Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a speedy but great trip to Moline for Thanksgiving...
Wednesday with the Andersons
Thursday with the Carletons.
Spent Tuesday and Wednesday night at Joni and Jordan's.

Here's Maddy with one of her birthday gifts from us. Poor girl always has to wait till Thanksgiving to get her presents from us...her birthday is just a week before Thanksgiving.

Katie...I think the last pic I posted of her was one with gum in her mouth, haha.

Wednesday night we went to Phil and Missy's to play Scrabble. It was fun. Charlie cuddled up with us and I thought this would make a good Christmas card photo...if only he was our dog, lol.

Aww!

Missy was giving Becca highlights...and Becca was in slight pain. I caught this snapshot at just the right moment.

Joni and Jordan have a fun dog and Marcus was enjoying playing with him Thanksgiving morning.

Bauer! The big teddy bear... :)

My bro and Marcus after the meal at my parents'...

Me being silly with my little bro.

My sis got in town just as Marcus and I were about to head back to Deerfield. We managed one pic together!

I wish I would've gotten more pics of everyone...it was such a quick visit. I'm ready to do it again for Christmas! Well...not the quick part...but the visit part...

Oh the holidays.

Fun Weekend!

It was a busy, fun-filled weekend! It started off Saturday afternoon with a Mary Kay party at my apartment. It was fun to mix my friends from work, church, Trinity, and family all together at one event. I had a good time and Erica did a great job leading the party.

Becca's black eye...

Now we're getting there, Bec!

Freaky lip stuff and a stellar handband!

Britt picked out some lovely green shadow.

I got this great necklace for hosting the party. I love it!! (It was my inspiration for hosting it, after all)

THEN, after the party, Erica and I headed downtown to my church where there was a Selah and Avalon concert! It was FABULOUS. We went together to a Selah concert awhile back, so it was fun to go again. Can't wait for the next one, E!

THEN, the next day after church Marcus and I went over to Dan's parents house to chill, do homework, watch football (not me so much) and eat pizza. It was loads of fun. After that we came back to our apartment to clean and cook a Thanksgiving dinner! It was fun and ultra yummy. It is our tradition (ever since we've been married and have had siblings at TIU) to host a Thanksgiving dinner with the siblings who live in the area before we all head to Moline and do Thanksgiving there. It's always a lot of fun.

My sis and I in our matching shirts...

Dan loves Marcus.

This is Dan and Brittney making fun of a face I made in a picture taken earlier in the night. Too bad it wasn't on my camera so I don't have the original... :)

Lindsey and I! Finally, a picture together!

Yes, this was my sister's Thanksgiving meal. Good grief. :) JK, love ya, B.

Marcus bought a special beverage...but we didn't have a corkscrew, so here he is trying to invent one literally with a screw and pliers...need I say that it didn't work and he eventually ran up to Walgreens and bought one. :)

The traditional group photo. Sorry it's kind of blurry...blame the timer. Travis and Becca came over late for some dessert and a picture. It was good to have everyone together!

THEN, Monday I worked all day and night (13 hours) and this morning I had conferences, too. I wore my Mary Kay necklace today, so I thought I'd post a pic. :)

Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving! Stay tuned for pics of cute neices, fun families, and FOOD when I get back from Moline. :)

16

16 confirmed cases of whooping cough in our school now. Too bad we're such a huge school, the numbers need to get much bigger before we shut down.

I had a wonderful (busy) weekend- updates coming later...

13

I'm guessing no one cares, but I find it interesting...
there are now 13 confirmed cases of pertussis at my work.

All I have to say is, "Jim Manittly!" (He is a madeup person who Marcus and I blame most strange or annoying things on) I have no idea how to spell it. I can pronounce it for you next time I see you. Sometimes we jokingly call Jim the third member of our family because we call his name a minimum of twice a day. Maybe you won't think that is funny because it's too much of an inside joke. Oh well, I'll take the risk.

:)

Observations

Just thought I'd make some observations...

1. Pertussis (whooping cough) is spreading like wildfire. Eleven confirmed cases in my school alone, three of which are in my classroom, plus one out for a week awaiting test results. It has now spread to the teachers as well. Apparently this is going on throughout our county and surrounding areas. Who knew an illness would become a union issue? Oh the joys of being a union representative at work...
I think you all should get the booster/vaccine. Myself included.

2. I never knew one could drown in homeworkland. Yes, it is a place. And I am drowning in it. Who will rescue me?

3. I was pretty darn sick last week. Now Marcus has the exact thing I had. Poor guy.

4. I am so excited to start using the Promethean Board that is being installed in my room tomorrow. :)

5. Will I ever get to the gym this month?

6. Check out this picture and ponder it:

The Water Bridge in Germany

Weekend Life

This has been a pretty crazy, rough week! I was sick for most of it (still kind of am) and on top that, extremely stressed with the end of the semester for grad school, as well as the end of the trimester at work both coming to a close in less than a month. Way too much to do in way too little time. Add to that the multiple meetings and personal responsibilities we've got in order to prepare for India and you wind up with a crazed Anderson household...just when I thought November would be the calm month of the fall.

Well, last night was a lot of fun. It was the first time I got to see Marcus in the band he joined a few months ago...they performed at a Battle of the Bands contest. This was the final round, consisting of competing bands who have previously won various rounds of this event which took place this summer. It was so great!

They won first place!! It was judged by three judges, American Idol style, as well as the votes of the listeners. It was wonderful. I am very proud of them. They won some moola, which they are going to use to make another recording. Not the best pic...but it shows the whole gang:

After being out until about 1:00 AM (crazy for us!!!), we definitely slept in. We slowly opened our eyes around 11:00, but certainly stayed in bed for at least another hour. The rest of the afternoon was spent very lazily...with Marcus watching some episodes of his new fave show, "The Fringe" on nbc.com...

and me...well, what do you think? Of course, I am doing homework. Constantly.

Even Tanami was feeling "Saturday" today and was lounging around... :)

Tomorrow should be just as crazy as any Sunday with our various responsibilities at church, Marcus's band practice (and me doing homework) in the afternoon, and then back to the city in the evening for an India meeting.

Is it summer yet?

Fall Fell!

This afternoon when I woke up (yes, it was afternoon- I am sick as a dog and there is no school today, thank goodness) I looked out the window and saw that fall fell! These leaves were not covering the ground yesterday when I went to sleep!! Crazy!

Babysitters Extraordinaire!

Last night we had a fun time babysitting for a friend of mine from work. In order to give her and her hubby some much needed time out on the town, Marcus and I offered to watch their fun little girl. Maddie was great! She was so easy going and sweet. We had a fun time with her. Jennifer, call us anytime! :)

This picture was taken at the end of the night just before we put her pajamas on. Don't worry Jennifer, I didn't leave her clothes-less for long. :)

She took Marcus's hat and was playing with it.

For awhile, Marcus was watching TV and she just watched him. He is quite intriguing.

Here we are together. Every time I showed her the pictures of us, she smiled, but then when it was time to take another one, she would stop smiling. This was the best I could capture. :)

Oops, I did it again!

Snip!

A Fun-filled Halloween!

Halloween was very fun this year! At work, our team's theme was candy. Each year we do a theme. I chose Dots, mainly cause I hoped it'd be pretty easy to make. It was. :) My sister decided to come to school for the day and it was SO fun to have her there. The kids loved it and so did I.

She was even willing to get turned into a mummy during one of the games.

After school she met up with her hubby while waiting for Marcus and I to finish work. The four of us went out to Potbelly's for dinner. While we were there, we saw this group of kids who had the most awesome costume. This picture is from my phone, so sorry for the poor quality. I think my team should consider this idea...TETRIS!!!Later, after we came back to our apartment to relax a bit, we were surprised by some adorable trick-or-treaters! Julie and Mike brought Asher and Avery by...so cute!

He was a horse-back riding cowboy and Avery was a little candy-corn.

We had a little down time before the guys left for coffee and the gals left for my orchestra concert at Trinity. We all met up and the concert went great!

Thanks for coming!!

The after-effects of coffee were beginning to kick in...

Which was perfect, because it was time for our first (annual?) pumpkin carving contest! My students are going to judge them. It was Dan's first pumpkin carving experience.

The final products...I'll let you know who wins next week! In the meantime, what do you think?