Wow! It's October already, and we're heading full steam ahead for Halloween in a few weeks. The girls have been in Kindergarten for about 8 weeks now. They LOVE it! Their teacher is impressed with how smart they are. I had to substitute in their classroom Friday because the teacher's two year old son had a nasty stomach bug. There were two other teachers out that day and they were desperate for someone to take her class. Apparently someone suggested me, and the headmaster called over to the Elementary building and asked me if I would. Of course I said yes. I had to run back home and grab some lunch and change into appropriate apparel for a teacher and off I went, zooming back to the school to be in charge of a class of little ones. I enjoyed it thoroughly. The kids were sweet and good and I had no trouble at all. Of course Emily and Sarah were thrilled to have me in their class all day. We went on a camping trip to Pickwick a couple of weeks ago and had a marvelous time. Grandpa packed bicycles for the kids and one for the grownups to share. He and I were the only adults that rode it though. Anyway, the girls were zooming around on their little bikes with training wheels. Sarah kept begging her Grandpa to take the training wheels off her bike, but he said no, wait until you come to our house next time and we'll take them off. She agreed and no more was said about the training wheels. This weekend, my Mom's only living brother came to town for his 50th high school reunion. He and Aunt Loretta live in Oxnard California. They stayed with my parents this weekend, and we had a family gathering at their house yesterday to spend time with them before they left to go back home. Two of Mom's sisters came, and several cousins came too. Anyway, we had a marvelous time with Uncle Robert and Aunt Loretta. Of course the kids were flying all over the place on bicycles and scooters. Hugh even got out his unicycle and zipped around a bit. Sarah had not forgotten about the training wheels on her bike. She asked Grandpa again about taking them off. He agreed and Sarah was thrilled. She had on a dress, and ran off with Grammy to change into pants while Grandpa went down to the basement to remove the training wheels. I went to the van to get her helmet, and got downstairs just in time to see Sarah come running out of the basement with pants on and knee pads and elbow pads. The training wheels were off the bike and we were ready to begin. Hugh and Grandpa took turns running behind the bike to keep her steady, and all of a sudden she just took off! There were a few false starts and one minor crash that involved Grandpa taking a tumble(he's ok), but she did it!! My amazing miracle child was riding her bicycle WITHOUT training wheels! Today, after school she begged me to take the training wheels off her bike here, and I did. We went outside, she got on it and took off again. She is so proud of herself, and her Daddy and I are too. Emily tried to ride without training wheels too, and she did pretty well, but she's not as adventurous as her sister, and stopped after a few minutes. Emily doesn't like to be outdone by her twin, so it probably won't be very long before she's riding a two wheeler too. Well, it's bedtime and I need to get my children in bed. That's all from the Garner homefront for now. Sorry it's been so long since my last post. God Bless- Julie