FALL NOOS

Hi all,

The Jepsen/Nerbonne travelers from CA (Sarah, Kath and Liz) came home to shockingly cool weather of 35* which is plummeting to 28* or so at nights.  Happy to say that it seems that maybe we are having an Indian summer.  Last night, the wind blew all night allowing Tony to bale hay with the tractor long into the night (because his cool, awesome tractor has headlights and a cab).

School started last Monday  A couple of days, the highschool students have attended school till noon, then they been released to go work with Tony.  Yesterday the juniors and seniors didn’t have to report at all, but went straight to work for Tony.  Tony’s trying to combine the grain and get all the hay baled and wrapped.  Usually Ben does the grain, but he isn’t this year due to the accident earlier this summer where he fractured part of his backbone. 

My Spanish class using Rosetta is going very well. Jesse Geyer, Cody Williams, Alexandra Buongiorne (as a post grad student) and Rob enjoy it and the program can be set to different levels. Very nice! We also use some of the traditional book work.

This year I have Rob most of the day. It seems to work better for his speed although he mentions that he misses being with the his former classmates. I will try to make a bible unit to include all 3 probably when we get to MOSES. Abeka has some great visual aids which I plan to use as well as NEST animated stories and activity books. We concentrate on Computer skills, typing, the 3 R's and did I mention READING, READING, READING! Going through all sorts of basic to not so basic books, he seems to be wanting to read, so that is what we do first thing in the morning. His computer work is mainly centered around, phonology activities, grammar usage, sequencing and short term memory skills. We will be quite busy. In the afternoons he joins the highschool students for Spanish I & II. He really enjoys going into the BIG school since it is age appropriate for him! He is now in the HS for Music class which is a nice change. Also trying to do some Science and repeating the BJ Heritage which we never did quite finish.

For  PD I am planning on continuing the snoshoeing with anybody who wants to join and Rob does his treadmill in the morning as well. It will be hard for him to park his bike since he has discovered a new freedom riding it without the training wheels.

I took Rob to visit his sped teacher's place. She keeps 75 sled dogs which were quite noisy and I think rather overwhelmed Rob. He did well though and enjoyed interacting with some of the dogs. Most of them are chained up since they are working dogs rather than pets. Of course this visit brought about the endless chat we have about wanting a dog - he even has the breed all picked out! A Boxer.

PatLou was able to spend a few days with us before leaving for the UK, Beth and the girls. They have posted some very nice photos of the girls and Pat himself, holding them FINALLY! Ella and Esther are getting so big! Amazing how fast they grow. Hopefully we will be able to see the little family together in the Spring sometime. God willing.

Big Pat has been very busy with piano work, going out more than a few times each week for the last few weeks. Everybody is wanting their piano tuned for the school year, etc. Today he is in Tok and sometime later int he month he will be doing his Valdez/Glenallen run.

Matt Dean from Tok has come back for school this year; he is living with the Williams.  Melissa Lupo will be taking a couple of classes from us too.

Jarred finished redoing the tab septic.  He was able to connect the lines for the tab bathrooms if we ever decide to finish building that.  Jarred smoothed that whole area out so that maybe we can plant it with grass seed rather than letting it turn into weeds and little random trees. 

Also, Judy came home from visiting Hannah and family and Lauren and family.  Little Owen is nearly 11 pounds and is home and is doing great.
 
Garth and Kim and Kelly also arrived home from their summer trip of visiting family and preaching around the countryside.  They were gone for 4 months!

I guess Jennifer’s mom returned to New York too since I’m not seeing her anymore.

Seth Fouse landed a job in Fairbanks and will be gone for a couple of months getting that done.  He comes home some weekends or Kimberli and the kids go in there some weekends.

Merlin’s brother, Keith, was here for a five day visit.  He was a breath of fresh air with his inquisitiveness and interest in everything.

Potato harvest was good and we put quite a few tons away for the winter as well as all the meat from the 15 moose our hunters got. PTL.!

Well I think I've run out of things to say.

Have a great rest of the week.

Talk to you all later