Current Gas Price: $2.96 Total Cockroach Count: 4 (saw one in our bedroom! EEK!)
Hello to our dear family! I cannot believe that we are updating our blog already! It seems like just yesterday I was sending out the one for October and now it's already December! Wow! November may have been one of the fastest months we've ever experienced! I'm sure that y'all will love this post though because it is filled with pictures of the most wonderful people we know...YOU! It was so marvelous to see all of you and spend time with you two weeks ago. As we were talking on the ride home (the rainy ride home) we realized that we had, in some ways, been kind of proud that we had not felt homesick since we moved down here...but after spending a week with y'all we realized how much we really do miss you! Whether we're eating delicious Indian food with Dad and Lynn, relaxing/making beeswax candles with all the Haldermans, or making astronauts helmets with Debs at John and Kim's, y'all are wonderful to be around and we truly enjoy each and every one of you! Thank you for a wonderful Thanksgiving vacation!
The month of November was fairly uneventful in the beginning. In fact, I think we were just doing the usual daily grind of working, eating, and sleeping for the first several weeks. I did take a little day trip with a committee that I am a part of at work called SALT (Supportive Assistive Learning Team) to the Washington Center (http://greenville.k12.sc.us/washctr/). The Washington Center, although a part of the Greenville Public School District is a public school specifically serving moderately to severely mentally or physically disabled students. It was SO cool to see some of the things that they do there and it gave us some great ideas!
Then after that, it was time for the birthday celebrations to begin! My friend Clory's birthday is November 10th so we had a birthday dinner with the Fousts and Ringenbergs to celebrate both of our birthdays. We went to this restaurant in Abbeville called "The Village Grill." It's one of the nicer local restaurants around!
Birthday dinner in Greenwood!
After that was an uneventful week of work and we headed to O-H-I-O to see all of you! We began the week with a birthday celebration at John and Kim's house with Libby, Dad and Lynn. Unfortunately, John and Kim were unable to participate in our second "get-together" with Dad and Lynn which took place later that week at our favorite Indian restaurant in Columbus. We used to meet up with Dad and Lynn there about every month before we moved. We miss seeing you and I miss eating Libby's tikka masala! Hee hee!
John's birthday is on December 1st so we had a triple birthday party for Libby, John, and me! Here we are blowing out our candles. Kim made an amazing red velvet cake that was the best I've ever tasted!
See how fresh and rejuvenated we look? It's because the drive from South Carolina is so easy!
You should try it sometime :)
Birthday celebration with Dad & Lynn!
After that we headed to the Halderman farm and enjoyed two days of doing nothing. Although our parents still had to go to work, we really enjoyed simply reading, watching Wes' baby videos, and napping on their couch! We had planned to do some more things outside but the dreary weather just made it that much easier to stay inside and do nothing! After that, we headed back to Columbus for dinner at Aab. After dinner, Wesley went to see J. Edgar at the movies by himself while Libby and I stopped by Bravo for a Lemontini before going to see Twilight: Breaking Dawn. Wes enjoyed his movie and despite being completely grossed out at the vampire-birth scene Libs and I enjoyed Twilight. :)
I finally got to try one of Libby's favorite Lemontinis!
On Wednesday we spent the day catching up with friends in Columbus. I had breakfast with my high school friends and lunch with my college friends while Wes had breakfast with Nate Richards and lunch with Logan. That night we headed out for a night on the town with Wes' friends from high school. Currently, this group consists of people living in Akron, Columbus, Boston, New York City, and Greenwood...so it was a miracle we could all get together! Before going to dinner we went to Middle West Spirits (http://www.middlewestspirits.com/) for a tour and tasting. We had an "okay" time. Even though the tour was informative and the drinks delicious (relatively speaking) we were 30 minutes late for our dinner reservation because the tour took two and half hours! Yikes!
From left: Tom & Sarah Porto, Jayme & Aaron Huber
Wesley and I with Andy Lawler trying our samples of Middle West Spirits.
From left: Ryan & Michelle Bundenthal, Sarah & Tom Porto, at dinner!
Wesley and I at Lindey's.
After that, it was officially THANKSGIVING! We started our Thanksgiving festivities at John and Kim's house in Cincinnati. We celebrated with Kim's family, the Pienings, and I must say that our families seem to fit together like peas and carrots! Perhaps it's because Libby and I are girls and Kim is one of four sisters (so there are a lot of girls) but I just feel like I've known them for years! John was up to his usual ways in the kitchen and he and Kim made an amazing meal for us! John was also up to his usual ways when he informed us that we'd be making astronaut helmets to win our dessert! This needs some explanation: Libby's boyfriend, Craig, works for NASA and this was his first time meeting us. So naturally, John asked him if he could bring some astronaut ice cream for dessert. Then John told us that we all had to make astronaut helmets out of household products to try and win the ice cream...and Craig had to chose a winner and a loser. This may sound silly to you but John has a gift for making people get excited about dumb ideas and before you know it we were all taping foil around our heads! Haha, it was an enjoyable evening activity!
Ready to eat our turkey!
Libby and Craig (before he realized he'd be judging the helmet contest!)
Video of us making our astronaut helmets! Enjoy!
Our astronaut helmets.
All of us wearing our astronaut helmets. Winner: Trish Piening (on my right), Loser: Kim
Later that evening, we sadly said our goodbyes and headed back to Dayton for Thanksgiving with the Haldermans. This Thanksgiving proved to be just as eventful as we ate more than we should, had a "boat" race in a creek, attempted to make beeswax candles, and played touch-walking football.
Turkey Day! Nice Ben...
Dana and I walking in Shawnee Prairie Preserve.
Wes has told me before about how he and his family used to have "boat" races when they would go to parks and stuff but this was my first time actually participating! Basically, everyone picks out something that they want to "race" with and they launch them at some point along a creek and everyone cheers on their "boat" until someone wins. Haha, it was so cute and totally want to do this with our kids! Unfortunately, I lost...big time! Enjoy!
Discussing my "winning" boat.
Our boat race. Unfortunately, Logan fell in the creek while he was launching some of the boats. It was not a comfortable walk back to the car for him!
Logan's muddy pants and soaking boots :(
Enjoy this video of us making our beeswax candles!
Our beeswax candles! Unfortunately, they didn't turn out because we think there was still too much honey left in them or something. So we're going to try it again another day!
After that, it was time to head back to South Carolina, which by now seemed very far away! But we did it! We tore ourselves from all of you, our dear loved ones, and are now simply looking forward to when we will see you again! Luckily, its not that far away!
