I think I have seen more deer in the past few weeks than usual. Either they are getting bolder or they are simply being forced to forage out in the open for some reason. The same goes for a small rafter of turkeys I see about every day on my way to and from work (actually there are about 20 in the group). I find them getting closer to the highway than before. Not smart with the upcoming holiday as eating roadkill is legal in Tennessee.
By the way, we finally got our first real frost of the season this morning.
A CONUNDRUM. So Jenna asked Vicki if she could have some candy out of the Halloween candy bag. Vicki gave her permission to have one piece. Jenna returned asking if she could have two pieces but Vicki stuck to her guns. A few moments later she was back and asked, "Mom, can I have the Hershey's Kiss?" When Vicki said she could Jenna regretfully replied, "But eeny meeny [miny moe] picked the bubble gum."
What says more about Jenna than she'll ever know is the fact that she abided by the choice made by the eeny meeny rhyme even though Vicki told her it was okay to eat the other candy.
GOOD HELP IS EASY TO FIND. We ask Jenna and Ben to clean up their toys each night before going to bed. This includes the messes Nate had made. Last night Nate and I came in from church before everyone else and as a surprise we cleaned everything up for Jenna and Ben. What was so nice was that I could hand something to Nate, tell him where it went and he'd actually put the stuff in the right place. I had him going all over the house and when I walked around later I didn't spot anything out of order. He was so proud (and so was I)!
DIZZY. Nate has gotten to where he loves to spin around until he gets dizzy. This really worries Aunt Mar as she thinks it will mess up his brain development. I just hope it will give him more of a toleration for roller coasters than I have.
A BAD WIND. The other day I came home from work to a big mess. Evidently someone had been hired to remove insulation from an old building. As they were driving by our house some of the bags of the stuff blew out of their truck right in front of our house. The bags burst open spreading bits of insulation all over the front yard. When Ben saw it he asked Vicki what had happened and she explained about the wind blowing the stuff out of the truck. He thought about that a moment and said, "God must not have been in the wind's heart."
SOCIAL BUTTERFLY. Vicki has had a full calendar. Last Monday evening she attended her Women On Mission meeting. Wednesday evening was church and choir practice. On Thursday she met Angi Arnold and Becky Seaton (friends from high school) for lunch at Opry Mills. And on Friday she went to the Christmas Village at the State Fairgrounds with Tracy and Michelle (friends from church).
I think she has really enjoyed getting out with friends and away from kids. Right now she is sitting on the couch sorting through the bag of single socks hoping to find mates for them (I think every load of laundry eats one sock). I guess that's the reality check.
A NEAT CONTRAPTION. My appreciation for this machine comes from having to pick up hay when I was in high school. The Hendleys, neighbors of ours, own one of these and I stopped by on my way home from work the other day to see it in action. It is a hay bale wagon. Mike Hendley was kind enough to let me hang off the side and watch it work. It took him about 20 minutes to drive around the field scooping up hay bales which the mechanism behind the cab stacked into the bed of the wagon. When he went to the barn to unload he left behind a large cube of 160 hay bales. He said the concept for the machine was invented by a 16 year old boy who was tired of picking up hay. I found a picture online if you are curious about what this thing looks like.
SAD NEWS. Pauline still takes her hometown newspaper, The Camden Chronicle. When she opened up the edition that was delivered today a house fire was one of the front page stories. As she looked at the picture she recognized the house to be her parent's homeplace. The house is the property of her sister-in-law and had been renovated to be a rental house. A tenant was due to move into the house in a few days. It was totally destroyed but no one was inside when it happened.
Joe
