HAPPY AUTUMN!

I love autumn! It's my favorite season. Just another month before the NBA season begins, preschool is underway, the good TV shows are on (Chuck, Heroes and especially The Office) the new James Taylor CD is released tomorrow and here come the holidays. I can't wait to go to Disneyland, Oak Glen and the Pumpkin Patch with the grandkids and enjoy all the Autumn decorations. Maybe it will even cool off and I can make some soup. I love all the decorations that are already up in the stores. Plus, I am riveted by the presidential campaigns! Even though it still feels like summer here in Moreno Valley, autumn gives me great hope! I love this quote from Sunset magazine:

"Autumn creeps softly in southern California gardens in November. No startling blaze of golden-red foliage or sudden heavy frosts mark the change of seasons here---just subtly cooler days and nights, perhaps a touch of rain and an occasional Santa Ana wind. . . " November 1992

I loved Janae's post about autumn last week, and I copied the questions down and have them all ready to go and I am looking forward to a quiet moment to answer them in my journal. That's the problem. My quiet moments have become few and far between. Although, there are many blessings that are filling up those formerly quiet times: (this might get wordy)

Mark, Rebecca, Paige and Claire are all settled in upstairs. I've survived the trauma of packing up my beloved sewing room (that I waited 27 years for) and guest room and storing my treasures in a storage unit. Mark and Rebecca have rented their home and most of their worldy possessions are in another storage unit 8 doors down (what were we thinking when we thought we could share one storage unit- they are both overflowing)! I am so glad that they have a little bit of privacy with 2 bedrooms and a bathroom of their own. The plan is that they will be here through "the holidays" but I am on the 6 month plan. You never know what can happen with the building process. It is a special time because we just got the happy news that they are expecting baby #3 in April. Yippee!!! They told us the day after we found out Ben and Jamie's baby #2 is a boy!!! `I think their move to Idaho will be such a good one for their family, but I am in complete and total denial that they will be 20 hours away instead of just 20 minutes. I will wait and deal with that when the time comes, especially since Nick works for the same company Mark does, and he and Renee will also be moving to Idaho. Rats!

In addtion to the fun of having the kids here full time, one of my favorite things is having Paige and Claire come in my room every morning to watch Little Einstein's with me. 15 month old Claire sings and "pats" right along with them, it is so adorable.

We spent this past weekend in Lake Elsinore with 2 1/2 year old Luke and 14 month old Dylan while Greg & Melissa got a fun weekend away. They are such sweet, and adorable little boys, and they were so good. Why are we still tired?

Craig has his shoulder surgery (rotator cuff) scheduled at long last for Thursday, October 2. He is anxious to get on with it and get better and back to his life. It is an outpatient procedure but because it is such an extensive injury they cannot do arthroscopic surgery, so the recuperation will not be easy. I think having the Bryant's here right now will be such a blessing for us in so many ways.