We don't have internet right now. Hoping that gets resolved soon, but who knows. In the meantime, here's a phone update. Yesterday we were in New York, it was amazing! We took a 5 1/2 hour bus and boat tour. We stopped at a few places like where John Lennon was killed, Madison Square, pier 16, ground zero and Wall Street. The boat took us near Staten Island and the Statue of Liberty and under the Brooklyn Bridge. Before the tour we had a chance to walk around Times Square, Rockafeller Center, Central Park and 5th Ave. Manhattan has a unique and fun vibe, I'd love to spend another day there. Here's hoping the internet will be on in the next day or so, then I can post some pictures.

Happy Thanksgiving!

To start this morning off we ran a 5k through our neighborhood. Lance and I both love participating in Turkey Trots, but this year we just couldn't make it out to one. We have a couple of soldiers staying with us temporarily and one of them joined us on our run. Wonderful way to start out the Thanksgiving Day! Just as we came home the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade started. I had a fun time watching the parade and stuffing the turkey.

Today was the first time ever that I made a whole Thanksgiving dinner by myself. I'm not sure I've really ever even helped in the kitchen before. It's okay though, from all the past years of sneaking in and nibbling the desserts while dinner was being prepared I caught a few tips. We ended up having three guys over from Lance's unit. I felt a bit out numbered, but it's nice to have company for a Thanksgiving feast. We had a turkey, spiral ham, mashed potatoes, home made rolls, stuffing, corn, salad and deviled eggs. For desert I made a pumpkin and a strawberry pie. Both pies are almost all the way gone. Mmmm, pie. I think I'll go have a piece. Here's some pictures from today.






Run for it!


Everyone seemed to like dinner. I love using my dishes!


A yummy paper bag turkey. This was Buffy's view for the day

Graduation

Lance graduated from his video training today, yay! It was a great ceremony, short and sweet. We also officially got Lance's orders today although we've pretty much known where we'll be going for about a month now. Unfortunately the orders didn't clear up any of the logistical questions we have about moving. Sounds like we'll be hanging out here for a bit which is fine by me. A couple of the other soldiers also had similar problems and will be staying with us for a few days. It's nice to help out some friends, especially for Thanksgiving.

And speaking of Thanksgiving, tonight has been the perfect stuffing and pie baking night. We're a little sad we're missing the Turkey Trot. Sounds like both sides of our family will be running the same race tomorrow. Lance and I tried to find a Turkey Trot but it didn't quite fit our budget so we're going to run our own 5k race tomorrow around our neighborhood.

Here's some pictures from the graduation:

Indoor Range

As you can see from Lance's post below, he bought me a BB gun. For years he's been trying to get me to see the importance of guns in home protection. I just see me accidentally hurting myself and a lot of law suits. He was looking at BB guns in a few stores and asked how I felt about them. Well, we used to play with them when I was little, Josh certainly felt the effects of them (poor little guy). Lance found a realistic looking gun, modeled almost exactly after a certain 9mm, and bought it as my Christmas present. Of course we'll wrap it up and put it under the tree Christmas Eve, but until then we'll play with it. Lance found an indoor safe target (as long as you actually hit the target) so we currently have an indoor shooting range upstairs. So far no marks on the wall, furniture, cat or us so it seems to be working well. To all those home invaders out there, watch out--I'll pop you in the face with a BB. And then Lance and his Glock will kindly keep you company until the police arrive.

New sheriff in town

What song does this make you think of ?..... Buffys got a gun...Buffys got a gun. This is Buffys Walther CP99 compact. We got it for home defense. Its a 4.5 cal.... BB that is. I love my Buffy.

Happy Veterans Day

Happy Veterans Day! Lance and I spent the day at Mount Vernon home of a very important veteran-- George Washington. Mount Vernon was also honoring all active duty and veterans so Lance got in free. He also got the opportunity to lay a flower at George Washington's tomb. Awesome experience. I asked Lance what his favorite part was he replied "the chickens." He sat on the ground to take a picture and the chickens ran up to peck the camera. I loved walking the beautiful grounds and watching the sheep. It's amazing how much you can learn about someone by walking around their home. Mount Vernon sure does expose a lot more to George Washington than the paintings of him crossing the Delaware.


Lance at George Washington's tomb.


Us at the back and then front of the mansion.




Moo cow. Lance playing paparazzi as I walked through the woods.



Lance with the chicken attacking the camera, our camera lens isn't for extreme close ups.

Make My Day

Here's a clip of Lance dancing with the Xbox Kinect game Dance Central. He really didn't want me taking video, so I wasn't able to capture his most impressive dancing. It's a fun Kinect game though. Just fyi, the main dancer on the TV screen is suppose to be showing you the correct movement while you can watch a small image of yourself on the far right of the screen. During the freestyle you'll see how the kinect see's Lance, it's pretty cool.

Additions

We added some Halloween pictures to the posts below, check them out!

We've been having lots of fun with the Kinect. Lance got me a dancing game, but when I came home from work yesterday evening I found another surprise. Lance had me sit down and watch him perform 3 dances that he had worked on all evening just to make me smile. He adamantly refused to let me take any video but today I finally convinced him. The video's a huge file and so I'll let it compress overnight. I'll be busy all day tomorrow but I'll try and get it up in the next 2 days. In the meantime here's a picture I stole from one of the videos:



Church was great today, our primary class actually almost behaved well part of the time. We went over to our friend's house for dinner this evening, they made some yummy home made pizza. We've both been busy with work, but it's always fun to make time for friends!

Work Day

I was hoping to get some time today to add some pictures, but it's been a bit busy. Since I'm using this blog as a bit of a journal I thought I should at least write something. I worked for 8 hours with my adorable little guy that I'm watching. Unfortunately he blew out his diaper which resulted in a lot of clean up and a bath for him. I think somewhere in there my back got a little tweaked--he does weigh over 25 pounds. He also refused to take his nap today, although he was obviously tired, and the constant up and down wasn't exactly helpful for my back either. It's a good thing the little guy is so darn cute! Imagine cupid without wings and that's what my little friend looks like.

I got off work around 5pm and rushed home to make dinner. The missionaries didn't have anyone to feed them and we always tell them to call us if they need a meal. Lance suggested making the tilapia recipe that I posted somewhere on here. It's quick and becoming one of our favorite meals. It cooks in less than 10 minutes, perfect! Lance worked on the mashed potatoes while I slaved over the 10 minute fish. Tough work. I also heated up some of the leftovers from a chicken scampi recipe, one of the frozen dinners I had cooked a day or so ago. It was great having the missionaries over. They had some wonderful experiences to share along with some exciting biking in the rain all afternoon stories.

After dinner I checked my phone and realized I had missed a call from some of our friends from church. They were wondering if I could come over for an hour tonight and watch their sleeping children while they sneaked out for an hour to enjoy a little time without kids. I helped Lance get to bed since he has work tonight and went over to our friends house. A house full of sleeping children is a great place! I enjoyed reading my book and now that I'm home I'm making some cookies for Lance. Sleep hasn't been working out for me lately and since Lance has been begging me for cookies for a couple of weeks now I figure it's the perfect time for baking. I'm hoping I wear myself out enough to sleep well tonight. I took some ibuprofen for my back, maybe I haven't been sleeping well because I'm sore? Or because the cat insists on meowing every few hours and sleeping on me? I blame the cat.

Trunk or Treat

Here's our costumes from the trunk or treat:



Thought I'd hop on here and add a few more pictures, look closely for our pig pumpkin: