Rescue Mission

Last year, we started what I hope will be a long standing Thanksgiving tradition. On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, we served at the local rescue mission - handing out food to those in need. The mission gathers donations and has everything all set up. The recipients attend a short chapel service, then file through the line. Volunteers assist with moving the boxes along the assembly line and getting to know the recipients while additional volunteers put food into the box as they pass by. The boys are really good at helping unbox the canned goods and restocking the supply at the tables. They remember serving last year and were really looking forward to it again this year. I love watching the joy that my children experience from giving to others!

This year, a "special guest" was on hand... a silly guy dressed as a turkey! He was a big hit!

Raingutter Regatta

The boys participated in the annual Cub Scout Raingutter Regatta. There are awards in various categories for boat decorations, as well as medals for 1st, 2nd and 3rd in each grade level and trophies for the overall winners. The boys each picked a theme they wanted to try to win a decoration award for. Franklin decorated his boat for the Most Stickers, Harrison went for the Patriotic theme and Truman's football boat was in the Sports theme category. All three had a great time decorating their boats and Truman won for his category! All three boys raced better this year than last, but none won a medal in their age bracket. Overall, the Regatta was a really fun experience for everyone!

November Update

I guess we've been pretty busy lately, so I'm going to post a fly-by blog post to catch you up on all of our happenings!

Tommie hung the Christmas lights on the roofline (and didn't even die!)...

Tommie & I went on a date night... dinner & a hockey game - awesome!The boys (and the rest of my den) had a Thanksgiving food drive to fill a basket for local families...

Truman earned his Bobcat badge and all 3 of the boys received all of the belt loops they've earned at our November pack meeting...
STOMP toured in town, but made a special visit to the boys' elementary school (the only one in the area that had a special presentation!)... so cool!!
We got the boys' pictures taken at Sears... (this is a pic that isn't going to make the Christmas card cut! ha, ha)

Veteran's Day Program

Franklin participated in a Veteran's Day program at school put together by the 4th and 5th graders. He was so excited and practiced his songs faithfully at home for at least a month. The program was really neat! I've heard people from my parents' generation talk about how the men who served in Vietnam were treated so poorly when they came off of the planes here in the U.S. It breaks my heart that people were so cruel. Both my father and father-in-law served in the military, as well as several of Tommie & I's grandfathers. The program not only recognized veterans, but really & truly thanked them for their service and honored them. It brought tears to everyone's eyes... I am so proud of Franklin!

Sports and Scouts

Now that flag football is over for the season, we've been working with the boys to earn more achievements for Cub Scouts. A couple of weekends ago, we worked on their Music and Chess belt loops. Last weekend, the weather was so beautiful that we decided to do some outdoor activities. We worked on the Tennis and Golf belt loops. It made for a fun, family day!

Painting, Painting and MORE Painting!

I've been keeping myself busy lately with painting. I painted a section of wall in the front living room (I still have to finish the rest of the room and connected dining room). I painted Franklin's room and got his Texas decor hung up. And, I helped my friend Patty paint ceilings in her new house, as well as a fun wall in her son's room. Patty is refurbishing a forclosure - everything from windows/doors to flooring to kitchen cabinets to light fixtures - EVERYTHING. So, I've been helping her pick out paint colors & paint whenever I can. Fun, fun!

Halloween 2009

We enjoyed trick or treating in our new neighborhood (yes, our 3rd neighborhood in 3 Halloweens!)... The good part about moving so often is that you can re-use costumes and no one notices. ha, ha The boys wore recycled costumes last year, so we tried to get more creative with homemade costumes this year. Harrison saved me the most money, because he decided to be a Cub Scout! Franklin wanted to be a Mad Scientist, so I went to thrift stores to find scrubs for him & he wore Tommie's Napoleon Dynamite wig. (This pic is from 2006... and I think that was the last time Tommie dressed up too.)Truman decided he wanted to be a spider, so I googled some ideas and we created his costume from scratch! It turned out very fun!

Here's the whole gang... Max had to go with a recycled costume again this year. Sorry, Max!

Our Japanese friends came by on Halloween evening. This was their first Halloween in the U.S. and they don't celebrate Halloween in Japan, so they were having fun getting candy & dressing up. We trick or treated some with them, before we called it a night!

Sorting through the haul... We "donated" a very stuffed grocery bag of candy to Tommie's candy bowl at work to get rid of most of it!