162 days...

Until graduation (to clarify...). I'm still only speculating on the actual date, but I can't be too far off. :-D I have three school days left of Block 3, and our last day is the 12th. Then I'll have exactly one month off before beginning Block 4 on January 12th. I have a LOT to do before then. I plan to complete the 10 case studies our instructor has already emailed to us so that I will not have to do them during the semester. They are all Maternity and Nursery case studies so they may actually be fun for me, or at least not as bad as other stuff...right now I'm kinda excited about starting on them, but I have yet to begin so we'll see how long that lasts...I will be getting my OB book back from a friend tomorrow and can start after that (she is finishing Block 2 and I let her borrow my Block 2 books for the semester, but I need them all back for Block 4...then she can have them back again when I'm done for HER Block 4, it works out perfect!!). Anyway, I know Block 4 is going to be extremely tough, so I do need to get cracking on those case studies as well as reviewing other stuff so I'm prepared...

Thanksgiving was great!! Scott and I spent Wednesday night at my parent's house so that I could get up at 7am and watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade (tradition!!). My dad also made his traditional T-day breakfast: Johnny Cake (sweet corn bread muffins). Yummy!! After the parade my mom got the turkey ready to cook, and I prepped the Green Bean Casserole (my all time favorite) to bake later. I had baked two pumpkin pies the day before, and I even made the crusts from scratch! They turned out GREAT...although I did have to kinda piece the first one together because it fell apart on me as I was trying to transfer it from the counter into the pie pan...I didn't know I was supposed to fold it over on itself into quarters....I figured that out for the second one though and it didn't need any "repairs". :-) Grandpa and Letha came over for dinner and of course Mom, Dad and Sam were all there. Oh yeah. Me, Mom and Scott all played a new game called Alibi that Scott got from his friend Andrew (hi Andrew!!) for his birthday and it was AWESOME. It is very similar to Clue but totally different at the same time. Fun game! We played it again this past weekend with our friends Matt and Angela. :-) Anywho, we had a great Thanksgiving and I hope you all did too!!

I had to work on Black Friday, but Scott went shopping SUPER early with his parents (he was up before 3am!!!). I think he did a bunch of shopping online before leaving because the same sales were online too and NO LINES!! :-D I'm finally finished shopping for him too, and there's NO way he can guess what I got him!!! Mwahahaha! Oh oh!!! I was SO excited about Kohls....Scott's parents gave us their "Kohl's Cash" that they earned from shopping on Black Friday and we also had some of our own, so total I had $70 worth or kohls cash to spend between the 30th and 6th. Well, I bought a down-comforter for us which was on sale this Sunday/Monday for $50, and then I bought an oval shaped tablecloth with fall colors in a leaf pattern along with six green placemats that match it PERFECTLY (different brands though) and some fall kitchen towels. Obviously it's too late to use them this year, but they were on clearance and I LOVE shopping clearance and saving stuff for the next year(s)!!! The tablecloth was originally $30, I got it for $8. The placemats were $8 EACH, I got them for $1.59 ea. Woohoo!! :-D :-D :-D I actually re-found some stuff this year as we were putting up our tree and other decorations that I had bought on the day after Christmas LAST year (on clearance of course). It was so fun to rediscover stuff!! And I even found some Christmas presents I had bought TWO years ago on clearance intending to save them until last year but forgot...well, people will get them this year. :-D

In other news: WE'RE OFFICIALLY HOUSE SHOPPING!!! And yes, I'm excited. :-D We got prequalified for a home loan last week and will meet with our lender next Tuesday. We're going to look at our first house tonight and then another on Saturday. Why now? Because my wonderful mother-in-law gave us the information necessary to show us that we can do it NOW as opposed to six months from now. And no one knows what the real estate market is going to do after January (with our new president and all...grrr.), so now is the best time. AND apparently banks have these awesome loans that only require 1-3% downpayment instead of...well, much more! It's amazing what deals are out there right now!! The house we're going to look at tonight is being offered for HALF--yes, that's 50%--of what it sold for in 2005. That's just crazy!! And it's because it's a pre-forclosure, so they're just trying to sell it and get what they can before the bank takes it from them. It's really sad for those who are facing foreclosure, but a great opportunity for first time homebuyers. Our lender said there has never before been a better time to buy a house if you didn't have something to sell...aka, first time home buyers. US!! :-) So please be praying for us in the next few weeks/months (or however long this takes!) that we will find the perfect house for us in the perfect time. Who knows, it may be this first house we see, or it could be #50 five months from now!! Just for the record though, I'd sure like to find the right one before #50, lol!

I know I have more to say...but I can't think of it at the moment (I must just be too excited about tonight!!). Oh well, I suppose that means I'll just have to post again when I remember!! :-D

~Abigail~