Fall Musings

Winter is finally here.  Measurable snow is expected over most of the state.  Of course not in the central part of the state -- since we are in the South.  Every one keeps telling me that we will get snow and it is going to be very much below zero, but so far I haven't seen it.So I decided to call this post -- FALL MUSINGS.  I have been in central Iowa now through TWO seasons - Summer and Fall.

This Fall has been amazingly mild.  The leaves had time to turn blaze colors of gold, red, and brown.  The flower beds had time to change to their fall colors and allow their owners to put them to sleep at their leisure, not in a hurried few hours of a quick weekend.  This picture was taken on I-80 on my way to the Sioux City area on a Saturday for a friend's wedding.

This fall meant that Curtis and I moved into a new house.  This journey of the big "move" was so very smooth since it began and the house purchase was really no different.  I am in LOVE with this house.  Like most houses it isn't PERFECT, but it suits us well.  There is enough room so we can do our own things without hearing or being in the same vicinity, yet it is small enough that I can (kinda of) keep up on all the house work.

 The neighborhood is very Iowa diverse.  Not ethnically (it is Iowa after all), but different stages of "family-dom".  To our left we have a new family with a 5 month old baby boy and an amazing black lab Maggie.  To our right we have a 3 year old little girl that LOVES (I MEAN IT -- LOVES) Stella and Zoe and she has a new baby brother that is about 2 months old.  Across the street, we have a couple with grown children (like us) and she self labeled themselves as the "old" people in the neighborhood.  Really they are just a couple years older than we are.  So far we are very pleased with our choice and our blessing.

The last weekend in October always means soccer tournaments too.  I ventured to Council Bluffs to meet Keetah, Kiona, Gabriel, and of course MARISSA.

This picture was taken on the last day of the weekend tournament and as you can tell it was COLD.  The girls didn't have a a great winning weekend, but they always say that they learn a lot and have fun with their team mates at the hotel.  Those are the memories they will have for the rest of their lives, not that they won EVERY game.  It is always amazing to see from year to year how much they have grown as a team and as individual players.

 We then completed our FALL activities by venturing to Spencer for a family holiday event.  The Dodson's hosted us for the weekend.  This pie looked and tasted amazing.  Keetah did as always an incredible job of cooking and hosting.  They always make us feel like we are at home when we invade their place.

Unfortunately, the weekend ended with a virus that attacked EVERYONE.  I have never seen so many people get sick at one time.  The only one that was immune was Marissa.  She was a trooper with the vomit and other things all around her.  People were dropping like flies......it was amazing.  I decided to venture back to Ankeny early so I could get a very sick Bailey back to her home base.  I think she got the brunt of it.  I think every one has healed completely except me.  I still have this upper respiratory JUNK.  I expect that is why I am up writing this blog since 6:00 am.





AND LAST BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST for the Fall musings.  Since we have moved in to the house this Fall, we have re-introduced Cecil to the house.  He is very happy.  He has playmates with Stella and Zoe and is content to sleep all day and roam the fenced in yard.  He continues to try to speak with us in a "yowly, weird, psycho way".  Curtis has been researching why he is doing this and we now suspect that it is the early stages of "Kittie Alzheimers".  It makes sense in light of his behavior.  If we are in the basement family room watching TV, we can hear him yowling and crying like he is trying to find us.  We will call him downstairs and he will come to join us and the yowling stops - like he realized that "Oh Yeah!  There they are".  This makes me sad, but we really don't know how old he is.  I hope that we are wrong and we have MANY years of YOWLING yet to go.

Until next time where you will hear a rant or a movie or a book review.

Happy FALL and welcome WINTER!  To come in the new year --- SCHOOL, SCHOOL, SCHOOL.  I am sure you are going to see many posts about my experience with LEARNING!