while the rest of them talked and laughed.  We later found out they spend the first hour socializing and then get to work, but by that point we were already done and headed for free bread and a peanut butter bar at Great Harvest.

We did have a very nice conversation with the "master coordinator" for our area.  She was helpful and super friendly (she didn't think we were with nanowrimo at first because we were hiding) but she gave us all sorts of hand outs and stickers based on the super hero theme for this year.  Our favorites are the Zorro masks which we wished we had gotten several days earlier for Halloween, and which she told us we should put on "whenever we were stuck because they are magic and will help you write."

Fantastic!!

I do not think they work though,  and I am writing this blog post instead of my 1,667 words that I need to do today for my future best seller novel. Actually, it's all complete rubbish.  But the whole motivational tone of nanowrimo can be summed up like this:

"Of course what you're writing is terrible.  Of course it's awful.  Press ON!  Keep writing!" 

and so we are.

Happy Late Halloween!

Letters from the Missionary

We love getting letters from Elder Braeburn.  He is doing great.  He is in a little mining town in North Yorkshire called Pontefract.  The town is quite poor, and everyone older than 40 has worked in the coal mines at some point in their life.  Elder Braeburn says it is like going back to the Industrial Era.  They ride the bus and the busy is usually late because gypsy carts pulled by horses are always pulling out in front of the buses.

His companion is Elder Kjeldsen, from Denmark and they work hard together and get along pretty well.  We gather from letters, though, that Elder Kjeldsen is always making fun of America, because Elder Braeburn has been drawing American Flags on pieces of paper and posting them on his desk.  He says he's become wildly patriotic since going on his mission.

He sent Granny Smith a letter last week talking about his sad lack of exercise,  with accompanying illustrations.  

After the Election

 I have been too depressed to even talk about the election for the last several days.  Luckily I scheduled my Christmas leather work post article to post ahead of time, because it would not have been there if it was up to me.  I feel like I'm finally coming out of shock a little bit.  My brain literally feels bruised, though, trying to understand what just happened.

First, I made the mistake of getting my hopes up.  After the last election I gave up politics for several years and just focused on making my home a happy place and teaching my children correct principles.  (still trying...) But as the election got closer I found myself becoming not just Anti-Obama, but very much Pro-Romney.  I just felt like anyone who could take a beating day after day in the media, and still smile, and still be focused on real issues, and still be so adorable with his wife, had to be inspired and blessed.  I really, really liked what I was seeing.  I imagined in my mind that we could have another Carter/Reagan election - that the people would see goodness, and vote for it, and we could enjoy prosperity again.

So... I went to bed Tuesday night very sad, but still with a twinge of hope.  Mr. Bechtel left for Japan early Wednesday morning and I had to take him to the airport, so we were up early.  I ran down to his office where he was checking the polls and he shook his head sadly at me.  I walked around in a daze the rest of the day, really.  I mean, I went about my daily activities, but my brain refused to accept the awful reality.  And my phone was totally silent.  No one called me.  I imagine we were probably all walking around in deep sadness.

  

On Thursday I finally started thinking through the why's and what it meant.  I could only come up with two possible solutions.  1.  The election was rigged.  or 2.  People really are terribly wicked.  (Obviously I'm not a news pundit, these are pretty basic and non intellectual solutions.)  And really, I wish it was the first, but even if it was... the fact still remains that for the first time ever people voted to accept gay marriage, they voted for marijuana, wherever I looked there seemed to be more evidence of stupidity.  I am still struggling with this.  It is one thing to discuss "the last days" or to read about them in scripture - exciting even - but I am not enjoying the way it tastes in real life.  It's depressing and terrible.

And I have to admit that I am angry about it.  I was thinking today that this is probably why President Monson told us all in Conference last time to do christian acts of service.  He was probably talking to me, because really I don't want to do any service for people that are taking away my liberty.  I want to punch them in the nose.  

Winesap said one of his friends posted nothing but a scripture reference on his facebook page:  "Mosiah 29:27  My first thought was, "When the wicked rule, the righteous mourn." 

I have lots of other thoughts running around in my mind too, but nothing cohesive, just lots of questions and a hope that we can maintain our freedom.  And that The Election of our Lifetime was a BIG disappointment!