November

The month of November brought a college reunion, fall parties, Indian festivals, and the celebration of Thanksgiving.

The first weekend in November we packed our bags and headed up to Jackson to Barrett's ten year college reunion! We also used the time we were there for Barrett to interview with MEA, a clinic he is looking at working with next year. Since Barrett was interviewing, MEA put us up in a hotel for the first couple nights. We got there late Thursday evening, and Barrett spent Friday morning touring several of MEA's local clinics. For lunch that day, MEA took us both out to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse for lunch, while my fried Parke watched the kids for us so I could go. While we were enjoying our lunch, Parke took the kids to the park. Toward the end of our lunch I got a phone call from Parke that Caleb had been hit in the face with the tire swing, and it looked pretty bad. So, Barrett ended up cutting his interview time short and we went to see if Caleb was okay. His lip was cut and bleeding, and the force of the swing had knocked his teeth pretty hard, so he was in a lot of pain. He had cried himself to sleep by the time we got there, but he started to perk up in a couple hours. When we got back home, I scheduled a dentist appointment for him just to be sure that there was no damage to his teeth, and there wasn't. So, the rest of the afternoon we just got to hang out at the Fowler's house and enjoy spending time with them. Our kids spent the night at their house that night so we could enjoy the reunion.

For the first part of the reunion, we attended a ceremony to honor two of Barrett's professors who had taught for 30 years at Belhaven. They had a panel of graduates at the front who shared their experiences of their time at Belhaven and how these two professors, Dr. Chestnut and Dr. Kelley, had influenced them over the years. It was a very special time to see what an amazing impact those men have had on so many lives! After the ceremony was over, we went to Redeemer Church, where the reunion dinner was being catered. For a Belhaven reunion, there were quite a few people there, and it was great to get to reconnect with people that we hadn't seen in years. It was really fun for me to get to spend time with Amanda Brack, my friend who played volleyball with me for two years, since I hadn't seen or heard from her since she graduated. We ate and talked for a while at the church, and then Barrett and I went out to Julep (a local restaurant) with Sarah and Jeremy Allen to get some dessert. It was about midnight when we were finished there and Barrett and I were exhausted so we headed back to the hotel for the night.

On Saturday, we went out to breakfast with Arthur Wadsworth at Broadstreet, and then drove out to see his new house that is being built in Flowood. Then, we headed back to Belhaven for a lunch at Gillespie Commons. They had a couple inflatables for the kids to play on, and we got to visit some more with old friends. That afternoon, we headed back to Tim's new house to relax for a while. For dinner that night, we met some friends at Newk's Cafe, and then headed over to Brian Perry's house for a party. We stayed at Tim's house that night and on Sunday morning went to church at Trinity. After church we ate a picnic lunch with some of our Sunday school friends out on the playground and got to visit with them for a while before packing up our stuff and heading back home. It was a whirlwind of a trip, but we had a great time!

Isabelle's school Indian Festival was the next week, and it is always so cute to see the kids in their hand-made indian t-shirts doing the different activities. I worked the sand art station again and watching two and three-year olds pouring sand into little jars is definitely interesting!

The three amigos- Emily, Isabelle & Ava:




Making a necklace:


Isabelle and Caleb both had Thanksgiving feasts at their schools before they got out for break, and Caleb had a Thanksgiving program at Rocky Bayou church. His class, along with the entire preschool and kindergarten classes, dressed up at indians and pilgrims and sang songs. They all had a turn up in front playing one of the instruments as well. It was so cute and they did an excellent job. Grammy and Pappy came into town just in time to see the program, and then spend a few days with us before Thanksgiving. We enjoyed going to Harborwalk and eating lunch at Dewey Destin while looking over the harbor.

Caleb as an Indian for the Thanksgiving program:




After Grammy and Pappy left, Barrett's family came in and stayed with us for a few days for Thanksgiving. It was a full house, but we had a lot of fun and everything went smoothly with getting the turkey cooked and all the food on the table in a timely fashion! The cousins had fun playing together, and we spent one evening out at Destin Commons enjoying some chilly winter weather which was a lot of fun.

The cousins on Grandmamma's lap:


We have so much for which to be thankful!