What have we been doing?

Wow! Time flies.....

Many of you that check our blog regularly have probably given up on me. I am going to try to give you a month's worth of updates in one long entry. I promise to post new pictures tomorrow.

Halloween
Addison want dressed as a butterfly. We were not too sure if she was going to like Halloween. Whenever we went to the grocery store, she would get kind of panicky because of all of the decorations. On Sunday before Halloween, we went to our church harvest festival. She like the little bounce house, playing games and watching the other kids. They also had a time for the kids to "Trunk or Treat." By the time Friday rolled around, she was all for knocking on the neighbors' doors in anticipation of candy.

Grandma's Visit
Matt's mom came for a visit the last two weeks of October. Addison loved having her grandma around. There was painting, cooking, walks, bubbles in the house, tea parties and dress-up to name a few activities. When Grandma comes to town, it is all about Addison and she loves it!

Women's Conference
Our church hosted a small women's conference (71 ladies) the first Friday and Saturday of November. Our pastor's daughter was the speaker. All of the ladies seemed to enjoy themselves. For me and my co-director it was like birthing a small child.

Matt's Job
On November 17th, Matt got laid off unexpectedly. He went to work on Monday, only to return home by 12:00. He was part of a force reduction lay-off. It certainly was disheartening, but we serve a faithful God who continues to bless us. He was given a four-week severance package and benefits through the end of the year. Being the driven provider that he is; he immediately began the job search. Within the first couple of days, he had scheduled an interview with a company he was familiar with. He went to the interview and left feeling very hopeful. The week after Thanksgiving he received the call we had been waiting for! He starts with his new company on December 15th. Benefits start right away, along with some paid time off at Christmas! Our Lord and Savior has abundantly provided for us during this time and we are very thankful! The only downside to this new job is the location. Matt will have a 46 mile commute one way, so please remember him in your prayers as he travels daily.

Garage Sale
We had been planning to have a gargage sale with our three other sets of neighbors for a week or so before getting laid off. The change in events inspired both Matt and I to do some serious cleaning out. We set up on Friday night in the garage. On Saturday morning, we were out by 6am for our sale to start at 7am. Our driveway was full! At 7am we did not have any customers, and I have to admit I was a little nervous! Then it started! We had over 100 people, and sold about $500 bucks with of who only knows what! At one point all of the neighbors between the
Hathaways and our house were standing at the end of the driveway just shoot'n the breeze. Everyone seemed to have a great time and all three and a half garage sales were a success. Our neighbors the Browns had company in town and did not get up in time, but Bob kept dragging stuff out to pay off his debts from our garage sale. He even was operating in the black by the end, thanks to us. - Just teasing Bob!

Thanksgiving
This year we have had much to be thankful for with the state of our nation, and the trials of friends and family members. We spent Thanksgiving in Cottonwood with my family. We always have fun! This year we played a new game called "Say the Last Word." You can't gather a bunch of Lewis's without having a heated game of any kind let alone something to do with the last word.

Preparing for Christmas
The day after Thanksgiving the preparations for Christmas began. Our neighbor and Matt have had this year long friendly competition. The lights started going up on Friday and were not complete until Sunday. Yes, I think we have our own city of lights. Thankfully, the majority of them on LED lights. I tease Matt about being in competition with the Mormon temple in Mesa. It did inspire our other neighbors to join in on the Christmas spirit. I will try to include some pictures tomorrow...but no promises, they may not turn out due to all of the glare and I have not learned how to slow down my shutter speed (I requested this book from Santa).

I am going to close for now. My goal is to continue to blog this month about our family traditions and fun that has been happening here with the Lindgrens.