late-night drivers get the bearclaw!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

i wasn't completely decided on tuesday morning if i would go ahead and make the drive to mom and dad's after school or just wait until wednesday. i woke up in the morning and thought i would delay until wed. morning. then as the day progressed, i decided that i would go ahead and just make the drive after school. so i got packed as quickly as possible and we were on our way by 5. the traffic out of town is always ridiculous, though, so it took an hour longer than i would have liked. 

one thing that has become abundantly clear is that i should probably not do long trips like that when it gets dark so early because by the time i hit joplin, i was starting to fade-which left me with about another hour and 15 minutes..it is amazing how one doesn't even realize it when the fading begins! i found myself imagining things scurrying across the road, and trying to look out to the side to see what it was(to no avail) or not realizing that my speed has hit 95, as the radar detector goes off and i see lights stopping a car in front of me-thankfully i was able to slow in time to not fall victim to the ticket i deserved. at this point i was on the final stretch and i thought, no problem, 10 more minutes, but i'm pretty sure i rolled in, eyes glazed. but we made it in by midnight, safely and got to bed by one. i am officially no longer a late-night person! 

i'm glad we left early so that we were already here this morning!

we woke up to huge snow flakes clumps, but they melted away almost as soon as they fell. sadly we didn't get outside early enough to get any good pics. the boys were largely unimpressed. "it's just soft rain and now i'm wet and cold." that was chaco.

nothing beats mom's homemade bear claws fresh out of the oven! yummers! 

you cannot see the yummy goodness inside, but trust me, the pairing of dates, chopped cherries, and walnuts, topped with a sugar,walnut topping...quite a holiday tradition for us.

it's been a very relaxing day! i got the opportunity to do a little target-practice today in the backyard-fortunately i was able to find my ammo a few weeks ago at a great rate! love not having range fees!!

my mom got a tablet-android. i am so proud of her! as i was looking at it today, i noticed that it was on 4g, and she said last night that it used their wifi. that surprised me because i never knew they had wifi-when i've been here before, i haven't been able to get on with the laptop. so i pulled out my chromebook and there were no available networks, so i went in to look at their equipment, tried a couple of different numbers because i couldn't figure out the id to add a network. they had a router, and a usb connection...so i told them they might want to ask their saleswoman (who knows my mom's password by heart) where to find the id number.

so they went in earlier and it took awhile, but they were due for an upgrade in equipment, and they got what they needed to upgrade their technology. we got in and figured all of that out, created passwords and now i can work from any part of the house-sweet. (by no means am i an expert in technology, but i will take a challenge and run with it and usually figure out what i need to know). 

when i finally came back to the living room and settled in, chaco came up onto the couch and began pawing at the cushions. i couldn't figure out what he was trying to find, because there shouldn't be anything down there. so i thought he was crazy. finally, i pulled out a cushion so that he could see there was nothing. he continued to paw and get down in the crevice, so finally to keep him from damaging the couch, i reached down to show him there was nothing. i felt something i thought might have been a treat and pulled it out. then i realized it was poop. cat poop. (my dog at some point in the evening had gotten into the litter box and dragged out that which is taboo, and guarded it in a safe place so that he could go back later for snack). my reflex was to drop it, and then bruno picked it up (in his mouth, as that is how dogs usually tend to pick things up)...i had to pry it from his little jaws. since when is hardened cat droppings a delicacy? since never, that's when. must pay closer attention to what the boys are doing-especially when they are quiet and out of sight for any period of time.

alright, i leave you to enjoy THANKSGIVING! (at least those of you in the u.s.).

thankful for so many things!
julie