Thanksgiving pt. 1

I really love Thanksgiving, but it's always hard to be away from home for it. I'd thought when we first got married that maybe we would do Thanksgiving in Atlanta and Christmas in Indiana-- Christmas means a lot more to Jeremy's family and Thanksgiving to mine. In the end, I think it's nice to switch it up, and this year has been particularly great with having a whole 9 days off to come up and really spend time with Josh and Sarah!

We drove up to Memphis first on Saturday, and I got to meet some of my amazing extended Alpha family and help out with KO's (my home chapter) elections! I got some great ideas from that to bring back to Gamma Sigma, so I'm excited to propose those for next year.

Andrea, my Great Grand Little! She's from the Atlanta area, so I'm excited to get to see her when she's home from breaks!

Maggie and Morgan are on either end-- they're my Great Great Great Grand Littles, and Sam is next to me in red, and she is their big sis, my Great Great Grand Little!

I love meeting my Alpha family, and it was so wonderful for them to be as excited as I was! They seem like really amazing girls and I can't wait to meet my Great Great Great Great Grand Littles next year!! 

WHOOO ALPHA FAMILY!!!!

Just because I can't find my jersey (and haven't been able to for years-- I'm SO SORRY Martha!!!!) doesn't mean I can't show my pride for the bestest Alpha family around!! From my grand big Swiggett, to my big sis Martha, my AWESOME littles Lauren, Caroline, and Cate, and my grand littles Valisa and Jill! We're the John Deere Darlins and we ROCK!

I miss you girls! I can't wait to see you all again-- and to meet you, Jill!

Oh, oh, I- I can't wait to see you again

That's right, I'm goin' Miley Cyrus on you. What then?

Yesterday ended up ok-- got all my books out of the car and my wicker toiletries drawers, so hopefully now nothing will get hot and explode in my car since it's mostly empty!

Tomorrow/today will be full, but more relaxed since I don't have to go to Smyrna and dodge the 18 wheelers on 285 (THE worst part about Atlanta driving!), I just have to try and get things a little organized so that we can squeeze Jeremy in, hopefully tonight when he gets in on the 9p!

I'm going to also need to make a birthday card for Melissa, my Indiana Rose Buddy, and send my little her surprise package. I keep getting confused on Facebook because one of our new girls has the exact same name as Jeremy's sister (well, her maiden name, actually), so even though I know Valerie Clark isn't Jeremy's sister it still makes me do a double take. Speaking of which, Analia is starting to take steps on her own now! She was such a sweet baby, and continues to be it seems, and Jeremy and I can't wait to see her again. She thinks he's the best thing since a fresh bottle, so I think maybe I'll get dad to take a picture of us to send to her and I'll take a super goofy one of him since that's what she likes most. I'll just have to preoccupy myself with Ana, 'cause I don't need one for a while yet...

Oh, and cooking. Definitely cooking. The fall social last night definitely re-energized me a bit, so now I think I can pick myself up and do what I oughtta. We have butternut squash, chicken, and potatoes and leeks that need something done with, so I'll be cleaning out the fridge and freezer and digging in.

I'm Alpha born, I'm Alpha bred...

I'm sitting around today doing not much other than AOII stuff. Maybe it's dorky, but I do love my sorority very much and would do anything for my girls! So this time around, since I can't help out in house, I'm doing up some goodies. I'm making CDs for bid day bags, cookies for the girls post-philanthropy tomorrow night, and doing up the poem for Caroline's jersey. Wheeee! AOII Makes me Happy! I even did my whole AOII family tree, which is ENORMOUS by now and getting bigger all the time... I can't get the thing to upload properly, so I'll just post it in a few minutes.

In other news, I saw my grandfather this weekend. He's doing well enough, all things considered, just really really tired. I'm heartened by his spirit-- I didn't think it would wane, but seeing him insisting on doing all the things he normally does (or at least trying) is good to see. I also got to see my Uncle James, who is I think 93, and Uncle Hubert-- or was it Hershel? Geez, who knows. I think it was Hershel.

I was supposed to get much more done today than I actually did, like packing and cleaning, but I don't suppose it's any different from any other time I've thrown it all together quickly quickly. Tomorrow morning, we're leaving to head up to Indiana for the MotoGP race this weekend, about which I'm really excited. We're taking my car since Jeremy's is really loud, not that the Toyota is much better. Now that the panda is working again, I'm itching to drive that one instead. If I'd thought about it, I would have seen about renting one from Enterprise since they do a really great weekend rate. Maybe I still can... who knows.

Talked to Valerie and Analia tonight, all the way from Singapore. I feel so bad for poor Ana, she's a year old next week and teething in a part of the world not known for being cool. She does, however, still absolutely adore her Uncle Jeremy-- he came in and made faces at her for a minute or two and she smiled (and kinda looked a little stoned) and smiled for the first time in the half hour we'd had her on Skype, then he left and she got her serious look, and the second he came back in to view she just started grinnin' and laughing all over again! He's the magic trick when it comes to her, maybe I should just get a good picture of him being goofy and send it over!

Anyway, back to burning CDs, hitting Jeremy with a book, and packing for IN.

Ciao.