Saturday Updates

* Just found out this morning from Nicole that Paul's MOS will be the one we've prayed for: the Marines will be the proud employer of a stellar Logistics Dude sometime soon, which I think means he will, indeed, be training in North Carolina for a couple of months.  Any NC relatives reading will be pleased to know they'll get to see more of my baby grandson than I will for a little while at the first of the year! (I'm so jealous!)  I guess it'll be a while yet before we find out where his first assignment will be, but CA is in the prayers.  Right now we're all praying that little Gavin decides to come well before Paul's big graduation day, December 16th, the day after the baby's due date.  It would be so much easier on your Momma and Daddy, Gavin, if you'd show up around, say the 12th, so your other grandma can get there for your first few days -- and then this grandma (Mommom to you, sweetie patoot) can tag team visit, too...

* A lot less important, but significant to the egg gatherers here-abouts:   Cathy and I went and picked up five more laying hens this morning after Mass.  We'd lost that many since July, what with one thing and another, so now we're back to fifteen chickens, which includes Fr. J's hens that we're babysitting for him...  We've got six dozen eggs in the fridge now and more coming all the time.  I think I'm going to have to get in the habit of making the children eggs for breakfast again... 

Have I ever mentioned that Cathy named one of the roosters after her brother, Kevin, so whenever we're talking about one or the other, we have to specify?  As in:  "Kevin's out there being mean to the girls -- I mean Kevin the rooster." or "Kevin -- I mean Kevin, my brother -- had better be here for Christmas, or I'm going to fry him for dinner when I see him."

*  Oh!  Just got a big load of hay, too.  And now Dan is pushing me to have a barn sale to get rid of my stuff so he can fit more hay in.  Like the barn is meant for hay and not all my old wrought iron and furniture?  Seriously. 

* Other incidental news:  For our Date-Night-In last night, Chef Dan prepared salmon in our smoker on the back porch.  He knew he'd hit a home run with that choice, as I love, love, love smoked salmon, but he found some asparagus, made hollandaise sauce, and poured us some red wine, too, so the dinner was outta- the-park delicious.  And we watched the movie Knowing with Nicholas Cage, which was exciting but extremely weak in the storyline, we thought.  It seemed to us to be a Signs wannabe that wimped out of a solid Christian message.  Though the characters struggle with the same question of an atheist's view of random events vs. the Christian idea of providence, Knowing introduces an alien-life "determinism" to the mix -- which theme they then muddy up with just enough Christianity to really confuse the story.  Weird.  It only had two blasphemies (though one is too many) and no real modesty or purity problems, but the mixed messages in the plot make it a no-recommendo -- especially for children.

* And, not like it would be surprising to anyone, but it's October and I haven't seen my two high-school kids (except for a couple of brief moments in September) for two months now, and I miss their faces.  So I'm posting them here, because I just want to look at them...

These two:

Aren't they cute?  This was about five years ago when they went to CA together
to visit with Grandma and Grandpa.  (Check out the boogey-board burn on Dominic's
chubby little belly...  )



Michelle (15) last spring. What a difference a couple years make.
She's so grown up now!  But that same beautiful smile still lights
up rooms everywhere she goes.  :)



Dominic's junior year school picture.
He's a senior this year.  Chubby little belly is long gone.  :(
All the other pics I have of him on this computer, he's either in
the distance or making a silly face.  



This silly face.



Gosh, I miss their goofiness!

But, all reports are that they're doing great at school in Nebraska, are a pleasure to have in class, and only err toward being too sociable at times.  My children too sociable?  ;0)  You'd think they were teenagers or something.



* Missing lots of other faces, too.  Can't WAIT to see Paul and Nicole and GAVIN in December!  Hope to see Jon pretty soon, as (thank-You, God!) Jon got a job in Denver and will be there going to college for the foreseeable future.  And, Kevvy, who has been in Minnesota, is returning to the Denver area to go to school, too, so we'll hopefully be seeing him soon, too.  Yay!   And Thanksgiving is coming soon, so we'll be seeing most everybody in about a month and a week.  We're already preparing for a house full...