Sometime back in the summer, Rhonda had found a couple of coats for the kids, one was a lion, and one was a cow. The hoods on the coat were the heads, etc... They were warm coats, the kids were sweating when they tried them on at the time...

So, this morning I put those coats on them when I took them to Sue's house. That'll be their costumes. Rhonda had gotten a couple of plastic halloweeny pails too, to hold the loads of loot they'll get tonight. Actually, we'll probably just go to a few houses on the street.

We haven't seen the sun, or so it seems, in nearly a week. Been overcast and wet and cool.

The first snow has arrived. Boooooo. Got a dusting last night, but don't know if it will stick, as temps are above freezing. Sounds like points north of us though got way more than we did, so shouldn't complain too much. Oh well, we all knew it was coming. Sigh.

Have to get used to driving home after work in the dark again.

Both John and Hanna were a little squirrely yesterday. But, settled down after supper.

Still been busy at work. That's a good thing, I guess.

I was asked if I want to take a sunday school class in January, for the 5-week term we always have then. I suppose I will.

The other night I came home from work, and Hanna was standing on a chair by the sink, she had a bib on. Rhonda had her "washing dishes". There was some soapy water and a few dishes, and she was having fun. I said to her good job, and she's so cute sometimes, she closed her eyes slowly and got this "i'm so proud" grin on her face.

Also, this just in. Hanna is two years old. She's not above throwing a hissy fit now and then, especially when she's tired or hungry. If you take something from her she wants, hoo boy. She can get a little fussy when she's hungry, but it's amazing how she improves after she eats. A whole new person.

She chowed down at breakfast this morning. John didn't want to eat his cereal. So, he had some milk and cheese and lunchmeat.

Chilly and damp again here today. Sounds like it will stay like this at least through the weekend. Could see some snow flurries, especially on the weekend. Some more leaves have fallen, I wonder if I'll be able to get out and pick them up.

So last night I'm reading the Splish Splash book to Hanna. There's one picture where the little girl is wriggling out of her pants to get ready for a bath, and Hanna points at it and says "poo-poo". Ha. I say no, she's not going to go poo-poo, she's going to take a bath. haha

Last night I took one of those big pumpkins we got the other week and I scooped the seeds out of it. Hanna had fun helping. John only did a few. He wanted me to cut open the other one, so he went and got it and rolled it into the kitchen. So, I made one of my favorite treats. I roasted the seeds in the oven. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm, are they ever so good. There weren't tons of them, considering how big the pumpkin was, but they were nice and big, perfectly shaped. Put some salt on them, ohhh, can hardly resist eating them all at once. I'll get the seeds out of the other one soon. We'll maybe carve that one up and put a candle in it, the kids would like that.

Last night John was having fun turning in circles and spinning. Was just laughing and laughing.

Cool and rainy the last couple days. Northern part of the state got a fair amount of snow. We could see some flakes here.

A fairly quick meeting at church last night. Only one item of new business, and that was to confirm a couple of deacons in their new roles as treasurer and vice president. They weren't at the annual meeting, so waited till this meeting to finish that up.

Mom asked if John is doing good in his new class. He likes it, I know, but haven't really had much chance to observe him in there. He always seems to like seeing his sunday school papers when I ask him about them. One thing he might not be ready for yet, is they will take time to sit in circles and have a lesson or story or whatever, and I don't think John is ready yet to sit for "long" periods of time and quietly pay attention. He'll still tend to want to get up and wander.

When telling him he wasn't going to be in his old nursery room anymore, I said he was going to sunday school now with the big kids. So now, when he talks about sunday school, he'll often say "with the big kids!"

Was a wee bit chilly yesterday, probably won't be any warmer today and tomorrow as a cold front comes through. Hard to believe a week ago I was outside in shirt sleeves raking in mid-70s. Sigh.

Hanna did real well this morning in the nursery. She didn't start crying as soon as we got there, we played in there a bit, just ourselves, as we were waiting for the workers to arrive, and she played happily. She did cry a bit when she saw the worker come, and when we left, but they said she soon stopped and was happy when we came to get here. So, hopefully she's getting used to it.

The Vikes are losing to the Giants at halftime. So what else is new.

There's a business meeting at church tonight I'll go to...

A bit cool today, temps were in the 20s this morning. This is my favorite weekend of the year. We got to turn the clocks back.

Marlins won! They made a fan out of me...

I went out and did leaves this morning. Took two loads over. It's going to cool down, and there were enough leaves that it needed to be done, so raked the yard, and then got out the leafblower to pick up stuff around the flowerbeds. Yard does look better. Plus, it might rain later today, so wanted to get it done.

Hanna is in her bed for a nap, John is doing LeapPad (Leap to the Moon) and he'll be ready for a nap soon.

So, I'll get some reading done, maybe some writing. Will watch the World Series game tonight.

Last night Rhonda went to a bible study at church, so I had the kids. We watched JayJay for a bit downstairs. John was on the couch watching. Hanna's attention span is measured in milliseconds still, so she was wandering, and she went over to the tv once and turned it off. I said to her no, that isn't a toy, turn it back on. And then, John got off the couch, went over to Hanna, gently took hold of her and walked her over to me, then went back to the couch! haha.

We played with the Pooh interactive cd for the computer too. John really likes it, and just laughs and laughs at some of the things, like the trumpet that plays when you click on it. It plays, jumps around in the air, and then lands with a funny clank, and he thinks it's hilarious.

We also watch Baby Van Gogh last night. He really wanted to watch it, so I said we could during our snack. We were downstairs, and I said I had to stop in the bathroom, and when I came out, John was already upstairs, strapped into his seat, waiting! Ha. He had fun watching, and he said a few times "I'm Baby Ban Go!"

Ah, the weekend is here. Will be a fair bit cooler than last week's beautiful weather though. Probably won't do any leaves.

Marlins won Game 5, so now lead 3-2, going back to NY for games 6 and 7 on Saturday and Sunday. Should be fun.

Last night I picked the kids up at Sue's house, and I knocked, and Sue had John come answer the door, and when he opened the door he got this smile on his face and he said "I'm so happy to see you!"

Sue had taken them to the park, and there was a baby there she said, and Hanna was saying "baby!" over and over, and Sue said to her, can you say Katy? (the baby's name apparently) and Hanna said "meow". Ha, must have though Sue said "kitty".

Hanna likes to play with the two buses we have from the Thomas train set, and she says "bus!" as clear as a bell!

Hanna also likes to say "ribbit" when I ask what a froggy says, but she really belts it out! She says "IBBBIT!"

Marlins beat the Yankees last night. I turned it off after the 11th inning, it was getting too late. Marlins hit a home run to win it in the bottom of the 12th inning.

I need to get moving on Chapter 3. I want to submit it at my next meeting. Folks liked my Chapter 2.

John has these giraffe slippers he likes. I think Rhonda got them from a rummage sale, so they are getting a bit ragged on the bottom. One has three smaller holes, and one has one big hole. And John always likes to look at the holes, so last night after I put them on him, he grabs his foot and looks and says "Hi, I'm a big hole!" Ha.

We have one of the pumpkins we got last Saturday in the kitchen so the kids can roll around on them, and last night John tried to pick it up (and couldn't, it's rather big) and he said "it's heavy for me". I've never heard say something like that before, that's a complex thought and grammer. His vocal skills have really come a long ways!

Hanna was this way of eating where her upper lip kinda scoops in whatever is on the spoon. It almost looks like the way a horse eats or something. Not that she looks like a horse, it's real cute. Just funny how her upper lip kinda flares out and scoops the food in.

Some cooler weather is coming next week. Oh well, it has to happen sooner or later. Waaahh.

Kinda overcast today, and a bit of rain. Should warm back up to high 60s for the rest of the week.

Last night as we were putting John to bed, he heard (I think) a jet outside and he said "I hear a train", and then just started jabbering about Henry and Gordon and choo-choo and loud... it was funny, he just kept going and going.

Both kids had baths last night. Rhonda took John by himself, and when he was done I took Hanna. They both like to sit under the running faucet, so it doesn't always work so well when they are in at the same time. Hanna especially is not happy about sitting at the other end. John doesn't mind it so much.

They get to go to MusikGarten today. I'm sure they will both just love it. Rhonda brought John downstairs this morning as I was getting ready to leave, and John was still sleepy and only half awake, and I said to him you get to go to Musikgarten today, and he immediately perked up and said "I want to go to Musikgarten today!"

John and Hanna will begin their new MusikGarten class tomorrow. Rhonda has already got the CD, and we've been playing it a lot. John really likes it, and asks for it often. I like it even better than the other one.

John is getting so good at numbers and letters and counting concepts. You can ask him how many there are of something, and he'll tell you. He likes reading license plates, he can correctly say the letters and numbers there.

Hanna is going to be a jabberbox. And lately she's been picking up books and "reading" them. She holds and looks at them, and just babbles away, like she is reading the book.

John likes to lay beside me in my bed, and he'll pull the covers up over his head, and he'll say in a low voice (with the cutest rounded lips) "someone is sleeping in my bed", cuz he likes when I do the Three Bears thing with him, so I do the voices, and do a funny baby bear voice and when I say "and he's still here!" I pull the covers back and tickle him, and John just laughs and laughs.

Well, even though I just got all the leaves up over the weekend, more are falling, so I'm sure by the end of the week it'll look like it needs work again. Oh well. I figure one more day's worth of work. Some of the leaves on the oak trees will stay there over the winter, but the tree by our patio still has a lot of leaves left to fall.

Hanna cried again when we left her in the nursery yesterday. Good heavens girl, you've been there before now, you know what it's like, it's only for an hour. You don't need to shriek like it's the end of the world.

We celebrated John's adoption day yesterday. (A couple days late) Rhonda made a German chocolate cake. Yum. We told John it was to celebrate his adoption, but he kept saying it was his birthday! And, he continues to exhibit disturbing signs of dementia. He had eaten half his cake, and Rhonda brought some melon, and he wanted to eat the melon instead of the cake!

Another gorgeous day. yesterday and today have seen temps in the mid 70s. Ahhh. Should be nice again tomorrow, cool on Tuesday, then back to the 60s.

Got all the leaves done. I don't mind the raking and getting leaves into piles. It's getting the leaves from here to the compost heap that is the pain in the neck. Without my pickup, it took me 5 trips to get all the leaves over. I just raked them onto a tarp and put the tarp in the back of the van. Oh well, at least that's done. I'll probably have one more big raking day left. Rhonda is outside now putting down fertilizer.

The kids sure had fun though jumping in the piles of leaves!

The kids should be awake, I'll have to go up and check on them... Will probably take them to the park while it is still light out...

The Marlins looked good in winning Game 1 of the World Series! Yay, just so there isn't another yankees world series title. And the Vikes are still undefeated!

Brr, was a little chilly here this morning, and is cold in the building here at work.

When I left this morning, John was sitting on the floor looking at a Berenstein's bear book. I heard him counting something.

Quite often lately John was been walking around saying "Help, Help!" He must have heard that on one of his videos or something.

So, the Cubs completed the choke. Gack. Well, ya gotta respect the Marlins team. They have some talented players, and they played tough when no one was pulling for them.

A good game tonight, Yankees and Red Sox in Game 7. I'll miss a lot of it though, as I have a deacons meeting.

Oh yeah, keep meaning to say that Hanna's favorite book is one that Kris got for us, it's part of two that she got actually, it's called Food Is Fun (the other is Splish Splash, which John really likes). It's from Hanna Andersson, I think. It has colorful photos of kids eating, and Hanna always goes and finds it and has me read it to her.

She especially is taken with this one photo of a girl eating spaghetti, and her face and dress are messy. Hanna will constantly turn back to that page. Funny.

The last couple days John has been flinging things around the living room and saying in a low voice "You'll never find it, ha ha ha". Funny. Where did he get that?

Last night he was a little squirrely, as he didn't take a nap yesterday, so he was tired in the evening.

Rhonda said the other day John got a book (I forget which one) and he said "this is my favorite book". Ha, where did he get that?

This week is meeting week. Had a mission board meeting Monday (I'm the deacon rep on the board), Thursday night is the deacon meeting, and Saturday is my writing group.

Wow, how about the Cubs game last night. I'd like to see the Cubs win tonight and get to the World Series, but after that tough loss last night, I'm not sure about their chances. They haven't swung the bat very good the last couple games.

A house down the street has some lights and other Halloween decorations, including a big plastic inflatable pumpkin lit from inside. John just loves going to the window to look at it.

A busy morning. The orchestra played at church this morning, so I was there by 7:30, and got home about noon. The kids arrived for sunday school. Hanna was none too crazy about being left. She is fine with Sue's house, but still hasn't gotten used to the nursery.

We have nursery duty tonight, so will head over, but wouldn't be surprised if we don't get any customers.

Am enjoying our sunday school class on the Tabernacle. The symbolism is all over. First thing inside the entrance was the altar. You can't get any farther without first dealing with sin. Then is the bronze laver. After sin is dealt with by sacrifice, then comes cleanliness. It's a picture of what Jesus did on the cross, he was the sacrifice for us, and we are made clean. Then we can go in and meet with God.

Emergency! Something is wrong with John and Hanna! They're sick! Get them to a doctor! At lunch, both of them greatly preferred their lima beans to their pancakes. Oh woe, what could be wrong! Ha. They do like their veggies. I tried one, and it tasted like the same old chalky lima beans, but I tried to smile and pretend they tasted good so the kids would still eat them!

It's raining here now, a typical fall day. Wet leaves, wet grass, temps getting cooler. So, we stayed indoors and played with trains and with puzzles (John is getting good at doing puzzles) and books and rubber hoses and balloons and whatever else.

Just got the kids put down for a nap.

I showed Hanna the family picture we have from Colorado, and I pointed at Mom and asked Hanna "who's this?", and Hanna said "Gramma!" and when I pointed at Dad she said "Grappa!" She remembered! Must have had a good time in Minot last week.

The Goofers, in one of their biggest games in decades, tromped Michigan for 3 quarters, were up 28-7, could've gone to 7-0, and then did a typical Goofer collapse. Michigan outscored them 31-7 in the fourth quarter and won 38-35. Ugh. About sums up why I've never been a big fan of U of Minnesota sports.

My throat is still acting up a bit. I got some Tylenlo liquid sore throat medicine that has helped.

Still very busy at work, so haven't had as much time to hang out here.

We'll have the first cell group meeting of the fall at our house tonight. Hopefully we'll decide on what to do about a new leader, as I don't think I can continue as leader. It's too hard with the kids, and I'd often end up going by myself.

This morning John was running around the house, buck nekkid, riding the little stick hobby horse Grandpa gave the kids. Ha.

It will be warm today, then cool down after tonight into the 50s for the next several days. This might be the last really warm weather we get. Waaaaahhhhhh!

Rhonda said that yesterday John gave Hanna a hug and said "I'm a good big brother!" Ha.

I went to the doctor this morning. My throat really hurt last night, was hard to swallow. I'm surprised I got to sleep. I took some Tylenol which helped. But, the doc said it wasn't strep throat. Maybe viral, couldn't do much. He thought maybe it was allergy related, so I got some Claritin, just to try. Argh.

Another very warm day here. Record temps in the mid 80s. Soon leaves will start falling en masse and I will have to waste hours picking them up. And without my pickup this year! Boooo.

John has some pajamas with stars and planets and whatnot on them, and he likes them. When he asks for them, he says " I want spaceman!" Ha.

John was lovey dovey when I came home yesterday. He wanted me to hold him, and he gave me several hugs. Awwww. Then, when we were getting him to bed, he gave me a kiss on the cheek and made kind of an "mmmm" sound, like he was trying to give me a big smack! Funny.

Hanna enjoyed riding the trikes around when I got home. She likes the outdoors too, and when John went in to watch the end of Sesame Street, she wanted to stay out and play.

Margie gave Rhonda a Winnie the Pooh interactive CD, so I tried it out last night. It was pretty neat. It tells the Pooh and the Honey Tree story, and you can click on various things, a few games, and few songs, etc... has some neat animation. John had fun clicking, and of course Hanna had to dive in and click too. She didn't quite get the point of clicking on various things, so she just madly clicked away. Wasn't too happy when she had to stop clicking madly away.

Both kids had a bath last night.

I will be happy when this cold passes. Erg.

Ugh, back at work again. I caught a cold somewhere, so don't feel the best. Whee.

We had a very nice time in Minot visiting Grandpa and Grandma. The kids enjoyed their visit, and all the toys Grandpa had gotten. Had a nice visit Friday night too with Joan and Glenn and Grandma. All went much too fast though.

Kids did good on the way home. Watched some videos. We stopped at that little rest area by Sykeston, where John liked pushing the buttons that opened the handicap doors. We stopped in Fargo at that McDonald's playland again. Then, we stopped at a rest stop by St. Cloud to stretch our legs. Hanna got fussy around her nap time, but she fell asleep for about an hour. Then, after our stop by St. Cloud she fell asleep again for another hour. John finally fell asleep too about an hour from home. I had to wake him up. He was a little out of whack, but he had a snack and woke up again and played a bit, but was ready for bed too.

When we came in the door, the first thing Hanna said was "Ellie!" She missed her doggie and wanted to pet her. Hanna sat down once in the middle of the kitchen floor and was saying "doggie" in a commanding voice. She wanted Ellie to come over so she could pet her. She got a little frustrated when Ellie wouldn't come over. (Ellie hasn't learned to understand Hanna-ese yet) so I had Ellie come over so Hanna could poke and pet her.

Twins got whupped by the Yankees. Oh well. They need some better hitters, maybe a dominating pitcher or two. It'll help to have Milton back next year.