The Great Pumpkin Race

Saturday morning we left early to watch the Great Pumpkin Race.

The moon was setting in the west...........................and the sun was rising in the east.

There is something special about small towns where everyone seems to know everyone.

There is a stop sign at the center of main.

Each fall they have the Great Pumpkin Race to help Main Street Ministries, a home for women in need.

There are 2 races; one for adults (a few young people too) and one for kids.

Many people dress in costume. 

Time to get the show on the road!

 The family cheers Adam on!

Claire seems bewildered by it all.

 

and they're off!  You can see that there are serious runners and always the not-so-serious.

 Jingle, jingle, jingle...

A chilly morning as we wait for daddy!

The first runner in

And here comes Santa!

This guy was excited to pass up Santa!

Santa won't be bringing him any gifts this Christmas!

 

 Trash man lost his lid  (see first photo of line up)

Good job, Santa!!

Next post....Hannah's first race.

Christy's wedding

My friend, Jennifer's daughter got married this past weekend.

It was a picture perfect day!!  Everything about it!!

 
Who doesn't love PIE at a wedding???!!

 

sweet little flower girls with their grandpa

 and grandma - just got your feet in the picture, Connie.  Sorry!  You have adorable grandbabies!!

Jennifer and I have known each other for many years and have been in Bible study together since the time our children were young.  She is such a dear friend!!  She lived in Africa for several years and her husband was an MK, just as I was.  Actually, her in-laws and my parents went to school together in Omaha at Grace Bible Institute and were friends too!

 Christy and my daughter, Mindy went to school together for awhile too and were friends.

 What did I tell you about pies??  Love!  Did you know I always get a birthday pie instead of birthday cake?

 Blessings, Mr. and Mrs. McGarity!!

swing

This past week we went to see the grand children.  We are having a beautiful fall!  The weather is just incredible!  So nice to play outside!

 Claire goes down the slide all by herself now!  Over and over.

 

I had seen a cool swing on-line .  But when we saw this chair on sale at Target, we thought we could make the swing and all for around $20!  Al took the legs off the chair and he and Hannah put nylon rope through it. Al had Hannah look on-line for some knotting techniques.

This phone camera is not the best - but here is a shot of Sophia flipping the swing.  It also twirls around.

Lots of fun!!

Gabi

In March when we went to Israel, we were fortunate to be able to meet Dr. Gabriel Barkay.  We were so excited to hear he was coming to Wichita to Central Christian to speak!  

Of course we had to go!

We went a little early to pick up something at Walmart.  Imagine our surprise to see these jeans!  

We got a laugh out of that.  Some clerk either screwed up or someone was having fun.  Instead of $19.99, they were advertised as $99! 

What a privilege to see Gabi again!  Someone said that he is like the "rock star" of archaeology and quite impressive to be able to have him in Kansas!  When we were in Israel, I showed him a little card with the priestly benediction on it and he asked me if I could find it for him too.



So it was fun to be able to present it to him in person instead of mailing it!

Gabi is quite famous, like I said.  He is even listed in Wikipedia!

  Basically, Gabriel Barkay is a famous Israeli archaeologist and one of his most famous finds are small silver scroll amulets that contain the priestly benediction from Numbers.  They are the oldest surviving Biblically-related inscriptions discovered so far, dating back to 600 BC.  Even older than the Dead Sea scrolls!

 After the talk, Al and I went to Panera to eat a late supper.  It is one of our favorite places!

And here are a few pictures from our visit with Gabi in Israel, at an old cemetery site:

This is the hole in which he discovered the priestly blessing from Numbers.

Gabi tells the story that they had looked in the hole earlier but thought that the aushuary (box where bones are kept - the body is laid on the shelf for a year, then after the year is up the bones are placed in this box and the shelf is re-used)  and any artifacts left in there had been stolen.  One day some 12 year olds came to "help" out at the site.  One boy was a little bother, so Gabi sent him in this hole to clean it up.  This little boy got bored and began to hammer the floor.  And behold!  under this floor (which really had been the ceiling that collapsed during an earthquake) were many treasures, including these silver scrolls!  It took them 3 years to unroll the little scrolls without damaging them.

They are now in the museum at Jerusalem.

Numbers 6:24-26

“The Lord bless you

    and keep you;

25 

the Lord make his face shine on you

    and be gracious to you;

26 

the Lord turn his face toward you

    and give you peace.”