October Festivities!

After losing my pictures multiple times, and finally my whole blog page the other day, I'm not going to try to re-create it. However, I do want to post some pictures of the great activities we've done this month. We've also had a lot of sick kids, crying babies, planning parties, and that's why we haven't had much time to blog. Hopefully, we can get some final Halloween pictures up this week too.


Apple Picking at Shelburne Farm - October 19th:







Harriet turned 6 months old - October 26th (She's not sitting up, no teeth yet, but she's got quite the personality and just figured out that she has a voice and lots of things to say with it. She also just figured out that she has doggies and spends lots of time oohing and aahing at them and laughing at her favorite friend and sister, Grace.)




Fall leaves at Pilot Grove Farm - October 27th:


Littleton Ward Trunk or Treat - October 28th - Harriet's first Halloween costume and activity!:

I don't want to be bribed!

...says Grace. Sunday mornings are my new hard challenge of the week. They've never been my favorite, but now that I have 2 girls plus myself to get ready, it's more than a bit stressful. I have totally given up on getting Grace to do her hair. We have had so many terrible fights over her hair, I decided it just wasn't worth the family contention to ask her about it anymore. (She will do it for dance on Wednesdays which is just great with me - she is surprisingly agreeable about putting in a ballet bun, but THAT'S IT!)

Anyway, this morning I wanted to get a picture of the kids in their cute orange outfits, so I decided to press my luck and see if I could bribe Grace to do her hair. I asked her if I could give her something and in return get her goldilocks in a ponytail. She refused outright. I gave up quickly and decided to turn to the photo - only a few minutes left before church... She would NOT sit on the couch with her sister to have her picture taken. Again, I tried to bribe her and she yelled "I DON'T WANT TO BE BRIBED!"
I asked her if she'd rather be punished for not doing what I asked and she said yes, only that didn't work either - she didn't care about any of it.

Grace comes from a long line of stubborn folks on both sides of the family and I'm afraid the trait has concentrated itself in her and she will win if tested. Few have the stamina to beat her in a battle of stubborness.

So much for bribery. David and I can't figure it out - we'll stoop to it. A favorite story in David's family is that he gave up sucking his thumb at the age of 5 for 25 cents. Not so with the Gracers - she drives a hard bargain, which is to say that she doesn't bargain. At least she has her integrity...

I did get a couple of photos - they're not great, but you can see my little "punkins."

Happy Birthday Christine

Another item that just worked out with my business trip to Utah was to be with my sister Christine for her birthday. While technically it was on Sunday, we celebrated on Saturday with dinner at The Other Place Restaurant for some nice Greek food and then back to my parent's place for games and time in the hot tub.

Last night I was in the zone with Scrabble which Christine had wanted to play. Guise, grovel, fiends were a few of my words that led to victory. I was feeling so good that I was giving word advice to my mother who was trying to challenge me for top honors last night.
While the birthday girl didn't win, all had fun and at least she could take solace in the fact that her Cougars won and she scored some good loot with the presents.

Happy birthday Christine.

Monopoly Nights

My friend Jared has already notified the world of the fun all-night long Monopoly fests that we have on occasion when Jeff or I are in town. This trip was no different. After spending the day at BYU interviewing, I drove back up to SLC for a dinner or ribs and a night of Monopoly. Unfortunately I forgot the camera, but dinner was at the Texas Roadhouse. Jared had been talking up the ribs at this place and I love good ribs. In the end, the ribs were alright (Brookside Broiler has the best ribs in SLC), but what caught my attention were the peanuts. While waiting and around the tables they have huge buckets of peanuts free for the taking. The best part is, just toss the shells on the ground. No need to clean up after yourself. Must be some Texas tradition.

After dinner, Jared called Ian up and we were on for a few games of Monopoly. I started out strong and demolished them in quick fashion in the first game, but then Lady Luck left me and I was left to watch Jared take the crown for the night. It is that black voodoo magic curse he has over me with horseshoes, fantasy sports and apparently Monopoly. One day I will break the curse and claim my rightful spot as Monopoly King.

Go Utes!!!

While the official reason that I am currently in Utah is to recruit at BYU (don't ask me why), the real reason was to attend the TCU-Utah game. When I found out that I was going to be recruiting and the dates, I immediately looked for a Utah football game to attend. I was hoping for a nice Saturday afternoon game, but instead I was treated to a Thursday evening special thanks to tv contracts.

This was to have been a premier matchup between top teams, but with Utah getting dismantled at home by Boise State and TCU losing to BYU it had lost some luster. I was a little worried that Utah was not going to be up to the challenge, but I was treated to a great game. I took Jared with me and we had a great time. The Ute defense showed up to play and while there are still issues on offense we shut down the Horned Frogs and look like it will be a showdown for the league title with BYU in the last game of the year.

Perhaps the best part of the game on Thursday was the official lighting of the new block U on the hill. Tradition is that the U flashes when the Utes win a game. The old block U was in need of repair and $400,000 later it is in fine glory. It is now equipped with white and red LEDs so that it now flashes red & white when the Utes win. Very sweet indeed.

Let's hope that it is flashing red on November 25.

GO UTES!

R&R for the weary traveler

After 40 years of routine jet service across this great country of ours you would think that air travel would have gotten faster. I am reminded by the movie "Those Magnificent Men and Their Flying Machines" that flight really has not gotten any faster over the years. Yesterday I flew from Manchester, NH to Salt Lake City, UT. A mere 2100 miles or so via the air. It took the entire day. I left at 9:40 to go the airport to catch a flight that left at 12:05. A 2 hour flight + a 2.5 hour layover in Detroit and another 4 hour flight to SLC. So it took me 10 hours of traveling to go 2100 miles. I really shouldn't complain (think of the poor folk in the 19th century). I am just saying that I think it is ridiculous that we are still limited to ~500 mph in the air. You would think that we would have routine commercial super-sonic jets (too bad the Concorde never caught on) to take us across the country.

At least I was able to treat myself once I got to SLC. I dragged my mother with me to Sconecutter for some monster spicy fries, a turkey avocado sandwich, a cinnamon and honey-butter scone and of course some famous raspberry lemonade. With the exception of the raspberry lemonade the food wasn't particularly good, but is was nostalgic. I used to hang out there all the time in high school. It was popular with my friends because 1) it was open late, 2) it was cheap, and 3) it was never busy. I still wonder how they make money being open 24/7.
I then returned to my parent's house for a nice hour in the hot tub. That hit the spot after so many hours on the plane. Of course you can't tell I'm a New Englander now, can you? The first flight I couldn't move because I had a very squeaky seat and the second flight I not only had to deal with turbulance but someone's flatulence. Where's the gas mask when you need it!

It is fun to be here in SLC, but I have a lot of work ahead of me. This trip is mostly business with some pleasure on the side.

Good ol' Spud

I've debated whether I should make this post. But, I feel I owe it to Spud to acknowledge him today. I'm sorry if I'm giving my family one more chapter to deal with in what has been a really long and hard day for everyone. Spud found the end of his life today and is finally free from the pain and suffering he's been in for the past few years.

Spud has been our family's pet since the spring of 1995 when my mom, her friend Lolly, and Melissa and I found him running up 3300 South in front of the State Farm building where we all worked. We thought he was going to get hit by a car for sure, so we brought him inside the office. He was tired and thirsty and we gave him some water. We started to try to find his owners. He had a collar but no tags. We put up posters and left information about him at the shelters. No one came forward. He had either been lost a long time or had been abandoned. He was probably 1 or 2 years old at the time - still a puppy. He was a very nice dog, very sweet and obedient, so we decided to keep him after a few days.

Since then, he has been a member of our family. He came along at a hard time in my life. I had just gone through selling my two horses and I was having a really hard time getting over it. He hung out with me a lot in my college years. I use to take him for rides in my truck - in the cab, not the back! He was a great retriever and loved to fetch tennis balls and frisbees. Living across the street from the Cottonwood Country Club, we had an endless supply of wrongly hit tennis balls that found their way into our yard from the tennis courts there. He was a funny little dog who didn't chase cats and didn't lift his leg on anything either.

I thought of him as my dog then, although he was much loved by everyone in the family. When I got married and moved out of my parents' house, I couldn't take him with me because we were living in a tiny downtown apartment. No life for a big energetic dog there. David and I did take him on outings quite a bit though. One of our favorites with him was a kayaking trip to Rush Lake.


A year and a half after getting married, we bought our first house and couldn't wait to bring Spud there to live with us. I brought him home and he stayed a couple of days. I had no idea how attached to him my dad had become. My little sister, Melissa, was living in Richmond, VA at the time and called me on the phone after Spud had been at our house for the week-end. She said "Shell, you have to take the dog back. Dad needs him and he won't tell you." So, David and I decided to give him back to his buddy Lyle and get our own dog. This is when we rescued Velvet from the shelter.

So, my dad and Spud have been best buddies ever since. His favorite activity for many years has been sitting on the back porch with my dad when he gets home from work. Spud has always liked the "guys" in his life. I think he liked my dad and David the best although my mom has done the most to take care of him. She has seen him through lots of things including having a huge tumor removed from his belly and his developed habit of chewing his legs in his later years. She has spent many many hours bandaging him and keeping him alive for "one more week."

He's really had a great life, and has lived much longer than anyone could have expected given his health problems in the last few years. We are just glad that he came to be part of our family and that he was around for as long as he was. I'm only sorry that I couldn't be with my family in Salt Lake today, but I did get a chance to say good-bye to him last month. We hope he's catching frisbees in the sky now...