57 degrees

57 degrees was the magical number that allowed me to stop shivering. Kelly had instituted a strict moratorium on furnace use until the temperature inside our house fell below 60 degrees. Last night, on the way to bed, I walked past and it said 59. I yelled at Kelly to come look so that I could turn the furnace on, but by the time she got there my body heat must have affected it and it was back to 60. This morning we got up and the ice queen herself verified that it was indeed 57 degrees in our house. I have been enjoying the natural gas induced feelings of warmth ever since.
Fall here in Utah has been moving along quite slowly and we are having some wonderful colors. The Honey Locust trees are especially bright and way up on the mountains you can see the clumps of bright yellow aspens. We (Kelly) have enjoyed the rain for the last few days and the news is saying we may even see snow on the valley floor tomorrow. Still a little early for me, but we'll see how it turns out.

On a side note: Today in our ward, they read a letter from the First Presidency that warned about the dangers of various self-help type support groups that are claiming to be church endorsed and causing some problems. Did you guys get the same letter or was it just a Utah thing? Has anyone seen/heard of these kind of groups? I'm guessing there's a problem somewhere if we got a letter about it, but no one I talked to seemed to have anymore info or know what was going on.

It is not a party...

UNTIL SOMEONE PUTS A PUMPKIN ON THEIR HEAD!

Friday was our 4th annual pumpkin carving party in our backyard. This year we had a record attendance of over 130! The weather was perfect and the rain held off all day. We had fun visiting and socializing. Several mentioned that it is becoming a fun yearly tradition. As always, carving pumpkins with a jig-saw is always a big hit.

Brant

Shadow Box

Backyard Maple Tree
Yesterday's Project

You are probably tired of seeing pictures of our maple tree but we both love to watch the leaves change color. Right now they are fantastic.

Yesterday I finally got around to creating the shadow box that I have wanted to do to exhibit "stuff" from Mom and Dad's estate. I couldn't find a box big enough to do what I wanted to but then I decided to "think outside the box" (excuse the pun) and it turned out like I wanted. Here is a little reasoning behind my choices of things:

• Pictures inside are pretty well self explanatory - the bottom left is of him fishing as a teenager and the one in the upper right is of him on the running board of Grandpa Zirkers truck going up Indian Canyon south of Duchesne. My Zirker grandparents follow dad on the left side of the box and My Shields grandparents follow mom on the right side of the box. Mom's and Dad's pictures were taken when they were about 20+.
• There is one of Dad's dog tags in the middle.
• A Marine Corps insignia below his amphibious tank picture.
• His high school ring on the right hand side of the box.
• The name tag is from their mission to Kentucky.
• The colored shapes of the states show the states where we lived. The pieces are from a game we all enjoyed as kids.
• The two Christmas ornaments on top are some of my favorites when I was growing up.
• The black slide on the upper right is a cover that is slid in place after taking a picture using cut film in Dad's Graflex camera. I used it when I was photographer and editor of the yearbook. The picture is of Dad and Grandpa sitting on blocks of ice cut from the Duchesne River that would then be hauled to their ice cave to cool food and mild all through the summer.
• The caligraphy pen is there because Dad used to do calligraphy.
• The compass represents the time he spent as a surveyor and engineer working for the Department of the Interior as a Settlers Assistant.
• The name plate at the bottom is from his time as the FFA advisor when I was in high school.

It is still raining and raining and raining. Have a good week.