Wasn't my last post just titled "Fall is Here?" Scrolling down...scrolling down...yep! Oh well...hopefully no one has given up checking our blog on a regular basis, even though our postings are on an irregular basis. If you're reading this, make sure to check back a few times in the next month or two. Cari and I have been and will continue to be fairly busy into next year, so we'll try to post frequently whenever we have something exciting to report.
Sadly, illness has been what's taken up most of our time lately (with the exception of work). Cari and I seem to be trading off being sick, although I've only taken part in that game once, and Cari has taken more turns than she'd like. She has decided that there is something in the air or water out here that's causing us to get sick...which sounds reasonable. She's had a virus (flu-like symptoms, but not the flu), stuffiness, sore throat, and an ear infection. I had a pretty bad virus a couple weeks ago that sent me to Urgent Care twice and the ER once. 8 tubes of blood, 5 bags of IV fluid, 1 X-Ray and ultrasound later, and it turned out to be a mysterious virus. (I could almost make the 12 Days of Christmas song out of that previous sentence, by the way). My flu tests came back negative, and the doctor thought it might be Hepatitis A since my liver functions were sky-high (no, I hadn't been drinking too much). It was not too fun, but we're both feeling back to normal now, so all is well!
Enough about our sicknesses :) We pray that everyone had a great Thanksgiving with friends and family. We were planning on going to our friends' parents house with them and some others, but it was near the end of my illness, so I was still recovering. Cari and I had a nice quiet and relaxing Thanksgiving here with the two of us. We enjoyed watching the Macy's parade and Home Alone while snacking, and had a small Thanksgiving dinner later in the afternoon after taking some naps. Overall, we certainly missed spending time with family, but given my current state and the need to relax after a trying week, our time together was a blessing.
We've been working pretty hard since then...Cari only has one more week left before her two week Christmas break. I've been extremely busy, and will probably continue to be throughout the next couple of weeks due to some big issues at work. Overtime = $$ though, which is always welcome this time of year. Cari's family is also coming in less than a week! We're excited about showing them around Albuquerque and just being able to spend time with them. It will be the two of us, Cari's parents, two brothers, one sister, and our dog Belle in our one bedroom apartment...so it should be a fun adventure with all of us crammed in together. We'd much rather be packed in here together than thousands of miles apart.
We do have one exciting thing to report - a great memory made just yesterday. We volunteered to serve with members of our church to assist with "The Christmas Store." This is a great ministry where the church asks its members to take tags off of Christmas trees in the foyer which have gifts to purchase. These gifts go to one of several different ministries which then allow local parents to come in and pick out a couple presents to give to their children on Christmas. As you can imagine, the ministries we partner with focus on serving parents of families who may be less fortunate. Anyways, we traveled with a group or 12 or 13 people to the Navajo Indian Reservation in Steamboat, Arizona to take gifts and food to a small church in their community. We had the opportunity to allow parents from the church to select items for their children, have those items wrapped, be served lunch, and just to fellowship with others. It was incredibly rewarding to be able to serve families in such a rural church, from a different culture, and who were appreciative of us being there. We also enjoyed getting to visit the Hubble Trading Post on the way back (http://www.nps.gov/hutr/index.htm), seeing Window Rock in Arizona (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Window_Rock,_Arizona), and eating dinner in Gallup, NM. The snow-covered scenery on the drive out was more amazing than I can describe on here, and we even saw some TREES when we drove through the Navajo National Forest. Overall, it was a great experience, and we would do it again in a heartbeat.
That's it for now...Cari and I will be traveling up to Colorado Spings, CO on the 26th and 27th and staying at a Bed and Breakfast for our "Christmas present" to each other. We're looking forward to yet another new experience and some great southwestern scenery. We'll miss our friends and family greatly on Christmas, but are excited to get away for a weekend and spend some time exploring a new place/relaxing! So, check back in late December for another posting, and hopefully we'll have some good details/stories from that trip. We're also going back to N.C. in January to spend time with my family and attend a wedding for one of Cari's friends. As you can see, we've got a lot going on, but can't wait for the whirlwind of activity.
We hope everyone has an excellent Christmas...we love and miss you all and wish you a very happy holiday!!
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