Pumpkins and Fall Fun!

Since my last post a lot has happened. After Stoops and Seven left we had our small group over. It was small, but it was fun. Its nice getting to know a few more people around here to hang out with. I'm also playing volleyball with them for the winter, so moving to indoor volleyball has been interesting. We really need to have a team practice, but can't seem to find the time to practice.

The weekend after that was OU/Texas. We went downtown to the OU sports bar and watched the game with other OU alum and supporters. It was great to have everything in the bar decorated in Crimson and Cream and see random people who we didn't know, but were all cheering for the same team. After the LONG OU/Texas game I ran a 5k. It was kind of chilly, but it went well. It was my first 5k of the year. I did 8:40 miles, and managed to not get soaked or filthy (impressive since it has pretty much rained all of October and the course was a chat trail). After the race we went to my friend Sara's place for an apartment warming party. She and her boyfriend have a GREAT view of Chicago and the lake. We managed to see fireworks off of Navy Pier which was really cool. The skyline was decorated in pink for breast cancer awareness month.

That Sunday we went to a pumpkin patch with Linda and John. We tried going to a pumpkin farm but it was way to long of a line for way too much money to even think about it. Plus it was geared for having children with you, so we just went to a small pumpkin stand. We managed to find four pumpkins to carve. We actually carved the pumpkins yesterday and ended up with some fun ones. I still have one left to carve, but not sure what I want to carve into the pumpkin.

I've been working at the zoo the past couple of weekends. The zoo has a special dinosaur exhibit and other fun Halloween stuff to do. We're actually talking about going there for Halloween to ride the Tram of Terror, the Haunted Carousel, and see the animatronic dinos at night.

We've both been busy with school as my project has gone live. When the students actually start working on the research projects and no one has read the module it causes all sorts of headaches for both Chris and me. We had a TA think it wise to put paper in an oven and a whole host of other fun things like that last week.

I went to the doc on Friday. I have to have another scope done, as well as a 24 hour motility (to see why I'm having trouble swallowing) and pH test (to see why I still have heartburn). That actually happens next Monday and I'm not sure about the next scope.

Here are some random pictures from the month...

Toy Story in 3D

Our big excitement from this past week was getting to see Toy Story and Toy Story 2 in 3D. We watched the first one, had a 10 minute intermission with Toy Story Trivia, then watched the second one. We went on Saturday with a few hundred other parents and children. We bought our tickets early that day and then showed up about an hour before the movie was to start. We had to stand in line, and we were the only ones without children. It was crazy, and we even got to see a 4 year old dressed up as Buzz! That unfortunately was the only costume we saw. I suppose though that those adults who dress up for Star Wars and Harry Potter don't really dress up for animated kids movies they grew up on so that kind of makes sense.

The movies were really neat. I did not get to see them in the theater the first time around so seeing them on big screen wearing crazy glasses was fun. It was funny to see kids reach for things they thought they could touch. Several of the kids around us did that several times thoughout the movies, so I think the 3D was realistic enough. It was also really cool to hear the gasps and exclamations of surprise for the effects that happen in the movie. You know like when Buzz proves to Woody that he can fly and the angle was from Buzz's helmet, with the movie being in 3D it actually kind of felt you were doing the car track yourself.

It was also nice to go out on a date. Since we can't go out to eat anywhere we've kind of become homebodies and don't ever go out. We still weren't able to go out for dinner after the movies, but it worked.

We've also really gotten involved in a small group from the Lutheran church we've been attending. They started a new group that meets later so we don't feel bad about showing up late, since we start later and that makes it less likely that we will be late in the first place. We're doing a "One Church" study -- so imagining what could happen if all the denominations stopped fighting and bickering over minute things that don't matter and all truly focused on doing God's work while here on earth. It reminds me of Mosaic in Little Rock and how they didn't care what your theological background was, just that you had a passion for serving Christ.

Anyway, I need to get going with my day. I hope everyone is having a good day and that all is well.