Nom nom nom

I can has Turkey? Heather and Laurie with the gorgeous bird.

What a great Thanksgiving!
We drove down to Utah on Tuesday and left Thursday evening (yes, we made it home without crashing from the overdose of tryptophan.) The food was incredible and I can't thank Laurie enough for hosting it at her house. As usual, I hardly got any good pictures and I realized, too late of course, that there were several family members I didn't get one photo of. Next time I'm down there I'm just going to have to round up Scott's kids for a photo shoot :)
Here are some that I did manage to get:







Charlie in his basket.

Holidays and whatnot.

(Does anyone else think of this whenever they see a Thanksgiving turkey??)


We are getting so excited for Thanksgiving! We were worried that we wouldn't be able to go to Utah ever since Levi was laid off, but through the love and support of family we will be able to go and we can't wait! We were hoping to be able to stay until Friday, but since working retail means handing over your life and spare time during the holidays, we will have to leave Thursday evening. I'm still excited and I'm even excited for the drive. We've got our audio books ready (Levi wants to finish A Confederacy of Dunces and I'm only too happy, since it is one of the best audio adaptations out there.) and I've created a new 80s compilation cd, complete with Bowie, Thompson Twins and Depeche Mode. Woo hoo!


I am excited for the Christmas season, even though this will be a much trimmed-down version for us. Unfortunately we are in a spot where we will be unable to purchase gifts for each other, as well as for everyone in the family. We will instead be making a few homemade gifts and sending out cards. I know everyone says they don't mind not getting a gift from us, but it is one of the hardest things in the world not to buy gifts for my family and this Christmas will be bittersweet for that reason. In the meantime, I can work on a letter to Santa for next year to ask for a Nook, which is currently sold out until January right now.
(Look how incredible this thing is!!)


Today Levi & I spent a nice day off together. We were given a $50 gift certificate to Angel's Bar and Grill for referring my mom to the Hyundai dealership up here. I was hesitant going there tonight because I had heard the place was really expensive and chic (two things I normally don't look for in a dining experience.) Let me just tell you, I am not cut out for the expensive food world. We walked up to the hostess station, which took a minute to find since the place was practically pitch black. Why do fancy restaurants think light bulbs are tacky? I understand wanting to create a little ambiance, but this was ridiculous. Anyway, we were told that by being there at 6 pm we were too early to be seated in the dining area, since it didn't open up until 8pm. Whatever. They sat us in the "lounge" area and handed us menus made of, and I'm not making this up, copper and leather. Anyroad, we started looking over the menu and I realized that we didn't understand what any of the food was. I would see the words "Prime Rib" and then see that is was covered in a "Szzjg gioirkjkg" sauce and served with a side of "Lerjgn%b#" I was getting so frustrated trying to find anything that I could understand and I finally looked at Levi and asked if he'd rather just go to The Flicks, our local independent theater, and get a sandwich and catch a movie. He was more than willing to oblige and we took off out of that joint. I'm sure it's a great restaurant, just not our thing.

We saw a fantastic movie at Flicks. It's called "An Education" and I'm sure it will be a front-runner at the Oscars this year. Fantastic story, amazing acting and all around good movie. I HIGHLY recommend it (it's PG-13, just FYI.)


Well, I'm off to bed. I work tomorrow and I have a feeling it is going to be a madhouse.

Ry Guy's Visit!

We were so lucky to have my thirteen year old nephew Ryan stay with us this weekend. He is the oldest of five kids, and has four younger sisters, so you can see why a trip to I-dee-ho is good for him to get away. This is the second year we've been able to have him stay with us and it's shocking how much he's grown up in these last twelve months. We had lots of fun, watched fun movies and ate lots of good food. Levi and Ry went to the Boise State/Idaho State game on Saturday and they nearly froze their butts to the bleachers. We miss him terribly already and can't wait for next year!!

Ryan, Heather and Eliza at Blue Sky Bagels. Yum!

Ryan & Wilson playing the Atari(!) at Heather's house

Proud Aunt and Uncle

Ryan has discovered the bliss that is the Snuggie.

Before the game. The cold wind hadn't kicked in just yet.

Go Orange, Go Big Blue!

I was NOT ready for him to leave!

Trials.

Last week was a tough week, to say the least. A couple days after my D&C we found out that Levi was going to be laid off due to slow business. This is such a huge blow because Levi absolutely loves his job, and that is a rare find these days. Levi's business usually picks up in the springtime, so it's possible that he could go back then, but there's no guarantee. Instead, we're going to do some serious job hunting and I was hoping to ask the family to keep your ears to the ground and let us know of ANYTHING you hear about quality job openings. Levi was the manager of the detail shop, managing nine guys, and we'd like him to be able to get into another sort of manager position, but realistically we wouldn't turn down any job.
Please, please let us know if you hear about anything.

Thanks so much.