Anyone Seen November?

Can you help me here? The last time I looked, it was the beginning of November. Well, I seemed to have misplaced the other 3 weeks of it somewhere, because I'm SURE it can't possibly be almost December! Maybe I lost it here, under the pile of tools in the new addition...Nope, not there. Maybe the days got lost in my pile of important papers that I haven't looked at in far too long...Nope, not there either. Is November lost in the pile of laundry that keeps overflowing my house? Can't find it there! Did you happen to notice that everything in my home is referred to as "piles"??

I guess it must be true. It really is nearly December, and I have nothing to show for November. I went to an educator's conference in Phoenix at the beginning of the month, and learned all sorts of awesome things. Then....there's a blur, and it was Thanksgiving and we went to Dave's parent's house. We had too much food, lots of fun and raced home in time for Black Friday shopping. It's an "unfortunate" consequence of having my birthday at the end of November -I always end up shopping on or near my birthday. But, my mom still likes to dress up her little girl, so it's a convenient birthday gift for her, and a lot of fun for me! (Thanks again mom! :)


Somewhere in that blur, Paige had her Thanksgiving program at school, we put a dog door in for Sadie (why, oh why, didn't we do that years ago??), and the addition slowly moved along.
So, I hope this finds you all full of good food, rested, and ready for the final stretch to Christmas. If December moves as quickly as November, I'll just go ahead and wish you a Happy New Year's now!

Look! She can come and go whenever she wants. (Of course, she still waits for us to escort her through sometimes)


Heading to the river at Grandma Bryson's.


I wasn't the only one who was overwhelmed by the month!

Thanksgiving program followed by pizza! Yum!

Proud Daddy and his "little Indian"!

Changes

Have I told you all before that my husband is amazing? Because, in case you hadn't already noticed, he is! I've always known he is talented at construction, but I am now witnessing this fact first-hand. In the last two weeks, our house has gone from this....

to this....

Our new bedroom actually looks like a bedroom now (vaulted ceilings and all!):

Dave has taken several days off work in order to shingle the roof and hang the drywall. Now we're up to the point where we can paint, put the doors and trim up, and then do the really fun stuff like tile, carpet, and cabinets! Woo-hoo!! We've decided to wait until after Christmas to start the kitchen. Dave doesn't think he can finish it before the holidays, and we didn't really want to celebrate Christmas with no sink or refrigerator! So, he's going to finish off the addition part and take a much-deserved rest for a few weeks!

Meanwhile, Paige had her Harvest Festival and really enjoyed all the fun and games!

The kids both had fun dressing up for Halloween. Unfortunately, my camera broke that day, so I don't have pictures to share. Paige was an adorable tiger (she tried to be scary, but adorable just kept peeking out!) and Garrett was a ninja. We went to a party with friends, and the kids came home with way too much candy!

I spent 3 days last week attending a teachers conference in Phoenix. Aside from the chartered bus moving at a snail's pace, the trip was fun and informative. It is so nice to be able to develop professionally and also worship our Lord with other teachers at the same time! The kids went camping with Grammie and Papa, so Dave was left on his own for a couple of days. He enjoyed the silence, and even earned brownie points with Mom by doing all the laundry! (See, I told you he was amazing!) We're hoping life will now return to normal, but it's been so long since we've seen normal, we may not recognize it if it happens!