New look for Jaron/Snake/Learning to Drive

At the beginning of October Jaron was sitting next to Darik in church. I overheard this conversation: D, "What's the number of the hymn?" J, "Well, I think it's 32."
That caught my attention really fast. It's very common for Darik not to be able to see things well, even with correction, because of how complicated his eye problems are but it's a totally new thing for Jaron to be unsure of something seen in the distance. He was right but the fact that he wasn't sure was a little disconcerting for me. So off to the ophthalmologist we went. Sure enough, he needed a little help with his vision. So after picking a great pair of frames Jaron got glasses!

And to debut a new look of glasses he decided he needed a haircut. Gone with the shaggy waves of hair! He looks great but much more like Darik now which makes it complicated for others outside the family. We had one with straight, short hair with glasses and one with wavy, longer hair without glasses. Now we have this...


And he can see again!! Yippee!

At back-to-school night in September I attended Jaron's classes as if I was him, with class length being 7 minutes so we could meet the teacher and get a quick overview of each class. In his English and Language Arts class the students had been assigned to decorate a jersey that reflected who they are. This was Jaron's and I wanted to share it with y'all. I'm still sometimes amazed at how much each of my children's identities is wrapped up in our family. I love that while they each know who they are as an individual and as a child of God, I am grateful that they sense the importance of being part of something bigger than themselves. They know just how important their family is.

********************************************************************************

One afternoon in late October I was returning home from taking Jason to the airport and as I turned into our neighborhood I saw this:

This is a rat snake and they are pretty common to the area. We've seen one before that was hidden near a sidewalk and we could only see his head. This one just seemed to be "out for a walk" as it was just slithering down the middle of the road. I just wanted to share with you what it's like living in our new home, enjoy! =)
********************************************************************************

The second of November I finally got around to giving Nathan his first ever driving lesson. Some of you may recall that I had him get his permit in mid-August, knowing that marching band season would make it near impossible to get any instruction in. Well, we finally had a morning where I could take him to the HS parking lot and let him have a go at it. Of course I had him start out with the van. Driving the van can be a pretty humbling experience. He got to appreciate it's size and power. He did really well learning to start and stop. We even made it up to 10 mph! In something that big, that can feel very overwhelming.

Look at that grin!



********************************************************************************
Sarah came downstairs for school one day looking like this. I usually let my kids have a lot of leeway in choosing their outfits but this one got nixed. For your viewing enjoyment.