O, Give Thanks to the Lord, for He is Good...

...and His Steadfast Love Endures Forever. ~Ps. 118:1

Thanksgiving. What is it?
* A time to remember
* A time to share
* A time for family and friends - old and new
* A time to feel closer to the people you love, even if they are far away
* A time to give thanks and praise to our Heavenly Daddy for all that He has so graciously blessed our lives with.

That list can go on and on, but I think it sums up Thanksgiving pretty well, at least for the nutshell version.

I was a little nervous about how I would handle this Thanksgiving, being in a new place and incredibly far away from my family and closest friends. I initially thought I would have to spend it alone, and that made me sad, as I am used to spending the day with my Daddy and little brothers.

The boys and I always start the day off with our "Turkey Day Tiff" over watching football or the Macy's Parade as I'm getting things started in the kitchen. I looove, love, LOVE the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and since I have been in charge of running the kitchen on Thanksgiving for as long as I can remember I always win ("Do you want your Thanksgiving Feast or do you want to watch football in the den?? Your choice!") and the punks begrudgingly trot off to the formal living room to watch their football games between 9 and noon (and then I try to convince them to let me watch the dog show...that one doesn't always work...we often come to an agreement to flip back and forth and they usually let me watch the groups that I am particularly interested in...like the sporting groups and herding groups - all the fun ones! Those are usually the ones they secretly want to watch too, so I think that's why they "let" me watch those ones all the way through...shhhh, don't tell!)...Pops usually makes rounds - 'cause he's awesome and likes football AND the parade and loves all of his kiddos, 'cause he's the best dad ever - yep, sorry, my dad is the best and there's no changing my mind on this one :)

I did miss spending my day in the kitchen this year, even though by the time everything is ready I am usually beyond exhausted, have a killer headache, feel like my back is going to explode, and want my feet to be cut off (yay, tile floors...)...yes, inspite of all of that I still missed it. Quite a bit. I did get to make a dessert for Thanksgiving this year and help out with my Minnesota family's kitchen adventures, though - so my kitchen time wasn't totally in the red. Whew!

So...what did I do for Thanksgiving this year?? I was beyond blessed to spend the day with SW and her beautiful, beautiful family. Oh man, they are so great. I am actually taking her husband's (BZ) class this semester, so it was fun to get to interact with him outside of class. He and their two boys are pretty big hunters so we had lots of fun meats to nibble on AND BZ sent me and some of his grad students (who also joined us for the day) home with some gorgeous venison steaks - WIN! AND, SW sent me home with a pumpkin bread loaf!!! DE-LISH!

We really had a lovely day. I got to their lovely home around 1pm with Jakers in-tow. We did some doggy introductions upon our arrival. Jake and Chip got along pretty well, but Zeke wasn't too thrilled with Jake. I think they would have done well running around the back yard together to get the pecking orders established, but we opted to just do crate rotations with the pups. Chip lucked out and got to hangout with whomever of the other two dogs got to run free - so he had a grrrrreat day. Jake really enjoyed all the love he got from the 16 or so people who were there for the day. I did learn, however, that I really need to work on his jumping...oh man, he was trying to steal everyone's food out of their hands! Fortunately they were pretty much all dog people so it didn't really phase them any. But, I now have another project to work on with him. It was great fun to watch him and Chip run around together in the back yard, too - I love watching him play with other dogs. So fun!

It was a lot of fun hanging out with BZ's grad students. My TA for BZ's class was with us too, which was a lot of fun - I've enjoyed chatting with him after classes and such, so it was nice to visit with him outside of class as well. SW and BZ's family was pretty fun as well, and my sopapilla cheesecake was a huge hit! I definitely had to share the recipe before they all left. Yay, Texas desserts making it to the Frozen Tundra!! :)

After everyone left I hung out with SW and BZ's two boys for a little bit. Hanging out with them really made me miss my little bros, but it was huge blessing to get to visit with them. They are super kids. One is a senior in high school, the other is in junior high, so they are just a touch younger than my baby brothers, respectively. I really hope I get to know them better as the school year progresses - I'm hoping to be able to go to some of their extra curricular events and such too...I way miss getting to do go to my brothers' events.

I finally decided to pack up my pup and head home around 9:30 last night. They helped me cart Jake's humongo crate (it's the one we used for Joshua's sweet golden retriever before she passed...so it's a bit large for my stumpy cow dog, but it works) out to my car and SW sent me off with a great hug and kiss on the cheek. I seriously almost started crying on my way home last night, my heart was so full.

I have been so incredibly blessed this Thanksgiving, by the people here in the FT and by all of you back home who have made sure to remind me that you care and that I am still a part of your lives. Thank you all so much for that.

It was hard being away from family, but it was great being a part of a different kind of family up here. And having snow on the ground for Thanksgiving is something I can't even begin to remember the last time I experienced - it was pretty awesome.

Basically, God is good and hasn't let me forget how much He loves me and has shown me how He knows exactly how to take care of me when I need a little extra help here and there.

I pray you all had a truly blessed Thanksgiving, and I can't wait to see all of my Texans in less than a month!

Shalom!
~MW

P.S. - Way to BTHO t.u. yesterday, Ags! So, so proud to be an Aggie - I. love. my. school!

Wind chill of...

...5 DEGREES!!!!

Yuuuup....that was my today...it. was. chill-Y!

Sooo....I realize I am way behind on the blogging-front, and for that I must apologize. But, I am running on pretty much empty these days. All is quite well, rest assured...I am just more than overwhelmed, a bit over-worked, completely spent, and beyond ready for semester one to come to a close. It's good - it's just a lot right now. BUT! Classes are almost over!! And the break will be fantastical :)

I must say that I really am loving it up here, though. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about my beloved Texas, and I canNOT wait to come back to all of your lovely faces and that Lone Star State - soon! My cohort is becoming quite the close-knit group and we are developing stellar relationships with members of the other cohorts, as well. Entomologists really are wonderful people, in general. I am so blessed to be a part of this scientific community that truly acts as a family.

Things are going very well with my two outstanding advisors. RH is has been wonderful in making sure I know that I can go to him at anytime with anything, especially since SW is unreachable a good bit of the time...that woman, she's just too good at too many things! RH has also discovered that I'm a sucker for Taco Bell...and once his recent PhD student/post-doc heads out to be an associate professor at her new school I've been told that I am taking over her spot as RH Taco Bell buddy...yay!! Haha. It's pretty fun, but I am nervous that he'll get me back into the habit of eating there multiple times throughout the week...sigh...

Another example of how awesome my advisors are: SW and RH both invited me to spend Thanksgiving with them and their families!! Unfortunately I cannot be in two places at once so I had to decline RH's invite, since SW asked first, but I assured him that I still have another two Thanksgivings here...at least, so he can nab me for at least one of them. He laughed and said he'll try to be first in line to invite me for next year. Haha. So, so great. I'm excited to go to SW for Thanksgiving - she even invited Jakers to come along!! He gets to make two more doggy friends! SW and her hubs have two pups of their own, so we're hoping the three of them get along...if not, we'll just separate them somehow. But how awesome is she for inviting my pup to come with?! I. am. blessed.

I'm still loving RH's illustration class - working in the digital medium has been an adjustment, but I'm starting to slowly get the hang of it, and I love how forgiving it is - you can erase for free!!!! BO-NUS! I'll have to scan in some of my illustrations for y'all at some point so you can see how we have progressed throughout the course of the semester. I can't wait to start doing this stuff for my thesis!! Yay, science + art!! =]

What else do y'all need to know before I head back to the studying... Hmm...hmmm...hmmm...

Oh! Some my ento gals and I started running together! It's been good to have people to do it with - there's no way I would do it myself. Meg and I actually "ran" inside tonight, since it was so cold...we resorted to the ellipticals...those machines are SO mean the way they change incline and resistance on you with nothing more than a beep's notice...punks. But...they do force a decent little workout if you really power through it. At the rec here they have the ellipticals and bikes set-up to face the racquetball/handball courts so we get some entertainment while run in place. It's prudy good!

Frenatae has been pretty busy this month. We had our honey-filling party for our honey sale a few weeks ago - that was a blast. And we had another Pig's Eye on Friday, following some grad student dodgeball (the Ento dorks vs the Evolution, Ecology, & Biology buffs). I didn't make it for dodgeball, but PE was a blast. We made it a game night. Catch phrase all night long with bug dorks = epic.

This weekend a bunch of us went out to the Mall of America to help Markster find a gifty for his wifey - it was way fun. I am so in love with these people!!

Ok, kids, I'm outty. Off I go to finish-up some reading for ecology.

Love and miss y'all!!
~MW

P.S. - I'll try to post some pictures here in the next few days - I don't have too many, but I do have a few that y'all might enjoy :)