Happy Birthday Stef!

This is Kevin highjacking the blog. Happy Birthday Stef! I just wanted to tell everyone in the whole world wide web what a wonderful wife and mother you are.

Love you,
Kevin

Thanks!

I have more time than usual on my hands since I'm here in Idaho and don't have an apartment to clean, dinners to make, a child to take care of (I love grandparents), cub scouts to prepare for, errands to run, or a husband to run to and from school. With the spirit of Thanksgiving I have been thinking about how grateful I am to be so happy. I phrase it this way because even though we:

• had two E.R. visits within a month
• had to say goodbye to our wonderful friends in Pittsburgh
• have had a hard time making friends in Denver
• (I) had to leave the perfect job
• feel the pain of only having one car because pinky (Kev's bike) is recovering from a car accident
• are up to our eyeballs in student loans
• are equipped with an epi-pen in case Ry goes into anaphylactic shock

I am happy.

It is all relative because I know we have it easy. This brings me to why I'm really doing my Thanksgiving post. I know so many great examples of others who have been dealt seriously tough times, bad news, or unfortunate events, and have only grown and shown others that it is our choice to push forward and be happy. I want to say Thank You to these people that could be wallowing in self pity or be bitter because of their circumstances, but instead are examples of faithful, hopeful, strong individuals.

Internet At Last!

I'm so excited to welcome myself to this century and announce we caved and got internet. Rylee is feeling the affects of it now seeing that I planted her in front of a movie with some cheerios. Hopefully once I'm caught up on the e-mails and blogs I can be a good mother again. So here are a few pics. from our past couple weeks.

Ry was a ballerina for Halloween, and she has learned to do balance', battement, tendu, and second position.

Grandpa and Grandma McMinn came for a visit!

Ry, so helpful in the kitchen when helping mom clean up.

One of the pics below is of Ry's 'bonk', and we actually had another more serious 'bonk' and E.R. visit a couple weeks ago. Luckily (I mean that the nicest way possible) this time Kev was the victim and not Rylee. Let me paint a picture for you: Kev rides his bike to school everday. Two Fridays ago he was on his usual route to school, in a designated bike lane, going with the flow of traffic. A woman driving in the opposite direction attempted to make a left turn into a parking lot, and unfortunately she did not see Kev on 'Pinky' (Kev's bike). Kev and pinky crashed into the front passenger side of the woman's car, flew over the top of the car, and landed on the pavement. I make light of it now because besides a major gash on Kev's knee, he was remarkably ok. I'm so thankful for the safety we are blessed with! Some may think "safety, your husband was hit by a car", but the fact that he insisted on still going to school that day and will suffer no long term injuries...I'm grateful for our safety! On a funnier note, this lady called Kev later that day to see if he was ok, and to see if he noticed the major damage he caused with his body to her car...suggesting that perhaps it was Kev's fault because after all he did hit her car. I'm glad I can laugh at this because that's CRAZY!!!!!

still no wifi, but a quick update

It has been sad the past couple weeks to not be able to look at other people blogs, so I have to quickly catch up on other peoples' lives here at the library while ry runs around like a crazy woman. Ry's head is much better, but once in a while she will remember her 'bonk' and be a little sad. Not much is new with us...without pics. I feel like I have nothing to post. Ry finally received a long overdue hair cut, actually we just trimmed the mullet and I don't know why I waited so long. Don't get me wrong, it still resembles a mullet, but to a lesser degree.

We are SO excited to go home for Thanksgiving. There is a lot going on during the week of Thanksgiving besides visiting family. Here is a list of activities that I anticipate will be the highlight of my November:

1. First, obviously, Thanksgiving dinner!!!!! (Not to mention a break from being responsible for dinners the whole week)
2. Twilight movie and my date with Maja to go see it!
3. Harry Potter movie!!! (Kev and I will finally have a babysitter and will be able to go to the movie)
4. My birthday, although Kev won't be there for it.
5. Grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles
6. Daily access to the internet
7. Grandpa Hank's big birthday bash!
8. Lots of Ticket to Ride hopefully (we haven't played for months)

Now I need to quickly peruse everyones' blogs!