il Giorno di Ringraziamento

We had a great turkey day. As always, Lisa did a fabulous job of documenting the occasion. We had family come (it's great to have family within driving distance) and got to enjoy a good weekend of eating and relaxing. I think that is almost the perfect combination, food and relaxation. While everyone was taking it easy, I got to sneak away and fish in the rain on Irondequoit Creek, it was great. Here and here are some of the great recipes we tried this round of bird eating. Hope you all had a good one.

La pazienza è la virtù dei forti

Now that we have done everything we can for foster care, it's out of our hands. I find myself struggling with this. There is nothing for me to do, so it has become a game of waiting. I sat staring at my cell phone today for a good 20 minutes, willing it to ring. It didn't work. I am in dire need of patience. Let me know if you find any.

avanti . . . sempre avanti

It seems that in spite of my best efforts, life continues to go forward. We have been fairly busy with work and church and getting ready for certification the last few weeks. We finally had our last home study done on the best day of all, this last Friday the 13th. Good thing neither of us suffer from triskaidekaphobia. Here is the nursery.



We had our annual service auction in the branch on Saturday. Food was eaten, fun was had. In that food and fun debauchery, we also managed to provide enough food for at least 15 families this coming Thanksgiving. I managed to score a photo shoot from a friend, Scott Kipphut (check out his Facebook site), and donated a five course Italian feast to be cooked by yours truly. The great part is that I would have cooked it anyway, and now I get to do it with friends.

Lisa has quite a bit going on with the stake young women. With super Saturdays, young women in excellence and other things, I sometimes get to see her, if I go to young women's activities. Life goes on. It is good. Even though it seems as if our life tends towards the non-stop cool and not-so-cool action, we have fun. What can I say. As fall fades slowly and gradually into winter, here are my words of wisdom for the day. Don't eat yellow snow.

The Happening

Don't let the title fool you, the trees have not staged a full-scale revolt in the Rochester area by releasing harmful toxins into the air and overriding man's natural survival instinct. Sorry for the spoiler. The trees actually have been changing, however in a more benign fashion.

A little over a week ago, Lisa and I voyaged through the beautiful, bucolic setting of western New York and eastern Pennsylvania on our way to the big city. The leaves were pretty, like this one, except that there were lots of them.


While we were in the city, we were able to engage in two of our favorite activities. Lisa got to shop and I got to eat. We are quite the team. We also met up for the day with Paige Hobby, Kimball's wife, who was visiting her family in western Canada (I'm a little vague on exactly where, so I'll say Calgary) and some cousins in NYC. We laughed a lot. Made fun of Kimball a lot, and wished that he was there to hear us making fun of him.

I'm the big bald one in the middle.

I've reached the tipping point of more hair on my face than on my head. I wonder if there's a support group for that? I like this group's motto, "If you can see skin, you're in!" I digress. I think we walked about 30 miles in one day, and it was on Dan speed (that was Kimball's cousin's husband, who was gracious enough to act as tour guide all over the city, wearing his hardcore Vibram shoes, that propelled him at slightly less than race car speed down the sidewalks) but that was good, because it helped burn off the 10,000 calories that I consumed during the day. Fun times were had by all, as we cruised through central park, Washington Square Park and too many stores to name. Thanks Paige for traveling more than 10,000 miles to see us. Wow. I used 10,000 twice (now three times) in a couple of lines. One was hyperbole, the other was me being a dork to look up how far it was from Sydney to Calgary to NYC. I make my wife proud.

In other news, Wyoming is 4-3. I think they'll knock off either Utah, BYU, or TCU. Here's to hoping it's BYU. That is all.

A Packer Conference Weekend

Lisa and I had been looking forward to this past weekend for quite a while. I used to love conference weekend just for conference, but now I love it because it also means a weekend off from our typical Sunday duties. It's like a vacation from church, but without missing church. We should have conference more often. That's what I say.

On Saturday we were driving around in the pastoral (that one is for you Kimball) Finger Lakes area of western New York enjoying the brilliant blue sky and the beginning of changing leaves. The very definition of relaxation. It wasn't until we got home that Lisa put the weekend (at least up until that point) in perspective.

You see, we had gone dancing the night before at a country western bar with some friends, because we knew one of the members of the band and wanted to go and support. On Saturday as we traveled along the scenic Seneca Lake, one of my motives was to visit a few of the many wineries on the lake. This one is our favorite. We've gone there the last couple of years to get some of the best grape juice (and yes I do mean grape juice and not "grape juice") that I've ever had. While on this scenic tour, we also got some pumpkins, homemade candies, cheese curds, fabric for some quilting projects and some wine.

After our adventurous day, Lisa made the comment that I had treated her to a first-rate conference weekend so far. On Friday we went dancing at a bar and Saturday we spent part of the day at wineries and bought some wine. What a great way to prepare for spiritual feasting. When put that way, I think it paints a not so flattering picture of me and what I put my wife through, although to be honest she was a willing participant. Truth be told, if given the chance to redeem myself, I'd probably do it all over again.

And just so you don't think too many bad thoughts about me, I did buy the wine solely for cooking.

I promise.

My Life

We bought a crib. It is already set up. We have no idea if/when we will ever obtain some type of offspring to put in said crib. My hopes however, are high.

It was a good weekend of sunny-ness and being outside and BBQing. We served in the temple Saturday morning and then served as chef and chef-ess at some friends' laid-back reception. We cook a mean hamburger and hotdog. Sunday was equally as beautiful. Leaves starting to change. Bright blue sky. Church meetings at the Hill Cumorah. Then even more BBQ goodness. White hots. Yum.

Naps were taken, relaxation occurred. Life is good.

What I did this summer

Lisa has been giving me grief for not writing anything for a couple of months, and my excuse has been that it's summer, I'm busy doing things that I will then be able to write about for the rest of the year. So, to back that up, and in honor of kids everywhere returning to school and reporting on what they did for the summer, here goes.

We worked over the kitchen, see Lisa's post here, because I'm too lazy to write one myself. We refinished cabinets, fixed some walls, moved appliances, painted, put up wallpaper, refinished light fixtures, put in a new light fixture and replaced old blinds. It ended up looking good, and was more work than I thought it would be.

We went to Cape Cod, but you already knew that, because that is the one thing that I did post about. It was fun.

We went camping with 20 teenage girls in the Adirondacks and called it Young Women's High Adventure/Drama. I have learned that if you put that many teenage girls together for a long enough time period, drama is a natural consequence. It's kind of like when you mix two hydrogens with one oxygen, you get water. Maybe I could write an equation representing this phenomena and patent it. Again, because I'm too lazy, here is Lisa's version of the events, with lots of nice pictures. It was a fun time, I got to fish and be outside in the mountains (hills) of the Adirondacks. The day we went on our long hike (10 miles) our big group splintered into three smaller groups of slow, medium and fast paced. Lisa stuck with the slow group, not because she is slow, but to encourage and push them on. I went with fast group, which consisted of three girls who were all runners. They wanted to run. The whole way. Up the the mountain. I made it to the top with them, but I could hardly walk the next day, and it took me a good week to be back to normal. What happened to the days of playing basketball for five hours and getting up the next day and doing it again?!

We made a quick trip to Utah for my grandma's memorial service. It was good to be able to see lots of family, especially on my dad's side, that I hadn't seen in 15 years, and some for even longer. It was a nice, simple service. I also got to meet and try and intimidate Katie's boyfriend Jameson. I know what you're thinking. Very intimidating. It looks like he will be a permanent addition to the family, so I was mostly nice. We had a lot of fun with my whole family together, which doesn't happen too often as we are all spread out pretty good. I also discovered on this trip why red eye flights are cheaper. They're awful. We left SLC at 1am going to Atlanta. Airlines already pack you in like sardines, and I'm not the smallest sardine in the can, so trying to catch a few minutes sleep was no small accomplishment. We finally got back to Rochester about noon and promptly crashed for the next six hours. Red eye flights = yuck. Again, look at Lisa's post.

We started the mandatory training courses (30 hours) to become foster/adoptive parents in New York State. It has been an interesting journey, leading up to the point of even starting this process, and then in the classes as well. The classes have generated lots of good fodder for many discussions in the Packer home as we work through wanting children, not being able to have any right now, and how we are going about trying to rectify that. We should be certified by the end of this month, so there are possible big changes coming to our home.

I've read lots of books this summer, gone on walks with my wife, tied flies for the upcoming fall fishing season, gone to baseball games, and spent a lot of time at work and at church, or church related functions. We've had a lot of BBQ, planted some new flowers and tried to get the grass to grow better under the maple trees. I'm open to suggestions on that last one.

It has been a satisfying summer, although I must admit that I can't believe that it is already gone. But that's OK, because the greatest season is now upon us. College Football Season (also known by many as fall). Besides football, I'm also excited for fall leaves/scenery/food. It's going to be a really busy fall for us, with a plethora of church activities awaiting, but we are looking forward to a trip to NYC the third weekend of October, and then maybe some family visiting for Thanksgiving, before we head back to the land of promise for the holidays. Lest there be any confusion as to where the land of promise is (although I'm not sure how anyone could mix this up), it's Wyoming.