A Novella is a story with a compact and pointed plot. So here's my story.....
you figure out the plot.
On November 1st Nate and Kim celebrated their 5th wedding anniversary. Hard to believe they've been married that long. They've been on a lot of adventures together and have supported each other in their different interests and passions. Way to go and congratulations---here's to many more years together.
Nate ended up being in Utah this month for rotations, working at the Veterans Hospital in Salt Lake. We were able to meet up with him in Salt Lake for dinner once and he came home for a weekend. He's plugging along and seems to be enjoying all that he's learning to become a doctor of feet.
Kim's been busy managing the apartment complex they live in, shooting weddings and teaching a fitness class. They both were here for Thanksgiving. It was great spending a little time with them.
Dale got tired of climbing on the roof to adjust the antenna so we broke down and got cable TV. Just in time for all of the bowl games at the end of the month......He's definitely going to make the most of it.
We also got our hot water heat system tuned up so that the house stays warm!!! Guess who's loving that?
We have a few winner's in the family as of this month. (I guess really we're all winners for who we are, but these two topped the chart for this month)
Matt ran for Oakley's City Council and won! Now to find the time to juggle this with his coaching job, work and church calling. Matt's also had his best season so far with his girl's basketball team at Oakley High School, and he put together an assembly and created a group called Operation Kindness, that focuses on kindness and getting away from bullying. He's created a facebook page about it as well.
Jaxson and Kennlyn are loving school and Langston has learned to walk!
They won their first game 5-0 against Lake County, a team from Illinois. They won their second game 1-0 against Monroe College, a team from New York. Danica got the "pimp sash" from the team after the game. It's a token from the team that symbolizes who they felt played the best in that game.
They won their semi-final game after two over-times and in a shoot-out 4-3 against Laramie County, a team from Wyoming.
And they ended up winning the final game 3-1 against Navarro, a team from Texas! That made them the NJCAA National Champions!!! We have a National Champion in the family---pretty cool. She can't wait to get her championship ring that the team helped design.
They won their semi-final game after two over-times and in a shoot-out 4-3 against Laramie County, a team from Wyoming.
We walked the beach daily, learned how to play a shuffle-board type game at a restaurant while the area had a downpour.
We went deep sea fishing and Dale and I both caught a shark and Dale caught a red snapper. We also saw jellyfish and a huge sea turtle while we were in the boat!
Danica got the award of Defensive MVP from her coach after the tournament. She definitely put her whole heart into the game and played great. The defense was only scored on once in the whole tournament and that was in the final game. In fact, her team has only had a total of 7 goals scored on them all season. Way to Go Danica!
Dale and I had a two bedroom apartment on the beach for a week....the weather was a bit chilly, but on the sunny warmer days, it was heaven. It was a fun trip, that didn't last long enough!
I got new contacts---hard ones. I already lost one and don't know how that happened. My eyes are noticing the difference and get tired earlier at night. They'll take some getting used to. On a positive note, I can see better though.
We had a full house here for Thanksgiving. My brother Kim, his wife, Kathy, and their kids, Sandy and her husband, Brian, and their three girls. David, Heather and her husband, Derek, and Holly. My brother, Danny, his wife, Terry, and two of their three kids. Erin, her husband, Christian, and their two girls, and Lance. Then from our family we had Nate and Kim, the Mallory crew and Danica suprised us by showing up! She caught a ride from a gal on the team that lives in Preston, ID and showed up Thanksgiving Eve. We skyped with Andrew and Lindsay, they were having the missionaries over for a turkey dinner.
We had a tasty Thanksgiving feast with the help of everyone, visited and played games. We even celebrated Langston's first birthday with him and decorated cupcakes by making turkeys and cornucopicas on them. A great time with the family.
We went bowling and to the Fun Center and even had help putting decorating the Christmas tree and getting up our decorations and lights up while the kids were here!
Garrett and Zandra had a Thanksgiving feast of their own with some of the people in Ghana. They even had turkey, pumpkin pie and apple pie with ice cream!
I'm sharing some of what they've been up to from the emails we've gotten from them---
We've had a lot of rain, and with the rain, no power. It rained for two weeks straight. We are thankful to have the power back.
Garrett is on the final stops of giving loans out to the small business owners so they have been really busy. They will work with the loan recipient's on on one for the next few weeks and are hoping to fund most of their class members. They probably won't give our more than $150 to each person. With that small amount of money though, they will be able to escape their life of living on day to day credit. They'll be able to grow and prosper.
Garrett also started a art class after school for those wanting to improve their art skills. Most of the 6th graders have the drawing ability of about a 2nd grader.
From another email they wrote this---
Garrett and I were able to spend a weekend alone together. We had a romantic lunch date at Randy's Shack (side of the road "fast food"/restaurant with 2 plastic chairs out back). The nicest place in town!
I have been making banana bread a lot here because the market has little variety when it comes to baked goods. Stephen, our host dad, said we should start a business and sell it, so for market day we did our first test batch to see how it would do and we sold out in half an hour!
We both have church callings. Garrett is working with the Young Men and I'm in the Primary. I teach and lead the singing. Our Primary kids sang in church. The kids have never sung in Sacrament Meeting before. I felt like a proud mom having all the kids up there singing so loud. It was great. The parents loved it.
I'm glad they took the opportunity to go and make a difference in another part of the world. They'll have no regrets, just great memories.
Andrew celebrated his 26th birthday. He's getting more and more hours in the air and Lindsay is doing child care 2-3 times a week. Titan and Eloise are growing like weeds.
This month has been full of family and fun. Love it!
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