Tis the Season, Like it or Not

Today is Friday, just 6 days until Thanksgiving and 36 days until Christmas. Am I ready for either? NO!

Thanksgiving dinner is going to be at our house this year, but most of our local relatives will be with their "other" families this year. That leaves us with Ryan's parents, his sister Kelsi & Rusty, his brother Clayton and my brother Jonny. So, really not a big crowd. However, that also leaves a lot less people to give dinner assignments. Thus, I am in charge of the mashed potatoes, corn, yams, butter, rolls, veggies, pies, drinks and dinnerware. I'm just feeling a little overwhelmed right now. With Ryan's new work schedule he will need to be sleeping all morning, so I'm not expecting much help from him either.

Christmas will be spent here, as usual. We had hoped to take a trip to California the second week of vacation, but that is not looking very probable now. I am totally not ready for Christmas. I haven't even begun to make a list of possible gifts, which I need to do soon so I will still have time to do most of my shopping online! This saves my sanity every year:)

To celebrate our 13th anniversary this year Ryan and I had an overnighter at a condo in Eden. We enjoyed watching movies, eating and going to the hot tub. It was a short, but nice little getaway:)

We've managed to get back into going to the temple weekly this past few weeks and that has become an enjoyable weekly date. It's so nice having kids old enough to watch themselves:)

Ashley just celebrated her 12th birthday on the 7th and got some cute new clothes, jewelry and MAKE-UP! She is starting out really light, using just a little shimmer powder on her eyelids and some lip gloss, but on the weekends she has fun trying out some different looks.

So, my day job has pretty much disappeared and we're really starting to feel the effects. I've tried to pick up a couple more hours at my night job, but they haven't had any extra available. We've been using our reserves to keep us afloat, but those are almost all used up. So as I've been looking at our options, I've been considering going back to school. With all my experience and an associates degree in general education or business, I would be a prime candidate for an upper management position in my current line of work. This has been a REALLY big thing for me to even consider, as for years I've had absolutely NO desire to go back to school. Now with the internet I would be able to take ALL the necessary classes online through the local community college, which would make it totally possible! We'll have to see how things go.

Austyn's birthday is coming up in 3 weeks and I haven't even thought about what to get him. Unusual for him, he hasn't dropped any hints lately, so I'm going to have to do some digging:)

I guess that's all for now. Sorry no pictures this post, I've been a real slacker with the camera lately. I've been really hoping we could get an updated family picture, but that still hasn't happened.