Tuesday, November 27, 2007

bridges, natives, and thanksgiving

First, I have a photo from our family Thanksgiving gathering in Alabama. This photo is of Grace and Alana (her cousin who is five weeks older) outside of my parent's home. Can you tell how much fun these two have together? They are constantly laughing and giggling through the day. We get asked if they are twins when we are out together because they seem so connected. Just one of the million reasons I have to be thankful.



I really should post more often. These catch up posts are stressful. The past few weeks have been extremely fast paced. I can't believe I declared October the busiest time of the year for our family. November 2007 may have just surpassed that mark. No complaints though. Mostly good things have happened this month.

Dave went out of town on business for two weeks. We missed him horribly, but I can honestly say that we appreciate him more than ever now. During that two weeks I accepted a part time position with our church and managed to make it to all the pre Thanksgiving school activities. I've enjoyed my new job. I am helping manage and market some projects which include several counseling centers and mission efforts. My manager is actually my minister. That's been a little different to the other jobs I've held. The flexibility is beautiful...and with our crazy family schedule it seems the right fit right now. I struggled with wanting to work a fast paced position in an advertising or media agency downtown, but honestly I could have barely made it to pick up everyone before bedtime. Traffic is a bear around here so I really count this new job as a blessing. I'm hoping to take a few extra contracts from time to time.

One of Jordan's classes held a Bridge Breaking Competition. It was truly one of the most exciting school events I have been to in a long time. Each "company" of four built a bridge out of toothpicks and wood glue. It was mounted on a board in a certain way which allowed the teacher to hang a bucket off of the center of the bridge. The teacher then added sandbags of 2 lb., 1 lb., or half pound increments. Another teacher kept up with the results on a big tally sheet. We were all gathered around in the media center watching each team's creation reach the breaking point. One held 4 pounds. Several held 17 or 18 pounds. And the highest was 25.5 pounds...until Jordan's team, The Bridge Busters, managed to hold 38 pounds! The teacher ran out of weights at 33 pounds and makeshift weights had to be used for the final verdict. It was so suspenseful. If you look very carefully in this obscure photo you will see Jordan in a red t-shirt with her back to the camera and the famous bridge between two chairs in the background.



The next day William's kindergarten group celebrated with a Thanksgiving Feast. In addition to the thanksgiving food served in the lunchroom his class made butter, bread, cranberry cubes, and pumpkin pie together. They were all so cute in their Indian vests. William choose Little Fox as his Indian name. (And yes, that is a corndog on his plate...apparently it was the popular alternative offered that day. I can't ever recall having a choice in my old school lunchroom, can you? Especially on Thanksgiving!)



Did I mention that Grace fell while we were at William's basketball practice and needed three stitches? Dave missed every bit of that excitement. Never a dull moment, right? ;-)

5 comments:

Caroline said...

Hi Ann,
Sounds busy, but fun. Tom was out of town the weekend before Thanksgiving. I am working too. I have been since September. I am working for Edible Arrangements, so if you ever need a fruit bouquet call me and I can run it through my store and I get credit for it. Hope you guys have a great rest of the year. I am glad to hear you have such a flexible work schedule, it is so important when you have kids.

Caroline said...

the pictures are finally up yeah

Ann said...

Thanks Caroline. ;-)

Have you decided about the reunion trip in June? I'm looking forward to seeing everyone.

Caroline said...

Yes, we are coming, I am in process of getting plane tickets and getting the hotel set up I found a hotel that close to the hotel everyone else is staying at, I am a bit frugal so spending money on a place where I am only gonig to sleep seems not smart. But we are planning on coming, I only have a week off then I have to be back at work.

Caroline said...

My world got a bit exciting this afternoon. Alia got bit by a dog.