November in Review

Yo yo yo-

Our big things this month are Jackson's sentence structure, a little snow, and having company during thanksgiving.

Jackson’s language switch just turned on. It wasn’t eventual or step by step, it just went from one-word sentences to multi-word sentences over night. He repeats everything we say and tries hard to use lots of words to tell you or ask you stuff. Still, they are words that probably only his parents can understand, like “mommy FWEE-suh” for Keresa and “JACK-duhs” for Jackson. He usually asks for help by saying, "HepYou?" (help you) and he saw Sydney having a problem that he thought he could help with, so he offered by saying, "HepYou, Me?"

We had a few different snow days. None were more than an inch or so, and only once did it stay over night. This is good snow, you know? No getting stuck in the cabin for a week, no shoveling, no road closures, no school closures – oh wait, they still close schools even when there is only a light dusting. In fact, it snowed on a Tuesday and the next day, Wednesday, it was all melted. When Keresa tried to drop off Sydney at school on Wednesday, there was nobody in the parking lot. So she called the teacher and she said, “Oh yeah, its cancelled because it snowed yesterday.” It was the kind of revelation that makes you think, “Oh yeah! Of course! How could I have missed that?!”

Keresa’s parents and some siblings met us for Thanksgiving. It was a lot of fun. The boys swam and relaxed, the girls shopped and relaxed, the kids played games and relaxed, and we all … relaxed. For Thanksgiving we made a smoked spiral cut ham, and by ‘made’ I mean warmed up. It was a very nice and easy Thanksgiving dinner with plenty of leftovers still. In honor of the South, we made cornbread stuffing, which was delicious and Southy. That break ended with one of Keresa’s sisters staying so she can go to the cosmetology school here in Appalachia. Its much cheaper and shorter than the schools in Vegas and she will learn all the stuff to take the test and transfer her licensure back to Nevada. So we welcome Sherri for the next several months and hope she can handle the slow paced Appalachia lifestyle after living in Vegas. :)

Two weeks of finals, then three weeks of break for Christmas. Funners!