Rotten Timing

We have a story of rotten timing. When we bought our new house, we bought some new appliances to go with it. Thinking we would really like it, we decided to buy one of those ceramic glass cooktop (flattop) ranges. We've liked it pretty well - it's easy to clean. Well, yesterday after we finished cooking dinner we noticed a small crack in the glass cooktop. A few minutes later the small crack had spread all the way across the top in several directions making all the burners virtually unusable.

On any normal week this would have not been a big deal. The glass top has a warranty so we can get that replaced and we could normally handle a few days without a stove. But, we're hosting Thanksgiving dinner for 16 people tomorrow! It couldn't have happened at a worse time! We can still do the turkey - we just haven't quite figured out how to do mashed potatoes and gravy in the microwave. Maybe we can rig up something in the fireplace? We'll figure something out!

Lizzy was a pretty grouchy leopard (oops, I mean "I'm a CAT!") when we headed out for trick or treating, so we didn't get much of a good picture. After the first door, she perked up a lot though and had a ball.

At each door, we stayed back on the sidewalk and let the kids approach the door themselves. At one particular door, the friendly neighbor said, "Hello, kids! You can take whatever candy you would like from the bucket." Lizzy immediately grabbed the bucket from the poor man and dumped the entire contents into her basket (and some onto the ground). I guess the man got some of his candy back from Lizzy, but, according to Adam, similar things happened at several houses. When she got home her basket was overflowing while the other kids were only about half full!

This is our little fairy princess Anna. She got to wear her costume to preschool and was very excited to find that her best friend there was also a fairy princess. 

This is the self-proclaimed Captain Big Mac. Instead of the normal "trick or treat" Adam's door approach was to raise his sword and grunt "Arrrr...Captain Big Mac wants some candy". He usually got his way. Incidentally, Adam's pet name for Lizzy is currently Little Mac. 

Adam

Well Adam has probably had the most excitement in his life the past couple of weeks, so I thought I would let you know what he is doing. He is finally adjusting to his new school and new teacher. He is enjoying things much more now. He is playing with friends from his class at recess now instead of the old stand-bys from church, which I think is a good sign. He has a new love at school. It is tetherball. They didn't have tetherball at his school last year, so this is something new and exciting. He really has enjoyed that, even though, at his own admission, he is not very good at it.

Adam has also started playing basketball through a league here in town. He is loving that, and I have been surprised how enjoyable it is to watch him play. He gets a little excited about things and tends to jump and bounce around the court instead of running. He scored his first basket in the last game they played, but his strength is definitely dribbling (and I don't mean on his chin). His team is altogether pretty terrible, but they don't seem to mind. They are just happy to be out there playing ball.

In a different area of his life, Adam is undergoing some changes. He lost two teeth a couple of weeks ago. It is his bottom two teeth. They came out just two days apart from each other. He pulled them both out himself, mostly because he would not let Greg or I near him. What was he doing while he pulled them out; he was jumping up and down. He is a bit excitable I guess. He has been pestering me to know if the tooth fairy is real (I think he mostly wanted to know if he was REALLY going to get any money). I think he kind of knew already, so I told him, but we still gave him some money (although not the $10 that he claims his friend got for each tooth!). He also has strict instructions not to let the girls on to this little secret.

Adam probably has the most exciting life of anyone in our family. He continues to love the piano and excels at just about anything he does, with the exception of tetherball I guess. He is still working on finishing the Book of Mormon by the end of this year and constantly amazes us at his retention and comprehension. He has been the inspiration for his primary teacher and other adults in the ward to keep going. "If Adam can do it, so can I." He is an amazing kid.

Back in Business

Well, hello there blogsphere! As many of you know our computer has been down for quite a while. After two motherboards and some house calls from the computer doctor, we ended up buying a new computer anyway! Computers are pretty cheap these days, so if you suspect you have a motherboard problem just buy a new computer!! We ended up spending as much trying to fix our computer as we bought our new one for! ARGH!! The good side of all this is you lucky folks out there get to hear what is going on in our lives again, and I get to be more involved in some of yours. I definitely like computers for that reason. We are officially back in business, so there will probably be a string of posts the next little while. Are you ready??