What a crazy, busy month of November it has been! It started off with a bit of travel… I recently heard about a church conference to be held in Cleveland, which happens to be very near the home of my great aunt & uncle so I volunteered to jump on a plane to check out the conference as well as my relatives! Also along for the ride was my 87 year old grandmother Arlene (The older sister of my great Aunt Brooks). We fared quite well navigating airports considering we had a wheelchair, walker, and various carry-on bags. It was a great trip getting to know the Carpenter side a bit better! It’s nice to see that that particular branch is quite humorous and just as opinionated as ours. I got to visit the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and then took a wonderful drive thru Amish country. I also met up with my cousin Leah & her husband Darrin from MA. Leah’s family was originally from California so I grew up with them popping in on a yearly basis in between summer trips. Come to think of it, her father still pops in on drives south. All in all it was great to experience Ohio for a week, and I’d love to go back sometime.
This is my grandmother Arlene, me, my uncle Ray & aunt Brooks at a yummy restaurant called Steak on a Stone where they literally put a raw steak on a very hot stone, on your plate and you cut & cook it to taste on your table. It was definitely an experience! 
So… almost a week after I got home, we left as a family to the coast for a long weekend… This time we were off to a rental house in Bodega Bay. The weather was gorgeous, the house great, and overall I really enjoyed the family time. Also along for the ride was Mike’s mom Becky, our friend Denise, Mike’s sister Kathryn and her two children Kaili & Caden, our friend Randy, Mike’s other sister Jenny and her husband Bryan & son Casey, my younger cousin Bobbie, and then there were the four of us. Quite a household! Besides eating A LOT… we spent the time kite flying, playing in the sand, shopping and just hanging out! On Sunday we attended the church of a family friend who pastors there, her name is Judith and she was the minister that married Mike & I 15 years ago, so that was a pleasant surprise finding her in this area! Overall, a great trip! I've posted several photos below, and one of Kaili above.
Now we arrive at Thanksgiving… We first joined my family, at my parent’s house next door, along with over 20 other relatives that happened to come as well! It was loud, fun & quite yummy! About an hour or so later we loaded up in the Durango and headed to Chico to celebrate with the Shadd’s. They were not quite as loud, but just as fun & the food just as yummy. You might think… that’s a lot of food for one day… but wait… there’s more! Tomorrow morning we head to Jim & Vicki’s house for brunch, and then off to Becky’s cabin for her 60th birthday gathering… so more food to come! Back to thanksgiving, I have been a part of the Shadd Thanksgiving celebration for over 15 years now and each year as they gather to eat they sing a song… I’m finally getting the words down… back to the song... it is actually a prayer and I thought that it would be appropriate to print it below as a prayer of thanksgiving. If you’d like to hear the tune… ask Mike sometime… it begins with a long “Ohhhhhhh….” and then we join in… Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Ohhhhhhh, the Lord's been good to me.
And so I thank the Lord
For giving me the things I need:
The sun, the rain and the appleseed;
Oh, the Lord's been good to me.
Ahhh-men!
Ahhh-men!
