Saturday, November 28, 2015

Happy Thanksgiving



Hello Family and Friends - We are alive!  I can't believe it has been almost a month since my last posting. Crazy?!?  If I'm really honest with you all, I would say that I have been dealing with some mild depression which has taken the joy out of doing the things I enjoy such as taking photographs and writing. I'm thankful that the depression I deal with is mild and can be managed with some easy strategies as long as I'm willing to make time to follow them.  That is why with this Thanksgiving season, I'm thankful for friends and family who love and support me through all the different seasons of life.  Even while I deal with the depression, life does continue to go on and boy is it keeping us busy!!

Papa finished his football season as state champions! We are so proud of his dedication to assist the head coach and young players.  Now he's in full swing with wrestling season and looking forward to a much needed coaching break over Christmas as track season doesn't get started until March.   We did enjoy an unexpected snow day this month!


What started out as a delayed start for school turned into school being cancelled due to extremely icy roads. We were perfectly happy to stay home and enjoy some family time playing in the fresh snow!


Dessa and I also enjoyed the fresh snow by breaking trail on our early morning walk. Such fun to have a dog in the house again! I love that she is my alarm clock to get our morning walk in. One of the ways I keep in good spirits is by having daily physical exercise.  Early mornings may be dark - but the peace of very little traffic is worth waking up to enjoy our walks.




In addition to our fresh snow, we also had a very deep cold snap for this area. Below zero temperatures showed us real quick some of the quirks of our new house - such as how drafty the windows are.  Yep - that's frost growing from the inside screen to the outdoors due to the warm air escaping.  Sigh... thankfully we have new windows on the way to be installed over Christmas break. 




As we moved into the end of the month, we were so thankful to have Grandma Julie come up for a week long visit. So special to spend the holidays with family.  Grandpa wasn't able to come up this time, but we hope he will next time.   We loved wearing our Packer gear to cheer them on Thanksgiving night - we'll just need to cheer a little louder next time and hopefully get the win!



The kids loved having Grandma read to them, play games and bake some Thanksgiving goodies. 




We even had a little dance party one night!

It was a wonderful week full of special memories. 


With Grandma safely back in Wisconsin, we resume the craziness of our life. Bath tub crayons are the best and super easy to clean up by the way.  Ha, ha - these two crack me up daily!
 
  Looking forward to enjoying the rest of the weekend - even if it has rained and took all our snow away - sigh... winter is not over yet!  
Thankful for so many blessings in my life and looking foward to the Christmas season. 
Much love to you all









Sunday, November 1, 2015

Happy Halloween!



No spooky skies this past week - all amazing sunrises and sunsets. I had to pause my lesson and just allow the kiddos to take in this view one morning this past week. I love this time of year - we have some pretty amazing skies. 


With Papa's crazy coaching schedule (the football team won state - yahoo! and now it's wrestling season) we found time to carve our pumpkins and it was before Halloween (ha,ha...)

Sister loves getting messy

Brother on the other hand is still not too sure about pulling the goop out of the pumpkins. At least this year he tried - last year he wouldn't even consider it.




We (the adults) had fun carving an owl for Sister and

scary tree for Brother.


We had a great Halloween full of Trunk or Treat at church, a yummy dinner with our friend and then some trick or treating around the neighborhood.  
 
 
Dessa continues to adjust to her new life. She's feeling more and more at home each day. So thankful we rescued this sweet pup and also thankful for our dog trainer who is working with us on helping Dessa not have so much fear/anxiety around other dogs.  She's making great progress and I look forward to the days when we can have friends and their doggies come visit us. 
 
Happy November 1st - 18 days and counting until Grandma Julie comes for Thanksgiving! So looking forward to her visit!  Until next time - be present in every moment, for these moments will make lasting memories - love you all!