Home Sweet Home, October 2025

 October 2025 was the month that I got married, and my still-pretty-new-to-me house (apartment) became our house (apartment). But no matter where I live and who I share it with, it still feels like home sweet home. My seasonal decorations and other things definitely help with that.

YouTube always has a good selection of seasonal background videos with nice nature sounds. I almost always have one of them going.

Microsoft often doesn't disappoint on my laptop, either, with its picture gallery.

This month's "Home sweet home" post was (mostly) brought to you by Halloween decorations and YouTube. 😆 

The Beauties of Nature in My Life in October 2025

 I love October, one of the loveliest months when nature paints some of its prettiest pictures!

David took this picture from the back deck of his house. How pretty is that view and that sky?

The view of the woods and the changing colors of the trees outside my apartment.

On a walk in the neighborhood, when the foliage colors were at or near their peak.

Another walk on another day when the sky looked moody and majestic...

Ahhh, so pretty. 😍

The house to the right is a historic eighteenth-century home. 

The wires mess with the historic, rustic vibe I was trying to capture in this picture, but it's still picturesque. I like to pretend that I live back then when I see scenes like this. But things like wires and cables keep me grounded in reality. 😄 

Berries on trees are so festive. 

Here are some beauties of nature at the library. Every fall, the library has a display of various floral arrangements based on a book theme. This year, it was animals in books (or movies). These were my favorites.

Animal Farm

Dewey

Jaws

I love the beauties of nature in October!

John's Mission Pics from October 2025

 John continues to do well and thrive on his mission. He's been serving in an inner city area of Denver and loving it.

The sister missionaries dyed his hair brown. 😂

He and his companion, Elder Reed, get along well.

Good old Taco Bell!

This is a really sweet member with Down Syndrome in their branch who loves the missionaries.

I've been missing him a lot with it being the holidays and also the start of wrestling season. Sometimes I feel very nostalgic for the high school and childhood days of the past. I'm so thankful that he's serving a mission, and I'm also so thankful that he'll be back next summer and home for the holidays next year!

A Few Last Wedding Things

 Here are a few last photos of some wedding-related things...

When we got back from our honeymoon, we opened our gifts and cards. Among my favorite gifts were the personalized ones. 

I appreciate the alliteration of our names. 😀

I love this! It's from my mom and her boyfriend, John.

This beautiful mirror with our wedding invitation at the top of it is one of my other favorite gifts. It was made by one of David's former co-workers. I hung it up in our entryway hall, and I love it.

These are some of the things I bought on the honeymoon... 

...a wonderful pine-scented owl-print sachet (that makes me smell faintly like a Christmas tree when I wear a sweatshirt because it's tucked into my sweathshirt drawer), a bar of honey soap that smells good and makes my skin silky and fits perfectly in the palm of my hand, and a Woodstock bookmark. {I'm a longtime collector of bookmarks.} I also collect magnets, and I got one of those, too, but it's not in the picture; I forgot about it because it was on the fridge. Hey, it happens. 😆

10 days since our special day of 10/10!

I cropped this picture to look like this and posted it on Etsy with my review of the bridal headband. I gave it a good review because it was perfect!

I love this picture of the three of us. 💖

I really wish John were in it, but it's also good that he's not because it means that he's serving a mission!

It was fun being a bride again. I think I enjoyed it more this time around; it was easier and more relaxed.
I love my husband and our new life together! I feel very blessed. 

(KNOCK ON WOOD, for obvious reasons!)

Last Honeymoon Post!

 On the last day of our honeymoon, on our drive back home, we stopped at more covered bridges in Vermont, a waterfall in northern Massachusetts, and a pretty town in MA.  

The countryside in Vermont as you're driving down the roads is just so beautiful! I couldn't get over how picturesque it is. These pictures are only a fraction of the pretty scenes we drove through, and they don't do it justice!

It's a bridge! It's a plane! It's a...covered bridge! 😄😍

Here was one that was pretty high up.

This was a double-covered bridge, the Pulp Mill Bridge. It had pretty views on both sides.

This was the other end of the bridge.

Here was a dilapidated old bridge. Definitely can't drive across this one!

The Brown Bridge was one of my favorites of the whole trip. It was ideally situated and so pretty. 

There was a professional photographer there who was setting up for a senior photo shoot, and he was fun to talk with.

My hair had seen better days (a week earlier, I had glamorous wedding hair) and needed a good wash, but such is life! I troop on. 😆

I mean, how perfect is the setting of this bridge!? 😍

The other end of the bridge (I'm using that line again)

Selfie with the bridge!

After we crossed the border into Massachusetts, we stopped at a pretty waterfall spot. It took a bit of a walk to get there, but it was worth it. I love waterfalls!

There were a few of them!

Finally, it was starting to get dark, and we stopped briefly in Shelburne Falls, MA. David had been there before. It was such a classic, pretty New England town, and we'll definitely go back.

Cool glacial holes in the rocks!

The whole week was a great honeymoon, from rainy but peaceful Cape Cod to beautiful fall-laden Vermont and back home to Massachusetts. It was a memorable trip and a fun way to start our married life together. Then it was back to real life and adjusting to our new reality as a married couple. I'm happy to report that the transition to being married again for both of us has been going very well—better than I dared to hope for. Here's to eternity!