At first I thought Jeremy Huggins died, but then I realized it was John Barrymore.

SERIOUSLY, someone help us. I’m going crazy with our blog. ISAIAH, WHERE ARE YOU?

Well, here’s our Thanksgiving update: Rick’s family pulled into our driveway at about 8:30 pm last Wednesday. Rick and I had been watching T.V. (episodes of “Monk”) and I still needed to clean the house, but Rick promised me that his family wouldn’t be in until at least 11. So I kept thinking, “I’ve got time.” WELL, they were early, which turned out to be fine, but I didn’t get the kitchen or our bedroom to be as clean as I wanted them to be. Thankfully, Rick’s family is extremely easy to impress. They loved our little abode.

On Thanksgiving Day, Rick’s mom and Kenny (her husband) went to visit Kenny’s family in Rayville while Amanda (Rick’s sister) helped me prepare Thanksgiving dinner. She is good at peeling potatoes. She also set the table and made it quite lovely. Everything got done in time EXCEPT for the turkey. We decided to just pull it out and assume that it was done by 4 because we were getting really hungry. My pumpkin pie crust impressed the whole family. There were five people and I made four pies. You can’t make TOO many pies, can you?

Rick’s family left on Sunday morning. We had a great time with ‘em. I hope to do it again next year.

I’m looking forward to:

Rick’s Paycheck (tomorrow)
Auditioning for the ULM orchestra (Dec. 7)
Going to Spokane (Dec. 9)
Taking the ACT (Dec. 11)
Going to Salem (Dec. 12)

and everything after that.

Our list

1.Five Red velvet panels from BB&B-I’d put them on my wishlist, but I can’t find the right ones. They’re $14.99 a piece.
2. Majesty Large Bed Canopy
3.Cranium (going for about $15-17 on Ebay!)
4. Walmart gift cards so we can do stuff around the house like painting and putting up pictures.

Rick’s list

1. Various books in Tom Wright’s “For Everyone” series. I have Mark, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, and Galatians/Thessalonians already. Sadly, that’s all I have.
2. Ritualsong, Gather, Worship, and various Marty Haugen settings from GIA Music, but especially Ritualsong and the Haugen settings.
3. Clothes-slacks and button-ups w/o grease stains.

Rachel’s list

1. Clothes-tops and skirts
2.Bath and Body Works stuff (I prefer Sweet Pea for anyone that wants to actually buy what I like). Anyone that buys her Vanilla will have wasted his or her money because it makes me want to puke.
3. Anklets

I finished my Day After Thanksgiving Shopping Spree at 6 AM. Yes, AM. I bought Turbo Tax Deluxe for $30 (after rebate), and I received 256 Mb Thumbdrive, Turbo Tax State, Turbo Tax It’s Deductible, and Quicken 2005 for free (after deductible). So I spent $165, and I’ll get about $135 back. Not bad, huh?

Rachel and I have been playing with Quicken all night. It’s the best thing since sweet tea.

I realize I’ve become (if I wasn’t already) a nerd.

I understand Archer MSAs, HSAs, HDHPs, and LDHPs.

I know about stocks, Roth and SIMPLE IRA’s, 401k’s and 403b’s and mutual funds. I check the DJIA, NYSE, S & P 500, Russell 2000, S & P Mid-Cap 400. I invest in Vanguard Windsor II, the Stock Index Fund, a mid cap and small cap from Ariel, a mid cap index, but most of the money I have in mutual funds is in an Evergreen fund that has grown 14.92 percent over the past ten years. And the funny thing is, my money isn’t just sitting there (well, it is mostly sitting there, but that’s not what I meant). I understand what it’s doing, and why I have it in there. It’s not because someone told me it was good to do. It’s because I read and learned about these things. I’ve gone from ignorance to understanding, and I feel free because of it.

Rachel and I play Mille Bornes all the time. Nathan Blevins came down last weekend, and what did we make him do? Play Mille Bornes.

We spent the entire day watching movies yesterday. We watched Sleepover, The Terminal, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and five episodes of Monk.

We pay all of our bills on the first day of the month, and we don’t worry about them from day to day.

My wife has some sort of eye infection. I almost feel excited that I’ll get to use my health insurance for the first time. I probably shouldn’t be happy about that. I like having a PPO, and I feel empowered to know what those letters stand for.

I hate sleep, and I can’t understand why people like to stay in bed. My wife likes sleep and does it a lot.

I know the names of the leaders of most countries in the Middle East because I keep up with news. This is new. College was a bubble where I didn’t care.

I’m interested in the war in Iraq though I’d never go over there. Oddly enough, peace has become a pillar of my theology.

We pay $10.90 a month for purified water.

Our refrigerator makes funny noises.

Powerlessness and death are wonderful.

I love being married, and I love that it’s never been a burden. It’s such a relief to have such a wonderful wife. Many of the things that I thought would be a burden in marriage just really aren’t when God is your focus, and you have the right perspective on who your wife is, how she functions, and what she needs.

I admire my wife. She’s such a hard worker. I don’t think she works for the money. I think she works because she’d go insane if she didn’t. That’s one thing I’ve always admired about her. She’s smart. She sat down to do a practice ACT for fun. I scored her after the first section. I was impressed with her 32. She was upset and couldn’t believe she missed any questions. Why she likes me, I don’t understand.

I would say we don’t want for anything, but that’s not true. Everything is not perfect. Our church situation is less than ideal; her excommunication is still working its way through presbytery. We’re not really sure what our place is in Monroe, and where we’re called to serve. That’s probably our biggest frustration: Where are we called to serve, and what church best serves our needs at the moment?

Also, we don’t have a whole lot of friends. Well, it’s not that we don’t have friends; it’s just that everybody else is so busy. Everyone either has kids or are homebodies or we’re just too afraid to ask them over twice in a week and seem pushy. We really miss the fellowship of Rachel’s parents, Rebekah and Forrest, and Ryan and Taneisha.

There’s one other thing that’s missing in our lives, but I try not to talk about it, and just pray that God will give it to us soon. I’m sure a lot of you that know us well can figure out what it is. Will you pray that God would give us that?

-proofread and corrected by Rachel (I’m OCD)

Our bathroom is still under construction, but we’ve got the walls painted purple with only a few touchups needed. It looks awesome. We ordered a penguin shower curtain that we should be getting sometime next week. It’ll work perfectly with our penguin shower curtain hooks. Too bad we didn’t take any “before” pictures … it looks hundreds of times better.

Next project: cranberry red dining room.

We’re painting our bathroom purple.