MDC News Nov 20, 2011

Dear Family,

October, of course, was filled with soccer and Halloween.  Phoebe had a great Mad Hatter costume and coordinated with friends as other Alice in Wonderland characters. Costumes have become easy for Calvin and Ethan, who just don their soldier attire, which they wear every couple of weeks any...so we don't have to go looking far. Bronwen was a ninja.  Graham enjoyed a movie at a friend's house.   As many of you know, this holiday is really the most pure of any for Ethan--no real meaning or other cumbersome traditions--just get candy.  On a side note, he came home with a paper crest made at church recently that said "I Stand for Truth and Honesty."  He had written in on the side "Candy is better than truthe and honesty."  He is not bashful about where his priorities lie. 

Graham was an enthusiastic volunteer worker at a local haunted forest on the weekends during most of the month of October.  (Some of you remember Brian Garff from Scarsdale Ward--he is one of the owners.)  He was an "scarer" in the forest, in the haunted bus (spook alley made in a gutted school bus) and the 'dark walk' attractions.  He also worked as a ghoul in "shoot the ghoul" (run around the hay-bales while customers shoot at you with paintball guns).  Phoebe helped a few times also.  I think she was a "scarer" some but mostly worked taking tickets.  I stopped by an apparent antique store in the little town where they did this one evening.  Turned out to be this old guy with a little front room store and then about 1,500 - 2,000 sq ft in the back with literal piles of junk collected over many years.  I found an old speed screw driver (spins the bit as you push and compress it) and a couple of other things...but I'm sure there are more treasures buried in there.  He was telling me his grand plans to turn it into a general store.

Rick took a weekend jaunt to NYC / New Canaan to see the fall colors.  It wasn't supposed to be a very good year but he reports it was still beautiful.  I would tell you how great it has been to have Rick here with us but I wouldn't want to make you jealous. I will say that many more of my household jobs/projects have gotten done, we've had lots of fun listening to music, and the kids have had a much better tutor and a refreshing perspective for their school work, which is good, because Megan and I were about burned out (and we're not half way through the school year!).

This past week was especially helpful.  I was supposed to be in China.  After digging through every back and jacket and file in the house I cancelled my flight for lack of a passport/visa!!  But I still on the hook for these meetings so I worked at the office from 8pm to 1am each night on conference calls (even did video-conferencing just through the webcam on my new work computer).  So Rick pulled through there helping with homework and everything else.  He even did the seminary drive a couple of times (happened to be our week in carpool!).  I'm still waiting for Megan to tell me where she hid my passport.

We will be having Thanksgiving with good friends the Browns (replacing our cousins the Browns!).  We were reviewing the menu with them after church today and it got us quite excited for the week.  It will be a nice day as the kids have a full three days off of school (and all of them...not just some!!).

We celebrated Bronwen and Ethan birthdays in October and have Phoebe this week!!

Love to you all,

Matt

(sorry, couldn't get pictures to post...see email)