Here’s the latest collection of Noah pictures from October. Enjoy!

Here are some pictures of Noah’s first Halloween costume. We never did make it out trick-or-treating, but he was definitely a ferocious little dinosaur around the house!

As we talk to people about our plans of moving to Mexico City we get a lot of questions about our safety there and our sanity in moving our family to such a violent place.

Here is a quiz, taken from the blog  www.midwesternerinmexico.com, intended to assess your risk of violence in Mexico. You’ll all be happy to know that we have passed with flying colors. Hopefully you will too and can come visit us soon!

The Official MidwesternerInMexico.com Quiz for Determining your Risk of Violence in Mexico

(please answer yes or no to the following questions)

1. I am the head of a powerful drug cartel.
2. I am employed by a recent drug cartel start-up, and my title is “Business Development Manager, Mexico”.
3. I cannot leave the house without my 3 diamond rings, diamond stud earrnings, and emerald necklace.
4. I only travel by limo.
5. I insist on wearing shorts, sandals with socks pulled up to mid-calf, a Hawaiian shirt, and a floppy hat at all times, while using my obnoxious American “outside voice”.
6. I have a tendency to flash wads of cash while trying to pay for a $10 peso bottle of water with a $1000 peso bill.
7. I travel strictly using libre taxis hailed off the street in Mexico City, like the green VW bugs, because I don’t want to pay the extra $30 (+/-) pesos for a safer sitio taxi.
8. I am a high-level Mexican law enforcement official actively engaged in the fight against drugs and am not on the narco payroll.
9. I prefer to drive long trips between cities in Mexico only at night, and I am too cheap to pay the tolls to drive on the safe, well-maintained cuota highways.
10. I insist on going out drinking by myself, getting loaded, then stumbling around the back alleys of Mexico City singing “You are my sunshine” at the top of my lungs.
11. I sell drugs to a circle of depressed, soccer-moms in a US suburb, and I am traveling to Mexico to take advantage of the crazy dollar/peso exchange rate to find a new dealer for my drug supply.
12. I am visiting Mexico to conduct a major business transaction for which I intend to convert $20,000 USD into $306,000 pesos in public at the airport currency exchange desk.
13. I ask taxi drivers to take me on tours past the homes of local drug lords, where I get out of the taxi and take photos from the middle of the street during broad daylight.
14. I insist on traveling to parts of Mexico City not mentioned in guide books or specifically mentioned as areas full of criminals, like Tepito, a.k.a. the “Thieves’ Market”.

OK, end of quiz! Time to review your score.

If you answered yes to #1, #2, or #8: I strongly recommend you avoid travel into Mexico, leave Mexico if you are already here, or seriously consider a new line of work.

If you answered yes to #3, #4, or #6: perhaps you have forgotten that you are visiting a country where the daily minimum wage for 2009 is $54.80 pesos. That is $3.58 USD PER DAY at the current exchange rate. Please bear this in mind and stop flaunting your money like a fool.

If you answered yes to #7 or #9: have you checked the exchange rate lately?? During the 8 months we have been here, it has gone from 10 pesos / 1 dollar to 15.3 pesos / 1 dollar. Stop being so cheap and spend the extra pesos to pick the safe option.

And finally, if you answered yes to #5, #10, #11, #12, #13 or #14: you are simply not very smart and probably shouldn’t be allowed to travel, period.

I hope this insightful quiz has eased your fears about travel to Mexico, as long as you are not an idiot or a criminal.

MidwesternerinMexico, who lives in Mexico City, also has this to say,

“In our eight months here, we have been amazed by all that Mexico has to offer and truly hope we have the chance to show more of our friends & family around Mexico City and beyond. I do not feel scared or nervous on a daily basis. I take normal minor precautions and have thus far (knock on wood) been completely fine here in the heart of the action, D.F.  Hopefully our stories will inspire others to travel to Mexico’s amazing cities, towns, beaches, and jungles as well. It is totally fair to be a little worried and take the appropriate extra precautions for travel in an unfamiliar land, but don’t let the craziness of the border drug wars prevent you from experiencing the rest of a beautiful country.”

Last Sunday (10/18) I got to run the Columbus Half Marathon. It was a beautiful, brisk morning and the 13.1 mile run through downtown Columbus, Bexley and German Village was gorgeous. There were live bands along the way and tons of people came out to support the runners – 15,000 in all.  Aside from some nasty blisters I developed halfway through the race, the run was great. My goal was to finish in under 2hrs and thanks to a couple of guys from Wooster Grace who I ran with, I kept a much better pace than I had anticipated, finishing the race in 1:55:31.

It felt so great to run this race. 6 months ago I could barely run 4 miles. There is nothing quite like training for, working toward and accomplishing a goal. It provides great motivation for working out and can really keep you going at times where you just don’t feel like. If you’ve ever tried to run on a consistent basis and had a hard time, I would really suggest training for type of race.

Here’s a link to some pictures of me along the way, and some post-race shots below.

I finished so hard that this blurry shot was the best Emily could do

Post-race family shot. Isn't my wife beautiful?

Our good friends Rob and Jan also came down to the finish. Thanks, guys!

On Thursday we took advantage of some beautiful Fall weather and headed out to Lynd Farms in Pataskala to do some apple picking. In addition to stuffing 14lbs of apples into a 10lb bag, we had some fun taking some shameless pictures of Noah in the little displays they had set up. Enjoy!

Many of you may not be U2 fans, agree always with Bono or appreciate his lifestyle, and most of you probably don’t have a man crush on him like I do (except you, Ross), but we don’t dare ignore what he says here in this speech. (Watch the whole thing, but it really picks up around the 3:45 mark)

Emily and Noah had some fun with cereal today! Here are some pictures and a video below.

video management, video solution, video streaming

I guess I’m a little behind on these, but here is a sampling of Noah’s 3 month pictures. Ashley Henry, our ridiculously talented friend, took these shots. She and her husband Coty have started their own photography business, Henry Photography. Check out their website and blog and consider them if you live in the Columbus area and need photos done. You won’t be disappointed.

Here are a few pictures from Noah’s dedication last Sunday. It was a really special time with our church body.

Yesterday Noah had some blood drawn as part of a series of tests we are doing to try to figure out his reflux. He wasn’t too happy about it, but was pretty brave and got this sweet Clifford band-aid.

Tomorrow Noah goes in for an Upper GI. Please pray that these tests would reveal the problem and that we could correct it.