Happy Thanksgiving

Hello again! Yippee! We are back on! Believe it or not, nothing really happened while we were away. I pretty much have the exact same life as I have always had. Except that now I am doing laundry, attending parent-teacher conferences, and wiping snotty noses in a country that considers goats an appetizing form of meat. But doesn't that make everything more exciting?

The kids did start flag football a few weeks ago. Those of you who remember my husband or any one of my brothers (except maybe Roch) playing any kind of organized sport will know how that is going. But they all seem to be having a great time with it. Even Maryn has really gotten into it. She played her last game in the pouring rain and came home covered in mud, but smiling. As I stood there under my umbrella, I wondered why they didn't cancel it. But when I voiced this question later, she looked shocked. "Mom! You don't cancel football because of rain!" I stand corrected.


Bennett is by far the most entertaining to watch. He will spend most of the start of the game, stomping on the chalk lines to make "smoke". Somewhere around halftime he figures out he is supposed to try and get the ball. Hopefully before the end of the game he will remember he is supposed to run with it when he gets it. Most of the other players have learned not to pass him the ball because he just hands it to whoever tries to take it. Not because he is afraid, he just honestly thinks, "Geez, if you want it bad enough to chase me, you can have it. I'll go find another one." And then he does. He has this kind of "Look guys, there are a bunch of balls in the coaches' bag, lets not fight over this one" attitude. It is hilarious to watch him try to convince the rest of the team. He even says "Excuse me" when he's has to rush the other players.

The coach is so great with him, and so patient. He is firm enough to (attempt to) keep him on track, but relaxed enough to see the humor in his youngest team member. It's a good thing they don't keep score for this age, or Bennett would have added two touchdowns to the opposite team last Saturday.


Dallen's team is kicking butt and taking names. He is actually helping a little too. =) He might be afraid to catch the ball (he had a pretty nasty fat lip after one practice) but he sure can run when he finally gets it. Last game he got the ball and ran it almost the entire length of the field. He would have gotten a touch down, but someone yelled, "Stop! You lost a flag!" (he hadn't, but he stopped to check and got sacked) I told him next time don't stop until you hear a whistle. His team got the touchdown on the next play though. He had literally stopped a foot short of the goal line.

Dallen's other big news is that he no longer needs his glasses. (Listen for the Hallelujah Chorus) We went to the eye doc last week, and his vision has improved!!! Apparently if problems are caught early enough, they aren't too severe, and the child wears the glasses consistently, the eyes can be retrained. After going through 9 pairs of glasses with Dallen, I'm not sure about the 'consistent' part, but he apparently had the other requirements! We will have to make sure his eyes are checked each year of course. There is also a good chance that he might need them when he hits puberty (which is when most of the eyeglass wearers in my family needed them), but right now, we are celebrating!




Here is a picture we had taken in front of the Mosque in Adana. (The city about 20 miles from our village) See - I really AM working toward a Christmas letter. Lets see if it actually happens!

Happy Thanksgiving to all! Go out and do some Black Friday shopping for me!