2 weeks...in sentences

 I have been awful at taking pictures lately and just have a few cell phone pictures to show for it! I much prefer pictures from "real" camera, although cell phones pics taken outdoors during the day are acceptable :) With that said, cell phone pictures are all I have for now!

Anyways, the past couple of weeks in sentences, here we go.

2 weekends ago we were invited to an Indian party to celebrate Diwali, which is when they celebrate the Festival of Lights, the day that darkness is said to have been defeated. We have friends here who are from India who like to attend our events so we wanted to go and support them also. There were about 600 people there from India, and there are close to 2000 we are told that live here and work for various business'.

It was very interesting and we had a good time! The boys also have several friends from school that are from India so they had a blast running around and staying up late.

Our run of parties has continued, right up to the end of October. We had 2/week for the past month and while it was a lot of busyness (and gifts!) I am thankful for these parties b/c we were able to meet some families that we didn't know before.

And one of the mothers I met just last week started attending the ladies Bible study with us this morning! The group has steadily grown and we are now 7 ladies. It has been so good and encouraging, and I just need to remember to leave the results in God's hand and not in mine. One that was invited by another is a Christian from another church, one is from our cell group, and the others are Catholic.

We have also been encouraged by our cell group lately again! We have had several good talks about being intentional in life and reaching out to those around us, and it has been good to be together again as a group, since the summer was hit and miss with us and others in the group being gone.

The dentist...Dallas and I have gone for check-ups and a filling each, and I took Carter in also for a check-up since his teeth are coming in improperly and his top teeth are causing his bottom teeth to grow inward. Anyways, that's just part of it but he is now in the process of having a spacer/retainer put on his upper teeth. He is actually excited about it :) and does soo well at the dentist!

He's holding his hand up in this picture as he didn't want me to take one. Well...

Dallas has gone biking 2-3 times a week, although twice a week is at 9 pm till midnight! Most men here work long, hard days and the time they are available to get together is later in the evening, so Dallas takes advantage of that to meet with them at biking.

This is one group, from Thursday nights (although I stole this from his facebook page and I think there are more that usually go in this group). He also just recently became part of another group that goes Saturday mornings and he is loving that group. They are guys more his age, in our stage of life, and he has a good time biking with them. They get together sometimes as men or as families for bbq's so that will be the next step!

Parent/Teacher interviews....this self-portrait of Carter was outside his classroom :)

Some bowling....

Carter's best friend has always been Leo, his friend that moved away almost 2 years ago, who moved to Mexico City. So he wrote this letter for him the other day, and Leo wrote him one back. I love it that they are still such good friends even though they were 5 when they stopped living close together.

He now has other "best friends" here at school, who he loves just as much and I think it's great that he can have several good friends at the same time.

Party planning!! Carter and Logan are having b'days in December and early January, so we are going to throw a big joint party and invite all of their school friends. We are inviting all of them (48 kids plus siblings and parents!) and are excited to meet more parents through it and deepen relationships.

The other day we went to the craft store here to look for some party supplies and pick up some photo booth props :) I must admit that the mama is the most happy in a craft store but the boys find plenty to entertain themselves. Dallas on the other hand said that next time we go, we go sans boys as it's a bit of a handful keeping them from not knocking over glass, pottery..etc...

Other than that though, we are prepping for the Prayer team that's coming next week, as well as having our regular cell group/Bible study times, and Dallas is meeting every Wednesday evening with a neighbour here now! This came about as coffee get togethers and has turned into Spiritual talk and Bible study at the coffee shop so that has been great.

It does mean we are apart several evenings a week, between biking and coffee and Bible study...but we are working on finding some scheduling that works for ministry, family, life, and figuring out priorities as we seem to run here and there a lot of the day and attempting to fit everything in that just seems to come up. It's hard to say no to things especially when they are good things that involve getting together with people and visiting and sharing about God, and at the same time we need to give time for our kids and as a couple. So thankful that our kids love life and also love visiting people (especially if their friends are involved) so that makes things so much easier.

Dallas is home now from biking...adios!