Happy Thanksgiving!

My dad had a sizable pile of leaves that needed some compacting (and re-scattering), so Josephine came to the rescue. We took advantage of my mom's digital camera to get a few Thanksgiving photos for the blog...




This is her classic, "oh I know you want me to come to you, but uh-uh-- I'm going to play hard to get," face:

Getting leaves out of Grandma's hair:


Grandpa's little helper:

Thanks, Melissa!

My friend babysat tonight while Sean and I went to the first of our four Paramount Theatre shows (part of my 30-years-ancient birthday present). John Oliver was really funny, the guy who opened for him was good too-- and we enjoyed a great bite to eat afterwards downtown. Don't remember the name of the restaurant. It was very delicious with tasty cocktails and NOOOOO college students!
What a fun night for us! Loved it.
(And Grandmas, no worries: Josephine did great-- not a tear the whole night it seems. Even after having spent all morning in a child care program while we were in a parenting seminar. So we "abandoned" her twice in the SAME day for 3-4 hours each time, and the kid was golden. Which makes it very easy on our hearts to leave the room! If she was really acting crushed I would have an impossible time of it).
So hooray for a fun night, and many heartfelt hugs to Melissa for taking care of THE most important thing on the face of this planet!!! :-)

Ricetafarians.

Because of the aforementioned camera difficulties, this is the only photo that made it home from Fischer, TX this year.
Yes, yes-- Fischer. You heard me right: we went BACK! In case you've forgotten what groovy people we are, please reference this post from 2008, which describes the last time did anything cool. You might say that it's not as cool this time around because we've already done it before. But let me remind you that, as I said 2 years ago, commitment enhances the cool factor. It's all in how you spin it, my friends.

Perhaps you're wondering what happened last year. Did we forget to be cool, perhaps? No, no-- please-- that's impossible for two people who set the bar for awesomeness here in Austin-town.* Anyway, last year, we didn't get tickets to the Rice Festival in time. They sold out even before Sean's birthday in June. This time we were more on the ball.

So we handed the wee one off to Sean's parents and enjoyed another marathon of boot-stomping folk music out in the middle of nowhere. Since I lack photos and any descriptions or stories that sound any different from 2008, please just reread the post I put up then.

(* a funny joke)

coffee break for sean

Sean's hosting his forum for work in Atlanta this week, and since he hasn't seen Josephine since we dropped her off in Teague last Friday, I thought he'd enjoy a little video.

Speaking of video, that's now my only option. The little digital camera I have seems to have bitten the dust. All my photos (unless they are taken in very low light situations) come out way over-exposed-- almost completely washed out-- with lines of horizontal noise running through the image. Internet searches have turned up other people with similar trouble with their cameras (various brands/models), but no good answers. So who knows. The video part of the camera works though. (So that, coupled with the low-light photos working, leads me to believe that something about the aperture closing down must have broken). I tried taking it all apart, blowing on the pieces, poking, prodding, and putting it all back together, but that didn't change a thing. Naturally.

Stickers, you say?

Why, yes! Don't mind if I do!

Josephine reappropriated the stickers from her childcare bag once we got home from our church's retreat this weekend.

And by retreat, I don't mean kumbaya and trust falls. I mean one full day/night of proposal evaluation, focused discussions, and concrete results. I was impressed. And actually, since I was assigned to help take snapshots of the event, I'll put a few below, just to give a feel.
There's Sean, in the lower left foreground:
Another group discussing:
Two of our pastors, Don and Carrie, facilitating one of the end discussions this morning:
Our other pastor, Sam, facilitating a breakout session. Seth (our head music man) is sitting to his left, with the dark hair:
And to end on, another picture of Josephine (naturally). She's standing between the beds in our room at the camp. She pretty much loved sharing a room with us. Slumber paaartay!