From the Appleton Weber's

Hello all,

Ah yes Donna, it has been a LONG time since I have blogged. That is in part because my husband keeps telling me he is going to log on and blog!! Well, we will stop waiting for him and I will try to catch you up.

As you can imagine, this fall has been full of lots of changes. Preschool has been going well all in all. I have some very challenging children but I guess that's just part of it. It took me longer than I thought it would to get back in the routine. I do miss seeing my little Lydia all the time. There also was not a lot in place as far as curriculum and learning/activity centers. So I have been working hard to put many new things in place (usually at night). I am doing a lot of "first year" stuff so next year should go better as far as that is concerned. I had to drop my class for Nov. because I would have missed two out of four classes with mandatory school functions: conferences and the Christmas program that both fell on school nights. I am back to looking for something online only now I am going to wait until after the Holidays. All that being said, I do enjoy my job a lot and the people I work with are fun too! This week we have a huge Grandparent's Day Celebration at school. All the kids perform.......I keep telling my kids that no one wants to hear me sing so I am praying that they sing their little songs the way I know they can! Then a week later is the Christmas program and in between are conferences then I will breath a big sigh!

Gary and I went to see the Soweto Gospel Choir at the PAC a week or two ago. It was fabulous! I was very glad and surprised that Gary took me. The tap dancer you were talking about Donna was at the PAC last year and Hannah wanted to go so bad but for some reason we couldn't, can't remember why but if he comes again, I'll make Gary take me!

It is birthday time around our house so last week we had bday dinner for Daniel, tomorrow Jessica and her family will come for something simple and then when Hannah comes home I said I would make potato dumplings for them all ~ that is a West family favorite, it takes most of the day for that meal but I haven't done that for a while.

Gary leaves on Sunday for England and Hannah comes home on Tuesday. Pretty soon I will have my whole family in the same country! We are ALL getting excited for Hannah to come home.

This past weekend I went with Peggy and Amy to the Mall of America. We had a great time getting away together. We probably won't go there again for a while. It was very nice, just not the place for power shopping!! It was hard to see the snow all weekend! I was not mentally prepared for that shift in weather after 72 degrees a couple of days prior.

Some of you know that my dad had to do a round of chemo for the luekemia that he has had for years. So far it looks like the results are good and he responded well to the treatment. He only had to go for four rounds out of a possible eight. Tomorrow he has a blood test and they will determine if he has to do four rounds again or just go on maintainence which would be once every other month for the rest of his life. It was a little hard for all of us cuz we just don't want to think about the parents getting old. We have been so blessed with health in our families (West and Weber) and I am really grateful for that. Count your blessings!!

Congratulations to Claire on her new mobility, Rachel and Nicole, sounds like you are both working hard on all your activities!

Donna, don't work so hard!!

We'll see many of you before we know it!!

Love and Hugs,
Paula