The Calm Before....the Holidays, girl/boy stuff, and a new (to us) car!

Hello, everybody! Wow--I can't believe that it is just a week before Thanksgiving. Amazing! Alannah and I started Boar's Head Festival rehearsals this past week--I guess the big kick off to Christmas marker around here. Whooo Hooo!

I am sitting here in a quiet living room, looking out where I can see glimpses of the lake now that all the leaves are down. The weatherman says we are going to be enjoying at least a few days of Indian Summer--sun and mild temperatures for the week! Of course, we already put all the porch furniture away, dumped out all the plants, dug up the garden and put out the black plastic for next year.... It would have been nice to sit out on the deck and drink my coffee this morning. Now there are little zinnias and cosmos coming out from what the frost, ice and snow killed a week ago! We probably could have kept the geraniums going a few more weeks. Typical New England weather, or so I am told, however, I am sure the snow and ice are not far away.

We had a great weekend with all the kids here. We didn't really DO anything--just hung out as a family. It was pouring rain, so we watched movies, played games and read stories. Saturday we braved the downpour and went down to the mall to get Kennedi (Scott's youngest daughter) a birthday present. She will be turning 7 this week. The kids helped Scott pick out a cute outfit at "Justice". (Very cute store, expensive, but once you get shopping there, they give you a lot of coupons and deals...you can usually end up with most things 40-50% off....) The big thing there were fun knitted fashion hats and scarfs, but they were $20+. Alannah and I stopped at Micheals and got some yarn and made a little hat and scarf to pack in with the outfit.

Later on, we got out a big roll of paper and everyone decorated it for a big card and wrapping paper. It came out really cute. Dan sat there for over an hour coloring all kinds of pictures--he has become quite the artist. Of course, all the girls drew kittens, rainbows, princesses, etc. Dan had a completely different artistic perspective: He drew a series of cannons aimed to blow up the princess castle, and some tanks, soldiers, monster trucks, etc...... I'm sure it wasn't intended as malicious--maybe, (hopefully?!) he was just fortifying the castle to PROTECT the princess! (yeah, right!)

It's nice to see these little signs that he is all boy despite all the odds against him!

There were over 40 kids at the children's sermon Sunday. They have asked for more Sunday school teachers because there is not enough coverage in the nursery class or the 2nd-3rd grader class. What a great problem to have in a church, eh? I don't know if there are enough adults left! Ha ha.... All the pregnant bellies are growing in the congregation -my friend Deb and I like to check and comment on the progress each week. I think I mentioned before we are up to three new babies due in the Spring. Lots and lots of joy going on here!

Next week the youth have to get to church at 8am to start cooking a big Thanksgiving dinner for the congregation. It is one of their first big fund raisers for their big mission trip in the Summer. I don't know why the girls are so excited about going there to help, but they are. They don't get that excited about cooking and cleaning here at home! Maybe they don't make the connection yet? The other big fund raiser coming up is the Christmas Bazaar and Auction that is the weekend after Christmas. The girls and I signed up to create a "bedtime stories" basket for the auction. I am thinking about putting some classics in there, maybe a warm throw and a book light. (Any other thoughts?)

Well...... The sermon scripture was Hebrews 10, which was a good thing--the whole idea about hanging in there and trusting God to take care of things because the biggest news here is that we have to replace my car. It finally bit the dust for good, the cost to fix it has well exceeded it's value. I'm not working today so I can go put the down payment on the Dodge Caravan we found last week, and hopefully will keep us going for at least one more year. Ssssiiiiigggghhhhhhh.

Getting a new car is always very stressful to me--Scott, thankfully, has a totally different outlook on the whole thing. To him it is just a car, get a new one and get over it. It was more important to him that the kids and I were safe than playing along with my female hangups about "letting go" of a "family" member. (ha ha) Scott and the mechanic/car dealer guy (who is another young guy with a wife and a bunch of kids) really gave it to me about ditching the Taurus because it just wasn't safe for us. Wow! That was cool--two men arguing for my best interest! :)

It's the whole fortify the castle, aim the cannons thingie but on a slightly different level. (tee hee!)

Other things to get done today are picking up prescriptions, signing up for parent teacher conferences and we are out of dog food again. I also have to pick up a weird list of candy for Aidan's plant cell project she is making. Gotta love edible science projects!

Have a great day!

Halloween, and November thus far.....

Halloween was very WET, as it most likely was at your house too--unless you are friends of ours that live out of the northeast. It was so wet, that Alannah, Aidan, Dan and I begged Susie to let me buy her her own bag of candy so we could go home! Yuck! But Halloween is Halloween, and it was still fun even though it was so rainy and cold.

I went into Owego early enough to catch Susie and Dan's school parties and parade. It was fun to see their classrooms and talk to their teachers. They seem to be doing very well. It was especially fun to see all of Dan's kindergarten work. His teacher is amazed at how awesome an artist he is! I am not surprised, but was surprised at how willing he is to draw at school. Usually at home there are more exciting things to do, like rough house with the dog, or jump on the neighbor's trampoline. He even had this very elaborate picture of the time we had a bat in our Church street house! It was hilarious. I hope it comes home eventually, because I would love to scan and post it up here.

I guess the way they are teaching basic art/illustration/drawing skills along with reading. Every time they work on letters and words they draw pictures to go with them. The teacher even helps instruct the kids on basic ways to draw things like houses, trees, animals, cars and people. I was pretty impressed.

Susie's class is working on doing research and writing biographies. She was Olivia Newton John's character Sandy from Grease for Halloween, so she wrote a very detailed biography on Olivia Newton John. It seemed very advanced and grown up for her!!! (my baby!) A boy in her class was Elvis, so it was cute how everyone was having them take their pictures together.

Other things going on: Alannah and Aidan received excellent report cards. All A's and B's for both of them. I have been working almost every day. Scott has been busy at work and at home. He has our yard almost leaf free, and the garden is all set for next year. Mom and Dad were up here this past weekend for Alannah and my concert. It was very nice. Next week we start rehearsals for the big post-Christmas concert.

The dog seems to have settled down a bit--of course, having to take a trip to the vet this weekend probably slowed him down. He broke one of his nails, and I'm sure that hurt enough to make him think twice about being too naughty. He's fine, just a little subdued. (as much as a 100 pound puppy can be, anyways!)

Next on the list of course is Thanksgiving. The plans are flying back and forth between all the households...... It looks like we will be in Albany this year! Cool!

Well, the Steelers are winning--more or less a shut out against the Broncos--coool! It must be because I am wearing my very awesome new super bowl champs jersey that Scott bought me! :)

Hugs and Kisses,

Allison