Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow - it's been a great week. Of course, it helps that we had a four-day weekend with the holiday. We were very grateful for the extra days off as we needed a break and time to relax. Though, "relax" is probably not the right word since we kept busy all weekend!

Kim's brother got home from college on Tuesday night, so we spent quite a bit of time at her parents house. Mike really liked the bedroom we decorated for him, so that was a relief.

Thursday was turkey day, and Kim's mom made quite the feast. Before we were allowed to sit down, we had to get a group photo - I think the last one we have of the five of us is from our wedding!

After we ate, we worked on our annual Thanksgiving puzzle. We finished in record time (well, at least for us) - completing the 1,000 piece puzzle by the time we went home that night!



On Friday, we started our office renovation project. We've never been happy with that room, as it was one that just got 'thrown together' when we moved in. We had intentions of fixing it...but just never got around to it. Well, by noon on Friday, the room had been cleared out, taped and had a first coat of paint on it. We put on a second coat after lunch and moved the furniture back in. We still have some decorating to do (not to mention going through piles of "stuff"), but it's already an improvement.



On Friday night, we met up with a bunch of college friends - the old 438 crew. We had a great time seeing everyone and catching up - though it really felt like we hadn't been apart! Hopefully we'll be able to get together again next time everyone is in town for a holiday.

Today was Operation Christmas. We finished putting up the lights outside, set up the tree and put up all our inside decorations. It's pretty fabulous, if we do say so ourselves:



Current gas price: $2.57/gallon

It's beginning to look a lot like...Thanksgiving

Yesterday, we went to watch the OSU/Michigan game at a friend's house. Kim wore green (to show her neutrality...she wanted to wear a shirt with the Swiss flag on it, but alas, no luck), and Eric wore his Michigan shirt (brave man). Fortunately, the buffalo chicken dip we took with us was a huge hit, so I think everyone was (mostly) willing to overlook Eric's allegiance. ha.

Today, we put up several paint samples in the office and decided on one (we think). We're hoping to clean out the room and paint it over the long weekend - keep your fingers crossed. We'll end up needing to rearrange some things in the room, get new curtains and get a bookshelf before it's "finished", but doing anything in there will be an improvement!

Since it was unseasonably warm today (50s), we also decided to suck it up and get the exterior Christmas lights up. (The 10-day weather forecast shows rain and cold weather next weekend, and we decided we'd must rather be on the roof today than next weekend). Fear not, though - we only hung up the roof lights, and we're not turning anything on until after Thanksgiving.

Current gas price: $2.54/gallon

Go Flyers!

It was a great week(end) for the Flyers: big wins by women's soccer, volleyball, football, women's basketball and yes, men's basketball. We were in our new seats at the season opener, and it was awesome - as always. The first half was a bit nerve-wracking, but we came out strong in the second half and put up a big win. Hopefully this is a good sign of things to come this season!

The rest of week - pretty much same old, same old. We met friends on Wednesday night, went out to dinner on Friday night, raked the last of the leaves on Saturday morning and started Christmas shopping today.

Current gas price: $2.45/gallon

We are fam-i-ly

What. A. Gorgeous. Weekend. It felt like early May instead of early November...wouldn't that be nice! While we were in B'ton for the weekend, we still did our best to take advantage of the beautiful weather.

After lunch on Saturday, we (Mom, Addison and Melissa, Peanut and us) headed out for a hike along the trail by their house. Seems like everyone else in town had the same idea as we passed many bikers, walkers and their furry friends.

Peanut was very excited about the weather and all the people, so Kim spent a lot of the "walk" running sprints to tire him out. It worked...about 2.5 miles into the hike...and Peanut needed to take a breather, so we took a break and rested.



But Peanut was still a little winded (think doggie asthma attack), so Addison let him ride in her stroller for a bit.



After the 5 mile stroll, we headed home, tired but glad to have done something outside!



Peanut and Addison were very cute together. He loved to follow her around and wanted nothing more to plant kisses on her face - which she wasn't so sue about! As for the rest of the weekend, we played cards (Kim won), went to church, went out to brunch and watched part of the Bears game before declaring it a lost cause.

Current gas price: $2.59/gallon.

Trick or Treat!

Not much to report this week, so this will be a quick entry. Saturday was trick-or-treating, and we had a good number of kids come to the door. Someone also kicked in our pumpkin (jerk), but at least we got a picture before we put it outside.



Kim felt under the weather today (really bad cold, it appears), so she spent most of the day on the couch (and finished Eclipse, the third book in the Twilight saga) while Eric watched football and replaced the rotten trim under the window outside.

Gas price: $2.61/gallon

The game that shall live in infamy

Last week seemed really busy at the time, but of course, we don't remember why now. So, we'll just assume it was really interesting. (Actually, I think it was more like: work late, work late, grocery shopping, pick-up basketball). But we'll leave it to your imagination instead.

Eric's parents, as well as Matt, came to visit for the weekend. On Saturday, Eric and his dad installed a new water heater for the house (which turned into an all day project), while the rest of us relaxed (I mean, supervised the home improvement project) and did some shopping.

Early on Sunday, Eric hung out with his family while Kim went to Laura's first birthday party. She was sound asleep for most of the party - and seemed very surprised at all of the people who mysteriously appeared in the house!


We went to the Bears vs. Bengals game on Sunday afternoon...but that's not a game we really want to mention. Good thing we took these smiling pictures before the game!



Current gas price: $2.51/gallon

Painting = success!

We did it - the exterior trim is completely painted! Even the 20 foot peaks. (Thanks in part to the handy extension pole we borrowed from Kim's mom and dad). We looked pretty goofy - standing on a 10 foot A-frame ladder with a 20-foot extension pole, but hey, it got the job done. We're hoping to be out of this house before it needs to be painted again...and with any luck, we'll move into a house where they've just painted so we don't have to!

Yesterday, Kim walked 3.1 miles for the American Cancer Society's Making Strides for Breast Cancer walk. She went with two of her coworkers, and walked the loop across the river and around downtown with several thousand other people. It was a very neat experience - and great exercise early in the morning!

While Kim was walking, Eric went over to her dad's to work on a woodworking project (insert manly grunt here). The two of them are building a workbench for dad's garage, and Eric really enjoyed playing with all the power tools we don't own.

It was c-o-l-d here this week, so we're looking forward to seeing temps in the low 60s return this week. Might as well enjoy it while we can!

Current gas price: $2.55/gallon