Wonderful Thanksgiving Week

I am sitting here typing this wishing that this week could continue a few more days. But, alas, I must return to school tomorrow.

We had a great Thanksgiving holiday. First I would like to announce that we have received our first snow of the season on Tuesday. It was an interesting day. The night before I checked the forecast and it said nothing of any expected snow. I woke up early at 5:30 am to study for a mid-term, and no snow. But by the time I left the apartment at 8:45 am there was a solid 2 inches of snow on the ground and more was coming every minute. I enjoyed the snowing part, I think watching it snow is very calming, something I definitely needed before the test.Suzy and I prepared a very nice Thanksgiving Day spread, much more than two people can eat. Before we got started on the big feasting I made some cinnamon rolls, which were oh so very good (quite possibly the best food ever). Since neither of us is a huge fan of turkey and we surely did not want to be eating turkey for the next week, we made a delicious spiral cut ham, which we are still enjoying. For desert Suzy made creme brulee, which was quite good. She did a great job making in for the first time.Oh, how I love cinnamon rolls. Seeing this picture makes me hungry for more...

On Friday, we braved the shopping scene, traveling over the Berkshire Mountains to a factory outlet mall. We found some good deals on stuff for our Christmas presents for each other. It was a fun day but quite cold. Then Friday nigh I sat on the couch with the grainy video on my laptop watching BYU beat #6 ranked Louisville in basketball (while simultaneously keeping track of the score of the Jazz game online), both of my teams won and I was very happy and thought it a good omen for the rest of the weekend.

Yesterday, we had our Elder's Quorum Turkey Bowl football game that all of six people showed up for. We persevered through temperatures in the low 30's and played for about 90 minutes. It was good to actually do some exercising that was actually fun and enjoyable for a change. Then, Suzy got to stay home and watch most of the BYU-Utah game while I went and helped a family in our ward move in. Luckily I made it back for the last half of the 4th quarter, the only really exciting part of the game. I must admit that after Utah scored to go up by one and BYU was facing 4th and 18, I did not think that they could pull it off again. But the good karma that I gained by sacrificing watching the game to give service came through, BYU scored and won the game. I am sure that I was very close to having a very serious medical condition because of the stress of those last few minutes. After that game I decided I would not, could not, watch the whole of the UNC-BYU basketball game that night, so I only watched the first half.

When I woke up this morning my body definitely felt every single box that I moved on Saturday, and I still cannot move with out aching. I really hurt in places I did not know I had muscles. This morning I spoke in Sacrament meeting with the rest of the Elder's Quorum Presidency. I spoke about the importance of Home Teaching, so I guess now I have to go do mine.

Suzy and I both hope that all y'all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.

While having Thanksgiving by ourselves was nice in that we got to create some of our own traditions, but we both missed our families and friends and realized how grateful we are for them. And how grateful we are for a loving Father in Heaven who is watching out for us here in Sunderland.

West Coast Fans, East Coast Time Zone

Out here we don't get too many opportunities to watch Casey's favorite teams - the Jazz and BYU Football. This week we got the chance to watch both, two nights in a row. Unfortunately they come on VERY late out here. The Jazz game didn't start until 10:30 and BYU until 9:00. On Wednesday we watched the exciting Jazz game when Deron Williams raced down the court to make a layup and win the game at the buzzer (this sentence provided by Casey, I don't remember the details this well, or recall them with such excitement). It got over at 1:30, that part I remember. Yesterday we went to a friends house to watch the BYU game which got over at 12:30 and then we had a 30 minute drive home. We had fun supporting our teams, but are feeling a little sleep deprived now. Thank goodness for weekends!

Our Weekend in Maine

I am not going to post much in way of commentary of our trip but will let the pictures do the talking. We had a wonderful time while we were there. It was very relaxing and beautiful, we can see why so many people vacation there in the summer. Friday was a perfect day while Saturday it rained and we got soaked running around trying to find some lighthouses.

This is from Friday, as we drove along the coast. We stopped in Kennebuckport, Maine to see the ocean and the thousands of oceanside vacation homes. It was very pretty and the ocean was beautiful, but a little chilly.



This is the moon as we went on our ferry boat ride on Friday evening, also Suzy on the ferry with Portland in the background.





This is the first lighthouse that we went to see. It was raining heavily and visibility was low, but we had a great time.



This is Casey huddling in Suzy's rain jacket trying to keep the video camera dry while we search the horizon for the lighthouses we were supposed to be able to see.



This is the Portland Headlight, the most photographed lighthouse in the country, it was commissioned by George Washington. Off in the distance on the left you can see another lighthouse in the background, it is just sitting out in the middle of the ocean.



This is an example of a New England fall. I saw this view as we were driving home and had to stop and take a picture.

Relief

Yesterday was a long trying day, but it is finally over, and with it concludes my first round of finals. I cannot express how happy I am to be finished with Accounting (for now) and Economics. Studying for those finals the past four days or so has been long and stressful, but now I am free until Monday when new classes begin.

Suzy and I decided since we have a free 3-day weekend, to go on a little trip. So in a few minutes we are leaving for Portland, Maine. We will be there until Saturday evening. We are very excited, there are some fun things to do up there. But most of all we can just relax and enjoy the New England fall, which by-the-way is absolutely breath-taking. We will post some photos and what we did when we return. Until then we hope that all y'all have a good weekend too.

So a funny thing happened...

...to me on Saturday night. But first I must set the stage.

Suzy's Dad was in Boston for the week so he came to spend Saturday night and Sunday with us. I also had a former mission companion, who is at Cornell doing his PhD, in town for a conference. We met Suzy's dad at a a small farmer's market in town, where we bought the most delicious cinnamon donuts in the world. Suzy was going to ride back with her Dad and pick up some pizza, while I picked up my friend on campus and met them at home. I picked up my friend and we were having a good time reminiscing about the good ol' days, and catching up. Wanting to show off the great history of Sunderland I drove home a different way than normal to show him our wonderful old homes here. I was oblivious that doing so would through me off a little (you'll see what I mean in a sec).

So I pull into the parking lot from a different direction, and, amazed at my good fortune for a good parking spot, proceed to park the car. Though I thought it odd that the parking spot did not look the same as it normally did, I ignored it too engrossed in conversation. We proceeded into the apartment building and up the stairs, as we passed the second floor doors, I noticed that they too looked different and I thought how interesting that both downstairs neighbors would change their doors on the same day. Again I ignored this and kept going up. I got to the top of the stairs and began getting my keys out of my pocket. While doing so I looked down and noticed that our neighbor had also changed and put out a welcome mat that seemed to have been tossed half way in front of our door.

I began pushing it aside with my foot as inserted my key into the door. I turned the key and nothing happened. I began to panic thinking to myself, "I'm locked out of my apartment, what am I going to do now?" I try the key again and my panic grows larger. Then I happen to look to my right at the apartment number, and it was ... wrong. Then it hit me, I was in the wrong stairwell. My heart sunk, and I felt so embarrassed as I tried to explain this to my friend. Then suddenly the door, which I had just been futilely trying to unlock moments before, opens, and my embarrassment grew to astronomical heights. A guy peers out wondering what was up.

I look up to him, we were halfway down the stairs, and I tell him I accidentally went into the wrong stairwell and apologize. He laughs, and in a kind attempt to assuage my embarrassment tells me that he has done the exact same thing before. As we head back down the stairs to the right part of the building, I think to myself that the difference between me going to the wrong door and him doing it was that I was sober, whereas he probably was not.

Anyway, that is my embarrassing story for the year. I hope that y'all enjoyed it.

Things are going well here for us. I have finals for two of my classes next week, so this week and early next week I will be busy cramming as much Accounting and Economics into my head as possible. The picture is a corn maze cleverly disguised as a corn field. It was taken from the town cemetary, and off in the distance you can see the church steeple of the town church.