November 16th

It is already Saturday the 16th - No snow yet- we have had a few icy days but nothing out of the ordinary. I am hoping we have snow for Thanksgiving- I remember back in 2005 that we had a fall like this where there was no snow most of November and it looked like it does now but the day before Thanksgiving it just snowed and snowed - literally so much that we were able to get out the snow machines - I looked back at pictures over the years and we would have snow the end of October - Speaking about Thanksgiving - Nancy is going to Las Vegas to meet up with Breanna (Breanna's husband is going to be in Spain for gymnastic competition- he coaches some pretty good people and is traveling with them overseas frequently) -Breanna is going to China the beginning of December for her work- she designs for Levi S. boys line- and then will be up here for Christmas- so Nancy went to visit in LA the first week of October but had pulled something in her back and it was pretty miserable so she felt a bit disappointed in her vacation and decided to go for the Thanksgiving weekend- we are going to have Darlene and Pete here for Thanksgiving along with Adrienne and her "friend" Jon- Jordan, Jake (Nancy's son) - that is 9 with all of us- and the table seats 10 so that is perfect - It is so different this year from last year - I was so lonely- we had a sad little Thanksgiving with just the three of us- I decided not to cook and got Whole Foods Thanksgiving meal instead- the next day we drove up to Big Bear which was fun but we came back Saturday afternoon because of traffic concerns coming back into the city on Sunday - it is so nice not to worry about activities because of traffic - -Speaking about traffic - I had a picture from last year yesterday of a picture of the traffic on the 405 coming home from an audition about 5:30 pm - what a difference - I went to Anchorage and back yesterday- no traffic - I remember that drive from last year - it took over 2.5 hours to get  home-
Anyway - we had such a nice party for Rainey on the 12th- We had Diana, Nancy and Darlene, Jordan, Adrienne and her "friend" Jon- then Rainey's current counselor Trisha - has been since 4th grade - came over and Bonnie Parrett who was Rainey's 1st grade teacher and she brought Lynn Kracke who was not Rainey's kindergarten teacher but was the other kindergarten teacher with Ms. Furlong (who passed away - I am sure I have told you about my friendship with her) so Bonnie invited her to "represent" Ms. Furlong from Kindergarten and it just warmed my heart- and then the Nolders showed up - Ryan was in her kindergarten class and 1st grade and his sisters used to babysit and help me around the house- Shannon (mom) was the PTA president when we were at Finger Lake - so that was awesome and then Rainey had a friend from her classes at Mat Su Central- we had a full house and plenty of parking !!!!! I put out a ton of appetizers and then we ordered pizza- I had balloons from the party store with congratulations - it was so amazing to have all those people over to celebrate Rainey and her accomplishments- we never had that opportunity being in California - so I made it extra special - and she loved every minute -
Nancy and I are having a Christmas card making night at Love Scraps -we have invited 8 people - next Saturday 23rd from 5pm -9 pm - so that will be fun - and the Girl Scouts are renting the theatre for a showing of Frozen 2 next Friday at 10:30 at night - come in your pj's- I'm not wearing Pj's but Rainey is super excited-
There were two Christmas Bazaars today in the valley - Rainey and I went to one last Saturday - it was fun but they are so expensive - I feel like I am buying stuff that I really do not want or need - and Rainey likes to look at everything so we end up talking to the people and it just feels stressful to me :) I like to  browse and not get to close to a table unless I know I am interested in something - she just goes right in and starts trying things on - rings bracelets- talking away - so I am going to pass on the bazaars today - they have a really good one the Saturday after Thanksgiving at Colony High School and we will go to that one - and also we are completely immersed in Battle of the Books until the test on December 10th- We started hot and heavy back in August but then the move and - all- I knew the Battle was not until The end of Feb so I thought we had plenty of time - but then on Tuesday after class she brought home a note saying that the test was on December `10th- to narrow down the participants in the Battle- apparently they have 23 people in class but only  12 can move on - well actually 9 - 3 teams of 3 and then 3 alternates- and they narrow them down by the test- so now we are like - in a panic because we have to finish the books and then read them again - we are 4 away from reading all 10 and then the goal is to read or listen to the 10 again to refresh before the test- then I have gone on Teachers pay Teachers and have printed out Battle of the Books practice questions and quizzes and test of the books- Rainey wants to get in the top table group of 3 so she has to score in the top 3 out of the 23 - which I am sure she can do we just have to keep it a priority each day- Right now she is listening to one of the books - she has an hour left - listening to it was 13 hours - so some of these books are lengthy- I have decided to give up my office upstairs - and be downstairs- it really is a pain to go up and down and have something up there and then need it down here- and I love the office table we have downstairs with all of my "stuff" surrounding me- the only downfall is that I will not have the view from up there - I have a big window looking out on the backyard and then the view of the mountains is incredible in the front- but it just doesn't seem to be workable on a daily basis- I get up there and start doing something and then need a credit card so down the stairs I go to get my purse and back up the stairs - and then Tom asks me to come down and do something so off I go - not finishing what I was doing and forget what I was doing - or get distracted and --- on and on so it really is not workable - I am going to let Rainey put her dolls and stuff in there - since I promised her the bunk bed room but we have not gotten the bunk beds out because we have no where to put them right now until we get the garage cleared out - just silly things but pains none the less.
Adrienne and I went to see a movie yesterday - I think it was called "Last Christmas" - it was a bit slow in the beginning and middle but ended up with a heart warming feeling - Adrienne has to work today - they have her on a weird schedule between Anchorage and Eagle River that it is hard to remember what her days off are - I know she is in Anchorage today 9-6 so she will be home around 7- I think she works tomorrow but not sure - she does work M-F next week - and has Saturday off because she said she can come to the card making party- Barry comes back tomorrow afternoon - we will have him until Thursday afternoon -
Rainey had a good time at Nancy's store on Wednesday from 2-4 playing games with kids that came in - I think they will get more people as time goes on and people realize it is happening - I forgot to tell Nancy that she should give a discount on one item during that time like Lakeshore does on Saturdays when they do the kids craft each week - The Star Wars game came out yesterday The Fallen order - I think  it is called - I have to buy it and listen for Rainey's parts and then isolate them to  post on her acting sites -I ordered Rainey's presents from her Christmas list - she had a lengthy list - I think I got half of them and left the outrageously priced ones off :) oh and the rabbit !!
Well, I better get going -