in a big jam!

today I was in my neck in apples and oranges. Dad and I did about 15 pints of apple jam. I hope it turns out. The flavor was great.! /We found the recipe for jam on Cooks.com and flew on our pants with the rest. We blended the apples first and oranges from California. then added sugar and lemon juice and spices and cooked the whole great big pots of it. It seems to have turned out good.

The bounties of this year have been good to us. We had about a bushel of peaches and about 3 bushel apples. The apples were not very wormy this year. It is nice to see our blessings come to fruition in the form of harvests. We had a ton of cherry tomatoes and a lot of zucchini and butter squash.Thanks to Dwaynes hard work and caring for the garden.

I just got new bifocals and it is hard to focus. I do like my new glasses though.
I am grateful for my many other blessings. I have a great family and ward and temple worker friends. I have a nice home and yard.( I could go on for allot of sentences, but I am new at this.)
I am grateful for a kind and loving husband.

Dwayne has been doing extracting of names on the Internet and I get to help him, rarely. But he has done 1000 names so far . I am proud of him for giving up his game on the Internet and doing this. He still passes some time playing his card game.

We pray for our family every day, especially the ones that have special needs like Jimmy and Lynn and Allison. We love them very much. We look forward to the family party Saturday. where celebrate 6 Birthdays.
Marlene

Today is Saturday and Marlene is busy planning for our annual "Big Birthday Party".
We have many birthdays in October and November that it is easier to have one birthday party of all of them. My Wife, Daughter, two Sons, Daughter-in-law, Grand Daughter and two Grand Sons all have birthdays at this time of year. We are also combining the birthday party with a early Thanksgiving Dinner as none of our children will be able to come here for our regular dinner. Marty and Melody will be in Chicago. Clay and Allison will be in California. and Bruce has to work so he and Tara will not be able to come. So Marlene and I will be taking a vacation to Laughlyn Nevada.

We are getting ready for Halloween this coming up this Wednesday. We will have Ben or Stuart at home handing out candy as we will be in the Temple on our regular shift on Wednesday night. We have a lot of good candy to give out but I have almost eaten all of the Snicker bars already.

Jimmy came to the house yesterday and we were talking about spooks and monsters for Halloween. I took our my front teeth and prentened that I was a vampire. That was a bad Idea He was really scared and would have nothing to do with Grandpa Vampire. I had to give him a package of M & M's before he would not run away from me. Sorry Jimmy

Cody got a letter from Kerns High school stating thas he has earned his High School Letter.
Which is really unusual because he is still in Jr. High School. He has been running Varsity Cross Country Team. He had bumped some of the Seniors from the team and was finished 4th for his School in the Reagional Meet.

The Indian Summer season is here today. Marlene and I went for a drive up the canyon where the fall colors are everywhere and there is some snow here and there. It is so neat to be able to live in a place where there is so much beauty all around us.

I am grateful that when God created this Earth that he loved us enough not only make a place for us to live but to make it so beautifully. This world is a wondrous gift for us from God.

We found out that Angel and Roy are caught up in the mess of the fires in California. They had to excavate their home yesterday for some time. They are now home but there is still some danger. They have some members of the ward staying with them until they can get back to their homes. There are several fires all around them so the danger can come from more than one direction. If you want more information go to Angel's blog at "thegladdens.blogspot.com".
we all all praying for them.

Sunday Reflections

Today is another Sunday. Marlene and I went to Regional Confrence via TV in our local Stake Center. It was good to hear about Moral Values and the importance that the Traditional Family is in our lives. We dearly love all of our Children and Grandchildren. I just can not understand why every one in our society can not understand the joy that can come from the love and mutial support that comes from Family.

This last week we took the long drive to California to visit and be with our Grandson Nathan as he was Baptised a member of our Church. Baptism in our church is performed as the person is old enough to understand the commitments he is making and is accountable for his actions. We spent several days with Roy and Angel Gladden, parents of three of our grandkids. Bruce and Tara Joy Glad, our newly wed kids went with us. We just spent most of the time visiting and playing board games. It was just great to get away from the TV centered culture and spend time sharing lives and playing together.

You can see why I call this blog the Glads; first because of our Surname, and Second because of the attitude we try to have in our life.

We had some minor trials as we returned home. I fell and had a muscle pull in my calf
and Marlene broke her glasses as we dropped off Bruce and Tara. So as we drove home from Ephriam, I could not put any weight on my left leg and Marlene had to wear her dark glasses. It was getting dark and Marlene could not see well with her dark glasses. So we were wondering how the blind and lame were going to make the last leg of our trip home. Marlene drove to I-15 where I took over as I could by then move my foot. We made it home safely.

We picked our apples on Saturday morning. Just in time as the first major snow storm hit saturday evening. We are having difficulty getting around in the Kitchen as we have several boxes of apples on the kitchen floor. We are hoping that Melody & Marty and Clay & Allision can use some of them. The rest will turn in to Apple Sauce with our help and will end up in our food storage down stairs.

Life is great, because we make a effort to make it that way. Be good and kind to every one