Masquerade ball and a pretty new dress for Sissy
Naomi's Summit team won second place at the Nationals in Indiana (with the Flynn girls, Carmel, Bernadette and Sheila)
George was voted "The Player Who Gives 110%" (George's soccer team)
Jackson was voted "Best Goalie" Dylan was his coach
The view from the front porch of the cabin
A quick camping trip at Lakeport for just me, Naomi, Gwen, Jay, Noah and Neana 
Drawing has been a huge pass time since we are indoors alot. :(
Sunset over Lake Huron
Jed became obsessed with owning a camera. He finally wore Dad down. ;) Thank heavens for pawn shops! ( = cheap cameras)
Big brother Dyl giving the littles an art lesson.
A lovely dinner date with just my parents and Tim and I.
I think we actually made this trip to Greenfield Village the last weekend of September, but...... :)
Our first batch of pumpkins were mauled by squirrels. Grrr
Although it has been a pretty cold October, the glory of fall colors still greeted us each day. I think the winds from yesterday/today may just have erased this sort of scene for good. :)
I am thankful for: Relieved my friend's daughter didn't have leukemia. Zak got a job. Tim recovered from his kidney stone.
Book and video highlights:
Videos:
The Widow of St Pierre
This starred Juliette Binoche and Daniel Auteuil. The funny thing about Daniel Auteuil is the last time I saw him in a movie it was "Manon of the Spring". In that he was a bit slow in the head and generally bumbling about. In this one, a dashing military officer with a beautiful wife. It really was a gorgeous film. Lovely costumes and scenery. I don't know that the premise of the movie was all that believable ( it said it was based on a true story, but I couldn't uncover anything about the real tale). It revolved around a man who committed murder while drunk, was sentenced to death and had to wait several months for his sentence to be carried out since the small island they lived on ( St Pierre, new Newfoundland) didn't have a guillotine or an executioner ( apparently at that time that was the only mode of execution the French would allow). While waiting he was *adopted* by the chief officers wife and shown to be a good man. Without giving too much of the film away, what I admired about the story is that the man ( the murderer) never shirked from his sentence or tried to escape. He was courageous enough to accept that he had done something wrong and was willing to pay the consequences for it despite having love and sympathy from nearly the whole town. A couple of iffy parts that may not make it appropriate for teens and there may have been one sexually graphic part, but I fastforwarded through it and can't really say how steamy it got. :)
Napoleon (PBS)
Love him or hate him, you can't deny he was one interesting character. This PBS documentary was excellent.
Elizabeth 1, Virgin Queen
Another PBS Masterpiece Theater winner. I wasn't sure how they could make a tale that has been told many times fresh and new, but they did. Excellent, but probably some iffy parts for teens.
Read/listened to:
Cotollion by Georgette Heyer
This was very "Jane Austen-esque" and thoroughly delightful. Recommended!
Napoleon: His Wives and Women : Christopher Hibbert
A very interesting biography about the women in his life. I am pretty impressed with this author as a biographer. He knows how to tell the story and keep it interesting.
From the kitchen: I made some quiches for the first time in a very long time. Spinach and quiche Lorraine. They weren't all that popular with most, which is why I guess I don't routinely make them. :)
Around the house: I did get some organizing done when the family was in Indiana for Nationals. Even though I had the two littlest home with me, it was a whole lot easier keeping the house clean with just those two. Go figure! ;)
I think I finally got all the winter/summer clothes switched out. George helped me clean the garage and did a great job with all the wood piled up by the freezer.
One of my favorite things. ...kids of all ages coming in to talk at night in my room.
