Our Thoughts are on Brittany

internet public domain photo

This is not necessarily a post about our family today; however, our family is praying for a young woman who needs your prayers as well.  Maybe you have heard about her...she is the young woman who has a brain tumor and has decided to commit suicide on November 1st.  Her name is Brittany and we pray that she will see that God is a part of her life.

I have been praying for her since her story was first made public.  However, this morning during our family prayers, I felt called to talk to the family about her situation.  It began when we read from chapter 3 of Ephesians:

"Now to him who is able to accomplish far more than all we ask or imagine,
by the power at work within us,
to him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus
to all generations, forever and ever. Amen."


I am not sure why this made me think of Brittany, but we had discussed how we can do all things through Christ and we should not be afraid to ask God for assistance in our lives.  I was giving examples of taking tests and other things that would relate to their lives.  However, then I thought of Brittany, made me realize that many of the choices in our lives are not so easy.  I felt that the older boys especially needed to know that sometimes the choices in our lives would be hard but God could help us during these times.

So, I shared Brittany's story.  The boys immediately said that we needed to pray for her.  Brendan began by praying the Glory Be in his sweet little voice:

Glory be to the Father,
To the Son,
To the Holy Spirit,
As it was in the beginning,
Is now and ever shall be
World without end.  Amen


I felt the need to add that it is in God's glory that we are alive and we need to be thankful for being alive to the last breath.  We asked that Brittany know that she is being held in God's arms at this moment and he knows her needs, if she will turn to Him.

Then Edward prayed the Apostles Creed.  And I added that God the Father is is our creator...His Son...Jesus Christ is our healer...and the Holy Spirit is our guide in all things.  May God give Brittany the grace to know that God is with her even in her most difficult times.

Then we prayed to the Blessed Mother with the Hail Mary.  I begged Mary...the best mother of all times....to comfort Brittany in her sorrow.

We also prayed the act of faith, hope and charity.  We asked that God would show Brittany the faith to know He is with her.  We asked that God would fill Brittany with hope to feel his presence and his eternal life with Him.  We asked God to show Brittany that God's charity was beyond and love here on earth.

Then we prayed from the Psalm 33:

The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.
...For upright is the word of the LORD,
and all his works are trustworthy.
...But the plan of the LORD stands forever;
the design of his heart, through all generations.
...But see, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him,
upon those who hope for his kindness,
To deliver them from death
and preserve them in spite of famine.


God...in His goodness...is there and knows our plans but wants us to follow His plan.  We can choose to turn our backs on Him but He will still be there for us with the grace to make the right choice.

Then we read from chapter 12 of Luke:

 Jesus said to his disciples:
“I have come to set the earth on fire,
and how I wish it were already blazing!
There is a baptism with which I must be baptized,
and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!
Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?
No, I tell you, but rather division.
From now on a household of five will be divided,
three against two and two against three;
a father will be divided against his son
and a son against his father,
a mother against her daughter
and a daughter against her mother,
a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.” (verses 49-53)


Jesus did not say that life would be easy.  He has come to bring division from this world and His own.  He wants us to turn to Him and follow in His ways.  There are those in our society who do not believe in the dignity of life.  They think that Brittany is making the right choice.  She is taking matters in to her own hands.  Maybe she thinks she is preventing suffering in her life and for those around her.  In the society that we live in today, it is easy to think that this is heroic.  However, it is in fact, making us our own demi-god.  We decide that we can choose life over death, but only God through his son, Jesus Christ, can deliver us from death...not death of our bodies but our souls!

This might cause division in our lives but we must stay strong.  Every day we have that conversion moment when we decide to be a follower of Jesus Christ...we are Christians...seeking God in faith, hope and charity.

I asked the children to take some time asking God to give them grace for this day...to have their own moment of conversion.  Edward brought out our hymnal and began to sing (He has such a lovely voice!):

We remember how you loved us to Your death, 

And still we celebrate for You are with us here. 

And we believe that we will see You when you come in Your glory, Lord. 

We remember, we celebrate, we believe. 

Here, a million wounded souls 

Are yearning just to touch you and be healed; 

Gather all your people, and hold them to your heart. 

Our family continues to pray for Brittany.  It is not too late.  We ask that you pray for Brittany also.  Together we can ask God to give her the grace for life, whether on Earth or with Him paradise...whether she is healed in body is His decision, but He can provide the most important healing which is within her soul.

Birthday Monsters have Arrived!

We celebrate birthdays a little different around our house.  With so many of us with birthdays spread out throughout the year, it became quite overwhelming (time and expense!) to have big birthday parties all the time.  So a few years back, I told the children that we would only have a big celebration on "special" birthdays.  This is when they could invite friends over and we would decorate and have a huge celebration.  On other years, we would just have a family celebration at home without all the bells and whistles, but always fun regardless.

Special birthdays are when a child (or adult) turns:

• 1 years old, 
• 5 years old, 
• 10 years old, 
• 13 years old, 
• 16 years old, 
• 21 years old, 
• 30 years old, and
• 42 years old.  

I am sure there will be others as the adults in the house get older.

Last year this back fired on us, as we had everyone within 13 months celebrate a special birthday!  We made it work any way and had a lot of celebrations with friends and family.

However, Edward seemed to get the bum deal as we moved the week of his birthday.  We did celebrate and even had some new friends joins us.  However, it just was not the same.

SO...this year I decided that we needed to do something special for Edward on his birthday.

After a little thought, I remembered a book by one of our favorite authors...Birthday Monsters by Sandra Boynton.  It is a fun book that we have read MANY times over the years.  I knew that if we reenacted the story, everybody would be able to participate and it would be a VERY memorable experience.

I only told Michael and Henry about the plan...I did not want anyone to spoil the surprise.  Henry only found out because he went shopping with me for the birthday supplies.

Last night I told the other children that they were to wake up quietly and do exactly a they were told with no questions asked.  This would be there birthday gift to Edward.

SIDE NOTE:  Just so you know that our family is crazy and the wildest things happen to us.  As if you did not already know! I sent them all to bed last night and started the preparations for the birthday.  I thought I would quickly wrapped all the presents and then begin work on the cake.  Zaira actually went to sleep as I wrapped the presents.  The boys would NOT go to sleep!  I finally got them settled into their beds around 10pm. I got the batter made for the cakes and it tasted so good.  Once in the oven, I began work on other items.  However, 15 minutes into the bake time, the oven began to smoke!  The batter had overflowed the pans and was all over the bottom of the oven!  I decided to put a pan under the cakes and hope for the best.  Bad choice...the smoke got progressively worse and filled the entire bottom floor of the house!  I breathed in more smoke than I have ever wanted to breathe.  I opened windows and turned on fans...not a lot of help.  The sad thing was the cakes really tasted great but the overflow of the batter crusted and the cakes came out in pieces!  The worst part was the children, including Zaira, were all awake!  I had every thing else ready so I just called Michael and told him to pick up a fancy cake on his way home.  Sweet guy went to store at 1am to pick it up....then he came home and helped me get the rest of the house ready for the morning party.  I spent the rest of the night and into the day struggling to breathe....not fun!

In spite of the crazy chaos, we woke up at 0530 and got everyone ready in their monster gear.  Everyone, except Zaira, who had just gone to sleep.  She was so tired that she did not even notice when I put her monster hat on her and placed her gift beside her!  I thought she might wake up with all the noise and want to join us but she slept through the excitement and noise and for an additional 2 hours!

This is how it all turned out:

6am

Wake up Edward with:

• Alarm clock
• Knocking on door
• Ringing door bell
• Barge into his bedroom

We all yelled, "The Birthday Monsters are in town! It’s morning!  Let’s begin!"

Then we:

• Grabbed Edward out of bed and took him into the dining room.
• Placed him in Dad’s chair at the table.
• Threw confetti into the air around Edward.

Edward was not impressed and said he was tired and wanted to go back to sleep.  But we wer not done yet!  At exactly 6:08 am, we yelled, "Look, its 6:08!  Your present opening cannot wait!"  And then this is what we did:

• Everybody opened the gifts they were holding.
• Made a big mess…tearing the paper into a lot of pieces and throwing it on to Edward.
• Made a big deal about the present they had as something they liked.

Then we yelled, "And now it’s time for hide and seek…You go hide and we won’t peek!"  This was not any ordinary party game.  We had fun:

• Taking Edward to an empty coat cubby and putting a blindfold on him.
• Ran to the refrigerator and made noises to sound like we were eating everything in the frig.
• When Edward came into the kitchen, we grabbed him and took him back to the dining room.

We yelled, "It’s time for cake!" as we brought out the cake and set it in front of Edward.  By this time he was awake enough to figure out what we were doing.  He said, "Please do not eat all my cake!"

However, we yelled, "So hurry!  Blow the candles out!"  Then we:

• Put the blindfold back on him and told him to close his eyes and make a wish.
• We took the cake away and hid it in the frig.
• We traded the cake plate with an empty plate that just held a few crumbs and some frosting.

When he took off his blindfold, we yelled, "Goodbye! It’s been a thrill!"  And then:

• Everybody ran back outside.
• We left Edward to sit in the dining room alone.
• Then came back inside with a knock at the door and ringing of the doorbell!

We yelled, "Hello!  We are the Birthday Monster Cleaning Crew!" And then:

• Ran around cleaning up all of the mess.
• We showed him that his cake and presents were safe and ready for later in the day.

He was a good sport about the crazy birthday wake up call.  He even played with some of the "gifts" given to the other children.  While in the midst of the chaos, Brendan was so sweet.  He said, "But I don't want to be mean to Edward!"  By this time, Edward was having fun, so all was good.

While we waited for Zaira to wake up, we made Edward's breakfast.  He wanted homemade pop tarts.  We made cherry ones for his sweet tooth, and then some heartier ones with bacon and cheese. They were so delicious and no oven smoke this time! (thanks to Michael for helping me clean out oven before we used it this morning!)

We did open his presents by 0900.  We got him guitar lessons and a scooter.  Gramma found out he wanted a special cape so mailed it to him.  We had to try out the new scooter and cape.  It worked out great watching it flap in the wind as he scooted down our hill.

The rest of the day we spent relaxing at the local park, grilling hamburgers and eating the real birthday cake.  We ended the day with his favorite dinner of Shoestring Ole!

I think it turned out to be a pretty special birthday.  And Edward has already told us that we should do the same thing for all birthdays that are multiples of 11.  So watch out Daddy...you are next!

Heinz Ketchup Poster Child

What are We Going to Do?

That is the question we asked ourselves when we heard the news:

CONGRATULATIONS, SEAN!  YOU HAVE BEEN SELECTED AS A "BLAST OFF TO JOHNSON SPACE CENTER" TRIP WINNER!

We were on our way to NASA!  But hold your rockets, Reynolds family, because only Sean could walk through those security room doors!

So, we decided that we would all go down to NASA and drop off Sean, but look for something else to do.

not our picture...my zoom is not good enough

We started out our morning with the lunar eclipse at 0430.  We had already had very little sleep because we did not arrive at the hotel until after midnight.  However, the children were excited to see the red moon.  Unfortunately, that would not be until later in the morning so they missed it.  Sean and I got to see it as we had to get him to NASA by 0800.  He was excited for the day to start and was up again by 0600.  The moon stayed red until about 0630.  

After Sean was settled into his day at NASA, I returned to the hotel to find the others awake and eating the hotel breakfast.  When we arrived at the hotel in the middle of the hotel, we noticed and odd site.  So, the children wanted to go out and get a better look...it was a painted pelican to add to our many painted objects seen across the country!


Once we got into the van, our first thought was to geocache...surprise...surprise...right?  We looked at the map of caches and there were a gazillion caches around NASA.  However, once we started out on the cache hunt that morning, we found that the caches were set up on a busy road without a lot of parking options.  We did grab a few caches at the entrance to NASA but it was just not fun for the children.

SO...we were told about a nature center in the area.  We thought this would be fun...and no fault to the kind brother who gave us the idea...as the description of the center sounded amazing!  However, I do not think we have ever been to such a poorly managed park.  Maybe they are trying to get it in shape but we were not impressed.  In fact, it was so mosquito infested that we each must have lost a pint of blood walking the trail!  We would have been better off going to a blood donation site...I think it would have been more fun  SO SAD!  My only thought while we were walking the trail was their need for a habitat management plan!  There was one highlight from the center...the baby alligators!  We stayed with them for quite some time...so we would not have to go back out with the mosquitoes!

Once again, we did find a couple of caches, but we were starting to wonder if we should have stayed home.  HOWEVER...you can not keep the Reynolds family down for long!  We stopped for a quick lunch along the way and headed to Galveston.  We were heading to the beach at Galveston Island State Park!

And...we realized...this should have been our plan from the start!  We had so much fun on the beach.  We only had a handful of others there with us and it was a beautiful day!  Zaira even overcame a little of her fear of the waves and helped build a sand castle.  I just enjoyed sitting on the beach watching and taking pictures.  I know seagulls can be a pain but I love to watch them fly over the waves.  I am so glad Michael and the children love the waves and sand.

We also got to a see a bit of wildlife at the park.  We found hermit crabs and insects.  Then we went into the sand marshes looking for caches and found a flock of spoonbill and ibis.  Of course, there were also the many seagulls in the area.

Then we found a couple more caches before heading back to pick up Sean.  We had time to walk through a small space park outside of the building where Sean was located.  Of course, Sean had a million things to tell us as we drove home!  He could hardly contain his excitement as we drove home.  He wrote his own blog about the experience on our 4H blog.

So in the end it was a great day for all!  I am so glad we had the chance to go...and we are already talking about another trip to Galveston to go to Moody Gardens!

The Bee Expert

I was reading back over my post from yesterday, and I realized that I did not show our local beekeepers in the best light.  I have said many times that I have not met a bad beekeeper and I truly believe this from my experience.

Then I realized I had not posted about our previous beekeeper meeting.  I cannot believe I missed the opportunity!  But, all is not lost...I can rectify this with an amazing post about our local expert in bees!  How could I possibly do that after so many months?  How can someone who can barely remember what I went into the next room to obtain...remember back to a meeting in July?  Ha!  I took notes...he was so fascinating that I had to get his story down for others to learn about this awesome guy!  Which makes it even sadder to think I skipped out on this blog when it happened back in July.   So, here is the tale of a cool beekeeper and war hero...in his own words as much as I could type on my little iPhone...

Born in 1919, this now older gentleman sits before us because he does not have the strength to stand for long periods of time.  Garner might not seem interesting to some as he sits quietly in front of our group of beekeepers.  However, we have been told that he has been a hobby beekeeper for most of his life.

Garner had his first bee sting when he was only six years old, but it did not phase him much and he has had many more since then.  He has now become quite immune to the stings with just small bumps arising when stung today.

He remembers being on his family's ranch land looking for bee trees with his father.  They would start out near the water hold, so they could follow a bee back to its hive.  He tells us that that is how the phrase "make a beeline for home" came about.  He gives a little chuckle and you can tell that he is thinking back to that day with his father.

He also remembers before Africanized bees there were black honey bees in the area.

Garner came to talk to us about comb honey judging, but everyone is just interested in hearing him talk about growing up in a simpler time, when chasing a bee sounded like a fun way to spend an afternoon.  However, every once in awhile he remembers the goal of the evening.

He tells us that they did not have plastic comb in those days...only wax.  It was saved and if harvested well, it could be entered into contest.

In 1971, he had a bee hive to sell, so he joined the local beekeeper association.  At that time there was just a small group of 15-20 men.  Surveying the crowded room where our meeting was held that night, he gave that little chuckle again.  There were no women in those days.  Well, there was that one woman who had a song written about her.  However, over the years that changed and they became a family group much like we see today.

He went on to take more interest in the association, and he began attending state meetings.  This was in 1979 and he has only missed one meeting in all those years!

Looking back at his own beekeeping experience, he told us that he started out with a hive and would add hives as he could.

He remembers a time a man had decided to sell some of his hives.  Roy G had had a heart attack and was given a pacemaker, so he sold him 12 hives.  Garner was a young man at the time and had taken a trailer to load the hives.  Roy decided to help with the moving.  As they loaded the hives they realized one of the hive boxes was rotten, so they began to move the frames to a different box.  As Roy handed a frame to him, he collapsed.  Garner dragged Roy into the truck to get him to help.  The EMS were called but in an attempt to bring him back they gave him a shot not knowing he had a pacemaker.  Unfortunately, Roy died but Garner says he was doing what he loved and there was nothing anyone could have done to help him.

In 1994, Garner had his first heart attack.  I thought about the experience mentioned above and realized that Garner must have thought the same thing could not happen to him, as a heart attack did not stop him any more than it stopped Roy.  Garner started transporting bees from Nebraska with a man named Caldwell. He was found that he was outdoing the younger guys by hand carrying double hives!  Remember...he had just had a heart attack and was 75 years old!

He also went to East Texas to obtain brood so he could raise queens.  He was not successful with this so did not continue this venture.

At this point Garner decided to start giving bees away.  However, this did not stop his interest in bees.  Caldwell asked for his help again and they were off to pollinate watermelon with 650 bee hives in Eagle Pass.  They covered the fields with one hive per acre.

Oh yeah...speaking of honey...he has learned over the years that the best tasting honey in South Texas is mesquite honey.  And, the best honey comes around June or July.  When he started collecting honey for contests, he pondered how to keep that honey at its best for the contests that came in November.  Honey left stored will often go dark, which is not going to show well.  So, the trick is to pick out the nicest honey and freeze it.  Then take out the honey a couple of days before the contest to thaw.

The jars must be clean, which meant hand washing in the early days but a dishwasher works just fine today.  Then the jars are placed upside down and are not touched until needed.  The key to a good jar of honey for judging is to avoid black specks and bits of wax.  He spent a lot of time preparing a jar of honey for contest by taking out wax and other 'debris' with a toothpick.  It is also important to not have air bubbles in the jar.

Someone from the group asked, "How does the beekeeper strain the honey to remove debris?"  Garner chuckled his endearing laugh again.  He said he has fought with that for a long time,but the best answer was pantyhose!  He gave a hearty laugh...when we asked how he obtained his hose.  He bought his own...knowing not to take his wife's hose...although he was tempted!

He told us to remember that the honey is judged in the light, so it is also to ensure the jar does not have any defects.  The honey in the jar must be at an exact level to without any honey glaze from tilting the jar.

One of the keys to having prize winning honey is to make sure the honey has cured properly.  This means the moisture is pulled from the honey and it has not fermented or gone sour.

Even though the best honey is usually taken in the summer, he has seen bees with unsealed honey that was cured in December.  This was the best honey because he did not have to worry about brood or drones in the honey.  Since it was December the temperatures were just right and the comb did not need to be capped.

Garner married his sweetheart and remained married to her for over 65 years.  They had four children.  His wife passed away in 2008.  He did not dwell on this for too long.  You could tell he missed her.

He decided to tell us how he remembers meeting Windy Riggs and Ester Wright who got a wax award for being Queen Bee in Texas and later for the U.S.  He had the pictures for us to see in a book he brought along.

Garner also showed us pictures he had with George W. Bush and the U.S. Queen Bee holding a wax eagle statue.  He asked if he collected wax could he have one made, which had him collecting wax...over 10 pounds!  A lady from Minnesota made it it.

He also recalled a day when his friend Wendy asked him to enter the State Fair the day before the contest.  They grabbed a jar off his shelf and won Grand Champion and Reserve Champion.  Not bad...I guess it shows that he cared for all his jars with the same care regardless if it went to show!

He has had a few adventures as well...he told us about a time they found a wild hive on a cliff.  He decided to cut the comb out so he climbed down the cliff.  He said everything was going fine, except he asked the others who came along to help to stop sending down the rocks so he could get the job done!  LOL!

Of course, all of his adventures did not include bee hives.  He wrote a book (My Country Calls) about his time in the military.  For his service in the military during World War II,  He recently (June 2014) received an Honor Flight in Houston.  The night before the flight there was a banquet for all the men to tell their stories about Normandy and other bombing runs.  Garner spoke about his time in the Marine Corp and then in the First Division in China as part of an occupation tour.

At one time, he found himself the only American at sea to give directions to Shanghai.  I found it fascinating to listen to his stories...leaving us with cliffhanger endings to keep us wondering and wanting more.  I knew that I wanted to read his book to hear the rest of the story, as the cliche goes!

Two Weeks and Into October

I have to stop doing this....it seems I like I am trying to marathon through my blog posts these days!  I guess starting school and getting back into a routine kept me pretty busy!  But no excuses...the last couple of weeks have been a lot of fun and I wanted to share...

The second half of the month started out with a split action...we had two events at the same time...Michael took the boys to a new project being offered by 4H...falconry!  More on that on my 4H blog site...while I took the younger set to a beekeepers meeting.  Unfortunately, the meeting was a dud...the guest speaker did not show up and there was just a general questions from the group.  There was a honey bee photo contest.  Henry and I both entered photos.  However, a professional photographer entered her closeup shots and won.  I am all for the professional but thought it was a little lopsided since she not only entered the contest but also brought a wide variety of photos to sell.  I guess I was just expecting it to be a fun contest among the beekeepers.  Although I will admit she had some beautiful shots!  It just kind of took the fun out it.  Oh well!

The next day we went to our first home school event in the area.  It was with the local Catholic group to celebrate the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  It was nice to have the Catholic influence enjoyed by a large group.  I have not had that in a long time!  The weather was looking really bad just before the party and we were not sure if having it at a park was a good idea.  However, I assured the mom in charge that Mary would not let it rain on her party.  Sure enough...the party went as planned and then a huge clap of thunder and the rain began...first a few drops of warning..giving us enough time to clean up and then the rain came down...we all had just enough time to make it to our vehicles!  Thank you Mary!

This was also the day I started a self-defense class at the library.  It is pretty intense and is supposed to last for a year.  The instructor is wonderful and patient with us.  He really just wants us to be safe.  We have learned so much...the main thing...be aware of our surroundings and be ready to gain control of the situation.  Also, we should never be afraid of defending ourselves as the attacker would have no problem hurting us if given opportunity.  He also talks about terrorism and is convinced that our awareness could stop an attack...which is always a possibility.  Of course, he also finished each class telling he that he hopes we never need to use the skills he is teaching us.

Michael and I are back in action in the classroom...Sunday School class that is...we have taken on the upper high school course.  Unfortunately , our first class was a dud...no one showed.  However, we stuck it out and had a small class of five the next week.  We just hope they will continue coming.  Looking forward to sharing the faith through out the year.

The following week we took to the garden...the San Antonio Botanical Gardens!  It was so much fun as there was a LEGO display set up throughout the garden.  However,even without this exhibit, the gardens were so interesting.  We look forward to returning to future events and just for another day to wander the grounds.  There was a Japanese Peace Garden, a conservatory, regional Texas gardens, children's garden and so much more.  Henry and I also took a zillion pictures of flowers and insects.  Just a great time all around.  Going through the East Texas region was hard...made us home sick, but now we know where to go when we feel the need to take in East Texas if we cannot get there in person.

I love how Zaira is willing to act silly with Edward!

The next day took us on a different realm...a Pro-life Rally kicking off the fall 40 Days for Life campaign.  We saw our dear friend David lead the group to be motivated for the prayerful presence outside of the clinic that does abortions.  Of course, our family is committed to prayer and will be out on the sidewalk this fall.

The month ended with a community service project for 4H...Henry and I took photographs for a Buddy Walk...walk celebrating Down Syndrome.  More on this on the 4H blog as we teamed them to make this happen.






After that fun morning, we headed to the library for a Civil War demonstration.  A group from the Sons of the Confederacy displayed their weapons, medical supplies, uniforms, and every day utensils for us.  They also came in perio

d clothing and gave talks throughout the afternoon.  We were even fed a good Civil War meal!  It was a lot of fun!  My favorite talk was about the horses ridden by the Civil War leaders.  I am convinced the man who gave the talk should write a book.  In fact, I offered to help him write a children's book.  I think it is the perfect way to introduce the Civil War to younger children.  However, I am not sure I would tell the bloody way the horses were killed in battle...save that for when they are older!

Zaira with our beloved librarian making a corn husk doll

The library continued the Civil War theme (it actually will continue throughout the month of October as we are to read Wild Rose for the community book this month) with the showing of the movie Glory.

Oh...by the way...I have now won two drawings at these events...I won a book on the Civil War (Faces of the Civil War) and a library cookbook.  I never win anything!  It was so surprising!  Then Michael won a gift card for Amazon because he completed a scavenger hunt last month.  We love the library so it would not make or break us coming, but it does make it fun!

To end the post, we went to a special Mass attended by all home school families today for First Friday.  Sean and Edward served on the altar and Henry was the lector.  They did a great job.  We followed Mass with a get together at the park.  It is a great way for us to meet people.  I even met a woman who moved here from Longview (last week!).  We know many of the same people from church so that was nice for both of us.

Many things yet to do in October...I hope to write about these events as they happen.  Now that I am back into a routine, I should have more time to make that happen.