Boyd Bear Tracks

Yes, this is actually a Blog entry! After how many months? Anyway, I was told that people are getting sick of the mattress saga and I need to move on to new things :-)! We actually finally did get rid of that mattress. Boy was I glad to see it go!

October, for some reason, was a very busy month. But, it wasn´t all work and no play. Mike and Kris came to visit for a week and we had a lot of fun! We went to a town called Paipa. They have hot springs there and a 2 hour "hydrotherapy treatment". Of course, we did the treatment! Jon bargained with the lady and the kids even got in free! It was fun, except that the water washed the sunblock off and we got burned. But, we didn´t know that until later, so we did enjoy the therapy!

The funnest part (or funniest) was covering our body with mud. Amazingly, Lucas and Ellie wouldn´t touch it! They even got upset when a tiny bit of mud splashed on them! Unfortunately, we forgot the camera, so we don´t have any pictures. But, I may be going back in April with the ladies for a retreat. This time, I´ll be sure to take the camera!

We´ve been plugging away at our schooling, but it has seemed to start dragging. Maybe it´s because we´re all getting colds and are feeling a little sluggish. Ellie has started to learn how to write her name. She still mixes up the letters sometimes; but, she usually gets "Eli" right.

Lucas finished his first book and is now working on Book 2. It´s so interesting to see him sound words out and even be able to write sentences! Today he spelled North without any help! We haven´t really covered the "or" sound--he just figured it out! And, he even used a capital letter!

The first Monday in November we had the annual ladies meeting. I was in charge of the music again. And, wouldn´t you know it, I didn´t finish the brochure until a couple days before the meeting! I should have been working on that beforehand so it wasn´t hanging over my head, but I didn´t! So, the day before the meeting I was "looking forward" to folding 200 brochures! Fortunately, Jon helped so it went a lot faster. Hopefully next year I will start sooner than "the week of" the meeting!

The meeting went well and it was neat to see several ladies I haven´t seen in a while! Plus, on a church level it was a lot better this year too! Last year all those issues had blown up and we didn´t have very many ladies go from our church. This year we had about 15 ladies, and we all were happy with each other :-)!

Now, the planning starts for Thanksgiving. This year, I´m planning a little skit for the kids (it´s really just quoting a poem with turkey hats on :-)). And maybe Lucas and Ellie can quote Psalm 1--we learned it at the beginning of the schoolyear, but haven´t had a chance to "present" it yet.

Next, in December, we have an appreciation banquet for the pastors and their wives. I´m in charge of the decorations. Plus, I´ll be helping to prepare the meal. I can hardly wait to eat it! We´re having some kind of chicken (breaded Ranch or marinated--we have to price the cuts of meat), spinach rice (for the green color), and stuffed tomatoes (the red :-)). It sounds so yummy. I´m thinking of trying out the recipes beforehand!

So, I guess the end of the year is going to be a busy time for us. Oh, and then there´s a kids´ camp in December. The ages are 6 to 12. Guess who´s eligible to go--yep, Lucas. Jon wants to go as a counselor anyway, and he would like to take Lucas. I´m concerned about giving him another week off of school. We´re probably moving in January (a week or so off), and we have several weeks with things going on in February (more "vacation")! I really don´t want to be schooling through the summer. But, who knows. . .it could all work out!

I´m not including any pictures in this entry because I thought I would just quickly write an update. Adding pictures would make it not "so quick" :-). But, I do have a couple of pictures of the hail around our house.

The hail storm was pretty amazing. It set the car alarm off (fortunately, it didn´t break any windows and I didn´t notice any dents). I found the cat under my bed scared out of her wits and yowling! Lucas and Ellie were running around the house and yelling too. Boomer was following us around and crouching down on the floor.

As I was checking for leaks or broken windows, I discovered that the drain in the patio was clogged with hail and water was going to start flowing into the kitchen! I spent about forty five minutes out back with a broom and a plunger trying to get the water level down. Come to find out, the kids and the pets ended up in the downstairs bathroom--hiding from all the noise. I wondered where they had gone to! :-)

The only casualties we had were the plants. They are all ripped to shreds! It´s a good thing we haven´t planted our tomato seeds yet. It would have been a wasted effort since they all would have died! Although, it wasn´t as bad here as it was in other parts of town. Jon put some pretty interesting pictures on his blog.

So there you have it. . .a little of what´s been going on here. Now I can feel that I´ve accomplished something today since I won´t have the need to Blog "hanging over my head" :-)!