It's crunch time!

Just a few weeks left until I have completed all of the work for my Masters degree in Education, but it feels overwhelming!  I have my Annotated Bibliography done and a REALLY rough 5 pages (out of 30?)  Then I have a Research Design Proposal and Oral Presentation with Power Point to complete.  All due, on December 9th.  That is it.  I will be done in a few weeks and I can hardly concentrate I am so excited.  My goal, right now, is to finish my rough draft before Thanksgiving.  We shall see!

It has been a rough semester with all of the changes and adjustments that we are making, but we are pulling through.  Gavin struggles with not getting enough time with Mom and Dad and Ella does too.  It is rough because I do not see them on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday!  I go to work and then to the library and don't get home until after they go to bed.  Andy is overworked at home and is exhausted, but he is incredible.  

We started having "talk time" with Gavin where one of us spends 15 minutes just hanging out with him and chatting.  Catching up on his life, friends, school or the latest book that he is reading.  He is responding well to this and I am loving the time to connect.  I think that after I am done with classes, we will make this a nightly thing and trade off kids so that each one gets some one on one time with each parent EVERY day.  If I don't have 10 minutes to devote myself to one of my children every day, I really need to get my priorities straightened out.  They used to get some one on one during bath time, but they both shower independently nowadays.. so we lost that.  I think that we are on to something good here!

We have made time to do some things together... we have been having Friday Family Nights still and have gone out to dinner, ice cream, done crafts, made cookies, watched movies or played games.  We are loving that!  We also went to a play last weekend which was really neat!  The next couple of weeks will be really rough for everyone because I am going to be at the library every night except for weekends when I will be working at home on my Lit Review.  I keep reminding the kids that if I can get done before Thanksgiving I can hang out all weekend long.  (I will take time to edit, but probably when they go to bed.)

We decided to go camping this year for Thanksgiving and I am beyond excited.  My mother's side of the family is getting together in the mountains above San Diego.  I have not celebrated Thanksgiving with this part of my family for a LONG time, and the kids never have!  We are going to have a great time (and try not to freeze to death!)  

I am at the library now, and took a break to post this update.  I appreciate my friends and family who stick with me and support me and love me through it all.  I could not do it without you!  NOW... It is back to work!

Happy Halloween!

Another month has come and gone...We had a great time and especially love when Halloween falls on a Saturday. It gives us an entire day to play and have fun together!

We had ghost pancakes for breakfast that Andy and the kids made. We made a Gingerbread Haunted House and some ghost and mummy cookies to take to a party later in the day.
Gavin played his soccer game and then we carved our pumpkins.

We all took a nap and then donned our costumes, headed off to a party for a big potluck dinner and then we were off to Trick or Treat. It was a fun and spooky night. Ella was very independent and just went off on her own to the doors of our neighbors. Gavin got brave and even went to the "scary" houses.

Today, we are putting away the decorations and cleaning up the house and doing laundry. Later I will be working on my thesis and we will have dinner with my in laws. November, here we come!