Catina's Farewell... and .... pumpkins...?

Today was Catina's last Sunday in California, and she gave her farewell talk in church. She's been called to serve a mission in Spain --and we are so excited for her... but I'll miss her so much. It just hit me so hard... she was almost my daughter-in-law... and now she's leaving.

She and my son were two peas in a pod: always together (for almost 2 years!) (This photo is from last summer.)

It's hard being a mom, accepting and growing to love the possible future spouses your children bring home... only to have them break up and move on. Sometimes you don't want to invest your heart in the next person (like my son's recent new interest... who's so the opposite of Catina I just can't get used to the idea--or want to yet).

Hmmm.... Moving along to something more light-hearted (but still in a serious vein). The speaker before Catina shared the story of the husband and wife who moved into a new apartment. The wife would always look out the window and comment on the neighbor's laundry hanging out on the line--it was still dirty! Didn't the woman know how to wash clothes?? Each time the wife saw the laundry hanging up it was dirty, and she would wonder when someone would teach the woman how to do laundry!
One morning she got up and looked outside: the laundry was clean! When she exclaimed to her husband that someone had finally taught the woman how to wash clothes properly,
the husband said that HE had gotten up early and...
washed the windows.
(I didn't see that coming--I was sure it was a lesson on helping your neighbor)

A couple of other odd things to finish out the day:

The cat jumped on top of the case that covered my gingerbread house and it crashed down and in onto my house. (My mom had made the acrylic case to protect my gingerbread houses thru the years from the cat(s) and cat hairs.
Instead of putting the case back together,
I took it as a sign to... finally....
break up my house and throw it away
(I usually allow people to 'pick' on it by Christmas day--but we enjoyed having it as a centerpiece on the table in the patio this year). What a lot of frosting--hard as cement-- and gingerbread to break up into trash-sized pieces.

Also, my youngest daughter finally fulfilled her vow to...

CARVE THE PUMPKIN

-- the pumpkin that's lasted since before Halloween (!)

and that mom keeps threatening to throw out..

She and her boyfriend and a friend from church each carved a side, and Zack even roasted the pumpkin seeds--which turned out yummy!