Let the Sanding Begin . . .

Craig's List . . . gotta love it!! I found

this baby for practically *free*! I am so

excited about my new farm table.

We took the seats out and I am

on the hunt for awesome fabric

to recover the seat cushions.

Just look at these cool drawers . . .

and the hand painting.

Can you visualize this awesome

refinished table in my new

office/sewing room/school room?!?

We are going to find the perfect stain

to match the green that then add a

glaze and seal it . . .

Projects, I love 'em.

Action.

While my Luke studies hard, hard, hard

at the construction site . . .

The guys took advantage of the good

weather and began the laborious

process of putting up the corrugated

metal in the "white spots" today!!!

It was almost hot out as we

watched the guys work today!!

We know that we are preparing

for some colder weather at the

end of the week, so we took full

advantage of the gorgeous weather.

Luke and I are taking advantage of

learning Spanish during the day

and letting it soak in during the night!

. . . can't wait to show the final results . . .

Thinkin'.

Wow! I have been doing waaaaay too much of

this lately. I am putting the finishing touches

on my comprehensive examinations in order

to turn them in bright and early Thursday

morning. I am soooo excited that they

are done and cannot believe that my next

step will be to begin my dissertation in

January!! Pretty.exciting.

Happy Sunday!

We are putting the finishing touches on

our leftovers and remembering our fun

family weekend. The boys are already

thinking about all that they must accomplish

during the last 2 1/2 weeks of school before

CHRISTmas break!! Mike and I are ready

to get the ball rolling again at the house

tomorrow morning after everyone had

the looong weekend off!!

Hope that your end of the weekend

Sunday was great!!

Bestest Mom.

It is a fact, I have the very best

Mom on the entire planet. We

share everything and are the

bestest of friends. I am so grateful

that she is my Mom. We had a

wonderful girl's holiday weekend that

included staying at the Red Rock Hotel,

laughing, eating, shopping, movies, and

staying up talking into the wee hours.

I miss, miss, miss her already and

cannot wait until she and Bobby come

for CHRISTmas!! We are especially

excited to have them move to

Reno for good! We cannot wait!!!

I don't know how I was so

blessed when God came to handing

out moms, but He certainly gave

me the best.

Thanks Mom for a fun-filled

weekend and for all of the

wonderful times and memories

that we have shared!!

I.love.you.

Buckle Up.

Black Friday is most definitely one

of my most favorite days of the year!

Black Friday, in our book, is the day

that the girls hit the streets for the

deals and steals. Traditionally, my

mom and I have always spent this

"holiday" together . . . and today was

no exception. I flew into Las Vegas

early this afternoon and we hit the

Fashion Show Mall looking for

deals. I was in desperate need of

new jeans and BUCKLE is the place

for jeans!!!

After purchasing some awesome

un-Mom jeans, we were excited

to return to the Red Rock Hotel

and go to Cabo with Diane,

Joyce, and Cathy! Talk about fun!

I love those ladies dearly and feel

blessed to have them as dear friends.

Happy Black Friday . . . we will still

be celebrating tomorrow with

Black Saturday!!!

Happy, Happy Thanksgiving.

We started, middled, and ended our

day with yumminess all the way around!

To begin we made the most delicious

loaf of homemade cinnamon raisin

bread EVER!!! I love my family and

am so grateful that they are such

wonderful and willing helpers!

We had a family over for THANKSgiving

today and my crew worked all

morning and afternoon to help

me make certain that everything

was just.so. And it was, our THANKSgiving

meal was wonderful, the company was

great, and our family evening afterwards

of THREE movies was so, so, so much

fun!!! I am so THANKful for them and

GRATEful that they are mine.mine.mine.

Happiest THANKSgiving!!

Preparations Begin . . .

Oh, yeah! Today just happens to be

one of my most "favoritist" days of

the ENTIRE year . . . I love, love, love

the day before THANKSgiving!! My crew

and I had so much fun getting our

preparations under way . . . we

chopped, diced, pureed, baked, and

laughed all the while!! It is really

fun having all of the guys in the

kitchen!! They are the awesomest!!!

Things we are excited for

during the THANKSgiving holiday:

*School break!

*No radiation!!!!

*No doctor's appointments!!

*Housebuilding resumes on

Friday!!

*Black Friday and fun Saturday

in Las Vegas with Grandy!!!

*Fun movies on the couch

with our quilts and pillows!

*Watching the Wizard of Oz

after our THANKSgiving dinner!

*Homemade whipped cream!

*Leftovers!

Yep! We are one blessed family and

are so excited to celebrate together!!

The Rock.

It's heeeeere . . .

Our be-a-u-tiful natural stone for our

columns, fireplaces, and hearth.

Our new hearth . . .

Quartz for our columns . . .

This natural stone will be transformed

onto our fireplace . . .

Our crew is getting so, so excited!!

We cannot wait until we get to

call 2485 Mountain Spirit Court

h-o-m-e!!!

This Week's Blessings!

Tons of blessings . . .

*Happy boys!

*More progress on our home!

*Snow on the mountains.

*Thinking about pecan rolls.

*Making pecan rolls.

*Boys loving life.

*Mike being home!

*Putting the finishing touches

on my comprehensive exams!

*Grampa doing great!

*Mom tons better!

*Kids loving school and

putting the finishing touches

on the last of their projects

for the semester.

*Cold weather, dark early!

*Boxes, boxes, boxes . . .

means moving, moving, moving!

*Late nights with Lucy!

Happy Sunday!

It is definitely fall here in Reno! Celebrating

Sunday we had a great cozy family day!

I spent much of it proofreading my

comps that must be submitted by

December 2. Mike and Tim watched

football. Sam gave us a slide show of

his photography. Luke worked on

Legos. Zach was busy on schoolwork.

Grampa likes to watch his sports and

the kids made his day by whipping

him up one of his favorite sandwiches

topped with a big slice of onion.

One of my new favorite things to

do is bring huge pillows and a

puffy sleeping bag down to the

couch to be cozy with my peeps!

It was a great Sunday . . . my very

favorite kind.

These kind of days help us to

prepare for the busy, busy

week ahead.

Cozy Sundays . . . I love 'em.

Turkey Talk.

With SO much going on lately, we

had our annual "Turkey Talk"

today!! Everyone chimes in as to

their must-have at the Thanksgiving

table. Here are some of our go-to

Turkey Day items:

*pecan rolls - an overwhelming

family favorite. The tradition of

baking these rolls was lovingly started

by our Gram many, many years ago.

They are made from scratch upside

down in muffin tins in yummy

gooeyness of pecans, brown sugar,

and butter.

*turkey vs. ham - Sam is a "ham" man.

Mike and Tim are definitely turkey

lovers. Zach and Luke could go

either way. Grampa loves the dark meat.

Last year I tried a tofukey . . .

will not be repeating that little

experiment this year.

*mashed potatoes - a favorite of the

ENTIRE crew, with the exception of

my youngest . . . he has never liked

anything potato related and has

tried over and over and over again.

*mashed sweet potatoes - Grampa's

must have for our feast.

*cranberries - my favorite! Why?!?

*side dishes - always tossed around.

This year we are thinking homemade

mac and cheese.

*desserts - Sam is gunning for

cheesecake. Mike is dying for a

pumpkin pie with homemade

whipped cream. Luke, Zach, and

I could go for some yummy apple

pie related dish. Grampa is a

die-hard pumpkin pie fan. He

likes mincemeat also and I could

lean that way too.

While visions of way too much food

dance in my head, Sam, my practical

advisor says that this year we should

hit the streets for Thanksgiving and

cook in our new house next year!?!

Update.

Our Dad continues to get stronger

every single day. We are so grateful

that he has such excellent doctors

and nurses who are taking great care

of him. Both the Mayo Clinic and

the University of Michigan keep in

touch to check on his progress.

*Radiation treatments began this

week and Mike is tolerating them

well.

*We are still on the light doses

of Mitotane, a chemotherapy

drug prescribed for adrenal gland

cancer patients.

*Another blessing: Our radiation

oncologist located a wonderful

medical oncologist here in

Reno. There are not very many

doctors in the entire United

States that have experience

with adrenal gland cancer

and the treatments. This doctor

is amazing and willing to work

closely with the University of

Michigan doctors to coordinate

Mike's treatment.

*We are so grateful and thankful

for all of our many, many blessings

and grateful that we have such

wonderful professionals working

to make certain that Mike is

getting the best possible treatment!

Field Trip.

Carson City was our destination today . . .

Luke and I hit the streets in search of

stone for our new house!!!

Love, love, love this be-a-uuutiful

natural quartz . . . This is going to go

on the outside of our home on our

house and on our columns!!

I seriously WOULD NOT make it without

my partner!! Luke helps me do EVERYTHING!!!

I was thankful for his help today as we

were slepping it all over the stone yard

looking for just the perfect stone!!

Bingo!! We found the pieces for our

hearth!!!

Yes!! Today was a success and indeed

worth the cold windy trip to

Carson City!!

**Day 1 of radiation treatments for

my Mike today!! We are going to

the medical oncologist here in Reno

next week and the surgeon the

end of the month to determine

exactly when they will be taking

out 3/4 of his pancreas. We also

learned some interesting news today!

Mike has a RARE inherited condition:

Lynch Syndrome. It is a hereditary

syndrome that is linked to cancer!

He is positive and doing great!

His chemo treatments will begin

to increase slowly over the next

several weeks!

Hearty Breakfast.

My Zach is quite the little breakfast cook!

He loves to get up in the morning and

make a HUGE breakfast. While I do

not ascribe to this theory myself, it sure

does put a smile on his face for the

rest of the day. One of Zach's favorite

meals to cook is biscuits and gravy. Just

looking at all of that food is enough to

well . . . Anyhow, my guy loves, loves, loves

this breakfast and shares this in common

with his Dad. Zach even likes to make

the biscuits from scratch!!!

Here's a shout out for good ole fashioned

homemade hearty breakfasts!!

Tatoos!?!

Woohoo! Mike got tatooed?!? Yep, it is

true!! This morning Mike reported to

Dr. Hummer, our radiation oncologist's

office bright and early for his TATOOS!

These are the markings that the radiologist

will use to make certain to line him up

correctly during his seven weeks of

radiation on the adrenal gland cancer

surgery bed. The surgery bed is the

site where the cancer actually occurred

and this will be the focus of the radiation.

Mike swears that he will never get "real"

tatoos! He said that the needles really

did hurt! After all of the poking and

prodding he has had over the last couple

of months, it really must hurt! I was

thinking that me might come home with

a heart, a cross, or an eagle . . .