Like fruit, children are sweetest just before they turn bad. ~Dena Groquet

I almost forgot about the weekly church update. Today during the kids sermon they were supposed to learn about advent. The lady says "do you what day it is today?" Zoey pipes up with "its sunday". The lady says "do you know what we are waiting for this month?" Isaac proudly says "Santa!" Ironically the only advent calendars she could find had santa on them and not baby Jesus. However, she only bought enough for one advent calendar per household. This she mentioned after her son had already given my children each one. Zoey was more than just a little upset. I am sure the lady had thought that I had already tought my kids to share nicely. Yeah--not so much.

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice. ~Meister Eckhart

It was a long couple of weeks with Chris being gone. He had some work stuff in Colorado for a few days then then headed up to Montana for a week and a half. He had a good trip and got two deer. Wednesday after school got out I brought Isaac up to Alzada to meet up with Chris for the rest of the hunting trip. I did NOT hit a deer on the whole trip!! Zoey and I had some girl time. We painted our nails and watched the Tinkerbell Movie (finaly after more than a year of telling her we would see it together.) Thursday we had a girls thanksgiving lunch with the Solems at Perkins. After we went home I enjoyed a moment of contentment. Those moments don't always last long, but I do have a lot to be thankful for this year! The boys returned with everyone healthy and my house is now back to its normal loud self with school in the morning.

Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action. ~W.J. Cameron

Just a quicky post, before the kids realize I am trying to do something.

Fridays we don't use daycare, so I brought Zoey with me to the Rec Center and to run my errands. It was fun to have her with me.

Saturday I invited the Solem girls over for the whole day so that Angie could make some progress on their move. The kids got along well and had a fabulous time. Later in the afternoon we added Ruhel to the mix for a sleep over. That kid just cracks me up. We ordered pizza for supper and played some Uno. The whole day just went smoothly, which I have to document since I don't get that many days that go so well. I was surprized at how early the kids went to bed, even though the boys told me they were going to stay up all night. Today we were back to our usually selves, with the exception that we were ready for church early. Can't complain about that. When we got back it was naptime for all. Even Ike took a nap for me.

I think that even though I am only working a few days this coming week--it still looks like a busy time. I am trying to prepare or at least realize the holidays are coming up fast. I definately did not get as much done in November as I had planned. Whoever is in controll of the speed of time needs to slow down just a bit. I am pretty sure Christmas will be here before I am ready even though I feel I am starting on time.

As for butter versus margarine, I trust cows more than chemists. ~Joan Gussow

Yesterday we dropped Isaac off at school. Zoey and I were watching him and she says, "I believe in Isaac because he is my brother."

I have no idea what that means coming from a three year old or really what she was thinking at all, but it was very cute and touching.

This morning however, we had an interesting conersation. I often times say sir or mam when talking with the kids and this morning Zoey referred to me as man. I said do you mean mam, cuz I am a girl not a boy. I assured her I am a mam or Mrs. because I am married. She said she ment man and also let me know that she is married too. Who to? I ask. I really would like to find out the dirt, thinking that she was going to say one of the boys she regularly plays with at school. Nope. She is married to a girl.

I am adding some new blogs/links to my site. The Kyle & Alli and Amy are great family blogs if you would like to take a peek at my wonderful and very good looking nieces and nephew. The Davies Bunch has been there for a while, but Annie does such a good job on her blog I would invite you to see it just for the amazing photography. She also has links to go to if you want to jazz up your blog for free. I have seriously thought about it, but not that coordinated yet. In the very near future I hope to be adding 5 minutes for mom. Its a good website for mom's and I have a link to my website from there.

Marge, you're as pretty as Princess Leia and as smart as Yoda. ~The Simpsons

Gillette is like this totally hoppin' town. Betcha didn't know that! We just opened up a new venue--The Wyoming Center at the Camplex. It has two auditoriums and a new ice rink. It opened on Friday so I took the kids to see the Chinese Dragon Acrobats. It was a usual outing for the Soosts. I give them the lecture that we are there to see the acrobats so no crying, fighting, hitting or asking to buy things. All of those mentioned happened before the show even started. Luckily once the show started and the kids visually learned what acrobat meant they were pretty impressed. After the guy did the chair stacking thing up to the ceiling and did his acrobatics up high, Zoey said "He's my boyfriend." Oh boy, I may actually be raising a girl. I tried to take pictures but trying to find the right setting for my distance, lighting and their movement was quite difficult. So now that we have the Wyoming Center Kenny Rogers is coming to sing to us. Yeah, I don't think I am going to that one, but you never know someone fun might come.

Now as for this week--also hoppin'. I had super busy days of work Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday which was good cuz I didn't work Thursday Friday due to conferences. Yep, Ike had his first kindergarten conferences. His teacher had all wonderful things to say and he is doing well. He also started the Gate enrichment program so that he does not get bored during the day. I did not get the chance yet to visit with his enrichment teacher, so I'll find out next week exactly what kind of things he is working on there. They gave out gift certificates to Golden Corral to the kindergartners, which really made them happy. Thursday I also got to watch Emily for the morning and the kids had a great time. Yesterday and today the guys went hunting. Got a turkey yesterday. And today Zoey has a princess birthday party to go to.

I don't usually post this kind of stuff, but also this week my mother-in-law was diagnosed with a rare form of breast cancer. It is non-aggressive and has not spread. The outcome looks good, but there are still changes and decisions to be made in the next weeks to come.

Opie, you haven't finished your milk. We can't put it back in the cow, you know. ~From The Andy Griffith Show

Our Sundays are more like Mondays than anything else. Chris gets up early to check out his jobs for the day and then he is on his way. Today they had him all over driving from Dayton to Buffalo then back up to Sheridan. The rest of us get up shortly thereafter. Zoey is ready for morning time. Isaac needs much coaxing. He is not ready for morning time, not ready for church and he was coughing last night. We are lucky to have church so close to us. We get there as it starts and are forced to sit near the front today. Isaac brought his children's bible and was surprizing well today. May be Zoey will be next time. We came home. Had some lunch and started watching the football game. Zoey had changed into her Vikings jersey as soon as we had gotten home. Shortly after lunch I told Zoey to go take a nap and she DID. I finished watching the Vikings win by the skin of their teeth and got a ton of yuchy house work done. Very productive. Ike worked on his numbers (because he wanted to). And the kids played so well today. Sometimes it is just amazing, they even asked to sit by eachother at supper tonight. Which by the way I messed up. I had an itch to cook the other day and made a lazagna ahead of time so we could have it soon, but not feel totally overwhelmed by it. I was really looking forward to it. Chris had bought some texas toast to have with it since he doesn't like the garlic toast I usually make. So I got the texas toast out and started to cook it per the instructions on the box. Couple minutes-flip-couple more minutes. I had that part down fine. I even set the timer for each two block frame as my oven tends to cook fast. Well then the box said if I wanted a crispier crust I could stick it in the broiler for 1-2 minutes. So I stuck it in thinking this was going to be some good bread. I did not set the timer. Put some cups and milk out on the table and vala --all 8 pieces of bread not just burnt, but on fire! There's toasted for ya. So there is a quick little look into how my days usually go. Zoey said she liked the zanya.

The difference between try and triumph is a little umph. ~Author Unknown

Isaac had such a fabulous night last night. He got a free skate pass for having perfect attendance last quarter (except the day he was sick--must have been after the cut off day). Anyway he has never been on skates at all. This particular rink was very similar to the one I used to go to excpt it didn't have the dividers down the middle of the rink so it was very much skate at your own risk. It was one big vortex of kids trying to skate in a circle with the slower kids closer to the wall and the faster kids more towards the middle of the rink. anyway-- we went around a couple of times to get used to things. I kinda thought he was going to be velcroed to the wall all night in fear. But then he said " Mom, I'm going in the middle". I of course responded"Are you kidding?" and he walked on his rollerskates right over to the thick of things and danced his little Isaac dance for the rest of the night. The school served some snacks, which I felt was very thoughtful. Many of his friends were there and he had a blast. As though that was not enough, afterward I took him shopping at walmart to use his birthday money. He does like to buy things or spend his money--I don't really think he understands just yet. Anyway new pants and a couple sets of CARS megablocks.

Zoey was super sad she did not get to go. She wanted a girls night out--without Isaac and Daddy. This after she totally missed Ike when he went hunting and even thought they were not coming home again. In new news this moring Zoey said to me "I want to be girl." I new this day would come, but not today and with my luck I figured I would have to wait until she turned five to explain to her that she would not magically turn into a boy. I think it helps some that Tinker and her friends are girls and they can do some pretty cool stuff. So she is always talking to Tinkerbell and her friends and is making pixie dust all the time. She is still into her usually things like pretending the table and chairs are zebras and dogs and monkeys too. She is learning quite a bit at preschool. I like when we come home and she can tell me about what she learned and did. Hopefully that means she remembers some of it.

The fierce Wyoming wind is whipping around out there, pulling in dark clouds and I think even a snow storm. We have had such beautiful weather lately that the cold isn't really all that inviting.

My father considered a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of churchgoing. ~Aldous Huxley

If you get melted chocolate all over your hands, you're eating it too slowly. ~Author Unknown

Our weekend began Friday afternoon at Isaac's school Halloween party. I was signed up to help and it was fun to go. We served many snacks and after the kids danced around to halloween music.

From there we made a quicky stop at Walmart, then on home to the two Halloween haters. Chris and Zoey like the candy, but not so much the dressing up. This happens every single halloween and sooner or later we will get something figured out.

We told Zoey that if she would sit for pictures she wouldn't have to wear the wings anymore. I think the thing that bugs me most is that this is the only night of the entire year that she does not like to dress up. She was so excited to be Tinkerbell this year and she wore the costume during the week and I can most certainly guarentee that she will wear it after Halloween. We drove to a few homes we knew and then walked up Tonk. I am pretty sure this is the only Halloween I can remember that it was 70 degrees for trick or treating!

No Family photos--I couldn't get the timer on my camera figured out.

The very next day Ike and Chris woke up super early to go hunting. They didn't get anything, but had a pretty good time. I have NEVER seen the kids so tired!! He did come up this morning, so we tried church, but super tired didn't agree with that and Sunday School had to be skipped. But he did take another good nap when we got home. The weather was so fabulous yesterday that Zoey and I went to the park with Kinley and Angie. We met up with them later in the evening so the girls could play while we waited for the hunters to return.

Our house is clean enough to be healthy, and dirty enough to be happy. ~Author Unknown

What a day. I was hoping to spend it hanging out with the Solems. Isaac and Chris went hunting with Shayne and Sydney. However, I ate too much candy last night and got to a late start this morning. Now I have decided to work on the house some. I was so excited as Zoey was sleeping. WAS. With her some is always better than non. Now I am in the process of figuring out what to do with the last three unpacked boxes. I have not paid any attention to them as they are toys. I probably should just get rid of them. But me, thow anything away, are you kidding? But if I find room somewhere else for them, I can put the freezer there instead of having it in the family room! Pretty cool, huh?