The Hazard Chronicles

Well, I'm at work right now and I have about 20 minutes before my next patient comes in so I'm going to try to hurry and get this out. Otherwise, I don't think it will get done this week.

To start with, work is going really well. Financially, this will end up being the best month of the year (so far) for the office, and probably the best month of my life as far as personal income. That's exciting, but I hope that it doesn't raise too many expectations about me- the reasons I think we are doing well have very little to do with anything I am responsible for. What I am more proud of is the fact that we have an outstanding patient reschedule rate. That statistic means that we are awesome.

What's better is that things have settled down a little bit. I have Monday afternoons off again, so my work week isn't quite as full. It will probably stay this way until early next year, when I hope to cut down again to 4 days. We'll see what happens. Things are fairly sustainable now though, which is good.

Last week was a really good week with the kids except for a minor episode yesterday involving paint and the carpet...and the curtains...and the walls...and doors...and furniture. Other than that though, we had a lot of fun. Over the weekend we built a space ship and sat in it while watching Halloween movies. I saw "It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" for the first time, which is sort of pathetic on my part, given the cultural influence the movie has had. Let me just say that Schulz and Melendez were brilliant cartoonists and I should have watched it sooner.

Speaking of great pumpkins- we carved Jack-o-lanterns this week for family night. At least the kids did. Rachel and I both want to do something a little fancier this year, but neither of us have settled on any ideas yet. Suggestions are welcome :)

The rest of the week can probably just be told in pictures. Also, I need to go. Have a great week!

Evelyn had an interesting idea- she cut out the teeth individually and skinned them and then stuck them back in with toothpicks. While this was done she joked that the pumpkin was getting implants. I guess she has a pretty good idea of what I do at work! Very creative.

Addy was trying to get the award for the happiest pumpkin

Maren was going for the cutest

According to Jack, he was going for the most artistic. And yes, he is familiar with Picasso.

Rachel spends time helping out in each of the kids' classrooms. This is on Maren's field-trip to the pumpkin patch.

Coincidentally, this is also on Maren's field-trip. It just that Jackson's class happened to be there also. Cool!

Rachel dyed her hair for the first time- blondish on the bottom fading into her natural color on top (in has a fancy name, but I'm not going to try to remember it). I think it is beautiful :)

This was a hike I took the kids on while Rach was working. They have known the story of Fred and Seltice (Frederick Post and Chief Seltice) for a long time, but had not seen the rock before where they supposedly signed a contract for the land that became our town. Despite the lack of historical precision, this is still a neat site to see, and a beautiful hike besides.

I wish I could make this easier to see. This is a collage of different decorations that Evelyn has designed and hung up in her room. The top says "The Joy Of Reading". The ones in the middle say "Read On!," "Write All Your Life," and "Learn!" The bottom has papers folded like books that spell out "READ." Can you tell what Evelyn's hobbies are? She reads almost a hundred pages every night. When I ask her questions, it shows that she totally understands what she is reading. I think it's pretty awesome. She is a child after my own heart :)

The weekly elephant.