Fall is here

Its been a busy few weeks since moving into the house. We've managed to emerge from under the mounds of boxes for the most part. We are very proud of the desk and file cabinet that we built for the office. We are especially thrilled that we didn't have a single fight during the building process even through Mary Ann installed one of the drawers upside-down and we spent about 30 minutes fussing over how to fix it. Turns out if we had just read the instructions we would have found the 30 second fix. The challenge this weekend will be building the bookshelves for the library. Once this is done we will be able to finish with all the boxes. We'll then just need to get some things on the walls and work on the nursery and then we'll really be done. We have to get the mess out of the way because next weekend is Mary Ann's baby shower and we have a bunch of guests coming for the weekend. It will be fun to entertain here for the first time and hopefully the weather will cooperate.

The boys are full steam ahead in school and apparently 3rd grade is a lot rougher than 2nd. Although he really likes his teacher Nicholas is complaining about the amount of work he has to do. Kieran has more work than ever and is beginning to think about where he would like to go for high school year after next. Fortunately there are lots of good choices in the area. Kieran is running cross country again this year and is doing very well. In the last couple of meets he has scored in the top 15 or so out of 90-100 participants. Maybe he'll get running and academic scholorships! Nicholas is enjoying pottery class that he has been taking. He definitely has more artistic sensibilities than the other McLean men. Perhaps we'll put those to work this weekend on a Halloween pumpkin.

Mary Ann took a brief trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina with her family this week. All the brothers and sisters in law were there as well as her mother and SIL Jessica's parents. It was a great trip and the last time that she'd be with her family without a child of her own. Andrew is working hard as usual and has done a great job getting all the organizational stuff for the house done. He is also enjoying cutting the lawn with the ride on lawn mower (especially since it has cup holders which are just the right size to hold a beer while he cuts the lawn) but since fall is here we don't think there are too many weekends left of that.

Pictures are of Mary Ann's trip as well as the house and our maple trees out front which are definitely telling us that cold weather is on the way. Much to Andrew's dismay the heat had to come on in the house for the first time today - fortunately it was only for a brief time to take the chill off.