Around the world

These past couple of days have been crazy busy, and fun. I haven't even barely had a chance to sit down to read my email, let alone write on my blog. It all started on Wednesday when I had to get ready for a long weekend at my in-laws house. We finally made it over to Joe's cousin's house at 8.30pm. The Allreds know how to party! We had pizza, talked, played silly games, and ate tons of treats, before going to be at 12.30am. And with we, I mean all of us! The kids just kept going and going, until around 11.30pm when all my kids just kind of crashed on the floor. This didn't keep them from getting up at their regular waking hour though.....
Thanksgiving day we joined the Morphises at White Rock lake for outdoor fun at the park, and a bike ride. I am ashamed to say that I hadn't even touched my bike since moving to Texas over a year ago. I guess I have always had an excuse, but when I finally did get on it, I remembered how much I love to bike. Back in Boise I would go road riding several times a week, and mountain biking every once in a while. I just need to get on my bike with my pepper spray (for mean dogs) and go.After some play time, Ruth and her fiance Brant met me at the park, to take their engagement pictures. We found some really fun places to take pictures. My favorite spot was by this one tree. It was the perfect climbing tree and all of us were up in the tree at one point or other. Ruth didn't let her cute skirt and cowboy boots stop her from climbing too.(this particular picture is more for the interesting angle than for engagement photo purposes)
For dinner we went to the Benac house (Joe's uncle and aunt). There were just short of 30 guests there, so the party was grand. We had some delicious food including homemade apple pie, made by Joe's 14 year old nephew William Benac. Joe and the kids also jumped in the jacuzzi for a little swim.After dinner we headed back to Plano for what was supposed to be a relaxing evening. The problem was that I had to look through, and edit 200 engagement pictures. Also, I wanted to go to CVS to get some screaming deals. I got a whole bunch of stuff for free, and even made money on some products. It was awesome. Now I wish I had taken a picture of all the stuff I got for $1.11 By the time I finally got done with all that stuff it was 12.30am, so I wasn't too excited about setting my alarm for 4.ooam

I did set it though, and like every other year wondered to myself whether or not I was totally crazy for getting up in the middle of the night to go shopping. But then, as I drove past the Kohl's parking lot at 4.14am and saw that there wasn't even one single open parking spot, I felt a lot better about myself. My list wasn't very long this year, but I did want to get a Pre-lit Christmas tree (Texas is just not a good state for real live trees)

After stopping at Walmart to get a $29 bike for Winter's birthday, I drove over to Home Depot to get in line for the tree. I was very surprised to see that I was the second person there. Especially because in past years, Home Depot had a pretty good sized line 45 minutes before opening time. So I waited for about an hour, and when the doors opened I ran for the trees. I grabbed one, paid for it, and was out in the parking lot when I looked at the box. To my dismay, I realized I had grabbed a tree with colored lights, which I just DO NOT like. The sinking feeling! So I ran back into the store, but all super deal trees were gone. Desperate, I started asking people with white-light trees to switch me. After one rejection, I got lucky and a very sweet lady let me switch with her!! So I have my tree, and can't wait to set it up tomorrow when I get home.

After some more shopping in the morning, and even some more later with dad, I finally crashed. Going on 10 hours of sleep in 2 nights, my body had hade enough. I had a wonderful 3 hour nap, a great "wedding sampler" dinner, and then even some country dancing. Ruth and Brant are both avid country dancers, so they taught us to do the 2-step. Joe did really well, and even loosened up his stiff legs after a little while. Oh, and one other major accomplishement... for the first time in 8 years of marriage, I got Joe to try a dance flip with me. He did great, and we went "around the world" with no problems.