Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving was last Thursday, and I had the whole week at home due to a project shutdown. It was so great to be home for that long. So many things happened that I don't know where to start.

First, we moved into the new house. Yay! I got home on Thursday the 16th. That was our last night in the apartment; the next morning we left our stuff but took the cats over to the house and I stayed there with them during the day waiting on deliveries while John was at work. We had no TV and no internet connection, so I was sitting alone in a house with very little to do the whole day. In the early evening my dad called and said he was watching the news and our apartment complex was on fire! We had no access to the news in any way, so I phoned the complex and they confirmed there was a big fire but luckily our apartment was not involved. It was the apartment building next to us, though. We had to go back to the apartment that night to get some of our things (we hadn't brought any toiletries or blankets to the house because we intended to go back and get them that evening), and the fire was still going pretty strong. Our stuff was moved out the next morning as planned. I tried to donate some things we wouldn't need for the people affected, but the office at the apartment said furniture was on its way and there were enough apartments for them to be rehomed, so it sounds like some fast action was able to be taken.

We love the house. I have taken some more pictures. It's kind of empty right now and yet messy, so I will continue to post pictures things come along. We had beautiful weather over the weekend so John did a lot of raking of all the leaves that were in the yard. We have some lovely mature trees on our property. Apparently they built the neighborhood in a way that kept a lot of mature trees which makes it really pretty. The houses are about 12 years old, and you can see the trees have to be older than that due to their height. We've also had some new furniture delivered which has been fun. The cats have adjusted well yet again to this move. We have a basement, and the first couple of days they were finding it quite comforting to hang out down there most of the time, but as time has gone on and they have become more comfortable they have spent less and less time there.

So the biggest news of all is we found a puppy to rescue! She is a black lab/beagle mix, 6 weeks old, born to a stray who had a litter of 11 pups (what an enormous litter, and all survived!). Five of her littermates were taken but we still got to choose from 6, which is about a normal sized litter, so I still feel like we got the pick of the litter. ;-) We are calling her Lucy. She will fit in quite well with the Beatles theme (Abbey and Jude). We thought we were going to get her in 2 weeks, but today they called and said she has been spayed and is ready to go home! So I think we are bringing her home on Thursday now! It is going to be a mad next few months I imagine, but so much fun. I just pray the cats adjust to this as beautifully as they have the other changes the last few months.

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. We went to my dad's on the actual day. My dad and I made a sweet potato souffle which was a hit. The Saturday after Thanksgiving we went to my mom's for ThanksAgainving, as I was calling it. Obviously our nephews were there, which adds even more fun and excitement to the day. They are so funny. It was great to have my first American Thanksgiving in a few years, although my in laws spoiled me every year in England by preparing my own special Thanksgiving dinner for me.

So I think that pretty much hits most of the main points of my week at home. Oh, I did partake in some after Thanksgiving sales and survived. We are about 80% done with our Christmas shopping!