Well, Thanksgiving is over and I finally have all our Christmas stuff up. I put up 3 trees this year! I have the big one in the living room with our ornaments. A western or cowboy one with all of our cowboy/western ornaments in the foyer. We have the kids tree upstairs with colored lights and all the homemade ornaments and all the ornaments the kids have made at school. They look really pretty. I kind of wondered why I was decorating and doing so much, and got to thinking. Almost every year I have moved right before Christmas. In 2004 we lived in Texas and it was our first year with a baby. In 2005 we had just moved to Calumet Farm into our second house in 6 months. In 2006 I had a 3 month old baby. In 2007 we had just moved into the big house we bought in Georgetown. In 2008 we had just moved into the house Hill n' Dale built us. So no wonder I have never done this much! I also bought lights and decorated some of the trees outside. We have a lot of little spruce type trees here so they are perfect for Christmastime. I have already boxed all the fall stuff back up and have transported most of it back to the storage building. Not bad for a weekend.

We still don't have the suburban back. I would hate to know how long it would take to fix one that was seriously damaged. I took it to the body shop on Thursday, November 12th. It is now November 29th. I went to pick it up last Wednesday and everything on the outside looked great! I had already had a round with the Enterprise rental people. I tried to get them to come to the body shop and pick the car up, to save time if I got there and there was a problem with the Suburban. They refused. I had to drive all the way out to their office then drive back through Lexington in 4 o'clock the day before Thanksgiving traffic. We get to the body shop, I get the keys, look the car over, get the car seats in, all seems good. The rental guy leaves with the Tahoe. I get in and start to put on my seat belt. They are still locked!!! The guy didn't' realize that they needed to be replaced! So by now it is almost 5 o'clock Wednesday night. He tells me he will try and have it finished on Friday. In my mind I think "Yeah, right!". I hurry and call Enterprise and ask if they can get a hold of the guy that just left because my car isn't finished after all. He was barely out of sight! They try calling him and (of course) he doesn't have his cell phone with him. So the kids and I wait in the car for him to drive all the way to the Enterprise office and then back to where we are. I then have to drive him back to the rental office!!! By the time I walked back into the door at home, it was 6:30pm. When we left, I just got the kids up from their nap and went to get my car. Thinking it would take an hour tops. We finally get home, the kids are starving because in addition to not getting a snack, it is now supper time. We didn't make it to church. Needless to say Wednesday was not my day!

It is now Sunday. I still have no suburban. Maybe tomorrow...
We have had this rental so long, we have driven to Knoxville for another football game. (UT vs. Vanderbilt) We then drove to West Tennessee to do our Thanksgiving with our families early. At least we weren't putting those miles on our car! The warranty is almost out on it so that is one plus to all this.

While we were in Tennessee I drove to Jackson to have lunch with my sister who is due to have a baby December 3rd. We went into a little shop that had some really cute stuff. I got the kids' teachers gifts there. I still need a little something else for them. I have also got to figure out what we are getting everyone else that we buy for. We are doing our Christmas early too. Plus Jeremy and I are leaving for Las Vegas on Saturday. Jeremy's grandparents will be coming to watch the kids for us. Madalynn will have school all that week. She will also have another Christmas program that we will be missing for the second year in a row. This is probably the last year that I will be going to AAEP. I can't keep missing this kind of stuff. I hope Vegas is fun, but when you don't drink or gamble I have to wonder how fun it can be. We do have tickets to the NFR which I am looking forward to. We have never been and Jeremy has splurged and got us some really good seats. So you might see us on TV during the roping on Monday night!

I have lots to do this week to get ready for our trip and get everything ready for the grandparents to be at our house. Plus I may have a new nephew just any day!!

Stuff

It has been a while, but everyone in this family is...at the moment...WELL! Healthy, not sick, no major coughs, runny noses, or overall feelings of yuckiness! Well, except I don't feel just right and Jeremy is dealing with yet another horse sale. (Today 2 of them!)So his mood is less than ideal. The economy is terrible and even in this land of horse people who are willing to spend a decidedly CRAZY amount of money on an animal, times are tough. So from now till Thanksgiving, Jeremy will be working a lot and many times be in a not so great mood. On to other stuff.

My good friend, Joni, who had such a worrisome pregnancy, gave birth to a healthy baby girl, Halle, a week ago. She just weighed 6 lbs 4 oz, but came on her own. Joni had 9 months filled with "supposed" medical experts telling her she had a large tumor that needed to be taken out as soon as possible and might necessitate a c-section and a baby born early. Turns out she is fine according to an MRI that was finally done. I can't wait to see Miss Halle again!(I took Joni and Caleb lunch the day they came home from the hospital.) My kids are dying to meet her. (I am hoping this will allow me to put off the need for another little one for a little longer.) I just love babies!!


Halle Grace is by far, the tiniest baby I have ever held! My babies weighed 7lb 11oz and 8 lb 6 oz respectively.

We went trick-or-trunking (at church) and trick-or-treating (at Calumet and the Morehead's neighborhood)this year. Or I guess I should say Micky and Minnie did! Jack really had it figured out this year. He was racing Mady to the doors and knocking if they didn't answer fast enough when the bell was rung! We will still have candy left this time next year.


Jeremy was offered tickets to the Tennessee game on Halloween. Tickets, a ride to Knoxville, a barbecue with the Boosters!!! All for FREE! It takes a good man to turn all that down. Although an opportunity like this probably won't present itself again any time soon, he did the right thing. Micky and Minnie won't be around forever! Well, guess what? We got 4 tickets to this past weekend's Homecoming game against Memphis! Yeah! We not only got to go to a Tennessee game, but got to take the kiddos to experience the fabulosity of Neyland Stadium! They went to their first game last year. Jack loved it! He has carried the playbook around since we got back Saturday night. Madalynn dressed up in her Tennessee cheerleading outfit. We left at halftime, but the kids got a hot dog and a sweatshirt out of the deal so they were happy. Unlike last time, we got there early and got to see all the players run out of the "Power T" and we got to see the band perform. Very Cool! *We also got our picture made with Jay Bush and Duke from the Bush's baked beans commercials. They had some special meet and greet things since it was homecoming. Bush's baked beans is headquartered in Tennessee.

We had car trouble coming home. Nothing major, although I was praying we would get home since it was already late. I took the car in yesterday to have it fixed and although they thought it was a bigger problem at first, I was able to pick it up today. Less than an hour later I was involved in an accident on my way to pick up Jack. Thank the Lord he wasn't with me! (And that it wasn't my fault.) I was stopped at a red light and a guy slammed into the back of me and then I ran into the back of someone else. So my beautiful suburban has some rear end issues and a little damage to the front. I think I am OK, but it shook me up. My neck and back are a little sore, but I think that is from me tensing up because I saw him coming fast in my rear view mirror. My good friend Heather saw me and turned around and even went back to the preschool to sit with Jack so his teacher could leave until Jeremy could get there to pick him up. My car is drivable, but the impact was enough that my seat belts locked up, so they will have to be replaced and are useless now. You can't take a vehicle in to be fixed until the police report has been filed and that wont' be done until Monday at the earliest. So, I either have to sit at home or drive around without a seat belt and that makes me really nervous. I am just glad it wasn't worse.
**Just for the record, everyone should invest in a trailer hitch. I had a drop hitch that stuck out several inches and it kept the other car from doing more damage to mine. When the wrecker pulled the other car off of me, it looked like someone had punched a hole through the center of his car. He hit me with enough force that it bent the bumper hitch forwards and messed up the latch for the back door on the inside. I ran into the lady in front of me and bent her bumper. She was really nice. She let me use her phone because mine went flying during the collision.
All this mess was after being up for hours during the night with some kind of stomach/menstrual cramps on steroids. Don't know what caused them or why. If you had told me I was giving birth to another child I would have believed you. The pain was that bad! Let's just say I haven't had a good 24 hours.