thanksgiving

The holiday was good! It was so nice to have several days off. We were about to hit that peak of exhaustion, but it came just in time. This was year #4 of making 0ur famous Alton Brown turkey (if you haven't tried it, you MUST next year). Never before had I had truly juicy turkey. Yummmmy. But you brine it for 6 hours, which means putting it in the brine at 3am, turning it over at 6am, then finally starting to cook it at 9am. It's not so bad once you get used to it I guess. Not so much different than waking to tend to a baby, right? (no, that's not a round-about way to say I'm pregnant.)

We also made my family's traditional souberage, a cheese dish, layered with phyllo and parsley. And a really great pecan pie that uses 5 1/2 CUPS of pecans! This year my mother-in-law shelled them all from her pecan tree in her back yard, so it was even more special! I just love getting up on Thanksgiving and watching the parade as I smell cooking in the kitchen...

We ate and ate at my sister-in-laws and watched as Philip beat us silly on Brain Academy on the Wii. Then we saw Philip's grandparents at the hospital, Philip discovered an extremely long nose hair, then we took a nice walk together, ate some more and then went home to a cozy house. My parents came out the next day and we had such a good visit with them! My mom even came and worked out with me on Saturday! One step closer to the TV.... If any of you come out this way, call me and we'll go to the gym!!

Monday morning was a rude awakening for Philip and I. We realized that there is a mountain of things to get done this week. One of them being my senior comprehensive exams for music and music ed. Music is score study and verbal exam, music ed is verbal as well (so I thought. It then thankfully got changed last minute to written). This is scary, because it's been how many years since theory or form and analysis or orchestration or instrumental perspectives?? At least 5 years. That's a long time. Anyway, there are 2 MORE comprehensive exams I have to take for education before I graduate, so I needed to take the music ed. portion of that one. Fortunately, I discovered that if I pass that with an 85, I will be exempt from the sen. comp music ed. portion. Is this getting confusing? Anyway, good thing I am married to a music GENIOUS, because we studied things I haven't THOUGHT of in many years off the top of his head, and it turned out to be an incredible review. I took the practice test Monday, scored a 78. Took it again this afternoon, made a 91. Yay. Check.

Still have to study for my score study comp, then take the REAL music ed. PPR test, and then the practice PPR (for teacher certification) and then the REAL PPR. *sigh* I guess they're just getting us teachers ready for all the gov't assessment that happens to students regularly. Have I mentioned this stuff costs money, too? Fortunately, the practice tests are free, but just to be certified, I have to pay $85 or something like that to take the real PPR test, and then just to get my certificate and finger prints and background check, I have to pay another $120!! That's all around the time that I am going to be paying for preschool so that I can basically have a full-time job and not get paid (student teaching). That will be exciting to see how God provides.

Oh well, it's the end of the year. Days counting down. I can smell the icecicles and the fireplaces and the Christmas cookies. I can't wait for those days...