We had a great Thanksgiving in KY! Nanny's on Thanksgiving Eve was great, which was a bit of a surprise - we had 15 adults and 8 kids in Nanny's tiny apartment (Karen used to be her next door neighbor so I think all of you who read this probably have seen the size of those apartments!) to eat pizza and put up her tree. Amazingly enough it was really nice and our boys even behaved well enough! Thursday was Thanksgiving dinner with Mom, Dad, Nanny, Tim, and Laura and their family then we did Christmas presents for the kids after dinner since we're not coming in for Christmas. Mom and I did some black Friday shopping like always. We went to Wal-Mart at midnight and were headed to Kohl's and K-Mart, but we ended up going home and sleeping for a while then going back out in the morning. Saturday we came home and it's been non-stop ever since. We've got a dinner and a movie night at church on Saturday and I'm having an open house for Thirty One on Sunday.

The boys have been driving me crazy lately with the whining and fussing. Trying to figure out how to deal with that. They are sleeping better now though for the most part. Corban doesn't nap all the time, but then he is READY for bed at night. Caden is the cutest little thing and has really gotten to be funny lately. Wish I could actually think of anything that he's done lately!

UGH and AHHH!

I am so not cut out to be a minister's wife. I know that this is where God put me and that He gives me what I need, but man, this is hard. People expect so much of their minister and his family and I am not a mercy giver, I am pretty selfish with my family's time, I have a hard time loving the ones who are asking for it. I am praying about this, I would like you to as well. It's just so hard to take care of everyone's needs. Ask every member every Sunday how they are doing with their sundry medical issues, or parenting issues, or family issues. If you ask too much, you're being a nag and being nosy. If you don't ask enough, you don't care. Heaven forbid you don't give the reaction they were looking for, or you're an unfeeling jerk. Don't even get me started on the bulletin! Everybody tells us everything and expects US to determine what does or does not go into the bulletin (and no, it doesn't matter how many times we ask them to WRITE IT DOWN AND GIVE IT TO JANETTE, NOT JOHNNY). And of course then they are upset when it's not right, or not in there at all. Ugh, I know I'm griping too much, and I'll stop soon. This is just a safe place for me to voice my frustrations among friends who care and understand. We're just feeling so tired of it all. I feel like we're doing so much but it's never enough.

On a brighter note, we're headed to KY in two days! Tonight I'm helping Di with kids at church, tomorrow I've got Tanner all day and I'm hoping to wash clothes and pack. Tomorrow night we're going to see Harry Potter on the IMAX and have dinner with Craig and Di. Tuesday morning we're headed out and we'll be in KY until Saturday. When we get back it's going to be crazy busy until Christmas, but I'm really looking forward to this Christmas because the boys are both getting older and have more of an idea of what's going on. Corban has already said that Santa brings presents. I can't wait until he starts understanding the real story of Christmas!