Some October Catch-Up

I'm a little behind on posting some pics from October...  as some of you already know, we spent a few weeks in Spokane when I had my hysterectomy.  We had incredible help from both sets of grandparents as well as our dear friends, the Montgomery's.  Once we got back to Sutherlin, our small group had arranged meals & we've felt just totally showered in love and extraordinary, special, generous giving of time & resources for those first few weeks of recovery.  Happy to say, I feel great & am on the mend for sure and know without a doubt I could not have done it without the help.  This past week, Ken had been in Indianapolis for more training...  I tell ya what, that guy has more challenges with flights than anyone I've known.  Cancelled flights, delays, missed flights, plane problems, re-routes, milk runs, ... you name it.  And for someone who really doesn't fly all that often, it's almost comical.  Anyways, he eventually made it to Indy a day late after a night of being re-routed through Memphis only to realize what he packed for "business casual" was not, actually, business casual back at corporate.  A coffee spill on the slacks he was wearing to the meetings he was delayed for & bags already being checked - you could laugh with us & say the trip didn't exactly start off ideally.  I was telling my Dad the story & he so matter-of-factly said, "Oh yeah, any time you go west of... pretty much Denver, business casual always means dressy (compared to out here), you just might get by without wearing a tie.)  (Live n' learn as they say, eh?) ;)   A quick (small) shopping trip for him that first night there to get set with the "Eastern version of business casual" for the week and he was good to go.  He got in late last night from the week in Indy & was out the door again early this morn for work here...  I'm really looking forward to the weekend so we can have some time as a family together!  You hear that expression sometimes about ships passing in the night...  it's kinda felt like that for the past few weeks as he's been working long hours & I've been in recovery mode, often asleep right after the kids are.  This weekend, and the upcoming Thanksgiving & Christmas breaks will be oh, so nice to just relax & be together with family.  :)  Speaking of Christmas... we are itchin' to decorate for the holidays!  We already pulled some of the totes out of the garage and the task of removing the pre-strung lights on our tree so we can replace them all, has turned out to be an undertaking.  We're going to need to pop in some movies for the next few nights & each of us take some wire cutters to those babies.  I can see why people who have gone down this road before, wind up finding more gratification in just lightin' her on up in the backyard.  We need to go the economical route; perfectly great tree (which we actually love the size of!), just needs new lights.  So maybe the John Adams series calls while we get 'er done and replace the lights.  One....inch......at......a......time. ;)  Hope everyone is having a nice start to November!  Hugs from us!! :)

Mom sent some pics she had of the kids after they carved pumpkins with my Dad (with a sawzal) ;)

Mom's close friend, Diane, has horses & took the kids on a fun ride on her property

Jack riding this light grey horse, Silver.   Wish I knew the name of the neighbor Diane asked to have come help with the horses - Mom said this guy was so sweet to the kids!

Mags always loves to dress up in the princess outfits

getting ready to head the Harvest party at the church

trick or treating at the neighbors' house

Some pretty spectacular November skies down here!

Ken's Dad, Jim, just retired - in fact, this was him, coming home from his last day of work & you should have seen Logan run to him!

Wendy let the kids help make little personal pizzas for dinner - which they thought was a ball

Playing in the leaves with their Nana

Jack absolutely loves Scarlet, the Montgomery's dog.  Only problem with our little animal lover, is that he's allergic to cats & dogs.