Changes

A week ago I was in Indiana driving around my sister's jeep.  I ended up driving  through a part of IU that I did not mean to be in , but I found my way to the mall/Target.  We also went to an education store, B&N and a party shop. After lunch we went out on the horses, and I did not fall off.  Then I ate our left over Target popcorn with a bowl of candy corn Cathron had sitting out.

We did not trick or treat until 2004 when John-Thomas was nine. But displaced from our home and our community because of the hurricanes and going stir crazy with a newborn I wanted something to do so the boys put on their camo clothes and we went door to door gathering candy.  I wasn't happy with the ghoulish houses and hoped when we moved to Jacksonville it would be better but it wasn't so much so we did church festivals the next couple of years.  Turns out John-Thomas is bitter about not getting enough trick or treating as a young child but he is 16 and says he is bitter about all sorts of things.  Like the fact that I made him go to bed at 8 oclock until he was 9.  Go Figure.

Fast forward to last year, Elise and Emmett go with me to Indiana and go trick or treating with their cousins. They went again this year.  I didn't go with them either times.  I don't know what the houses were like.  What I don't know won't bother me.  Last year a teen friend of my sister's family took them, this year my brother in law.  Cathron and I sat at her friend's house while she handed out candy and we chatted.  I probably wouldn't have even mentioned this except I read Jenette's anti Halloween post.
Change happens.

After Trick or treating we went to Buffulo Wild Wings.
All of Stephen's friends were invited to join my sister and brother-in-law there.
About 25 showed up.
Cathron and Dave's new pastor showed up and so did a couple that was at the hospital with them two years ago.
Heavy Sigh.
Seems longer than  a week a go.

The saddest part of the trip was walking past the family photos in the hall.
It tugs at my heart strings something awful.
I think the photo above was taken a few days after I met them in N.C. 
Most of the clothes Stephen and Joshua wore in the photos through the years  were passed on to my boys.
Cathron is diligent about getting family photos taken and scrapbooked and displayed. 
Me, not so much.
The last family photo of us was on the last cruise we took a year ago.
Time for a family photo I tell everyone last night.
No way says Stewart
Count me out says John-Thomas.
Yippee says Elise.

I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

Philippians 4 : 12