HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Well, it's Halloween, October 31st. Man!! Where has the year gone?? Well, tonight the Reavis family will have our annual chili/hot chocolate in the driveway for neighbors/friends. We have been doing this for several years now. It's a great way to meet your neighbors. Even if you don't celebrate Halloween, just step outside of your house tonight and say "hi" to your neighbors who are out walking around....it really will be okay. Check back later for pictures.

This morning Chris & I went to Caden's school for parent/teacher conferences. His teacher, Mrs. Martin, told us that Caden is doing very well in school. She said he is very quiet. You know...people always tell us that....but at home he never stops talking, in fact there are times when I say these words "Caden, can we please just have a few minutes of not talking?". So, I think to Mrs. Martin and all the others who say he is so quiet, they just need to come and live with us for a few weeks, because either I will enjoy some quiet time or they will be able to finally hear what his voice sounds like.

We got all the report cards. I am happy to report they are all doing well. WHEW!!! Still able to keep those "my juvenile delinquent can beat up your honor student" bumper stickers put away. Actually, Tanner made the honor role. Wow!! Of course being the loving mom I am, I did say to him after I hugged him when I saw he made honor role, "too bad you can't make honor role in the smell good class". Why is it that all boys in jr. high stink? I just want to know. Well, can't have everything.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Important Safety Tip for Halloween: When you go out tonight to TP and egg people's houses - wear all black and good running shoes for a fast get-away in case you are seen.

Rise Up - Designed For Life

This weekend Lori, Melissa & I attended the "Designed for Life" women's conference at James River Assembly church in Ozark, Mo (If you click on the title of this post it will take you to the website and to the highlights of the conference). Now you have to know, that I am not a fan of women's conferences. In the past I have attended many women's conferences and have found them all to be filled with too many women who are usually pushing and shoving, not filled with Jesus, and just overall mean. So when Lori moved and started attending James River and mentioned this women's conference I really did not want to go. But, being the good friend I am, I also did not want her to have to attend alone. So....I dragged Melissa along and we went. Well, we were glad we did. It was amazing. Not at all like any other conference I have ever attended. The praise & worship music was fantastic. It wasn't "girly", the speakers were like none I have heard before. Instead of feeling emotionally drained when leaving the conference I felt empowered, energized in my spirit and ready to make some real changes in my life. So..next year the first weekend in October, I will be attending the women's conference at James River Assembly church in Ozark, Mo.

On Thursday night we heard a great concert from Natalie Grant. Over the next few days we heard fantastic praise and worship music from the James River praise team who is awesome. And we heard fantastic sermons from Christine Caine who is on staff at the Hillsong church in Sydney, Australia and Vera Kasevich who pastors the Hillsong church in Kiev and Moscow with her husband. They were both great speakers. If you ever have a chance to hear them I highly recommend them. I couldn't be happier that I attended this conference. Not only did I get to hear fantastic speakers, that spoke word that was life changing and worship and jump around to great music, I got to share the experience with my best friends.

My top 10 favorite things from the weekend:

10: I was 3 minutes late to pick up Melissa and she thought I had just went ahead and left without her. (apparently I am "unpredictable" at least that is what my closest friends say. Wow!)
9: The opening dancers, they were awesome. They had torches and then the pyro-fireworks that shot off at the end. So cool.. and then followed up by Natalie Grant...WOW.
8: Experience two extraordinary women who were honored by this church for what they are doing in their lives. They are just doing what they have to do as moms, but living faithful lives and trusting in God during impossible situations. It was amazing.
7: The unexpected visit by the "Backstreet Boys". Soooo funny. You just had to experience it.
6: Being puked on by a puppy.
5: Eating toasted coconut cake.
4: "Power to the People" - we had to show our bracelets when we walked into the sanctuary, well, on Friday morning there were two guys standing there and they held up their wrists, I had no idea what they were doing. So... I held up mine and said "power to the people". They then said "we need to see your bracelet".
3: Listening to amazing women speak from other countries. Wow, were they good.
2: Singing awesome praise music.
1: Spending time with my friends.

I Immediately Regret This Decision

So today we had Kalie's 16th birthday party. Dohhhh! Teenagers! Ha! Ha! The party actually has gone fine, Kalie has some really cool friends and they are all very nice and polite (at least when I am around:) Currently as I am writing this Kalie and her friends are down in the living room watching "Monty Python & The Holy Grail", there are 5 people squished on the couch, including Kalie & her new boyfriend, awesome! They played tackle football at the park, roasted hot dogs over a fire and talked and laughed at weird things, and were loud and screamed, and drank a lot of half cans of soda.

Dude....Wait....What?

Monday Caden had his first cavity filled. They gave him "happy gas", which was awesome, within about a minute he appeared to be on crack cocaine. He had this goofy smile on his face and the look of someone who was about to say "dude....wait...what?" He made it through, although he was sure that he would not be able to attend school on Tuesday. I however, assured him he would.

Tonight I survived yet another cardio kickboxing class. We used "paddles", never in my life have I used those before, and just in case you were wondering, they are not used to spank each other with. And the instructor doesn't really think it's funny when you do that either.

Kalie & Tanner both received their progress reports this week. Chris & I sighed a relief with the knowledge that we will be able to put that "my juvenile delinquent can beat up your honor student" bumper sticker away at least for another semester. Both are doing well.

Random thought for the day: Just when you think you can't get any stupider, you go and do something like.... send an email to yourself, unintentionally. WOW!! Can I be any stupider? I submit that I cannot..

It's So Hot, Milk Was a Bad Choice

Here are the top 10 things I have learned in the past few weeks:

10: The older you get, the faster time goes by - EXCEPT when you are waiting for a trip to go see your bff.

9: If you get lost in a corn maze, you don't have to put your flag up, you can actually just walk through the corn. Hmmm, they really get the town folk with that extra "finder's fee".

8: You should always keep an extra pair of tennies in the car.....just in case you forget yours....so you don't have to do the tire run in your socks. (it really hurts!)

7: 3 large pumpkins fit in a small red wagon, NOT 4....that is good information to have.

6: Not everyone gets Brenda's sarcasm....

5: You don't have to accept everyone as your friend on facebook, it really is okay...

4: Don't share exercise mats......really sick...

3: We are not able to be who we really are around everyone. (That is really deep Kari.)

2: Keeping up with entries on this blog is very tiring.

1: If it's really hot outside, don't drink milk.

Keep it classy!!

The Perfect Fall Day

Saturday we traveled to Clinton, IL where Chris' cousin has a pumpkin farm. The weather was perfect and it was a great day. My parents and my sister's son Noah also went with us. Tanner was at a youth retreat with the church youth group so he missed the pumpkin farm fun. The kids had a great time going through the corn maze, straw maze, climbing on the big tractors and playing on all the other toys. I picked out a lot of pumpkins and have them proudly displayed in front of our house. So if you live in town, do a drive by. At night we went to New Salem to the candlelight walk through of the historic village. Great day of family fun.

"This sticker is dangerous and inconvenient, but I do love fig newtons"

Ahhh, Friday is finally here. Only one a half weeks till my next trip to Nixa, that is good news. I am sure the rest of Reavis clan is glad for that as well. A "Brenda free" house is usually a good thing at least for a few days. They can enjoy unhealthy foods, not cleaning, and staying up late. Good times. I as well am looking forward to a few days away and spending some time with good friends.

So my random thought for the day is this, as Ricky Bobby so elequently put it; long distance friendships, like fig newton stickers on your front car windshields, are slightly inconvenient. But, they are so worth it.

This Could Be Scary!!

Well, it is almost Halloween!! And now the Reavis family is starting a blog page. Of course, like my mentor blogger stated "all one of you" who reads this page probably won't be too terrified as I imagine you already know us anyway. So we will see how this works, but I will give it a try. A closer look into the life of the Reavis Family could just be the new pastime of all people everywhere, never can tell. We are pretty exciting people. I can imagine either nothing will happen because I will soon be bored with this, OR there will be many random things and it will just be the most exciting thing you could possibly imagine.