Ben, Laura, Ted & Sophie: october 2017

I'm going to preface this post with this: We have some friends close by and far away who are navigating junk. Big, life-changing devastating things. In some ways, it's hard for me to write and post pictures of healthy kids and being financially stable right now and just generally a good season of life. Not that life is always good and fun. Which I can honestly say, hasn't been the truth a lot for us. I don't know why that's important for me to say, but it is. So I will.

And now going all the way back to October since it's almost Christmas . . .

Anyway, Wyatt comes over every morning and walks to school with Ted. Now that the weather has turned colder, we drive them or they ride the bus. But it's still good to see him every morning. We've only not unlocked the front door once...

Ted ran cross country this fall. He kind of liked it. More so the social aspect than the running! But he did say that he wants to run track. Cross country meets are one big social events for parents which was fun!

Sophie and I riding a shuttle bus to a cross country meet.

And waiting for the shuttle bus to get back.

This squirrel made it back from our YL regional meeting. It makes appearances at random, unexpected places around our house. What do you get at your regional meetings?

Chuck & Patti came to visit from Oregon. My mom and Patti have been friends for 50 years - what?! Chuck and Pattie have been big personal supporters of us in Young Life for a long time. We get to see them every couple of years and we're always so blessed.

That's what 50 years of friendship looks like!

Grandma broke her hand late in the summer.

I made a quick trip to Charleston for Beth Anne's baby shower and got see Jaclyn, Clara and Maggie. Oh my gosh! These sweet girls. And their mama. LOVED getting to see them a visit for even a really short time.

We celebrated BA and baby girl!

Sophie and Abbey helping cut out stuff at church.

Ted's final cross county meet. Ben has way better pictures on the big camera. But I won't see those for awhile.

October was really warm. Warm enough to play in the rain.

Janell & I made a lot of pepperoni rolls and chocolate chip cookies for the regional staff tailgate.

As a staff we are having staff meetings in different areas around the state. So we did a tailgate at a WVU game. We rode the PRT, tailgated in the blue lot and had a great morning!

Ben took Sam, Cooper & Ted to a game at some point. Not the same day as the tailgate though. I've lost track of games and Saturdays at this point.

Sophie had a choir concert on game day. Ben was appalled. But it was really good. She mostly likes choir. They do a great job and really are good!

Ted's last cross county meet.

Sometimes after school my dining room table looks like this with work and homework.

Ted helped Ben DJ a wedding. I'm starting to book him in 2 years!

Meanwhile, Sophie and I actually attend Jon & Marlen's wedding. She made a great date and appreciated all of it.

And totally added bonus of the day is seeing John Howard!

This instagram post by Jennie Allen:

October weather was mostly really warm, but some days in between with some pretty big swings.

I finished a bible study "The Quest" by Beth Moore. This was my huge take away. One of my most favorite studies ever!

So Lily. We haven't seen them nearly as much as we wanted to. So to catch me up on her life, she showed me that she and her mom have been reading about Queen Elizabeth I. We live very different lives....