Year 4, October 24th-27th, 2019: Root Canals, Fall Colors, and IAHE Region 9 Rep

What a day! I had my first root canal and Abishai's tunnel vision was on point today! Which to start with first? Let's go with Abishai, shall we?  He woke up after I this morning because I had to leave early for the root canal, but once I sat on the floor, he crawled up into my lap and said he wanted to go with me.  No, buddy, you can't come.  I made sure Justin was awake and upright to keep an eye on Abishai, although Jared found Justin with headphones on and having no clue what was going on.  Jared took the three kids to the brand new, just opened for the first time at 10am, McDonald's up the road from us at Southport and Franklin, the one with the new playplace! The kids had the very first happy meals to ever be made (at least that's what the kids claimed or something).  This was the soft opening for the store.  The grand opening will be in two weeks.  Jared also found out who the owners/managers are, and they were part of Keturah's basketball team last year, so someone very local.  This is their first experience with owning a store, although the husband has worked his way up the management chain in McDonald's for awhile. It's kind of fun to know who owns the place.  (There's a silent partner, too).

So, when I came home from the root canal, I found all the info and coupons on my desk and new Pokemon toys and cards strewn about.  I'm grateful I didn't have to get the kids lunch.  But then at some point, Abishai got it into his head that he was going to sleepover at Grandma's house for FOUR days!  I asked him if Grandpa and Grandma had talked about it last night or had invited him over, and he said, no, it was all his idea, because he said so. He started gathering items to take to Grandma's house, including his Cars pillow, two blankets, lots of stuffed animals, two tennis rackets, fruit snacks, 4 sets of pjs, a little backpack full of toy cars, the tablet, his water bottle, his toothbrush and toothpaste, and his new Pokemon toy.  Well, I asked him if he wanted me to text Grandma to ask her if he could spend the night, and he said, yes, four days/nights. It took awhile for Grandma to text back, so in the meantime, we also called and left a message with him basically saying he was going to sleepover (in a matter of fact tone of voice). For the next few hours, I tried to gently correct him and steer him away from the 4 days to just 1 day.  But he was convinced right up until Grandma got him (she agreed to one night), that he was going for 4 nights. He even asked who was going to take care of him when Grandma goes to Bible Study on Saturday morning because I had told him that he couldn't sleepover on Friday because of Bible Study. This boy is quite the thinker and planner. I don't know if he actually counted or not, but Leah just sent us a picture of the 16 fruit snacks he brought with him.  Now, he is allowed two fruit snacks from his pumpkin bucket every morning.  And he had planned to stay for 4 days, so somewhere in there, he did some kind of counting or grabbed a few handfuls so he would have enough to last him that long.  I told Grandma to hid the scissors because if Abishai finds them, he will open at least two if not more fruit snacks in the morning. I busted out laughing because that's our Abishai!  He's so driven, narrow focused, detailed, worried about people, full of energy, overachiever, uber intelligent, etc.  Does that remind you of someone?  Grandpa!  We've noticed that Gary sometimes get tunnel vision and no matter how many times you say we are doing something else that is different than he had firmly planned in his mind, he doesn't change his plans.  This happens on vacation sometimes.  He doesn't do it with a mean spirit, but his mind is always going a million miles a minute so it's more of a forgetfulness kind of thing. He's open to suggestions, but sometimes, wires get crossed and he actually doesn't act on our suggestions and just goes with what he thought was the plan. Abishai is the same way.  I saw it today in that he calmly matter of factly got himself ready for a 4 day sleepover because he thought it was something fun to do. He didn't demand, he just did.  I see it when Abishai wants a certain toy and we have to hear him wail from the back of the store to the front because he was convinced we were buying it today.  He's stubborn, but not because he wants to disobey or he's sassy about it. He's just matter of fact.  And the tenderest little boy ever.  It's just uncanny how we can see Grandpa in him.   Homeschooling him is going a unique challenge, especially if he is "gifted."  I look forward to the challenge.

So, Abishai is at Grandma's for a sleepover. That's that.  Yes, I had my very first root canal today.  I went straight from having an exam at the endodontist to signing for a $1,000 procedure without skipping a beat.  It wasn't until I was home and realized just how unfair all of my medical bills are taking up the "play" money we thought we had with our tax refund, which took 10 months to resolve itself.  Plus, Jared has earned some book royalties, that yes, God has obviously provided for these emergencies, but we were planning on saving and getting ahead in life on.   I had a nice little meltdown as I tried to rest while the novacane wore off over our "survive" vs "thrive" lifestyle. Sigh. I tried to be grateful and positive and tell myself it's money and I can make a payment plan with most places, but yeah, the stress caught up with me. I've had 3 major medical procedures in 8 weeks. I had little time to process the melanoma and didn't have a clue about how I'd feel afterwards.  I had too much time before the polyp removal surgery and was overprepared. Today, I had looked up what a root canal was so I was somewhat prepared, but didn't look up a price and was sticker shocked.  I didn't want to go back and I wanted to eat like a normal person again, so I said yes, please, just fix it, not being that nervous about medications and the long term ramifications of having a crown etc.  I also thoroughly trusted our regular dentist and since I had already had local anesthetic on my arm, I knew I'd be ok. I had prepared a little bit by having soft foods at home like chicken vegetable soup and a premade protein smoothie.  And despite it feeling funny because I was still numb, boy was I grateful to not have pain anymore from cold foods and liquids!  I just brushed my teeth to get rid of the numbing gel and the novacane had fully worn off.  I was overjoyed to find that I could drink cold water again! I'm a tad sore, but it's not bad so far.  Tomorrow I'll be on the alert that it will hurt more, but I still have my supply of pain meds to take care of that.

As far as the procedure itself, why are people so scared of it?  First of all, it's a little uncomfortable, but it's not painful. I guess if the thought of someone drilling into your bone scares you, you would be nervous.  I'm fine with any procedure while it's being done because I don't feel anything.  Yeah the screech of the drill was annoying, but it was quick.  The endodontist was actually bouncing around between me and at least one other patient while I was getting xrays throughout the procedure, so the actual time in my mouth wasn't bad at all.  It helps to have an experienced endodontist.  A "good old boy" who you could tell has been doing root canals for 40 years. He kept saying thank you after I nodded yes, I'm fine, a million times because he kept asking. He kept apologizing that I even needed to be there, although of course it wasn't his fault (I've never seen him until today). He even could tell that I was well educated! And how important it was to watch those 4 kids well. He spoke highly of our regular dentist and how he just came back from India and what great things he does and how he's a great person (Doug Harty). And his assistant was great, too. So, if you need an endodontist, I would highly recommend James Malooley at Indiana Endodontrics in Greenwood. He may retire at some point, and I did see a young dentist in there, too, but for now, he's there and he's awesome!

 It's been such an up and down day. I'm grateful that we have park day tomorrow because I couldn't go out and really enjoy today's weather.  I beat feet home because I wasn't sure how I was going to feel with the novacane side effects or how painful I'd feel, etc.  I've had some nausea (might have been the smoothies which had whey and soy protein in it), a moment or two of dizziness or feeling like I needed to lay down for a moment, and a slight headache from keeping my glasses off for the procedure and yet keeping my eyes open. I'm mentally spent between meeting new people, having a major procedure done and the sticker shock, as well as dealing with Abishai of course.  Praise God I had planned well and made sure the middles were completely independent on their school work today and tomorrow. I did check their math today, but I'll do their end of the week checks on everything hopefully tomorrow before park day.  It's at Southeastway again, so that makes it so much easier for us.  Speaking of Southeastway, I had written one "woe is me" post on Facebook and my friend saw it and asked if she could help ease the burden by helping us with the family pictures.  We haven't had professional photos done in 4 years.  And my family historian brain is shocked and upset it's been that long when for years I made sure it happened every year.  So, after the big rain on Saturday, we are going to try to squeeze in a photo session between Keturah's KP worship team rehearsal and Benaiah being back to church to do tech on Sunday. Thank goodness I can spend Saturday preparing. My friend did this for us before we left for Canada, as a way to raise funds for them to become overseas missionaries, too.  I wanted to use who will be our new neighbors, but I also know how awesome she and her sister are and how I would need to compensate them at regular price. So, I think God's timing is perfect on this.  Hopefully Benaiah will agree to it. 

Ok, that's it for now.  I need to go find some soft carbs to eat again because I'm hungry. I drank the smoothie at lunch time and had pasta at 2 or 3 pm. Then the chicken vegetable soup between 5-6, but I didn't put a lot of potatoes in that, so it wasn't carb heavy.  And when I have a queasy stomach, that's what I reach for, soft carbs. Or a banana. Ah, yes, a banana sounds perfect. I'll be gentle on my temporary filling, don't worry. I don't want to have an emergency because I made a mess of it.  I hope I don't grind my teeth tonight.  I wish I knew where the mouthguard is that I bought a few years ago to help with that. Oh, the night's still young, I can go try to find it still. Yeah! #firstworldproblems  And yes, all my "problems" today were first world problems, I obviously know that. And I thought I was doing well with it until it hit me at lunchtime.  I'm over it now. I don't have time for pity parties.  Tomorrow is a new day, and hopefully not a more painful one.

Oooo, Chewbacca Mom, aka Candace Payne, had a clip of herself on Instagram today.  She was giving a talk on joy, and she explained that joy comes from believing in the HOPE that is Jesus Christ, and his salvation.  People who truly believe and have hope, will have joy follow.  Hope before joy.  Nice!

It's all over CCM, Truett McKeehan, oldest son of TobyMac (Toby MacKeehan), died at his home at a the age of 21 yesterday.  The whole Christian music scene is grieving for Toby's family, as is his fans. No details on cause of death, but gosh, it made me hold the kids tighter again.  Toby has a song called Scars on his Elements album that describes how he felt when Truett moved out and away from home. Truett was just coming into his own with music and a Christian. We mourn with their family.

Up before the sun?  Say it ain't so! That's twice this week!

Coupons, Grand Opening info, all fun stuff at our new golden arches!

Keturah proudly left a note saying these are the first happy meal boxes the store has ever used. Lol, she knows me well.

Biggest bowl for just a handful of blueberries and smaller bowl for a large amount of blueberry shredded wheat, go figure.

Abishai starting to pack for Grandma's house.

I'm going to sleepover for four days, Mom.

He used the tennis rackets as snowshoes, so....

I got out the real ones! He was excited to try them, although there are hard rubber spikey knobs on the bottom that is meant to grip your boots.  Ouch!

Keturah tried them, too, without socks, so her feet hurt.

Speaking of Keturah, I found out that she was on the Facebook Messenger for Kids app on the tablet while she was supposed to be using it for school.  She left this pics for her friends.  I did set this app up for her to use and it's on both the tablet and my phone.  I got an alert on my phone because a friend responded and that's how I knew she had been on there.  Gotcha!

Hello, little elf queen.

The massive pile of stuff Abishai gathered to take to Grandma's house for four days.  Half of it went back to their homes.

Grateful I purposefully made chicken vegetable soup a couple of days ago.  I was able to break up the chicken into small bites and slowly chew it without it getting stuck in my teeth.  Yeah.

What's really going to Grandma's house.

I just want you, Mom!  He hasn't had much touch time this week because I've been busy.

Take a picture of me doing this mom (he was smacking his lips).

A little piano protege?

He has seen us prop open books with other books before, so that's what he did here.

I thought this was a neat idea.

Although she had had her screen time, and with Abishai at Grandma's, I encouraged Jared to play Minecraft with Keturah.  Check out how close to the screen she is, just like Abishai gets!  Ok, it is hard to see some elements when you are sitting on the couch.  I get that.  I like my computer and phone close to my face. Silly girl.

I must be wiped out because this picture sent me into giggle fits!  You see, Abishai said he was taking fruit snacks so that he could have his two packages every morning.  I didn't think to double check because I thought he understood he was staying one night.  Well, Grandma found 16 fruit snacks, which, is 4 a day which makes a bit of sense if you are going to be gone for 4 days.  Abishai was planning ahead!  I don't know if Abishai was counting or not, but it's amazing that there's exactly 8 of each kind.  What a goofball!  I told Grandma to hide the scissors because Abishai will find them and open up his fruit snacks himself.  What a little busy body planner!

Ah! Three of us got to sleep in!  No Abishai waking us up at 7 because the men of the house left to go work early.  I slept off and on from 6-9am and woke up with energy! Note to self: I need to change my bad bedtime habits of the last 10 years, ahem. I also woke up painfree!  Ok, just my tooth and my mouth were virtually pain free.  I will always have my fibro pain.  And I did have a headache due to the drop in air pressure which took two rounds of exedrin migraine to get rid of.  Did you know that on the bottle of excedrin migraine it says you can only take 2 caplets every 24 hrs?  Well, I just found that out a week or two ago when I was thinking of taking the stronger ibuprofen I got from the hospital and wanted to make sure I didn't over dose.  Whoops. So all these years when I've occasionally taken two doses of excedrin migraine, I could have been hurting myself more, nice. Oh well, now I know and I did take two doses today because I also got dehyrdated at the playground.  I didn't have time to bring a warm drink and I wasn't sure if there was a porta potty still, so I didn't want to take a chance. Anyway, that's life. But I could eat and drink anything I wanted to any way I wanted to! Having a root canal done is expensive but worth every penny after you've been dealing with a sensitive tooth for 2-3 years! And since I saw a very experienced endodontist, it was a quick and pleasant experience. I did have slight pain when I was chewing my food this morning, but even that subsided over the day as the inflammation started to go away and the tooth hopefully went back up into the socket a bit. I don't know, but the endodontist said that the inflammation in the gums had pushed the tooth down (it's an upper tooth) and therefore it was rubbing on the bottom tooth more, that's why I was getting pain there as well when I ate, not just the cold and sugar pain on the sides. He did file the tooth down a bit too.  It's the bicuspid (tooth #4) I think with the two longer pointer sides.  Anyway, I'm a much happier camper although it's costing us a lot.  Quickest diagnosis and permanent fix I've ever seen.  Not like all my other issues, like melanoma scars that still itch.

So, with a late, late start, Justin barely had time to mow and eat lunch before it was time to go the park for the 2nd to last park day. It was our last park day because we are going hiking next week and it was at Southeastway again.  Yeah! It was Molly (Eli) and Brenda (Caiden) and a newer mom, Amanda, who as become pretty regular to our group as well. And then gym days will hopefully start up.  The person organizing that had changed, so we are getting a late start on finalizing the details. It was pretty cold, so we bundled up with hoodies or hats.  I donned my black boots and extra socks.  I didn't put on a third layer of sweatshirt, but I was close.  I was frigid when I got home and had to thaw out for a little bit with some coffee. Abishai had some hot chocolate while he waited his turn for the tablet.  Keturah hadn't finished yet.  I don't know why she got a late start because I thought she had done more homework before the boys and I left.  I left her home alone with the tablet and locked doors. I put this new Facebook Messenger for Kids app on my phone and the tablet so that she could communicate with Auggie and her friends, and something Justin said reminded me that because I'm signed in to both regular FB messenger and the kids version, if I need to talk to her or she needed to talk to me, we could do it via that app.  I'll have to make sure it's on next time I leave her home.  She doesn't have a phone and the tablet doesn't have a phone number associated with anymore.  And because I'm logged into it, I know when she does get a message from somebody.  My phoned dinged the other day and when I looked at it, I saw that she had messaged others that I had approved of beforehand, too.  Perfect accountability setup.  She did finally find the app I'm using to track her usage.  I should have added it before so it calculates the usage for everyone and I don't have to remember when they start and stop using it and no one can lie to me.  Oh well, now I know. And it's password protected.

Oh, so I was showing Abishai had to read the clock so he would quit asking me if it was his turn.  I said, "When the big hand, this one, points to the 6, this number, then it's your turn."  Yes, it's an analog clock.  We have both in the house.  There's a mini clock in each bathroom that is analog and the kitchen one is an analog as well.  The stove, microwave, and our electronic devices, as well as our real alarm clock (which we only use as a clock, because we have alarms on our phone) and Keturah's alarm clock (I think Justin's alarm clock is still plugged in, too), are all digital. We learn to use both in our homeschool and it took Keturah awhile to understand it.  So why not start the basics early with Abishai? Yup. He seemed to understand a bit.

So, the kids had their screen time, we had leftovers for supper, and then I went over Keturah's homework with her and sent Justin to start working on his.  For the first time in many week, we will be finishing up school on Saturday.  I let things slide after I knew we weren't going out of town on Saturday. Despite the rain, we do have to go out tomorrow to find tape for Justin's costume for Sunday and I think I'll bring Keturah with us so we can stop by the eye doctor's and get her glasses adjusted. Paperwork wise I'm fairly up to date, so I might work on some photo projects or something after I check Justin's work. Abishai wanted Daddy to take him to the park, so I suggested that Daddy take him to the library instead because we didn't go in when we dropped off and picked up books today (Justin goes in for me). The new McDonald's will be a zoo with the rain and because it just opened so that's not an option. We'll see if we can get some stuff done tomorrow inside. I also wanted to go through some of the clothes as well, so that's on the agenda.  We need to pick out outfits for pictures on Sunday.  Sounds like a longer list than I first thought! Eek!  But not as long as Grandpa's list.  He visited 6 states in total this week. Too much.  It's just too much. 

Benaiah worked today and went to a kid movie with Ava and her friend and her friend's boyfriend. Oh, he was showing off his "Team Leader Card" that he can use to swipe on the register to override it for discounts or what not.  He can clock people in early as well.  Wow!  And he has a key and I'm not going to tell you what it can or cannot lock and unlock. But he's got a boatload of responsibility now.  Very cool!  Tomorrow is his last shift until the next Saturday because he took so much time off for the Ozark trip and us going hiking. His next paycheck is going to be really thin. But he's budgeting the best he can and not doing too bad with it.  He pays by debit card, so when he's out of money, he's out of money. We haven't had to bail him out. We've had to be patient with him paying for the truck and for insurance, but whatever.

Indiana has reached the peak of fall color! All our baby trees are gorgeous!

Abishai set himself up on the chair ready to snuggle in after he came home from Grandma's house.

We are so eclectic. A trampoline, snowshoes, and a little rocking chair all sharing the same space.

Abishai matched up the Momma Giraffe with the Baby Giraffe and called them (you) Mom and me (Abishai). I didn't realize we had two of them.  I know the big one was from Kohl's I believe from their Kohl's Care for Kids $5 stuffed animals rack near the registers. That's how I got the llama for the Llama Llama Red Pajama.

Then he wanted to be close but there was no room for me on the chair, so we held hands.

We then worked on a puzzle together.  I had to hold myself back from telling him where each piece went.  He was the one who pulled the box from the shelf however, so yeah, I didn't have to initiate! He did find several pieces that matched each other by type, like the word at the top or the eyes or the swords. So he's understanding what to look for ahead of time.  This was 100 pieces and it came in a box with 3 other 100 piece puzzles that are Minion themed.

We came to the park to play, not stand around a beyblades toy, while the moms sat on a bench that actually faced away from them, lol.  This is our 2019 park day crew, Justin, Abishai, Esther, Eli, Lily and Caiden.

Aww, he's wearing a Grandma Howell and his new to him red lightweight jacket.  I had to beg him to put on jeans because he wanted to be in pjs.  And he won't give up his almost to small for him Lightning McQueen boots, although I have another pair that is just a size bigger that fits him better.

Brothers on the slide.

I wish I had had the time to stop and properly take pictures of all the trees at Southeastway today.  It was gorgeous!  No blue skies, but the trees for in full color!

Swing me, Mom!

Part of our fun crew.

Almost all the colors of the rainbow as far as the eyes could see.

Take a picture of me, Mom, doing this! (making some kind of noise, see the video below).

He wanted to put the skateboard at the top of the slide and roll it down (not with himself on it), but I wouldn't let him.  He's such a daredevil!

Here's another view!

Pictures don't do it justice!

Let's scare Keturah and see if she's paying attention.  She refused to get out of her bed.

Just in case you need to know the special until the end of December at our new McDonald's.  I hope that they don't take that many sales away from CFA, although, I would like to support the managers at this store as well.  I don't like the congestion getting to and from CFA, so I might be a little disloyal and go here instead.  We will see.

The trifecta at an e2 conference!

Shutterfly sent me this "throwback Thursday" email with these three pictures in it from 12 years ago! Abishai is about the same size as Benaiah is here in the blue hat and gray jacket. We retired the gray jacket this year.  Abishai didn't like the bomber jacket, but it was a favorite with Justin.

They are so little! Benaiah age 5 and Justin age 2.

Look at Benaiah!  He could fit in a box! I saved these pictures for the "pics for Benaiah's college graduation open house" folder.  And I texted them to Ava and Benaiah, hehe.

Abishai is now tired and a bit stir crazy, can you tell?

Off to bed with you!

This was put on the public IAHE page, so we are now official! We still need to do some training and start doing the nitty gritty work, but hey, it's out there now!  We are so excited!

On Saturday, it rained ALL day.  We knew it would.  But we had prepared to work inside on projects. Jared took Keturah and Abishai to the "working store" for some wood to make a step for Grandma so she can step into her house from the garage better.  Leah's hip has been bothering her for some time.and she had mentioned that the steps she found weren't the right height or too expensive. Then Justin worked with Jared to build it.  Meanwhile, I went out to the dollar stores to try to find some kind of combination of craft supplies to finish Justin's costume for tomorrow.  Just like last year, the kids and volunteers can dress up in their Halloween costumes for church.  I got my to do list done: shower, school, costume, and gather clothing for pictures tomorrow.  My friend will take our photos if the ground isn't too wet.  So it was a productive day.  Benaiah of course had a normal shift at work.

Our announcement was finally made public on all social media!  Yeah!

Update: the fire didn't make my hair smell like smoke, yeah!

Oura nnouncement on Facebook!

On my way to bed, I happened upon this scene.  Benaiah was cleaning and organizing his desk area.  He had a motive because someone gave him a new name band keyboard.  He found his winter gloves, yeah!  told him to pick up the large chunks of dog hair while he was down there.  He was talking to his friend Tyler at the same time.  #adulting

Today's storms.Yikes!

Pretty cold, too.

Snow in Canada!

My constant companion.

Boys!  You can't stop them!

Sigh.

Justin sanding Grandma's step.

Safety first, men? Good thing it was just a small project.

He told me, "Hey, lady, your house needs to be fixed and it's going to take a long time."

"Hey, lady, I need to fix your house!"

Measure twice, cut once.

It's a good thing I had secured everything for winter!

And we had a fire going all day!  We are keeping our toes toasty on this windy, stormy, rainy day in our hand me chair down chairs. I'm sitting in Jared's Grandmother Johnson's chair and Abishai is sitting in the little rocking chair that we sat in at my Grandmother's house next to her rocking chair.  Sweet!

I can hear the wind howling around my sunroom windows. Crazy out there! Praying Benaiah is safe in his little truck on his drive home from work.  He did put some weight in the truck bed though.

Apparently this campaign started in April but didn't go viral until today when every single one of our favorite YouTubers decided to promote it and themed their videos with it.  It's a great cause, donate $1 per tree and raise $20,000.000 HOWEVER, what about cancer research and helping the poor? Yes trees are great in the long run, but it takes time to grow. How can a society quickly donate this kind of money in less 24 hrs when we can't raise a few hundred dollars for charity.  Something is messed up here. I did donate to this campaign, but I'm also planning to donate to Christian charities as well.

Sunday started out overcast, but ended up being a gorgeous day.  There was a bit of miscommunication so we didn't get our pictures done, although it was a gorgeous day for it.  I guess we could have still gone over to the park for fun.  But we did manage some fun in our own backyard, too! We even wore out the dog!  We had about 2 hrs between lunch and people migrating back to church, so there really wasn't enough time for it anyway. I think I could have been a bit more productive this afternoon, but I didn't really plan for it. It's already 10pm again and I don't want to start anything tonight either, so hm,.....I could start a good solid to do list though.  That might help organize my thoughts.

Justin and Abishai wore costumes to church, Jared wore his Veggietales Bob the Tomato shirt to nursery, Benaiah did tech, Keturah had KP practice.  Then lunch, home for a bit, electronics, back to church for the older three for youth group.  Phew! Benaiah packed himself up and finish is app for Ozark before he leaves at 8 am for the 8 hr drive down to Joplin, MO. I can't wait to hear what he thinks of a college campus.  I mean, I guess he's seen Holland College in Michigan, but not when it's in session before.  Hopefully he'll get to visit a class or something, too.  We tried a new format on Facebook for our monthly homeschool meetings, and on my friend's end it went well, but I couldn't join via video for some reason.  Oh well, we'll figure it out.

I might feel differently by Thursday, but how hard can it be?  I wouldn't attempt it without Jared there to temper the bad attitudes.

Lucky shirt!  I don't have time to watch the games but I follow along using my Patriots app. Colts won against the Broncs today as well.

Them my boys!

This is the outfit that took me to three stores and Amazon Prime shipping.

White duct tape and new $5 blue pants (thanks to Amazon credit card points) and he's ready to be a teen leader in 1st grade.  And yes, he wore it in the sanctuary this morning.  No judgment here.

The Royal King would like his footwear thrust upon his feet please.  And only by Daddy.

It was so windy today that the cape really billowed behind Abishai.  Yeah!

After being an intern, Josh Howerton joined on as staff 4 years ago.  He is now leaving us to greener pastures.  Oh wait, drier pastures, to a 35,000 member church in Arizona.  You won't need those hoodies anymore, Josh.  His brother is a pastor at that church as well. He is going to be worship minister. I heard that there were gobs and gobs of tears tonight at youth group, as that's where he's spent most of this time in the past 4 years.  He's a sweet guy and he's still single.  Josh encouraged Benaiah to play drums for youth group and then main worship.  Justin had just started to get to know him as they met as his house for D group. Ethan Strunk cried and cried because Josh had helped him get through a difficult period in his life. I don't like it when Indian Creek is a stepping stone for young people, but that's how it goes.  Enjoy the heat of the desert buddy!

Praying over Josh.

Exodus 20 and the Ten Commandments were the main subject of the sermon.  Pretty basic. I like this bit in v. 6 where sin affects the 3rd and 4th generations down on some level, but can be stopped .  But leaving a legacy of faithfulness to God's commands yields fruit for a thousand generations.  This helps to erase the mom guilt. Break the cycle of sin, and you'll start to notice a difference in younger generations.

Just about time to rake at Grandpa's yard!  So pretty!

Nothing beats blue skies and fall colors.

What?!  It must have been because of the warmer weather but several flowers decided to bloom in the past couple of days.

Well, hello there.  I'll step back out of your way now.

A group how about 6-8 buzzards circling around our house!

I don't know why he wears Daddy's huge boots, but he does.  They literally fell off of Justin as he swang in the swing.

I got Justin willing to play catch with Velcro paddles.  Then Abishai and I threw a frisbee a little bit which divulged until a racing contest.

Run, Forest, Run!

Make sure to posse correctly!

Daddy now joined into the running madness.

Then Jared and Justin raced each other.

Jared playing with the dog.  We exhausted Socks and we haven't heard a peep from him for the rest of the day.

Can't go under there, dog.

I love this quote.

Aww, he matches a bit more with our pumpkin display.  We ended up with a total of 3 plastic and 4 real pumpkins. Abishia says each pumpkin represents someone in our family.

I've seen a ton of the woolly mammoth caterpillars and now I know why.  They come out of the most vulnerable stage, eat a bunch and grow fat, form their chrysalis. Abishai says he wants to pet the caterpillar.  He can, it's not position.  Yeah!  The bristles are not soft but Abishai wants to try to pet it.  Go for it, buddy, go for i!

Nice surprise to hear from Joel and Luke (really it's their social media person behind this text), but it's fun to see it come on the screen anyway.

Does it count as stealing if you accidentally bring home an extra sealed spoon from work?  I hope not.  It was an accident.  However, one of their spatulas has been consistently missing and they think it's one off the new people coming new.  So the Team Leaders also had time before work today to clarify problems in the past about  and staffing issues altogether.

Here's to a new week!


The End