BGSU Recruiting Trip

This last weekend we took the opportunity to go up to Bowling Green, Ohio as a family while Mark was traveling on business. BGSU just started up a graduate program that looks like it could successfully meet the requirements that Eastman is looking for in some of their analytics groups. Since Mark was going to drive up (only one more hour to drive than to fly), we decided to go up as a whole family so Benjamin could visit his birth place and we could check out some old haunts. Unfortunately, most of our friends were out of town. I was able to hang out with Rebecca for several hours, but that was it. Benjamin had a great time playing at the Bowling Green Library in the children's section while Rebecca and I chatted and then also enjoyed playing with her children when we went over to her place for dinner. We ate at Naslada's Bistro, which turned out to be pretty delicious Greek food. Then next night we ate at Stone's Throw. I must say that I had no idea that Irish food could be so amazingly delicious. Because yeah. That happened.

We also took time while we were up there to go to the movies as a family to see Big Hero 6. I was pretty sure that it was going to be a lame movie from the previews, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. It was full of wonderfully strong characters (regardless of gender) with some great familial relationships. I loved that it featured a teen without the unnecessary angst and love interest that seem to drown every other movie with a teen protagonist. And the way it handled grief was also pretty moving. I cried so much in the movie and still had a great time. I've heard it's not really that faithful to the source material. But I've decided I'm okay with that as long as it tells it's own great story.

Halloween 2014

We kicked off the Halloween celebration on Tuesday a full two days early. I had to work since I was taking a course at BCTI on SQL Fundamentals. It was a very basic class considering what I've been doing at work lately, but I still learned several new things. But anyway. Jenny was super kind and took Benjamin to the library for their Halloween party including getting him dressed up in his costume. I'm so glad that he had such a blast.

On Wednesday we went to the ward Chili-Cookoff/Trunk-or-Treat. It was such a busy day and week for us that we didn't end up bringing any chili, but I didn't feel guilty since there were still plenty of leftovers. Benjamin had a great time going around to all of the cars, and we also enjoyed getting some pictures with wonderful friends and costume combos.

Separate from Halloween celebrations, Benjamin and I hosted pre-school for a day about "F" on Thursday morning. Only one other child came, but we still had a blast. We made Fuzzy F's, traced our fingers and wrote the numbers 1-5 along with tracing the letter F, had fruit for snack time, fed the fish four pieces of food, played the fishing number and color game, made funny faces on paper, fathered fall leaves and did an adding and subtracting number activity, colored and pasted farm animals, sang "F" songs like "The Farmer in the Dell" and "Five little cookies", drew pictures of our families, and read several stories (The Story of Ferdinand, The Spider and the Fly, To the Rescue, On the Farm, and Frog's Friends). Yup. We did a lot in three hours, and it was a blast!

Benjamin finished up his swim lessons for October on Thursday evening. He has two more skills he needs to work on, and then we'll be ready for the next level. Fortunately, his friend didn't pass either so they can retake the class together next month. I don't think we'll sign him up for swim lessons in December even if they have them just because of how unavailable I foresee us being.

Friday we celebrated Halloween for reals. For lunch we went to IHOP for a free scary face pancake for Benjamin. And Benjamin dressed up as Batman and took his Batman umbrella around with him when Mark took him trick-or-treating. With the cold and rainy weather, we set up the pavilion at the base of the driveway as well as some hot chocolate. There were a lot fewer trick-or-treaters basically everywhere, but we still had about half of the people that came by accept the hot chocolate offer. But we have soooo much candy left! I think I'm going to be bringing a lot of candy into the office on Monday to give out to people. Because we certainly have a surfeit here with some adults trying to lose weight.

With it being Halloween, we made our annual butternut squash soup but added in some pumpkin cheddar bread. Deliciousness indeed.

I love this family and this life. It's pretty awesome.

Side story: Benjamin also had his first primary program on Sunday his part was: "Jesus came to the Earth to be our example because he loves us. He also made the volcanoes on the Earth." He did a great job, and I was really happy to actually be there this year as the music leader.