Fun and Sickness

Well, Trip and I are back from spending Thanksgiving up in Massachusetts which was a lot of fun! Unfortunately, since then we've both gotten sick. And just when I thought I was over my cold, it rears it's ugly head again. Ah well.

I am hoping to be able to post some more pictures of Jasper soon, but even though I took my camera I never used it. So currently waiting for the email from family with more pictures. We had a lot of fun spending time with my family. Trip has officially established himself as the "fun" uncle with Eben. Not saying that Uncle David isn't also fun - only that Eben seems more excited now to see Trip than myself. Lol. Uncle Trip is for fun, Aunt Llora Jean is for comfort. We had fun watching new "Bert and Ernies!" with him, as his is being slowly introduced to the wonderful world of Seasame Street from the viewpoint of youtube.com
Thanksgiving itself was also a lot of fun. Most of my mom's side of the family gathered at our house for our traditional Thanksgiving feast! In our family, Thanksgiving is the big family gathering. We have traditional dishes that the same people make year after year, and some new ones now that the younger generation isn't so young anymore. It is quite an affair! This was the first year in a while that we had a true "childrens table" again. It was fun to watch Eben, PJ, and Abby at their own table. Catching up with all our relatives was great! I didn't realize how much we had missed this past year, and am somewhat embarrassed by that fact. It was also good to see Trip figuring out his place in the family. This year that was greatly helped by a lengthy conversation about ethanol and switchgrass. Don't ask me the details though! I was more focused on Jasper's blanket.

Otherwise, things here in South Carolina are precariously well. Trip and I are both suffering from colds, and are hoping that we're not passing different strains back and forth. Working at a hospital, I am currently exposed to a lot of the bug. I went back to a workplace that was full of sniffles, coughs, and laryngitis. We also came back to a state economy that continues to crumble a little bit more every day. Trip and I now both have to take mandatory furloughs - his is 5 days and mine is (currently) 3. These were both preventative measures towards an expected additional 5% cut of agency budgets. Well, today ALL state agencies received across the board budget cuts of 7%. Currently we're praying that we both keep our jobs, and that possible personnel loss around us doesn't create an extremely stressful situation. So please keep that in your prayers!