I love Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. I love the food, the football, the family, really just about everything about the day is great. I also appreciate the opportunity I have to reflect on the things with which I have been blessed. Although I like to complain about my pay at times, I am extrememly grateful to not only have a job but a job I enjoy. I am grateful for my family - at least when we are not all stuffed inside a van for 9 hours. I have a beautiful wife who loves me, I have a roof over my head, and I live in a country that in spite of it's problems is a beacon of freedom and security in a storm tossed world. Most importantly, however, I have a knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ. How much more blessed can any one individual be?

I am sure Michelle will post some pictures of the trip so I will leave that to her. But I am sure that she won't mention how we ended up over 50 miles off course. She missed the exit to I-74 in Indianapolis (I was reading) and continued on I-70 until we hit the Illinois state line at which time she said, "Jason, I think we are on the wrong road." Sure enough, we were on our way to St. Louis. Luckily, she caught it soon enough that we were able to take some back roads until we hit I -57 into Champaign. The funny thing was that as we were on those back roads, we passed a church with a sign out front that said, "Lost? we can help." We laughed and Michelle continued to apologize (it really wasn't that big of a deal). Literally two minutes later, we crossed the Embarras (yes, it only has one S) river, causing Michelle to start laughing all over again. We finally made it home at about 5:30 pm. As fun as it was seeing everybody, it is nice to be home.

The purple shirt

This morning I saw Scott wearing the same shirt that he wears over and over. It' s a blue Disney/Pampered Chef shirt from when we went to Disney World 5 years ago. It has a great big star on the front and says, "When you Wish"

He loves this shirt and since every person in the family had one when we went to Disney we have all sizes, so it seems he never grows out of it. When really he just keeps going to the next bigger one, when his wears out.

So this morning I pull out this new shirt I bought him and called him over to change into it. He puts it on and says, "Aww a purple shirt, you gotta be kidding me, I can't wear that in front of the girls."

I think it's really nice. I told him it's a boy's shirt and told him it looks good on him. Then I said to him, "Do you have a girlfriend." He exclaimed happily, "Of coarse, cause I'm 7 and it's time for that."

Brenden

Here is a recent picture I took of him after his choir concert.

He just joined Show Choir at his middle school. I'm really proud of him.

Happy 39th Birthday Jason!

Just wanted to wish you a very happy birthday. Even though you are 2 years older than me and even though you will be 40 before me. HA!

Happy Happy Birthday Jason!!

Happy Happy Birthday Jason!!
in web dings font.

Better go get that license renewed today. I Love You!

random stuff

I can't believe it is November already and in just two weeks I get to see my parents!!!!!! Yahoo and have Turkey too. I love Thanksgiving. And we will get to see Adrianne and her family and Chelsey and her family. That is just too awesome. Lots of relatives all in the same weekend.

Besides all that, Pampered Chef has picked up a bit and for that I'm grateful. I have been having lots of parties, like 2 a week and it keeps me running.

Almost every piece of Halloween candy is gone in our house so I will have that temptation gone till next year. Somehow I managed to gain 2 pounds last week. It must be the dang Halloween candy because I'm still teaching 10-12 classes a week consisting of Step aerobics (Body Step), weight lifting (Body Pump), Body Sculpt (an all over body toning class), Water aerobics and of coarse my favorite ZUMBA. If you still have not been to a zumba class then you are missing out big time. Go to http://www.zumba.com/ now and go to the class locator and find a class in your area and just take it already.

Jason's birthday is tomorrow November 10th. He will be 39!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ha Ha Jason, you are closer to 40 than me.

Hawkeyes lost their first game so they are 9 and 1. Sad about that, but they Will beat OHIO STATE this coming weekend and then that means still up for the Rose bowl!! So Dad when the game is on expect a call every single time Hawkeyes score and smash those Buckeyes into tiny little buckeye pieces.

I have a dentist appointment on November 18th at 4p.m. and I'm noting that since I seem to forget everything when it comes to doctor or dentist appointments. With all this Halloween candy I've been consuming I wouldn't be surprised if I have a cavity.

Brenden started show choir at his Middle school. So glad for him, he seems super excited about that. I know he will do well.

Alyssa is playing Flute in the band and doing extremely well, she loves to practice. This can't be normal, and if it seems like I'm complaining, I'm not because she gets over 4 hours of practice a week, she loves her flute. If she keeps this up she will be fabulous.

My sister Jan started her very own blog this past week. You will have to check it out.
http://janandwarren.blogspot.com

and definately read the post about their honeymoon. I laughed out loud!



Ok I have at least 5 errands that I can think of and a house to clean so I'm off for now.

Halloween 2009

At Jason's work they all carved pumpkins and here is one his co-worker did. As much as people claim to not like Michael Jackson, I think his music is awesome, not him so much, but the music is SUPER GREAT!! Probably because I was 12 when the album Thriller came out and I received that record from my Dad. It was my first introduction to pop music and I danced to it often. Anyway, this first pumpkin is of Michael Jackson and I think it's pretty fabulous. Jason brought it home and put it on our porch and we received literally hundreds of compliments. Bummer I had to tell people that I'm not that talented.

On the left is Scott's pumpkin on the right is Alyssa's pumpkin. Not sure why she wanted all the toothpicks in it, but she did. Then on the far right is Jared's pumpkin. He calls it Frankenstein.

Below is Jason's Pumpkin. As much as he claims to not like Halloween or anything connected to it, he carved his own pumpkin on his own. He calls it Jack. For Trunk-r-treat at our church Alyssa brought her neighbor friend named Gabby.

Scott in his Dracula costume.

Alyssa in her Miss Iowa costume. I couldn't find a really cute dress in her size, so we went to a thrift store and found this vintage dress that she loved, it was a size 3/4 women's dress and then I shortened it by over 12 inches. That took a while, but with all that extra material I cut off the bottom of the dress I was able to make a shawl for her shoulders.

I am glad Halloween is over, to me it's a stressful holiday. Thank goodness I only had 2 to dress up this year instead of all 6.