Well we weren’t all that lucky on the weather this weekend…Saturday was great. It was HOT for October (in the mid 80’s). Mom and I took Miss Meghan down to the pumpkin patch for the day. Unfortunately Little Matthew was sick and Hope had to stay home with him. Meghan had a pretty good time though, alone with Grandma Kathy and Aunt Emmy…and of course, we thoroughly enjoyed playing with her and watching her run and laugh. 
I’m not sure what she would say the highlight of the day was (probably the ‘roller skater girl’ she got in her Happy Meal), but she really had fun climbing the hay, riding on the tractors, feeding the goats, and sliding down the big slide. 
We also took the wagon ride out into the pumpkin patch…and rode it back talking about the cows, the flowers, and all the things around us. She got her face painted, and we shared a cup of homemade ice cream together…even though she really wasn’t sure that was fair. ‘Take little bites Aunt Emmy! Are you done yet Aunt Emmy?’ Meghan was amazed at how fast I was in the porta-potty… ‘Why you so fast Aunt Emmy!?’ The girl cracks me up! I told her because it was gross and I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. 
We took her up the road a bit to pick out some mums, then back to our place for a bath and dinner. Chad joined us after work and we all sat down to a nice meal of beef and noodles and mashed potatoes, followed up by glazed angel food cake with strawberries and cool whip…a Boston family favorite which I prepared for Mom’s visit. It was a nice end to a fun day.
Chad stayed over night and the three of us got up early to get ready for the Cruise to the Woods. The weather was very iffy looking…with an 80% chance of rain, but we crossed our fingers and hoped for the best.
In retrospect, it might have been nice to have crossed our fingers, and prepared for the worst (i.e. brought umbrellas, or ponchos, or SOMETHING) but we didn’t…and we got wet. 
Well, mostly Mom, Hope and I got wet…the boys stayed fairly dry in the car. It sprinkled a little bit on the first leg of the cruise, just south of Stratford. But by the time I pulled into town it wasn’t doing much, so I grabbed the wheelchair and headed downtown to meet Mom and Hope to watch the boys drive in. Well, by the time I got downtown, it started to rain…and just about the time the boys rolled in…it really let loose into a down pour. 
Hope managed to snag an umbrella from her father in law when they dropped the kids off, so she had one, but Mom and I got soaked running to get under an awning of one of the downtown shops…the wheelchair too, naturally. Matt and Chad stayed in their steamy cocoon, fogging over all the windows as the rain came pouring down. I WISH I had taken a picture…you couldn’t even tell they were in there! We stayed huddled under the awning for a good 45 minutes or so and finally after about an hour it let up. We had just decided we would head for home, when the rain stopped and the cars rumbled to life to begin the final leg of the cruise up to Fort Dodge. We figured it couldn’t be any worse, so we decided to go for it. 
Our friends Blake and Amy joined in with us in Ankeny for their car’s maiden voyage…only to have to make a mad dash for it around Boone and head back home…a couple of drowned rats. (They have a convertible with no top) Blake vacuumed over a gallon of water out of the car, they waited an hour or so, changed clothes and headed out again to join us up in Fort Dodge. The rain held off the rest of the day, and thankfully they hadn’t had much rain up in Fort Dodge, so were able to enjoy the rest of the day slowly drying off and checking out the other cars.
My Aunt Beth and Uncle Rick were there with their latest project car, so we got to check it out and visit with them for a bit too…an unexpected surprise. We bumped into a few old friends, and just had fun showing off the car and looking at others. All in all, it was a good day…even with the rain. We laughed a lot and I know Matt enjoyed himself. After the cruise we headed home to rest up and relax for the evening.
Friday night we also met up with Ralph and Jeff, the main subcontractor working on our house. We talked over some of the specifics, what’s coming up next, and when we might be looking to move in. Things are still up in the air on that…but we’re hoping that in another month we’ll know the exact date we can move in! Now, let’s just hope we can sell our house before then!!!!! The lumber was to be delivered last weekend, and the framers should be starting in the next week or two…then things will really start to take shape. We can’t WAIT!!!
Matt and I have been pouring over all the information we can about the China Connection, and I’ve been in touch with their offices. We are starting to look at the application process and getting our passports just in case. Matt is very, VERY excited to try and meet Ruth and is very hopeful that he’ll be able to go. It would be such a blessing if he could, and such an amazing experience to say the least. Please pray for us and the coming months as we try to figure out if this could work for us. We both feel strongly that this is an opportunity we need to investigate and I just pray that it could work out for him to go.
I’m not sure what she would say the highlight of the day was (probably the ‘roller skater girl’ she got in her Happy Meal), but she really had fun climbing the hay, riding on the tractors, feeding the goats, and sliding down the big slide. 
We also took the wagon ride out into the pumpkin patch…and rode it back talking about the cows, the flowers, and all the things around us. She got her face painted, and we shared a cup of homemade ice cream together…even though she really wasn’t sure that was fair. ‘Take little bites Aunt Emmy! Are you done yet Aunt Emmy?’ Meghan was amazed at how fast I was in the porta-potty… ‘Why you so fast Aunt Emmy!?’ The girl cracks me up! I told her because it was gross and I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. 
We took her up the road a bit to pick out some mums, then back to our place for a bath and dinner. Chad joined us after work and we all sat down to a nice meal of beef and noodles and mashed potatoes, followed up by glazed angel food cake with strawberries and cool whip…a Boston family favorite which I prepared for Mom’s visit. It was a nice end to a fun day.Chad stayed over night and the three of us got up early to get ready for the Cruise to the Woods. The weather was very iffy looking…with an 80% chance of rain, but we crossed our fingers and hoped for the best.
In retrospect, it might have been nice to have crossed our fingers, and prepared for the worst (i.e. brought umbrellas, or ponchos, or SOMETHING) but we didn’t…and we got wet. 
Well, mostly Mom, Hope and I got wet…the boys stayed fairly dry in the car. It sprinkled a little bit on the first leg of the cruise, just south of Stratford. But by the time I pulled into town it wasn’t doing much, so I grabbed the wheelchair and headed downtown to meet Mom and Hope to watch the boys drive in. Well, by the time I got downtown, it started to rain…and just about the time the boys rolled in…it really let loose into a down pour. 
Hope managed to snag an umbrella from her father in law when they dropped the kids off, so she had one, but Mom and I got soaked running to get under an awning of one of the downtown shops…the wheelchair too, naturally. Matt and Chad stayed in their steamy cocoon, fogging over all the windows as the rain came pouring down. I WISH I had taken a picture…you couldn’t even tell they were in there! We stayed huddled under the awning for a good 45 minutes or so and finally after about an hour it let up. We had just decided we would head for home, when the rain stopped and the cars rumbled to life to begin the final leg of the cruise up to Fort Dodge. We figured it couldn’t be any worse, so we decided to go for it. 
Our friends Blake and Amy joined in with us in Ankeny for their car’s maiden voyage…only to have to make a mad dash for it around Boone and head back home…a couple of drowned rats. (They have a convertible with no top) Blake vacuumed over a gallon of water out of the car, they waited an hour or so, changed clothes and headed out again to join us up in Fort Dodge. The rain held off the rest of the day, and thankfully they hadn’t had much rain up in Fort Dodge, so were able to enjoy the rest of the day slowly drying off and checking out the other cars. 
My Aunt Beth and Uncle Rick were there with their latest project car, so we got to check it out and visit with them for a bit too…an unexpected surprise. We bumped into a few old friends, and just had fun showing off the car and looking at others. All in all, it was a good day…even with the rain. We laughed a lot and I know Matt enjoyed himself. After the cruise we headed home to rest up and relax for the evening.
Friday night we also met up with Ralph and Jeff, the main subcontractor working on our house. We talked over some of the specifics, what’s coming up next, and when we might be looking to move in. Things are still up in the air on that…but we’re hoping that in another month we’ll know the exact date we can move in! Now, let’s just hope we can sell our house before then!!!!! The lumber was to be delivered last weekend, and the framers should be starting in the next week or two…then things will really start to take shape. We can’t WAIT!!!
Matt and I have been pouring over all the information we can about the China Connection, and I’ve been in touch with their offices. We are starting to look at the application process and getting our passports just in case. Matt is very, VERY excited to try and meet Ruth and is very hopeful that he’ll be able to go. It would be such a blessing if he could, and such an amazing experience to say the least. Please pray for us and the coming months as we try to figure out if this could work for us. We both feel strongly that this is an opportunity we need to investigate and I just pray that it could work out for him to go.
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