Fall seems to have come later than usual this year and is lingering longer! I love it! Our sleepy cul-de-sac is lined with very mature trees that are just gorgeous. Yesterday, I took this photo of one of the trees on our block.

Today, I was musing on the unusual morning we had Saturday and something crossed my mind that I had not considered before. Doug, having committed a very serious offense a week ago Monday, had lost Halloween priviledges...no dressing up or trick-or-treating for Halloween and no candy. I hadn't cut him totally off sugar, but he hadn't had any CANDY in nearly a week by the time Saturday morning rolled around and I have been eliminating red dye from his diet lately. He is still off the candy...and I think it is making a noticeable difference. Amazing how drastic the dynamics within the family can change with a shift of just one of the children. I am seriously thinking of making myself and all three of the kids sugar-free. After parent teacher conferences, we had to ban our oldest child from energy drinks. It seems she had been gulping a can down every morning and then bounced around happily hyperactive through her first two hours of school. She is making straight A's and is not a discipline problem, but her teachers all agreed she is a bit too exuberant in the morning and all concurred that maybe ending her energy drink habit would solve this problem. Her father and I think that it is probably more a psychological effect than a true effect...she drinks an energy drink PLANNING on it hyperizing her and then acts accordingly. But, regardless of whether the pop's effect is real or placebo, the problem is easily solved by eliminating those type of pop drinks!

I also, have been surprised since we brought Ransom home a few months ago, how wild about the pup, Doug has been. I hadn't expected that. We got Rivendell as a puppy after Doug had already been in our family for a couple of years and, even though she came in a small, non-threatening puppy-size, he remained as wary of her and as uninterested in interacting with her as he was of our two large, grown dogs. So, I was surprised at how he has really just taken to Ransom...and has remained comfortable with her and fond of her even though she has now gotten larger than full grown Rivendell and plays a lot rougher and has much poorer manners. Logically, she should be very intimidating to him. She isn't, though. But, last night as I was watching yet ANOTHER episode of Canine Cops with Doug and was noticing once more how every police dog featured seems to be unusually DARK colored just like Ransom, I finally made the connection. That is just it...our dog LOOKS like the dogs the POLICE MEN use to track down the bad guys and sniff out drugs. Doug is wild about this dog because it LOOKS like a police dog--and what could be cooler than that when you are a little boy who is determined to grow up to be a Super Hero? Yup...and now he has his own personal police dog to help him reach that end. Of course they are going to be tight!