November

November felt wonderful. It was finally cooling off and I loved it! I traded our older double jogger in for a newer single, and Shawn and I took lots of walks. We spent more time outside, and enjoyed the almost-fall weather.

Jeremy was really sweet and put kids to bed two Saturday nights in a row while I drove out to Maricopa with my parents and brother, Phil, to watch Spencer's play off and championship football games. Pima took the Division V (what used to be 1A) state championship, which was really exciting. The only sad part of that whole football-extravaganza was when I realized my phone was missing during the playoff game and finally discovered it two stories below, on the concrete, where it had fallen from my jacket pocket in the bleachers. Amazingly, it wasn't damaged, aside from a shattered screen...

On Veteran's Day the kids were out of school and wanted to do something fun. I took them to Tumbleweed Park in Chandler (which was a madhouse), and then we braved the Chandler Mall, and visited the Lego Store, Build-a-Bear, and the Disney Store. All sorts of craziness.

We spent a large portion of the month (and December, and parts of October and January) at the Budo Shingikan Japanese School of Martial Arts. There was a Groupon for a 10-week trial and we wanted to see if martial arts would make a difference for a few of our kids' impulse control and frustration. They have a great program there, and all three kids were in the same class, which is the only way we could have managed it, since they were supposed to go at least twice a week, and it was a 15-20 minute drive each way. They really enjoyed it, and if it had made a big difference, we would have tried to figure out a way to keep it going, even though the tuition for multiple children added up to a small car payment every month. Even though we didn't see many changes, we could see the value in it and we're trying to figure out if it was something we could swing.

This year we drove down to Pima for Thanksgiving, along with Emily and Phil's family. We really missed David & Nicole, who were stuck at home in Kentucky, getting ready to welcome their second baby. Reilly and I had signed up to do the Turkey Trot (5K) but our training had been a little lagging, and we did way more walking than jogging. Thanksgiving dinner was delicious, even without pit-roasted turkey this year. I had to drown my sorrows with pecan pie, chocolate silk pie, and delicious cheesecake.:) it was fun to be together with everyone, if a bit chaotic. There was one particular night I think very few people got much sleep. I had also come down with a rather nasty cold a day or two before We headed down to Pima, so that put a little damper on things. Thankfully everyone else was mostly healthy.

We came back Saturday so we could be ready to put all of our Christmas decorations up on Sunday. Sunday's are crazy around here, especially since Jeremy has a lot of EQ responsibilities, so by the time we got to it it was a bit rushed, but it got done. Another slight expectations vs. reality. Those happen fairly often, but I've found it helps when I label them that way and push forward. :)

November ended with a bit of a bang when we found out that we were (very unexpectedly) expecting our 5th child. The way it all worked out, it's very obvious that this baby was in "the Plan," even if we hadn't been read in on it. It did help us make our decision about continuing martial arts. The way my pregnancies go, there was no way I would be able keep up the twice-a-week classes across town. And Jeremy stays pretty busy between working on his chiropractic business and EQ responsibilities. Not something that would fit in this year! When we have a baby, it kind puts us out of commission for about 18 months in many ways...