Lots. And lots.

Sorry to all of you readers who, well, have given up on me! I had nearly given up on me too. I think that for this blog I often sit around waiting for inspiration, while the things my readers probably want to know are happing all around me!

Thanksgiving was fun...I got to not use my brain on chemistry for a whole week! Yeah! We had a total of fifteen people at our Thanksgiving meal this year, and that is especially rewarding to me. I thrive on having lots of people around, so it was super-great! It was especially, um, special because my brother and his wife came to our house for the first time. (They live 6 hours away...it's not like they live nearby and avoid us. Come on, people!) We had a great meal, and all I had to cook was the ham, turkey, and 5 pies! What a steal! All of our guests left on Friday.

Before they left, we all went out to Chilli's for a lunch, at which Archie started screaming that his ear was hurting. It was pitiful. I think kids have "doctor's not in radar." Finally, I remembered that Searcy has a Primecare clinic, so we ended up there. He had a double ear infection. Poor lil guy. After that we went home (I should add that Kenny is working days this week, so he missed all of this) to put up the Christmas tree! Yeah! Archie went to bed for a nap, so Kale and Abby and I worked together to "fluff" the fake tree. (I'm not a grinch...I have bad pine allergies!!)

After a trip to Lowe's for extra lights (I think put about 1200 lights on our tree this year. You should see it!!!!), we settled in and started decorating the tree. It turned out really, really well! Score!

Saturday, I had a babysitter keep the kids, so that I could go to Little Rock to do what is hopefully one of our LAST Christmas shopping trips! I got a TON of our shopping done. Probably 5x more than I would have with the three kiddos. That was a real gift to me. Thank you, Janice!! You're a rock star!!! I came home sick, though. I think I must have had the cold of the century coming on, but my subconscious told my body it had to wait until all of the Thanksgiving guests went home. So, it hit with a vengeance yesterday afternoon.

All of that said, I'm so thankful and refreshed after a week-long brain-break. It was nice. Except that now I'm basically brain-dead. DON'T ask me how to do an electron diagram! Yikes!! But it'll all kick in about 9 am tomorrow. Back to the grind!

Talk to you soon!

The Quad

After visiting the bonfire memorial, we walked around to some notable places on campus. First, we went to the place where Mike and Amanda courted. That was cute. It's fun to see big tough Marines lovin' on their wives! I should know...I married one!! (Yes, be jealous!) Then, we saw Amanda's dorm. And then, here's the real highlight of the day, we went to the Quad. This deserves a whole new paragraph.

For those of you who went to Harding, it's a little difficult to explain what we saw there. Unlike Harding, Texas A&M is a hard-core military school. In fact, when it first opened its doors, I dunno, like 140,000 years ago, it was a military school. As such, it has a huge Corps Cadets program. The Corps is broken down into companies. Kenny was the Commanding Officer his senior year of G-2 (the Gladiators...best unit A&M has ever seen! Um, unfortunately, it doesn't exist anymore. Currently.) Mike was in K-2 (Killers.) Fortunately for us, the Killers are alive and well. I had NO idea what to expect!

Before each homegame, the Corps units all do a parade on the quad. (For those Aggies reading this, please know that this is ALL new to me, so I'm doing my best to describe it. Please overlook any aggregious and fundamental errors!!) The first thing we see are the Cadets of one unit "Wildcatting" in. Basically, they run like they're on fire(in a line) out of their dorm building, hands in the air, and hollering at the tops of their lungs! That was quite a sight to behold!

We went up, next, into the Killer dorm. It was special to me to get to share this time with Mike, particularly. When he got on deck, he started talking to a leader of the current K-2 company. When the guy figure out Mike is a major in the Marine Corps, we were afraid he was going to call the whole unit to attention. That would have been very awkward for all of us! Fortunately, the guy decided not to do that. I got to see the unit's pre-quad rituals. Then, they wildcatted out too. (Um, this could be called Bobcatting...I can't remember, and Kenny's at work! I'm SO sorry!)

After the guys ran out, we broke into one of the freshman's dormrooms. More on that later.

I'm going to be late for Chem lab...just wanted to get some more on "paper" while I had a minute. More to come soon!