Quickie catch up post

Mark took his fourth trip to Ethiopia this year (2 more than usual).

He was home a scant two days before leaving for Haiti. His first time back there since the earthquake.

The girls have whined about us ALWAYS being gone.

We had a little lesson on the correct use of the word “always”. (My mom taught me, “The words ‘never’ and ‘always’ are seldom true.”)

Knock on wood but I think the rest of the year is travel free (at least work-related).

It appears that fall has finally arrived in Phoenix and the weatherman is “confident” that we are done with 100 degree days. It was 93 today.

I’m looking forward to getting out my fall/winter wardrobe to alleviate some of the boredom that has set in at month 6 of the 12-month no-shopping challenge. Obviously it’s still a little early

Yes, that’s right – we’re half way there. And I haven’t had to buy a Bedazzler yet.

I am stressing that last winter’s go-to short black boots died late last winter (literally broke in half) and apparently I will have to go shoeless. Or wear brown boots with everything. (They were THE best black boots too – so comfy, casual enough to wear with anything, bought them for $9 in a “charity shop” in the UK in 2005. Sniff, sniff.)

I briefly contemplated participating in National Novel Writing Month were the challenge is to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days.

Then I realized maybe I should finish some of the projects I already had started, including one non-fiction book. So I’ve put that on my list of things to do in 2011.

We had two birthdays in a month – Noah turned 11 and Natalie is now 8.

The boys had their first Junior Bible Quiz meet a few weekends ago. We got whomped but they had fun – our school is in it’s first year competing against some well oiled teams!

Basketball started for the boys and we’re still trying to figure out how we manage the schedules most effectively. This is when it would be nice to live closer to school. I see an increase in our gas budget coming up.

Mark had his 20 year reunion last weekend. It’s nice that we went to school together so I knew everyone too – lot easier when there’s only 50 or so kids in your class.

Got me thinking about my 20 year reunion which is next year – looking forward to that.

So that’s what’s going on here…