My Simple Gifts:
Joe - best friend and calm to my turbulent storm
My Children - teachers of humility, sacrifice, and love
My Moms - joy and sunshine, laughter and tears, best girls-get-away makers
My Dads - priesthood blessings and unconditional love
My Brothers and Sisters - examples and eternal friends
The gospel of Jesus Christ - peace, refuge and the knowledge of eternal families
Music - beauty
Friends and neighbors - strength and belonging
Visiting Teachers - comfort and lesson on Simplicity:
"We can’t predict all the struggles and storms in life, not even the ones just around the next corner, but as persons of faith and hope, we know beyond the shadow of any doubt that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true and the best is yet to come," ("Let Him Do It with Simplicity," Elder L. Tom Perry).
Happy Thanksgiving!
Jared really did end up a Grim Weeper for Halloween after all. His mask kept slipping and he couldn't keep up with his friends trick-or-treating, so he ended up at home in tears for a bit before going out again with his brother and sister. Rachel complained about her hat, saying it was too itchy (I wonder if she has eczema again), and almost didn't make it out trick-or-treating at all. She cheered up though when she finally got candy. Brock loved it and shouted Trick or Treat as loudly as he could at each house. The kids partied at a city Halloween Carnival the night before and loved it, so I suppose Halloween was a semi-success.
We went to St. George earlier this month to visit Gran and Grandpa Saurey and cheer for our friend Landon as he ran the St. George Marathon. Landon did great – despite the rain! The rain poured down the entire race. I ascribe it to luck: it’s only rained twice in the Marathon’s 30 year history. The last time it rained? 25 years ago. 
I asked the children what they want to be for Halloween. Jared said, "I want to be the Grim Weeper."
We looked at costumes the other day and Brock said, "Look, the Grim Sweeper," and Rachel said, "No, it's the Grim Weeper."
Joe says, "We weep what we sow."
I say: That's the grim truth.
Joe asked Rachel about her day. Rachel said she told a boy at school, "I have a crush on you."
Joe asked, "Why did you do that?"
Rachel replied: "Because he's sooooo handsome."
She and a friend chase him at school, but he doesn't like them to chase him. Why? Girls have cooties.
Joe took me to see Wicked on Broadway in New York! He surprised me for my birthday and also, he said, to celebrate our tenth anniversary. I know, I don’t deserve it, or Joe, but I love him, and I did love seeing Wicked – it’s, well, fabulous! 
Some may describe New York as a melting pot; and, if that's the case, Joe says the melting pot of New York reaches its boiling point at Times Square. I read an estimated 1.7 million people pass through Times Square daily. Last weekend, we became part of that statistic. 
Brock wears glasses now, even though he wishes he didn’t. Brock told Joe: “Jack Sparrow doesn’t wear glasses.” The kids told him he looks like Harry Potter. I think he almost likes Harry Potter again. 
Joe and I took the kids for a vision check, a year ago, before school started. I thought Brock young at age 2 for a vision test, but the eye doctor said no, he’s not too young, and she tested him. It turns out Jared and Rachel got Joe’s excellent vision; Brock got mine, but worse. He’s farsighted (like me) with astigmatism (like me) and lazy eye (like me). And now, a year later, because his eyes didn’t improve enough on their own, Brock got a new look – wearing glasses. The eye doctor hopes if he wears his glasses and strengthens his eyes now, he won’t need to wear an eye patch later.
At first, Brock loved his new look. Then, after one hour, he wanted to give his glasses away. I put them back on every time he took them off, and forty tries later, he realized he couldn’t get rid of them that way, so he tried taking them off and throwing them across the room. Finally he resorted to hiding them: I found them, in the past couple weeks, under the couch cushion, under Rachel’s bed and in Jared’s closet. Today I had his scratched lenses replaced (after two weeks of abuse).
I’m glad Brock’s vision will improve, even if he has to wear glasses to do it. I just hope Brock doesn’t ever need to wear an eye patch, even if he does look more like a pirate, he’d probably tell me, “Harry Potter doesn’t wear an eye patch, he wears glasses.”
I’m allergic to cats. Joe’s allergic to cats. Three neighbor girls brought a cute little orange and black-striped, not-quite-a-kitten-anymore, cat to my house to see if we wanted it. I took it, and we kept it, until we got rid of it when we found out Jared is also allergic to cats.
Joe and I celebrated our tenth anniversary this year and Joe turned 34 on Monday. Happy Birthday! I put together a slide show highlighting some favorite memories to celebrate both occasions! (If you click on View All Images it will take you to a site where you can click on gallery view which makes the pictures bigger and the slideshow faster - at least it should.)
We went up to Rexburg for the Saurey Family Reunion last weekend. We loved seeing our family and enjoyed canoeing down the Snake River;
tummy-tickling, I’m-up-higher-than-it-looked-from-below bridge jumping (according to Joe’s mom, 50 years old is about the right age to stop jumping, so I’ve got 20 good years left to enjoy it); roasting hot dogs on a sand bar and torpedoing into the water (you’ll see what I mean in the video below); and all of this in just the first day.
We also got to have a big sleepover with almost the whole family at Arlene’s house (our family slept on the trampoline) before boating, tubing and water skiing at Gem Lake. And then, of course, we ate a lot of delicious food. I can’t describe a Saurey reunion without describing some of the food: Dutch oven chicken (lemon and teriyaki) and potatoes at Pat and Brent’s, a deluxe breakfast of pancakes, sausages and eggs at Arlene’s, and yummy hoagies from Joe’s mom and Holly. We had a great time eating, playing hard and seeing everyone!
We enjoyed seeing our family at the Jewkes Family Reunion held at Heber Valley Camp: We climbed up, swung on, and went through ropes at a challenge course; paddled boats; watched the kid’s jump rope; celebrated two upcoming marriages with a girl’s night/surprise shower; listened to touching and funny family stories; and had a great FHE. We loved it!
For our first ropes challenge, Jared tree-climbed 30 feet
The other day Rachel answered the phone for me so I could finish reading a story to Brock. I listened to her answer the phone and heard her squeal: “Jake,” as she ran up the steps to her bedroom. I couldn’t believe we got a call from Joe’s brother Jake in Iraq. I figured Rachel would soon bring the phone to me so I didn’t mind her taking a minute to talk to her Uncle and brag about how Brock had on his “Big Boy Underpants.” She soon brought the phone to me and I felt puzzled when she told me Jake would call Dad at work and that he’d hung up without saying hello to me.
Joe called me a few minutes later to tell me he just got an interesting phone call. Jake from Jake’s Automotive, the place we took our car to be checked out, had just called to let Joe know what work needed to be done on our car. Jake also mentioned that he called our house and spoke to our daughter before telling Joe, “You must know someone special named Jake. I think your daughter really loves him. Congratulations on those Big Boy Underpants.”
