November 2022

November ... Thanksgiving, birthdays, basketball, and a few other things going on. Here's a recap of the  month:

• Basketball: There were tryouts for high school basketball. Colton will be starting Varsity this year. They've been having practices, conditioning, fundraisers (chick-fil-a night night) and had their first game. Callahan is playing in a men's league on Wednesday nights too. 
• Birthdays: Grandma/Margie, Mom/Jen and Dad/Gray all have November birthdays. We got the traditional white cake with buttercream frosting from Sam'sClub (although it's no longer standard, you have to special order it) and had the folks over. We recreated a cute picture from 13 years ago and played some games. Gray had a lovely bouquet delivered. 
• Eating Out: The Westra side got together with all the adults for a dinner at Asian Star to celebrate Margie's 80th birthday. On the Blackham side, we went to Olive Garden for Ana's birthday. For a Jen/Gray birthday dinner, we went to Mountain Mike's for yummy pizza, breadsticks and mini churros. 
• Sadies: Colton and crew went to the school Sadie Hawkins dance. The theme was "Hollywood" and Colton and his date went as a Topgun couple. 
• Gray's Getaways: Grayson spent two weekends in St. George riding the red rocks in his RZR.
• Medical: Jen had her follow-up testing ... an MRI and an EEG. While neither was terrible, she doesn't really want to do either again (and glad to get them done this year when the deductible and out-of-pocket has been met). Keaton had a consultation for his wrist - carpal tunnel surgery is scheduled for next month. Gray got into the dermatologist to deal with a rash on his ankle. Colton had his annual physical (required for school sports). 
• Car Troubles: Colton's Charger had brake problems, shaking as he slowed. We were able to get it in for repairs (grateful to have Keaton's Corolla as a backup). A tire on the Tesla was losing air, again! We'd just replaced one of it's tires (not-repairable) a couple months ago, and the Durango had been in twice for nails in the tires. It's that new neighborhood under construction right by us! Like last time, the tire was not repairable and had to be replaced. 
• Ice Issues: The ice maker in the fridge likes to go on the fritz. It will stop making ice, for no apparent reason ... and then start up again. We've learned to just wait it out and are grateful for the pebbled ice maker downstairs. This month, the ice maker would pour water directly into the ice box. Our ice tools (pick and scoop) had been left in the tray and got completely encased in ice.
• Thanksgiving: We had a small family Thanksgiving. Check out the blog post for more on that.

We don't have any trees in our yard, but still manage to get piles and piles of leaves. Green waste pickup ends the last week in November, and we still had lots of leaves (currently piled up in the garden). Gray and the older boys indulged in a steamed artichoke ... and ironically, the next day, Jen's book had a character eating a steamed artichoke (described in detail). Funny how that happens. Landon went to a shooting range with buddies and has been really busy at work. LKL had a grand opening of their new location off Mountain View.  Gray and Keaton did a work activity handing out blankets to help the homeless, and the Westras (both Shane and Alicia, and Mom and Dad) made the move to the new Highland house, and Scott and Amy completed the sale and official ownership of the Havenmoor house. 

Here's the one second every day video ...

https://youtu.be/O16x_oGkf7g