A brief update (well I intended to keep it brief!)

I have been quite busy the last week since I posted.  Over the weekend we commemorated the 4th anniversary of Ian's death with a trip to the graveside, a balloon release and dinner at Buca di Beppo.  The waiter asked if we were celebrating anything.  After a brief pause, my husband said "yes, we're celebrating the life of our son." Then just watched silently as the waiter fumbled a bit, recovered and took our drink orders!

We miss you little man!

Also this weekend I got my first fundraiser started with my Gold Canyon candle business.

This required a trip to historic Waxahachie, Texas and my alma mater, SAGU!  It was homecoming weekend and the townfolk rolled out the red carpet for the visitors with a slew of garage sales!  I got this beauty:

It's an Art Deco metal cabinet, a broom closet or janiter's closet.  I've spent a lot of time researching and haven't found anything like it!  Anyone have any ideas?  There is a label on the front which has been painted over:

(I adjusted the contrast to try to make it easier to see)  It says "LFC Universal" which I believe stands for Landers, Frary & Clark

Most of the rest of my time has been spent packing, cleaning, painting and preparing for my upcoming candle shows. 

I did win several things in the last few days though!  A friend hosted a FB contest on hre personal page and I won a CD. 

Then I won "At The Well"'s monthly giveaway for October, a CD from Abe and Liza Philip: God's Word from A-Z. 

Then this morning, I found out I won a free copy of the (already affordable) Thanksgiving planner from The Christian Homekeeper Network!

Which served to remind me that I owe a special order necklace like this one:

to the September At The Well winner!  The only catch?  I've already PACKED all 50+ of my vintage hymnals!  So, now I have to go shopping.

And now a few prayer requests:
Please keep my Father in Law, Wayne, in your prayers.  His lung cancer is back and he will be starting radiation therapy today.  It should last 6 weeks, at which time my husband is scheduled to have back surgery.  His recovery is supposed to be 3-4 weeks, which bumps up nicely against the due date for our latest blessing.  Somewhere in between all of that, we're supposed to paint our house (inside and out), list it to sell, have Christmas and celebrate 2 birthdays.  Oh, and the kids are in a Christmas play at church and I volunteered to coordinate the Gospel for Asia tree in the church foyer.  Needless to say, we are very grateful that we've embraced UNSCHOOLING, since that's all I can handle right now!  LOL