Sam's primary talk

Last Sunday Sam gave a talk in Primary on "temporal blessings." Dan and Sam sat down together to come up with it. Dan typed it up. Sam got up and read it all by himself on Sunday. We are so proud of him! Here's the talk:

I am thankful for temporal blessings. Temporal blessings are blessing that God gives us on earth.

I am thankful for the trees because they give us shade.

I am thankful for the grass because it's fun to play on.

I am thankful for the sun because it gives us light.

I am thankful for my body because it can do many things.

I am thankful for my house because it keeps us dry in the rain.

I am thankful for toys because they are fun to play with.

Heavenly Father has given us all of these things because he loves us. We can say thank you for our blessings in our prayers.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Dan's Movie Corner

I've seen some pretty horrible movies in my day, including "Pacific Rim," which we Redboxed last night. Let's just say that if I were to stumble upon a time-traveling phone booth or sports car, my first order of business would be to go back to the morning of November 16, 2013, and warn myself not to waste that $1.50 and 2.25 hours of my life. Every copy of Pacific Rim deserves to be sucked through a wormhole into another dimension and blown up with a nuclear bomb. Oops, I just gave away the ending. Now you hopefully won't be tempted to watch it. You can thank me in the comments.

Baby cheetahs

I had a lot I wanted to say last week. Then our internet got cut accidentally by our sweet 82-year-old neighbor while he was helping Dan plant one of eight trees that we got on major clearance. So I forgot most of what I wanted to share last week. As you can see, our internet was fixed (4 days later).

Here's what we've been up to around the Durst house:

The knobs in the two upstairs bathrooms are brass.

As you know, we're midway through the switch to oil-rubbed bronze. I decided that a quick fix was in order. I took off all the knobs and inserted them into a cardboard box for easy spray painting.

After a few coats and drying time, I put them back on. I think they look much better. A small thing, but easy, too. I didn't do all the prep I should have, so they chip easily, but we'll probably change them completely at some point.

As I mentioned above, we got eight more trees each for $12 or less (many of them only $5) at Lowe's and Home Depot. We bought a cherry tree (no fruit, just flowering), two peach trees, two maples, one pin oak and one redbud. The deer have found our trees and eaten most of the leaves/branches so they aren't doing too hot. Stinking deer.

We also planted some pumpkin seeds.

Afton and I were kind of matching last week for church.

 Like Sam's topless photobomb? His molluscum is looking way better these days.

We started our second annual thankful tree. I'll take another picture of it at the end of the month. Each of us writes something we're thankful for every night at dinner.

Afton's typical response to "What are you thankful for?" is "Rainbows." We've tried to get her to branch out so now she picks a different animal every night. Today it was "Zebras." Sam does a great job of finding things he's grateful for. Tonight he wrote "My body."

I bought a smart phone. Can  you believe it? Me neither. I'm trying not to let it take over my life.

Yesterday Dan ran a half marathon. Poor guy came down with a cold the day before, but he still did awesome. I was hoping to meet him at a certain spot (mile 11) but due to road closures, we picked a different spot. We waited for a while so I was afraid that we had missed him. Here are the kids with their sign. "Go Dad Go."

It was raining.

After standing there for about 15 minutes, we saw him!

He wears those weird toe shoes when he runs. He did GREAT and finished just under 1:50:00. I was so happy that we hadn't missed him. Turns out his group started a few minutes late.

The kids often spend their time pretending to be different animals. Tonight they're cheetahs.

Dan and I rented a terrible redbox based on viewers ratings (4/5 stars). WHAT? Pacific Rim. Dan has a formal review coming.

Various and Sundry

Last weekend we went to Busch Gardens for one last hurrah. It was fun. Afton fell and scraped her head. (that part wasn't fun.)

Afton likes to sleep with a bunch of stuff in her bed. She found a Thanksgiving statue in our decoration box that I had spraypainted gold for a 5k that never happened. She now refers to this statue as "my girl" and cuddles her for naps.

I made a bundt cake for a relief society activity. I call it "Ms. Havisham's Cake". Any Great Expectations fans out there???

We carved pumpkins. Dan had Sam draw what he wanted his pumpkin to look like so that Dan could cut it out.

Our ward trunk or treat was on a Tuesday. The same Tuesday that Dan had a ticket to see Pearl Jam in Charlottesville. He had a great time and said it was "face meltingly awesome." I'm glad he had so much fun. We had a nice time, too, but I missed my Frankenstein.

Sometimes Afton is just too photogenic, huh?

Halloween night:

Our neighborhood is mostly old people which is good and bad at Halloween. Bad because most of them turn out their lights and don't give out candy. (Since there aren't many little kids here.) Good because those who do give out candy, give out giant handfuls. Our sweet neighbors prepared special candy bags specifically for Sam and Afton and another neighbor had gotten them each a Halloween box shaped like a house and filled with candy. They are so kind. Yesterday one brought over some flowers from her yard.

I found a cute fabric remnant on sale and used it to make a pillow cover for our nasty pillows we've had for almost 10 years. The old covers aren't removable. I need to find fabric to do the other one.

Dan's progress on the wall:

Dan found out on Halloween that he passed the Virginia bar. YAY!!!

I met up with Sam's class at a farm. I wasn't an official chaperone so it was great to hang out for a while and then leave. There were tons of parents there.

 Sam and his friend Evan.

Yesterday while Dan was taking the MPRE (an ethics test that is also required to be a licensed VA lawyer), I took the kids to the James River. So pretty this time of year.