Trunk or Treat at the church was this past Monday. Beth and I were sort of a late addition to the party, deciding only a few days ago that we would do it. Beth has been very sore and very anxious lately, so she didn't really want to do it but decided she would when I decided I would. I put together a fishing pond, using a blue shower curtain with some plastic sheeting fish taped onto it, and a wooden frame holding it up. Kids used a dowel with a clothespin on a string as a fishing pole and swung the "hook" over the curtain into the "pond" where Beth would clip a "fish" onto it, then they would "reel it in." Beth was unseen so no costume; I wore an FCC t-shirt and a hat that could be for fishing. The kids loved it, it was a big hit. And Beth had a lot of fun too and was glad we went.

Beth and I brought Missy home for the weekend again. It hasn't worked out quite the way it should, though. We drove down to Muncie and got her on Friday evening, stopping for dinner on the way home (Missy picked Cracker Barrel for dinner, at the exit up the road a bit from Muncie). We also stopped at the Coliseum on the way home to pick up some tickets for the Komets teddy bear toss game on Saturday. On Saturday, we went into FW to do some shopping at the mall and get dinner, while Beth was feeling more and more sick and Missy was feeling more and more worn out. When we were done at dinner Missy just about pleaded to just go home. Beth was feeling awful too so we didn't go to the hockey game that we'd just bought tickets for the day before. Oh well, the Komets lost in overtime. I had bought a bag of stuffed animals at Goodwill on Thursday, we'll just have to keep them for next year. 
Sunday, Beth went to church since she was singing, but Missy and I both stayed home. Me because I was also now sick and feeling awful, Missy because she was worn out. I stayed in bed most all day, or sitting on the couch watching football. The girls went to the church for the farewell party for the Welches, as today was Jeremy's last day, and headed back to Muncie afterwards.

Otherwise, it is full on soup season. Beth is making soup in every spare moment, and I am still working on the downstairs remodel-lite. That is going to be a job that gets done in little bites, though. I'm only buying supplies as the money comes available, so I get 1 or 2 sheets of drywall at a time. And finish the mudding before moving on to the next few panels. I've got the ceiling in the stairwell pretty much set (it's taken longer than it should so I can get it done the way I like it rather than leave little flaws that only I will know are there) and the north wall covered, just have to finish it.

 I'm on Mint Mobile now! I've been so sick and tired of Red Pocket not being able to get my voice mail working that I bought a new phone and ported my number to Mint. Same plan, same price, and now everything works. I'm planning to get everyone off RP and onto Mint as soon as I can coordinate it, because Alex and Missy don't have working VM either, and no matter how many times I talk to them and they say it's fixed, it is not fixed. Well, too bad for them. I'm done.

Missy was home last weekend for fall break, so I took her back to Muncie on Tuesday night. Beth stayed home because she had Bible study, but none of the other ladies showed up. So she could have gone with us. We just got dinner in town and hastily dropped her off, since we got yelled at by a campus cop to move the vehicle. We parted in such a hurry we forgot to go to Dunkin like we had planned. Oh well, next time. 

This week has also been a little bit about Natalie management again. I've known that her prescriptions are running out soon and have texted her a few times without getting much of a response lately, but she finally seemed to realize what running out meant and asked for some help with it. Too late to avoid a disruption but at least now things are underway. I was able to bring her in to Bowen center to get an appointment made, and get her to it on Tuesday. She finally got her meds going again by midweek, but not all of them because the doctor (or whatever) she saw doesn't like to prescribe the kind of meds she's on. So she's going to see someone else in a month. But, at least she should have the meds she needs to function. On a similar note, she wound up in the ER this week as well on Friday, Beth got a call from her work that her heart was racing and wouldn't slow down. Beth called me and I took her to the emergency room, where she remained for a few hours until it passed. She got an IV and everything. The POTS again, it seems. Another thing we hope will calm down when she's got all her meds again.

My group at work volunteered for a Feed My Starving Children mobile pack event at the Warsaw high school this week. We've done that once before and had a great time. In the afternoon people from all over town got together at the school and packed meals like crazy. There was a sort of corporate challenge going on and ZB had a lot of people there as did DePuy, but my group especially was a machine and really cranked them out. I was putting the plastic bags at the bottom of the funnel and loading them up, then passing them to QC. In the hour or so we worked, we packed something like 26 cartons of meals, and ZB beat DePuy handily, 

Missy's here! This weekend is her fall break, so Beth drove down to Muncie to pick her up Friday afternoon. She's got Monday and Tuesday off, so I'll be taking her back Tuesday evening while Beth is at Bible study. Missy says she is looking forward to having some quiet time in her bedroom without anyone blasting music or making a ruckus down the hall.

Road trip right away for Missy as well. The annual Wiessner family chili cook-off was this Saturday in Kalamazoo. Beth decided not to make any chili this time, though. Too much bother to transport it. We headed up there in time to arrive around dinner time, then visited with the whole family (and a lot of their friends, too) while we ate and judged chili. The winner had 3 different kinds of meat in it...I think vension, ground beef, and bacon. How could it not? Everyone was pretty happy to see Missy, and she joked that she should have a card with the 3 answer to the standard questions on it. Yes, I'm enjoying college, yes, I get along with my roommate, and my favorite class is art history. We spent the evening and got back home around midnight. 

Last Thursday I decided to try out the clip-in pedals that Trey and every other cycler I've been riding with says I need to wear. You'll love it, they said. You'll add 2 mph to your speed right away, they said. You use more muscles to pedal this way, they said. Well, the clips were in pretty tight. I even knew how they work and the trap that's laid for newbies wearing them. So Trey loaned mt a set of pedals and a pair of shoes, I installed the pedals into the bike, practiced a bit, and tried to do a little ride. I got to the first stop sign on the road, couldn't get my shoes out of the pedals, and fell right over on my bad shoulder and gave myself a big bang on the shin. The shoulder hurt the most. Like, a lot. But the shin is going to have a huge bruise. Holy crap, did I hurt myself there. No bueno on the clips.

Alex is still dealing with his car battery. Scott came over the other day to help, but they weren't able to get the cable re-attached either. He came over again today and did get it to O'Reilly's but still not able to get it fixed. They have a part and are going to try seeing if there is a YouTube video they can watch. 

 The Fort 4 Fitness was this weekend! I decided to run it since it looked like the weather would be good (and it was). I also decided we should stay in a hotel overnight in Fort Wayne so I didn't have to get up super early to register and get ready. Beth and I went Friday night and got a room at the Hilton Gardens by Lutheran Hospital, which was nice enough but nothing very special. But they have a hot tub. And there is an Asian restaurant called Naked Tchopstix that we had never been to before, so we went there. It was all right but actually not as good as the sushi place in Warsaw. 

The race itself was good but frustrating. Not sure why, but I felt like I was doing great for a while but then ran out of steam. At mile 6 the Strava app told me my time and I thought it was great...and I might even PR this half. And then I hit the wall. By mile 10 I was exhausted. I wasn't even sure I was going to be able to finish. The last 3 miles were all run, walk, run, walk, run, walk, and running less and less in between bouts of walking. The official clock said 2:16:20 when I finished, which wasn't terrible, but a time I was pretty disappointed with. Strava said the mile markers were spaced too far, or at least the first one was. The app told me miles had passed a few minutes before I passed the marker, at least. The app also said my 13.1 mile time was 2:11:20, which again is not horrible but I wish I could have finished it all running. I might have indeed PR'd if I didn't wear out. 

On the way back from FW Beth and I went out in search of Amish groceries and antique stores again. Didn't find anything good, but we were too tired (me especially) to hunt too much before heading home. 

Alex is having his first real car trouble. The battery is not holding a charge (I think he's run the AC with the engine off too long) so he's been trying to jump it. But he misunderstood some instructions so he took the cable off the battery terminal before trying to jump it, and now he can't get it to stay back on. He was texting with me asking how to do this and that, I really wished I could go help him out. We're going to see if our friend Scott can come help.