11/30/23

 I cleaned my fish tank really good and did some rearranging in it.  Then I cleaned the shrimp tank and the baby tank.  When I got to the school to pick up Eli he texted and said he was staying after to practice with Liam for solo ensemble.  Mr Shepard was helping them.  He said Mr Shephard told them their duet was the best he's heard in middle school.  I met Vikki and Kenzie at Big Boy and Adam walked there from school.  Vikki treated us to Hot fudge ice cream cakes.  Yummy!  They had to leave for Kenzie's appointment.  I picked Eli up from school on the way home.  Jared took the trailer to TSC to pick up a couple loads of wood pellets.  I took Adam to town to pick up his computer from the computer shop.  They loaded Windows 11 on his new computer and also did a couple other things to it.  He was pretty excited about it.  

11/29/23

 Today I smoothed the bottoms of all the pots.  Then I cleaned up the house and did some laundry.  I then set up a spot to take pottery pictures.  I posted the new pots on Etsy.  Took the boys shopping for sweatshirts/jackets.  Adam wanted a thicker sweatshirt and also got some fleece pjs.  Eli got a nice Columbia jacket.  I forgot that today was Wednesday until Adam said, "Aren't we going to youth group?"  Jared quickly got them there just a few minutes late.  I talked to Vikki and Kenzie on the phone.  Jared and I played a couple games of 3-13 and I won both games.  Poor Jared.  They weren't fun games for him.  

11/28/23

 Today I trimmed mugs on the wheel.  I planned on making all of these mugs with two handles.  I am almost out of clay and only have some really soft clay.  I had a hard time pulling clay with this clay.  It kept breaking.  I struggled for awhile and then scrapped all the handles I wedged the clay for a long time.  Then pulled the handles again.  It still want easy and I almost gave up on putting two on them for each.  I did it and am glad I did.  This evening we watched Home Alone 2.  

11/27/23

 

There were a lot of packages to take to the post office this morning.  I threw mugs on the wheel with plans to make them into double handles.  Jared picked up pizza's for dinner and we watched Home Alone 1.  

GA Thanksgiving 2023

Wednesday

Jacob using his pickle pillow which was made by Grandma many years ago!

Jacob's pillow has the blue nose

We all thought Uncle Dee had left

Nope, he was just hiding :) 

Grandma and her youngest grandson, Eli

Adam all set for some gaming. And Louie too

THURSDAY

Workers in the kitchen

Happy Thanksgiving!

Uncle Dee and Eli wearing their punctuation pendants.  Question mark?  Exclamation!

Jacob pretending to play the keyboard, for a picture.

 Adam brought all his Garfield books for others to read, mostly Grandpa.

FRIDAY

Grandma and her MI grandsons

Russell boys

They didn't get their height from their Grandma. Haha

At the bakery

Twice baked biscotti, yummy!

Jared's in there.  He thinks this tree would be fun to climb.

Sleepy boy.  He may have his day and nights mixed up.

Skipbo!

Gaming together

Saturday

Jared and Uncle Rick

Playing a stacking game with placemats.

How high can they stack

Silly boys

Time to return to Michigan

Back to some snow

Adam working on building his computer

Eli is happy to see his cats

Ok Georgia trip 2023.  Jared here.  Was a little different drive down.  Instead of taking two days and leaving on a Tuesday and arriving Wednesday afternoon, we left Wednesday morning and drove all day.  Jacob had a concert on Tuesday and so we brought him home from MSU Tuesday night and left early in the morning.  Not as early as I wanted as Jacob was still doing homework at 3am… so I went back to bed and we ended up leaving around 6.  Drove and got to GA around 9 pm.  Whoa long day.  We thought Uncle Dee would have been gone back to bed by the time we arrived as he gets up at 3:15 am each day.  And when we walked into the guest house sure enough Uncle Dee was gone…. Or so we thought…..  we unloaded quite a few things before we saw Uncle Dee standing in the porch looking in through the window… HA!!  So so funny!!!  And a little spooky.  It was great he decided to stay till we arrived.  Thursday brought lots of eating, apple pie, turkey, ham and all the fixings.  Once again Thanks Uncle Rick for feeding us and buying the food.  He buys, we cook, we all eat - and we had just enough ice cream.  -for breakfast and late meals.  We visited with Brother Emilio, Brother Philip, Brother Juan Diego, Brother Michael, Brother Clement, Fr Peter Damion and Abbot Augustin.  We took a tour through the bakery as is our annual tradition to see what’s going on and have some treats.  Brother Philip is so kind and fun to chat with - he’s my age so that probably has something to do with it.  Went to the Abby Store and chatted.  We took a few walks and on Saturday we collected acorns to try and grow some Pin Oaks .  We helped mom rake up two huge bags of pine needles for her walkways.  They were heavy.  We had some great games of 3-13 and skipbo.  Loud games.  Once again it was great seeing Uncle Rick and Uncle Dee (and Mom and Dad). Sunday morning came and back north we drove.  Left around 5:30 am - rolled in at 8:30.  Dropped off Jacob on the way and picked up Wyatt.  Left at 60 degrees arrived to snow and slick roads.  A bit of snow falling - bridges were super slick.  Another fun year in the books… looking forward to next year.  Book the house Uncle Dee we will be back. 

Here's a link to our first GA trip 16 years ago!

ahhh-georgia.html