Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We have much to be thankful for. 

Our family is happy and healthy. Truthfully all I need to be happy is chocolate, Jesus, and zumba.

Gaming

On Thursdays we have been playing board games as a family. Sometimes Matthew does not participate but we really try to get him to join us. Jenna made the comment that she prefers playing with adults since her two younger siblings can get a little crazy when we play games. I hear ya!

Jenna will be entering the spelling bee December 15. She is a good speller so I'm hoping she can win! She is playing saxophone (just like me) and I went to the districts for spelling so hopefully she can too. Mini me. That's what it's all about!

Panda our cat is on 6 medications (including two different eye drops). He has a hematoma, an ear infection, and his eye has an ulcer that is so bad it may need to be removed. He is old enough that he might not survive the surgery either. We are hoping he pulls through this. Erik is the cat whisperer and can get him to take any medication.

 On top of this we only have one of the three hamsters left. I guess dwarf hamsters don't live long and two have died already. We have had funeral services for them and they are buried in our backyard. Jenna seems to be okay understanding that they don't live too long.

Panda

Matthew loves magnet tiles. His speech therapist brings them every week and he just endures the lesson because he knows his reward is playing with magnet tiles. He is such a builder! I just had to snap a picture of him playing with them.

Matthew and his magnet tiles

Since I'm the girl scout leader for two troops (and a little crazy) I took Jenna's 5th grade troop on an overnight to cosi. Surprisingly I got a lot of sleep. This was a fantastic sleepover. The girls got to roam around cosi and we were able to visit the planetarium. I loved it! I think they did too but those are the perks of being a leader - I got to hang around cosi ;)

December is a very exciting month for us! December 13th we are having the Christmas program at church. All three kids will be singing and Sarah will be singing a solo. We will have to get a video!

December 19 the Minnesota and California Coopers will be coming to visit us. We can't wait for their visit! December 20th Sarah will be getting baptized. Her godparents: Joel and Amanda should both be there. December 20th we are seeing Star Wars. That will be a pretty awesome day!  Then Christmas is right around the corner. It's coming soon.

In other news:

1. Our book club just finished Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson. This book takes place several hundred years after the mistborn trilogy. Brandon left us with a cliffhanger at the end of this book. Now I'm reading Mistborn again. It's such a great book.
2. I'm almost done with Heartless the fourth book in the Parasol Protectorate. Now I need to find something else to read. 
3. We had Thanksgiving with Erik's parents on Monday and my family on Thursday. I love the holiday eating season. So much good food and seeing family. Now if radio stations would play Christmas music every third song instead of every song this time of year would be perfect!
4. This session teaching 5 classes has not been as difficult as I thought it would be. Creating that Excel macro to help me grade has shaved off some time. I might keep this up! 
5. Now that it has been a little colder, Erik is making fires in our hearth every day. I love it! I sit by the fire and drink my hot chocolate and read a book. Truly that is heaven! Today Erik carried so much wood that he hurt his back. Poor guy!