It's November Already!

Wow. It's hard to believe that we are only a couple weeks away from Thanksgiving. This year has gone by so fast. Here's a little catch up on what we've been doing the last couple of months.

In September we went to see Eric Church, Kip Moore,and Justin Moore in concert in Springfield, MA and made a weekend of it. We stayed overnight and went to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield. We really enjoyed it. It's no secret that I love love love Duke basketball, and Colin is a Portland Trailblazers fan from his childhood so we had fun seeing all the memorabilia. One of the displays there was a wall of the American flag made out of red, white and blue basketball shoes. It was impressive.

Hockey season has started so we have been busy going to the games to cheer on our Monarchs. We go to every home game, and we try and make it to the away ones that are within a couple hours of us. With the NHL lockout, there are a few players that played on the Stanley Cup winning LA Kings team last year that are back playing with the Monarchs until the lockout is resolved and it has been fun to see them play. Speaking of the Stanley Cup, as season ticket holders for the Monarchs, we got to have our picture taken with it! It was a neat experience and one we won't forget for sure!

We celebrated Colin's birthday in October in Maine. He is finally as old as me again- for another 6 months anyway! Then I'll go back to being his "cougar". lol

Now for the event that I know you've been waiting all year to hear about- The Battersby's Annual Christmas Tree Tagging day. It happened the weekend before Halloween this year. As is our tradition, we went out to breakfast first and then headed off to the tree farm on the first day it was open. It took an hour and a half of searching before we found "the one". We may have to start going to a different tree farm because this one is getting to be slim pickins! The tree isn't as full or "fat" as I like them, but it's still a pretty tree.

We have still been working out, although as of late, we haven't followed our weight watchers "points" so well. All in all, I've lost 60 lbs since March, and Colin has lost around 50. We would both like to lose 20 more. Realistically, with the holidays coming up and all the good food we plan on eating, it's probably not going to happen until after the first of the year-and that's o.k. We are both happy with what we have accomplished so far, and will be glad to just maintain that through the holiday season.

We had family pictures taken for our Christmas card, and also just because we haven't had one taken in forever! We had our friend Meghan take the pictures and she did a fantastic job. It was so much easier to have her take them than to have Colin jumping up and down to reset the button on the camera between every picture. Here are a few of our favorites.

Last week Hurricane Sandy blew through here-literally. I don't know what it is about us and the weather, but after going through 3 hurricanes in Florida in 2004 where our power was out for a week at a time each hurricane, and then the 2008 ice storm in New England that knocked out our power for 8 days, along with other crazy Noreaster storms that blow through here, I have to say I get more than a little stressed anytime I hear of a storm coming our way! We were very fortunate that we didn't lose power through Sandy. We were one of the lucky few. Many of our friends did lose power. I keep reminding Colin that they don't have this problem on the west coast!

Dustin, Sandra, and the boys are coming down from Vermont for Thanksgiving. Lots of yummy food will be consumed and a good time will be had, I'm sure! Colin's parents will be out for Christmas this year and we can't wait to see them. They are going to babysit the dogs for us while we go to Toronto for a weekend to see Colin's beloved Seattle Seahawks play the Buffalo Bills. Wally and Skittles will be spoiled beyond belief (because they aren't already-HA!) and probably won't care if we come home at all!

If you're still reading this, you're a better person than me! I guess we did more in 2 months than I thought! :)