Reagan's Post and Pics

Happy November!
We're already counting the days until Thanksgiving!

Chris and I at Marie and Ben's wedding. The Minnesota leaves were gorgeous.

I can't believe it's November! We had a low key Halloween, with only one trick-or-treater- a white little girl who was dressed as a Chinese person... a little strange, but I was still enthusiastic as I handed out the Reeses peanutbutter cups, because somehow having even just one trick-or-treater made me feel like we live in a real house now!

There were many adorable outfits earlier in the day, as 16 of my toddlers came to class in costume. We did the requisite Halloween activities throughout the week as well as on the big day- pictures in the costumes, decorating Halloween cookies, trick-or-treating the other classrooms, carving a pumpkin, and playing in the pumpkin patch and the hay bales I set up for them outside. It was so much fun to see Halloween through the eyes of kids who have never really experienced it before (they were all infants last year).

I hope everyone had a fun Halloween, and that you are getting as excited as I am for the upcoming election. We had lots of big issues on the table here in Cali, so I am looking forward to seeing how everything works out.

We are pretty much unpacked and moved in here, and that's a good feeling. I like this place. Chris bought us a washer and dryer on Craigslist, and spent yesterday afternoon setting them up. I am unbelieveably excited! They are only two years old, and look brand new, but we got a really good deal on them, and the lady even delievered them to our house! Awesome.

Life has been busy for me lately, especially as I am preparing for parent teacher conferences at school, and am taking two sets of classes. One is an RIE training class, which is a progressive outlook on infant and toddler care and relationships, and focuses on creating self-assured, self-motivated, self-directed, capable and happy individuals with loving relationships.

My other class is RCIA, the process of initiation into the Cathoic church. We meet once or twice a week and discuss the traditions and beliefs of the church. We met all day yesterday and went through the Nicene creed, wich was really interesting. I still have questions, but so far I am really loving the process. It is so peaceful and uplifting to share points of view with a large group of accepting individuals with diverse backgrounds, and I am consistantly pleased with how accepting and loving the actual doctrine is. The leaders and priest at Saint James are also really wonderful individuals, so I'm fortunate to have such kind people who are so excited about their faith guiding me through the process.

I uploaded the pictures from our trip, and Chris asked me to add them to the blog, so here they are:

Hanging out with Meg and Steve in Minneapolis

Above- Meg and Steve in front of one of the 10,000 Lakes
Below- Chris enjoys the flavor of the sculpture park

Marie in her beautiful dress, heading down the aisle


Above: Meg, Marie, and Me, taking a break from dancing
Below: Ben and Marie, officially married!

Our adorable dogs enjoying our new place:

Running together and chasing leaves and birds in the yard

When we call his name, Luke doesn't just come, he leaps and frolicks to us :)


"sitting pretty" together, in front of the fireplace

not a great pic- but this is the giant park behind our house, as seen when we open the gate.