"Can You Hear Me Now?"

I had a really cute phone conversation with Josiah last night. I was driving home and decided to call Amy to see if there was anything I needed to pickup at the store. She said that Josiah really missed me today, so she put him on the phone. We takled for about 5 minutes with him jabbering on; all I understood was "Hi Daddy" and "yeah" but that was enough. Amy said that he had a great big smile on his face when he heard Daddy's voice on the phone.

It was a great feeling to be missed. To have someone excited about my return home and is bursting with excitement to share the day's adventures. We missed them for so many years, and I'm so glad that they're finally here to miss us!

Halloween...Then & Now

Halloween last year

This year . . .

We went trick-or-treating with our friends, Bob & Jen, and their little one, Hailey. Amy was working, so I took lots of pictures so that she wouldn't feel left out. I was surprised by how many kids were out in our neighborhood! Everyon seemed to be getting into the spirit and it was a great time for the kids.

I know that Christians struggle with Halloween and whether or not to participate. We wrestled with it this year because our Saturday evening church service was on the same night. At the end of the day, I did what I thought was best for the kids from an experience standpoint. They've never been able to go out and meet the neighbors and experience true community (albeit dressed as a tiger and a butterfly). Maybe it's just my rationalization, but being out and about amongst our neighbors was every bit as important than attending a worship service. We were able to connect, have conversations and were approachable to the people that we're around every day.

We had a great time, came home with lotas of candy and got some really cute pictures! Oh and by the way, the tiger cosume was a hand-me-down from one of our neighbors and the butterfly costume was $7 on craigs list!

Happy Annie

Daddy's Little Shoplifter

Amy started her new shift at the hospital today: 8am to 8pm plus the hour commute each way. I knew I was in for a long day, especially since our TV is broken. [Just as a side note, I have a technician coming out to fix it on Monday, but I called Thursday to see if they could some out any sooner. The lasy was like, "actually that's the soonest we have and it's only two days away..." OK, number one: THURDAY, FRIDAY, SATURDAY, SUNDAY, MONDAY is not two days and number two: I have two small children for 14 hours a day Saturday and Sunday with NO TV! No Imagination Movers, no Handy Manny, no Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Not even PBS. But I digress...]

I decided to head to the mall to buy a new pair of shoes. I packed up the kids (which takes forever when you're going it alone) and we were off. The mall was insane (which reminded me why I don't like the mall). I found the ALDO store and to my dismay, their selection was dismal. [Mental note: always shop online.] As I was leaving, I saw another store called The Walking Company or something like that. They carried a bunch of Dansko stuff (which Amy loves), so I checked it out. The stuff was a bit too pricey for me, and the selection wasn't great for men so we headed home. I was to the main entrance of the mall when I looked down and realized that Josiah had a shoe in his mouth! He had reached out and grabbed a brown leather dress shoe off the shelf and I never noticed! To make matters worse, they were $119.00 for the pair, so I definately wanted to get this shoe back to its partner.

I grabbed the shoe and wheeled around heading back to the store. All the while I'm wondering if I'll be arrested or charged for the pair since he was chewing on them. As I get to the store, the manager greets me and I'm apologizing all over the place. He said, "I thought it was funny that you were coming back with one of our shoes in your hand..." He laughed and took the shoe from me and was extremely cool about it. Whew!

But the real news is that I found a great pair of shoes on clearance at Aldo.com. Yay! [grin]

Trip to the Mountains

Last weekend Amy and I had a much-needed vacation in the mountains of northern PA. We rented a cabin with my folks and my sister's family, so it was a wonderful time of resting, playing and spending quality family time together. Here's a great shot of the cousins.

One of the more exciting moments of the trip was our close encounter with a black bear. While we never actually saw him, I noticed his ominous paw prints just outside the storm door of the cabin . . .