Update on Everybody

Hi! Hopefully this will be short and sweet. I've been having trouble getting here to post but that's okay, it just means I'm busy!

First, the most important news: Mark started a new job today! He's been somewhat hesitant to tell people about it, because it's actually through AccountTemps and it's not permanent yet so he's still kind of paranoid. But the good news is it's a job and it has benefits, which is pretty much all we care about. It doesn't pay very well but hopefully once they make it permanent that will change. It's at Wells Fargo in downtown Des Moines and I know nothing about what department it is or what he'll be doing, just that they want to create a new Senior Manager position but it hasn't been approved by corporate or whatever so they're hiring someone on a temporary basis until they get the position established. Hopefully, obviously, that's Mark, so definitely keep up the prayers.

Mark's mom is still doing very well with her chemo. We had a great visit with her a few weeks ago, and Mark's siblings are all kind of taking turns visiting her one at a time and then we'll all go there for Thanksgiving. Nothing much to report, actually, which is a good thing. :)

The rest of us are doing about the same. Grace is climbing up on furniture, learning new words (so far: "oh no!" "Sha-oh" for Shadow and "Daddy!" - I'm still "non-non" and her brothers are usually "Bob.") She's been spending more and more time at the baby-sitter's and that's been going well. I think I'm going to keep working as much as I can until we can get caught up on bills and stuff so it's nice to have a place to bring her. My friend is literally 3 blocks away and she has kids in Jacob's and Sean's classes so we already trade kids on a regular basis anyway. We even borrowed her cat this weekend hoping he would catch some mice for us, but he was too content to just eat Shadow's food and lay around waiting to be petted so he had to go back home.

When we went home a few weeks ago, we also visited all the grandmas and all of them are doing great. My brother is still being an idiot and his choices seem to be getting worse instead of better so I definitely still covet your prayers for him and his family. Everyone responds differently to stress and Mark and I know better than anyone how hard it is to maintain a marriage when you're all stressed out, but it's very frustrating to watch him go through this. I keep struggling with what else we can do about it from a distance, and I think prayer is probably our most powerful tool. Please continue to pray for Cory and his family.

That's about it! Sean had to go to the University for a blood test last week but we haven't heard the results yet so I'll let y'all know about that later. Have a happy halloween!!

Laurie