Grandpa Craig and Grandma Robyn invited us to have brunch with them last Sunday. We had a great time. It got really exciting for the boys when Santa flew in on his shiny white helicopter! You should have seen the beard on this guy, he must have been the real Santa! The un-marked aircraft was curious though…maybe he worked for the government! I took these pictures with my phone. They are a bit fuzzy, but still fun to see.
Does this actually count as a meal???
If ever you are asked “can you look at the dryer, it doesn’t seem to be getting hot”, run the other way screaming as loud as you can! I was asked that question just the other day, and remembering that we had purchased the washer/dryer set when we moved into our house 11 years ago, I thought to myself “wow, it’s about time”! Well, actually I though “Oh, @&!%”. So, Mo and I looked at a couple of of the “Black Friday” specials around town. Some of them seemed like great deals, most these new washer/dryer sets would feel more at home on the Starship Enterprise then in my laundry room. Before committing to the cost of a new dryer I thought I would take a look at the old one. I thought for sure it was the heating element because everything worked, except it would not get hot. I found some great resources online for troubleshooting, testing, and purchasing appliance parts. With printed schematics in hand I tackled the task. Long story short, I finally got the old heating element out (You have to take these *%^$ things apart in a particular order, the whole thing! Why can’t they put an access panel on the back?) tested it with my Ohm meter, and it was bad. A brand new heating element is $30 dollars online! What a deal! While I was at it I replaced the belt that turns the bin. So. for about $50, and a good cleaning, my dryer works like it was new! Makes those “Black Friday” deals look a bit scary…
We have some new hurlers in the family. Uncle Brian & Aunt Ann (Thank you so much!) sent the boys hurleys, sliotars, and a book about it all! Erik & Henry think it is so cool, and are now wondering why the Utes (University of Utah) don’t have a hurling team. For those of you not familiar with hurling, HERE is a link to explain it all. In a nutshell, it is an ancient Gaelic game that is like a mixture of soccer, field hockey, ice hockey, and boxing played at 100 m.p.h. with no pads! I included boxing because Uncle Terry taught me from when I was young that there are always two matches during a football (soccer) match, the actual football match & the boxing match that coincides with it!
Because of recent world economic happenings many of us have re-considered & adjusted our Christmas budgets and activities…
I like this guys approach (the house on the right)!!!
Grammy (May) and Grand-dad (Tom) took the boys to a model train show at the Utah state fair grounds for Henry’s birthday. Henry was so excited I thought he was going to split in two! There were so many trains, I could see the conflict in Henry’s mind of which ones to look at first. Over stimulation! It was so much fun, we had a great time! All the trains at the show were very detailed models, and very expensive. But Henry really needed to add to his train collection. So, on the way home we stopped at Toys’R’Us and Henry purchased a new train with the birthday bucks Grammy gave him. He held the box in his lap the whole way home, and good not wait to set it up.
I love fall! I love the cooling temperatures and the anticipation of the first big snow. I love the sights and smells of fall. Most of all I love the rake, jump, repeat tradition!
The view from my living room window, looking in between two of my six giant maple trees is quite breathtaking. We are so lucky to live in and around such geological wonders! Here is a great photo of Lone Peak & the rising moon.
11,253 feet (3,429.9 meters)
40°31′36″N 111°45′19″W
Henry is turning five! He is such a great kid, and as we have all experienced, has great comedic timing! We cherish our moments with our H-dog. Here are some memorable Henry photos. Moments after the ‘what are looking at’ photo in the tub, Henry burst into song singing The Wild Rover! What a ham…
The Janke’s had a great Halloween! The boys made good use of their costumes attending school parties, friends parties, family parties, trunk-or-treat at the church, and terrifying the neighborhood on Halloween. I had a big scare on Halloween, I thought the Utes were going to lose to Wyoming! Ugh! But, in typical Utes fashion, they re-grouped in the second half and pulled out a win. We visited the pumpkin patch Saturday morning, and spent the afternoon carving pumpkins and working out our strategy for the most optimal trick-or-treating route. Even Bugsy the guinea pig helped out. Henry was a perfect pirate this year, the scurvy dog! Erik was the stealthy Snake Eyes, continuing his tradition of wanting to be a deadly efficient human weapon (Jedi Knights, Ninjas, etc). We hope your Halloween was as terrifyingly fantastic as ours.
