Sunshine - Snow - Rain - Sunshine

This week the weatherman had his work cut out for him this week in the DC area.  We had everything in weather from beautiful sunny days in the 70's to rain and then on Saturday we had snow.. Where we live we didn't get a lot, but wow was it cold.  This morning the windows of my car were covered in a sheet of ice.. coming from Arizona, I didn't have a scraper in my car, so I took a pancake spatula to task and made quick work of ice removal.

      On Friday evening one of our wards held their Trunk & Treat.. the Harry Potter crew are the VanSlykes. Deanna is the Primary President and we have gotten to be great friends with her family.  Her husband is deployed in UAE.  He is an engineer, so not in battle, but still away from home.  He will be home right before Christmas. 

 These 3 cuties are 1, 3 & 4.. their mom is Sister Brown's Visiting Teaching companion.. They were so cute and loved the trunk & treat .  Little Dorothy even sang "Over the Rainbow". . . so cute

The hardwood trees have hit prime color this past week & these trees are right out our door in our apartment complex.  As we drove around the countryside this week, we couldn't stop taking pictures of the gorgeous landscape and the amazing colors..

The picture below is Ethyl DuBois, one of our favorite ladies that we get to visit each week.  She is a retired high school advanced chemistry teacher.  She served a mission in Bolivia when she was in her late 70's and loves to share her stories with us when we visit.  She is always happy to see us and we have such fun with her.  

Our week was so varied not only with the weather but also with the sisters that we visited. But each one was special to us and helped us by giving service to her and her family.  I want to share with you some of the sisters and their stories..

1. We visit a older sister who is in poor health named Margaret.  She moved into our wards because her apartment in the district was broken into and she didn't feel safe there any more.  She moved in with a single daughter, who we haven't met yet.  Margaret is the legal guardian of a rebelious 15 year old grandson who was suspended from school this week after just being here for 3 weeks.  He is a handful for Margaret and more than she can really handle.  We are trying to get the priesthood involved in her life to help with Troy.  Margaret loves to have us visit and we love to spend time with her.
2. We visit another grandmother who is raising her two grandsons who are 4 and 10.  Dorothy is such a wonderful example to these boys and they are so sweet and respectful to her and to us when we visit.  She is also raising her 30 year old autistic son. We love to visit her and her boys.  This week when we were there her 10 year old grandson played the violin for us.  He also played with a group in the Primary Program today. 
3. We visited with a sister who has recently moved into our area in the last few months.  She is originally from Ghana.  She & her husband have 4 children and he works in the district. It was so much fun to visit with her and listen to her stories about growing up in Ghana and how she met her husband.  He was also from Ghana and they met when he was serving his mission there.  She and her family moved to the US after she graduated from college in nursing. Her husband arrived in the US a few months later and they started dating.  She works as a pediatric home nurse.  We loved our visit with her.
4. One of the sisters in our wards is expecting and having a rough pregnancy so she is visiting her mom in Alabama with her other 4 children.  Her husband is deployed and when she returns from her mom's this coming week she has to get ready to move in 2 weeks.  Her sister-in-law offered to clean her house and help her get ready to move, so we pitched in to help this week. 
5. We were invited to dinner on Friday by the Ramon's. Brother Ramon is the High Priest Group leader in one of the wards and Sister Ramon is in the RS Presidency.  It was a fun time and a great spaghetti dinner.  They invited us to dinner on Thanksgiving too, which excited us. We asked what we could bring and Bonnie asked us what we liked to fix, I said dressing and Sister Brown said macaroni & cheese, and we offerd to bring a pumpkin pie from Costco..
We had a great week and are looking forward to another one this week.  The new DC Temple Presidency takes over this Tuesday, so we are excited to meet them.  It was sad to see President and Sister Tingey leave along with his counselors. But although change is always sad, it is also exciting.  We were excited to drive to the temple last week on Weds. without rain, which was a record since it has rained every Weds. since we have gotten here.