"Ketchup"

It's time to play "ketchup!" It's been a busy week and I haven't had time to blog so bear with me while I give you the run down of days past. Let's start in chronological order, shall we?

THE NEW JOB
Darnell Elementary School. I am really happy about my new job. The schedule works out perfectly with the girls and the work itself is great. I'm working directly with the Literacy Specialist and I do pull-outs of low-readers in 5th and 4th grades. I rotate with the second grade teachers and do anything they need done - copies, correcting, etc. I have some playground duty and one 5th grade teacher that I'm directly assisting as well. It's busy and I like it. I'm so glad it worked out this way.

THANKSGIVING
Our Thanksgiving was lovely this year. We've experienced a few debacles in the last couple of years (exploding pans of stuffing, forgotten sweet potatoes, etc.) but this year was just about as perfect as it gets. Eric's parents were here from Washington and we had a great visit with them. Our friend Shari from BYU was also visiting - the girls adore her! Here's a couple of pic's from the day:



BLACK FRIDAY
Once again, I exercised no good sense and got up at a ridiculous hour to hit a couple of early sales. I actually thought that Target opened at 5:00am - imagine my chagrin when I realized they didn't open until 6:00am...and somebody had taken the spare blanket out of the car! Needless to say it was a little chilly but at least I was close to the front of the line and was able to get the item that I wanted. Eric also got up early and headed to Best Buy to upgrade our cell phones as an early Christmas present to ourselves. Look what we got:
This one is mine - yep, it's purple! I love it because it is so fun!
Here's Eric's - he is also enjoying it. Erika is horribly jealous and Kelcie thinks our rule that girls at our house don't get cell phones 'til their 12 is a very dumb rule (like who is she going to call???).

NATURAL PHENOMENA

So this next item may not be a big deal to many of you but for those Las Vegans, perhaps you noticed a strange occurance in the valley Friday morning? Fog???? In the 7 1/2 years I've lived here, I have never seen fog and yet our part of the valley was socked in - it was absolutely bizarre.

TWILIGHT
On Friday I took Erika, my mother-in-law, and friend Shari to see Twilight. It was the second time for me and first for everyone else. Good times....

GINGERBREAD HOUSES
For as long as I can remember, my mom has kept up the tradition of making gingerbread houses. I have failed to keep this up over the last couple of years but this year we were right back on track. It was much fun (altho I stayed on the couch to nurse my never-ending cold).
Erika and her house!
Here's Hailey with hers!And Kelcie with her gingerbread house!

THE COLD
Last but not least, I feel I must comment on the fact that I am on the third round of a cold that will not go away. I just start to feel better - maybe about 80% - and then I relapse into another bad few days of it. I'm sure that my recent sleepless nights have nothing to do with it but if anyone has any suggestions I would greatly appreciate it. I've been using Airborne like crazy but I think my immune system just doesn't want let go of this thing! Eric came down with it and is on the mend and the girls are all in various stages of it - our whole house probably needs to be quarantined and disinfected!

So....there you have it - ketchup. Note to self, blog more frequently so that we all don't have to endure such long blogs!!!