I survived November {barely}....

Here it is almost Christmas and I haven't blogged about my crazy November...

Have you ever had one of those months that throw you into a tailspin?

So, here goes...

November 6th, I'm on my way to a "girls" lunch with my mom, Olivia and Jennifer. The girls didn't have school and I thought it would be fun.  On our way we passed a small Christian college that's close to our house.  We were stopped for a pedestrian in the crosswalk when all of a sudden a woman slammed into the back of my car going about 30 miles per hour.  Witnesses said she was looking down, probably texting... Luckily, no one was hurt.

My old trusty Land Cruiser took it like a champ, the little Honda that hit me...not so much.  

We ended up with a new bumper.

Fast forward one week later...

November 13 (Friday the 13th).. Olivia was with her boyfriend trying to cross 3 lanes of traffic to get to Starbucks and ended up crashing her car...

Again, no one was hurt.. But, Olivia's car was totaled. 

Then November 17th.. We here in Spokane experienced a "windstorm" guts over 70mph.

We lost power for 60 hours, no electricity, no heat (other than a gas fireplace that doesn't work very well).  Schools were closed and we sat around trying to keep warm.  As luck would have it, Jeff was out of town on business and missed the whole thing. 

Here's some iphone pics from the storm.

 Yep, I broke my McDonald's rule.. It tasted good by candlelight..  :)

 We had fun one night making shadow puppets. 

Every year for Thanksgiving we go to our friends cabin to celebrate.  It's fun to "get off the grid", but I have to admit I was not too excited since we had been "off the grid" only a week earlier.  

We had a great time as always and of course ate way too much.

 View from the cabin

 We ended up with too many pies this year.. we had a pie per person..  

Oh man, it was good!

To finish off the month, we received notices from Lucy's and Olivia's schools about a lice infestation.

Well, as you can imagine this threw me over the edge and I was doing daily lice checks, washing everything in hot and vacuuming every surface in the house.

I then had psychosomatic lice for the next week.  Ugh!

Luckily, there have been no signs of lice.  

So, all in all I guess I can say I'm thankful for all the blessings we received and

Thankful November is over..  

...and my other senior

...and my other senior, Jennifer

Jennifer is our international student from Beijing, China.

Jennifer was also with us last school year.

Jennifer has been a fun addition to our family.

She is super smart, has a great sense of humor and is beautiful inside and out.

Jennifer has promised if she ever writes a tell all book about life with an American Family, she will not use our real names.  LOL!

Jennifer and Olivia are both knee deep in college applications..

I'm excited to see the acceptance letters about to come in...

Both Jennifer and Olivia are only looking at one in-state school (not the same one)... all the rest are out of state. 

I have two about to leave the nest and this school year is flying by... 

There will be much more to post in the upcoming months... 

Happy Halloween

I have had this idea in my head for over 2 years..

earlier this week Olivia agreed to go out for a photoshoot.  I love this location at an old cemetery here in town.

I, of course added the ravens in photoshop.  :)

This makes 2 photoshoots with the $7 thrift store wedding dress.. I call that a good buy.  :)

Happy Halloween friends!  Stay safe!

Celebrating Lucy...

 Last weekend we celebrated Lucy's 12th birthday and 11 years of her Forever Family Day (gotcha day).

Lucy loves having two days dedicated to her.  

We celebrated her birthday with family and her favorite cake.

We celebrated her Forever Family Day with dinner at her favorite restaurant and a fun-filled night of family pumpkin carving. 

All this girl wanted for her birthday was accessories for her new "boho" themed room. 

She got new bedding and a fun reading chair.  :)

We are so blessed to call Lucy our daughter and sister. 

Her sweet smile says it all. 

My senior...

I finally had a chance to take Olivia's senior photos last weekend.

I have to take a breath every time I say "senior"   :(

Olivia is busy with college applications and senior classes.

Her grades are great and so far, she's having an amazing year.

I can't wait to see what the future holds for her.