Froemmings

A week or so ago we had Brynn's parent-teacher conferences. We were glad to hear how well she is doing. She is really enjoying third grade and loves her teacher. We took home a folder full of tests and school work. Dana and I both loved this one where they drew a picture of and wrote about what they were dressing up as for Halloween. Snuggling together in Clara's bed....until Clara bit Brynn. :-( Brynn received a postcard letting her know Locks of Love had received her hair donation that she made back in May.  The girls spent a night over the weekend at Grandpa and Grandma Dietz's lake place. Of course they made the usual rounds to the Hawley hot spots: the park and Dollar General.

We had a good Thanksgiving holiday again this year, albeit a bit quieter than previous years. We had been planning for Tessa and her family, Dana's parents and Brynn's friend Rosha and her family. Unfortunately cousin Elise fell ill with a bug on Wednesday, so we were missing them this year.  Brynn made her own checker board and had Grandpa Kevin in a rousing game. Dana had bought a smoker a couple of weeks ago and really wanted to smoke a turkey for Thanksgiving. I couldn't give up my traditional stuffed bird, though, so we did a bit of each. They both turned out well, I think. Dana's was Smokey and mine was The Bandit. :-) Brynn made up another game: pin the feather on the turkey. It was super fun. Grandma Holly brought some fabric and supplies for a sewing project to do with Brynn. They made little Christmas stockings for Brynn and Clara's dolls. Clara and me with Fataneh (Rosha's mom). ...

I think most who read this blog know that my sister, Tessa, and I have a goal to visit all 50 states together. So, we had planned on making Oklahoma and Kansas numbers 9 and 10 by visiting the Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond's, new Mercantile store in Pawhuska, OK. You may be familiar with her as she started out with just a blog  (which is how we started following her), then wrote a couple cookbooks, landed a Food Network cooking show and now this store/restaurant that just recently opened a few weeks prior to our arrival. Brynn had watched her cooking show with me several times and knew who she is as well.   We were set to fly out of Fargo last Friday. The weather was blustering and kind of nasty here. We had a layover in Minneapolis and were going to fly into Wichita, eat dinner there after we landed and check Kansas off our list. We thought if we could at least get out of Fargo, we'd be smooth sailing, as the yucky weather wasn't supposed to stretch that far East and So...