Falling Fast

Fall is quickly passing, much to my regret. It's definitely the favorite season: parties when parties are still fun, cold mornings, hot afternoons and fresh chili which the locals compare quality and hotness from restaurant to restaurant. Toby who dislikes any kind of weather, be it too hot, too cold, too windy, too rainy,... will more willingly play outside now too, which is GREAT.

A couple weekends ago, Brendan and Sarah had us out for breakfast to celebrate Toby and my birthdays. They cooked a wonderful breakfast for us, including extra donuts with candles, which was a blast. It turned into a really fun day as Scott let me stay while he worked on the house, distraction free. Sarah and I shopped for shoes while the kids napped, leaving poor Unky Bendan (Toby's title for him) with three overly tired and sleeping kiddos. They fed us lunch and dinner too! Amazing and generous. It was the first outing I've had in some time with no worries.

After the wee ones woke, we took them to a little 'pumpkin patch' run by a charitable organization who was advertising their services. The had a small hay-maze, pumpkins to buy, bean-bag toss, Mr. Pumpkin Head table, a trough of corn to dig in, and a horse to ride. It was torture to all the kids, separating from the corn trough. Ranne, in fact, was denied a horse-ride because of that. Bummer.

Scott preached the next day in Rio Rancho on love. It was very good and the church seemed really attentive. Afterwards we had lunch with one of their new members, Effie, and the youth minister and his wife. Effie said she was enjoying it so much she felt he ended it too soon and could have listened more. That's always nice.

This Friday we attended a Halloween party at our friends Peter and Casey's home. It was absolutely WILD, with over fifty people attending. Amazingly, none of the children took on any injury and the hosts' house remained intact, though the dogs were let loose once. After naps and dinner, Scott and I then took the boys to Golfernoggins. Ranne has begged to go back since that first time months ago. Ranne and Toby spent most of the time by the video games while Scott and I played. Very calm and nice!

Today, while Peter and Brendan helped with the new laundry-room AGAIN, Casey invited the boys and me over to visit. It took us 15-additional minutes to arrive as we waited on McCain to make his way to his rally near our house. We waved and clapped as they drove by. We played at Casey's for a couple hours before looking at the clock to realize time had flown and we were late to:

visit the local fire-station with our friend Kristine and her children. It was really fun! They got to see the trucks, a demonstration of the Jaws-of-Life, and collect lots of free stuff. Free stuff that included a bike, won by big-brother Ranne! SO exciting since he's been begging for one since seeing his friend Ethan's. I told him it was on the Christmas list, so he was upset every time I'd go to the store and return without it. He's sick with anticipation now. We need to find him a little (big) helmet to get him used to it now. We're grateful to Peter for that too, as he's picking it up for us to save us the 45-minute drive.

AND, the laundry-room looks like a room now! The drywall is in the interior; about half the Hardibacker on the floor; and, you'll like this John and Betty, the floor extends all the way across to the washer. The other day I nearly did a wipe-out, carrying a basket of laundry through there with half a floor. You must know, then, how excited I am about all this getting done. They've done such a nice, clean job too. Pictures will come soon.

Ranne things: he's said some awesome things lately, which I keep forgetting and forgetting to write down! GRRR. He's been talking a lot about God not leaving or forsaking us. He says things like, "Isn't it great that God gave me eyes?" when he sees something he really likes. That MUST have come from class, though we do talk about that too, just differently. On the way to Rio Rancho today, he was asking about how a car burns gasoline. After my explanation, he said, "Oh, like the water-heater burns gas." which his dad must have explained. His connecting the two was really neat though. THEN, we heard McCain's voice on the radio right after he drove by our car and Ranne said, "That's the man who was on the bus!"

Tomorrow we head out extra early to set up for class, have class, meet with the church, go home, eat, and then are out to Riverside for their services and another talk by Scott. It's so fun to visit these other families in Christ! I will repost this same posting with pics another day. I'm to bed!