I Can Never Think of an Interesting Title... (November)

November was a pretty busy month for us, especially as it drew to a close (but more about that later). We did a lot of fun things during the first half. First two-thirds?
Emily came up (over? down?) from Virden several times and we made ornaments (salt dough and gingerbread), gingerbread houses, and other messes. The kids had a blast with each activity, and I actually enjoyed getting to paint some ornaments. Props to my mom for baking all the pieces for the gingerbread houses and getting all the supplies together. If it was up to me, it probably wouldn't have ever happened... That is why my children have grandmothers, (and an aunt who loves crafts!) I guess...

One of the days Emily was there my Grandma came over to let us all give her birthday wishes. She had just gotten her hair done, and looked so cute that we had to take pictures with her!

We've been enjoying getting to see David and Nicole once or twice a week while we lived there. They came down to do laundry, so they would spend several hours there at a time. I can't believe they've been married for like 9 months now!

I spent one of the first weeks of November feelings pretty awful with a terrible sore throat. I never had any fever, or really body aches or any other problems except some headache and a nasty-looking and -feeling throat. Of course it got the worst on Sunday and I didn't end up getting in to get it looked at until Monday afternoon. I had a very positive strep test! :(

(don't worry, this is not MY strep test...)

I haven't had strep since I was like 13, but was paranoid I was going to give it to everyone else. Surprisingly, no one else ever got it! I was pretty grateful for that, and for penicillin. We really try to avoid antibiotics (As a family, we've only taken 2-3, I think, in the last 6-7 years) but I am so thankful that they exist! It took several days before I was feeling back to mostly normal, probably since it got so bad before I was able to get it cultured and start killing it with drugs. I really had been trying everything else I could think of (no sugar, plenty of vitamin D and fish oil, doTerra essential oils, both topically and internally!) Maybe that's one reason I didn't feel too bad other than my throat. Who knows. I'm just glad it's over!
With all the packing and getting ready to move to Mesa, (especially since my parents decided they might want to sell their house, and feel like they've been storing our extra stuff long enough) I went through several of my old toys. The kids were pretty excited that I let them play with some of them, though I admit I was a little overprotective. Anything I still have (especially with 4 younger siblings) is something I carefully protected and packed away... Here is Reilly with the littlest pet shop-type toys I made out of Model Magic and painted about 15 years ago, and all of the kids with some of my Grand Champion model horses and the barn that I assembled and painted myself...

Thanksgiving weekend was great this year!! We had all of my family there on Thanksgiving. Well, except for Jeremy. :( He was up in Mesa and had already started on of his part-time jobs and had to work (in Mesa) the night before Thanksgiving until late and then the night OF Thanksgiving for the Black Friday sales. So he didn't come down for the actual day of Thanksgiving. (But he came down late Friday night so we were all together Saturday).

Thanksgiving morning my dad, me, and all my siblings (and Sophie!) did the Pima Turkey Trot. It was almost too warm! (in my opinion) I didn't get a very fast time (41 minutes) but I DID jog (obviously slowly) for 95% of that! It was my 2nd 5k (the first was before Katy was born) and I hope that I can keep doing them here and there.

The rest of the day was pretty crazy. My kid had slept at their other grandparents, so after we finally got home after the race and I hurried to shower, I went and picked them up and made it back just in time to eat. All the food was SO delicious, especially Emily's homemade rolls and my Grandma's chicken stuffing!
 A few hours later we ate a 2nd Thanksgiving dinner with Jeremy's family, and it was super yummy too! Both turkeys were pit-roasted, which is my absolute favorite way to have turkey! We were stuffed and kind of laid low that night...

The Friday after Thanksgiving I signed our lease (we're renting from someone that lives in Pima) we had a Batty family reunion in the afternoon. It was also pretty low-key, but nice to see and visit with some people we don't see often otherwise. My kids had a blast outside playing in the leaves with their second-cousins-once-removed... (I think that's right - they're sons of my dad's cousin)

That afternoon we put up my parents' Christmas tree. The kids thought that was great. And my parents thought it was great because they didn't have to do it! That evening I took the little ones back up to Jeremy's parents and put them to bed there before turning around and going back. We stayed up too late and played some hilarious games together, which is something we hadn't really done before. It was really fun, except my mom kind of injured her back during the last few rounds of "Do You Love Your Neighbor?". It's crazy that we have enough adults to play things like that...

It was nice to have Jeremy there on Saturday. I was sick again and stressing out that it was (still) strep and that I was infecting everyone. Thankfully, whatever it was, my body killed it off and I was feeling much better by Sunday. At this point we didn't know it, but we were starting to pass around a little tummy bug (not a bad one), which is why this picture has everyone but Jason in it. (He was trying to be comatose in the basement). I'm glad no one was very sick until the end, and glad that we were all able to be together. It was the first time since March (for David & Nicole's wedding) and weddings are always a little or a lot crazy, so it was our first chance to hang out together. I'm so glad that we all (mostly) live in the same state right now and can see each other more and not miss out on things.