Yesterday, as I sat at my home in Burley, sick of writing "Thank You" cards and having watched about all the What Not To Wear episodes I could, I decided to go see what the great outdoors had to offer.
What I saw when I got out there was a yard full of leaves -- and when I say full, I mean FULL! So, what else can you do when childhood memories start flooding your head but engage and satisfy them?!
I remember growing up here, and every fall brought the same things: tons of trucks full of potatoes, beets and corn, a lot of dust and allergies, and a huge pile of leaves that called my name. The pile was always almost as tall as me. I used to spend hours jumping, playing, re-raking and jumping more into our pile of leaves, after we had raked them. It was the greatest thing in the world -- to come home from a long day at school and play, until dark, in our pile of leaves! My little sister and my neighbor and I would bury each other in them. We would try to jump from the tramp into them. We probably even incorporated some version of "house" outside with our leaf pile. That pile of leaves meant fall!
Yesterday, I realized I'm just as picky about raking now as I was back then. I really like to have all the leaves that I can possibly get in the pile. No mediocre job will do. I did have to relax a little, as the wind was making it impossible for me to get as many leaves as I wanted to into my pile. It ended up being a long process becuase the rake decided to give out about halfway through my raking. Nevertheless, I got it done and waited, with little kid anticipation and excitement, for Bay and G-man to get home from school. They were hardly impressed, to say the least.
The pile now only goes to my waist. It has shrunk through the passing years.
It's been nine days since I've seen him and I miss him! 
