Happy Halloween

I hope that everyone is having a spooktacular Halloween this year. I just can't believe how quickly this year has gone by. It seems like we just celebrated Halloween a couple of months ago. Here are some pictures of the pumpkins that we carved this year. Pictures from the Halloween party will be posted in the next few days. Leave us a comment with which pumpkin is your favorite.

Jumping in

This weekend was a beautiful fall weekend in Northwest Arkansas. Sadly yesterday it was cloudy and we aren't able to go take fall foliage pictures. Hopefully this weekend the trees still have their leaves. So since we couldn't take pictures yesterday we decided we better rake up our leaves in the front yard. This is the first year that we have lived here that we have actually had to rake leaves. Normally the leaves fall so quickly that we don't get a chance to rake them up because they blow into the neighbor's yards. Baxter had a great time running and jumping into the piles of leaves. I wish that the fall leaves would stick around a little bit longer but it looks like we aren't going to get that chance.

Falling into fall

I have never been one who really likes fall because I don't like cooler weather. But the fall season brings lots of enjoyable things like fall foliage, coats, jackets, hoodies, pumpkins, hot chocolate, apple cider, bon fires, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and I guess the football season! I love decorating for fall and especially Halloween. A couple of weekends ago I went to the Apple Festival with my family while Chris went to Dallas for the football game. I love the Apple Festival because you get fresh apples, cider, and you get to look at all of the crafts, although this year I was disappointed in the craft selection that they had. This coming weekend is the biggest craft fair weekend in our area. Chris's parents are coming up this weekend to go to them. I'm hoping to get some more fall decorations and it looks like the weather is going to be a cool fall day. Here are my top five favorite autumn things:

1. Fall Foliage- I love it when the trees start changing color, it is my favorite time of year to take pictures

2. Pansies- They are my absolute favorite flower to plant. I wish that they could survive in summer!

3. Halloween- I love almost everything about Halloween. From decorating to having parties, dressing up, and I love the candy!!

4. Fall clothes- I absolutely love coats and jackets, anything that is warm and cozy. I wish that I could wear them all year.

5. Pumpkins- Especially pumpkin pie concretes from Andy's Frozen Custard! Although I love being able to carve them as well.

Bikes, Blues, & BBQ

If you live in Northwest Arkansas then you know that this past weekend was Bikes, Blues, & BBQ. Hundreds of thousands of bikes around 3,000 invade Fayetteville for this annual event. It's a lot of fun to go check out the bikes but I know that it brings in a lot of noise to this area. But, on the plus side it also brings it a lot of money! We try to go every year to check out the bikes and of course listen to some music and eat some food. Although this year we just took some pictures. I could tell that there weren't as many bikes as there have been in years past. I think that the economy really affected the event this year. I also saw more bikes with for sale signs on them. Here are some of my favorite pics and bikes from this year.

Random videos

I've been looking at all of the videos that we have taken over the years of the dogs and I thought that I would share some of them. Some of them are funny and some are just cute. We don't have that many of Morgan because he is very camera shy so most of them are of Baxter.
Baxter's first toy:


First snow:


Playtime:


Trying to kill the TV: Baxter watches the TV constantly and tries to kill all dogs and for some reason red haired women that come on.

Learning to ride

My mother grew up in the Philippines and never got the chance to learn how to ride a bike. She has always wanted a tricycle but has never been able to get one. My parent's are really big into garage sales and this weekend they bought a tricycle at one of them. It needs some work but it will be perfect for her! It was her first bike ride and she had a couple of dogs to cheer her on!

Daddy pushing her off:

Riding by herself:
They plan on painting it and changing the tires but after that it should be as good as new. They also plan on attaching a basket to the back so that Bear and Frani can go along for rides as well!

Would you give them health care

A man is in our country that has no job, no money, raggedy clothes and worn out sandals. He is visiting our country giving speeches but receives no pay for his time. He makes his way around the country living with those who will take him in and feed him, clothe him and give him shelter. He has no family to rely on and is widely seen as a crazy person who speaks blasphemy. He walks into a doctor’s office and asks to be seen for a common cold. He is asked if he has insurance and his response is I have no money and can’t afford insurance. How will this doctor respond to him? I am sure it will be that since he has no money or insurance the man will get a simple rush through the office and some sample medicine and asked politely to hit the road. Would it be worse if he had a more serious condition such as cancer, congestive heart failure or required dialysis? He would be lucky if he got sample medicine. He would be told that there was nothing they could do for him. He would be sent back onto the streets with no hope. Now if he were about to die and walked into an ER he would be seen as quickly and cheaply as possible. He would get pushed through the triage center, helped as easily as they could and sent on the road. There are doctors out there that would be willing to help this gentleman but they are in the minority. Just think for those who didn’t want to give him health care you just told Jesus to hit the road because he didn’t have insurance.

I hate to think about the child who is roaming the streets and is pregnant at 14. She has no home because she has been asked to leave her home by her alcoholic single mother. She was raped while trying to make enough money to survive. She is now 8 months pregnant and has received no pre-natal treatment. She goes to the ER when her water breaks but what happens now? Will she receive the best quality care that the hospital has to offer? Or, will she put in a room and when the baby is finally born be rushed out on her own back onto the streets. If she is lucky somebody will get DHS involved and the baby will be given a good home. If she is unlucky she will have a baby to take with her out onto the streets. Would you be willing to help this person?

I know that health care reform isn’t perfect. I know there are issues to be worked out. I know that something needs to be done. Insurance has gotten to the point where the average family can’t afford it unless it is provided through their job. I know several families personally who were unable to afford any at all. They are now stuck with tens of thousands of dollars worth of medical bills. This is enough to drown most families and drive them to bankruptcy. There are around 60 million people in the country today whose company employs less than 499 people. There are 22 million who employ less than 10 people. It is scary to think that 22 million people are in a place where with only 10 employees that health care is most likely not provided. The costs of health care keep rising and employers have to make tough decisions. Do we pay our employees or give them health care. Thankfully in Arkansas there is a cheap insurance offered by the state. I don’t know all the specifics. I do know that it takes quite a bit to qualify for and it is set up to be for small businesses. It gets most people the opportunity. It is a government run plan and seems to be working for the people of Arkansas.

I don’t want to get involved with the “right” “left” stuff. I just simply want people to think about what not having health care is leading too. I know from personal experience what it can be like without health insurance. I can also speak to the benefits. When my wife had her appendix taken out the bill was $11,000 for 16 hours in a hospital room and the surgery. After the insurance “negotiated” with the hospital they got it down to $4000 and we only owed $1000. There was no way on earth we could have come up with $11000 we struggled to get the $1000. I don’t even want to think about how an elderly couple would take care of the bills if a serious issue arose with no insurance. I just simply feel that it is time for the “right” and the “left” to find a middle ground. There has to be a way for the public option to drive down the private prices. There will be more issues to be tackled but this would be a start.

Let me finish by saying I hope that you would be willing to give Jesus health care if he were here today. Matthew 25:31-46 Jesus lays it out for us. The righteous clothed him, fed him, visited him and he rewarded them. The unrighteous did none of these and received everlasting punishment. I know that it will not be an easy resolution but I hope one can be found. It is obvious to me that something needs to be done to reform health care.