Happenings 11/25 - 12/1

We didn't write last week, but Mom and Dad covered it pretty well for many of you. (For those of you who don't get their letter, we had a very busy week. Kari and I had some fun time visiting and playing with the girls. We went to for a sister lunch at Dumplins which is my favorite lunch place and we took the girls for a drive up to Patty's Settlement one day for lunch. I got to show her a bit of the area, though right now it is just gray, trees are brown, fields are brown. Kind of drab. But we enjoyed being together and getting to visit and Claire certainly loved having Aunt Kari to play with and "spend the night with", though I'm not sure if Kari got much sleep that night. Anyway, we ended up having a houseful. Kari came and then Mel and Illene came to spend Thanksgiving with us and Gordon came also. Luckily we have plenty of room. We don't have that many beds, but lots of room or air mattresses on the floor if needed.) We had a great Thanksgiving, (We had a full table, but that was a great thing. We had our family, Mel, Illene, Gordon, Kari, Xinia -a girl from our ward who is from Belize-, Elder Gray and Elder Hilton and Vernon -an older gentleman who is an investigator- it made for a fun dinner and I think everyone enjoyed meeting and went home with full bellies) we enjoyed having everyone here for the time they were here. Claire loved having grandparents and an uncle and aunt here to play with her, and Rachel loved the attention. Too bad the weather wasn't more like this last week -- it was much milder than Thanksgiving week. We did do some fun things like go to a Murray State basketball game, play a little football with the Elders after Thanksgiving dinner, and play 9 holes on Saturday on the golf course. Kari and J.J. drove to Nashville on Friday to hang out and shop so that Kari could catch an early morning Saturday flight. (We had so much fun driving to Nashville and just chatting. We then went to an outlet mall which really wasn't that busy for "Black Friday" but we didn't find much to buy. We then ate dinner and went back to the hotel to just kick back and relax. It was so much fun for me to just lay back and watch tv and visit without having to get anyone ready for bed or check on anyone or anything. I loved it. Kari didn't get much sleep that night as she was worried about getting up early. We had to take her to the airport at 4:00 in the morning, so it was an early morning. I got back to the hotel and couldn't fall back asleep until about 6, so my morning of sleeping in didn't quite work out as planned, but it was still nice. I then went to a session at the temple and then did a little more shopping and got my nails done along with checking for a part for our Jetta before driving back to Murray. I was very sad to see Kari go, I wish we could see each other more often.) Gordon drove back to Nashville on Sunday after an unexpected extra time to eat and visit because the power went out at church in the middle of Sacrament meeting, so we were dismissed for the day.

I went back to work on Monday, but didn't go in until it was close to the time I had to teach class, and then I stayed for my office hours in the afternoon and then came home, and that evening we all went to the men's basketball game against Arkansas State. There were more people there than on the Friday after Thanksgiving when lots of people were gone, so it was a little noisier and lively. Murray State jumped out to a good lead, then almost let Arkansas State back in at the end, but made their free throws and won. J.J. left with Rachel after halftime, and we stayed until just before the end and left to beat traffic. Claire really likes the games, and the set up they have for the kids (they usually have some kind of jumping thing or big blow up obstacle course thing to play on), plus the track above the first level gives her room to run around.

Tuesday I had my classes most of the day, and came home around 3:30. Mom and Dad offered to watch the girls that evening while J.J. and I went out on a date, and that was great because we went to dinner and a movie for the first time in a long time. We ate deep dish pizza at Mugsy's Hideout, then saw "Enchanted," which was great fun, especially the first half. (It was so fun to go out for dinner AND a movie. I haven't been to a movie forever and I loved it. The movie was a really enjoyable one.)

On Wednesday morning, Dad and I repaired a sagging portion of the rain gutter on our house while Rachel napped and Claire and Grandma and J.J. went to storytime at the library. I taught my one class and then cancelled my office hours so that we could all take a drive around Land Between the Lakes (LBL), which is 15 miles to the east of us. So we drove through there, stopping at a few places, including a huge campground -- to scout it out for next spring and summer and also at a nice picnic area with a nice view of the lake from 100 feet up. We drove around the south end of Kentucky Lake, which is in Tennessee, and ate dinner at a two-table barbeque dive in Puryear, then checked out the heavily publicized Christmas-decorated house in Hazel, KY, which was nice but I'm not sure it was worth all the talk in the local paper. We then drove into Murray and drove through the city park which was also decorated, and quite impressively. So that was a big afternoon, but it was good to spend it all together as Mom and Dad left for home the next morning.

So Thursday it was back to normal after two weeks of family, and it was a time for Claire and Rachel to come off their attention high, which they did pretty well. J.J. went visiting teaching in the evening (we went on a crazy drive to find a sister's house. I have learned not to try and find houses when it is dark here because the areas are so spread out and dark!), and I waited for the Elders to come eat that evening after their zone conference, but they never came, so I put the kids to bed and read. Friday I took Claire to Messy Friday and helped her do an art project in a box, and then went to work for the rest of the day. (I stayed home with Rachel and waited for a little girl to come over that I was going to babysit that day. I thought it would be for a couple hours, but she ended up there for over six hours.) Most of the week, my classes consisted of oral reports or presentations, so there wasn't too much prep work, so I caught up with a lot of things and worked on my syllabi for next semester.

Friday night I encouraged J.J. to go to the Nutcracker, so she went with her friend Shara, and I put the girls to bed and went to bed early. (The local dance center performed the ballet, and they did a good job. It was fun to watch a performance with little kids and everyone is not perfect. I really enjoyed it. Then Shara and I just sat and visited for awile before we went home. It was fun to have some girl time.) Saturday we went to the Christmas parade downtown with Trevor and Shara, and it was great except for the 20 police and fire vehicles at the beginning with the sirens blaring too loudly. (They had some pretty interesting things - tractors and fire trucks and police cars - not too different from a KFalls parade, but there were also live camels and a baby Jesus strapped to the front of one of the cars.) Claire got more candy than she got at Halloween, and the weather was cool enough to feel like winter but comfortable enough for a parade. I spent the next 4 hours raking leaves in our front and side yard, and luckily the leaf rake didn't break until I was loading the piles onto a tarp to move to the "back forty" because we missed the pickup day. We have a big pile out there now. Claire and her friends Katie and Paige had a fun time jumping in the piles as I raked, and the sun came out and it was a beautiful day to work outside. Later in the afternoon, I watched football games, and even tried to stay up and watch the Hawaii game but couldn't do it so I recorded the second half and watched it Sunday afternoon.

Having just checked the BCS stuff, BYU got a bad deal from the pollsters, which left them too low to be considered. Of course, they should have won at least one more game. They will now be able to avenge the loss to UCLA, which is kind of silly. The MWC really needs a new commissioner, because the current one has really messed up -- a bad TV deal and a non-competitive bowl contract for the champion. I wish they would switch back to the Holiday or get the Cotton or something. The middle of the PAC 10 is just not that good.

Today, no power outages and so church was fine. I was able to catch up on a lot of clerk stuff and get the bishop ready for tithing settlement, and in the afternoon I took Claire to an open house at the Murray Art Guild, where she has Messy Friday. They were showing off artwork from members and the little kids, so Claire's work was displayed with a title and her name. We talked to a few people, ate a few snacks, and then came home. The rain really came down this afternoon, and we had to run through it to our car and step in/over a huge puddle to get to our car.

Anyway, we hope everyone is well and enjoying the season. We love you all!