Wow, it's been three weeks since I wrote anything for this blog!  I'm so sorry, my faithful few readers.  Time sure flies when you're........busy.

So let's see, since October 14th, what has happened in my world?

Well, on October 15th, I made a birthday cake for my sister-in-law, who was turning 16.  She wanted chocolate cake and chocolate icing (yuck! lol) so I made a devil's food cake and iced it with triple chocolate fudge chip icing.  I didn't even try any of it.  I just don't like chocolate well enough to do it.  But it was a pretty cake, and I felt pretty good about how it turned out.  Here is a picture of it:

On the 20th, Henry, Miss B, and I traveled to Northlake Mall to hang out at Chick-fil-A with KT and Kara, my sisters-in-law, and their precious little boys.  It was nice to have adult conversation and to let the boys and Miss B all play in the play area.  I went through the play area once, too, just for good measure (and also because KT dared me to!)  After that, Henry would slide down the slide and do nothing else.  He loved it!  All in all, it was a great day!

The next weekend, October 23rd, we had a youth event for the youth at church.  We met at the church to play Sardines, which is like backwards hide and seek.  One person hides, and when you find them, you hide with them until there is only one person left.  The last person to find the hider becomes the next hider.  Then we went out to eat at Taco Bell.  It was a lot of fun for each of us.  My parents stayed and watched Henry so John and I could fully enjoy hunting for youth in small, dark spaces.  :o)

Also on the 23rd, we had our first homeschool Unit Celebration.  We are doing Tapestry of Grace curriculum, and each 9 weeks, we are encouraged to hold a day where family and friends can come see all the neat things that we are doing.  Both Miss B and my neighbor had so many things to show: a salt map of geographical terms, a model tabernacle, a votive statue, a mummy, Aaron's breastplate, writing samples, and much more!  I was amazed at how much we had already done.  We're into our second unit now, and we are already making more things, so our next Unit Celebration should be awesome, too.

Then, on the 30th, we had a children's event at church.  We watched How To Train Your Dragon and ate hot dogs afterwards.  That movie was so good!  I loved how the theme of being true to yourself was so aptly portrayed on the screen.  It reminded me of how we are all striving to be something we're not, whether we are trying to act more like God or whether we are trying to act more like our worldly friends.  It was a good reminder to be yourself.

Also that weekend, on the 31st, the youth held a pastor appreciation lunch for our pastor and his family.  They are wonderful people, and since October is Pastor Appreciation Month, it only made sense to honor them.  We served spaghetti, bread, salad, and desserts.  It was a great time!  We also gifted Preacher B with a couple of tacky Hawaiian shirts, as an inside joke between the youth and him.  He proudly wore one of them during the lunch, but that was mainly to keep the spaghetti off his nice church clothes.

Then, this weekend, my college roommates came to our house for lunch and just to visit.  It was wonderful!  Three of the four of us have children now, so we had an almost 3 year old, and almost 2 year old, and a 7 month old in the house yesterday.  Add to that mix a 14 year old, 4 roomies, and their husbands, and the cacophony of laughter and talking was loud but wonderful!  We don't get to see each other nearly enough, and we decided we need to do this again in January and not wait for a year like we did this last time.  It's amazing how our lives have all changed, but we still get together and the conversation never stops.  It's great to have friends like that!

Alicia, Laura, Amanda, and Ashley--the fearless four!  :o)

I would like to think that my life will be getting less busy, but I know that's not the case.  The holiday season is upon us, and I am totally stoked about it (don't you love the addition of 80s language to this post?  It makes it so much more radical!  hehe)  We start Christmas play practice tonight at church, and since I am in charge of the adult program AND the children/youth program, there is no rest for the weary over here.  I am so excited about the children/youth program, I can't hardly stand it.  I wrote it, as I did last year, but I really think it's going to be great!  We will do both programs on December 19--the adults in the morning, and the children/ youth at night.  Plus, we serve cookies and hot chocolate that night after the program, so I will be one busy lady until then!  Also, I am trying to plan one youth and one children's activity each month, in an effort to bond each of the groups and hopefully gain some new members or at least get on people's radars.  I am soliciting help with the children's activities, because I definitely don't feel called to do it all myself, and I can't be doing EVERYTHING at church.  There are other people there who can help, and so I've been praying that they will respond to the little prick in their hearts about helping.

Yep, time sure flies when you're.........busy!  :o)