November 2012

I am doing pretty good this month. It is only December 1, and I am sitting down to get our update done. It was actually an insanely busy month that flew past so speedily, but yet, we didn't really get to do much or accomplish much because of the craziness of it all.

RJ spent his month going to preschool on preschool days and playing all around the house. He loves "cooking" his own food and helping in the kitchen. There is a picture of him eagerly waiting for the microwave to beep so he can eat his freshly cooked microwave popcorn. One of his newest favorite pastimes is doing flips through the living room. There is a picture of that too. I think he would do it more often if he didn't get dizzy. I think he seriously spent 30 minutes that day doing flips. One day, when it was obviously nice since RJ is in barefeet and short sleeves, the neighbors puppy got out. This provides a HUGE source of entertainment for RJ. I think he and the puppy chased each other around in circles for a good hour or so. I took lots of pictures, but there was only one that I actually could get Rj looking at the camera. The final picture of Rj is him decorating our paper Christmas tree after our Family Home Evening lesson on the Symbols of Christmas. That particular night, we learned what the Christmas tree, star, and angel meant/represented. He had a lot of fun.

We spent our Thanksgiving here at home. Dale actually ended up having the entire week off, but we were so tired and stressed from the entire month of crazy goings, that we welcomed the week at home to try to recover. On Thanksgiving itself, I went into Idaho Falls and ran the Run to Feed the Hungry 10k race. I ran it with my friend Kim. Her sister in law joined us for her first ever 5k race. There is a picture of Kim and I with Tom the Turkey and then one of all three of us at the start/finish line. It was SOOO cold while we were standing around waiting for it to start, but it was a gorgeous sunny day. Kim and I have only ever ran 1 other 10k race, which is 6.2 miles, and we wanted to use this one as an opportunity to set new personal records (PRs). However the race end up only being 5.7 miles. Still a great race and our individual times at each mile split showed that we would have definitely set new PRs, but now we are faced with the dilemma of whether to be satisfied with new PRs on a "short" race.....I think that we both have more 10ks in our future. :) It really was a fun race and all the proceeds went to support the Idaho Falls Food Bank, so it was a great cause. After the race, I came home and started cooking my portion of Thanksgiving Dinner. My friends The Bagleys and us decided to combine our households and split the dinner for the day. There were 9 of us total and it was a ton of fun. After we ate, we lounged around and played board games. Obviously I never took picutres of it.

So, Dale has continued to enroll in these "dinky" 1-3 credit hour courses. I have mentioned them several times now. I really do support him 100% in this endeavor to gain his experience credits, but I never quite know how to or what to call them....hence my "slang" words like "dinky" and "stupid". Through November he had a Tuesday night class and then half way through the month he had a Thursday night course start. He also had Parent Teacher Conferences for 2 nights one week. I have had training meeting after training meeting with the Young Women and activity after activity. Unfortunately due to Dale's schedule, we have had to utilize sitters adn neighbors SO much this month just so we could both be were we needed to be. We just literally have been on the go this month. Dale was put in as 2nd counselor in the Elders Quorum Presidency the middle of the month. He is yet to be let go from the Sunday School presidency....though that will probably happen tomorrow. So he has been quite busy with church things as well. From November 28-30, Dale got to spend those three days in the very UNsunny state of California. It was cloudy and/or rained the whole 3 days. Anyway, he was 1 of 3 teachers selected by his principal to go to East LA to visit 2 schools. He actually had a great trip and for those of you interested in a "different" approach to education, he will gladly fill you in. Basically, the school district he got to go visit used to be one the "arm pit" rated school districts in the country adn they got tired of the reputation of being "bad" and "slum", so they turned themselves around and are now rated either in the top 5 in the country or the 5th in the country as far as performance. Dale LOVED their approach and wishes that it could be implemented into the Idaho schools. So, he had a great trip.

I have been very busy with Young Womens as I have mentioned. It has been one meeting, one training, one activity after another...not to mention the typing, scheduling and follow-up I have to do behind the scenes. I have had my share of stress and frustrations, but I LOVE it. It has been so much fun. I am also still one of our church's family history people. I was this before I got asked to work with the youth and I am happy they are letting me stay in this role too. It keeps me motivated to search out my family's "old bones" as my mom would say. As I mentioned above, I am still running. Our weather has been so nice and mild that I am still running as much as ever. This week I had to move to the treadmill since Dale was gone, but it has been the most awesome running weather for being this late in the year. I am still sewing blankets and I am currently working on a Mossy Oak (for you hunters) camoflauge blanket for my little neighbor boy. I am still readign and actively participate in the area-ish book club. This has proved to be exciting fun and a great opportunity for me to make additional friends or to become closer friends with those I knew already.

SO, I think that is about it. It doesn't sound like much but we were so busy.

We are very excited for the holidays and the possibilty of traveling to see family. Hope that everyone else had a fabulous month!