November Happenings

November turned out to be a very busy month.



I finished my novel! I started the challenge of writing a 50,000 word novel in November, and I did it in 15 days. Whew, talk about brain marathon! My novel isn't really a novel persay, it's a guide book to the Maya and the ruins in Tulum, Mexico. I'm at the editing stage of it now. I have it printed out and just need to go through everything and figure out which paragraphs go where and what I can delete out of it. 50,000 words equates to 98 single spaced pages of text. I plan on including photos and have assigned Ken to do some illustrations. Once I have it all edited and put together, I plan on getting it out to a publisher.

I'm glad I finished so quickly. I spent a week getting my house in order to host Thanksgiving at my house. I haven't hosted a holiday meal at our house in about 8 years. It was just me, Ken, the boys, and Ken's parents for Thanksgiving. Ken's mom has done the Turkey Day meal for a long time, and all Ken's siblings were out of town this year. We decided to give his mom a break.

I went all out. I made a feast fit for Kings and Queens. It was very tasty. I even made my own cranberry sauce. That was super yummy. Much better than from a can. We had the works, lots of appetizers, the main meal (turkey, homemade stuffing, real mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, squash, dinner rolls...the works!), for desert Ken's mom baked a blue berry pie, and I had 2 pumpkin pies from Trader Joe's (yummy goodness). I bought whipped cream and vanilla bean ice cream to go with it.

I also broke out the good dishes. Not my every day wear. I got out my great Uncle Elmer and Great Aunt Marietta's flatware. I had a floral center piece, and used my great grandmothers, and grandmothers silver and glass serving dishes.

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

I am writing this from sunny southern California! I called my sister on Tuesday afternoon and asked what she and her family were doing for the weekend. She said "Nothing". So I asked her if she was up for company and of course she couldn't refuse a visit from her sister and nephews, so she said yes. I clicked "purchase tickets" on nwa.com and whoala, here we are. We left the main caveman at home as he could not get the time off of work at the last moment. We got a great deal on airline tickets, so it was pretty hard to pass up the opportunity to spend the holidays with my family.

We are having so much fun. We stuffed ourselves silly today and then all fell into turkey comas. Yummy food.

While we are here we are planning to visit the zoo, the beach, and the USS Midway. The boys are excited to see all of that. They can hardly wait.

It was both of the boy's first time on an airplane. Sam wasn't sure what to think. At take off his head felt funny and his tummy was being tickled. He had the puke bag on stand by, but he didn't have to use it. Good thing.

Kevin was so elated, his eyes were huge, and he just kept talking about the way he was feeling with a big smile on his face. He thought that turbulence and hitting air pockets was kind of fun, because then it was bumpy. Myself, I don't care at all for the turbulence. But we made a safe landing, so all was good.

After we departed the plane (we were the last ones off), Kevin got to talk to the pilot and co-pilot. He asked them how fast we were going and what our elevation was. He also asked what the highest speed and elevation that particular plane could go. We were traveling at 550 miles per hour at 36k feet. The plane can go 620 mph and reach 39k feet.

Kevin told the one pilot he really likes airplanes and that he is excited about going on the midway. The pilot told Kevin that he and the co-pilot each flew military planes early in their career. I forget the planes, but Kevin has them etched in his memory as he was very impressed that both his pilots flew bomber air craft. He can't wait to get back on the plane.

It is sunny and close to 70 degrees. We broke out the shorts and t-shirts, while everyone here is huddled up in sweaters. Silly people think it's cold. But we did leave 32 degree weather to be here, so this is a nice change in the weather for us northerners.