October Celebrations

I love the color red.  And I love red hair.  So I got a wild and crazy idea a week or so ago.  I decided that I would like to put just a touch of red in my hair.  Red hair is the ultimate wonderful hair color in my opinion, but it would not look good on me.  But why not just a stripe of red?  So I bought some auburn hair color, thinking it would be subtle.  I decided to put the stripes on the white part of my hair.  So I did it.  I was shocked to see splotches of brilliant red scattered in my hair.  Not subtle, more in your face.  Hum.  I had to cover it up...all but a little bit in the front.  So I covered it with brown.  So now the gray that I've been encouraging is now covered with brown.  I'm a little sad about that.  Here's a sample of the red.  It has faded slightly...see what you think.

This year I decided that I wanted more Halloween in the house.  It's because the kids are here and that makes such a difference for me.  So the house is filled with Halloween.  Orange lights fill the living room and beyond.  I even did a picture for the mantel.  

October holds several family birthdays, all the first week.  Reed, Dorothy and kids visited us that week, so we celebrated all three birthdays together.  It was so fun!  We began with Seth.  He turned 15.  We showered him with the meal of his choice, birthday wishes and, of course, birthday presents.  His treasure is a pair of custom made athletic shoes, made to his order.  Here he is with one of the shoes.

Layne turned 77 on October 5th.  "Don't get me anything!" is his yearly mantra.  But I always manage to find some little thing that I think he can use.  This year it was a pitch pipe.  I think he liked it but I'm not sure.  Our friends the Becks gave him a fruit bouquet.  We all loved that!

The kids gave him a sweet BD note and he loved that.

Our girl Dorothy also had a birthday on the 7th.  We celebrated it a couple of days early.  Dorothy has thyroid cancer, which has been a worry for all of us.  Prayers have flown to heaven in abundance for her.  Her surgery was this past Wednesday.  Reed confirmed that it went well.  It looks like the cancer was contained in the thyroid and now gone.  What a blessing!

Our days with Reed, Dorothy and the boys were especially tender and pleasant.  Bruce had fun going through my coin collection.  Timmy was open and friendly.  Vincent was his usual very pleasant and friendly self.  They are such a nice family and so great to have around.

Here's Vincent with his ever-present gallon of water.  He carries it everywhere, refilling as needed.  It just about never leaves his sight.

Here is the whole Reed-Dorothy family.  Or the ones that visited.  Here's Reed, Bruce, Dorothy, Vincent, Timmy and....Seth.

It has been a wonderful family time this month so far.  We are settling in with Seth and Angelica.  Seth was in a school concert this week and he loved it.  It was a fantastic production, due to the excellent work of the teacher whose first name happens to be...Seth!  The kids are still in what I would call a "honeymoon" stage being here, but they seem to be happy so far.  I hope we can do them justice.  It is beginning to be more relaxed and fun as we settle in to a new routine...having kids to care for.