September

9/3 - Jason's Grandma's 80th birthday party.  We got to help her celebrate with 3 of her 4 kids (Jason's mom is the only one of her kids I added a pic of) and all of their growing families.  It was a great day and we're thankful for her!

9/5 - my 39th birthday!  We went to the climbing gym and had a blast!  It took Jason and I about an hour to remember (with the help of YouTube) how to tie the knots to belay each other.  We were able to use the auto-belay routes in the meantime, and then we finally were able to safely use the other walls!  Some of the techniques have changed from 10 years ago when we were climbing a lot, so after we proved our knot tying abilities, an employee got us up to speed.  Hopefully we'll remember everything the next time we go (which I'm sure will be less than 10 years).  Josiah really enjoyed climbing, but Levi was a little apprehensive and didn't want to climb above where we could reach him.  I'm sure he'll get more confident with time and practice.

9/6 - I broke a sewing machine needle attempting to make lederhosen (more on this later)!  My old machine was not happy about going through multiple layers of corduroy.

9/10 - Greek festival!  We love going to this and eating the yummy Greek food!

9/14 - I had played tennis once a week with a couple of friends this fall, but this day I decided to injure myself while playing!  Somehow I stepped on the outer edge of my shoe and rolled my foot.  You know how graceful a gazelle looks while running?  It was pretty much the opposite of that.  After I did it, I jumped up, walked it off, and kept playing 5 or so more games.  I could still move it and it didn't feel broken.  That was a mistake.  It swelled up pretty bad and turned some beautiful colors.  I still didn't think it was broken, but the next day (15th) I went to the nurse practitioner to get her opinion.  She recommended x-rays just to be sure.  The wait at urgent care was about 3 hours, so I opted to try in the morning.  The morning of the 16th I went to urgent care as soon as I could get there after dropping the boys off at the bus stop.  I got right in!  The whole experience (including x-rays) was less than 2 hours which has got to be some kind of urgent care record.  As I was sitting there waiting for the doctor to read the x-rays, I overheard a nurse calling a medical equipment place for a patient with a broken foot who needed a rolling knee cart instead of crutches.  I was one of the first people into urgent care and didn't see anyone else hobbling around, so I panicked a little, thinking it HAD to be me.  I was so relieved when the doctor came in and said it wasn't broken!  I took it easy for a couple of weeks to let it heal, which I was very grateful to do after thinking it was broken and I'd have to stay completely off it for 6+ weeks.  God is watching out for me in my klutziness!!

9/16-18 - 10th annual Oktoberfest weekend!  This year we celebrated in St. Louis.  We love this tradition so much and our amazing friends who it gives us an excuse to hang out with.  On the 17th we drove up to a tiny little town in Illinois for dinner at a quaint German restaurant called Dreamland Palace.  The food was great and the ambiance was perfect.  Here are the completed lederhosen (made from cheap corduroy pants I found at the thrift store)!  My friend Melissa helped me make mine, and then I used it as a pattern to make the pieces for the other 2.  I took the pieces to St Louis for the final fitting before Jen helped me sew them together.  I think they turned out great!

Our 10 year Oktoberfest anniversary shirts - thanks Nate!

Notice my beautifully wrapped foot!

After dinner we went back to the Hardin's house for homemade pretzels, German beer, and a really cool new game called Secret Hitler.  It was a hit for sure.  We learned that some of us are better liars than others.  :)

9/20 - foot is still purple and green.  It took 2 months for it to feel 100% better, but again, it could have been so much worse!

9/28 - Jason got me this print for Christmas last year, and I had put off framing it because 16x20 frames run in the $50+ range.  I found this frame at the thrift store for $4, sanded it and spray painted it black.  I love how it turned out!  Now to get it hung...

And...still talking to the guy in Nebraska about selling him our red poll cattle.  That's 2 months now for those of you keeping track.  More to come!