Beautiful Fall

Fall is officially here! This is our favorite time of year to be in Ohio - there are so many trees here and they all turn the most beautiful colors. Sadly, Ed is missing it for now. He left last Sunday for Biloxi, Mississippi for some more training for a couple weeks. Since the colorful leaves only last for about 2 weeks he knew he would probably miss most of it, but it started a little later than we thought, so hopefully he'll catch the tail end of it. He should be home Thursday.

Biloxi has been interesting for him. He arrived on Conference Sunday, so he found the church so he could catch the last session. He walked in and a lady was sitting at a desk in the foyer. She got excited and asked him if he was there for food. He felt bad telling her he just wanted to watch conference. He said the only part of that building that hadn't been touched was the chapel - the rest had piles of food, hygiene kits, chain saws, and other relief supplies, and men from other areas who had come to help were camping on the lawn - it was neat for him to see the church humanitarian program in action. The next Sunday they had Sacrament Meeting, and then they got organized again and went back to work. Ed said he'd take some pictures for me of some of the area - there's still a lot of devastation, but things are starting to get back to normal.

While Ed has been gone the girls and I have spent a lot of time with our neighbors, the Carsons (as you'll see from the pictures) - they're so good about taking care of us. Their kids came over while Jody went to a doctor's appointment (she's pregnant with her 4th), which always makes the girls happy. They had us over for dinner on Sunday, and then on Monday we went to John Bryant State Park and Clifton's Gorge. It was quite the hike, and the kids did great. When we were done we roasted hot dogs, which Kimberlee thought was the coolest thing ever - it's not very often that we let her play with fire.

That's all our news. Better get some more things accomplished while Kimberlee's at school and Keira is napping. Love you all!
~MaryAnn