Tuesday, September 15: Day 96

The leaves are no longer changing just in the mountains now, but all over. I'm living in denial that winter is coming. We're going to have a perpetual fall. Fall is definitely my favorite season. I love the smell and crispness of the air. It reminds me of trick-or-treating when I was young, and Thanksgiving, spending time with family, and the anticipation of Christmas. So many memories are tied up in the fall time. Living up here makes me feel like Halloween is next weekend, when it reality it's more than a month away. Likewise, I feel like Thanksgiving is a month away, when really its two. And Christmas shopping should start any day now, right? Well, you get the idea. It's easy to jump the gun up here because the air and leaves are giving me a different idea for how close things are. Don't be surprised if another day or two revolves around the changing leaves. It's just that it's one of my favorite things.

Monday, September 14: Day 95

I saw this while preparing my lesson for seminary. I love it. We're all just trying to get by the best we can, dealing with our own set of "issues" that have been dealt to us. I love that it reminds me that I need to look around more and see if I can help someone else, instead of getting so wrapped up in my own problems.

Sunday, September 13:Day 94

Today was my first "lazy" Sunday in a long time...maybe since the volcano erupted and church was cancelled. Anyway, it was stake conference and it was over by 11:00 a.m. so the rest of the day was ours! It was so nice. I really enjoyed stake conference. Most of it was a broadcast that was made specifically for the members in Washington and Alaska. It included talks by Elder Nelson, and President Monson along with a couple others. Elder Nelson talked about how the translators in the church who are working on translating the Book of Mormon into other languages can, if they're working at their best, translate 1 page a day. And that's from a known language to another known language. He then said that Joseph Smith, when he translated the Book of Mormon from an unknown language to a known language, he averaged 8-10 pages a day! And that he completed the whole thing in less than 3 months. I feel like I had heard that before, but it had been awhile and I had forgotten the specific numbers. It's incredible to me. I have been working on this idea to help my seminary class get more excited to read their scriptures the night before they come. Since I'm writing this 5 days later, I can say it hasn't really taken off like I wanted it to, but I hope if I keep promoting it, they'll start to do it. Here's the idea...it's been taken from another teacher and tweeked a bit. I spray painted a Book of Mormon gold and set it by the roll sheet as they come in. They can take it and put it at their seat if they have a "golden insight" from the assigned scripture block the night before. They mark the verses they liked, sign their name in the margin and anything they want to say about the verse along with it (or a cross reference, whatever). Then, since I'll see the Book of Mormon on their desk, I'll know they want to share something after the devotional. I modeled this the first day and everyone seemed to like the idea, but so far I've been the only one to share. Hopefully, we'll get some takers here soon.

Saturday, September 12: Day 93

I love this! We've been watching the U.S. Open a lot today and I couldn't help but show this shot by Federer. This year is the year of upsets and it's been fun to see some unseeded or very low seeded players beat some of the top ones. Anyway, you just have to watch this shot.

Friday, September 11: Day 92

Okay, this is a problem. I have tried to hide the cords that spew out of our TV area in many different ways. This has been my latest attempt in this apartment, and it's still not satisfying me. Anyone have ideas? What do you do to hide your cords?

On a totally different note, today was our last day working at the temple since we both have other callings that are demanding more of our time. It has been a great experience working there, the two of us, and I will miss it. I know it won't be our last time, but it will probably be the last time before we're old and potentially grey. So it was with a bit of sentimentality that I walked out of there tonight.

Thursday, September 10: Day 91

Today I went to lunch at The Perfect Cup with my friend, Kristy, and forgot my camera. So I found a couple of pictures that show a few places we walked past/went. I couldn't find any of The Perfect Cup itself, but it's located in the Dimond Center Mall, so we found ourselves walking past the stuffed moose, bear, muskox, and Canadian geese to get there. Anyway, we're both making great efforts to eat healthy and were craving the same thing: a teriyaki chicken salad. It was about as good as it sounds, which is really great, so no complaints there. As for the company, from day 1 of being in this ward, Kristy has been one of the first to befriend us. She is also a transplant to Alaska and has 3 adorable kids. One of them is the cutest girl, outside of my own nieces, that I have ever been around. (See the bottom of this post: http://michellesyearinalaska.blogspot.com/2009/08/friday-july-31-day-49.html)

Afterwards, we shopped around at Old Navy, which is in this hallway (below) and a new store she introduced me to called "Torrid", which is a very peculiar store, but one that has pants that fit fabulously. So I'll now know where to go when the need arises. I hate trying to find pants that fit well, so I was grateful for the tip.

Wednesday, September 9: Day 90

Good produce can be hard to find in Alaska, especially my favorite fruit:So when I pushed my finger against one today at Costco, I grabbed it immediately when I found that they weren't hard as a rock. I haven't had a good one since we moved up here, except for last week when I had part of one at a friends house. She said she found them at Costco, so I was on the look out. They are a couple of days old and already there are 6 gone. Delicious! Costco, by the way, has become a weekly stop for me because they have the best produce around--that I can find anyway. And the price difference between produce there and other places is extremely lower. This peach find was extremely exciting, and definitely blog-worthy in my mind. Now if I could only find a good watermelon.