A November Update

WOW!  November was a C*R*A*Z*Y month at our house!  I will give you a quick recap, so you will know why I was missing!  The first weekend was Halloween, and we had church festivities and a FIRST birthday party on Nov 1.  Then that next weekend was youth hunt.  We spent a few days getting ready for that, and then a few days down there.  Both of the kiddos went hunting, but neither got anything ~ Riley saw one, but he says he didn't have a good shot on it, so he let it walk.  We returned from that weekend at deer camp to hurry up and get laundry done and repack so we could go back down for opening weekend.  We spent opening weekend down there with Rog and his family ~ plus a good friend ~ 11 of us in the camper! ~ we had a great weekend!  Once everyone else went home, we stuck around, went on with our school work, hung out and watched movies, and did some exploring out in the woods.  We stayed til Wednesday, headed home that morning for our normal *which wasn't* routine! 
That night, after the kiddos were in bed, my dog, Rascal seemed restless. I got up and sat with him in the floor until about 1:30am, until he died there beside me.  I don't know why...he was 13 years old, and we had sorta been expecting it, but it was still hard.  I called Rog at deer camp and told him ~ he loaded up to come home.  We had a hard time telling the kiddos and they took it very hard.  It was a very sad day around here and at that point, I decided we were officially on Thanksgiving break ~ we were all too emotional to focus.
From there, Friday night, I sent Ry around to his cousins house, then had a couple of Girl Scouts over to spend the night.  I think there is nothing better than listening to a group of giggly girls!  And I love that my GS Troop are friends besides scouts!  Well, they were here because we had a scout thing the next morning, and it was just easier!  They had a great time though!  Their even the next morning ( an hour away) was CSI: Diamonds ~ really cute fake scene set up and the girls had to do some investigating to find out who forgot to sign the letter that said welcome to the event I have a surprise for you, come find me!  The girls had a great time with it!
While we were an hour away having some Girl Scout fun, I got the call that Rog's grandpa had passed away. So, as soon as the girls finished up there, we hurried home so we could pack once again and head to Tennessee.  We drove all day Saturday, spent Sun, Mon, Tues in TN and then drove all day Wednesday.  The Tennessee trip was very emotional for me, as it has not been that long since I lost my grandpa.  I had a really tough time with everything happening at once as well.  It truly was a bittersweet trip ~ we had an awesome time visiting with and reconnecting with Rog's family, but would have wanted to do that under better circumstances. 
On the way home we took a different route and went the Huntsville Alabama.  We did take the opportunity to stop in and the space center.  We did a super quick  mini tour and decided it was definitely worth a trip to come back to!
Home barely in enough time to celebrate Thanksgiving ~ even though we really weren't in the mood to. We spent Thanksgiving Day with my family, had a good time visiting with everyone.
Rog spent the rest of Thanksgiving weekend in the deer woods, while the kiddos and I hung out here...
And that my friends was our C*R*A*Z*Y November!  Praying December is a little more calm!