Harvest Happenings

My Gracie Pirate Girl

Busy, busy harvest season here round this Grace FULL household including, but not limited to, harvest parties at church & school. Yes - I AM the room parent! Yeah - it was great with lots of parent help besides me. That was NICE! They kids loved the games - pumpkin cakewalk, pumpkin relay & candy cone BINGO! The relay was HILARIOUS. Originally intended to sweep the pumpkins with brooms, the brooms were forgotten by busy parents other than me. So we improvised. The teams rolled the itty bitty pumpkins with their noses. I'm talking FUNNY! 

Spider bites for treats at the 1st grade Harvest Party. Brought to you by Shorty Cakes!

1st horse ride. Oh, he's smiling here, but let me tell you...

The Harvest festival at CLC was great. We took a little friend from school. Highlight of the day, "Is that horse really REAL?" This youngster had never seen a real horse or pony in the FLESH! I managed to get him on the horse with the help of the wonderful horse people, but little N was quite fearful the entire time. Kids should definitely experience real animals as often & early as possible. Gracie was, you know she was so "I got this." lol - almost indignant about her peer's inexperience with the animals. It's not funny. I'm sorry. The screeching in the petting zoo with the cows, bunnies, goats, llamas...NOT funny. Really. giggle giggle. After we managed to get the screeching boy OUTSIDE the fence, he thought he really might want to touch the pig. Uh-uh. I don't think so. Just look from here. =) Great time indeed!  Bouncy things, face painting, coloring contests (I don't really like those, but the kids do =/), decorating cupcakes, carnival games & oh, the CANDY! Lots of CANDY!

Gracie & friend chowing on cupcakes they decorated! AND the proceeds went to dig clean water wells in Peru. How GREAT is THAT? Fun for a good cause!

If you can imagine MORE fun than that...we dropped off little N & hit the trick or treat trail sponsored by the park district. Let me tell you, we have the BEST park district EVER! This was quite fun & in such a charming setting.

Halloween actually fell on Sunday, so we worshipped at CLC. Front line privilege PLUS a special speaker was on tap so we were there for a longggggggggggg time.   Let's see. Gracie was in the kids town/Sunday School thing for 5.5 hours. 5.5 hours of singing, dancing, worshiping, & learning about Jesus. FUN & exhaustion. Plus, there were treats for every service - treats X3. SUGAR!!! Actually, I don't know what they served but we could say she was more than jazzed for Trick or Treating with Uncle BOB! That was fun, but she pooped out early. Could be because my pirate princess RAN from house to house for about three blocks. Could be, huh?

We filled her princess Easter basket now Trick or Treat pail to the brim AND all pockets AND her pirate hat. That was a ton of candy! More than enough. PLENTY! Bring on the Kit Kat bars for mama! Oh, butter..right. =)

To wrap things up, we stopped by the Deer Creek Trunk or Treat extravaganza just to bounce in the JUMBO Jet & slide down that MOUNTAIN of a parrot. Hit a few trunks on the way to our car & then to the BIRTHDAY party of our little neighbor friend. Talk about wired for sound. They had a not-so-haunted house in their basement which was still fun after 3 times. They bobbed for apples & played all sorts of fun games with CANDY prizes. YEAH CANDY. Seriously. Pizza (finally - real food =) 

To be honest, it was a great weekend. I can't believe she made it into bed by 9:00 pm. I can't believe I survived. =)

Here are some photos from other Harvest Happenings this Fall. We've been busy, but I said that already. As much as I dread Fall (because of what burr cold comes afterward), some of our favorite activities are during this time of year. =)

Pumpkin patching with good friends!

Hayride fun!

County Line Orchard fun in the hay maze

Apple Orchard fun making & EATING s'mores by the campfire

Georges Sada, General to Saddam, speaking in Tinley Park, IL

An invitation from Christian Life Center, Tinley Park

What’s really happening in Iraq?

As our presidential election approaches, both Senator McCain and Senator Obama are focused on a few issues, with the economy, energy/fuel prices, and Iraq being at the top of the list. Every pundit seems to have opinions as to what went wrong there, what’s happening now, and when we need to get out. But how many of them really know from an insider’s perspective what’s happening there?
This weekend, August 23-24, you and your friends will have an opportunity to hear this important topic from a true insider: a man who was intimately involved with Saddam’s murderous reign as one of his top military advisers, was on the ground when U.S. forces brought liberation, and who has been a part of the rebuilding of that nation, now serving as a spokesman for the Iraqi prime minister: General Georges Sada.

General Sada has been a guest of Hannity & Colmes as well as numerous other newscasts; he was recently on the Daystar network’s Celebration; he’ll be a featured guest on the Sandy Rios show this week (details to follow); and this weekend he’ll be on our stage at CLC Tinley Park campus. We have invited local mayors, council members and even Senator Barack Obama to join us - now I’m inviting you.

Here’s the cool thing: if you have a question about Iraq that you’d like the General to answer, you can submit it here any time this week until Friday, and we’ll get those questions to him, hopefully to address in one of the services this weekend. We announced this offer at South Bend and Shorewood yesterday, but it’s also good for anyone else reading this blog: submit your question now, or just leave it in the comments below.

Big Week

Lately, I've had lots to say but Blogger's kept me at bay with some cookie problem. Cookie problems - what a problem to have, eh? But I finally resolved the problem at 3:30 AM with nothing else to do. No, I was just really motivated to resolve the issue & move on. Resolve & move on~

It's beeen a big week round here indeed! Summer camp started for the little Miss. She's a happy girl these days planting flowers, making strawberry jam and having a bike wash at school...oh, right - it's "summer camp." That makes a big difference, you know? This week, she actually told me "It's ok, Mom. I can go in by meself." That's big for us & I'm smiling!

My studies...well, we're pressing on for sure! I'm taking Augmentative & Alternative Communication as well as Assessment this semester. Enjoy both of them...the instructors are great & I'm learning lots despite the pace...despite being on campus 4 night per week. So much for building margins in my life. Much to my surprise I aced an exam that I was certain demonstrated my "ill prepareness." Hmmmm - guess I was more prepared than I thought. That feels nice~

But speaking of margins....check this out - a CLC sermon series on just that - building margins in our lives. It's so good...so practical...so right where we live. Watch it live on Sundays or catch the most recent installments via video or audio message.

I witnessed an accident this week - right in front of me. A mini van turned into the path of an oncoming truck. Nasty & gnarly accident - just pray everyone was ok. The van was in the intersection, waiting to complete a left turn. The light was yellow...they proably thought the
truck was stopping given it would not make it through on green or even yellow light. Nope - that truck was bound to make the light. In a moment, everything changed. In a moment~ it really shook me up. I called 911 as soon as it happened & was calm, but afterward - really shaken up. I was on my way to a client's house for therapy & though I've been there dozens of times, I couldn't find it...I was so disoriented, my brain just not working right. You just never know when a moment might alter your life with magnanamous proportions. Time to slow down...take my time & build some margin in my life.

2007 Southern Tour: Part 4 Atlanta Times (cont)

After relaxing with Sarah, Grace & I headed to the other side of Atlanta to visit former CLC-er, Holly. What a treat to see her as well as visit with another old friend, Pat, from CLC Shorewood campus. Moriah was willing swim buddy for Miss Grace.

We certainly enjoyed hanging out by the resort-like pool at Holly's apartment complex. The whole place was awash with vivid colors from all the flowers. Really impressive & a great retreat for a couple of days.

Thanks to Holly, we had abundant choices for delectable dining. We ate at Mimi's...a charming French Bistro. Yeah...there's one in Orland! But the highlight was an evening spent in the Highland neighborhood of downtown Atlanta. Quite the quaint village-esque area with cutsie shops & one of a kind neighborhood eateries. We had a great time at Wired & Fired: A Pottery Playhouse, indeed! Can't wait to get that truly calico-ed kitty that Grace painted. Let's just remember it's not the finished product, but the process that counts.

After we were all wired (Gracie) & fired (me...for gelato) up, we indulged in GELATO at Paolo's. It was scrumptious & quite the authentic Italian gelataria experience. Now I'm not saying it brought me back to Venice but it was certainly the best I've had this side of the Atlantic. YUM!

One of the highlights of this portion of the tour was a very spontaneous trip to Helen, GA. Grace & I passed up mall strolling for bumping over the cobblestones in this little Bavaria right in the USA. Nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains on the Chattahoochee River, this Georgia village is a re-creation of an alpine village complete with cobblestone alleys, old-world towers, German folk music & bands, shops, restaurants, mountains, beautiful scenery, family activities, waterfalls, museums, history, art, fishing, tubing, golf, and more.

We had a GREAT time splashing around in the river, dodging tubers as they meandered down the lazy waterway. AND then there was the serenade by some hokie karaoke on the opposite side of the river bank. It was actually hilarious to hear some of the "talent" & things got progressively better as the coolers were emptied. Really....it was quite funny in a painful sort of way.

There was ample opportunity to practice our Deutsche sprachen in the shops & restaurant. Gracie was delighted to drive the horse drawn carriage and even more so when she got to feed the horses a bunch of carrots.

If I haven't mentioned this already, my camera petered out just after Dollywood, so most of these pics are from my mobile phone & a big thanks to Holly for sharing a few of her pics.

Anyway, this was a great way to end the Southern tour...actually, we had another great evening with Jennifer & Gabi on the way back to Chi-town. While waiting for the Anderson's to come back from church, Grace & I played around in the swimming pool. I enjoyed a beautiful sunset behind the mountains & it just felt right. Not saying I'm moving or anything, but it sure reminded me that the city or even the suburbs doesn't suit me much anymore. :o)