Another Wednesday and lots to tell!

Our friends, Rafe and Christine have glorious news! Christine just gave birth to a 7lb., 15oz. baby boy, their 4th child, who we *think* is going to be named Aidan Kyle. Kyle's a darn good Texas name, but it's also the name of the football field at Christine's alma mater, Texas A&M, so you would realize how very fitting it as well, if you knew how crazy Christine is about her Aggies. Christine, in case you don't remember, is Claudia's best friend's mother and is one of my dearest friends, and she just turned 40 this year and is doing the 40 Things with me. Giving birth at 40--new thing! Hmmm. I may be forced to go her one better and give birth at 41.

Claudia's ropes course weekend was a success! They stayed in cabins at a youth retreat in Columbus, Indiana. I drove her down and dropped her off and it was gorgeous--beautiful fall trees and lots of hills. They did all the trust exercise/low ropes/high ropes stuff and they also were presented with letters from their parents around the campfire Saturday night. The letters were supposed to be "love letters" to the children that also talk about growing up and we were supposed to include a baby picture in the envelope. The Religious Education director said that she had spoken to people who had done the ropes course weekend when they were younger and they said reading the letters was one of the most profound events of their lives. Gosh, no pressure there, huh? But I'm a big fan of telling people how you feel about them and also of telling kids stuff in addition to showing them, as a sort of exclamation point to your actions, so I was really happy to have this opportunity.

Anyway, the letters were private but the baby picture was to be shared with everyone there. Claudia had three letters to read and she complained that I sent a collage of photos of her and everyone else just sent one photo. Ah, ha! I win!




All three girls are on fall break right now. It's *finally* getting colder outside. The holidays are bearing down on us like a freight train. I'm already completely stressed with all the balls we have to juggle, but we're starting earlier this year and paring down so it should be all good.

Jason and Leah are back from Germany. You should go to their blog and take a look at their photos and read about their trip (Leah's linked her travel blog there). Leah also took some amazing photos of the girls with her new camera during the Dr. Jason celebration dinner and put them on a Dr. Jason celebration dinner blog. If anyone wants a link, just email me.