October has been a hard month for me for the last 2 years. Many of you know that Hali's dad died 2 years ago on October 30th. Well today I got some terrible news from Findlay. My 11 year old nephew father died this past weekend. The circumstances are so similar to Hali's father. . . I need to call my sister-in-law. . . but I haven't a clue what to say. I could tell her it is gonna be all right, but that wouldn't be true. I could tell her it wasn't her fault, but she will have a hard time believing that right now. I could tell her Brandon (my nephew) will be just fine, but he really will not. I am so deeply saddened by this but I can not cry, because I feel like I have no tears left. Basically I am reliving my tragedy through this awful event and I just don't think I will be much help to Her. I guess when I call her I will say. . . I will pray for you guys. . . for nothing I do or say is going to reduce the pain they are feeling only God can do that. . .If you pray. . . Please pray for the family, and my nephew and sister-in-law especially.

"My baby sloth."

Before and After. . . I am so excited to have a new niece. She is so chubby and cute and sweet. I got to see her when she was only about 12 hours old. WOW it makes me want another baby, I only wish I could skip the whole pregnancy and labor parts. Well let me say Amanda you did a GREAT job with this little Laina Chicky. She was definitely well fed and loved and I am sure you guys are gonna make great parents. Congratulations to Amanda and Kyle on my new sweet little niece Laina Vea!

Swimming in Lake Michigan in October who would have thought it was possible. Not me that is for sure. I thought it would be fun to live down by the lake so that is where we rented between houses. It was a fully furnished summer rental that was "off season" so we got a pretty awesome deal. It ended up being much less then a hotel. Plus we got the benefit of really good beach weather almost the whole time we were there. I actually got more of a tan in that last six weeks then the whole summer. We walked down to silver beach park about every day to play in the morning. We also loved going to the Saint Joe library that was right up the street, and the little toy store down town. It was a little cramped and the beds were really uncomfortable, but it was really kinda like a little vacation. I have now however decided that real "on the beach" living is not from me because it is just too dirty. I think that I swept up sand about 3 times a day and it still was in our beds and the carpet no matter what. What it really all boiled down to was it just wasn't home. The kids knew that. Ethan had a lot of behavioral issues because of it and it was always really awkward and not very tranquil at bedtimes. About 3 weeks in Ethan said to me in tears one night "Mommy I don't love Mr. Owls rental house anymore! I just want our old house." (Mr. Al was our landlord) So any how it feels so good to be finally home, but at least we got to swim in warm Lake Michigan in October, something that will most likely never happen again.

Hi everyone, boy not having a computer stinks! We are finally in our new house so I will have to have to fill everyone in on the last month or so. But this is a special blog for my little Sophia. As you know she celebrated her first birthday September 23rd. She is getting so old! She is very cute and very talkative and outgoing all though she hasn't quite mastered the English language, just the normal "mama, Dada, boo boo", she really has a lot to say in "Sophiaish". She has not yet stood up with out the help of pulling up on something, and so she can not yet walk. For these things I say she can take her time! She is pretty good at going up and down the stairs, and crawls very fast. She is eating almost all table food now as she has recently turned up her nose to baby foods (I don't blame her). She was about 23 pounds at her year check up, which is only about a half of a pound up from 9 months but she was about 2 inches taller. Look like she will follow in Ethan's foot steps and stop growing for a while now. Well what a sweet little toddler she is turning into. Happy belated Birthday Sophia!!

Big decision Day One...
And now on a completely different note. . . Today is Hali's first day of kindergarten, again. Yes we decided to let her take yet another year of the old "K" last winter. She was struggling in school and it was mostly about her maturity level. The teacher would ask her to do something requiring three steps or more and she would get this glazed look on her face and turn to her classmate and begin to converse about the latest "Littlest Pet Shop" Pet she bought over the weekend. After the winter conference it became clear that she may need another year of kindergarten. Our teacher, though very nice, was a first year lady. She was fresh out of Student teaching and younger then me! (Just a side note, that I think that is crazy, but oh well.) Some people have made comments to me like; it was the teachers fault, what about no child left behind, this WILL ruin her life, she will know that she is a failure, what about all her little friends, or (my favorite) ARE YOU SURE YOU ARE MAKING THE RIGHT DECISION?? What do you think people, of course I'm not sure! I'm blogging about it for goodness sake! Well here is my prayer for the day and it is a pretty simple one for such a complicated issue.
Dear God, please help Hali have a Great first day of school. Amen

Well all went great yesterday with our Home inspection. We are buying a very well built home. When I walked in I was a little bit nervous because I had only looked at the house once. I was afraid that I wouldn't like it as much as I thought I did the first time. I was wrong. I loved it more now then ever. God is working everything out, like He always does!