Day 239

Another month almost over - just 4 more hours and October is finished. Looking forward, the days ahead seems to go so slowly but then when I turn my head and look backwards, it has all passed in the blink of an eye. 
I have trudged through October with all its activities and appointments. X'd out each day on my way to bed each night. Now, my calendar is filled with upcoming November activities.  
Today I mentored at the elementary school, got my nails done, worked at Hannah House, ran to the bank and city hall for Hannah House, washed my dishes, and gone to handbell rehearsal. A full day. 
Not a whole lot of communication from Wade today - we're saving up our news for tomorrow's skype. 

Day 238

Another busy Sunday. I taught my last class as Rebekah this morning to the kindergarten and first grade students. Part of the lesson is learning that Esau sold his birthrights for a bowl of soup. And I serve the children a bowl of lentil stew that is very similar to what Esau ate and ask them if it would be worth it to give up birthrights for this bowl of stew. First we need to convince them to try at least one bite. Surprisingly, most asked for seconds after they tasted it. They liked the flat bread, Naan or as Mr. Wide would call it, samoon. I also served almonds and dates. 

 Binny, Mia, Mr. Ron, and Bridget at the front table trying the stew and bread

 This is Evan, who told us he is allergic to stew and Elijah who ate it up and said it would be "worth it"

 Here is Pastor Patty with Grace, Kalli, and Paris

And here is Mr. Ron with Binny, Mia, Mallory and Bridget.

Now, my Rebekah days are behind me, but I look forward to another month of classes and I'll be teaching about Elijah, Ahab, and Jezebel for November, plus I'll be making ravens with the students. How fun! 

We had another afternoon of football and it is slowly wrapping up. Jared had his final game today and they lost 7-6 in overtime. And Jaide's team played an exhibition game today because the other team didn't have enough players (forfeited), but her team let a couple of boys play on the opposing team. Her team won the exhibition game.

For dinner tonight we had:

Meatball Sandwiches with spaghetti

Garlic Bread

Peas & Carrots, Corn

and for dessert:

A Cemetary Cake

I saw the recipe and picture in a magazine and couldn't resist trying to make it myself. It was fun to do. 

I've had lots of people asking about Wade - mainly asking now since the troops are to pull out by the end of the year, will Wade be coming home early. And the answer is maybe. If nothing changes where he is now (meaning he is still at the same job) he will most likely come home by the end of the year. However, he has been looking into another position in a different location (ie. Afghanistan) and if he can find something interesting, he will see about completing his year commitment. That would mean he would be coming home in March 2012. So I don't have a definite answer and my explanation is too long to print on a t-shirt. 

So we'll just have to wait and see when he comes home, right Opie??

Day 237

So I read on the computer that today was "National Cat Appreciation Day" and I just had to tell Opie how much I appreciate him. He's a great cat, but he really seems to be just another one of the dogs.  

 Today is Beggars' Night and the grandkids are getting ready. Unfortunately Jaide was sick all day and will not go trick or treating tonight. 

Jason & Jared worked on carving pumpkins.

 This is Jared's and has a piece of rebar through his head with 'Ramen' brains spilling out.

This guy is suffering a similar fate except with an arrow.

 Even though Jaide did not go, she put her costume on and they all came knocking on the door looking for treats. Jason will take Jared out after this. 

I am staying in and watching the original "Halloween" movie that I recorded from AMC Channel. And if I'm scared I've got my little protector right here ready to pounce:

Day 236

It is definitely getting to be that time of the year. In the early mornings after I let the dogs outside, I love to go back to bed and find the warm spot again and snuggle under the blankets for a few more minutes of sleep. I think in terms of long sleeve shirts and sweaters when choosing what to wear. I rarely walk through the house barefoot anymore, but you can usually find me in a pair of socks (and the wilder the color or print, the better). And I should be putting in the storm windows sometime soon. 

This is the view down the hill and in the upper right quarter you can see the ground has some white on it. That would be frost. And on the way back inside, the thermometer on the front porch showed this:

Not quite freezing yet, but we may hit that point this week. 
I got to talk with Wade this morning on skype. And in addition to emails, we have been doing some chatting online - so we need to be creative about topics we save for the skype session. Each time we still manage to find things to talk about for an hour. 

Peggy stopped by this morning and brought these beautiful flowers. I put a vaseful on the kitchen table and another vase with flowers on the coffee table in the living room. Thank you very much. 
I ran up to Walmart this afternoon for some grocery shopping and stopped to pick up pizzas from Papa Johns for dinner tonight with Jaide and Jared. Jaide seemed under the weather, she didn't eat but she stayed and watched the movie with us. I could tell she wasn't feeling good at all. We watched the movie "Hocus Pocus" which had Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy, and Sarah Jessica Parker. It was mildly scary, but a couple of times Jared was sitting with me and I could feel him jump. Cute movie. A good Halloween-type movie. They were back home by 8:30 and I bet that Jaide went right to sleep.

Day 235

Today had a Halloween-ey flavor. 

There was a costume parade at Jared's school this afternoon.

Because it was raining, all the children assembled in the gym and then paraded by relatives and friends before heading back to their classrooms for their parties. 

Even the adults dressed up. They were to choose characters from Toy Story

Hard to see but these two women are the Slinky Dog

And a Potato Head

That is the principal as Woody

After school I took Jared to Fairborn, which is famous for the Foy's Stores. Foy's has 3 or more stores dedicated to costumes and decorations pertaining to Halloween although they are open all year long. They also build wonderfully spooky displays on some of the empty lots in town. 

This was Jared's favorite display - he loved all the skeletons everywhere.  A little boys' dreams.

 And when I saw this guy, I thought that Jason sure would love it too. 
Ohio is a strange place where we hardly ever celebrate Halloween on the actual date. Instead, towns and villages choose an alternate date and call it Beggars' Night which is only observed between 6 and 8 o'clock - no earlier and no later. And the even stranger thing is that not all the towns agree on the night. For instance, in the city of Urbana which is 10-15 miles north of here, they are all trick-or-treating tonight. Springfield will have their Beggars' Night on Saturday night. I think in the 11 years that we have lived in Ohio, we've only had Beggars' Night on Halloween once. One of those strange bizarre Ohio customs. 

Day 234

Uh.... Lady, do you need someone to test these for you? ..... please???
I baked pumpkin-shaped cookies this morning for the 5th & 6th grade class at church tonight. I didn't count how many total there were. I just made two batches and decorated them. 

Here's some more. Tonight, I handed them over to the teacher and said, "I don't want ANY leftovers returned - make sure they all get eaten". 
So that's what I did this morning. This afternoon I just hung out at home and got prepared for my class tonight. We had a pinata filled with candy and the words of the memory verse on index cards. We let each child (there were 19) take one whack at the pinata until it was broken open. And for the sake of expediency, we let them do it without the blindfold. That would have taken forever. We told the kids that they needed to pick up on of the cards and we would all line up creating our memory verse. That was fun. 

It was warm today and started to rain tonight. Appar-ently there is a cold front coming in and there is a slight chance of SNOW within the next five days!!
I conversed with Wade today through email and chatting. That was fun. He's doing fine. Still hoping for a great opportunity to reveal itself. 

Day 233

It was pretty cold this morning. I noticed there was frost on my car windows, and I would have gone outside to take a picture of the ice, but I didn't make it and by mid-morning it was all gone. We had sun all day long and the temperature did rise up into the high 60's, so it turned out to be a pretty nice day. 
I spent a little bit over an hour this morning talking with Wade. He is so wanting to come home, but also wanting to stay and do some good work. Hopefully more work will come up and he can find something else to use up his energy. 
This afternoon I helped at Sonshine Club - 51 kids. Yikes. The extra adults are very helpful as we have some pretty unruly kids. 
I ran down to Kroger after that and used up lots of coupons that were expiring. I bought 175 dollars worth of groceries for 120 dollars - so I think it was worth it today. 

Day 232

We had some nice thunderstorms this morning while I was waking up. It was my busy Monday. First off, I went to Snyder Park to see my little mentee. I brought sugar cookies and lots of icing and sprinkles for her to decorate the cookies. I brought a plastic container so that she would be able to take them home. She did this last year and asked a couple of weeks ago if we could do it again. She spent almost 45 minutes decorating, talking, and snacking on the icing. I wound up giving her the containers of icing because she had eaten most of it and had been sucking on the nozzles to get more. I had no desire to bring them back home. Hope I am not considered a bad mentor by her parents - giving her all that sugar.   

This was her first one  - an orange ghost. She likes to decorate them and take them home to share with her family. She has a pretty big family.

She was talking so much that I helped out with putting the icing on and she would do the finishing decorations and sprinkles.  And we did have waxed paper on the table so that the custodians wouldn't be too upset either. 

She was hurrying to wrap it up and get these ready to pack into the box. I think she actually ate one at the table, but she had enough of the icing that she probably bounced off the walls and drove her teacher crazy all day long.
After I finished up there, I went to Hannah House and worked. It only takes me about 5 minutes to drive there and conveniently the Speedway gas station is on the way, so I stopped and got me a big cup of coffee. 
Today at Hannah House I organized the mailing addresses and labels for a newsletter that will be coming out sometime in November. We have almost 900 addresses to send it to. I was home by 2:30. I got all my dishes washed and watched some television. Later tonight I went to handbell rehearsal. We will be playing in the morning service next Sunday morning. 
And tonight I'm relaxing in the living room and looking forward to my "skype session" with Wade tomorrow morning.  

Day 231

Another Sunday filled with so much and over so quickly. 
I taught another class as Rebekah, mother to Jacob and Esau. I am amazed at how quiet and attentive the children are when someone in costume and character speaks.  Today I had 5th and 6th graders and they were great. I taught, we ate lentil stew and flat bread, and then they braided friendship bracelets together. A great time. Next week is my last time as Rebekah. 
Then at morning worship service our senior pastor, Pastor Mark, made an appearance. He is walking so good and is using a cane only. His doctor said that he would be able to begin preaching again in November although he can't stand while preaching until the new year. But, his doctor told him that he should be able to do everything that he was able to do before the accident. That is wonderful!!

This picture was actually taken last Sunday, but we were at the same field again this afternoon for the final football game of the season. This is Jaide in her cheer outfit and Jared is out in the field somewhere playing football. 
Jared's team finished with 2 wins-5 losses-1 tie. Jaide's team finished with 6 wins-1 loss-1 tie. So her team will be going on into playoffs, so that means Jaide will continue cheering for a little bit longer.
After the games today we had a meal of:

White or Red Chicken Enchiladas

Refried Beans/Rice

Guacamole and chips

Caramel cake with chocolate ice cream

It was a nice dinner and nice company. 

Day 230

Wade is very excited because today marks seven months. Seven months....... which means he's over half-way finished. Only 5 months to go. He did say too, that he was surprised he had actually made it to seven months without saying, "I quit" and hitchhiking out of Iraq. (just a joke....)
It was a quiet Saturday. I did a little bit of shopping this morning. I needed to buy some things for dinner tonight and for dinner tomorrow night. 
Then this afternoon I baked cookies. Two batches of sugar cookies in the shape of pumpkins, bats, ghosts, and cats. I didn't count how many cookies I made, but there were quite a bit. And I managed to burn my finger on the very last batch of cookies. I was so close to getting through it all without an injury, but oh well, I guess that means I won't be able to wash dishes for ........ oh......... probably a week or two............. 
I needed to make some cookies for my mentee to decorate on Monday. She specifically requested that we do that again this year. She remembered how she enjoyed it last year. So those are put away. Then I put some out for Jaide & Jared to decorate tonight. 

 They were coming for dinner, so while I cooked, they decorated their cookies that they would eat and/or take home. 

I had frosting, or squeezey cookie topping (that hardens), sprinkles, and decorating gel. They both did a good job. 

After they decorated the cookies, we ate grilled cheese sandwiches and potato wedges while we watched "Gulliver's Travels" with Jack Black. It was a cute movie. Then there was still time to watch one episode of "The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show" before I sent them home with the rest of their cookies. 

Day 229

Winter is coming and it's been cold. This was my 3 Dog Night pic-ture from last night. They keep me com-pany every night. Sheba, Kelly, and Angel. After I get in bed Angel & Kelly may get up and wander around, but Sheba stays, always, until I get up in the morning - and the reason for that is because she can't jump back up on the bed on her own. I have to help her up. 
Yesterday was cold, but it was a little bit warmer today and we had sunshine instead of rain. 
I skyped with Wade this morning. He is doing fine although he is still hoping for some sort of contact from organizations in Afghanistan. If not, he will be heading home for good at the end of the year. And the work he is doing right now doesn't seem to be enough to keep him occupied and totally committed. 
Other than the excitement of skyping this morning - my whole day has been very quiet and secluded. I didn't go out and didn't do much of anything. Pretty boring....sorry...

Day 228

Thank goodness for penicillin! That's all I've gotta say. I've been having problems for months - but not seriously in pain (I have a very high pain threshhold) - however I went to the doctor and she suspected a strep infection and after two days of medication I am feeling sooooo much better. Symptoms that I thought were just effects of becoming older are not that at all (that's a relief!) It's all clearing up and I will continue these lovely pills for the full ten days. Now it's very fortunate that I went, because I am not supposed to have strep infections because of my heart condition, but it all seems to be clearing up nicely now. 
This is a slow day - I did a quick school run this morning for Jaide who missed the school bus. Then I had Jared with me this afternoon. We did some shopping in Crafts 2000 and Hobby Lobby. I am looking for a pinata for next Wednesday night's class and Hobby Lobby had the best selection. We had a quick snack from McDonalds and then came home to work on homework. 
It's cold and rainy - I broke down and turned on the furnace to 65 degrees and it's been on and slowly warming up the whole house. 
I've heard from Wade and he has forwarded his update to me for editing and posting on his blog later tonight. We aren't writing big long emails today because we will be skyping tomorrow morning. 
Now for a strange but true little treasure - We have a new Worship Arts Pastor at church. He's been there for about 7 or 8 weeks and I've been in board meetings with him and had attended a few services that he has led. But - whenever I look at him I am reminded of a cartoon character that I knew when I was a kid. I couldn't remember his name, and when I mentioned it to Wade - he remembered the sidekick's name was "Leonardo" and this character would constantly call him in a singing-type voice. A little more searching and I found it!!

This is Pastor Tod Huston and he is a very good worship arts pastor. Very talented and his family is very talented as well. But with all respect to him whenever I see him all I can think of is:

Clyde Crashcup which was a scientist on a show that appeared on the Alvin and the Chip-munks show back in the early 1960's. Thank goodness for the internet because I would not have been able to remember this otherwise. And now it is sad to say that whenever I look at or think about Pastor Tod, this is on my mind. But I'll never tell him that.......

Clyde Crashcup and Leonardo

Day 227

I've heard lots of complain-ing on facebook, but sorry everyone  ..... I love the rain. I love the cold, I love autumn. The only thing better would be snow, but that will come soon enough. 
I had an early doctor's appointment and then on to buy supplies for tonight's Seekers and Singers class. I needed to get things to make pinatas since we are 'traveling' to Mexico for the next 5 weeks. Ours were made out of white lunch sacks decorated with markers and crepe paper streamers and tied at the top with twine. Next week I will have a different pinata in the classroom and we will all actually play with it. 
Other than that, it was an ordinary day with some house work, some dish washing, some sewing, and reading. I'm reading a new (to me) trilogy that was written by C.S. Lewis. I've read 2 chapters of the first book,"Out of the Silent Planet". Very good so far. 

Day 226

Tuesdays are now skype days with Wade. We got together this morning and enjoyed our time together. He's doing good - however he is having to be really creative in finding something good to eat for his meals and relying on the kindness of friends too. But other than that, things are fine. 
One of my requirements in my new Bible study is that I needed to do something to 'pamper' myself this week. That finally happened. I had an appointment to get my hair cut. I missed my last appointment (in September) because I had a visitor with me. So it's been way too long. Believe it or not, I was good and didn't cut bangs on my own, but I waited until today. Cheri is great with my hair and she is very, very popular too. She plans her appointments a year in advance. In fact, I got my 2012 appointment schedule today when I left and already put that into my iCalendar. I also went and had my brows done, although some people might not think of that as pampering, I still do. 

The view from the back porch. With autumn coming, the leaves are falling and
the 'bottom land' is almost visible again.

This afternoon I went to the school and helped out with Sonshine Club again. We are having close to 60 kids now. But things went well. It's a little stressful, but I still enjoy doing that. 

We had some pretty impressive thunderstorms blow through this afternoon and the temperature dropped down to about 48 degrees. Now tonight we are getting some more. I expect there will be lots more leaves on the ground when I wake up tomorrow morning. 

Here's my friend, Sheba listening to the storm on the back porch with me. What a good dog she is. But then I have three good dogs - well about 95% of the time.........