Where did November go???

12-01-09
HAPPY DECEMBER!

Hope you had a Terrific Turkey-Day! We certainly have lots to be thankful for - no matter what day it is.

We've filled November with lots of hunts to Swanson Farms and have come to the final conclusion - Jaz is a hunter; Zayda is not. Hey - had a 50/50 chance, eh? Zayda is bee-you-tee-full to watch romp through the fields, but has no interest in pointing up the birds. Jaz is a little more diligent with a little less grace, but who cares? He likes the birds! Now if we can just find some wild ones for him to try his nose on. . . well. . . life would be good!

Zayda had a wee-set back at the end of October with a tiny little seed pod caught in her eye. After several trips to the vet, lots of eye drops and antibiotics, she's seeing clearly once again. She missed out on quite a few hunting adventures, but I'm betting she didn't miss the birds ~

Ironically, we did not hunt any birds on opening day as we opted to trek the 100 miles south to Tulsa, OK for the huge gun show. I did some Christmas shopping at the mall while the boys went and checked out the guns. I was amazed at what was on sale and that overall store stock seemed down. Oh, Steve Madden, some big designer dude was at Dillards while I was there, which, apparently was a huge deal. There were models walking around and loud music and, I found out later, he was giving away signed T-shirts and free shoes. DARN IT! I missed out on that!

While in Tulsa, we also looked at sewing/embroidery machines. I've had my little Singer for 20+ years and it just needs more and more service, it seems. So Troy & I decided it was time for me to upgrade. . . and upgrade we did. I'm very excited! I bought a slightly used BabyLock Ellegante 2 and it should be here in just a couple days. Have to get all of my chores done *now* because once it gets here - I don't think you'll be able to get me away from it!

The new machine will be the final step in my office-family room-'studio' rearranging on the second floor. This has been a work-in-progress for quite awhile and I'm very pleased with the results. How can a simple rearrangement of furniture make such a difference? When all is said and done, I actually found space for five sets of shelves! I just had the furniture in here backwards, that's all. Such a nice open space now and room for all of my jewelry making, scrapbooking, and sewing supplies and projects. I love it!

Javyn's glad that football, and his pep-band-saxophone-playing responsibilities are over for the school year. Just in time, too, as his uniform has either shrunk or he has grown. I'm pretty sure it's the latter. If he's needing that uniform again, I will have to alter it. . . again! He's marched in the various area holiday parades and has a school concert next week. Bet he'll be ready for break from it all. Wonder if they play pep band for basketball?

He's also been honing his entrepeneurship skills through selling misc. things on the internet through E-bay, Amazon, and Half.com. It's kept him busy, but it's also padding his savings account. At least, whatever's leftover after his car stereo purchase. The world of sales can be quite an adventure - Javyn''s learning that people/buyers are most certainly challenging at times! I hope he keeps up the momentum and starts in on the garage sale pile that's in the basement. . . .

Speaking of adventure - Troy, Javyn, and I sure went on one a few weekends ago. All the way north to the top of our fine Kansas state and part way across the lovely state of Nebraska to Hastings. Why? Because we (that would be Troy) found a great car at a better price for Javyn. Our newest driver is driving a white 1995 Monte Carlo that has very few miles on it. Talk about life being good! Javyn passed driver's education and has his permit that allows him to drive to and from school. Ah, the freedom of it all! & I'm not just meaning Javyn, by the way. It's no longer a mad scramble to get him to school in the morning - he just gets in his car and goes. Nice.

Jori's anxious for this semester to be over at KU. She's changed her major and will be 'moving out' of the Art Dept. The new buzz phrase is Environmental Studies - how cool is that? She's all enrolled and anxious to start her new classes. She's not leaving KU - just changing her classes. It will be a change going from primarily studio art classes to mostly classroom style classes. I bet she'll welcome the change, though. I'm also certain she won't miss the hours and hours spent in the art building trying to complete various art assignments.

She was able to morph her work schedule and be home for a few days over Thanksgiving. We didn't travel this year and opted to stay home so we could spend time together. We had such a fun time! No board games were played, but lots of food was prepared and consumed, shelves were built, dishwasher installed, movies watched, Christmas decorations put up, and Christmas presents purchased. All things that would have been done without Jori, but were much-much better with her here!

Yes, you read right - a dishwasher was installed. Ours had been doing more 'harm' than good over the past couple of weeks so we went to our local Sears and came home with a new one. It seems smaller and doesn't have much flexibility with loading, but, you know what? It gets the darned dishes clean! VERY clean! Squeaky-shiny clean. The day after we finished that project the stove went on hiatus. Actually, the oven. Of course, this happens ON Thanksgiving Day. The ham is outside in Troy's smoker, the cake had just been removed from the oven, and we were planning the next phase of cooking which, of course, required the stovetop and oven. But not if it was smoking and no lights were on.

We still haven't replaced it (waiting to find something we like with a decent price) and it's doing okay. Smoked one last bit, lights came on and it's been working ever since. This, of course, happened the day after Thanksgiving! It's one thing or another around here, isn't it?

We are looking forward to our next adventure, this weekend, to Northwest Kansas for our annual deer hunt. Sadly, Jori won't be able to join us due to her work schedule, but we'll keep her posted to the point that she feels like she's there with us! I'll keep you posted too! This week will be the first real winter blast we'll have here in Chanute - prediction of a slight chance of snow for tomorrow. I guess that's not good enough for us. Off to Northwestern Kansas we go where they know how to do the winter up right - good and cold. Brrrrrrr..........

What's Troy been up to? Guns. Hunting. Appliances (hahaha!). Work. Keeping up with the rest of us. What else is there to say?

He has a new employee starting today at the See-Kan RC&D office and another employee returning from maternity-leave tomorrow. Will take some time to get used to having office staff around him after being, essentially, alone for the past couple of months. I'm sure it'll also be nice to have his full crew back!

BTW - Jori's 20th Birthday is Thursday - be sure to drop her a line and tell her Happy Birthday! You can find her on Facebook, or e-mail me and I'll pass your message along. We'll miss spending some time with her on that day, but had a little mini-celebration last Friday. I'm sure she's been wearing her new jeans and lumberjack shirt and listening to her new Jack Johnson CD/DVD with great abandon since back at school:-)

Seems winter and the holiday season struck Southeast Kansas simultaneously this year. How are the winter festivities lining up in your world?

Robin