Pre-Halloween Festivites

(Deliquency. That's all it is. This is why I never kept a diary. Blogging is hard. Or maybe I'm just lazy, busy, or have 4 kids with demanding schedules.) We weathered a nasty stomach bug that ripped through our house about like it ripped thru our stomachs. It was awful. Yep, we'll just leave it at awful. We're all feeling much better--just in time for Halloween.

People always wonder what my children want to be for Halloween. The question needs to be...."what costumes did you find at the resale store for your kids this year?" I must be an awful mom. I've truly never asked the kids what they want to be....I just tell them what they're going to be. I'm sure they'll be in therapy for this some day.

I got to watch "Little Bo Peep" (Baylor) and Red Riding Hood (Piper) walk in circles, and circles, and more circles for the costume parade today at school. Seriously, how many circles can one class make around a courtyard?? Baylor was yawning by the end of her "parade" saying where's my candy. I'm with you sister. If I had to parade around for an eternity in a silly outfit, I would want restitution (candy), too. I saw 250 Tinkerbells, 2 million princesses, 2 Yodas, Pop-stars, Fairies, Butterflies, Batman, SpiderMan, Knights.....I saw it all. We got a good head-start on the candy for tomorrow. That's another good thing about having 4 kids....we get 4 x's the candy--like any of us need it. I'm sure Halloween night will be an event-filled evening....as it usually is.

A Fantastic Reunion

I love the nearly annual trek to Siloam Springs....my home of 4 years in NW Arkansas. The JBU campus was as beautiful as ever. The fall leaves, bright mums, and familiar faces are a welcome site....though I am taken back by the students on their cell phones texting as they stroll down the walkways. I guess we were "old fashioned" and actually had to say hello as we passed someone. Maybe they just text hello these days....darn technology.

Things are looking up in the ole homestead. There is a Hampton Inn!!! Suites, granite countertops, jetted tubs and quite possibly the most comfortable bed in the world. After a wonderful nights rest in that most wonderful bed, we went to the car to head to my reunion. What did my ears hear?? Meow, meow, meow, MEEEEOOOWWWW, meow, meow, MMMMMMEEEEEEOOOOOOWWWWWWW. There was a cat, no, a kitten somewhere in our tank of a truck. The kitty was somewhere under the hood near the engine, but neither Rick or I or the entire hotel staff could find it. Rick somehow scared the cat toward the fuel tank....so we turned the car on a started to drive very slowly around the parking lot. It was quite a scene--to say the least. I'm figuring we'll be on youtube someday--as there was a little girl capturing the whole thing. Ty Herndan's tour bus was parked directly behind us. His band members were getting quite a chuckle out of us driving in circles with an insanely loud MEOW coming from the car. We decided to drive up to JBU because the stinkin' cat was not coming out. Corbin was in the backseat praying, "Dear God, please help our daddy not to be mean and turn the car on and kill the cat...." We get to school, call animal contol--who couldn't lure the cat out either. Finally, after lunch, Rick popped the hood again and there stood a little gray, fuzzy, scared to death kitten whom we lovingly named "John Brown." No, we're not nice parents. We didn't keep the kitty. Rick held him as we drove to the animal control. All the while, he was sweetly saying...."Nice kitty. I know you're giving me all sorts of gross diseases, aren't you?"

We enjoyed Barnett's hamburgers, going to the soccer game, seeing and talking with old friends, going to hear the Cathedral choir sing (A Mighty Fortress is my favorite!), and quite possibly the best thing of the weekend was holding my precious neice, Halle Joy. We had a wonderful trip.

My "Top Gun"

Had to post a pic of my little miniature Tom Cruise. Well, I think Hudson's a bit cuter....but I'm biased. He wants to be an Air Force pilot for Halloween--like father, like son?!? He looked 20 years old to me when he slipped into his costume. How, oh, how do mother's send their cute little pilots into war? I don't know, but oh how grateful we should be that they do.

Time marches on..

Yea! It's October--one of my very favorite months. Cooler weather is hopefully on the way (still upper 80's here, ugh!). The pumpkins are coming out from the attic after a year-long hiatus. We made pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies the other day. One of our trees is starting to turn bright red. It's just a great time of year.

Rick and I took the kids to go see the new Kirk Cameron movie, Fireproof. For those of you who have not yet seen it...GO! It was not created on a Hollywood budget, and that's somewhat evident, but it's still really good. You can see the preview at http://www.fireproofthemovie.com/ . It's a movie about marriage--great date movie. (Even though you'll probably feel guilty the whole drive home-trust me on this one.)

During our recovery time at home, the kids' built their own "Noah's ark"...thus the picture with the 10 million stuffed animals. Those are only a small fraction of the actual # of stuffed animals at our house. I'm starting to feel very sorry for Noah and his family--animals everywhere!

I'm starting to feel a little bit OLD. I will be joining my classmates from John Brown Univ. to celebrate our 10 year reunion. Can it really be 10 years??? It's time to start studying names in the old, dusty yearbook. Hope to see many of you at JBU soon.