Mom, you know I'm still alive.

Okay, I'll post an update. My mom seems to think that something's wrong if I don't post, so here goes.

I do have some neat updates for creative days (which I didn't finish within the allotted 30 days, so it's more like "30 out of 45 days of creativity" but it was still fun! I just need to upload pictures to go along with those posts.

Last week (November 9th - 14th), Joe and I were in Dallas. He had a another computer training that was Monday - Friday, and we both decided it'd be better for me to take off work for the week and get away with him instead of staying in town by myself. (I just looked for my post about last time Joe went on a trip, and the surprise I worked on, but I couldn't find it... have I been that bad about blogging?) While in Dallas, I spent time with my parents, some friends from church who are planting a church up there, and a couple of good high school friends I haven't seen since my wedding (almost 7 years ago). I also did some shopping. I spent almost 4 hours at Ikea with my mom and dad (on his day off, sorry Dad!), and I thought I was rushing through. The coolest thing I found (and bought) is this:
It's a magnetic trivet (hot pad)! If I set one of our pots on it and put it on the table, we can pass the gravy (or whatever is in the pot) around the table without passing it all the way back to put it on the hot pad. This is one of those ideas that I wish I had thought of - how smart! We've already used it and I like it a lot.

This week that we've been back has gone by fast!

We got in Friday night, and Saturday our friend Danny came over and got us started tiling some of our floor. He returned Sunday with his new bride, Jordan, who helped me paint one of the last remaining unpainted rooms (just some second coats and a bathroom to go).

Monday, we were with the kiddos and mainly worked on separating clothes (as well as eating a gumbo that turned out spicier than we intended). Tuesday was our small group for church. I don't remember what Wednesday night was. Joe, help? Oh, I think we watched a movie that I wouldn't really recommend unless you're particularly interested in wine. Last night was our appointed date night (we're just starting to do Thursday night as date nights). We stayed in, but it was nice.

I get emails from World Market, and today they sent one saying that Beaujolais nouvaeu was now here, and it goes great with Turkey!!! (their enthusiasm, not mine) I looked it up, and it's a type of wine (from a certain grape in France) that they only allow to ferment a few weeks before selling. Even though it's a red wine, it has very little tannins (from the grape skin - so it's not so bitter... thanks Fall Creek Vinyards for teaching me some about the wine-making process). I was thinking "this might be a fun wine to try," when I read this on Wikipedia: "Wine critic Karen MacNeil has compared drinking Beaujolais Nouveau to eating cookie dough." I'm pretty sure that was a jab at this wine that is not given time to mature, but now I totally want to try it.

I'll try to update with some of the creativity days really soon!