Lismore

A little about Lismore, the town where we are living...
Population 297. There is a meat market (they also carry some "staples" like some basic soups and cereals, but nothing perishable. Except meat, of course :), a gas station (just gas, not a convenience store), the city building, the gas company, what looks like a lumber yard but I haven't seen any kind of signage, a post office, bar/grill, and a couple other business like construction company offices or something. We live two doors down from the Catholic church (it was built in 1906 and is really beautiful). The house we are renting used to be the priest's house. It is really well built (as the land lord said, "they weren't spending their own money so they didn't care how much they spent"), has gorgeous wood work. The main floor has been somewhat updated (the kitchen is particularly nice), but the upstairs looks like it hasn't been touched since 1970. I don't think it's been cleaned since 1970 either. We took up the carpet in Elise's room and THOROUGHLY cleaned. She is now moved in and sleeping in there. Jason and I are still sleeping on a futon in the living room, and Anja is sleeping in what will be our room. Next we are going to tackle Anja's room, hopefully pulling up the carpet in there and again thoroughly cleaning.

The people here are really nice. Adrian is the closest town of any size. It is 7 miles away, has a small grocery store, a hardware store, and school (that is the school district we are in). We are doing ECFE in Adrian and have met some nice people there. Worthington is about 20 miles, and we go to storytime there. We are still exploring other opportunities for fun activities for the kids. In general we are really happy and having a good time.

Thanksgiving

Mom and dad hosted Thanksgiving this year, with "the usuals" in attendance (you know who you are!). Elise helped prepare the turkey, and while she was helping had LOTS of questions about turkey anatomy and turkeys in general. She decided that our turkey was a girl and corrected us whenever we called it "he". She also got the idea somewhere that the reason the turkey is special on Thanksgiving is that we bring the turkey back to life on that day.

Elise was really cute, said "Happy Thanksgiving!" to everyone, and at dinner went around the table and asked each person individually "what are you thankful for?". Elise had a great time playing with Gavin, and Anja joined in on the fun occasionally, when the older two weren't playing too rough.

On the job front, Jason has heard that the transfer will not happen January 1st, but sometime in the second quarter. So things will stay the same for a few months, what a relief!

The Waterpark

This weekend my mom's sister, my cousin and her two little boys met us at the water park. We had a great time and were all exhausted at the end. On the way home Elise said over and over again "I'm sooooo tired".

We also heard some gossip this week that Jason may be relocated by the first of the year. Just when I thought things were going to settle down...

Thanksgiving Turkeys

Elise and I made Thanksgiving turkeys today!

Catching Up

I have some catching up to do on this blog. We've done lots of little things in the past few weeks and I'm putting them all together today.

First, I completely forgot to give an update on Anja following her one year check-up (I was reminded when I read my sister-in-law's blog and saw the update on our nephew following his appt...Thanks Brttany!). Anja had her one year appointment right before Halloween. She was fine until I laid her down to be measured then she started crying and would not stop. And she would not be still because she just wanted me to hold her and squirmed and writhed around until I picked her up. We managed to get a length measurement (29 1/2"), but she was moving around so much that we could not get a solid weight. She is some over 18 pounds. Which puts her at 50% for height and around 8% for weight. She was born fairly large (8.2 pounds and 21"), but since then has proved to be a peanut. I've got her in 12 month clothes, but the pants kind of fall off of her. Anyway, I asked the doctor if we should be concerned about her low weight, but he said no. He said she looks healthy so it is just the way she is meant to be. My dad's family is small, so maybe she is taking after that branch of the family tree.

Ok, a week or so ago we attended a Teddy Bear Band concert. There must have been a couple hundred parents and children there. Each kid brought a teddy bear and the band played "audience participation" songs. Everyone was entertained.

I think this is cute so I'm including it...Elise loves to paint, we paint several times a week. Well, Anja HAS to do everything her sister does. Since painting would be way too messy, I've always just tried to keep Anja distracted during painting time, or we do it when she is napping. But I finally figured out a way to include her. I gave her a brush, a dish of water and construction paper. When she dipped the brush in the water then on the paper, the water made the paper turn a darker color, and she was "painting"! And everyone was happy...hooray!

Winter has hit Minnesota. It is cold and we have snow, so break out the snowsuits! I found a cute one for Anja and she looks really adorable in it. A garage sale find...I found this blow-up toy for $5 dollars at a garage sale. It had never been used and the girls LOVE it. Bonus points for mom!

My cousin's son, Gavin, had his third birthday today. He LOVES John Deere and that was the theme. We all had a great time. It was a total pleasure to watch Elise interact with the other kids, share toys, and have good manners. It's been tough at this age for her to watch other kids open presents and get the attention. Today I was especially proud of her.

Election Day

For both my girls, this was the first presidential election in their lifetime. And it was a historic one. I wanted to make sure I documented their participation (they both came with me to vote).

Halloween

Anja had her first Halloween last year, but since she was just 5 days old this year really felt like her first. She wasn't too actively involved, but she did get dressed up to ride along to the community Halloween party. She took it all in from the stroller.

Elise's costume this year was more involved than any other year. She was a fairy and I decided to do some upgrading by decorating the wand a little more, and making some matching do-dahs to put in her hair. I also did up her hair (I've never really "done" her hair before), and put some sparkly stuff on (fairy dust, after all!). She really looked too cute for words. One of those times when I think she is so darn cute I wonder if she can really be my child.