November Birthdays

Abby has always really liked her birthday and of recent years has stretched out the celebration for at least two weeks with various special events. Her daddy got his best birthday present 22 years ago when Abby was born on his birthday! Since that time, his birthday has taken a back seat to Miss Birthday Queen!

Now Abby gets a taste of her own medecine! Three days before Abby's birthday, little Yelena made her appearance into the world. I thought it would be humorous if in keeping with tradition God held the baby off till Abby's birthday, but He was merciful! He knows how much Abby loves her own birthday. She did get to share the limelight this year with little Squeak'ums. She even said her birthday was just like any other day till we came to bring her out for her birthday celebration.

Now Abby could enjoy the decorated dining room, present piles, lots of attention (maybe a little too much) and her favorite birthday meal of ham and mashed potatoes.

A real positive for this visit was having two babies to share. The 'littles' never get to hold Elise as much as they would like, but with a new baby to keep the older girls occupied, Elise was all theirs!

Another plus for Abby was her thoughtful husband who took up a collection from the 'Abby fan club' to buy her florist books. Abby's ministry is doing wedding flowers for others to lower their wedding costs. She found some phenomenal florist books when we were planning her own wedding, but they were expensive! Now she has four great books to show the brides who have no clue what they want when it comes to picking wedding flowers.

She even got a 'Floral Fan Deck' which has every flower in every color...so if you know the color you want, then you can pick out the flowers that you like that come in that color. We spent the rest of the afternoon looking at all the pretty pictures. Abby really wished she could get married again since she found so many more flowers that she liked.

Birthday celebrations ended with a lovely 'make your own sundae bar' courtesy of Sarah's shower! We had plenty of toppings and icecream left over and even forgot to put out the spray whipped cream for the shower so we had five bottles to use up!

We did the traditional birthday 'fill your mouth with whipped cream.' Abby used to be the first volunteer, but I think she's outgrown that. This year, Benjamin was first in line!

Happy Birthday, Abby and Rod. May God bless your upcoming year and may you both live for His glory...

Sarah's Shower

I would like to have posted about Sarah's shower sooner, but we were pleasantly interrupted by a new grandbaby! Abby made it through the shower on Sunday afternoon...her water broke early Monday morning so she was out of commission after that. Thank the Lord for His good timing...Abby always adds a certain 'touch' to our decorating. We try to decorate, and she fixes it and makes it nicer! She also has quite a stash of interesting containers. I told her what our plans were, and she brought the cute little tin buckets to hold the treats, sprinkles and silverware.

Abby also arranged the flowers for the shower. It's so convenient to have an amature florist in the family.

We decided to do an icecream sundae bar for the refreshments since it was a pot trust Sunday, and all the ladies would be bringing food for lunch. Making double for lunch and a shower would have been too much so icecream was much easier and fun. The girls made sure we had every topping they had ever dreamed of putting on icecream. We made brownies for the shower to go with the icecream, but they didn't turn out very pretty even though they were the 'no fail' box mix kind. I prayed someone would bring pretty brownies to pot trust, and there were two pans...praise the Lord! We substituted our ugly but tasty brownies for the two pans of pretty ones and used them to put on our tiered plates...whoever made those brownies, thank you, thank you, thank you. We are forever in your debt!

Besides the flowers, photos of the couple figured prominently on all the tables. Hillary, the soon-to-be sister-in-law took some very nice courtship/engagement pictures...good job Hillary!

Since Sarah is from Texas, we wanted to welcome her to her new home-to-be Nebraska style. We sang her the Nebraska state song appropriately titled "Beautiful Nebraska Land." I asked Mrs. Beasley and her daughters to sing it, but she said it would sound better with more voices so Rachel and Betsy volunteered to help out. Alatheia and I were roped in at the last minute. I guess one must be 'flexible' and do it with a smile! We came up with all the goofy actions at the last minute too in keeping with our light hearted theme. Hillary said they didn't like 'stuffy' formal showers. She got her wish!

The most interesting part of the shower was the question/answer time with Sarah. She got to make up her own questions and think of the answers ahead of time, and she did a great job. She is not afraid of public speaking even in front of a bunch of ladies she doesn't know. Sarah went well beyond the typical questions...where do you live?...how many brothers and sisters do you have? We now know what she is afraid of and how much sleep she needs to be a pleasant person! With her sister Elizabeth sitting next to her adding colorful details to 'clarify' Sarah's answers, Sarah could keep no secrets. Michael has definately met his match!

We sang two hymns of Sarah's choosing, 'For the Beauty of the Earth' and 'Channels Only' and instead of a formal devotion, we had several of the ladies share a scripture and what it had meant to them in their marriage. Out of the six or seven ladies that shared, we all picked similar scriptures that had to do with guarding our minds and thoughts and each dovetailed neatly into what the lady before had just shared. I just love it when the Spirit of God coordinates our thoughts all in keeping with the same theme.

Betsy found some really interesting shower games on the internet. The first one was to draw a picture of Sarah in her wedding finery with a blindfold on! Sarah got to judge which picture she liked best for the prize. One small problem was the see through blindfolds...Forgot to check that small detail!

The next game was a word game. Each lady got a piece of paper and 'Bridal' was printed across the top and 'Shower' was printed across the bottom. The B and S lined up, the R and H lined up, the I and O lined up etc. The object of the game was to make as many words as possible that started with the top letter and ended with the bottom letter. An example would be the word 'bees' for the B and S. If the word had to do with a wedding or shower, the person got double points! We scored the game like Boggle...3 or 4 letter words got 1 point, 5 letter words got 2 points, etc...

We gave the ladies 3 minutes to write the words. Scoring took a long time and some ladies had to pass their papers to Leah Hipps, the math whiz, to figure out their scores! Emily Hipps, Mrs. Beasley and Liz Williams cleaned up with words like 'bliss','bridegrooms' and 'bridesmaids.' I think Mrs. Beasley had over 140 points!

Sarah picked Alatheia for the best blindfolded bride drawing. We were not surprised. She also picked Rebekah which was much more surprising. We had them draw a wedding cake for the 'draw off', blindfolded. Alatheia won again drawing a beautiful, though somewhat disconnected wedding cake in three colors! Next time, we'll have her draw it with her hands tied behind her back to give her more of a challenge!

The bride got to start off the refreshment line since she needed to eat fast and get started opening gifts. She had a big pile to open!

Sarah had so many gifts to open that Leah Hipps suggested we rope Michael into coming to help her out. She said it would make Sarah happy too! How sweet!

Michael didn't mind helping his girl out a bit. He's also very funny and made gift opening hilarious as well.

The rest of us visited, admired the gifts and ate gummy bears, right Liz?

Congratulations, Sarah and Michael, and thanks for the 'Thank you chocolates.' We still have a few left but not many! Girls and chocolate...

God's best blessings on your upcoming wedding. We'll be there with bells on, Lord willing!

"We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, Michael and Sarah, loved by God, that He has chosen you...

1 Thess 1:3-4

It's a Girl!

Caleb and Abby are the proud parents of a new baby girl!

I'm glad I checked C&A's blog first for the spelling of her name...

Yelena Joy Beasley

6 lb. 6 oz.

19.5" long

Born at 9:06 a.m. with all required personnel present!





We had picked up 'little Peach'ums' early this morning so Abby could labor in peace. We didn't have long to wait. True to form, once Abby started labor in earnest, little Pickle #2 was not long in making her appearance. We brought Elise back so she could meet her new sister...and we brought some terribly bad for you lunch for all the 'personnel.' Elise was delighted with her sister and kept trying to 'beep' her nose.




Mrs. Beasley beat me over and got to hold her first! Annette is such a good grandma. When I held Yelena, I made her cry!

One other interesting tidbit...Yelena was born at the same time as Elise almost to the minute!

For more updates and photos check Caleb and Abby's Blog

Licking Contest?

What do you do when you drop a bottle of syrup on the floor and the bottom breaks?

Have a licking contest? NO, Benjamin!

A Man and His Truck...

The news is out...Aaron bought a truck.




He wanted me to hold off posting for a while so he could get maximum surprise value at church on Sunday.

For those that want the specs:

1997 Dodge Ram 2500, 4x4, V8, 5 speed manual transmission w/120K miles...the only small disappointment is that it's not a diesel. Chuga, chuga, chuga...He found a Dodge diesel truck for only $20K, but unfortunately at 20 years old, he hasn't socked away that kind of cold, hard cash yet. He did pay for this vehicle with cash. Good job, Aaron! Your financial counselor dad is proud of you!

He actually bought the truck so he could push snow this winter. The next item on the purchase list is a Boss V plow. If anyone sees one for sale, let Aaron know.

Interesting Tidbits about the truck:

When buying a truck, do your homework online before you look

Also, never sign anything at a used car dealer till you're ready to buy

Mom got the first ride in the cab

The kids got the first ride in the back...and we didn't lose anyone, Praise the Lord!

Pizza Pot Trust

Millard Alliance has had a 'refuge/alternative from Halloween' for the last few years where families can gather and fellowship. When we lived on base, we really appreciated having a place to go since the children were scared to death of the ghouls and goblins that came to the door. Now we go because we like the fellowship!



We haven't learned the lesson yet of 'don't bother to make homemade pizza.' All these kids get is homemade pizza and never get the store bought kind. So what do they choose? Store bought pizza! Several families straggled in late complaining..."There was a huge line at Little Ceasar's." It would be interesting to look at the stats for days when the most pizzas are sold in the U.S. and see where Halloween falls.

The game of choice for the evening was Killer Bunnies. It is as random and far fetched as it sounds. My mathmatical, engineering son-in-law likes to play it as well as his light hearted, non strategizing wife so there must be more to it than meets the eye. The killer bunnies group had several loud 'eruptions' of laughter and woe during the evening, so they had a good time despite the game's randomness.

Another group started a game of Apples to Apples. This game was more sedate, and they even talked Mr. Beasley into joining them. It was his first time to play. Betsy noticed Mr. Beasley didn't have any cards yet so she prayed he would get some...then he ended up winning the game!

Mrs. Nelson, the Boggle queen, talked me, the Boggle failure, into a game or two. We had one roll that was so good that she got 31 points for that round, and I got 16. Amazing!

Another highlight of the evening was when Luke the florist, painter, plumber guy showed up with a van full of slightly old flowers that he pulled out of a super secret dumpster somewhere in Omaha. He let everyone take home as many flowers as they wanted and still had enough to make a lovely bouquet for church the next day. Any guy that likes flowers and can arrange them really rates! Thanks, Luke.

We stayed a little too late since it was Daylight Savings time that night. Rod changed the clocks before we noticed so we couldn't understand why we were so tired at nine o'clock when we got home. Very disorienting!

The End of the Matter

To let you all know how the matter turned out...

Rachel and Hannah stuck to their stubborn guns for a long time, but then Rachel softened and used the $6 to buy Hannah a cute shirt from her next Good Will trip along with her favorite candy bar. Hannah would have rather had the $6, but she graciously accepted Rachel's peace offering, and fellowship has been restored.

Purse controversies

One purse, two purse, red purse, blue purse...

Hannah went to Goodwill this afternoon and in a sudden burst of magnanimity bought a purse for Betsy and Rachel along with one for herself. The pink purse, she picked out for Rachel, the brown for Betsy and the black for herself. Upon returning home, each sister received the purses with joy. Hannah informed them that though the purses were gifts, if they wanted to pay her back she wouldn't say 'No.' Upon receiving the purses, each sister went through the interior recesses looking for diamond earrings. (Abby found one in a Goodwill purse once) They did not find diamonds, but Rachel and Betsy both found interesting items in their purses. Betsy's purse was a bust, but Rachel hit the jackpot and found $6, a tube of lipstick, a bobby pin and a pill of unknown usage. Thus began the controversy...Who owns the contents of the gift purses? No one is really debating over the bobby pin and lipstick, but the $6 was highly debated! The parties involved in the debate thought we should take the question to you...the unbiased public. Who has the most right to the $6?

a. The U.S. Government

b. GoodWill

c. Hannah, because she was so kind as to buy the purse for Rachel to begin with

d. Rachel, because the purse was now hers and she found the money

Hmmm...I think the answer if obvious, but what do you think?

Eternally Without Breakfast

Wednesday is creative writing day at the Gradys. This Wednesday, the assignment was to write a story about 'Tom, the Thanksgiving Turkey.' I've used the same writing curriculum for years so Betsy had already written her life's allotment of Tom Turkey stories so I gave her liberty to write a story about whatever she liked. That is always an interesting proposition. She came up with the following paragraph which is quite true. I walked into the living room while it was happening. She had a bit of help from Abby with colorful word selection. Enjoy!



Eternally Without Breakfast

by Betsy (and Abby)

Have you ever wondered what eternity would be like without a good breakfast under your belt? Leah knows, albeit vicariously. This morning I was sitting peacefully in the living room when my attention was grabbed by a small muted wail that proceeded from behind the couch. "O no!" my little sister Leah cried, "My Aunt Ruthie has entered eternity... and she doesn't like my eggs! Although they were kind of squishy. No, they were burnt, like bacon, though my bacon isn't burnt. " I was chuckling all the while but these downright contradictions caused my mirth to erupt forcefully, interrupting the flow of the tale and embarrassing Leah. The silence that followed did not bode well for the discovery of how Aunt Ruthie had met her sad demise in this breakfastless state. Next time, I will hold my laughter until the relative is laid to rest in a satisfactory manner!

A Box Full of Happiness!

Aunt Karol knows of our weakness for Pizelles. As a matter of fact, she's the one that got us started on them after she gave us a package or two for one of the childrens' birthdays. Betsy made so bold as to ask Aunt Karol where she got them and tell her she could get them for us anytime! Well, Karol took her up on it and sent us a box full of 10 packages of Pizelles. Yum! And just in time for us to be sick. They seemed to sit easy on sickly stomachs. Good timing, Karol.

Pizelles are a seasonal item found at Aldi's grocery store and taste something like a fortune cookie. The first one isn't that great, but they tend to grow on you. We gave one package of our Pizelle pile to Anna Beasley when she came by to visit poor, sick Betsy. Later in the day, she offered one to Mr. Powers, our plumber friend, warning him of their addictive qualities. He ate the first one in a ho hum manner, but was quick to accept the offer of a second and in no time had eaten a sleeve of cookies.

If you go buy Pizelles, watch out for the counterfeit ones sold right next to the good ones. Abby made that mistake when she picked up a few boxes for us on her last Aldi's run. She mistakenly picked up anise flavored Pizelles instead of the vanilla ones. The anise flavored ones taste like black licorice. An unpleasant surprise when you're not expecting it.

Thank you, Aunt Karol, for thinking of us. Your timing couldn't have been better.

And thank You, God, for giving the children something tasty they could eat in their long days of illness.

Fever and Ague

by Rachel

H1N1, Swine flu, bubonic plague, black death. Take your pick, I think we got them all. Just kidding! Our family came down with some foul disease last Thursday, and we have been languishing ever since.

Being sick at our house is not so bad because we all have a big sick party and everyone comes upstairs dragging their blankets and pillows to the living room and setting up camp. What we enjoy most about being sick is: Drinking 7up to settle our stomachs, getting to watch 'sick movies' to pass the long hours and having the less sick be room service for the more sick people. We also get out of work and most of our school. It's like a mini vacation...if only we felt a little better so we could enjoy it more.

We're on the mend now so here's a joke that applies to our house now...

Q.What did one casket say to the other casket?

A. Is that you coffin?

We must still be sort of ill, laughing at silly Laffy Taffy jokes.

More Than We Bargained For!

Rod has finally given up on the idea of finishing all the details of the remodel...a very wise decision given that most of them involve some kind of designing or knowledge about woodworking that is above his skill level. Now if our house was a big weather station, he could handle the detail work just fine...



And fortunately for us, there are people like Adam Hess in the world...finish carpenter extraordinaire! We got a 'coupon' advertising his business in the mail about a year ago, and it's been posted on the peg board ever since waiting for the right time.




Sara, his trusty secretary and beautiful wife, came out as well as the young'uns...

Boedin (I hope I spelled that right)

And little 'Deckie'

Adam and Rod checked out all the projects for his estimate after dinner, but the girls and I got to talk to Sara. We hit upon the million dollar question when we asked about 'couponing.' I cannot begin to describe the level of enthusiasm generated by the topic. Sara teaches classes on couponing to interested individuals, and she got the girls interested! Who could resist?

I will wait to describe 'couponing' till after we take the class, but as an example, she brought us these Ghirardelli chocolate bars for the family...they are regularly $1.99 each and she paid .15 cents. We're interested!

Mr. Hess Does Lunch...

Mr. Hess gets lots of time off at UPS since he's worked there since dinosaurs roamed the earth. He has a standing invitation (quite literally) to eat at the Grady's anytime. For this special occasion, he wore his favorite sweater from high school days. That's saying something for a guy that's almost 60.

Staci and her dad know each other too well. They bantered back and forth, with quick whit and glib tongue. They are SO funny.

Mr. Hess is going to add 'The Grady Cafe' to his random restaurant generator list. He has every restaurant in Omaha listed in his computer and when it's his turn to pick where to eat on date night, he lets his random restaurant program make the decision for him. He does reserve the right to override the computer's decision till it picks a restaurant in a safe area of town.

For dessert, we served him powder sugar donuts complete with string left from the donut game at GNC the day before. He and Staci had alot of fun with those donuts prior to eating them.

Poor Zach Stangl came to the door to deliver GNC lessons to the girls and handled the surprise well when he was greeted by Mr. Hess instead of a Grady!

Make your reservations early for your next lunch at the Grady Cafe. You're always welcome!

Elise Can Walk!

Okay, so you have to use your imagination a little. Elise took her first three steps to her proud papa! Caleb was tickled pink. She took three more "first steps" to her Aunt Anna. But when she came out on Wednesday, she didn't really feel like walking...more like eating and napping!

So if you use your imagination, you can see "preliminary steps." Elise has her exit strategy well planned out. If she feels a tumble coming on, she plunks right down!

Birthday Surprise!

He, he, he! Can we keep a secret or what!

Not exactly. Caleb and Abby hung the remaining dry wall in Aaron's room as a surprise for Rod's birthday while he was TDY to D.C. We're betting that Rod won't notice until his birthday in November. We have a good chance of their good deed going unnoticed since that's the last thing Rod would expect. He never goes in the boys' room except to say good night and then the room is dark. Abby has to mud over the next two weeks so we'll see how it goes.

You don't tell, and we won't tell!

All in a Day's Work

Saturday's task was to cut at least half the winter's wood. Rod kept cutting and cutting, and the children kept hauling and hauling. Those of you that know what our hill is like can imagine hauling sled fulls of fire wood up it! No one was too disappointed when the chainsaw lost a bolt and the chain came off. The Husker/Texas Tech game was on by then too. Another good reason to call it a day.

Thank You, God, for hard work, cold days and warm fires...

Caleb's Visit

by Rachel

Boxing, wrestling, limbo, jumping and volleyball... who could ask for more fun than that! All this is part of Caleb Nelson's annual visit to our house. Caleb and Anna came out on Tuesday to visit and have fun with the little ones. As soon as Caleb stepped through the door, they dragged him into the living room and tackled him.

The younger children tussled with him and got bumped and bruised all over, but they didn't care. While the others were wrestling, our little Caleb came running into the room with his boxing gloves on and started punching Caleb as hard as he could. That started the boxing part of the visit.

Boxing did not last that long, because Hannah threw out the idea that they should show Caleb all their cart wheels. They immediately agreed but after a few bad attempts they gave up and asked Caleb if he could do better. He did way better than we did and just to make things a little more exciting Caleb also did a few hand stands for us. Some comical moments came after that when Caitlin and B tried to do the same things but only succeeded in landing on their head's.



Caleb is normally never sitting at our house because as soon as he was done with the cartwheels/handstands Rebekah and Leah brought out our long green jump rope and started jumping contests. The contests were to see how high you could jump but that soon turned into limbo and only Caitlin and little Caleb were good at that.



Big Caleb suggested that we go outside and bop the volleyball around a little bit. Apparently, he had not read any of the earlier posts about us playing volleyball. We went out any way and started hitting the volleyball back and forth. That didn't go too well so Caleb came up with a game that helps poor unfortunate volleyball players like us. What happened was that before you hit the volleyball to someone in the circle you had to say their name. If when you hit the ball and it went to far from the person you intended it to go to you got a letter. Once you had spelled pig you were out. Of course Anna and Caleb were the last two till Anna won. The little guys scattered after that and Caleb got Hannah and I into a triangle and taught us to set, dig and hit directionally. Please do not expect us to be experts at it. :) Sadly the visit was over and it was time for Caleb and Anna to leave.

Thank you Caleb and Anna for the delightful time and the helpful volleyball tips. We can't wait till the next annual visit!

Cookin' Up Candles

Have you ever wondered how those delightful Master's Hand Candles came to be? Join me as I take you on the tour of a lifetime! Susie and Nicole Wissmann have been making candles for a LONG time and sometimes they enlist the help of a few fortunate girls for a day. We were blessed to be part of that group and oh did we have fun!

The morning always starts out with "wicking," a process which includes taking the lids and rings off bunches and bunches of pint jars, and then hot gluing the wicks to the bottom of the small jars. When we have finished wicking a few crates, it is time to move on to decorating the candles.

The process continues as we take already poured candles and get them all 'dressed up' and ready to sell. Standing in an assembly line along two tables, the first person stickers the bottom of the candles with their burning instructions. Hard by are the two careful members of the party who proceed to put on the all important front name labels which cannot be crooked! They pass the labeled jars to the raffia fasteners who then hand them over to the lid girls.

2048 candles later we head off for our traditional french fries and ice cream!

Bethany Wissmann's Shower

Bethany Wissmann's bridal shower came at the end of a full day. At 5:30 p.m. I reread the invitation and noticed in a curly little script on the bottom, "Help with shower refreshments would be appreciated." Yikes! I always wondered what they were going to do for refreshments since I hadn't heard anything.

We had to leave early since we were picking up Stangls and Abby, dear, so there was no time to rustle up some suitable shower grub. My only hope was to drop off girls at the shower and scoot over to Sam's Club and pick up something pretty and sweet. I had one other item (an ulterior motive!) that I had to pick up at Sam's too so I didn't mind missing a shower game or two to kill two birds with one stone. Mrs. Rehm had asked me for a glass pitcher so I called Mrs. Nelson on the way to see if she had one. During the course of conversation, I discovered she didn't know to bring food to the shower either. Abby hadn't brought anything when we picked her up, and she didn't know anything about bringing food. Oh no! If three of us managed to miss the request, how many more ladies did?

Anna Nelson would have been proud of me as I found my way through the neighborhood taking the back way to Sam's. When I got there, God seemed to put several tasty shower foods in my path. I picked up a variety of items that the family would be glad to eat if they didn't need them at the shower.

Upon arriving at the church, I sneaked up to the window to see the state of the tables. Yikes! The crowd was huge, and the tables were relatively bare. I went back to the car and brought everything in.

Nicole helped me arrange the little cheesecakes and creampuffs on the serving trays. Abby had brought a glass jar to return to a friend which was confiscated to hold the little cream sticks. The church's fluted bowls held the strawberries, and Mrs. Nelson had a plate all ready for the crackers to go with her dip.

I missed most of the shower, due to lack of attention...coming down from an adrenalin high, I think. I didn't miss Mrs. Larsen's wonderful devotion on the power of a woman's eyes to bring her husband up or cast him into the depths of despair. It was one of those devotions not to be soon forgotten.

I hope Bethany enjoyed her shower. There were bunches of people and bunches of presents and it looked like everyone had bunches of fun.

May God bless their upcoming marriage...65 days away.

No Rest for the Weary!

Our dear friends, the Stangls, gave us the pleasure of their company on Sunday afternoon at the expense of their Sunday afternoon naps...(which they had been looking forward to for a long time!) I told Mrs. Stangl that naps at this phase of life are expendable! So they came over to be with us for a few hours.




The menfolk had business to discuss, but the children had plenty of time for a round of killer spoons before lunch...good to whet the appetite!




And a round of 'The Funnest Game in the World' afterwards. 'The Funnest Game...is a writing/drawing version of 'Telephone.'



Since there were so many people drawing and writing, it took almost half an hour per round, but the results were worth the wait. There was some distinctively creative thinking and drawing going on.

I think Joe started this round with the words, 'Enjoy Coke.' After looking at Aaron's lovely drawing, Zach wrote 'Keep the city clean.'

Betsy's drawing was interpreted by Lydia as a 'city park trash collector' and Rachel drew the lovely guy in the striped suit which when interpreted became 'a convict doing community service.'

The next person said the drawing was of 'a prisoner sweeping the courtyard of the jail.'
with the final interpretation of 'Enjoy Coke' turning out to be 'An angry middle aged man with spiked hair sweeping off his driveway with nine wrappers, etc... on it.' Which planet did these guys get off on! I guess that is the object of the game.

Sadly, our fine time had to come to an end early. If the Stangls couldn't get naps, they were determined to get to bed on time! We don't blame you. Sleep is a good thing. God gives to His beloved sleep.

Thanks for joining us and tell Ellie 'Hi' for us. I guess I can do that here. Hi, Ellie! We miss you. Have fun vacationing in Ukraine.

It's Time for a Shower...

Not the wet kind, but the bridal/fun kind.

Michael Hipps, a long time friend of the family, will be getting married around Thanksgiving. To welcome his Texas bride, Sarah, we're going to throw a shower for her. This'll be great fun! Probably more for us than for Sarah...

Hannah and Betsy have been working on the invitations all day. The shower is 1 November so set aside the day, and as they say in Texas...Y'all come now, ya hear?

Tootsie's New Employment

Our neighbor called a bit frantic wondering if one of our girls could babysit. No one in the neighborhood has ever asked the girls to babysit, because no one has any babies...or young children. Our neighbor's youngest child is a senior in highschool. She does have grandchildren though, and she watches this little cutie every other day. She asked if one of the girls could watch him while she drives her school bus route. None of the big girls wanted the job, so Tootsie, a little middle, piped up, "I'll do it."

She's a natural...and getting paid to play with only one little boy...what a deal.

Lord, give Tootsie wisdom to train this sweet little boy in the way he should go and keep them both safe.

For the Best Mom in the Planet!

We love you bunches Mom!

Editor's Note: It's nice to be the editor so I can get in the last word! These ornery conniptions come in with a tray singing the"You're the best mom on the planet" nonsense to the tune of Happy Birthday. All is fine and dandy till I happen to mention the work we need to do later in the day. The words quickly change to "You're the worst mom on the planet!" without missing a beat! He, he, he!

Changeable as the weather!

Speaking of which...

The church was supposed to go camping last night, but the weatherman called it off! Good call, Weatherman! Our official storm totals ranged from 5 1/2" to 8" inches of snow...in October!

Rachel's Newest Creation

We've been reading 'The Disciplines of a Beautiful Woman' together with the three older girls, and the author is a great advocate of not wasting the 5 and 10 minutes of your life. We try to have handwork for each girl to pick up to train them to redeem those bits of time. This is Rachel's time redeeming project. She doesn't like to do to many other crafty things so she'll probably end up with 5-6 afghans by the time she graduates. This is her second one!

Good job, Rachel.

A Cookout for Caleb and Anna...

otherwise titled 'Anything but Camping'


Friday and Saturday were the scheduled church campout *weather permitting.* MAC has its own inhouse weather forecaster (Rod), and after examining the forecasting models thoroughly, he recommended camping only for the prepared or foolhardy. We're supposed to get a cold front through tonight with snow. Brrr...




Caleb and Anna, came to Omaha for a visit from Virginia, before the grandson arrives, so the proposed church campout turned into a cookout to see them and enjoy some fellowship. Nothing against camping, but we like this warmer alternative a whole lot better.




Pastor Larry, claiming to have taught Caleb everything he knows about grilling, took command of the gas grill and turned raw hamburger into charbroiled perfection. He did burn the hotdogs, but Betsy likes them that way so I guess they were perfect too!



Lots of would-be campers turned out for the cookout and fellowship time...the children ate and ran off to play while the adults took the opportunity to sit back and visit after a long week.





Caleb, true to form, couldn't sit still very long, but joined in with the kids' fun as often as he joined the adults. And when he wasn't doing either of those, he was loving on his wife or teasing his sister-in-law!




Caleb gets away with more than anybody I know. Like wrestling with the pastor...I guess he happens to be Caleb's dad too!

The Klostermeyers left their brazier for the younger set to roast marshmellows and make s'mores.

The party at church broke up around 9:30 p.m. but I imagine it followed Caleb and ended up at the Nelson's home till all hours. Sleep...who needs it, right! Glad you're back for a visit and thanks, Nelsons, for sharing your company! (smile)