Where has Autumn gone?

Since coming home from our trip we're busy trying to beat the snow and get our yard ready for the winter. All those nice flowers in big pots that graced the front of our house in the summer, are now frozen and wilted and have to be plucked up and chucked. Trees that weren't meant to be planted under the overhang of the roof where they never catch a drop of rain, have to get a real good watering before winter, shrubs need to be cut back, and the lawn has to be mowed one more time before it gets covered in snow. It's amazing how much work a yard takes to keep it looking decent. I can't believe that Adam and Eve didn't have t0 work by the sweat of their brow before they got kicked out of the garden of Eden, which incidentally, I hear was somewhere in present day Iraqi.

Everyone in our family is fine, Pat had a rather complicated back surgery on Oct. 29th , everything went well, and she is now recuperating and has to take it easy for a few months. Eric has picked up the slack and is taking good care of her by doing all of the usual household chores what a good, kind husband she has, and son-in-law we have.

Lynn & Dwight are in Mozambique and hassling the usual problems and challenges of the very third world country they live in where things rarely work the way they're suppose to! Their two children, Russell & Amanda, both in the U of A , got through their mid-term exams and did very well as usual. Russ already has a job waiting for him in Lloydminister AB/SK beginning the first of the new year I think! He's in the co-op program and has the advantage of working his way through university! He'll be moving to Lloyd, and that means Amanda will be alone in the apt. in Edmonton for eight months. She will sure miss him, they are such good friends.

Lucas Lara (Luke) is back in Brazil and we sure miss having him around. He was always cheerful, upbeat, and was most helpful around the house and yard. He also helped us so much with missions stuff, doing up videos etc. Our Portuguese correspondence to Mount Horeb in Brazil was not nearly so difficult as before! He would like to come back to Canada ... just loves our country and wants to make it his home. Hopefully he will be able to do that, and we will try to facilitate the process for him. We're almost into the flurry of year-end events and can hardly keep up going to all the different events we bought tickets for! Our church has grown in numbers and there's a lot more work involved in keeping things running smoothly. Besides our pastor, we now have an associate pastor, a youth pastor, a Children Ministry director, and believe it or not I have the title of Social Convener (not just sure what all this title entails) but I'm learning. At least I still feel reasonably useful. Earl is just going to town on the backyard and it's looking nicer and nicer all the time. He really does have a touch for design ... he's just never had much opportunity to express it before! ... so nice of you take the time to read our blog ... please leave a message anytime.