It Was a Happy Thanksgiving

Pictures to come, but we had a really good Thanksgiving. For the first time in years there was really zero stress... other than Dexter ... but I'll tell you about that in a minute.

So, we started the holiday season with five kids living at home -- up from 3 two weeks ago. Sadie is now at home working full time and Tony (who quit Job Corps early but later was told they were going to call it a completion) is home not doing much. But now that they have told him he completed he should have some transition help and maybe they can get him a job.

Rand was the first to show up and arrived about 2 on Wednesday afternoon. He was happy to be home and planned to stay until Thursday afternoon as he had to work on Friday.

Kyle and Christy stopped by on Wednesday night for dinner on their way to Oklahoma to spend Thanksgiving with Christy's sister. They dropped of Dexter, the new Puggle puppy, who has been terrorizing Gizmo since. We figured out that Gizmo is 77 and Dexter is 2.5 in people years, and the old man wanted nothing to do with the puppy. And the puppy wanted to play. So it was comical and yet annoying to hear the puppy barking and trying to get Gizmos attention. However, Gizmo was not amused. He has been very patient but he just stands there while Dexter yelps and yelps and looks at him like "Can you please shut up!"?

Salinda and Gabby arrived after I went to bed on Wednesday night. Bart did an amazing job of cooking and was up late Wednesday and up early Thursday to make our typical feast.... lots of appetizers, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, homemade buttermilk roles, green bean casserole, and four choices of pie for dessert -- homemade - apple, cherry, pecan and pumpkin.

Mike, Aiden and Tessa showed up around 10 a.m. and it was so fun to see Aiden -- he is getting so big. He only weighs 8 pounds less than Gabby and Gabby is almost three. He looks more like Mike every day. Mike seems to be doing well right now -- has a job at a tattoo place that he likes and has stayed in the same apartment for 5 months.

So we had dinner. Everyone was appropriate and kind of quiet. It was weird since some of our meals have been very stressful. The guests stayed until around 3:30 or so and then the house cleared out. Those at home watched a movie last night... it was a good day.

John is back in jail for a probation violation and we didn't hear from Ricardo. Jimmy got himself into trouble at Job Corps so he couldn't come for Thanksgiving. He should be home for two weeks at Christmas though.

Life continues to go at full speed. My job keeps me incredibly busy and then there is family and friend stuff that keeps us going. It's a new phase of life.

We are still waiting to hear if Leon can wrestle varfsity and we could use your prayers that for his sake and mine he gets a job soon.

I am hardly ever online any more. Haven't sold a book in months. Am hardly on Facebook. Don't have time to blog.

But things are ok. God's good and I'm grateful.