Happy Green Face Week

My munchkin Grant can officially celebrate getting Green Faces at school all week (Green = good, red = sent home from school). He had 4 days in a row where he didn't scratch or otherwise mutilate any of his school buddies! Hooray and thank goodness. He got a Lindy fix this week, and seems to be getting the message that playground time is not for hitting. Thanks for all your prayers, and please keep them coming!

Kristi

PS - Happy Birthday, Kaydee!

So Many Great Things, So Little Time.

Top of the list:
Santa Fe Wine and Chile Fiesta: A+ Paired tasting: La Casa Sena and Ridge Vineyards. Just say mmmmm. Great company, great food, great wine, and I could actually tell the difference between two red wines of the same variety. Who'd a thunk it?

The Greek Festival: A Yet another annual tradition that is becoming one of my favorites. The annual pilgrimage to St. George's Orthodox church with the Kidders was wonderful, car accident not withstanding. The food, deserts, jumpers, and general atmosphere made for one of the kids favorite things so far this fall.

Rio Grande Arts and Crafts Festival: It seems like quite a few of my favorite and some new exhibitors have taken the level of the festival up a notch this year. I walked away with only one new painting (Claudia Young), and a couple of bars of cinnamon soap from Sage Mountain Soap. Mom's out of town guest seemed to enjoy this this year.

Dixon Apples: A+ products; A+ Customer Service - my MOM and DAD; D+ Customer Service @ the orchard: This year it appears they are sorely in need of an industrial engineer to keep the customers around. Long wait in, long wait at the orchard. The constraint = the cash register and parking capacity if I'm not mistaken. I have a great story, though. How I miss the early days - a nice little known secret and fun day trip.

State Fair: A - consistantly good stuff - people to watch, food to eat, animals to see, stuff to buy. Best part was watching Grant throw a dart to pop a balloon on the midway and have him almost hit the carnie.

Fall Football: Ouch, we lost to BYU. The Lobos play Wyoming this weekend. Oh yea, the Aggies lost again. I am starting to feel bad!

Philadelphia Eagles are up to C+ after a 56-21 victory over the Detriot Lions, and a bye week since.

Chicago Bears have moved up to a "D" after beating the Packers this weekend. After the Bears started off the season giving the gam to the Packers, they recovered enough to warrant a passing (but not great) grade. They automatically got an F when they lost to the Dallas Cowboys, just cause I said so.

Extra for my bro: Chicago Cubs are in the playoffs, but the run is over!

Pool Table needs a new home!

Its official - contact us through the comments section. Really nice, but takes up too much space right now! Will post a picture after soccer.

Kiddo update, and the best burritos in abq

We've only been to the fair twice so far - but have no fear - there is plenty of fair time still to come . For those of you, who, like me, couldn't find my pictures in the amateur photo exhibit, I have posted them @ flickr. We have a new favorite burrito in Albuquerque - Burritos Alinstante - mmm mmm mmm - and the people watchin was great. New photos up on the flickr site.

Brett is loving school this year! He has new friends, loves the playground this year, and has a spring in his step like I haven't seen in a couple of years. He is a fierce chess master, having spent all summer tuning up his chess skills on Lego Chess. (they teach you the moves I never learned about like "en passante?" He is also playing AYSO soccer again this year, and excels at playing halfback and defense. He made some great passes last week that resulted in goals scored. I had the honor of running like a crazy person up and down the field as a referee.

Grant has his good days and his bad days. Academically, he's in good shape, but his impulse control continues to be something he is learning. He hit someone yesterday at Explora with a wooden block, and today had his play time cut short because he pushed someone when he wanted the ball. So instead of hanging out with Lindy tomorrow night, he may well be at home in bed. *sigh* I just keep thinking "at least its preschool - we have some time to figure it out before he goes to kindergarden."

Fall in New Mexico - Clearly the best time of year

Okay folks - maybe the calendar doesn't say it but Fall is here.

First Lobo football game (Go Lobos). State Fair time. Green chile roasting. Corn Maize open. Wagner's Farm. Dixon's Apple Farm. Santa Fe Wine and Chile Fiesta. Windows wide open at night means mornings are crisp.

School's in session. Principle's office. Kid sent home from school. *sigh* Okay - maybe not the highlight of my week, but part of the transition for Grant from flying solo to being part of a team. I need a couple of prayers here - he's not really getting the whole "hands off" thing quite yet.

Busy last couple of weeks. Work assignment has been really tough (trying to create order out of chaos) and many of colleagues from past lives at Intel have moved on, as a result in reduction in force at the plant, making it a littler harder to be onsite this week.

Had a WONDERFUL afternoon last Friday with just Carmen and Brett - lunch at Wimpie's Burgers, a walk to Explora, where we closed down the place, and then a jaunt over to Tiguex park for ice cream. (Pics to come). We played in the Rio Grande last weekend, and made a number of trips to Pop-Pops Italian ice this week.

New addition: Scott and Ronda added Jaedon Scott Welton to their tribe Wednesday at 12:15 am - on Emmy's birthday. 8 lbs, 2 oz; 20 inches. Black hair. Rumor is - he's really cute! I'm sure I'll edit this over the next couple of days, but I have 30+ pounds of wriggling Grant flesh in my lap asking "what are we going to have for breakfast!" Get out and see NM - see you at the festivities.