We got our first letters from Savannah on Monday of this week!  That will be her prep day the whole time she's in the MTC, so that is when we will be hearing from her until sometime mid-December!  I started a blog for her where I will post her letters and pictures (when she has any).  If you want to follow the blog the site is savvysmissionaryblog.blogspot.com.  You can receive updates in your email if you put your address into the appropriate box on the first page!  She seems to be doing really well.  I can't wait to hear from her this week!

Sarah took the ACT for the third time this week on Saturday!  I am so proud of her for being willing to take it again.  She's been studying for it a lot -- everyday after school some weeks, including this one.  It was her first full week with no tennis, but she still didn't seem to have any free time!  Probably because she's working a couple more days now and all that ACT stuff.  She did get back some more pictures from Sadie Hawkins and I'm including them for your viewing pleasure!

Megan and Mariah ran in the state cross country championships on Wednesday!  What a thrill to even qualify for the race!  They both ran Varsity again and Kevin and I were pretty darn proud.  They ran in Sugar House park in SLC which is an enormous park and a beautiful course.  The boys team was also there to compete and their JV came to cheer them on.  It was really fun.  They both ran great and had a great time!

At the starting line

The finish line

The whole cute team!!

 Poor Meg came down with a cold that very evening and it has been wiping her out ever since.  We're so glad it waited until after the race but it will be nice when she feels well again, too!

Mariah had to come straight home from the meet and be at the junior high for her first choir concert of the year!  She was stressed and a little late for being there early, but it all worked out.  The choir sounded lovely.  She sang alto and they all did fabulous!  I loved being there to hear the beautidul music!

Cheyenne and Cali went shopping with me Friday to find great Halloween costumes!  Now that they know what they will be, they are much happier and can live a stress-free life.  On Tuesday, their activity days group had a daddy-daughter cowboy dinner.  They made some great memories with their dad!

Bethany was feeling sad about going back to school this week, so I promised that I'd come be mother helper at least one day during the week.  I went on Thursday and it was so sweet to see her in her room.  We made cootie-catchers together!  I was oh-so-qualified to help all the 2nd graders with this particular project.  It was fun!  I went to her parent-teacher conference after that and got to hear about how well she is doing in her studies and how quiet and sweet she is in class.  I suppose it is good she is quiet at school but she can still talk our ears off here at home--even when Sarah and Hunter are trying to get their homework done.

Benjamin and I got bored again Tuesday morning this week so we went to the park, not to play on the equipment, but so that he could show me how he climbed the tree.  He did show me complete with narrative:  "Then you put this foot here and you pull yourself like this here..." etc., etc.  He's pretty good at it.  The ants also came for his ant farm this week and he is fascinated!

That would be all, except that this week I applied and was accepted and got trained to be a substitute teacher.  Wow!  Cool beans!  My tentative plan is to be a substitute one day a week.  We'll see how well this quenches my thirst for adventure!

This was the week that Savannah left and reported to the MTC for her mission!  Since Monday was our last Family Home Evening before she left, we decided to make it special and go to the Provo Temple grounds for family scripture reading and then a family testimony meeting.  It was a lovely night and we really had a nice time together.

Tuesday night was our last dinner together as a family so we went out to eat at our favorite Chinese restaurant.  It turned out to be extra fun because our older kids have a lot of funny memories from going to that same restaurant often when they were younger (and our family was smaller!).  It used to be a buffet so they remember eating just the jello and crisps for dinner and then loading up on ice cream!  They are funny kids.  We had a great time.

That night Savannah was set apart by our Stake President as a missionary and ambassador of the Lord!  Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik were there as well as all Savannah's siblings.  The President gave Savannah counsel and had Kevin and I bear our testimonies then he gave her a beautiful blessing.  We looked at the map in his office with all the missionaries from the stake on it.  Savannah's picture will be there, too!

On Wednesday, Savannah didn't need to be at the MTC until 1:15, so the siblings went to school and Savannah buckled down to do her packing.  I helped her with things and sat on the floor and talked while she put things in her suitcases.  We had to do a couple of things at the bank, Kevin got Cheyenne and Bethany from school since they wanted to come, and Sarah left school early on her own.  We drove to the chapel just down the road from the MTC where we met Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik to take pictures, give our final hugs, and say goodbye.  Oh, I will miss her!

Kevin and I took the kids home and then we were able to go back and do a session in the temple across the street.  It was really calming.  I'm so proud of her and so excited for her and my heart is going to be just fine.  I'll leave her in the Savior's care.

So!  Thursday and Friday there was no school because of Fall Break.  On Thursday, Mariah and I took Chey, Cali, Beth, and Ben to the zoo!  We went through at a pretty quick speed because we were following Ben.  Even so, he got worn out before we made it all the way around.  We had fun anyway!  They've added a bunch of robotronic dinosaurs throughout the zoo and that was Ben's favorite part.  Beth and Cali liked the sea lions.  Mariah liked the little cats.  Cheyenne liked the elephants.

On Friday Kevin stayed home from work.  He took Mariah, Chey, Cali, Beth, and Ben to play basketball at the church in the morning.  Mariah and I needed to go watch a free concert at BYU for her choir class, but Kevin took the other four out to lunch at Burger King so they could use some free coupons they'd acquired.  After that, Sarah and I took those same four youngest to the cheap movies to use some more free coupons.  We watched Minions which has not enriched my life in any way but was fun to watch with my own minions especially when Ben put the popcorn bucket on his head as we walked out.

Saturday morning, Kevin taught two workshops at a conference in Salt Lake.  He did fabulous, of course!  The rest of us just hung out for most of the day.  When Kevin got home, he picked up the "new" used refrigerator I had chosen for our home.  We already have something new to show Savannah when she gets home!

Savannah gave her farewell talk today in church.  She spoke on faith in Christ and did a fabulous job.  Many friends and family came to hear her speak and to wish her well.  After all the meetings, we had an open house here at our home so anyone could come and tell Savannah good-bye.  There was a touching show of support and we all felt loved!  Our out-of-town guests included Grandpa and Grandma Skinner from Rexburg, Matt and Lynsey's family from Rexburg including Grandma Mary, and Savannah's newlywed cousin Samantha and her husband, also from Rexburg!  You gotta love the people in that Rexburg town!

Sarah competed in the State Tennis Tournament in Liberty Park on Thursday of this week.  She and Allyson won their first match easily, but they lost in their second.  It was a great day, though, and they played a lot of great tennis.  She has had a super season.  She even thanked me profusely for getting her started in tennis because she has loved it so much!  She went to Sadie Hawkins on Saturday with Hunter Rogers.  They dressed for a 50s theme and she went in a group with all her friends.  She had a super time!  She also played a lovely piano solo "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go," for Savannah's farewell.

Megan finished the puzzle we put up for General Conference even after the rest of us gave up on it because it was too hard!  She is pretty stalwart.  Megan ran in the Cross Country Regional Meet on Friday and she got to run Varsity!  She did super awesome, too, coming in fourth for the team with a time of 20:24.  They only score the top five runners to rank teams in Cross Country, so to have TWO Skinners in the top five of our high school team . . . that is pretty major contributing.  She also went to Sadie Hawkins on Saturday.  She went with a large group from the Cross Country team and had a great time.  (I made her poodle skirt!)

Mariah also ran in the Regional Cross Country Meet on Friday.  She did great, too, coming in second for the team with a time of 19:24.  She improved her time from pre-regions by 1:35!  Wow!  Savannah came to watch, too, and reminisced about running the same course.  It was fun.

Cheyenne and Calianne had a great week going to school, reading books, playing with friends, going to robotics and having piano lessons.  They are sweet girls and I love them to pieces!

Bethany also had a great week going to school, playing with friends and going to piano and dance lessons.  This morning, while I stressed about having people over this afternoon, Beth wandered through the house singing a song they taught her in 1st grade, "No need to worry!  You're doing fine.  Life is for learning one step at a time."  She soothed me.  I love her.

Benjamin this Friday morning came to me and said, "What should we do now, Mom?"  Um.  Well, I didn't really need to be anywhere or do anything.  My life has this weird new component where I'm not running from one thing to another anymore.  So . . . Ben and I went to the pumpkin patch!  It was a beautiful day and we had a great time.