Catching Up

I'm behind on my blog. In order to get up to date, I've decided to give you a quick rundown with photos. I hope you enjoy! Evan made name cards for everyone for our Thanksgiving dinner.

The family at Thanksgiving.

Chandler family tradition: Christmas tree hunting the day after Thanksgiving.

Uncle Jonah bought popcorn and instantly became the most popular person.

Smelling the trees. Isaac was interviewed for the news! Loading up the trees. Face painting at Bless Fest.

Family picture taking for our Christmas card, this was a challenge with 10 people, but it turned out well. The COS dance show. I was in the day tap class and we danced to Michael Jackson songs. Making gingerbread houses with graham crackers. The finished village: my house, Heather's, Michelle's, and Evan and Micah's. That's a brief overview of what's been going on the past few weeks. An important event that was not photographed was the end of the semester! This was a tough semester for me and I'm so thankful it is over. Also, I have been getting to do more baking at work, which I enjoy. That's it for now, I hope all of you are enjoying the season and are ready for Christmas!

Race Against Hunger

Mom, Heather, Michelle, and I ran the 5k to benefit Visalia Emergency Aid this morning. Isaac, Heather, and I ran it last year and it was fun to do it again. Here we are at Jonah and Michelle's house before the race. We decided to dress up this year and be festive. It was fun and we got a number of comments, particularly about the jingle bells on our shoes, people called us the Jingle Bell Girls. These pictures are from during the race, they were difficult to take while we were running.
We also took a runner's view video.

We all finished together and it was a fun way to start Thanksgiving and a beautiful morning for a jog.

Shhh, Don't Tell

Jonah, Michelle, and I did something bad today, we cut down Christmas trees before Thanksgiving. Terrible, I know. But we had the day off school and there wasn't going to be another time that we would work out as well, so what can you do? We made a trip to Calvin Crest for our trees (they gave us permission to cut them) and it was a great trip. We arrived early afternoon and got to visit with our friends Joel and Kirsten and their baby, Nathan. We decided to go on a walk and passed through the Crestview campfire area. I was the happy camper and Jonah the cool kid. It was a beautiful sunny day and we enjoyed the fresh air and trees. Most of the fall leaves had already fallen, but some trees still had their leaves and looked great. Then we hiked the Shadow of the Giants trail. We were sad to have missed the Dogwood trees with their fall leaves, but it was still a good hike. Jonah and Michelle in front of one of the Giant Sequoias. Next, we headed to Sherwood and found the perfect tree. Michelle and Jonah got this big one plus a little one and I got a mini one. Fitting the tree in the car was a challenge, but once we got it in, it fit pretty well. The car sure smelled good while we drove back to Visalia.

Nursery Demo

We started a nursery renovation project at church today, here are some before pictures: This picture is not a true before picture because it shows the new windows, which are quite nice.

The first order of business was kicking out the panels at the back of the half wall/cabinet; the boys had a lot of fun with that, as did the adults in the group. It was highly satisfying to kick out a wood panel, especially since I was still wearing my skirt. We continued to work at tearing the rest of the half wall out and taking it apart, stopping for a break to have pizza. Things progressed well over the afternoon and we got the whole thing taken apart as well as purchasing new wood, drywall, and lights. Michelle and Mom got the pieces cut for the new half wall and Jonah started nailing it together. About that time we decided to call it a day and head home to cut up our bounty of wood. Everyone came over and we had dinner and the first fire of the season.

Party Time

We had a costume party at work tonight and it was fun. Everyone was dressed up and looked good. Jonah and Michelle were the cutest couple there, but Sierra and Sam were great too. First up for the evening, we had a contest for best costume, then a pumpkin carving contest. My pumpkin is on the left and Michelle's is in the middle. I won second place, for which I got fluffy socks and a candle. Next we had a mummy dressing contest. Michelle, Jonah, Mark, and I were on a team; Mark was our mummy. He looked great. David had to carry their mummy over to the judging area, quite a feat since Sam was their mummy and he is considerably taller than David. The three mummies, our mummy, Mark is on the left. After that, we went across the street to get drinks. Michelle and I got lavender Italian soda, but they were super strong, so we couldn't finish them.

Uncle Harry's and Fresno State

Due to a canceled class, I was thrilled to be able to meet up with three of my London flatmates this morning. Juan, Alicia, Ashley, Ashley's friend Jeremiah, and I met up at Uncle Harry's bagels for an early lunch and a short visit to catch up. We enjoyed good bagels and conversation and it was so nice to get to see them again, I have been missing my flatmates and London a lot lately. Ashley, Alicia, Juan, and I outside of Uncle Harry's. Back at Fresno State, I thought it would be fun to take a few pictures around campus while I had my camera with me. This is an unexciting picture of the bell tower, which isn't much for looks, but I love getting to hear it ringing the hours and "the leaden circles dissolved in the air". It was cold and rainy today, which I wasn't expecting so I wore my flip flops and slipped and fell in one of the open air hallways. But now, I'm cozy at home wearing my socks and pjs.

Reshingling the Ridge Line

Dad, Mom, and I continued our project of reshingling the ridge line on the roof today. We started last Saturday by figuring out what we were doing on a small section. Today we began in earnest. The old ridge shingles are in terrible shape because they were defective. We have been finding pieces around the yard after wind storms for awhile, but I was surprised how bad they really are; some places are down to the tar paper. Dad pulled up the old shingles, Mom collected them, swept, and laid out new shingles for me, and I put the new ones on. After Dad had pulled off the section we were planning to do today, he joined me in nailing on the new ones. Everything went well and looks good, we were able to finish about half today and are planning to finish the second half next Saturday morning. It is quite the project, Dad and I are both sore already from the hours we put in this morning hammering and lifting, but we are happy with our progress and the results thus far.