It's Inevitable!

I had conferences with Aiden and Emma's teachers which were very pleasant. My kids won't be expelled any time soon and their teachers like them and all so that's great.

My son is like me. I figured someone would be and they all are in some ways but... Aiden gets distracted easily. All through my elementary years my teachers would say over and over, "Jennifer gets distracted easily and she needs to stop talking to the people around her." Some people aren't as fun as me. Can I help it if there's something more important going on? Aiden has a hard time completing his work. How odd! One generally hopes that others copy the more positive aspects of ones character but inevitably they'll do the opposite. Not like he had a choice in the matter but I have cursed him. I give him no excuse by any means but it is one thing he'll have to work on all his life. Too bad.

I'm 30

Yesterday was my birthday. Unfortunately, it was pretty gloomy. Not because of any of the activities of the day just the reality of starting up life after a death. It's not that I was thinking of Cindy or the family every moment. I just felt a cloud hovering, an utter sadness, where tears and rain could escape at any moment, hiding just beneath the surface. Turning thirty wasn't how expected it even though I was looking forward to the moment. I'm thankful I turned thirty. I'm thankful I can still be with my family. I'm reminded of that luxury that I so often take for granted.

Cindy Wilson (edited)

For those of you who have not heard, our dear friend, Cindy, has developed bacterial meningitis. She is now on life support and we are heading down to love and cry with our family at East County. Please pray for so many who love her as well as her daughter Natalie who is having to travel from Botswana to be with her.

Cindy left this world to be with Jesus on Wednesday morning at approximately 9:30 am. Natalie will arrive tonight and the service time will be forth coming. We are without words at the loss of such a wonderful friend, mother, and wife.

What would you get with Fifty Bucks?

Okay, really quick I have to tell you about Aiden.

His Uncle Andy bought all his Imaginext from him and he made $50. We asked him what he was going to buy and he said he wanted an XBox. We told him he didn't probably have enough for an XBox but we would look on line to see what we could find. The very next morning he asked me if he could get his money because he wanted to buy something at the book fair at school. It's a good thing to purchase but we already knew what he really, really wanted and he was probably going to need every penny. I told him no and he was very sad and mad because it was his money. Later that morning I walked into his room to find that he had snuck and gotten his money and taken all his fifty dollars to school with him. I called the school and talked to the secretary who took a message for his teacher to call me and that he was not allowed to buy things with his money. It was too late. He was in the office with his teacher when they called me back and he had one dollar left. Despite his disobedience, he was very thoughtful and bought things for Emma as well as two books for Izzy. They kept his purchases there and got Emma's things from her until I could get there to see if we could get his money back. He came home from school and started weeping. It was the saddest thing. He just hid amongst boxes and cried and cried. It was so sad. For the time being I wanted to just comfort him and help him understand that he had decided what he was going to buy already but it comforted him little. I immediately looked on line to see what we could find. We found an XBox and a PS2 for $35 total. When Emma got out of school we painfully returned everything as Emma cried and Izzy cried about the things they couldn't have any more. It was really horrible. When it was time to pick up the XBox we had to have the conversation about his dishonesty and sneakiness and because of that he was going to have to tuck his XBox away until Sunday when we move to our new house. He cried a lot more but was still pretty happy to have the XBox in his hands. Whew! What a hard and sad lesson to learn and it affected a number of different people. Sunday is just around the bend and now he has games just waiting for him.

Ahhem!

I would just like to note that I know that more than three people follow my blog. So, If you didn't notice that new thing over on the right and you follow my blog, you should click "follow this blog". You can also stick the same thing on your blog when you click on "layout" and "add Gadget" that way you don't feel so rejected when no one has any comments for you. :)

Halloween!

We had a Harvest Festival at our church building again this year but didn't have it on Halloween night. It was a huge success which is always exciting.

So let's recap. Last year's Halloween was spent at the building. The year before we drove to a few people's houses from church around Sidney and they got some candy and showed off their costumes. The year before we did some trick-or-treating but not with Ben because he had a class on Halloween night in Abilene. And before that Izzy was a baby and we had something at the church. So, this year our family all went out together for the first time to our neighbor's houses. We had a lot of fun together and met some neighbors we hadn't met yet. Too bad we didn't do that last year because now we won't actually be their close neighbors... Our kids really had a fun time.

We threw a late Halloween Party for the Swiss Ries today and I'll post pictures of the table spread later. I'll also post our Halloween dinner. We had bat meatloaf and mashed potato ghosts and Green Goblin Gool squeezed from the heart of a vampire (otherwise known as green lemonade). I had a mashed potato moon instead. Pictures forth coming. :) I just thought it would be nice for them to have a full stomach before going out to collect candy. And what's more exciting to eat than shapes?

Our new house

These pictures are not in the order I put them in but I can't seem to cut and paste them. It's just not working. Which is why you'll see two of the front of the house... This is our "new" house that we're renting. We haven't moved in yet but will have the keys Monday evening and move everything on the 9th. Here is one of the three bathrooms.
Here is the office on the second floor. Scrapbooking, here I come!

Here is the dining room and kitchen as seen from the front door.
The living room
And the front again.