Here's Becca at Halloween this year (I'm editing this post to include up-to-date picture and info). She really wanted to go trick-or-treating as Sporticus, from LazyTown (If you don't know LazyTown, you'll have to watch Nick Jr. on Cable).

After nixxing about four costumes, she finally went as Strawberry Shortcake. She's wearing a wonderfully crafted, crocheted outfit made by her Aunt Kasey.

Here she's sitting on our front porch with a jack-O'Lantern behind her.

We've been pretty busy, finishing up with the house, getting things organized and attending lots of activities! We've been going to the football games, if only so Becca could watch the band. She's so funny. We went to the ISSMA band competition in Chesterton because Plymouth's band made the top 10. As we watched, Becca was standing on my lap and swinging her arms like the drum majors. I think we have another band fanatic on our hands.

We are getting a lot of rain, but the temps are still in the 50s and 60s. The leaves are changing, and falling. Pretty soon, I'm going to have to start raking. I think I'll wait until the leaves dry out. I'm hoping snow comes pretty soon so I can get out of mowing the lawn.

The garage is almost cleaned out. It's to the point where I think we can park a vehicle inside. I still need to move some more boxes inside, but, we're almost there.

After a day and a half of stretching chain link fence and twisting fence ties, etc., my fingers are about worn to the knubs. Needless to say, the fence project is as completed as its going to get for now. We have a way to keep Rebecca from wandering down the alley and visiting our neighbors' backyards. Not that we would not want Rebecca to visit our neighbors, mind you.

I've never really lived in a place where people did not put up privacy fences. It's nice on the one side, because you can really get to enjoy your neighbors. For instance, the people we bought our house from actually live two doors down from us! The house we bought from them was actually a house they had purchased for their daughter and her husband, who was getting out of the army. They lived here for awhile, then built a house outside of town. So, we happened along. We looked at the house back in July, just before we started our new jobs, then looked at fifty others and nothing compared to space and livability as does this one. But, the one thing we needed was a fence for our backyard.

Our furnace is now fixed and our old homestead is nice and toasty. This house is really unique and we've spent hours just getting to know it. For instance, we have a full basement, with 7-foot ceilings, but with pipes and ductwork running throughout. I've spent a good portion of time cleaning the basement, only to set up lots of breathable shelves and stacking what we can't unpack in the basement, where the boxes and buckets will be safe from mold, mildew and the occassional critter.

The furnace worked for about 6 weeks. We only ran the A/C, but began hearing a clicking sound (relay). We had the furnace checked out and sure enough, we had to have a circuit board replaced. Last night, we set the heat for a crisp 74, and once the house was heated up, it kept for most of the night. Which is a good thing, because it drops into the low 40s at night and gets up to 68-70 during the day.

Becca is recuperating from an early bout of sinusitis. I guess as the weather starts to change for the colder, we're going to see more of that. I had to stay home yesterday and keep her home from daycare and had a nice day off from work. On that, once a child shows symptoms of a contagious illness, you have to keep her out of daycare for 24 hours. So, daddy stayed home with the child while Mommy went off to work.

The other major project ongoing right now (besides the fence - more on that later!) is my garage. For the first time, I have a garage. It's detached from the house, in the rear and is only large enough for one car. We filled it with the boxes and stuff that wouldn't fit in the house right away. But, we've had some wet weather lately and I've been trying to get the last 40 or so boxes into the basement for good measure and to be able to get a car in the garage when the weather turns bad.

Biz, Charles and Becca at Church in November 2005.

I titled my blog 'Que Pasa?' because that is a title I have used frequently in the past in my newspaper publications. Simply meaning "What's Happening?" I want this blog to be something that tells what's happening in my life and the lives of my family. I hope you enjoy and I want my friends and family to feel free to comment.

I will try to keep you up to date on the news, what's going on here at the new old Indiana Homestead (although it is an antique house in the center of town!), and keep you 'posted' on happenings at our schools. Biz is assistant principal at Plymouth High School and loves her job and enjoys working with the staff there. I am teaching English as a New Language at Lincoln Junior High School to beginning English Learners, most of whom are from a Hispanic background. I thoroughly enjoy my job and enjoy working with all the people I have met there.

We have finished ISTEP+ testing (Sept. 18-22) and completed nearly six weeks of school. The school year just seems to be flying by. I can't grip time quickly enough; I'm having trouble keeping straight exactly how many days there are until Christmas as well as how many days there are until summer break that I just can't look at a calendar. I concentrate on the day at hand and if I complete all my tasks, then I'm ahead of the game.

Becca attends daycare and absolutely loves it! I thought I would have trouble like last year with dropping her off, but the biggest challenge lately has been trying to get her to leave! She never wants to leave, which I guess speaks largely to how nice Becca has acclimated herself to life in Indiana. The only worry we've had is that the change in climate has begun to affect her sinuses and upper respiratory areas. We've found us a local doctor and Becca is recovering quite nicely from her sinusitis.

Lastly, the house project is moving along quite nicely. We've unpacked much of our boxes, stored the rest and I'm in the process of putting up a chain link fence in the backyard to help keep in the child when she plays in the backyard. We've had several issues come up, one being that our furnace went out not six weeks after we bought the house. We've had it checked out and I'm expecting it to be fixed today (Tuesday, 9/26). The basement project is progressing, with storage being the primary goal, and I had a guy look at our three windows with the goal of getting them replaced before the first freeze. Those windows don't look to airtight and I'm afraid that a lot of my heat will go out through the seams, not to mention making my basement drafty to the point of drawing down the temperature in the rest of the house.