Halloween Pics, Miriam's Birthday, Plus Some Non-Spooky Stuff

Unsolved Mysteries

1. What does Rachel think about this birthday present?

The **@&%$! Samaritan

A "Good Samaritan" helped me the other day, and if I were to put it in parable form it would go something like this:

There She Is, Miss Aphonia

I am surprised I didn't anticipate this. The other day, Esther prayed for Miriam's misophonia, and the added something like "bless her that she won't miss her phone." Of course.

I may have shared these at Thanksgiving. They are better the first time around.

This is a great joke Andrew told me--and didn't understand:

We Already Have Christmas Impulse Power, Mr. Scott: Work on the Warped Priority Drive

I am finding Miriam to be very impulsive, and her latest impulse surprised me. She wanted to buy a tree at the Ogden Christmas Tree Jubilee on Wednesday. The funds are for charity, given to disabled students in the area.

She purchased a "Christmas Story" themed tree, with picture frames and Christmas ornaments created out of pages from a published copy of the Dickens classic.

It cost $450.

Education Incentives

First, I am sending this email to my newly revamped blog to see how it posts. It is the old Benge family blog that we stopped using years ago.

I have invited, Gideon, Isaac, Hannah and my wife to post on the blog if they wish. I simply ask that you only post things that 1) you want family to see, and 2) that you won't be too embarrassed about in the future. You may not want to ever post anything there.

Should I invite my younger children?

Also, I get a request to download .swf files every time I open it. Do you get that, too? Reply here or make a comment.

Anyway, I saw this today and my mind didn't separate these two businesses, which made me laugh at myself:

Moving Down A Generation

Years ago, I, David Benge, the semi-dutiful and semi-ambitious son that I am, created a blog for my parents and siblings to use. It fell into disuse years ago, as my siblings opted to use their personal blogs, Facebook and other platforms.

I have now resurrected it for use with my children, if they decide to use it. I don't know if anyone will.

Here He Is

Enoch Kenneth Benge. Born 5/9/2011 at 7-something in the morning, weighing 7 lbs 8 oz.

I guess I forgot to publish this a long time ago. I am publishing it now so I can show him on his birthday!

Cherrie's Band (sorry for the lousy recording)

Toby's birthday video

So, I couldn't get this video to send for Toby's birthday, so I am posting it on here so he can see it, even though it is very late. We love you Toby!

KC, Kianna and I feed a spider

Watch the follow-up as we film a WASP trying to STEAL the spider's food!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a26YNbrjZ6U

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad

There are two. the first was fine, but a little dark so we tried again. i just decided to share both.

KC's Haircut

KC has been really into to superman, and always made us slick his hair over to one side, with a 'superman' curl in the front. The other day, I was cutting my own hair, and I asked KC if we could cut his (it's been getting really long, but he wouldn't let us cut it because of the superman thing). KC agreed to get it cut, but said that he really wanted it shaved "on the top only, not on the sides." So I complied. After looking at himself in the mirror for a few minutes (with all of us laughing) he said we could shave the sides too! Thank goodness.

March

Hey, I was thinking about how March seems a bit anticipatory for spring, and it can be frustrating to be cold. Well, I wanted you all to feel better about your present circumstances. The last two days the wind chill has been -35 to -45. What fun for us! But hopefully it can help other people feel a little grateful. We are willing to sacrifice for all of you. :)

Thank you

Thank you, thank you, thank you all for taking time to see us! It was a real boost for us to come and see you. We love you. We had a wonderful time and I miss you terribly already.

Here's a remembrance for you. Grace eating the sour cream plate!

Something to Help You Feel More Festive

What gets you into the "holiday spirit"? Christmas music? Striped candy-canes? Setting up a tree? Teacher notes telling you that school will be out for the holidays soon, leaving you to deal with all the children all the time?

For me, I don't feel festive until I read Dave Barry's annual Gift Guide. It doesn't help me find anything to give, but I like it.

Star Wars

A friend sent me this link and we thought it was very funny. If you like Star Wars, you will enjoy this. Click on the title of this post to watch.

ND happenings

I thought I would post a couple of recent pictures. You can check out our family blog as well. We had a huge storm last week, which kept Ben in the capsule for a double shift. But then he got to fly home in a helicopter! It was his very last alert, and very exciting. He now will have a semi-normal job. We are thrilled.

It is definitely winter here. We have lots of snow and freezing,and even dipped below zero one day, temperatures. Anyone want to come visit for Thanksgiving?

one of your favorite nephews is now 1 :)

We celebrated DJ's first birthday on Sunday! If you go to my blog, there's a cute video of him eating cake :) http://daveandtaraplus7.blogspot.com/
David and Susan, it was great to attend the blessing and baptism and to hang out a bit! We love you guys!

Our Update

Well we survived our week. Bird was blessed on Sunday, we celebrated a 4 year wedding anniversary Wednesday, and we went trick-or-treating Friday. I posted an update and tons of pics on our personal blog. Rather than take up tons of space here, I request you click on our link on the right and visit. I think you'll be impressed with
Porter's costume!