All the pretty colors!

Every so often, Jesse and I venture into town on the weekends and enjoy the local parks and shopping. The first weekend of October was the fall festival in town where the locals bring all of their produce and live animals to sell.  After going for a run in a park up near the mountains, we ventured down the streets to buy some pumpkins (which I then made Jesse carry around all day long :-)).

Olympia compound in the fall--lots of gorgeous leaves changing colors!

The leaves are absolutely gorgeous. By now, all of the pine trees in our neighborhood have turned bright yellow.  I didn't even know that they changed colors! I know these are a lot of foliage pics, but I can't help myself. It is just too pretty. Makes me want to grab a pumpkin spice latte at Starbuck's, and then I realize that we don't have Starbuck's. Sad I know.

This is definitely my favorite time of year here--before the snow comes and I cannot see anything beyond the mounds of white for another 6 months.  Fire pits, football, pumpkin everything, and lattes with friends. Love it!

Fall grilling with friends!

A lotta love around here!

One thing that I love about living here is that we have such a giving community.  Many of you ask what the spouses do here while our husbands work all day.  Luckily, there are several volunteer opportunities to keep us busy.  We support local charities in town by devoting time and energy to fundraising efforts for various groups.

Every fall there is a charity gala to raise money for a local orphanage for kids and teenagers called House of Hope.  This organization was started by a family from Australia who has the most amazing story. Please go to these links and check out the kind of work that they do here in Yuzhno.  I cannot even tell you how many miraculous things God has done through this family--watch the videos and read more about it here:
http://www.houseofgraceandhope.org/
https://www.facebook.com/houseofgraceandhope

Thanks to the generous giving of expats here and through auctions and raffles, a record number of donations were raised that will go toward building a new home for House of Hope.  This means that the organization can continue to grow and expand and provide a home for even more kids and families! Honestly, I could tell you more about it and it wouldn't be near as effective as seeing it for yourself. Please watch the videos on Facebook and see how God is working in this part of the world. It is truly awesome!  While it may seem that expats live this glamorous, comfortable lifestyle, traveling the world, it is important to note that they are some of the most generous people I have ever encountered. 

The Gala chairwoman Sherry and her husband, Kartik

My friends and lovely ladies!

We clean up pretty good!

Makes me wanna buy school supplies!

I love the fall, and I love back to school time. I am not in school and do not have kids in school, but September usually means a new year has started. Time to start fresh.  And I cannot help but get excited seeing all of the school supplies at Target--newly sharpened pencils or Scotch tape anyone?

Okay, so I am not anywhere near a Target, but September here is the same.  Every one is back from summer vacations, and Olympia is no longer a ghost town.  Plans are in full swing for the many events that happen here every fall. Oh and did I mention that we actually have a FALL??? Yes, leaves changing, temperatures cooling, the whole package.

Jesse's drilling group came to Olympia for a BBQ.
These are most of his American and Russian co-workers.

We also get to watch college football games thanks to a fancy little device called the Slingbox (or "Slingo" as my in-laws call it) that we set up in Houston. This allows us to stream cable back home.  Between ESPN Watch, the Longhorn Network app, and Slingbox we are able to watch just about any game!  It has been really fun getting up early on Sunday mornings to watch the games with our friends and fellow Aggies/Longhorn fans!

We watched many many Aggie games also, but this was
my husband celebrating with our friend Matt after finally
getting access to the Longhorn Network online. It was a pretty
exciting morning for them!

Also, with September came the cooler temperatures--something that I am definitely not used to at this time of year. Once it got to be in the 40's and 50's my sweet husband broke down and made us the first fire of the season!  Do not be fooled: we don't have a magic switch that turns on a fancy gas fire. This is a homemade legit wood burning fire!