Working on the New Normal

I have probably been giving my blogging duties away far too much lately. I still have mounds of paperwork to tackle and my garden has been producing tomatoes and beans like crazy. Today I have been using the steamer to get grape juice. My amazing neighbor once again allowed me to raid her garden and tomorrow I will be making grape jelly and I'm pretty sure the tomatoes need to be picked. I have a bunch of red ones. I use sauce more than anything, so I will probably just grind them up and cook them down tomorrow in between batches of jelly. 

Most days are pretty good, but I still miss my sweetie so much. It all happened so fast! It is hard to believe he is really gone. 

Curly played his last league football game tonight at Mt. Ridge. It was a pretty good game until some of the boys started getting hurt. They were losing by quite a ways, so it didn't really make sense to me. 

Baby Doll had games yesterday in Riverton. All of the teams won all of their games! I don't know if that has happened yet this season, but her coach let them all skip practice today.

We started playing church ball last night. We had just enough people to make it really fun although I would have been fine sitting out. One thing I stopped doing because I have been grieving is exercise. I really need to work on that. 

If I could just figure out how to put the treadmill down flat, maybe I could use it. Only one of many things my sweetie forgot to tell me. 

Wordless Wednesday - The Perfect Gift

Scout and K gave Baby Doll the perfect gift for her 15th birthday yesterday.

Guest Blog: Corn Maze 2025 by the Dog Walker

 This is the moment of truth. Ever since the beginning of October, Mom was hoping that I start putting up the Corn Maze for this year. I was about to do it over the weekend during General Conference, but on Saturday, it was so rainy, that the plan had been delayed. So, I ended up finishing it on Sunday while Princess and the Frog came over with dinner and their kids. They were fun to be around and we had a delicious meal from them called Cheeseburger Casserole. After that, we played games together, like it was the beginning of the holidays.

This will be the first time that we are celebrating the holidays without Dad. We're always going to grieve over Dad's passing, but he wouldn't want us to give up on the things he taught us to do, like putting up lights for the holidays. Anyway, there haven't been much new things to put up this year, other than a couple of blowups that were given to me for my birthday last year. There have been some blowups that we've had for a decade, but they stopped working. It was kind of sad to have to throw them away, because they were beyond repair, but Mom told me that I still have plenty of them to show to every kid throughout our neighborhood. I hope you enjoy the looks of it.

Curly's Longest Game

You all know that Curly is the center for Bingham's football team #63. It is his senior year and it is so fun to watch him take charge in the huddle and be an amazing leader on his team.

So last Friday, they were playing Copper Hills. The score was 20-3 for Bingham as the game rolled into the 4th quarter. It started to drizzle. Before long, there were huge flashes of lightning and the teams were sent to the locker rooms and the fans were asked to leave the metal bleachers. 

I gathered my things and headed for my car. By the time I got there, it was really pouring down. I wondered if they would just call the game since most of it had already been played with a clear winner established. After sitting in my car for about 20 minutes, I glanced at my phone. It was 9:42. I didn't know if Curly had access to his phone, but I fired off a quick text and then I headed for home. 

At 10:30pm, the lightning had subsided for at least 30 minutes and the the teams reemerged and began to warm up. Just as they took the field, another flash sent everyone back to shelter. Finally, at 11:10pm, they  were able to take the field and finish the game. Curly said they walked off the field at 11:55pm with the same victory they would have had if they had called the game with 11 minutes to play. 

I waited up for him, but it was after 1:00am when he came through the door. Maybe we need to reconsider the high school rules for lightning delay. Otherwise, I need to arrange for him to eat and take a nap before the opening kickoff.