Okay, I've read up on the history of why most of our nation changes the clocks twice a year, so I understand the concept of having long summer nights to enjoy the weather and saving energy and reducing car accidents. I grew up changing the clocks, and it really never bothered me. If anything, I loved getting an extra hour to sleep in the fall guilt free.

Then I had kids.

But I lived in Arizona where, in my opinion, they have the sane practice of NOT changing the clocks. So part of the year they are on Mountain time and part of the year they are on Pacific time. I never felt like not having the longer light in the evening inhibited going out and enjoying the evening hours. In fact, being Arizona, it actually was still VERY warm when the sun went down and evening activities like a rousing game of night volleyball was much preferred to sweating in the sunlight.

Now that we have moved to Iowa, we had to change our clocks. But guess what...the kids still get up at the same time. And it's not like you can blame them. They have always been pretty consistent about what time they wake up regardless of what time they go to bed. We could put them to bed at 6pm or 11pm and they still wake up between 6 - 6:30 in the morning. So now we have the joy of getting up at 5 - 5:30 in the morning. They normally go to bed at 7 (once the sun started going down earlier again) so the first night they made it til 6:30 and last night it was 7 again. But poor Trinity was about asleep on her feet by the time we took her up to bed. I am hoping though that it will help them adjust to the time change by trying to be consistent.

That brings up the other annoying fact. It's hard enough to get the kids to go to bed at a reasonable hour with longer summer days anyway - throw in the extra hour you get with daylight saving time and it just adds to the frustration of trying to convince a toddler it really is time for bed.

All of this to say, I am decidedly against the concept now, to the point that I may look into trying to go the political route of getting our state to eliminate it.

On to other news in our life. Here are some headlines of the latest news in our home:

LUCKY THE DOG FINDS NEW HOME

You heard it right folks. Lucky now resides with a single woman who has a doberman named Jack that needed a friend. He has a yard with a 7' high fence, so no escaping, and he gets to sleep in bed with his new owner. He is a happy dog and our neighbors are happy they don't have Lucky showing up at their homes all the time.

TRINITY HAS A DRY NIGHT

Sunday night was Trinity's first night not to wet her pull-up over night. Congratulations, sweetie! May there be many more to come very soon. :)

CALVARY CHAPEL WINS IN THE LONG RUN

We have decided to make Heartland Christian Fellowship our new church home. They are in transition with the current pastor leaving next Spring for New Mexico. The incoming pastor has just started co-teaching. We really like him and the people we have met there. Trinity seems to really like it too. Coming home from church on Sunday, she was singing all the way home about Jesus "knock, knock, knocking" on her heart.

BUS DRIVING ON HOLD

We made the decision to hold off on driving the school bus for now. As much as we need the money, we couldn't figure out an easy way to secure Angelina in the school bus and also thought it would be a good idea to get one winter under our belt before being obligated to drag the kids out twice a day no matter the weather.

COLD WEATHER IS HERE

It was in the 20's overnight not including the windchill...and it was very windy. We loved hearing the wind howling through the trees as we were snuggled in our warm home. We actually broke out the comforter for our bed last night. :) David is loving the weather and is actually putting on a jacket now. I'll let you know when he gets cold enough to wear his winter coat!

PRAYER REQUESTS

David has asked for a raise from his boss. He has also applied for a job with the city of Des Moines and has a couple other potential job leads. If he doesn't get a raise, then I am going to try and get a job at the mall for the Christmas retail season, working nights and weekends. - please pray for God to provide the right opportunity for both of us

My mom is getting close to the end of her chemotherapy. - please pray that the chemo has done its job of killing off the cancer

PICTURE OF THE GIRLS

This is a picture we took for my step-sister Katy who celebrated her birthday on November 1st.

That's all the news for now.

Grace and peace be with you!