And What We've Been Up To Again...

Oh, October, I love you so
but I will not be sorry to see you go.

Yes, that is a very sorry attempt at poetry... moving on! Here are the mundane and exciting things which have occurred since I last left you (does that make sense? I'm too tired to make it make sense):

--Flag Football season has ended and the Football banquet is over (doing a happy dance)
--Went to the Renaissance festival at the Episcopal church downtown, followed by a lunch at El Chico's (GranMartha's treat!) and a visit to the pumpkin patch. Don't these kids look happy to be at the pumpkin patch?

--Got John Mark a haircut (!) Apparently, his girl friends (as opposed to girlfriends) have convinced him that having short, well-groomed hair makes him look like a homeschooler. Imagine that.
--Cleaned all the upstairs carpets during co-op fall break, and spent the entire next week with icky sinus crud (are those two things related?? Maybe cleaning really does make me sick...)
--Sang with the praise team for the Pregnancy Crisis Center fundraiser banquet, which was a huge source of anxiety for John and which required several extra rehearsals crammed in around fall break and all these other activities
--Lunch with a friend, and a very satisfying trip to the consignment store: a tough brown velveteen jacket, two excellent red sweaters, a pair of black slacks, and cool black suede shoes! My joy would have been made complete if I had been able to find a new pair of jeans too.
--John Mark took the PSAT, as practice for the big tests coming up over the next couple of years. The public school counselor who worked with us was really nice and helpful.
--Got all my stuff together for another kids' clothing consignment sale- yea me!
--John Mark helped the 4-H Extension staff with "A Taste of Extension" at the local fairgrounds, and ended up doing two interviews on the radio. He was very pleased with himself. It's probably just as well I wasn't listening to the radio that day so I didn't have to worry about what might come out of his mouth during an impromptu interview (I can only imagine what might come out of my mouth during an impromptu interview...)
--Oktoberfest!! I have never seen such an odd variety of German food in my entire life, and will you look at all these people crammed into our kitchen? It was an experience, let me tell you, and John was in culinary heaven. But the best thing about Oktoberfest? John fixed all the plumbing problems in the house- hallelujah!

--Our 4-H club held a food drive at Walmart on a beautiful afternoon, and people were so incredibly generous! Becca, the club president, did not help with the food drive because she had been horseback riding and camping with a friend all weekend, and when I asked her, "Are you coming??" she moaned, "Do I have to walk?" So I told her to stay home.
--The four younger kids and I went to a family reunion with Daddy D's family this past weekend while The Hunter Duo went on John Mark's last youth hunt (next year, he'll be too old for the youth hunt). So, I didn't have my camera for the family reunion, but The Hunter Duo captured this Kodak moment: I'm pretty sure that bad boy is on ice in my garage at the moment, but I'm not asking any questions. Later, the Hunter Duo became the Fishing Duo- what a catch! --And that night, we had the annual Trunk or Treat and bonfire at our church. John volunteered to run one of the games this year, "The Eyeball Toss," which consisted of wet spaghetti "worms" and a number of very sticky and extremely icky fake eyeballs. You can see that Nathanael was very worried about this. Hey look, there's Stephanie!

But wait... I think I've seen her somewhere before...
Ah, yes. Oktoberfest. Everyone who is anyone is at Oktoberfest! OK, not really. Our guest list is determined by proof of some type of German descent (no matter how slight), and how much you can suck up to John how many people our house can hold. We have clearly reached maximum capacity, unless we plan this thing earlier in the year and move into the street. But we love Stephanie and let her come even if she is Scottish.

And that is what we've been up to again.