Thanksgiving 2012

We arrived at the Miskiewicz's house in Raleigh, NC, on Wednesday, November 21. 

Here we are!

  Kim had cooked up a storm in preparation for the weekend.  Not only were we, Jeremy (Erin's boyfriend), Kim's mom and brother there all weekend, she was having 29 people for Thanksgiving dinner itself.  

Kim's mom is 84 and going strong.  She helped Kim a lot with the pre-cooking.

We had lasagna to eat on Wednesday night.

Jeremy proposed to Erin at the skating rink on Wednesday evening.  We were all supposed to wait in the lobby and yell "Surprise!".  We arrived before they did, and when we realized it, there was a mad rush to the cars to hide!  So typical of a Meahl/Miskiewicz get-together.

Finally waiting.

The happy couple plans to get married in September 2013.  They will both graduate from college this May.

 Thanksgiving Day arrived and it was a full and happy one!

Carys' main goal was to play with Abby.

The young girl and the old lady. 

Abby has been a part of many of our Thanksgivings, including one where she ate half the pumpkin pie while we were outside looking through Dave's telescope.

 The dining room table was usually filled with some sort of board game that would have to be cleared off in order to eat.

Let the games begin!

Kim and I have been doing Thanksgiving together since 1997, minus one year when they went to Kim's mom's house in Kentucky.  That's 15 of the last 16 years.  Wow!  Things will begin to change now as our children are getting married, joining the Air Force, etc.

Ok!  Here's what we're going to do!

On top of everything that day, Landon overflowed the toilet upstairs and before he could blink, water was running down the walls into the shower of the downstairs bathroom and into the bedroom downstairs.  It set off the smoke alarms, too!  He will never live it down!

Uncle Jim to the rescue!

Discussing the bathroom situation with the experts, Greg & Jim.

Carys had a great time playing with Julia and Bethany, the neighbor girls.  She seems to be into giving the peace sign in all her pictures now!

Carys and Bethany heading out to play.

 Finally Thanksgiving dinner was ready.  We have all our usuals that must be present and then many extras are added in depending on the number of people eating that day.

Dave is happy to finally be eating.

Carys sharing the love!

Kim, Chase and I hit Walmart on Thursday evening.  It was chaotic, but I got a few things at really incredible prices that will make Christmas so nice!  On Friday, the fun continued.

Video games in the Bonus Room (love this picture of Matt and Carys)!

More board games

Greg and Dave did some shooting in the back yard and at a range.

Kim and I did a little more shopping.  Then the four of us went out to eat at a sushi place, Erin and Jeremy went to Outback with Jeremy's parents, and everyone else had take-out pizza at home.  We had a big bonfire in the backyard to wrap up the evening.

 We planned to leave at 2pm on Saturday, so there was time for some fun prior to that.
 

See what I mean about the peace sign!

 The most hilarious pictures came from the people playing Kinect!!

Chase and Landon boxing?

Matt and Landon also boxing, though it looks more like dancing.

Greg gets in an the fun, though I have no idea what he is doing!

Greg and Matt having a heart-to-heart.

 We always take group pictures before leaving.  Here are a few!

We left at 2pm.  Unfortunately, we only got about 30 minutes down the road before the van died.  The fuel pump had to be replaced.  We managed to get it towed to a Firestone before they closed.  They ordered the parts, so it could be fixed on Sunday.  We had already checked out of our hotel (Greg, Carys & I stayed in a hotel this time because of Kim's mom being at her house.), so we spent the night at the Miskiewicz's.  That meant more time for fun.

No visit is complete without a game of Mafia.

Gerren is NOT the mafia!

Good thing we had an extra night to play!

We spent the day Sunday waiting to hear about the van and doing the other things we hadn't managed to fit in. 

Kim cut Chase's bangs for her.

Don't they look good?

Organizing the Tupperware, my idea of fun!

The wishbone wasn't quite dry enough to snap.

We enjoyed a cup of tea on the porch.

Two beautiful young ladies, Chase and Erin.

At 4:00pm the van was done, and we managed to leave by 5:00pm. 

We had a great time!

We took Landon straight to Orlando, arriving by 12:30pm.  We were home by 2:00am.  Greg had to get up at 6:30 for work, but he got to bed by 3:00am.  The next evening, we took Landon's car to him.  It was a long week going on a sleep deficit like that, but we survived.

I had to include these pictures.  I can always count on Kim to snap some great pictures of my kids' beautiful faces.

Chase - 14

Landon - 19

Carys - 6

Gerren - 17

 

 We'll be back in NC in September for Erin's wedding. We can't wait!

December Update

Well, the blog was so outdated when I came to it today that it had a Back to School background!  I've changed that now.

I don't know why I can't keep up with this blog.  I want to as there are so many things going on in our lives, but so many times those things are so discouraging that I can't bring myself to write about them.  Our financial situation and Greg's job situation have been the most discouraging over the past three or four years.  It doesn't seem to end.  In June 2011 when he got a new full-time job working for our county and supervising all construction on county buildings, we thought the end was in sight.  Between that job and working 20 hours a week part-time at the hotel, we were able to make ends meet.  That lasted a month before his hours were cut at the hotel during their slow season.  That went on for four or five months, and then he went back to 20 hours a week.

He took the job at the county which did not pay much because of the opportunity to move up there.  However, you have to work for them for a year before you're eligible to apply for other jobs.  This June marked one year of employment there for Greg.  However, no jobs have opened up 1) that pay more and 2) that Greg would be qualified for.  Once again, Greg's hours at the hotel were cut in the slow season.  When the slow season ended, rather than getting all his hours back, he got a 33% pay cut and most of his hours back.  Now, although he's working almost as much, he's making much less money.

 In the meantime, the transmission went out on his truck.  Goodbye $900! That more than wiped out or Automobile Maintenance fund.  Thankfully, there were other funds in our budget with money that allowed us to pay the bill.

In November, we were getting ready to head to North Carolina for Thanksgiving when Greg checked the tires on the van.  The back ones had worn through the the steel core.  $400 later, we had new tires on the van.  We enjoyed our Thanksgiving with our very dear friends only to have the fuel pump go out on the van before we got out of Raleigh.  $1000 and a day of missed work later, we made it home.  Thanks to a very generous gift by one of our dear friends, we had the money to pay for that auto repair anyway.

It's so hard not to be discouraged.  Greg's boss at the county will turn 65 this July and says he is retiring.  IF we can hang on until then and IF Greg could get his job, we'd be in great shape.  However, there is no guarantee of that.  Please pray for us.

Meanwhile, Landon is finishing up a very tough semester at school and does not think he'll be keeping his 4.0 GPA intact.  We knew that was nearly impossible with a Physics degree!  Gerren is finishing up his high school courses and will be 95% done in early January.  He plans to return to the Air Force recruiter and turn in all his paperwork to enlist.  He turns 18 in March and hopes to do basic training before it gets really hot in San Antonio.  :)

One more week of school and we're taking three weeks off for Christmas!  I can't remember the last time I took more than 2 weeks, but we can afford to do it this year.  I need the break!

Thanksgiving pictures to follow in a separate post.  I think Kim sent me 390 pictures! :)