These are a few of Jack's favorite things...

...Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels. Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles...ah, just kidding!

Jack loves vehicles! Anything that moves. Particularly trains, as most of you know. When we're driving he points out all the "big trucks", "choo choos" and "...cyles" (translation:motorcycles). Lately, we've been reading some books I picked up at a garage sale about construction vehicles so we were pretty excited to see that one of the streets by us was undergoing some new sewer installations.
Here is Jack on his way to see the "tractors" in his consignment sale red car.

A cool Back-Hoe!

Jack is in vehicle-heaven :)

Amazing!

So my car, a 2006 Toyota Corolla sport, pretty much died on me yesterday as I pulled out of my driveway. Jack and I are sitting in the car on my street on a beautiful 70 degree day with a broken car. Things could be worse right? The weather in Ohio could have been vastly different (hmm, snow, rain, ice storm, tornado, 90..hey! It's Ohio!). We could have already turned on to Route 8 and met loads of cars rather than be stuck on our side street with maybe 1 or 2 passersby. So anyway, if I had to have a broken down car anyway, how it happened was great! I guess the only way it could have been better was if it broke down in the mechanics driveway.

Speaking of mechanics, the guys at Firestone in Northfield were fantastic! I live less than 1/2 a mile away from them and can see their service station from my house. One of the guys came to where my car was stuck and checked it out AND pushed it off the road for me! Then to top it off, the normal diagnostic charge was $100 but they gave us 1/2 off saying it didn't take them as long as normal to figure out the problem. Fantastic!!!

Family is pretty amazing too. My brother-in-law Bill made a special trip out to help move the car and check it out. My Uncle came to lend us a strap to tow the car. We are truly blessed to have such generous family.

You know, God really does provide. I'm horrible about quoting the Bible. For the life of me I can't remember where verses are or even the right words to search for them on Biblegateway.com but you know, the Bible says God will never leave us. He's just waiting for us to call on him and acknowledge he exists. He doesn't let us be tempted by more than we can handle and then when we're in the midst of a trial, he provides a way out. More than once in the past couple days, I've been reminded of God's grace. Its not something I earned by being a "good" person but just a free gift from God. So, Thank you God. Thanks for listening, for family, for grace, for everything...

Our potential high repair costs turn out to be a computer problem that an extended warranty is covering. No worries that my 3 year/36k warranty expired. The computer has an 8 year warranty! Saved!!!

Mapleside Farm Fun

We went to Mapleside Farm in Brunswick this past weekend with Joe's sister and her family. We let the 3 boys pick their own pumpkins. Except, I think the task was a little overwhelming. Here is Jack hoping to catch a glimpse of the Belgian horses pulling the hayride around the apple orchard. The horses and trailer were way more exciting to Jack than the pumpkins!

Dom doing the pumpkin dance...or something like that!

Devin found the perfect...ball! He threw just about every pumpkin he could. Ahhh 1 year olds!

After the pumpkin search, the boys got to ride a horse for the first time! They LOVED it! Here's Jack riding Candy. This boy has been saying "Horsey" ever since!

We finished off our day with homemade kettle corn, fresh picked apples, and Buca di Beppo. I have to say, I was in it for the food!