Alex has certainly had a busy week. He's started at Wal-Mart in earnest now, with something like 21 hours scheduled per week (more than what he asked for, but he's going to try to get it back down, although I'm sure he will enjoy the money). He worked every day this weekend, including Sunday, so we had to rush him home from church a bit to get him to work on time. He's also working over dinnertime every working day (seems like 2:00 - 7:00 is common for him) so we are going to have to figure out that..... Beth went to an acupuncturist this week, first time in many years. What made me pester her to do it was hwer migraines; she had had a migraine for over a week solid by the time I called the place. Unfortunately that was almost a month ago, so when we went she didn't have it any more. But she got the treatment anyway because it was the only thing that helped them all those years ago. I'm hoping that it keeps them away, what with fall and all.....Saturday while Alex was working, Beth and the girls and I all went up to South Bend to visit the Studebaker Museum. It was really cool! Primarily Missy had wanted to go because they have the original 1951 Studebaker Commander that Fozzie and Kermit drove in the Muppet Movie. That was neat but there are a lot more cars there in a lot better condition.....

Alex finally heard back from Wal-Mart early this week, first word after being hired there as to when he would start. That turned out to be Friday, he had orientation for a couple hours. Turns out he will be working in the toy department, he had thought it would be electronics. I was hoping it would be electronics too, just because I think he would like it more.....Tuesday my group at work got together for lunch and games at Bixler Park in town. We played Yardzee, which is just Yahtzee played outside with big dice. We wanted to get together again before it got cold. It was good to actually see everyone again.....Tuesday was also game night at the church. The card/board game "club" (not really a club) has started back up again after a long layoff. I missed last month's game night but everyone except Bob and Lily did too. They were also the only other ones there this time, which is fine. We'll get there. Bob brought a game that I forget the name, but it's just like caroms. He made the board himself; they're going to try making some money by selling them where he works. I also brought Wizard, which I'd told Bob about before and he wanted to try. He and Lily really liked it, and he also likes that you can play 6 people, which is his whole family. Fun time.....Saturday Beth and Alex and I went to look through his senior pictures and pick out the ones we liked. There were some really good ones, so we picked 6 that we liked most and bought the digital package. It comes with an upload to something called Mpix which I understand is sort of like Shutterfly.....We were looking for somewhere to have lunch on Saturday (Missy had asked for B-Mac's, not sure why) but it looks like that place is closed, permanently, as is Shoop's, so we punted and went to Fazoli's instead. Yeah, that one. In Fort Wayne, 45 minutes away. We went to Hobby Lobby after we ate lunch but that was all we did in FW before coming back home.... Alex and Missy have fall break this coming week; I'm not sure what we would have done during the break but Alex is going to be working.....This weekend I finally broke out the paint, for all the wall prep I've been doing for so so long. Natalie wanted the downstairs bathroom painted (tired of the bright orange, I guess) so we settled on a light blue. I started painting the corners and edges Friday night. I wasn't crazy about it at first but it does look pretty nice on the walls. The living room is next, which I said I wasn't going to paint myself but I think I am, because I think it is going to be a lot cheaper. But Beth and I have to agree on the colors, still.....

FCC Kids made a comeback this week. It was different than in the past, and will be going forward for the time being as well. It looks like it'll just be once a month; not sure what exactly we will do when we have to be inside. But this week was bike night. Kids brought their bikes and there was a bunch of activities for them. Racing, safety demos, and the like. I was manning the obstacle course; my job was to time the kids as they went through it (it wasn't that hard). It was well attended, but we were outside so I think everything was fine.....Saturday Beth and I got up early to go view Alex's senior portraits, but it turned out we got the date wrong, it's next week. Later on we all wanted to go do something, but what we found took a lot longer to get there than to actually do it. We went to a corn maze. We tried to go to the same maze we went to a few years ago down near Mentone (Goshert Farms) but when we got there we found nothing. I had even looked it up online and found announcements about it but the barn where they had the shops set up was empty, and even though there was a sign that said "corn maze," the field right behind it was also empty. Harvested. So I'm not too sure what went on there, but I guess all the web pages I found were from previous years. So with tears in our eyes we turned around and headed towards Knollbrook Farms, near Goshen. Our GPS took us on what it may have thought was the shortest route, but it went through the country and turned every half mile or so. Not sure how long it took to get from one corn maze to the other, but quite a while. When we got there, there was quite a crowd, one that Natalie could not deal with so she went back to the car just as soon as we got tickets (I did find a super saving social deal for half price on 4 tix, and bought it while waiting in line). So the rest of us went and did some pumpkin slingshot and then walked the corn maze, which wasn't very difficult (more of a path than a maze). We might have stayed there for a grand total of half an hour, which was a shorter time than we had been driving.....Today Missy and Katherine went to Goodwill to do some shopping (just looking for something fun). After I dropped them off I found a jacket for Alex's Halloween costume and a really nice winter coat. A Columbia coat for $25, pretty much brand new. Missy came home later with a little wooden elephant she had found.

 Not too bad of a weekend. Friday everyone seemed to be in the mood to go to Red Robin for dinner so we did. Headed to the mall right after the kids were out of school, shopped at B&N a bit, had dinner, went home. Something to do. Saturday was busy, at least for Alex: He had an interview at Wal-Mart at 1:00, which went very well and ended with him being hired! He'll be making $11 an hour, I think, and starts next week. At 4:30 we had his senior portraits taken. We took him to a photographer just outside of town, and she took the photos outside at her property. Including some photos with a game controller and headphones, which she said she had a fun idea for, so we'll see how that looks......Missy had a phone interview with Kohl's last week, but they let her know that they won't be hiring her (even though in the interview they said they were desperate for workers). Beth and I suspect it was because she said she wanted to work there because it seemed to be low stress and she get anxious in crowds. Anyway, she wasn't too broken up about not getting the job, and she wants to apply at a couple other places that say they're hiring....Thursday was "gotcha day" for Natalie, or rather our new gotcha day. One year since the adoption was finalized. We had cheesecake and I took her to Ulta to celebrate....I made another apple pie this week, but it wasn't as good because I used a pre-made crust.....