November

One new thing for us as the parent's of a child at Marshall High School is that band is a huge commitment! If you are in band that means that you are automatically in Marching Band and Marching Band means that every Monday from the end of Aug - Nov you have a mandatory three hour rehearsal in the evening (even if you try to use Family Home Evening as an excuse) and you have to play during all the home football games and do a halftime show. We decided since we weren't getting to ever see Kendall anymore that we would go where he was and we managed to catch a couple of the games this year. It actually was a lot of fun even though it was chilly and rainy. They do a really good half time performance and it was fun to get caught up in the excitement of high school football (even though many parents got WAY too involved and took it WAY too seriously!).

Also in November, it finally happened. A few months later than he had planned, but it finally happened. Taylor submitted his mission papers and began the anxious wait to see where he would be assigned to labor as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!

While we waited and speculated about various exotic and not so exotic locations that he may be sent to, we also celebrated Thanksgiving. Jonathan came out again this year for his usual vacation time so that was great to see him again. And he also installed a new bumper on our van to replace the one that was a casualty of last winter when Kalen scraped it on the giant pile of snow in our driveway as he was backing out and the whole side cracked and broke off! He also fixed our windshield wiper. So yeah, like I said, it was great to see him again. (It was also fun to visit with him!!!) Mom and I did our annual Black Friday shopping excursion and it took the entire day but I managed to knock out nearly all of my Christmas shopping this time, so it was totally worth the exhaustion and sore feet.