First Thanksgiving

Amelia was so excited for Thanksgiving Day. She loved watching Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade - the Sesame Street float was her favorite.

We went to Grandpa Ernie's house for Thanksgiving, which Amelia was excited about, but she was so tired, she slept through dinner. Thank goodness for leftovers - she enjoyed mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes that evening.

On Saturday after Thanksgiving, we went to hunt for the perfect Christmas tree. It didn't take too long before Amelia was all smiles when we found the right tree.

Ken did his manly duties and cut down the tree . . . with tips from his lovely used-to-live-on-a-tree-farm wife.

We got the tree cut down before the sun set and headed home to get it on a stand (decorations and lights to happen later).

Moving Adventures

"Hey Amelia, are you excited to move?"

"I'm excited Mom!"

I said good-bye to all of my friends at Mommy's work - the potluck was great!

I watched Mommy and Daddy build bigger and bigger piles of boxes in our house.

I played my shaker toys to keep them motivated while they packed and stacked.

I watched Grandpa Ernie and Dad try to get our moving truck ready to go. It looked pretty complicated.

They finally got the car on - that was a little scary to watch.

And there it is - our 26 foot truck with Daddy's car on-tow. I'm glad I didn't have to drive it. Mommy kept asking, how is Ernie going to get in/out of this parking lot? And Daddy would say, "he's Ernie, he can do anything." Thanks Grandpa for helping us move.

Just as I was falling asleep, Mom & Dad decided to stop at Red Canyon, just outside of Bryce National Park. It was pretty, but cold.

After a stop in Hyde Park to visit Grandpa & Grandpa Thornley, and loading more stuff in our truck, we finally made it to our new house in Washington. Come back again to see pictures of our new house.

Teaser - I got my own room! No more sleeping in the closet. Thanks Mom & Dad!

Weather Event

On Sunday, it started to snow. It snowed off and on all day on Monday. It's all over the news. Our regularly scheduled programs are replaced with weather news, for up to the minute updates.

This morning I shoveled 1 inch of snow off of our driveway.

(Sorry for the poor quality picture - the sun is really bright.)

The news is calling it a "weather event". I say, "it wouldn't be an event if this area actually had sufficient snow plows and planned for such "events" as this".

But not to be too cynical, Ken couldn't make it more than a few miles from our house due to the ice on the road. He had to come back and put chains on. It really is a sheet of ice underneath that 1 inch of snow. That's what makes it "fun".

Random Randomness

* I had lots of fun blogs in mind in connection w/ our move. Then reality struck - maybe I'll post pictures and fun blogs later. For now, you get random thoughts.

* Amelia started crawling the day before we moved. It's been "fun" keeping her out of things.

* Ficus plants DO NOT like cold weather and DO NOT like to be moved. DO NOT try moving a ficus in the winter. It looks pretty sad, but I'm still hoping it will pull through. Ken isn't so optimistic.

* I miss having a garbage disposal.

* I love living in a house - no neighbors walking on our ceiling, or talking to their friends from their balcony.

* I miss the large bathroom/ shower we had in our small condo.

* GPS devices are worth the cost. Not only do they give good directions, but they also come in very handy when trying to find restaurants, etc.

* The Hong Kong Chinese restaurant in Fillmore has great Chinese food.

* Taking 4 days to drive a 23-hour route is well worth it.

* We thought the train in Flagstaff was loud - we now know what loud is. Our house is about 500 ft. from the train tracks . . . and an intersection where the train blows it's whistle.

* It's hard not to be overwhelmed with all there is to do when you move. I almost feel guilty taking a break to blog. Almost.

Hair Today Gone Tomorrow

So my thyroid medication is working . . . I have energy in the evenings (so I really have no excuse why I'm not packing), my thinking is less foggy, and things have almost returned to normal.

Almost

Except for my hair. Back in July I noticed I was losing a lot of hair - blamed it on having a baby and hormones, etc. Then it wasn't so bad. And now it is way worse (apparently it's a supposedly temporary side-effect of the thyroid medication). I keep wondering when I'm going to go bald. Ken promises he'll love me even if I do go bald, but I'm not sure I can love myself.

I've always been a bit vain about my hair, except for back in the middle school years when my hair was just plain big - but then, who's wasn't? My hair was the one feature that always seemed to be decent.

And now. Well, it's hard for me to not cry into my bottle of shampoo. I told Ken I was going to get bangs to make my hair loss less noticeable. Ya know what he said? He'd rather have me bald than have bangs. Really? Wow, that is true love :)

A break from packing

Yes, we've actually been packing. And when I say "we", I mean Ken. He's been awesome. I come home from work each day to find more and more of our home packed up. When he's not packing, he's been filling in holes, painting, fixing broken things we've ignored for years, grocery shopping, setting up utilities, dealing with re-financing headaches, and taking care of Amelia. All I have to do is go to work each day and train my replacement.

So today, Ken played his last Arizona gig - this time at a hotel at the Grand Canyon. He deserved the break from all the hard work he's been doing for the last week or so. And me? Well, I didn't want to stay at home and feel pressured to pack, so Amelia and I went with Ken to the Grand Canyon for the gig. The best part - free dinner and a free hotel. Ken's band played in the hotel's restaurant, and when Amelia got tired of "dancing" and "singing" to the music, she and I headed upstairs to our hotel room for the evening. What a perfect situation.

And for those of you who think I'm a slacker for not helping with the packing - I completely agree with you. I've packed a total of 4 boxes. Maybe I'll pack more next week . . .