longest time between posts

I think this has been the longest time ever that I've gone since writing a new post for my blog...unless you count the 27 years before I started writing a blog. Life has been SO busy. Here's a rather long update:

1. Thanksgiving with my family was awesome! I have so many pictures, memories, and stories from this weekend! Of course my mom, Mike, and Kathryn were there, but also Grandma Pickwoad, my brother Ryan, and my friend Peter. Mike has been renovating the barn to get it ready for the horses for the winter. Kathryn was helping him all last week. Peter and I played soccer. We ate dinner and then played several rounds of dominoes, our latest after-dinner tradition.

2. On Friday, I was at Toys R Us right at 5:00 AM, the perfect time to shop with 8 million other half-awake, pajama-clad, impatient American shoppers. I was there for a specific reason. Of course so was everyone else. There were so many people in that store, it HAD to be a fire hazard. You couldn't even move without touching somebody. No way could you push a cart through there. But there were also like 10 BIG toys I was buying and there was no way to carry them all, so I made a genius plan. I kept my cart in a concealed location and then maneuvered my way back and forth through the store, climbing over toys, under other people, squeezing through the lines for the cash registers that snaked ALL the way to the back of the store, across the back of the store, and ended back at the front doors. INSANITY. But I bought 10 BIG toy presents for kids, all for at least half-price or more. Was it worth it? Yes, all because of what I like to call Genius Plan #1. When I had everything I wanted, I realized I was starving and thirsty and I predicted impending boredom as I stood in a line longer than the one to ride Dumbo at Disney World. Thus I brought on board Genius Plan #2. So I left my cart in its concealed location and ran to my car to grab some poptarts, a bottle of water, and my iPod. Then I stood in line, eating breakfast and watching a movie on my iPod. It was the most delicious, relaxing line-waiting experience I've ever had!

3. I had lunch with my mom, sister, and Grandma Pickwoad at Ragazzi's. Then that evening, Mike was really excited to go to this first-ever concert at the John Paul Jones Arena. The two marching bands from UVA and VA Tech were holding a fund-raising concert together! We all decided to go with him and the concert was almost sold out!

It was a great weekend, but I've learned many lessons in the past week so I'm going to write those on my next post.