Odds & Ends

I'm sorry this post is so delayed! Life has been slightly crazy lately. Two weeks ago Michael when on an overnight job in Sun Valley. He had an interesting experience: They were working on the heating system in the house of a Mr. Steve Wynn, who owns a few of the biggest casinos in Las Vegas as well as one in China or something. So it was a $300+ million house, and it housed one of the original self-portraits by Picasso. (We looked up Forbes' 400 richest people in America and apparently Mr. Wynn falls within the top 200 if I remember right.) Michael said they told him that when Mr. Wynn is actually staying in this vacation home the gas bill is $40,000 a month. Can you imagine???? That's quite a bit more than Michael and I make in a year! I guess at another job site Michael found a computer in a garbage can. It had a monitor with it as well. He's been working on removing the 40+ viruses he found on it so that eventually it can become our printer server in our apartment, as well as just another toy that he can play with.
Last Friday Michael then spent with the youth group of our church for their all night Halloween party. When he came home, he was sore all over. Apparently he slipped on the gym floor doing a relay type race and landed on his lower back and rear end. Then later the group went to the ice rink in Boise and played broom ball, which is like hockey without skates and you use brooms to whack the ball. I guess at one point he fell and whacked his elbow on the ice. and one of the teens accidently smacked him in the ear with a broom stick. He came home unable to lay on his left side and with a nasty sore cut on his ear. He came home to a very sick wife, who was not very high-functioning either! And to make it even better, my brother came to visit that weekend so of course all homework was forsaken!

I wanted to share some pics that Forest and I took of some of the signs of autumn here in Nampa. The rest of the year, Nampa is really not much to look at, but fall brings out its hidden beauty. Just driving to work this time of year is so breath-taking for me! In Lebanon there aren't many trees that are able to hold more than one color at a time, but here all of the trees seem to be like rainbows! For our 3-month anniversary, Michael and I took an hour and a half drive up north of Boise and I got to see a green part of Idaho for the first time. Mostly pine trees, but so many so close together and all along the Payette River, which was so refreshing to just watch and listen to. It reminded me of the drive to the cabin we stayed in for our honeymoon in Washington (with pine trees instead of firs). It was such a relief to realize for the first time that Idaho is actually beautiful!

After a crazy work week where I spent WAY too many hours this week, I may finally be getting fully well. Work has been CRAZY as the colder months are coming and so many more people are asking for services at the shelter.

Today's project for us was a trip to Home Depot where we purchased some plywood to put in between our box spring and the mattress on our bed. The full size bed is already pretty small, but lately it's been pulling us down into the center, making the bed feel even smaller! I took a nap on the "corrected" mattress today and it seemed to be much better. :)

I hope you all are doing well! Only 2-3 more weeks until Thanksgiving! I've been trying to make sure I'm thankful early this year. :)