Jenn's Blog

We had a nice, albeit busy, Thanksgiving. But then that's the case every year and I'm so grateful for it! Wednesday we cleaned the house and prepared some of the food. Thursday we finished our signature T-Day dishes and then headed down to Perryville for lunch. Luke had a blast playing with all the kids and didn't want to leave. We finally got him out the door, arrived home, finished up a few things, and then my family started to arrive for dinner. We got to meet Anna's new boyfriend who seems really nice and appears to really make her happy! I'm hoping he's the real deal! We played Apples to Apples after dinner and just had a good time in general.

On Friday we had dinner, along with Ben's family, with an old friend, her husband, and her kiddos. We all knew Shelby back when we attended church in Union. She has two kiddos who are Luke and Gabe's ages. We had a great time!

Saturday was more cleaning and some downtime with some Christmas decorating thrown in for good measure. I was starting to feel really run down by the end of the day. Woke up Sunday still tired and with a headache and sore throat to boot. So we stayed home in the morning. I dragged Ben and the boys out the door so they could get their hair cut so we could get our Christmas card photo taken and submitted to Costco in time to use a $5-off coupon in their circular. Got everyone dressed up and took a bunch of pictures. FINALLY settled on one...only to find out that the coupon couldn't be redeemed online - you had to hand it in when you pick up the pictures. Sunday was the last day for the coupon and they were closed by the time we were done. ARGH! Well, at least we are done with Christmas cards and we'll be able to drop them in the mail in a day or two.

I still cannot believe that Christmas is just around the corner!! It just hasn't sunk in yet, which is a really weird feeling. Maybe it's the weather we've been having? I don't know, but I hope the Christmas spirit catches up with me quickly!

Last week I took the Compass test, met with an academic advisor and then signed up for 2 college classes at Jefferson College. Everything went really well. My math scores were low, which was to be expected, but my reading and language skills were high and qualified me for honors classes. I intended to take only online courses, but the algebra class wasn't available online. So I'll be headed up the street to campus twice a week for Algebra and then I'll take my other class online. Since I qualified for honors classes, I really want to take them. Not only are they not online, they aren't even at the Arnold campus - they're at the Hillsboro campus! So I'll be crossing those bridges as I come to them.

I'm really happy that Ben has been so supportive of all of this. I know it's hard for him because he's always hated school and cannot fathom why in the world I would want to go...willingly. Oh, and then there's the whole money issue! Jefferson College is supposed to be one of the most affordable community colleges in the area, but it's still expensive! I've been saving all of the money I make at Stephen Ministries, but it's just not much. So there's going to be some sacrifice, which is hard for Ben, but he's being a trooper about it!

I can't wait until January 11th!

We had a game night here last night with our Life Group. It was a good time! We ended up playing Apples to Apples the entire time, but it was a blast! It feels good to get to know everyone a little bit more. We're really enjoying hanging out with everyone. We decided to do a Thanksgiving party next week - with ALL the kids. I think that'll be fun - and we won't have to host!

...we love to look through the Buchheit circular! It never fails to crack us up! The current circular is touting, "Ladies' Shopping Day" 10% back on a Buchheit gift card! Woot! Do they know what the ladies like, or do they know what the ladies like??!! Love it. Oh and don't forget to stop by for FREE samples of fried turkey on November 14th and 21st!!!

So my first set of workouts is complete. It's a 3-month set. I am definitely stronger, but have NOT lost any weight. And I know it's my own fault. Darn Halloween candy! Grrr. I decided to get back on track yesterday and am just being careful to keep junk and junky carbs out of my diet and focus more on veggies, fruit and protein. Also...I'm just going to start saying no to snacks at parties and such. It's not so much about will-power for me, as it is feeling like the odd person out. I hate all the "you aren't eating anything" comments and questions. Oh well, whatever. I'm just determined to see better results. After all the money I've spend and the hard work I've put in thus far, I just don't want to get to the end of this month and find that I haven't made any progress!

Lots of playdates and get-togethers this week. Fun, fun!

Tuesday we hosted dinner for a family from church. They have 4 kids so Luke was in heaven. Even Gabe had a great time. We had a nice visit, just letting the kids play and chatting.

Yesterday our friends, Meg and her girls, came over. We haven't seen them since Luke's birthday party! We had a good time together and, once again, Luke had a blast. He always plays so well with the girls. Then Paul came over. The idea was for him to take fall pictures of the boys, but neither boy wanted their picture taken. Grrrr. Stinkers. Paul tried his best, though. Then Karen and I went to Among Friends at church. It was the annual recipe sharing and taste-testing event. I was told we'd just sample a few things and it turned out there were 2 soups, 3 appetizers, 3 main dishes, and 2 desserts. As well as a take-home box of chocolates. Whew! Everything was GOOD and I have some new recipe ideas. Nice time. I went home and CRASHED.

Today we have Life Group. I've been wanting to try my hand at crock-pot applebutter, so I'm going to start that in a minute. Then I can make some biscuits to go along with it...mmmmhhmmm. I'm thinking about it already..

Tomorrow we have another playdate - which will be a good time, I'm sure!

Well, maybe that's exaggerating a bit, but not by much!

Ben and I celebrated our 11th anniversary yesterday! Luke spent the whole day with Brad and Karen and we dropped Gabe off over there before dinner. We tried a local Italian restaurant; Bambino's. We really liked it and will definitely go back. The boys had a blast with Grandpa and Grandma and Uncle Tim and we had a nice dinner out.

Yay for 11 years!

Fun day today! We took Luke to a birthday party at Build-a-Bear. He picked a monkey and Gabe picked a snow leopard. Later in the evening, we left the house to run some errands and drove past the Baptist church down the road from us where they were holding a Trunk or Treat. So we rushed through our errands and then got the boys ready and returned to the church. They got some candy and played some games. We were there for about 30 minutes, which was just long enough! It was a great dry-run for Halloween. Unless it seriously warms up, I'll need to dress the boys warmer for trick or treating!

I found these super cute cookie cutters on amazon. Made up a double batch of Anytime Spice Cookies and spent a bunch of time decorating them...all for the fall festival we weren't able to go to because the boys were sick! Doh! Well at least I have a bunch of cute cookies in the freezer. I know what I'll be serving for Life Group for the next several weeks.

Luke woke up yesterday complaining of a sore throat. I was hoping it was just from the cold weather. Then, right before bed, he said his throat was sore and his ear was sore. Gave him some Tylenol. He had a slight fever, too. Has a fever still today and his nose is stuffy and drippy. He says, "I'm still sick" about once or twice an hour. It's GREAT. I guess I'll be breaking out the humidifier tonight!

I've been feeling slightly ick all day. Stomach is sensitive, I'm lethargic, slight headache. Hopefully this will pass quickly.