Dear Friends,

It is Friday evening (10/21) as I write this, and my family and I will be heading to a haunted house shortly, here in St. Louis, another one of our annual traditions.  We are going to one in downtown, called The Darkness.  It’s a lot of fun, and none of us takes it too seriously.  Chelsea is pretty scared of chainsaws though.  One year we visited a real haunted house in Alton, Illinois, and the girls and I participated in a seance.  Chelsea figured she would try to record something on her digital camera for the heck of it. Nothing really happened in the seance, and so it was kind of boring.  Then Chelsea played back her recording, and at the very beginning of it, we heard a spine-chilling, horrible voice that moaned,
“Ooooooohhhhhh……you’re burning my soul…..”  We were astonished and not a little perturbed about this, especially Chelsea.

They told her to be careful because it could attach to her and follow her home.  She immediately erased all of the recording, and so we don’t know if any more was recorded.  We listened to Christmas music on the way home to lighten the mood.  Pretty strange stuff, huh?  Well, I thought a spooky story was in order since it is October. Then on 10/22 Steve and I celebrate our 9th year anniversary.  It has been a great nine years!  We will also be participating in the annual Cystic Fibrosis Bowl for Breath, which will be our 13th year doing it. We do our part to raise money for CF, as Maddie, my 15 year old, has this disease.  You’d never know to look at her.

She is doing great! After the event, Steve and I are going to a bed and breakfast, enjoying an evening alone by a fireplace, with wine and cheese and crackers and good conversation. A nice romantic evening indeed! I like to share these things with you to let you see I’m not all about work and self-improvement.  Our family has its ups and downs like everyone else.  We fight at times, yell at each other, say mean things and are impatient with one another.

BUT……we deeply love and respect each other AND we play together.  We have all sorts of memorable times together that have formed a strong bond. We leave for Keywest on November 5th for a week. I’ll be sure to get lots of pictures and tell you all about it!

Make it a wonderful day!

Blessings,

Angie Monko
314-422-6520