Fall, Fall, Fall

I can't believe that next week is Thanksgiving! It doesn't feel like it should be that late in the year yet! Oh well, I guess time marches on! Everything in our life is busy as usual, but we are enjoying ourselves running from activity to activity!

Greg is doing well in his surgery recovery. His pain from before surgery is completely gone and he is walking more upright than I have ever seen him walk before! He will be off work until at least February 1 and in the meantime, he is using every opportunity of good weather to take a walk outside!

Morgan has started playing basketball in two basketball leagues for the Fall. One plays on Saturdays and the other plays on Thursday or Sunday nights. So far, his team is playing really well. He is also staying busy with Boy Scouts. He had his first overnight "shakedown" with the boys who will be going to the National Jamboree in August. They spent the weekend at Camp Gieiger going through Project COPE (Challenging Outdoor Physical Encounter) and just getting to know each other. He will be gone for two weeks this summer to the National Jamboree in Viriginia. I sure hope that he has fun!!! It is going to be the longest two weeks of my life!! 2010 is the 100th anniversary of scouting, so I know that it will be a super experience for him, but I know the four of us are going to miss him!

Maggie is plugging along in school, dance, and Girl Scouts! About a month ago, she decided she wanted to join Girl Scouts, so she joined a troop in Cameron, since Winston doesn't have their own troop. On the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of the month, she goes to her meeting and then gets to spend the night with Granny! She thinks that is pretty special. Last Saturday she got to go with her troop to Build-A-Bear workshop! Each girl was allowed to spend $25 to build the animal of their choice and purchase an outfit. It was part of earning their Moneysense patch! It was also her first outing without me going along and she had a blast! She has her annual Christmas recital on December 6, so they are busy getting ready for that in dance class. She really LOVES the gymnastic part of her dance class!

Marshall is about to legitimately lose his first tooth! I say legitimately because he got his two front teeth pulled out three years ago after he bumped into my friend's daughter and they started to turn gray! He is very excited to finally lose one! He is busy with his Cub Scouts. He is a Tiger Cub and is working toward earning his Bobcat badge! He meets with his Den every other Monday and then has pack meetings or activities once a month! Wednesday night, the Pack went and tourned the Bell Tower in the Daviess County courthouse! He was excited because he got to write his name somewhere in the Bell Tower so that some day when he brings his son he can show him that he came when he was a kid! Marshall is also playing basketball, but just at the school in the mornings. He will start in a league after the first of the year! I'm not sure if any of us are ready for him on the basketball court!

I am looking forward to Thanksgiving this week. I think Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it is about getting together with family and enjoying their company. There is no tie to shopping or gift giving, it is just okay to sit around with family and be content with being together! I hope that each and every one of you has a Happy Thanksgiving and we hope to see you on our next trip!

Halloween 2009

This past weekend was Halloween, but this past week was the buildup to Halloween. Every year, I think that it isn't going to be so busy, but every year I am proven wrong.

This year at school, a committee that I participate in hosted a Trunk or Treat and Chili Supper on Friday night. This, added to the general chaos of getting ready for the kids' classroom parties and getting ready for the daycare party, just increased the hecticness (is that really a word?) of the week! Except for the shopping, Halloween rivals Christmas for the amount of work it takes to pull off!

Needless to say, the school parties, the Trunk or Treat and Chili Supper, and the daycare parties went off without a hitch and were very fun for the children!

On Saturday evening, we headed to my brother and sister-in-law's house in Cameron to trick or treat. This is an annual tradition for our family. We gather at their house and trick or treat up and down their street. We eat supper together, which is usually pizza (this year it was leftover chili from Friday night) and then we take the kids to some "scary" haunts in town. We stuck to the same agenda this year and had a blast as usual! When we went to the "scary" houses, I learned that my kids are pretty much chickens like their mom and dad! Neither one of us cares too much for scariness!

Morgan dressed as Indiana Jones, Marshall was Mutt (from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), and Maggie was a mommy!