You know Mom just loves my slime! I bet she's hoping I get it all over the house!
I went to hang out at the park with my tribe (Sydney, Johanna, Alexis, and Jody) but Mom just had to take pictures...
This is dad's "small" two bedroom apartment, I mean hotel room, in Dalian...
He said he didn't have a lot of time away from work, but these are some of the sights from walking around his hotel...

Hat day at NAMS! Obviously this is really hat day in our family room, but you get the point...
Not even in high school yet and I'm already in the Home Coming Parade!
Happy Birthday to me!
What can I say? Everyone should have cupcakes on their head!

Look! Dad taking a picture of me and Chris taking pictures of Mom and Cathy!
Jane was too busy but Sam, Chris, and Cathy took time out from Sam's college visits to do an escape room, eat Voodoo donuts, have pizza, and come back for breakfast on my birthday!
One of these things does not belong... what was Gran thinking getting me a shirt that wasn't blue this year?! Thank you everyone for all the great birthday presents!
Mom came through again with my birthday cake design!

Don't you just wish you knew what I was wishing for before blowing out the candles?
Gran and Mad Dog got to see our Fall colors with some sun despite the pouring rain at the beginning of their visit...
Lu and Ethel are more comfortable with me now...
The first concert choir of the year - you can see my choir is pretty small...

I did my part, singing in the choir, speaking a part, reading for one song, and singing in the combined choir too...
Look at me! I'm a meta kiwi! You know, a kiwi dressed as a kiwi... if only I were a New Zealander - then I could be a Kiwi dressed as a kiwi dressed as a kiwi!

I know you are just dying to know how I'm doing on the travel book... Really I know that no one really cares about it but me, but this is my blog, not yours, SO YOU WILL LISTEN TO EVERY DAMN WORD I HAVE TO SAY! (bonus points for you if you know what movie I started quoting in the middle of that sentence) Anyway - now the book is 90 pages with almost 10 pages of photo descriptions added at the end and the first pass at the text in the book completed. I might still get it done by Christmas...

Work continues to be work. Things are moving along quickly, though hiring has been more difficult than I had hoped. I'm still only at 2 employees with a 3rd possible and 3 interviews scheduled... As you can see in the pictures, work also involved travel this month with 4 days of traveling for 3 days of working in China. At this point, I probably won't be back to China this year but I'll likely be back in February next year.

Of course, October is about a lot more than work and trying to finish documenting what we did in July! October, from the Latin "Oct" meaning eight, is of course the tenth month of the year... But, it was the eighth month in the old Roman calendar so we're still using that name and clearly Donald hasn't realized yet that the month was named by 1) a leader that came before him and 2) a foreigner or we would have had an executive action by now to change the name... But anyway... October is a big month with the NBA starting up and the MLB winding down with both the NHL and NFL still cranking away.

Also, who could forget National Adopt a Shelter Dog, Arts & Humanities, Bullying Prevention, Cyber Security Awareness, Disability Employment Awareness, Domestic Violence Awareness, Work and Family, Dental Hygiene, Down Syndrome Awareness, Healthy Lung, Infertility Awareness, Lupus Erythematosus, Physical Therapy, Spina Bifida, Pizza, Popcorn Poppin', Park, and Seafood Month... And there was something else that happens in October... oh yeah Happy Birthday, Lucie! Starting her second year of teen-ness, but still a couple years away from driving (thank goodness!)

Enjoy the pictures and come back again for next month's update...