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I feel like I just hurry and post pictures lately... So here is a blabbing entry.

I don't think we have explained the dog very well, so we will start there because the dog is a big event at our house. We are members of the Phoenix Guide Dog Raisers Club. We joined back in February and have been attending meetings every month to learn how to socialize and prepare our puppy to be successful in the Guide dog training. We will have Dejay in our home for about 1.5 years and then he will go back to Guide Dogs for his "official training". Yes, we think it will be hard to let him go, but it also feels really good knowing we did something significant in the world!

My October Soap Box. Our ward has Trunk or Treat on Halloween night and this is our second year of our official and publicly declared boycott.

1. Reason 1: Trunk or Treat is "a safe place to go." As my friend said "Do you think I live in the ghetto?" I say if we don't feel safe in our neighborhoods then we need to do something about it.
   
2. That leads me to Reason 2: We decided to put our money where our mouth is and last year we hosted a block party. That block party changed the whole neighborhood. This year we had our block party the weekend before Halloween because Kenneth was going out of town. It was great again this year. So when we went Trick or Treating this year all out neighbors were looking for us and a couple of people were not going to be home actually brought us treats early. I look around my neighborhood and I feel very safe.
3. Reason 3: I think fears of wickedness, bad things, or just the unknown drives members of the church to withdraw from larger society and get a bit (sometimes a lot) exclusive. We talk at church about being in the world but not of the world but I think many people over correct and they are not of the world but they aren't in it either. I think there is much good we can do in our communities!

And last but not least, again... The beard. I don't love it. Kenneth knows that and we still love each other. I don't know exactly why he is doing it, my theory is that he has been working really hard to be a great father and husband. And so his little bit of rebellious spirit is making a stand with braids. He tells me that his friends at work tell him it is cool, I think they might be humoring him. I will say it again... if this the worst of it, bring it on! ( I did warn him as I left him at the airport on Halloween (dressed all in black, the beard in braids and wearing an eyepatch) not to joke with any security personnel as I didn't want to have to come back later that morning to get him out of a holding cell. I talked to him tonight and he made it without incident.