Happy Belated Halloween

Sorry for delay in blogging but as I’m sure most of you know, the past week has been a whirlwind week for the Early family. For those of you who have not yet heard, my dad had a stroke on Tuesday morning. He has numbness on the left side of his body but is recovering well and should make a full recover. It sounds like he dodged a bullet so now he will really have to pay close attention to his blood pressure and overall health; oh the joys of aging. Hopefully he will get out of the hospital tomorrow and they want him to wait two to four weeks before going back to work. So now my mom has the task of trying to make the man that never stops moving, slow down and take it easy for the next month; good luck mom. The whole family came home on Tuesday night and we spent Wednesday doing chores around the yard so that when my dad does comes home, he will not have anything to do, even if he wanted to. I think Autumn and I are going to go back in a couple weeks to help put up the Christmas lights and tree. The next 30 days are critical so we ask for all of your prayers. We left Kirksville on Wednesday night as Autumns family friend, Jaun Carlos was flying in from Costa Rica to visit Autumn’s Grandpa and Grandma. My brother-in-law Todd was flying back to Dallas so we dropped him off and picked up Juan Carlos. We went to dinner down on the Plaza and then came back to our place and crashed; I think everyone was very tired. Briley liked Juan Carlos a lot and she took to him like she has known him forever; he just must be good with kids. Today Autumn took Juan Carlos to Columbia to meet up with her Grandma and have lunch with Amity. For reasons unknown, Briley has always been hesitant about sitting with Grandma Van Gels but today she finally sat with her and was perfectly content. Autumn said it made Grandma Van Gels day; maybe Briley just needed to be around her more before she got comfortable. After such a busy week, we are more than ready for a weekend at home.



Everyone was also in Kirksville this past weekend for Halloween . We came in on Friday night and after a quick dinner with Papa Sparks, we went over to the Grossnickle’s for their Halloween get together with Grandma Julie so everyone could see Briley. We then had a surprise engagement party for Kaitlin and Zane at my parent’s house; we had some deserts and champagne and I think they enjoyed it. On Saturday night my parents had a Halloween party with all the grandkids and some family friends; as always, everyone had a great time. We had hotdogs, a nice spread of Halloween deserts, smores, a monster egg hunt, and a piñata. That night the whole Early crew when out to the bars to celebrate my sister Caroline’s 21st birthday. Without elaborating on the embarrassing details, I think it’s safe to say Caroline had a good time. On Sunday we left Kirksville a little early so we could stop and see Autumn’s grandpa and grandma Van Gels at the nursing home in Shelbina. It was great to see them and we will have to be sure to stop by more often because they loving seeing Briley.