Thanksgiving Dessert with RiLee

RiLee and half my family

The kids with Dingus, RiLee's dog

Checking out the Black Friday papers

Playing cards and DRINKIN!!!! (sparkling cider!)

Traci, Elder Lam, and Brian

RiLee is one of my best friends here in Jersey! She is also my running partner. She invited us over for dessert on Thanksgiving. It was so wonderful! (She is also in the Primary Presidency in our ward and my kids love her!) RiLee is one of the most considerate and helpful people I know! She is soooooo thoughtful! I was thankful she invited us to her house cause we really needed to get out for a while. Anyway, RiLee also invited the missionaries to eat with us... so we played a round of phase 10, ate desert and talked until 11 pm. (the elders left early so they could be home on time, promise!!!) It was wonderful! Thanks for making us feel so at home! You're awesome Ri!

OUR FIRST THANKSGIVING ALONE 09

This is my first year making Thanksgiving Lunch by myself! And happily it worked! I peeled the potatoes the night before and put them in a pot of water to save on time. I got the rolls and pies done Wednesday too! So Thursday morning was focused on turkey and setting the table. I really liked being together as a family. It was nice to take time to chat with my kids and Brian without all the excitement of other people being there! Granted I miss bringing a salad or pie to mom's and everything else being done and not having to clean it all up on my own, and playing cards and the HEAT of dad's fire! Both are perfect, I'm just grateful for this experience this year!
Most of the dinner.

About ready to pray

Whats left....mmmmmmmm, left overs!

Hannah's VIP day

Each year the Second grade at School #2 puts on a special show and snack for a VIP in their life. The kids sing some songs to the VIP then they all sit down to eat a snack and do a Thank You craft. They get to tell each other why they are important to each other. One little guy wanted his Uncle to be there, so his Uncle flew in from out of state. It is a really special day! Hannah got to have her daddy with her! They loved spending time with each other and sharing why they mean so much to each other. I got to be there too cause I am a school "VIP" and was already there! =-)
Hannah and Mr. Rohllf

Tracy, Me and Fran (set-up crew)

Daddy (VIP) and Hannah

Hannah and class

Hannah's table of treats

Bella's first select choir concert

Bella's first concert for select choir was on Veterans Day. They sang some wonderful songs about America for the Vets in our area. She did a great job! We are sooooo proud of her!

Hospitals, dr's, and LOADS of prayers!

WOW! November has been quite the month. The first part I found out they put my dear grandma Fielding in the hospital with chest pains. That ended up being a diseased gall bladder and an infection in her pancreas. They couldn't operate on her gall bladder until the pancreas was taken care of. SO in the mean time her heart stopped, her lungs filled with fluid and her kidneys started shutting down? (details could be a bit sketchy since I'm here and it happened there) She was bad enough the Dr. asked her if she had a will. She was on a respirator and was sedated really well so her body could start healing. Well, She was finally able to have her surgery after Elder Jones (a general authority of our church) gave her a blessing. She recovered really well and was released into a continued care unit across the street from the hospital just last week. THANK HEAVENS!

Well...yes, in regards to grandma...but then there is my sister's brother-in-law who was in an accident and broke his back and neck in several different places. His Dr's tried to do surgery to start patching him up, but when they deflated his right lung to fix his broken ribs they found out his left lung was also damaged in the accident and couldn't continue the surgery because he now didn't have a working lung. SO they put him on a respirator and sedated him. He will never walk again, he knows this and really wants to pull the respirator out. He is still in the same condition.

NOT DONE YET!

About a week ago, my cousin Cody was told his cancer is back. He is 35. He finished his last round of chemo back in August or September, but the cancer is back and it is really bad this time. His survival rate went from 90% to 30%. I spoke with Cody's mom, my Aunt Sheree, last night (who has been with Grandma Fielding since Thanksgiving) who told me what was going on with Cody and all she could do was cry. It broke my heart! I can't imagine watching my child battle cancer and feel the relief once the Dr.'s say its gone, just to find out months later that its back and this time it will most likely take his life.

Thanksgiving has become a rough holiday for my family. We went through roughly the same cancer scenario 2 years ago when my Grandpa Fielding battled hard for about 3 years then finally beat the cancer and died the day after Thanksgiving 2007.

The Fielding's are a tough pioneer family though! And STRONG on Faith. Grandma pulled through and is going to be great! Cody's odds aren't great...but he has always been one of the strongest in our family! So with all our prayers here's hoping Heavenly Father doesn't want Cody just yet! Cause I know we would all like to keep him around.

NEW MOON! TEAM JACOB!

Last thursday we got together for Tracie's 40th birthday! It was a wonderful evening! (that was the legitimate excuse for getting together!) We were really there to celebrate her birthday and go to the premire showing (12:01 am) of NEW MOON! We got bit by a vampire, ate blood-red birthday cake and watched Twilight. Then we stepped out into the night to see New Moon!

What a fun movie. It was sooooooo much better than the first one. Thank heaven's they got a new director! But we had such a great time. I got home at a quarter to 4 in the morning. They didn't even start the previews until 12:45. Then the traffic trying to get out of the parking lot...fagetabouit!
Rilee made her own T-shirt! Isn't it great!

me, Melissa, Shandis and Maria eating cake

Sara Beth and Tracie...the birthday girls

Elizabeth getting "bit" by our vampire hostess, MIMI

It was a wonderful partay!

Elder Clark, flea market, friends and KILLER frozen yogurt

Rilee, Joanne and I were planning to make a quick trip to the flea market for some Christmas shopping today, but it was misting and there weren't many people there so we ran into the city first so Rilee could get tickets for Lion King. We took the wrong exit or something and ended up near Jersey City!

I was pretty excited cause one of my 4 favorite missionaries is serving there! We stopped to grab a bagel for breakfast...OH so good! And then we called up Elder Clark so we could meet up with him. I haven't seen the sweetie for almost a year! He looks so grown up! It was WONDERFUL to be around him again...even if it was only for a few minutes. Once we left I called his mom to chat for a few, that was a worth while treat...as always! LOVE you Venus!

Anyway...after we said our goodbyes we ran into the city and grabbed the tickets, while we were there we decided we needed to have some frozen yogurt...the girls knew of this place that was so darn wonderful...I'll never eat ice cream again! We finally got to the market...I didn't find what I wanted cause it was raining harder by now so most of the vendors were not there. So we did some grocery shopping.

It was such a wonderful day. Even though we were running around I have to admit I am feeling quite relaxed now. There is nothing like spending some time with great friends doing whatever needs done, just cause you are together.

Charlotte North Carolina

We took a four day weekend to run down to Charlotte to look around for a house. Our wonderful friends Tim and SoYoung Vandergast (the same friends we went to Maine with) called a friend of theirs and asked if he knew of a place near them for us to look at while we were there. Luckily they did! And it is everything we ever wanted and more!

Front view from driveway

view of yard in front of driveway

the pool

back view of yard

back of house and yard

We had to take the kids to Krispy Kreme while we were there! They were very excited about that.

Tim told us that NC has a unique kind of BBQ and needed to eat some while we were there so we went to Hendrix...it seriously ROCKED!

Tim and So-Young's friends invited us to their house...they have an incredibly beautiful property!

We ate dinner with them that night and had a wonderful time listening to stories of Tim. It was so funny! Brian and Leslie are wonderful! The next day we took a drive into Charlotte. We were surprised at how clean the city center was! The kids however were NOT impressed with the skyline..."nothing compared to NYC". Well, nothing is. But Charlotte is beautiful!

We bought boiled peanuts from a roadside mall in the mountains. They were good. Brian wanted me to take a picture of the flags...click on that picture and focus your attention to the one second from the left...it says "The South Will Rise Again". Funny huh?

We totally lucked out and ran into a flight show as we were leaving town. IT was cool seeing all those old planes! B25's, B17's and P25 magnums. It was cool!

We are excited about the chance we have to live in NC. It is sooooo beautiful down there. While we were on this trip we added 4 more states to our growing list of "have seen" states. We are up to 42 now.