A November to Remember

I have to say... I am glad November is about over. And truthfully... it has gone by quite quickly -- like a blur. Perhaps that is simply because of all the drama that the month held. With a car accident on November 5 -- the month is just set up to be one drama after another. That said, we are thankful no other big events revealed themselves... just lots of chaos wrapped around the one major event of the month. We are looking forward to a much quieter December (if advent can ever be considered quiet in the lives of clergy).

What we have found out: After xrays and an MRI, I have a bulging disc in my L-4/L-5. What does that mean? We still aren't fully checked out on that. The current philosophy is one of rest and therapeutic exercises. I Know I don't want surgery and I know I am too young to deal with "chronic" back pain -- so I will keep on doing whatever I need to in order to avoid both of those. The pain is subsiding some... the travel to and from Springfield for Thanksgiving about killed me, but for some reason, by that Sunday, I was totally off the pain pills. Since then, I have been feeling good -- mostly off the meds except for at night, and I am still seeing the chiropractor on a weekly basis.

This month we were happy to settle with our insurance on the total loss of the Camry. What a sad day. It was a great car -- complete with a fabulous sun-roof that Josie loved to use for star-gazing. For those of you keeping track, we are now on our third car while living in mid-Missouri (yes, we are just now working on our fourth year here). ANYWAY... we did purchase a new car over Thanksgiving... a beautiful 2007 Honda Odyssey mini-van. Eric would not want me to embarrass myself by admitting this, but I will anyway (so promise not to laugh): I have dreamed of owning an Odyssey since the late 1990's when they first came out. While others were dreaming of convertibles and sports cars, I was dreaming of my Honda mini-van I would one day own. I don't know why -- I have just always loved them. Did we expect to get one now? Did we go out in search of realistically driving away with one? No way! It just happened that we found the right place with the right deal at exactly the right time (at least something good came out of this mess). I must say, while I love this van, Josie absolutely adores it!

I mentioned earlier that we went to Springfield for Thanksgiving. We drove down and stayed with Eric's mom and step-dad and hung out with the family. Uncle Bee and cousin Annabelle were there quite a bit. As always, Josie and Anna had a good time, but even more so, Anna had fun being the "big kid" around Norah. The two "big girls" spent some good quality time hanging with Uncle Bee.













While in Springfield, Josie also got to spend some time playing with Daddy's old wooden checkerboard and checkers -- a set that his grandfather made when he and Brandon were children. Josie thought this was extra special and enjoyed challenging everyone to games. That said, I am not sure Norah made a worthy opponent.



OH... random topic:
A while back we had a tooth-challenge (see the poll?). Josie was losing teeth and Norah had none. I must say, Josie has won the tooth challenge in spades. Not only are her two front teeth growing in, along with her two bottom teeth, but she also happened along her first set of permanent molars (all 4)!! All this has happened in the last month or so... meanwhile, Norah just popped her FIRST tooth this week. I have to say... while Josie lost a tooth a week for a while, it does feel like Norah might grow a tooth a week for a couple weeks. We shall see... it is possible that her gums deceive us (it wouldn't be the first time!)