Hola… The McDonalds are off to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico! Ian decided since he had to attend a business meeting in central Mexico, he might as well have the family follow him and he’ll meet them in Puerto Vallarta. Those poor children of his had to be pulled from school for a week and Karen had to take off time from work. I feel so sorry for them :) It didn’t seem to matter that I was available to go at a moments notice?! Enjoy yourselves guys! Wish I was there. You will never forget your Mexico visit. Ian has promised lots of digital pictures, so keep your eyes on the photo album people. Current weather forecast for Puerto Vallarta 83F daytime 72F evening. [Edited] originally had them on wrong MX coast… sorry :(

Some of you may notice we have a new user to our family photo album page. You will find many updates I’m sure in the “Newest Updates to Photo Album” thumbnails along the sidebar.

We hope everyone had a great Halloween. This year Martha and Laura dressed in costumes for school and they had a great time. Last night Laura went to Chatham to meet friends to go trick-or-treating and when I dropped her off I stopped and had a few beers with some friends I haven’t seen in far to long a time (thanks M&D). We had about the same amount of little goblins stop at our house this year and you can find their pictures here. 
 In other news, I finished the harvest yesterday and now there is just fall fertilizing and tillage to complete. The drought caused a major crop failure in Thamesville again this year but the other other fields were not as bad. Nature can be so fickle.

Ducana people are here this week to install some windows. They cut out an opening in the kitchen and put in a set of garden doors opening out into the back yard. They had a lot more work getting through the wall than anyone had expected. It seems that the brick mortar has cement mixed in with it and fought them every step of the way. I had to remove the plug under the window and more it to the side. Unfortunately the receptacle was in the middle of a run so we had to fish wire up, then over, the new opening and back down to another plug to complete the circuit. Lots of fun because there was stud spacers between each stud so we couldn’t just drop the wire down between the walls. They are working on the big living room window today. Check out this picture album page for images.

The house is quiet now and I was left with instructions to “post our picture of our first day back.” Everyone was worried they wouldn’t be up in time for school but we all know it’s the second day they will wake up late! Laura starts her first year of high school today at CCI and Martha returns to the same class but different school room. It’s been a great summer with the girls home but now it’s time for all to get back to work :( I’ll close with this old Hebrew Proverb for educators… “A child is not a vessel to be filled, but a lamp to be lit”.

We finally got around to getting all the trees trimmed up higher from the ground. The whole place was getting so overcome with trees the grass couldn’t grow in the shade. What a difference it made! We hired someone that Jaclyn babysat for and he does tree service during his days off as a fireman. They were very professional in their job and we’re so glad to have this done. More pics can be seen on the Family Photo Album Page

Martha was sitting deep in thought, nibbling her nails, and then blurts out, “hey… lets paint the outside of the house today.” My reply, “Hmph… What?” Well I’m just thinking of what you can do today she says!
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