It's a Star Wars Invasion

The Star Wars Symphony...it couldn't get any better for the young Jedi at our house. He loves theater/music and he love Star Wars so we splurged a bit and got tickets. We had heard it was very good and we were not disappointed.

There was a museum with items displayed from the movie. We saw Chewbacca, Yoda, Hans when he was frozen, and lots of clothing items.

What surprised us were how many people who just dressed up and let you take pictures with them. It soon became clear that we couldn't tell who was there because they were with the Symphony and who was there because they love Star Wars (and as Christopher explained, they wanted to make little kids happy).

Either way, it was a lot of fun, the Symphony was great and it was even greater hearing him hum along and keep the beat with his hands/feet/head - whatever was convenient at the moment.

Belated Happy Thanksgiving

Well, I had great intentions of catching you up and sharing quite a few pictures during any downtime on Thanksgiving Day. And, I will still share those stories (of course, over time...don't want to overload you), but not today.

On Thanksgiving, we go to my mom and dad's, have some stress of some sort about the food, eat way too much and then play a football game. Every other year, my cousin and his family come up so the game takes on all new meaning. I usually have a couple of pretty good photos from the day. Not this year.

I won't bore you (or gross you out) with the details, but I got sick about 1:30 am Thanksgiving morning. It's been a long time since I've been that sick. You can imagine all the downsides. Well, maybe one not so obvious one. I didn't get to visit with my cousin's family....I literally didn't get out of bed on Thursday. I really enjoy them and his wife is a sweetheart. (I really like her.) She went to Wal-Mart with me for one of the multiple trips I made because I forgot something. And, well, you know small-town Wal-Marts, you see people you know. You may not have seen them for 20 years so you have to catch up. She was so patient.

The upsides? Well, for the first time ever, I didn't overeat on Thanksgiving. As a matter of fact, I didn't eat even one bite. I think the best upside, though, was seeing how all my boys were so concerned and trying to take care of me. Of course, my mother did too, but that's what mother's do - we can't help it. Love her for it, but it wasn't the same as Christopher coming in to pat on me and put his face on my cheek. Or, James hearing me at 1:30 and coming to check on me and get me a wash cloth. My sweet husband who checked on me every little bit and sat in the room with me in case I needed anything.

It wasn't what I had expected, but I had so much to be thankful on Thanksgiving day.

We Have Girls

My dad has always wanted granddaughters. Finally, after years and years, there are girls in our family.

I am pretty sure this is not what he had in mind. James researched and researched and studied. He made a budget and a list of things to do and how often to do them. After months and months of waiting and planning, we got Pumpkin and Bristle.

I have to admit they're pretty cute.

Last Guatemala Story...at least until Next Year

This is the last and probably my most heart-wrenching story. Several years ago we started sponsoring a couple of boys at Mana de Vida. It's a school that is affiliated with the church and ministry that we work with in Guatemala. The two boys, Daniel and Brayan, are roughly James and Christopher's ages. We were so fortunate to be able to meet them when we were there 18 months or so ago. I felt like we had an instant bond.

This year we were able to once again set up a meeting. We were really looking forward to seeing them. Unlike last year when we went to their school to see them, their principal brought them to us, which was a big trip for them. Unfortunately, there is never enough time, but the guys did get some playing in.

They had hoped that Christopher would be with us this time, but they were content with "just" James. After they played a while, we had a short visit with them and Jessica, the principal. She gave us an update on how they were doing in school. It's amazing how much they seems like our guys. Brayan, the younger one, is the class entertainer and is very outgoing. (Sound like anyone you know?) Daniel is one of the best students in the school and more...shall we say controlled. But then heart-breaking part, she said that his mom had tried to pull him out of school before the end of the year. Fortunately, they talked her into letting him stay. (Their school year ends in October.) She was very concerned about next year.

His mom is a street vendor and makes about $12 a month. I'm sure that every little bit helps, but for him to start street vending now means that would be his life. He stood there and just cried. I really could hardly stand it (and have tears welling up again to think about it). We really don't realize how good we have it.

We look forward to seeing them again next and hope and pray that Daniel will be there for us to see.

Happy Halloween!

After our trip to North Georgia, Christopher painstakingly carved his pumpkin with a little help from his dad.

It had to be just perfect. He plans for Halloween night for months - picking out exactly the perfect costume.

James didn't trick or treat last year, but he couldn't be outdone by his little brother. Quite a stroke of creativity from him...a redneck. I think his dad was concerned that much of the wardrobe came from his closet :) You probably can't read it, but his name tag says, "Hi, my name is Joe Bubba." I think that sounds more like south Alabama than south Georgia.

Never to be outdone....Christopher as a commando or army soldier or something like that. The best surprise was that his spend-the-night company came as a soldier, too. No advance planning. They were a pretty cute cool pair. (Boys are not cute I was told every time someone told them they had great costumes and looked cute.)

Pretty vicious.

I just thought they were cute. (And, oh, did I mention we came back with 15+ pounds of candy in what must have been the most miserable trick or treating I have ever done - cold and raining. The payoff has clearly been worth it. They have spent a really, really long time sorting and trading candy.)