Who is this guy?

Technically it is finals week, but Brandon's classes all had finals early. So I get to start living with a happy husband a week early. Brandon has been singing, cleaning, smiling normally, laughing, and telling silly jokes for a couple days now. It is wonderful!!!!

Adding to the joy is the fact that Brandon wont be taking classes again until next September. So he gets 9 months of freedom. For those of you who don't know, Brandon only has one class left to graduate. Unfortunately, he can't take that class until he is commercial rated. (See the list at the left to see what he needs to do to earn that rating) So he is going to spend spring and summer semesters flying. Then in the fall he will take that last class and graduate in December.

I can't wait to see what he will be like when he is completely done with school.

Christmas Decorations

We put up our tree and other decorations last night.

We started out with our traditional mood music.

Then we located the tree box. This is the fourth Christmas we've put up this tree. The first one was when we were dating.

That first Christmas I bought the tree and Brandon bought the lights.
The box of ornaments (yes those are booties)
Our stockings


My favorite thing about Christmas trees is looking inside them.


Cute little blurry elf
Somehow when Brandon strings the lights on the tree they all end up in the middle.
One of our many Nativity scenes. (Please don't buy us one. We are good for a couple years now)
Another Nativity Scene.
The display above the TV
See what I mean about the nativity scenes?
All together
We are ready for Santa :)

Brandon's Birthday

We need to move Brandon's birthday. I really cannot make it as special as I want to when it is so close to Christmas. This year it also happened to be on the Monday after Thanksgiving which is the WORST day of the year. I hate having to go back to reality when I have had such a wonderful 4 day weekend.

Still despite the bad timing I wanted to give Brandon a good birthday. So after work we went out to eat at the Beehive Grill. Everyone at work has been raving about this place. The food was very good. We each ordered hamburgers. This restaurant is located in what used to be Logan's DI. But now it is all fancy. While we waited for our food I surprised Brandon with his birthday present. Two new batteries for his saw. He didn't know I was getting him anything and he was getting pretty nervous that he wouldn't be able to make me Christmas presents with his worn out battery.



Then we went and got shakes at Artic Circle. (I had Brownie Cheese Cake. It was the best shake ever)

After all that we went home and watched Peter Pan which I guess is a good thing to do on your 27th birthday.

Family Party and other stuff

We had our Loveless family party today. It was great to see aunts, uncles, and cousins.

We had a Baby shower for my sister Emily and a Bridal shower for one of my cousins who got married a few weeks ago. Here she is opening presents.

Here is Emily with Asher.
Everyone playing a game for the shower.Four generations (that conveniently were all sitting together)
Emily opening her presents. (Note the attentive children)
My gift to Emily was some framed pictures of Asher. I put it together using leaves and tulle from her wedding.
Asher wearing his new hat.
My cousins were reluctant to let Brandon leave.
Switching Gears:

Friday I helped Billy film an audition video. We filmed it at my in-laws house. Brandon's brother is into movie making so he came down and set up the lighting. (I teased Billy that the people that watch the video will be like "that french horn player is okay, but who did the lighting?")

We even had a thingy set up to reflect light into his face.
Switching Gears Again:

Here is the little device that Brandon set up to make sure the cookbooks got stapled exactly in the middle.
Here are the printed, folded, and stapled cookbooks. Thanks to very generous and supportive family members we were able to sell all of the books from our first printing.
We should be printing more books on Friday. Let me know if you would like any of those books. The cost is $5.00. There are about 50 recipes in all so that is 10 cents a recipe.

Thanksgiving Fun

We had a beautiful thanksgiving with Brandon's side of the family. His brother and sister-in-law flew up from Arizona so all the family was together. There were ten adults and 5 kids at our dinner table.

This being an Illguth dinner everything looked great. But before you start thinking that this was a super formal affair, here are some examples of how much fun we all had.
Melanie brought a bunch of lame Thanksgiving jokes to share. She would tell the joke (If April showers bring May flowers what do May flowers bring?) and then before anyone could even think of what the answer was her 5 year old son would shout out the answer. (Pilgrims)

Then the 5 year old would start telling his own jokes (Why did the turkey cross the road? To get more turkey) followed by Melanie laughing. To make it even better they were on opposite sides of the table. The jokes weren't that funny but the situation was.
We went around the table and said what we were Thankful for. Besides the standard answers of food, jobs, families and such there were some pretty funny responses. Some of them were, giraffes, rolls, NO, and Macintosh computers (you would have thought the dinner was sponsored by Macintosh for how much Bryan was talking about them)
The meal also featured many trips to the potty, a few squeals from the three month old baby, a discussion on the correct way to eat layered jello, and some finicky eaters. (For the record I was not one of the picky eaters- even though I am not a huge fan of Thanksgiving food)
By the end of the meal all the little kids were under the table having a great time. I was feeding them rolls like they were dogs. (Hey at least they were eating)

Later we played games and talked. It was a super fun day and I'm glad I have such wonderful in-laws. I am so glad that they appreciate silliness and fun.

Cookbook Update

We are almost done with the book!!! I just need to copy edit it, and then Brandon can do the final layout. The cost will be $5 even. The book should be printed the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. You can pay at the time you get the book. Thanks for those of you who have already told me you want one . . . it's really helped motivate us to do a good job on this project.

Cook Book for Sale

If you are a hungry college student - or you know one - this cook book is for you.

This cook book is written for college students who have few cooking supplies, skills, and/or ingredients. All of the recipes are easy to make and good to eat. The hardest recipe in the book is for bread that takes less than 90 minutes to make.

The book also includes standard to metric conversion tables so missionaries in foreign countries can still cook while they are away from home.
This would be a great Christmas Present! Contact me if you are interested. We are still finalising the cost of the book, but it wont be over $5.00.

(This is for Brandon's Entrepreneurial Class. If nothing else you will be helping a burned out senior with school)