BIG NEWS

This is a few days late in coming, but on Monday, Paul got an email that HE PASSED HIS CMA ENTRANCE EXAM!!!

:D

We weren't expecting to get results for another few weeks, so this was a great surprise - especially because we're not very patient at waiting! The exam is really pricey just to take, and about 1/3 of the people who take it don't pass, and Paul got 75%, way higher than average :)

The best part is that it feels like the job possibilities are opening up - nothing concrete yet, but the fact that Paul is actually IN the CMA program is a big deal :)

I'm so proud of my hubband :D

Kissing!

I've been so busy, but I had to post this :) Gabby's figured out"kissing" today - she's actually figured out quite a few things the last week or so, but this is the one that's spurred me to blog :) In the video, she doesn't quite do it, but right before we pulled out the camera, she was puckering up and leaning in for kisses!

Over the last little bit, she's also figured out how funny we think it is when she shakes her head "no" (i.e. "Are you stinky? NOOOOO", or "Is Daddy Funny? NOOOOOO"), she's figured out how to push obstacles around and walk with them, she's discovered the joy of knocking over towers that we take the time to build for her, she's learned exactly what the remote control is for (well, sort of - she turns the tv on and off by using the button ON the tv, but she changes the channels with the remote - today, we've had the privilege of seeing "Dr. Nancy", "The View", and "What Not to Wear") and she's figured out that crawling is so much faster than letting us help her walk.

:)

While I'm at it, I guess I should update what else we've been up to! Gabby's birthday was on the 21st, but we did her official bday part with the family on the 25th. Here's the cake I made for her with a Deceptively Delicious recipe - I hid pureed pumpkin in the chocolate cake mix, and added chocolate chips, and it was really yummy. AND the mommy in me was satisfied that there was at least some nutritional value goin on.

We served hamburgers and funstuff for dinner, but all Gabby wanted was vegetables. Ah, do me proud... :)

And of course, Halloween! Last year Gwamma bought Gabby a candy corn sleeper, and that was the extent of our celebrating (she was 10 days old) but this year, we went all out and I made her a costume. A Fairy Princess! (Paul wanted to know if that made him the fairy king??) I'm going to take a moment to gloat: I made this costume with NO pattern, and in the end, no sewing machine - by hand and by serger... it turned out alright :) Not sure what the problem with my machine was...

The Wednesday before Halloween, we went to our church's Trunk or Treat (Gabby is wearing a warm fleece sleeper under her costume) - she seemed really interested in seeing everybody else in their costumes, and she liked waving her wand around when she wasn't trying to chew on it :)

On Actual Halloween, we took Gabby to the mall for trick or treating.

She seemed pretty tired, and most of the stores weren't giving out candy after all, so we went to Gwamma & Gwampa's after to hand out candy with them, but realized within an hour of getting there that Gabby was burning up. So we took her home, and she had a temperature of 103 for the next 2 days. That was stressful. She's fine now.

Aside from that... I've been busy with activities like Enrichment (I'm on the committee), baby showers, feeding the missionaries, being with friends, and getting people ready for Christmas with Heritage Makers, filling in as primary pianist for the primary presentation... it's been (and continues to be) a crazy busy month, but it distracts us from our biggest thing - waiting to get results back from Paul's entrance exam for the CMA program.

I guess my last thing would be that I'm going to be a speaker at tonight's Spirit of Heritage tour, and I'm both really excited and really nervous about it. Wish me luck! :) Oh, and I'm also playing background piano music and singing in a duet as part of the program for the Christmas dinner party for our church on Saturday. Which I still have yet to finish preparing for (guess what I'm doin tomorrow after my visiting teaching?!) Somehow, I'm managing to just barely hold it all together - I guess stay tuned to hear about my head exploding/success :)