After almost two months down in the mine!  What a blessing!

BTW, when I say "blessing" I mean "blessing".  It's not a "miracle", no matter how often people refer to it as such.  

Seven years, can you believe it?  

"Where's my present?" was his response when I wished him a "Happy adoption day!"  He was firmly reminded the gifts stopped a few years ago, seeing as how his siblings don't get adoption day presents.  Presents at birthday and Christmas and that's it.  Him, too.

He didn't seem especially impressed with my reasoning.   Ah, for the Good Old Days, when October 2 brought cool presents such as his first cell phone.  

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Where did the cheap, cheesy, clearly fake toy pistols go?  I need - well, want, anyway - some for centerpieces for a luncheon next week, but have been so fixated on the other elements, I didn't look for them until this evening when I was at SuperTarget.  Nothing.  Came home and looked to see if Wal-Mart or Toys R Us has them.  Nope.

Look, I can understand not selling those really realistic looking fake guns, but what about the ones of shiny silver plastic with pink handles and such?  

It's depressing how often this happens, i.e. I assume something will be easily obtained, then it turns out it isn't.  Doubtless I'll think of something else, but darn it, those guns were going to be seriously cool by the time I'd finished with them.

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It's definitely fall!  Tomorrow night it's supposed to drop to around 50 degrees.  You know it's autumn when you can't figure out how to dress:  for the chilly morning or the warm afternoon.  Used to drive me nuts when the kids were little.  

Unbelievable, how fast time goes past!  And it's looking as if October is going to fly by at lightning speed, based on how the calendar is filling up.  Tomorrow evening is the much-anticipated Pianos of Praise concert at Christ Chapel, which will doubtless be fabulous (Mom, do you want to go with me?).

Saturday is Dmitry's SEVENTH adoption day, can you imagine?!?!  Seven years!    

On Wednesday is the opening luncheon for the Woman's Wednesday Club (part of the Fort Worth Woman's Club), and I'm the entertainment chair so I made the plans.  Okay, part of the plans.  The club is studying (it's a study club) some of the honorees in the Cowgirl Hall of Fame, so we're taking a tour of that museum at 2 p.m., but since it has no facilities for eating, the lunch venue was up in the air.  Seeing as how there's a city-mandated $5 parking fee for the surrounding lots, ISTM it'd be desirable to arrange for lunch at a room in the Museum of Science and History (known to those of us old-timers as the children's museum), which is right next to the CHoF.  We'll see!  Anyway, there's still stuff to be done for that event.

On the 9th I'm helping at a wedding, on the 12th Mom and I go to a Cliburn concert, then I'm volunteering at and attending the True Woman conference being held right here in Fort Worth from the 14th through the 16th!  By being a volunteer, I got a 50% discount.  Haven't got my schedule for that yet, at least as far as volunteering goes.  There's a breakout session for widows that I'm quite eager to attend.  

On Monday the 16th I'm going with Events & Adventures to a movie tavern, which will be fun (did it earlier in the summer), and then for Halloween I signed up to sponsor a trunk at the Christ Chapel "Trunk or Treat" event that evening!  I'm hoping some family will help with this, as it's decorating the car, and having candy to pass out to the trick-or-treaters.  It's in the lower level of the church's parking garage, and trunk hosts are encouraged to have a game or other activity for the children, too.  The decorations are to be friendly, not scary, of course.  It's a church, after all.  Anyway, I think it's a great notion and I'm looking forward to coming up with a fun activity and decorating the van.  

Of course, there's all the usual things, too:  SS, choir practices, small groups, Women in the Word, Woman's Club meetings, and so on.  

Oh, and for the first time in over 30 years, I'm determined to go to the state fair.  Might do that Monday, AAMOF.  Or tomorrow....at 10:30 a.m. is a chocolate contest!  This isn't the sort of thing I normally do on the spur of the moment - generally don't do it at all - so it's not likely I'll get a discount ticket at a grocery store, then figure out how to get to Dallas in time for the contest.  On Monday morning is the international cuisine contest, and that will be just as cool.

And the job search is still on.  Nothing yet, unfortunately, and if the LORD provides a position then naturally some of the above activities will have to be forgone.  But instead of keeping a crystal clear calendar Just In Case, I prefer to go ahead and plan on doing things.