This year we went down to Plant City again, to spend Thanksgiving with Gary's family. It was a bitter-sweet week. We arrived about 6:30 on Tuesday night and met up with the family at the funeral home. Then Granna's funeral was on Wednesday. It was wonderful to see all the family, some of whom we don't see very often, but it was a sad reason to get together.

On Thanksgiving we all got together with the Cunningham side of the family to eat and visit at Poppa J and Grandmaw Bea's house. All but four of the great-grandkids were there, so after we ate we corralled them long enough to take some pictures. That was pretty entertaining. The rest of the day, we sat around and talked and visited.

Friday, I watched the most stressful game I've seen in a while. Dad fixed up some pigs in a blanket and some BBQ ones too. Mom held Ruth, because I was way too tense, and Gary claims he has the scares on his arm to prove it. Thankfully, Auburn came back to win it, and moves on to the SEC championship game in Atlanta against South Carolina with a 12 - 0 record. Saturday, Gary watched his game, and lets just say that it wasn't pretty at all. It was so painful that he and Dad took the kids outside to run around and play.

Saturday night, Gary and I had a date night. He took me to the Red Rose, and I even got to dance for half a song. (He's moving on up.) We had a good time getting dressed up and going out with out the kids. Even if it was a short trek out of the house, since I managed to leave the pump in Gainesville and had to be back in time to feed Ruth again. We had a great weekend with the family.

Since we weren't coming up again until Christmas, and since Mother had some time off from school, and Daddy needed to use some of his vacation, Mother and Daddy came down to visit us the weekend before Thanksgiving. They went through Auburn and watched a basketball game with Benji, and then brought him with them.

Britt was very excited to see everyone. He went back to patting and grinning at Grumps. He would say Ahna but run, giggling every time she tried to pick him up. The real hit of the weekend was Uncle Benji though. Grumps says he's not going to bring him next time because Benjamin infringes on his time with Britt. Mother brought Britt a new book, "Tacky's Christmas" about a Tacky Penguin. Britt loves "Key-quens" so that book was a big hit, he asks for "Tack Tack" now we he wants it read, and he made Benjamin read it about a gazillion times each day. Benjamin started hiding it around the living room.

On Sunday, we went to MacClenny to Church and on the way back stopped in Lake Butler to eat lunch. The restaurant was right on the lake and there was a playground next to the lake, so after we ate we walked around and Britt played on playground. Play being a relative term, since he didn't play on the playground equipment so much as dig in the sand and laugh incessantly. After that we headed home to watch Jungle Book. Other highlights from the weekend included Britt bouncing blocks off of Uncle Benji's head. We had a really good visit and look forward to seeing them again in a few more weeks.

Gary and I sometimes go down to Beef O'Brady's to watch the ballgame on Saturday (since we don't have cable). Sometimes they doing a triva game, that we play. A week or two ago, we won a free bowling pass for 4 people for 2 hours, including shoes, popcorn, and a pitcher of coke. So we decided we would go with my parents when they were down.

Marquita Bonita Varnum passed away Sunday, November 21, 2010 around 8:30 am. It was the end of 20 plus year fight with cancer. While we will all miss her terribly, we know she is no longer in pain, that she is now with our Saviour, and that one day we will see her again.

I'm adding Brother Charlie Miller to the prayer request list. He is a brother at MacClenny Church near the end of a 12 year battle with cancer. He has returned home and has a peace about him. His wife, Sis. Janice, and his family would appreciate your prayers.

Granna was carried back to the hospital today, because she was very lethargic. When they got her there they drained fluid off of her heart (the first signs of congestive heart failure). They said that it was due to the fact that she has pneumonia. They are hoping to be able to treat her and keep a close eye on her and get the pneumonia cleared up in the next few days.
*Update 11/18, Granna is in ICU because they can't get her O2 Stats up.*

Bro. Allen Cook passed away Monday evening. Please keep his dear wife Sis. Lona and their family at this time.

Finally as a bit of good news, Sis. Amanda Mizel's pregnancy is going well. She is eight weeks along, and they have given her a due date of June 29, and since she is expecting a repeat Cesarean, they expect a date around June 22.

So we've been potty training this past week. I've been wanting to do this for a while, because 1) I'm super sick of changing diapers, and 2) having one child in diapers is expensive having two in diapers is painful to our budget. Seriously I can hear the budget crying as I walk up with diaper receipts in hand. I was hoping to have Britt potty trained by two, this summer he started seeming like he was ready. He would come to me and pull on the diaper asking for a new one by saying "bap-per" for diaper and with a little help he can get down and step out of his shorts. Most of all he is protesting at diaper changes trying to cover himself up and he is interested in the toliet. He has liked following us into the bathroom for months, wanting to drop the toliet paper in the toliet and flushing it.

However, I didn't start sooner because everyone advised us to wait until after the baby, because he would probably regress some when she got here. So I thought starting sometime in October would be good, because the newness of the baby should be worn off and it would give us about 2 months till the holidays, but October was a bad month for us because it involved so many test and papers, that I just didn't have the time to devote to it. So we started this past Tuesday.

We decided to try the naked baby method, since people said within a week they could be a long way to trained. Since it was cold, he wore a long sleave shirt and socks. The first day was a nightmare. I would put him on the toliet about every hour, and he would go some of the time, but not as well as he's been doing in the past. He would get off and run around and have an accident in the floor. I cleaned up 3 spots and Gary may have cleaned up another spot or two. I thought about calling it quits and putting him back in a diaper, but since I knew Kelly and Joshua had a tough first day, I decided to stick it out. Day two went better, he went on the toliet more like he had been before, and he only had two accidents both of which he managed to stop and finish in the toliet. Day three he only had one accident and went in the toliet all day. Over the weekend, we tried pull ups some when we were out of the house, and those are no help. He uses them just like a diaper, and they actually seem to keep him drier than the diapers do.

All in all it went pretty well, HOWEVER, it feels way more like Gary and I are just being trained to take him to the bathroom at certain times than him being trained to use the toliet. He is still lagging in the conversation department only using one word at a time, he seems to understand an aweful lot, but we aren't sure if he understands what we are trying to do. What do you think readers?

We are going to give it another week, and if we aren't making some sort of progress, we may just call it off and try again after New Years, because the next month and a half is going to be a crazy one. My folks are coming down to see us before Thanksgiving, then we are going to Plant City for Thanksgiving. The next weekend we will be going to Tampa for El Bethel's meeting, and then back in Gainesville for a week. Then it will be exams and Christmas break. We hope to spend a week and a half in Alabama and then a week and a half in Plant City. I don't think that much going and doing will be condusive to potty training him. Any advise out there?

I'll leave you with a video that Gary recorded of me and Britt on Saturday while he was using the bathroom. Britt doesn't mind sitting on the toliet as long as we either read his "SkippyJon Jones" books or sing songs. His favorite to ask for is Pooh by which he means "Return to the House of Pooh Corner" by Kenny Logins. He says lots of the words with me, points out his nose, and dances.

So I wonder does she talk more because she's the second child and she hears alot more noise around the house than Britt ever did? Someone told me this week she talks more because she's a girl, and last week someone told me it's because that's the only way that second children get noticed; however, I'm inclined to think it's because it's just her little personality to be a bit chatty. After all she has so many big ideas to share.

Ruth,

Today you are 3 months old, and the biggest change this month has been your little personality, is really starting to blossom. You smiled for the first time at Britt a day before you turned one month, and you really started smiling at Daddy around 6 weeks. I finally managed to get a smile out of you the day you turned 2 months old. I still think you are our more serious child, I have to work harder to get smiles than I ever had to with Britt. Sadly you will probably hear that the rest of your life. As second child, you will forever be in comparison since we only have our experiences with him to relate back to. You should find comfort in the fact that at least we only have one reference point, the next one is going to have to be compared to you both, haha.

The most astounding thing about you to me, is how talkative you are. (Way ahead of Britt in this, you should be proud to know.) Whenever someone stops to look at you in the car seat, you feel as if it is a chance to share your views on the political front, your theories on how to solve world hunger, your explanation of scientific concepts that even Einstein couldn't quiet grasp, oh and most important of all your chance to convince people to pick you up. I may not have a clue what you are telling me, but boy do you have a lot to say in the most animated and urgent sounding way. This week we went to Salem for their Church meeting, and boy did you talk to everyone there, and yes you succeeded in getting lots of different people to hold and talk to you.

Just one night this week we had the best conversation. All the way home from Church, your Daddy and I talked about Russian history. He thought the Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church were almost exactly the same, so of course I bored him with all the details of Russian history and how the two churches are very much different. We got home, and Daddy needed to run to the store for Cokes, so while I changed the sheets I asked you if you listened to our discussion, since you were awake the whole trip. I told you how when you were bigger you could read my history books and how we would learn all about not just Russian history, but US history and English history and Egyptian history. After talking about that sort of stuff, I told you we wouldn't just learn history, but we would learn mathematics and we would do fun stuff like word problems, not just silly theoretical math but how it applied to things, and how we would use it to learn way fun stuff (cause math really isn't fun) like physics and chemistry. I told you how we would learn how the universe works and study all sorts of fun and important things. You in the most appreciative way added your coos and other sounds at the appropriate times along with facial expression about how exciting history sounded and how dreadful math sounded. And I realized, it was our first real conversation. The first, I hope, of many.

Not only are you a real chatter box these days but you are growing stronger each day. Why just last night you manged to rock forward while you were sitting leaned up against the pillows on our bed. You balanced without resting against anything for almost 30 seconds. I was shocked. Whoever heard of such a thing at just 3 months old. You rolled over from back to stomach for the first time on Thursday. You have done it almost nonstop since then. You never have cared for being on your back. You either want to be sitting up, really straight or on your belly.

You find your hands more and more often these days as well. You like to suck on your middle two fingers or your thumb, and still only take the pacifier when you have a mind too. Fingers suit me just fine, after all I don't enjoy constantly turning around while Daddy drives like a lunatic trying to get it back in your mouth and Daddy likes it even less when I make him get up and go and put it back in your mouth at night when you wake up fussing.

We have also managed to get you to sleep through the night 5 of the last 7 nights. We still can't get you to sleep anyway but in the swinger, so I have no idea when we will actually try to move you into the crib, but at least we are sleeping mostly at night now. All sorts of exciting things this week. Of course what I didn't mention was that you didn't go down on some of those nights until 2 o'clock. You are indeed our little night owl. You sleep great all morning, and party all night. You are most alert and awake in the last afternoon and early evening, then you take a short nap before dinner, and party until midnight or later most nights. I think we might have to work on breaking you of sleeping in the swing this next month.

Britt seems to be your best friend, and we hope that you two will remain close. Even after you get old enough to realize that he is just a bit possessive of you, and even after he realizes that you can take his toys away too. You two seem to enjoy laying together in the floor or on the bed and you grin and laugh at each other. It delights me to no end to watch you two when you are both happy and not shrieking at me.

I love you,
Momma

It's been a busy few weeks here on the home front. After we did early trick or treating, we spent 5th weekend over at Panama City at a Church meeting. We were able to hear Bro. David Montgomery. We were all nursing colds, and I had about decided that we just needed to stay home. Gary still felt like we needed to go, in his words he needed his batteries recharged. It had been a really hecktic two weeks with school, and internships, assistanceships, and jobs were all up in the air. So we set out on Friday afternoon, and heard some wonderful preaching and enjoyed the company of Elders J.C. Stanaland, James Conley, and David Montgomery. Britt had a ball playing with everyone especially Bro. David. Gary and I felt refreshed, it's amazing how driving four hours to a meeting after an exhausting week, just to sit on pews all weekend, leaves you feeling refreshed. He had wonderful sermons on Thursday night on Total Depravity (which we missed out on), True Fellowship (on Friday night), Prayer, Forgiveness, and the Apostle Paul's experience on the road to Damascus (on Saturday), and a wonderfully simple sermon on What it is We Believe (Sunday morning).
After the meeting, Britt took a nap, while we drove back to Plant City. Gary's class on Monday was cancelled so we made the trek down, so that we would be there to vote on Tuesday. We were able to visit with several family members, and some Church members as well. We didn't get to see near everyone that we wanted, but we were only there for a day and a half. Poppa J and Grandmaw Bea were able to see Ruth for the first time. Grandmaw Bea didn't want to share with Amanda, and Poppa J amused her with a mixture of Korean and giberish in his best high pitched baby voice. Britt stayed behind when the rest of us headed back to Gainesville. He spent the rest of the week playing with his cousins and wearing out Memaw. Gary and I spent a quiet week doing lots of homework, and some cleaning. We got to visit with Mom and Dad for awhile last Saturday when they brought Britt back, and Mom took me down to J.C. Penny's and we found me some warmer clothes, since I don't really have any warm things that fit. This week thankfully was slower, so we started potty training which is a story for another post. This week was also Salem's meeting at Lake City, so we went over there Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings and heard Elder Ronald Lawrence preach. The kids were suprisingly well behaved. I have come to the conclusion that Britt does much better for evening services (this has only been since about the time he turned 15 mons). So Gary and I were able to listen to most of the preaching (for once). This weekend we are enjoying a nice long break. No homework that has to be done this weekend, so Gary's not doing any. Nowhere to be, so we're staying at home being lazy, and watching football on the laptop...

Britt is amusing to watch during Church these days. He for the most part sits on the bench and faces the front, but he's not still. Britt flips through the song book, keeps rather sporatic time, and best of all he dances in the pew. Of course, when all else fails there's always taggie or a stuffed animal in the diaper bag to chew on. The dancing cracks me up, so I had to covertly try to get a little on film last Sunday. He didn't dance much on Sunday mostly swaying and a little bouncing. Sometimes he's going to town to the point that Gary asks me if I'm raising a holy roller back there. I'm just glad that he's fairly still and seems to like the singing. You'll have to forgive me for recording during Church, but it's one of those memories that I want to save.

Yesterday I talked with Dr. Moss the head of the department about possibly switching from the MAB (Master's of Agribusiness) to the MS (Master's of Science with a concentration in Agribusiness with thesis). I was discouraged to find out that there were a number of classes I would have to have through next December, most of which require higher Calculus that I haven't done for 10 years. Not to mention that I would still need to write a thesis which might keep me in school for an extra year. The degree path that I'm currently on is for those interested in working in business where as the other degree is really more for those who want to do research. While I'm interested in research and the other degree is better, the degree that I'm currently pursuing is really more in line with what I would like to do. However, I really wanted to work on this project of determining the best replacements for Methyl Bromide.

So, today I talked with Dr. VanSickle, the professor that offered me the assistanceship if I would change programs. I told him the program I was in was really a better fit, and because the upcoming classes are built on the classes that I would have been taking this semester in the other program I didn't feel like I could change programs mid stream. I told him I would really like to still work on the project, and I understood if he couldn't give me funding. I said if there was any way to help pay for my tuition for next semester I would love to work on this project as my internship. He told me he could do better than that. He said that he would really like me to work on this project due to my background in the industry, so he plans to grant me the assistanceship as an internship - wave my tuition next semester, and pay me a stipend just as if I was in the other program.

This is really great news! We still have to work out the fine points with Jess, our department secretary. I'm really excited about doing this research. I get to look at all aspects of Methyl Bromide replacements and I get to work with Dr. Noling. I doubt he will see a significant difference in yield because these farmers have been phasing this stuff out for years now, but I predict that he will see a growing number of diseases and pest, which means that farmers will be spending far more on chemicals to control these things than they did with Methyl Bromide.