Windy

I get home from work today and everyone is sleeping except Luke. I was in the bathroom changing and Luke comes running in saying it is really windy and he watched the grill roll across the deck and is on the ground. So we start to have a discussion about not telling lies. And he says no it is really on the the ground. So I finish changing and low and behold, the place where it was on the deck and empty, and low and behold it is on the ground. So I apologized for thinking he was lying and we decided to wait for Daddy to come home to life it back on the deck and assess the damages!!!

Boot Rack

I was looking online for something to hand the boys boots, and hats and gloves on so that they dry and don't stay wet for hours. I was thinking of buying something. I know I had seen a metal tree stand type thing before. well I can across this wood/pvc pipe creation and decided to give it a try. All it is, is some 1 x 4 and some pvc pipe to hang the stuff on and bingo, I have dry boots and gloves now. I used it for the first time today, but I like it!!!!

Snowman

So we had about an inch of snow this am when we woke up. Luke say it and wanted to go outside from the start of waking up. I had to convince Graham it would be fun and then Eli came too. I got Luke dressed and sent him outside, then got Graham dressed and out he went. Finally it was Eli's and my turn. Eli enjoyed swinging for a while, but wasn't too keen on getting put down in the snow to have his photo taken. We also went for a small sled ride with all 3 on one sled, they did ok, but again Eli started to scream.

When I came home from work, everything had melted. Bye snow man.

Freedom run 5k

Last night our church hosted a 5k race. It started at 7:27 at night and was a 3.1 mile loop around the church. We went through a road by farms with lots of manure, even saw people out on horseback at night, ran by a high school football stadium with a game going on, and then through a cemetary called the Freedom Cemetary. The area where our church is used to be called Liberia and was part of the underground railroad. And the cemetary was a place for slaves to be buried. The purpose of the race was to raise awareness for the slavery that exists today around the world.

Having never run a 5 k before I started training for about 6 weeks or so with a goal of running 27 minutes. Since the race was at night, I practiced at night and was used to the dark. Most people had headlights on and they had lots of luminaries around the raceway so you knew where to go. They had over 60 volunteers directing traffic and giving us encouragement and telling us which way to turn.

Joe doesn't run, but this was his 2nd 5 k race this year. He ran once 1 week ago and only a mile and he was ready to go. He works out 3-4 times a week so didn't feel he needed to run.

So they had about 140 people run/walking the course. Joe wanted to be in the front, so I joined him and found myself going much faster than i ever wanted to go. My phone told me I was runing 8:15 second miles, which is great but I didn't think I could keep up that pace, and I was right.

Joe finished 1st in his age group, 30-39 with a time of 24:30 beating his only other time by 20 seconds. I got 4th in my age group with a time of 27:22. So I almost did the 27 minutes I wanted. We were both happy with what we did and enjoyed the bonfire afterwards with smores.

Not for Sale is one of the organizations we teamed up with to raise money for. Their website is below if you are interested in the Slavery around the world.

www.notforsalecampaign.org

Sunday we are having a Orphan experience to see what it is like for orphans around the world. So that should be interesting and eye opening for the whole family.

Grandparent Weekend

While Joe was off hunting for a long weekend in Colorado, I called in some reinforcements. Grandma and Grandpa Meier came to visit and help out with the kids. The weather was beautiful so we went to a pumpkin farm on Saturday to pick our pumpkins. The boys enjoyed playing in the hay as well as going on the hay ride to find their pumpkin of choice. We carved them on Sunday and had fun. Grandma Meier also had the boys make Mummy Pizza's and pumpkin rice crispy treats. IT was a good weekend, except for lunch on Sunday which was one of the worst restaurant experiences ever, but we all survived.

Zoo

On Tuesday, I took a friend and her 2 boys to the zoo with us. Some might say we are crazy to go with a 5 to 2 ratio of boys to girls. But we went and had a great time. Luke is the oldest, then Caleb, and his brother Josiah who is 7 days older than Graham, and then Eli. They enjoyed following each other around, looking at all the animals and learning fun facts about them. The polar bear was swimming around and the elephants were busy eating their hay. This is probably the last zoo visit for the year with the cold weather coming in, but our zoo membership is well worth it!!

Halloween

This year we were actually home for Halloween. We carved pumpkins with Grandma and Grandpa Meier (well the boys picked the design the grandparents carved). Then we had a block party tonight. Harrisville likes to do Trick O Treating the thursday before Halloween. Why, we don't know, but we all met at the cul-de-sac tonight and shared candy with each other. It was a good time. This year we had Optimus Prime Luke, Frog Graham, and Turtle Eli.