Thanksgiving and Will's 5th birthday. He got Thomas stuff, mostly, and an "Air Hog" plane thing. This was his first b-day with friends.

After the dead fish debacle, Windy got quite sick. The vet said there was a chance of being sickened from the dead fish, but that didn't end up being the case. She got an owie on her paw from somewhere, which got infected. She also got giardia from the river. She's drunk river water many times since we've had her, so maybe she's had it for quite awhile. She had a high fever, lethargy, vomiting, limping, and chills when I took her in Friday afternoon. She's on 3 meds now and doing much better. This was not cheap, and the way it got paid for was definitely Providential. I am not kidding.

Friday, William heard a loud boom outside, which sounded to me like dynamite in some nearby hills. He told me the "mountain (Rainier) had INTERRUPTED" and did we have to move now?

Not the high point of my day: I took some of the kiddos to the river for a balmy November walk. Took the dog, too, cuz I knew I could let her off the leash. This river happens to be where salmon recently have swam upstream, spawned, I guess, and definitely DIED. What does Windy the low IQ dog do about seeing loads of decaying salmon everywhere? Oh, just RUB HER BODY IN, AROUND, OVER, AND THROUGH said stench!!!!! Like a lamb in clover. EAGERLY. ECSTATICALLY. ENTHUSIASTICALLY. When I tried to get her to dunk herself in the river and clean up a bit, she looked at me funny, like I was trying to ruin her gorgeous new coif.

A young minister had just got out of the seminary, got his first church, and was preaching his first sermon. In the seminary, they had taught him that if he forgot something, just back up and repeat what he had said, and maybe it would come back to him. He started out with a quote, "Behold, I cometh....." but he couldn't remember the rest of it. So he tries to regain his composure, backs up a starts again... "Behold I cometh..." but he still couldn't remember. So he rears back and shouts again, "Behold I cometh! ..." but this time he trips over the pulpit and falls right into the lap of a little old lady sitting the front row! He was embarrassed and started apologizing, but before he could finish the woman muttered... "It isn't your fault sonny - you told me you were coming three times... I should have moved!"

10 Ways to tell if a Redneck has been working on a Computer*
10. The monitor is up on blocks.*
9. Outgoing faxes have tobacco stains on them.*
8. The six front keys have rotted out.*
7. The extra RAM ports have truck parts stored in them.*
6. The numeric keypad only goes up to six.*
5. The password is "Bubba".*
4. There's a gun rack mounted on the CPU.*
3. There's a Coors can in the cup holder(CD-ROM drive).*
2. The keyboard is camouflaged.AND the number 1 way to tell if a redneck has been working on a computer is...*
1. The mouse is referred to as a "critter".

A flippin sweet, groovy Halloween

The photo with 5 adorable urchins includes 3 neighbors. The blonde flower child is me at work, where I got 3rd place prize, a 10.00 Starbucks card. I am standing next to the 1st prize winner, a slim, young blonde woman who dressed up as a hilarious, fat, OLD woman. I could NOT stop laughing! Second place was a chap who dressed up as a shower!! I guess the inspiration comes from Karate Kid. Does Napoleon look familiar?

Entirely on a different subject, the housecleaning work looks like a non-reality, but another window was opened, an answer to prayer, in the nick of time. An opportunity at work arose for a handful of us to stay like 2 1/2 extra hours per night to process extra work. If we commit to the 5 months of this work, at the end, we get a nice bonus!! (Shh, it's a secret from the other employees). And that's on top of the extra pay for staying late. Thank you, God!!