"November is the most disagreeable month."

And Little Women fans know the next line is, "That's why I was born in it." And I, naturally, disagree.

November! Well, it only has a few hours left, and then it's 335 days until it comes round again. I've felt this week as if the month has both dragged and flown. And here we are, upon another Christmas season-- only this year I am unprepared. Yes, I admit it, I neglected to buy an advent calendar this year. What will we do, I wonder, without our daily chocolate fix?

Oh, and if anyone related to me is reading this, you're not getting a Christmas gift. I wanted to let you know well ahead of time so you could get over your disappointment.

Yeah, so not a lot has happened in my little life. We have a busy month coming up, as does everyone, and so I say, November, we hardly knew ye. Next year try to keep your younger brother (December) from sneaking up on me like this.

I need more words...

A boy was killed in Lubbock this week. He was crossing the street and was hit by a car on Monday night, and they couldn't save him. I can't imagine what his parents are going through, in fact I don't want to. And this would have been another sad article in the paper for me, except one of the girls at church came to me before services this evening to talk about it. I really think she only chose me because I happened to be available, but for whatever reason, God put me in her path. What do you say to an 11-year-old who just lost a friend? I gave her a Kleenex, let her talk about it, and prayed for her (and got a bit welled myself while she was talking)-- what else could I do? Anyway, if any of you can spare a moment to pray for the boy's family and friends, I'm sure they could use it.

Moving, Retreating, and Driving

Wow, I can't believe how much has changed for us in the past two weeks. New car, new address, new washing machine, goodness knows what God has in store for us next. (Well, I hope it's a new job for Chad.)

We went to a marriage retreat a couple of weekends ago with a lot of people from church-- and some people from other churches. It was a great weekend, with lots of good information and re-connecting time. It was also really cool to hear from people we know well, and others we know but not so well, about their stories. We really enjoyed it.

As soon as we came back from the retreat, we started moving to our new flat, which we are now (mostly) settled into! And some really good friends of ours gave us their old washing machine, which delighted me to no end. It's so nice to get up in the morning and do laundry without having to leave the house. It's brilliant.

And finally, I am still totally enamoured with our car. It is awesome to have transportation-- and fortunately, there is not much chance of us taking this for granted. God has blessed us!