Thanksgiving

One of the not so wonderful things of married life is having to make decisions on which family to spend what holiday with. We wish we could be everywhere at once, but alas it doesn't work that way. Last Thanksgiving we drove up to Iowa with Paul's family to visit Grandpa and Grandma Freidel and this year we drove to Wisconsin with my family. It is really the only time of the year we get to see all my relatives - my Uncle Sam and Aunt Evie from Georgia, Uncle Pete and Aunt Lori from Lake Zurich, and the ones we see a bit more often, Uncle Otto, Aunt Gail and Niki, Uncle Neil, and Opa and Oma all from Wisconsin. Opa is now in a wheel chair but thankfully he is not shaking from his Parkinson's disease. I know it brings him a lot of joy to see his grandchildren. While we were letting our turkey digest before desert, I took some pictures for a photography project I'm working on. They didn't all turn out - I'm still learning the ropes of photography and indoor lighting, but they sure were fun to take!


This is Niki's dog Teddy posing for me. I should have used the flash.


Aunt Evie and Ralphie.


Niki in my favorite hat (my rehearsal dinner hat and present from Paul).

On November 18th, I took my final exam for the ABRSM diploma from England. It went really well, and although I won't know the results for quite awhile, I am pretty sure I passed. No more studying (at least for now)! Paul has two more weeks left and he's done with his second Masters. We'll get to have dinner together on Wednesdays now. Only 4-5 more weeks till the baby is born - and dramatic change in our lives!

The week before last (the 17th-23rd, Paul was gone first at a work training conference and then hunting in Jo Davies County (sp?). I saw him all of two hours between him getting back from the conference and leaving for hunting (actually less as I got home at 10:00PM and he left at 12:30AM). I didn't want to spend all those nights by myself, so my sisters took turns coming and spending the night. On Saturday night, all of them spent the night and we had fun watching a couple movies and talking - as well as trying on my hats. I had them all over my hall floor. I didn't know I had so many. Here are a few of them in a couple pictures.


I have really difficult lighting to work with in my house. In this case, it gave me an antique looking orange color which I thought was pretty.


A fun shot using a slow shutter speed and zooming out as the picture was being exposed.


Katie in a fun hat.


My photogenic sister Kristine posing.

This past weekend, Niki was over at my parents, so Kristine and Niki drove over to the river to pose some more for me. Brittany came to help out and hold the props.