Fall is Here!

This is a most unusual year for Florida. Hurricane Jeanne has blasted across central Florida. Aunt Linda and Uncle Bob do not have electricity or phone service. Jim and Dianna have lights and phone but had to fight a water leak in Chris' bedroom due to a crack in the foundation of their house. I know all of Florida is keeping a weary eye on Lisa and will be glad when hurricane season is over. Jeanne is the fourth hurricane that has struck the state. It seems they have been pounded about once every ten days this year.

ALL GUSSIED UP. The steam engine is parked in its usual spot over at Uncle Paul's shop. This year Jackie decided to decorate it for the fall. He has made a nice display using corn stalks, bales of straw, pumpkins and mums. Its really pretty and we are planning to take to kids over there for pictures. One of the neighbors had asked if the steam engine had died. Very funny!

A LONG WAY FROM HOME. One day Vicki and the kids had been out running errands and stopped at Pauline's before coming home. As they were driving across the yard back to our house Vicki spotted a deer in the soybean field about 20-30 feet away. She stopped the van and they looked at the deer for several moments before it decided to run away. As the deer was leaving Ben said, "I'll bet he's looking for Santa!" Jenna and Ben then proceeded to have an in-depth conversation about that very topic.

IS THAT ENGLISH I HEAR? Nate can be a pretty vocal kid but it is all gibberish. Yesterday I was eating a chocolate oatmeal cookie (we call them CPCs–cow patty cookies) when he came in the kitchen. Of course he wanted a bite but I asked, "Do you want a cookie?" "COOKIE" That was quite clear to me. After giving him the cookie he kept saying the word as it was the best way he could think of to express his delight. Made me and a certain Sesame Street character proud.

Last night we put Jenna and Ben in the shower before they went to bed. Nate was very distressed that he was missing out. He kept pointing to the bathroom and saying, "Show'r."

CHRISTMAS MUSIC. Fall may be here but the choir has kicked off their rehearsals for the Christmas musical with an afternoon retreat like last year. Vicki has rejoined for the season. Family members came at 6:00 for a supper. As a favor to Jenna I will not bring up the chili incident. We took CPCs this time.

MONSTERS, INC. Tonight Vicki read a book to Jenna and Ben while I was cleaning the kitchen. Later I heard Ben calling me in to pray. After I finished Ben asked, "Dad, will you put this ring away?" It was one of Jenna's little plastic rings. To explain himself he added, "I was going to scare monsters with it but changed my mind."

A WONDERFUL LEGACY. Those of you who know Aunt Mar know she is a woman of prayer. She epitomizes the verse about praying without ceasing. She has been known to accidentally end a phone conversation with "For Christ's sake, amen." which ends the call on a most humorous note for both parties.

Jenna must be a kindred spirit with Aunt Mar. We are so blessed to hear some of the most beautiful and sincere prayers from her at bedtime. The other day she answered the phone saying, "Lord Jesus--I mean--Hello...." I think her hair blushed as she handed the phone to Vicki who was laughing at her little girl's expense.

THE BIG 4-0. A BIG birthday wish goes out to Will, Vicki's brother. He will be sitting on top of the hill on Tuesday. Enjoy the view while you can!

A REPORT ON THE FREELANDS. I heard from Debbie before they left for China. She told me about their web site. If you go to it you can see a picture of Jessica. They hope to be able to update their site with news while they are away.

IN SYMPATHY. I think I have mentioned that Jenna's teacher is Vicki Rippy. Her father, Mr. Bill Young, passed away unexpectedly on Thursday from a heart attack. He was in good health for the age of 72. While visiting with the family at the funeral home Friday evening Todd, his son, said, "I don't remember ever seeing dad get mad about anything." What a wonderful memory to have!

We took the kids to the visitation which allowed us to answer several important questions on matters of life and death.

Joe

A Quiet Week

I record this simply to document what happened. We here in Robertson County have NOTHING to complain about compared to Floridians who have endured Charles and Francis and Alabamans who weathered Ivan. However, we did experience a bit of Ivan as it went by this week. By the time it got to Tennessee it was a tropical depression, and we were only grazed by the western edge of it on Thursday. What was really sad to me was that it came a bit sooner than predicted. Several high schools had moved their football games to Thursday evening to be ahead of the rain, one of these games was even the homecoming. Friday evening turned out to be perfect weather. I am touching on the less serious effects of the storm. Several school systems along the Alabama border closed due to flash flooding.

IT'S MAGIC! One of the allergy medications Jenna takes is in pill form (and not the chewable kind). The other night Jenna got Ben to watch her take the pill. When she swallowed it she opened her mouth for him which had him totally amazed.

TOO MUCH WYLE E. COYOTE. One of my yard chores last week was to prune the tree branches that have been slapping us in the face as we mow. Ben came out on the porch while I was at work and asked if he could come out and talk to me. When I said he could he replied that he had to go back in the house to get something. Next thing I know his Bob the Builder umbrella is right underneath me. He had that up to protect himself from all the falling leaves.

I'll have to sing Ben's praises here. When it came time to haul the limbs to the brush pile he was right in there helping me. It didn't matter to him how big the branch was, he tugged on it until he got it where it needed to go.

A GOOD SUPPER. We had a fund raiser for the Cross Plains Heritage Commission Saturday evening in the form of a barbecue supper complete with gospel music. Our goal was to feed at least 300 people. Fortunately we had enough food for the 500 people who showed up! We don't have all the figures in but we estimate we cleared $3000.

A PRAYER REQUEST. For those of you who don't know the Freelands they have been neighbors and good friends all my life. Brian, Steve, Brent and I did a whole lot together as we grew up. Brian and his wife Debbie are due to leave for China in a few days to adopt a little girl (maybe two). Please keep them in your prayers as they travel and navigate a foreign language and bureaucracy.

While you are praying for Brian and Debbie you might want mention Brent and his wife Sabrina. She is pregnant with twins. They already have a girl and a boy. Last I heard things were going okay but Sabrina's activity has been restricted to the couch and the bed. The babies aren't due until February.

Joe

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FOOTNOTE ON IVAN: As all storms of this type do, Ivan lost energy over land. By the time it to got to Virginia it was simply a huge low pressure system but it continued to dump very heavy rain on everyone in its path until it went back out to sea at the New Jersey coast. In the Atlantic it turned south and traveled down the US coast until it got to Florida where it turned west again and crossed Florida. In the Gulf of Mexico it regained strength to become a tropical depression again and hammered the Texas coast.

Snippets of Everyday Life

I enjoy waking up in the mornings this time of year. For some strange reason I like looking out the window at the fog. Sometimes it's so thick I can't see the barn at the other end of the garden. I don't know why that is special to me but it is.

AN UPDATE ON AUNT MAR. She came through her test just fine and even rescued the little souvenir after it passed. The doctor has not called to give her the results of the pictures taken.

GRANDPARENTS DAY. East Robertson celebrates this in style. It is such a success that parking is a problem. The cafeteria really puts on a good meal. Pauline, Mom and Aunt Mar all went to eat lunch with Jenna on Thursday. They also got to see her room, classmates and teacher.

SAID WITH 100% ENTHUSIASM. Part of our going to bed routine includes having the kids pick up the toys. I usually have Ben clean up Nate's room because the toys are larger and the job is quicker for him. If I put him and Jenna in the same room to work together he'll goof off and it makes Jenna mad (and I don't blame her). Part of the clean up job includes going and getting toys that belong to Nate's room wherever they may be. Ben likes this a lot because he can ride Scoop to pick up and deliver the toys where they go. (Scoop is the back hoe from the Bob the Builder show. Our Scoop is a plastic riding toy. The back hoe shovel was not designed into the toy but it does have the front end loader bucket. Ben uses this to haul many things.)

The other night Ben wheeled by where I was. Seeing me he stopped to say, "Dad, Nate's room not clean yet...but I on the job!"

I CAN SEE BEHIND ME NOW. I've been down to one rearview mirror on the truck for a long time now. A rock from the weedeater got the mirror on the driver's door and the mirror on the passenger's door just got tired and fell off. I replaced those this week.

I got the driver's side mirror on Thursday (the other was out of stock but came in Friday). When I purchased the thing I asked if there were instructions inside the box to tell me how to take the door apart. In spite of what I was told at the store auto parts do not come with instructions. When I got home I commenced to taking the door apart. An hour later Vicki called me in for supper. I had made no measurable progress. She asked how I liked my new mirror. I looked at her and said, "I think I need to call the authorities and have them take all my tools away."

I finally got my mirrors on but let me tell you it is no fun trying to fish a 10 mm socket out of the bottom of your door with a straightened coat hanger.

ANOTHER LEAK, ANOTHER VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE. It was back in July that I had to fix our leaky bathroom faucet. Well, it started leaking again and from the nature of the leak I knew the little ball that is inside those single lever faucets was worn out. So I buy another repair kit, tear the thing down, and replace the worn out parts. In doing so I discover the replacement parts are a smidgeon thicker than the worn out parts, making reassembly a challenge. It was about this time that Jenna walked in. After taking a second to survey the scene she asked, "Daddy, are you really able to do that?"

EYES IN THE DARK. Ben spent the night with Mom and Aunt Mar Friday. After breakfast the next morning they all walked down to the lower part of the yard. Aunt Mar sat on one of the logs that are there from the storms back in July while Mom and Ben went exploring. They picked up lots of acorns.

Several of the trees are hollow at the bottom and there are small holes in the trunks near the ground. Ben was so interested in looking in these holes that Mom went back to the house and got a flashlight for him. A little bit later they heard him squeal and he came running back to where Aunt Mar was sitting (with big tears rolling down his cheeks). When they asked what was wrong he said, "I saw BIG eyes in there." Mom and Aunt Mar think is was an owl. Whatever it was either left or climbed higher in the tree as no one saw eyes again.

A LITERARY DISCOVERY. I have been introduced to Hank the Cowdog. While working in the library at East Robertson the librarian asked me if I had ever heard of Hank. I had not so she loaned me a copy of The Original Adventures of Hank the Cowdog (first in what is now a series of 44 books written by John R. Erickson).

That night, after the kids were in bed, we turned off the TV and I read. You have to try to read these with a Texan drawl (the voice I hear in my head is that of Baxter Black: cowboy, poet and large animal veterinarian). We laughed so hard we were in tears. I think Vicki even gave herself a headache for laughing so hard.

Joe

One Year and Counting

It was a year ago today that I began sending you my unsolicited email. I hope these newsletters haven't fallen into the "spam" category with you but if they have, or ever do, please let me know.

AT THE FAIR. The Robertson County Fair was this week. We went on Friday night and enjoyed the exhibits, the greasy food, the cotton candy, and the rides. Actually, Vicki and the kids enjoyed the rides. You could not pay me enough to ride some of those things, even if they were at a more permanent location. Thanks to me we have blurry pictures of two little faces with ear to ear grins as they whizzed by.

A NEW SCHOOL. As you know Ben participated at the Mom's Day Out program at Cross Plains Methodist last year. Mt. Carmel has begun its own Mom's Day Out program this year and Ben is now attending that program. His school (which is open each Wednesday and Friday) began last week and he really enjoyed it. There are a total of ten kids in his class, five boys and five girls, and we understand that the teacher says, "Now boys...," a whole lot.

There are twin boys in his class. When Vicki commented on this to Ben he mistakenly tried to correct her saying, "No Mom, they're not trains. They're people!"

SITTING IN CHURCH. At our church, when you turn four it is time to leave the nursery and sit in big church which Ben has been doing for several weeks. Most Sundays there is Children's Church where the kids through the second grade leave before the sermon for their own activities. We do not have Children's Church on the first Sunday of each month so yesterday was Ben's first time to sit through the whole service. He did pretty well but I could tell his whole body was poised to run and jump like an overwound watch spring. The end of the service was a relief for me, Vicki and him.

It was Jenna who gave the laugh in church yesterday. Just before the offering was collected Bro. Bill prayed. It wasn't really that long of a prayer but he did spend a moment praying for the folks in Florida who are enduring their second hurricane within three weeks. After the prayer was over Jenna leaned over and whispered, "I'm glad that long prayer is finally over."

WISHING FOR BETTER. I don't care how good of a product something is you can always find a feature on it that you wish had been designed better. As much as we like our new van neither Vicki or I want to blow the horn. It sounds as impressive as the horn for a 1975 VW Beetle. The other day Vicki and the boys were going somewhere and Ben thought of the horn and asked Vicki to honk it for him. After she did he cried, "No Mom, the deeper one!"

EMPTY DAYS. Jenna sure did enjoy her extra day off today. She said, "Oh good, an empty day!" It sure is nice to have the day to hang out at home.

A PRAYER REQUEST. Aunt Mar goes in for a test early tomorrow morning. Because of this she couldn't eat after noon today and we had planned a cookout at Pauline's complete with steak, salad, baked potatoes, bread, fried mushrooms and chocolate pie. She visited but could not partake. She was one sad lady. We have promised a repeat soon.

Her test will consist of swallowing a pill that is basically a miniature digital camera. This camera will travel down her digestive tract taking pictures and transmitting the images to a small computer she will wear on a belt. Twenty years ago this would have all been science fiction. We hope this will nail down the source of her bleeding. It will be a long day for her as she waits for the little pill to make the 40 foot trip through her system.

Joe