Halloween is here, if you didn't know

Last night I had the opportunity to attend a Halloween dance with some special needs that I used to work with. I had so much fun. It was so therapeutic for me. So many questions were fired at me. The most popular was:

"Are you coming back? We missed you."

It broke my hart to say:

"No, I am only visiting."

I was so happy that Russel Hastings remembered my name. It only took him almost a year to put my name and my face together. Note: Russel Hastings is part of the special needs group that he belongs to.

This is Russel Hastings!

It was so much fun, I have so much more photos. We danced, we laughed, we had a live band, and learned new country dances. It was so much fun watching special needs learn something new.

Now because it is Halloween
I have decided to carve this pumpkin. Happy Halloween!!! Stay safe.

Check out this Chili Recipe

First of all I was signed up to do a Chili recipe for my wards social next week. So I have found a chili recipe that called for chocolate. Yes, you have read that right, chocolate. It's good, I think I am getting better of this whole cooking thing. Here it is.

1 pound of ground beef/ground chuck
1 large onion chopped
2 cloves of garlic minced
1 32 oz of stewed tomatoes
1 29 oz of dark red kidney beans
1 46 Fl oz of spicy hot V8 vegetable juice
2 t. salt
1 t. pepper
1 1/4 t. ground cumin
1/4 t. ground Cayenne pepper
2 t. ground cinnamon
2 sq. semi-sweet baking chocolate

You can use a large Dutch Oven, but I have used a slow cooker
Brown ground chuck/beef, drain. Add onion & Garlic & saute till golden. Drain and rinse the Kidney beans, for thick chili add 2 cans of kidney beans. Add remaining ingredients and simmer on low, uncovered, for at least one hour, or until ready to serve. Best when after you let it set for 24 hours in the fridge
Sprinkle each portion with cheddar cheese if desired. Serves 8

Gardner Village

These are only a small sample of what is at Gardner Village in UT. These are so supper cute.

The one up above is so Margaret Hamilton.
She just needs her monkeys.

Student driver

She is fishing with dynamite, that is the only

way to fish.

The sign says "Baseball Tryouts today"

Christians and Pumpkins

This is a new analogy; Christians are like Pumpkins. I have found this in my email. I have heard that we are all in Noah's boat. This one was new to me, but I like the photo. So here is the analogy:

Being a Christian is like being a pumpkin. God lifts you up, takes you in, and washes all the dirt off of you. He opens you up, touches you deep inside and scoops out all the yucky stuff-- including the seeds of doubt, hate, greed, etc. Then He carves you a new smiling face and puts His light inside you to shine for all the world to see. Happy Fall!

Cheers Everyone!