Turkey Day is Coming fast!

Wow! Thanksgiving is only 2 days away!! I have busted out my elastic waste pants and am ready to pack on the gravy covered potatoes and turkey and all the fixin's! Bring on the pumpkin pie and the whip cream and all the goodies that come along with the wonderful holiday that is devoted to food! We were going to have the holidays at our house this year, however, with school and everything else going on right now, Josh's Grandma Harrison stepped up and offered her house. I hate that we always have every function or gathering at Josh's parents house, it's not fair to them to always have to do the cooking and cleaning and work that goes along with being the host.

I have also finally gotten the invitations out for my annual cookie exchange and pollyana. This year I am having it at my house ::not quite sure what I got myself into with that one but again, read above, not fair to Josh's mom to host my cookie exchange:: It's going to be a little close to Christmas this year but works out good so that you have a wide assortment of cookies for your Holiday feast! Last year was a lot of fun, I think a lot of people underestimate the older ladies when it comes to the pollyanna. We play Dirty Dice for the gifts - which for those of you unfamiliar with it, is where you have everyone bring a small inexpensive ($5-$10) wrapped gift and put them in the middle of the table. You pass around a pair of dice and take turns rolling. If you roll doubles, you take one of the gifts ::but don't open it yet!!:: Once all the gifts are "gone", everyone unwraps the gifts that they have in front of them and then you set a timer. You continue to take turns rolling the dice, however, this time if you roll a double, you get to steal a gift from someone! This is where it gets a little cutthroat! It's always a good time though (and I usually keep some extra gifts so that no one walks away empty handed!).

Connor is getting so big now, he's turning into such a little man! Very independent, has to do EVERYTHING on his own and tries to help with everything from the laundry to unloading the dishwasher! He also likes to play in the dark, not sure where he got this one from but ok, whatever! He will come and grab your hand and lead you to either his room or his toyroom saying "c'mon, c'mon, c'mon" ::because everything has to be repeated 3 times:: and if you are sitting or laying down, he will first grab your hand and lift it above his head saying "up, up, up" followed by the "c'mon" sequence once you are up. He is still very much into trains. We have a birthday party next weekend that is going to be on the old Wilmington & Western Steam Engine so that should be really fun! He is also into ducks lately. Yep, ducks. He has a cd that has the Ugly Duckling song on it and he loves it, quacks right along with it and makes his rubber ducky in the tub quack. He is very good at throwing a proper temper tantrum as well. Nothing like Kody who would start the tantrum, but before he would "throw" himself on the floor, he would stop, look behind him to make sure there was nothing there, then gently lay on the floor where he would then resume the temper tantrum. Nope, Connor is nothing like that, he just doesn't throw himself backwards, he goes face first down onto the ground screaming the whole way, doesn't care if he hits his head on the floor, table, chair or whatever else may be between him and the floor.

He is getting really good with sign language, in fact, he is getting a bunch of new signing dvd's for christmas (he has 3 that he watches now). He says please and thank you all the time, especially if he wants something, you hear please over and over again! We also just got a toy chest for in his toy room (it's so nice, we can see the floor again!!!). However, when we brought it up and started putting his toys in it, oh, if you could have only seen the look on the poor kids face! He thought we were taking away all his toys! We had to show him the concept of the toybox.

School is going ok. I have been busting my butt studying but I still feel like I am going to fail my first exam, which is coming up fast! I take my first certification test on Nov. 29th at 1:30. It's a 2 hour test. I am not looking forward to it at all! It's actually very common to fail your first test on the first try but that doesn't make me feel any better for not feeling prepared for it. I am excited to have a short week of class this week because of Thanksgiving.

We set dates for going to MN. We won't be going for Christmas but it will be around Christmas. We should be arriving in Duluth on December 28th and returning to Delaware on January 7th. It will be difficult to come back to work after that because I will be off beginning on December 21 until January 9th! I would love to be home for the actual holiday however, circumstances being what they are out here at the moment, that just isn't a possibility. It does work out that we will be home the same time as Angie, Dave & Hannah now though so that will be nice that we get to see them.

Josh's boss is doing pretty good all things considered. He is home again. Josh saw him yesterday and said that he was laughing and joking around and actually remembering things as well. They were making fun of his "haircut" from where he had the surgery! I guess that they are going to be starting another short round of chemo next week so we will see what happens.

Well, I think that should catch you up for the moment ::since I haven't been blogging as often as I had hoped to:: I will put up some pics tomorrow when I get home from work.

Lots of love!
Jenn