Eish, the winter - she is coming!

Only 5 more weeks until I get to enjoy the mid-summer weather that Johannesburg has to offer! This past week really hurtled us into Fall, with a few days starting off below freezing. Those days also gave our lawn a silvery layer of frost! Fortunately for the children of North East Ohio, the cold weather only settled in AFTER Halloween, which allowed the children a comfortable climate for their annual collection of calories. We participated in our first Halloween, but only as bystanders with candy. Nathan is still too young to enjoy the experience, and he is busy fighting off a cold. However, he loved opening the door on Wednesday night, as children rung the doorbell, dressed in their creative outfits! Liesel and I underestimated the candy-carrying capacity of these children and ran out of chocolates and lollipops. Luckily, it was only 15 minutes before the official cut-off time, and we could just switch off our porch light, which is the local sign for "The Candy Stockpile has been depleted, please try again next year!"

Other exciting news this week, was the announcement that I have been selected to participate in an intensive Java Programming course that will last 3 and a half months starting in January! This is very exciting, as it will afford me the opportunity to learn some new valuable skills, and make me a much more valuable resource for my company! God has been so good to us, yet again, and we praise Him for the doors He has opened for me.

Finally this weekend was pretty average. I took Nathan shopping with me on Saturday morning, which gave Liesel a chance to clean the house. When we got home, I did a few things around the house, including fixing the hole in the wall that I made last weekend!
On Sunday, everyone in the USA should have received an extra hour's sleep, as it was the official change from Daylight Savings time to Standard time. This is when everybody should have set their clocks back one hour, which equates to an extra 60 minutes in bed for the majority. My name was down on the roster to play in the worship team again, which I love doing! Our service today included a song performed by our choir, with an orchestra providing the music. That was pretty impressive! When I got home from church, it was time for lunch and then the inevitable call of the yard was heard, and I had to go out and tame the grass, with my weed whacker!
And thus ends my week, with the temperature outside at 2C, and the first snow fall of the season is expected this coming week!

Next weekend, we will be in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, meeting up with Liesel's long lost friend from South Africa!