Thanksgiving

The week of Thanksgiving was great this year...mostly because we got to see so many of our friends and family. First, Mary and Erin stopped by Wed. night...Mary and Michael were in from a long drive from Indy so we were glad they decided to make the detour to our house despite being tired. I love any chance I get to see Noah who grows so fast....here's Erin and Mary and Noah who looks a little bewildered at all these girls fawning over him!
Thanksgiving day we all headed to my parents' house where my mom had about 15 of us over for dinner. We got to see some family from California we haven't seen in years. Here's my mom and my sisters. Another highlight of the day was...
The plane ride my cousin Brian took us on! He flew his family down from Bowling Green and then took us up just to see the city. Brian is so much fun that it totally fits his personality that he'd buy a plane! Everyone rode in shifts because it only seats four. He took Nate, me and my mom up right at sunset and we had some pretty great views and a perfectly smooth ride.
The next day Nate's family drove down from Ohio and we had another "dinner" on Friday and then headed over to Frankfort Avenue where all the shops were open. Kelsey and I weren't sure about these "hand" seats outside an artsy gift shop...pretty uncomfortable and a little weird if you think about it!
Kelsey, Nate, and his mom....Nate probably has that look on his face because shopping isn't exactly high on his list of fun activities but he stuck it out for us!
Nate's mom and grandma
And the "kids" as Nate's mom still calls us! Nate, me, Kelsey and Joe (plus Sadie)....Kelsey and Joe stayed the weekend with us. We crammed a lot of KY activities into Saturday including...
Churchill Downs! It was such a pretty day outside that we had to watch the horses race. So all in all, it was a very busy but very fun long weekend. Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!

November happenings....

Well this picture can sort of sum up how we've felt in November....Nate looks a little disheveled and I look a little tired.... Actually, Tom took this picture of us the other night at dinner and I thought, "Do I always have this "sort of angry/tired/frustrated" look on my face? I hope not! It's just been a long month but it has still been a good month. Nate has been super busy with classes and both of his jobs...he works so hard! And me, well, I usually don't do so well at the beginning of winter...I DREAD the lack of sunlight, cold temperatures and having no energy. But there are some good things about winter coming: Christmas for one (don't even get me started on how ridiculously excited I get about Christmas...Nate has to make me wait to decorate and start listening to Christmas music until after Thanksgiving at least) AND we have a fireplace in our house this year. Most people might not get excited about that but I've been waiting 5 years for one....and we've had a fire practically every night since! Other than fires and pre-Christmas excitement, we've done a few other things...
Here's Steph, Molly and Julie at dinner last Friday. Molly and Zach had us all over for a pre-Thanksgiving dinner and it was the best! Everyone just ate and talked which are sometimes the best sort of nights to have. We did engage in vicious game of "Celebrity" (guys against girls) where you have to write down some famous person and then try to guess based on clues. Nate sort of threw everyone off with his random people (Alexander Campbell, Frederick Law Olmstead, and Jane Austen to name a few). I mean, how would you begin to give clues about those people? And Tom chose only obscure sports figures for his names. In conclusion, the guys cheated and that's why we lost. Seriously.
Me, Megan and Julie
Steph, me, and Megan
Zach trying to reign some control over Lily Bell and Booker...Yes, Lily is wearing a sweater....the result of a traumatic haircut that has left her cold and shivering at all times unless clothed (at least that's what Molly says).
The girls hanging out in the kitchen...Julie, Sarah and Brooke
I believe this is Zach and Molly's first Thanksgiving turkey dinner as a married couple, so it called for a picture.
Nate and I did travel to Grundy, VA a couple weekends ago and I only managed to snap one picture! Russ and Nate outside of Walmart because that's seriously what we did...we went to Walmart. Now I haven't walked the aisles of Walmart since my college days and it was still a horrific place. You may be wondering why we went to Walmart...Have you ever been to Grundy? Probably not. It has some redeeming qualities (mountains and Mountain Mission School where Russ and Jess teach) but if you need stuff you've got to drive to the next town 30 minutes away, which is what we did. Seriously though, we had a good time visiting with Russ and Jess and were happy to get out of town with them even if it was just to shop for curtains and shampoo. They are two of the most selfless people ever b/c they devote not just 8 hours a day to teaching but pretty much 24 hours a day to being dorm parents as well. And they have such a giving and positive attitude about it! They definitely deserve more than Walmart on a Friday night, that's for sure!
And finally....on our way down to Virginia we stopped at the Breaks State Park and did a little hiking. We actually hiked down to the bottom of that ravine behind us (which was the easy part)....on the way up...I felt like I'd run a marathon or something! There's some serious uphill climbs in VA!

So that's all for November now....Thanksgiving is of course later this week and we're going to my parents' house Thursday and then on Friday Nate's family is coming up. I can't wait because I LOVE to have people visit, especially Nate's family who we don't get to see nearly enough. And Saturday, even if I do live with a Scrooge, I am putting up my Christmas decorations and listening to all the Christmas music I want! He secretly likes Christmas I think....

Homecoming Weekend

This past weekend was Homecoming at Milligan. I haven't gone EVER so I decided that this was the year I needed to see everyone since it's been 5 whole years! Gina and I drove down Friday morning and stayed with Casey and Jeremy. It was some much needed time with the girls, that's for sure! Such a great weekend! Pictured above are my senior year roommates when we lived in MSA...fun times! Me, Carly, Sarah, and Katie

Gina, Carly, me and Casey at Sub 7.


Casey played in the alumni soccer game so of course we had to watch.
The girls all hanging out...Lily was the highlight of this night for sure!
Could she be any cuter?
Lily hanging out in the sink with Gina! Casey told us that Lily sees her doing dishes and wants to play too...Because everyone knows how fun doing dishes is. How cute is that? So overall it was a great weekend to spend time with old friends that I don't see nearly enough. Casey and Gina and I definitely got some quality "porch" time together, as we call it since Casey and Jeremy's front porch faces some beautiful TN mountains. I miss them already!

Keenland Fall Meet!

Fall is officially here...it's Keenland time! Just a few pictures from a fun weekend...every October we have a sort of college reunion at Keenland. It was such a fun day just to hangout with everyone. Lindsey and Steven have us all over to their house afterwards so everyone has a place to stay. Here's most of our group this year.
Chris, Danny and Nate taking a break from betting.

Some of the girls...Gina, Katie, Lindsey, me and Danielle...such a beautiful day!

Danielle, John and I talking while everyone played horseshoes. Not sure about that red bus...you never know what you'll see at Keenland!
Danny, Lindsey and Nate tailgating (or whatever you want to call it) before the races.
Deciding which horse to bet on I suppose...Nate looks pretty serious about whatever one he's talking about! Overall it was such a fun weekend...we ate at Mellow Mushroom Pizza afterwards sand then headed back to the Clems to hang out for the rest of the night. I love the fall!

October so far...in pictures

It's been awhile since I've posted. Life has been busy in a good way though. So here's a quick summary in pictures of October so far...
Last weekend (the first weekend in Oct.) we met Nate's family at Greenbo Lake State Park...Nate's parents were kind enough to get us some rooms at the lodge there and we pretty much had the most relaxing weekend ever. The weather was the perfect fall temperature and it was just fun to get to spend time with them since we don't see them nearly enough.
We all got up early (but not too early) to fish...didn't catch anything, but it was still relaxing to sit by the lake. It was so beautiful in the early morning (and a bit chilly!).

On the way home, we stopped by Quincy, KY to see where Nate's dad had his first job as a minister (his parents lived there for a few years before they had Nate). So we stopped by the house of their friends who live right on the Ohio River and finally got a picture of all of us.


Saturday we all went hiking and then we grilled out and ate outside by the lake that evening.

Nate and his dad out early fishing....

Moving on to this past weekend....Old Crow was in concert at The Palace in downtown Louisville. This has been one of my and Nate's favorite bands since right after we graduated college. They gave the best show and had everyone in the theatre dancing (some a bit too much but that's another story...) Before the concert, we went to Oktoberfest with Lindsey and Steven and Katie and Aaron, college friends (didn't get any pictures there but if you can, try to visualize grown men in knee socks playing the accordian and you'll see the "Polka Dots" polka band in your mind...interesting! I suppose there's a reason that German polka music isn't all that popular). Here's me and Katie at the concert.
Here's Old Crow (the best I could do from our balcony seat).

Kind of a random picture but my friend Annie (who I teach with) got a puppy and I got to puppysit (if you know me then you know how crazy I get over puppies...it's a little absurd really!). So "Millie" came over to play with Sadie and she was the size of her head! So tiny! They ran circles around the house and entertained one another all night.
Sunday (today I guess) I met the girls for lunch b/c Tisha was in town for their CAL 10 year reunion. From left to right: Rachel, me, Tish, Annie (holding Brooks) and Jessica.

And last but not least, a picture from the concert I went to the other weekend...the Avett Brothers! Here's Steph, me and Julie a bit worn out I think from the craziness because those guys put on a crazy show...So much fun though!