New Lights

the day after thanksgiving is the day i put up my christmas tree. i started with the lights, then the i did the garland and all the other ornaments. after i was all done i plugged in the lights and they didn't work. i was so upset. i then plugged them into different outlets and still they didn't work. so irritating. i carefully removed them and chucked them out. derek got me twice as many lights. i just finished putting them on the tree. of course i tested them beforehand. i'll never forget to test them first thing from now on.

Thanksgiving

i'm ready for thanksgiving. i've got all the food i need and won't need to go to the store 'til this weekend. after we dropped off andy at school, emmy and i went to my mom's and then the grocery store. i was afraid that they would be out of turkeys. boy, was i wrong. so many turkeys to choose from! and i got a good deal. 14 lbs for $6.50. nice! anyway, i am making thanksgiving lunch here at my house and my parents are coming over. they are bringing pies. yum! i've been guaranteed pumpkin! later we'll be going to derek's parents' house for thanksgiving dinner. yum! two thanksgivings? i must be a hobbitt!

Shopping

Am I the only person who refuses to shop on "Black Friday"? Just the thought of it scares me. I don't want to be a part of that madness.

Happy Veterans Day!

is an active duty serviceman a veteran, or are only survivors of past war considered veterans? my brother, ej, is serving in the army and he's in afghanistan. he's only a year older than me. we were really close growing up. he was kind of a rebel. didn't like to be told what he could and could not do. i was just shocked when i found out that he joined the army. now he's told what to do, where to be, when he can talk to family, and all that. we're not as close as we used to be, but i think that's because he's not as available to me as he used to be. we do talk on facebook. either we'll leave comments to eachother, or we'll chat online for short snippets of time. he's engaged to a girl named jen. i wouldn't be surprised if they get hitched just as soon as he gets back to the states in february. i've never met this girl, but the way that he talks about her makes me want to. he hasn't had the best of luck in the love department, but he says now that he knows what love is. i believe him. he's gonna be coming to california for his next assignment, which means we'll get to see him more often. more than now, for sure. of course, it's been a year since i've seen him. he came to visit at christmas last year.

thanks ej for serving our country and protecting freedom!

All About Andy

yesterday morning, derek and i went to andy's parent teacher conference. he's doing pretty good. his best subject is math. the teacher said that his behavior has improved so much and she was really happy with his progress. we thought that was pretty nice. after the conference andy had class. the rest of the day went pretty normally until the evening. andy and emmy were in his room playing on his bed. they told me that he was trying to jump on emmy, but he hit his head on the bedpost. he got a gash that started bleeding. once i got a good look at it i decided that he might need stitches. we went to the ER. it took forever! actually, three hours. they ended up not doing stitches, they used some kind of glue. the reason it took so long was that they were really busy and andy was lower on the list of priorities. once we were done we went up the third floor to the rehab unit to visit my mom. i knew she'd be working. at first when she saw us she smiled. then she saw the band aid and her look turned to concern. andy told her what happened. we didn't stay too many minutes, since she needed to care for patients. oh, i guess i should explain about emmy. she was with us when we went to the hospital. derek called while we were in the waiting room and thought that he could hear in my voice that emmy was being naughty. he called his mom, and she came and got emmy. i was so glad.