First semi-cold day of the new season.  The wind is cool and it is howling.  I love the fall season.  It really is, and always has been my favorite.  The deer hunt was kinda the big highlight of the year.  My mom would bake, and my dad would hunt.  I just love it.  Down here in the extreme heat, the weather is so nice and the kids love playing outside.  The long days, turn shorter ones with more family togetherness.  Ryan hates that aspect...he dislikes the short days, but I kinda like them.  That is because I have a tendency to be a bit lazy.  I love the long evenings.
     So, much has happened.  Jamie is currently waiting on a mission call.  Yes...any day now.  The calls are submitted and received online now.  Cache is also waiting on his call.  They will both go, and I am not going to lie because I have not had a kid leave the house yet.  I am not even allowing myself to dwell on it or think about it.  My Jamie...not daily in my world and by my side.  I might cry thinking about it now.  I am excited for her, but for me...I am just sad.  I do not forsee myself as a happy empty-nester.  I will miss her every second.  Cache too.  He has become a huge part of the family.  I do not know what the future holds for them both, but I would be way happy if they end up together.  He takes good care of her.
     Sage is busy as all get out.  She is on the seminary council, on the volleyball team, the FFA president, on the yearbook commitee, she is the ward family history consultant, and has been dating a young man, Marlan Felshaw pretty frequently.  Last night was her homecoming date, and she looked beautiful.  She went with Chance Thornton.  She said she had a great time.  We don't see Sage enough.  I love that girl.
     Jerusha is on the drill team, and social as all get out.  She is a busy freshman, with a busy homework and school schedule.  She went to Homecoming too with a group of her friends.  A friend's mother rented them a limo and got a bunch of pictures.  I am looking forward to getting them.  Anyhow, drill team has been a challenge and keeps her very busy.
     Jasmine is also on the drill team and she babysits for me a lot.  She is still happy and helpful Jazz, and I am so grateful for all that she does.  She often cooks dinner, and takes care of kids.  Clean up, not so much, but I am way happy with that girl.
     Oak is playing football.  That is keeping him busy.  He is already quite interested in girls.  He has many friends and is doing better and better on his team.  We are down to playoff games, and  the older girls are bugging me to put him in wrestling.  I am just not sure I can do that.  Watching them compete stresses me to the max.  Oak is kinda hard on some of his siblings, but still dotes on Dill.
     Chloee is starting to limp around on her foot.  We had a scare a few weeks ago when it got infected.  It was really bad, and she had to go through some major pain and antibiotics before we got things cleared back up again.  She still has a little healing to do, and I am just so grateful that Dr Delcore saved her foot.
     Moroni is a good student, but we are struggling to get the little guy to control his emotions, and help out more.  He and Chloee are still inseparable and  they are pretty good to keep themselves entertained with their imaginations.
     Dill is also in love with Cache.  She thinks that he comes here to see her.  They do take her as their chaperone quite a bit.  She has had some good experiences at the Burnside arena riding horses.  She is still sassy and smart.  I love that little girl.  She is my little sidekick and is so much fun.
     Ryan is still running for Governor and we are so tired of politics.  It is important that he do this, and yet he has been extremely busy.  It is difficult to juggle it all.  He is on the radio two or three times a day, traveling around, and just going full throttle 24/7.
     After the brief update.  I would like to just jump in with a few of our recent days.  Yesterday, Cliven helped us put on a fundraiser for Ryan in Logandale.  It was held at the old high school and grounds there, and it went really well.  The old school has been turned into a museum and there were some really creepy manequins in sailor suits in that place.  Yeah....another reason I love this time of year...I kinda love the creepiness of fall.  It is part of the coziness.  Anyhow, the kids played and threw the football around.  Dill found a little cowboy her age and was playing quite nicely with him.  I mentioned that it might be nice if she liked that little boy, implying that she could perhaps let Jamie have Cache to herself.  Anyhow, she made it clear that the boy needs to be bigger and older, so she wasn't buying that idea.  Some of us left early so that we could see Sage off on her homecoming date.  She looked beautiful and I am grateful that I was able to snap a few pictures.
     Today we had shrsh.  Ryan and I just got reassigned to teach the 15-18 yr olds.  I am really excited about this new assignment.  The kids this age are interactive and more attentive.  I loved my class though, and I miss those kids already.  So, it is new and exciting.  Also..the changes announced at General Conference means that we will only have to teach twice a month.  I really felt the spirit last week as I watched Conference.  I know President Nelson and this church is true and the direction that I need in my world.
     Ok, so Moroni woke up and just did not want to go to church today.  He claimed over and over that he did not need to go, and that he would be just fine at home alone.  I made it very clear that we were all going, and that he was included in that.  He kept whining, but he finally did go in and get ready in his white shirt, and too small of pants that he insists on wearing.  Dill also drug her heals and finally got ready at the last second.  We show up just a few minutes early and sit down.  I looked down the row and notice that Jazz and Oak are missing.  I sat there and tried to be certain that they had indeed made it into the van and I knew that they had.  So...where the heck were they.  After a few announcements made by one of the counselors, I got up to locate them.  They had made the decision to sit on the couch.  I told them that they were going to come in and sit with us.  They opposed that idea, but reluctantly followed me.  When we returned, they were just about ready to start the sacrament, and immediately they start dinging around and goofing off.  Moroni and Dill were quietly playing with some stuffed animals, and everyone else was being nice and reverent.
    After the sacrament is where I started having trouble with Moroni.  He needed a drink.  I knew that he had just had a drink and so I told him to be quiet and listen.  That kid does not, nor does ever just obey.  So, naturally he turned the whine on, and just started to hound.  I finally took him out and let him have one.  When we returned there were many scuffles and whines over Oak, doing whatever it was he was doing to bother and irritate, and stuffed animals, which seemed to cause more trouble than anything.  Jazz would not stop dinking around, and I finally had to split she and Oak up.  Moroni got so bad that I finally sent him to sit by his Dad.  The last horrifying thing that happened, was that one of my kids, placed a crusty gummy fruit, from the bottom of the diaper bag, on the arm of the gentleman sitting in front of us.  I was so completely taken aback by this situation that I could not even stammer out a proper apology.  The whole meeting had been such a complete fiasco, that all I could do was laugh.  Luckily, he found it funny too, and gave the kids a hard time over it.  I am glad that at least they didn't target someone without a sense of humor. When I went to clean up, I finally realized that most of the problems had been caused by the fact that we had about twenty stuffed animals, along with various books, and knick knacks.  I have no idea how they were able to sneak all of that stuff in.
     I am grateful for my Sundays.  Tomorrow is another day filled with a million activities and directions.