Currently

Outside my window it is dark and a very balmy 60 degrees. I don't know, but maybe this is our "indian summer." We are enjoying daytime temps in the 70's this week before dropping into the 40's next week with nighttime temps in the 20's! We may even see our first snow flurries of the year on Halloween.

I'm enjoying the weather and the season. Last night I took our daughter and grandchildren to look at some Halloween decorations in our town that I'd heard about. Scanning a code at the site allows for donating to St. Jude's. What we found when we got there was that several more houses on the street had gone all out with their decorations. 

We also took a short drive through that neighborhood and found a couple more AMAZING displays. We also learned that the neighborhood, which is an upscale one and less than a mile from where we live, closes the streets for trick-or-treating and the police and fire departments come and hand out candy, too. One woman we spoke with said she gets about 600 trick-or-treaters every year. Of course, she was in the process of finishing her yard display featuring the sinking of the Titanic!

Our daughter and I took the kiddos to a big farm about an hour from us last weekend. It has a large market with seasonal gift items and Halloween and Christmas decorations as well as a fall festival on the weekends in October. It wasn't a very nice day weather-wise, but we had a lot of fun.

The decorations at work are coming together slowly since I am doing them mostly by myself. I have gotten some help, but because we are so short staffed it's hard. It's not going to measure up to previous years' displays, but I'm hearing good things about it so far. Pictures will be coming next week when I also have photos of the party itself to share.

I'm grateful my stepfather is going to get to see his urologist on November 8...a vast improvement over sometime in January. He's been at the ER twice in the last week. After much testing they decided he has a pretty bad UTI. They want him to see the urologist due to blood in his urine. They flushed him out on both visits and he received IV antibiotics and a prescription for at home. I don't know that he is getting any better, but he is, at this point, holding steady.

I'm loving being in the adult training facility every day (my feet are, too) and the rhythm we've fallen into with no new supervisor in sight. In all honesty, things are running more smoothly and being done better than they were under our old supervisor. We've heard nothing about a replacement so maybe they are just going to let things continue as they are.

I'm a little sad that Tim wasn't able to get away this past weekend and we couldn't have our weekend in Erie. Actually, we can still do that at any time, but I had hoped to see my biological father one more time before he returns to Texas for the winter on the 29th. It wasn't to be...like a lot of my plans this year. Oh well, there is always next year for most of them. It's just with my father being 87 more time with him is not guaranteed.

In the kitchen you'll find comfort food at its best...meatloaf from my grandmother's Betty Crocker cookbook, buttered egg noodles, and corn on the cob.

A thought...

If you watch HGTV too long, you’ll become dissatisfied with your home.
If you stay on social media too long, you’ll become dissatisfied with your life.
If you watch the news too long, you’ll become dissatisfied with the world.
Unplug.
Pray.
Read your bible.
Read a book.
Spend time with loved ones.
Take a walk.
Our minds are easily influenced, but we control what the influences are. Choose wisely.

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