For me, the end of the year may as well be September 24th. That is the first event in what seems to be a weekly series of birthdays, holidays and other events that just rush straight through until New Year’s. So, yes, I can believe this month is more than half over. It IS New Year’s already

But as I hold on to November and it’s pumpkin pies and turkey, I am going to share with you some thoughts from us.

First if you haven’t signed up for our Signing Time Newsletter, then you are missing the holiday greetings with new signs that we send to your inbox. (you can sign up on our home page) Here is the greeting for November.

The following is a story that Lucy wrote and brought home from school yesterday. At school she uses a small laptop for her writing assignments. I thought it was so cute, I immediately asked if she would mind me sharing it with all of you. I have her full permission:-)

Lurkey the Turkey
Written by Lucy Coleman (age 7, 2nd grade)

In a faraway land there lived Lurkey the turkey. He was big and fat. His feathers were purple and blue. Lurkey had blue eyes. Lurkey felt like he was going to pop!!!!!!!!!!!!! He was big and fat. All of the animals on the farm loved him.

Lurkey lived in LA. He lived on a farm. He had a red barn. Lurkey slept in the corn and he liked pigs.

Lurkey was afraid of Thanksgiving. He was afraid he was going to be eaten, because he was so fat. He hid in the corn with his friends the pigs.

Luckily Lurkey found out that the farmer was a vegetarian so he would not get eaten. The farmer’s name was Daniel. Lurkey the turkey did a Lurkey The Turkey dance when he found out that he was not going to be eaten!!!!!!!!! The End.

I don’t know what it is, but my kids love dirt! They do! We have had a couple of long weekends this month and we jumped on the chance to go camping both times. The first time we went to Arches National Park. We camped there, hiked there and yes played in the dirt. Aaron put Lucy in the backpack and hiked with her for the better part of 10 miles. I hiked with Lucy on my back for about 2 of those miles.

The next week we went to Goblin Valley State Park. That was my first time there. It was also our first time using the heater in the pop-up camper. All in all, it was incredible! We played hide and seek for hours down in the valley.

Leah and I were a team and Aaron and Lucy were a team. You can see some of our hiding places below.

I used to think a “vacation” only counted if it was 5 days or more. I have learned in the past couple of years that a vacation can be one to three days. Some of our best vacations have been that short and almost all of the really good ones, included dirt… or sand.

I was surprised to be met by not 1, but 2 “Rachel Coleman’s” at our office on Halloween… that was in addition to yours truly who was dressed as a witch… it really did cross my mind to throw on my “Signing Time!” costume and head in to the office, but that seemed like a Halloween cop-out… a cop-out for ME at least.

Surprisingly we had “Alex” and “Leah” and “Hopkins” there too, as well as “Bob Sherman” one of our Super Fans who has offered to be my security guard should I need it. He may be overly qualified for me though as he has a black belt and knows Dog The Bounty Hunter. (Hi Bob! Can you believe you are a Halloween Costume?? I know, I can’t believe I am either!)

Speaking of “Dog” my sister and her husband went as “Dog” and “Beth”!

Looks like I now have stand-ins for Baby Signing Time and Signing Time!