Happy Turkey Day!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We had a busy but fun one. The Behling's, Janetski's, and Upeka and her fiance Andrew joined us for a massive lunch. Even though there were only eight of us (and two vegetarians), I still got a full sized turkey so there would be plenty of leftovers for everyone. We got another fresh, organic turkey from the local farmer's market- mmm! I'll never go back to frozen turkey! After stuffing ourselves with loads of good food, we played Guitar Hero for hours and went to the movie Enchanted. The Behling's and their dog Anya stayed overnight with us. Thankfully, Anya and Riley wore each other out leaving us plenty of time to hang out. We managed to get a little Christmas shopping done, but neither of us are into shopping especially with large crowds. I'm hoping to get the rest of the shopping done online.

Riley graduated from obedience school earlier this month and from beginner's agility school! We're very proud of our graduate. He is now passing out of his teenage rebellion stage and is now extremely cuddly. We can't do anything without him sitting on us. He's also stopped whining as much (thankfully! It was really embarrassing) and now has to mark everything. He even lifts his leg occasionally- such a big boy! He starts intermediate agility school on Wednesday. He'll be going to class with one of his best friends, so I'm not sure how well he'll pay attention. It's great exercise for him though, especially since it's getting colder and darker outside and harder for me and Kevin to stand being outside. We're also taking Riley to a doggy play-group on Saturdays. He was terrified at first. There were fifteen other dogs running wildly around a field and Riley didn't know what to do. He was a wallflower for forty minutes or so before timidly playing with some of the quieter dogs. The next time we took him he jumped right in to the fun, but he's a really mellow dog. Some of the more aggressive dogs would pin him and he wouldn't growl or bark at all, which made them pick on him even more. Poor guy is just too docile. He had a great time for the most part and was worn out for the rest of the day.

Kevin is still busy learning the ropes to his new job. He has training all next week. He's also keeping super busy with his photography business and is constantly cleaning up pictures for people. He's also been sucked into World of Warcraft meaning he's up all night and I don't see him as often as I'd like unless I sit in the office with him. He's also started an annoying trend of stealing all the covers at night, leaving me shivering. If I try to pull them back, he rolls himself up tighter in them. He's also impossible to wake up. Grrr.

As for me, I'm keeping busy with school. The semester is nearly over (yeah!!), but there is still a ton to do. Lab work is going frustratingly slow, but I keep hacking at it. Other than that, I'm loving Amazon.com and trying to find ways to never have to go to another mall again. I can't believe it's December already and that we'll be heading home to Utah in just a few weeks! We're really excited. We're putting together a list of restaurants we want to go to (it'd be nice to see some friends and family while there too). I'm going to have a Gandolfo's breakfast sandwich every morning.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! And thanks for reading my ramblings!

The Famous Miller Boys

Time is still cruising by, and we are as busy as ever. Riley is still going to obedience school and agility school. Sometimes I feel like I'm already a soccer mom! I'm always rushing home after work so I can get Riley to his classes on time. I worry that Kevin and I are turning into obsessed dog owners, but Riley's just too darn fun and cute. Riley is also the featured video on our dog trainer's website. Check out Jeff Rynearson's Midwest K-9 Training website http://www.midwestk9training.com/ to see Kevin and Riley showing off. Both boys look great!

Halloween was great! We went to our ward's Trunk-or-Treat and passed out two big bags worth of candy to all the kids. At home we passed out an additional four bags of candy. We celebrated by dressing Riley up as a skunk. He tried eating the costume at first, but got used to it after a while. I dressed up as a twin with another girl. It's a long story- basically, a lab mate and I share the exact same birthday, are both Japanese, the same height, and both have freckles (which is unusual for Japanese people). So, we decided to be conjoined twins for Halloween. The costume worked out great except Asako wouldn't come with me to my classes. It's hard to explain your costume when half of it is missing. We also celebrated Halloween by going to Thistleberry Farm here in South Bend. They have a huge corn maze and pumpkin patch. Asako and Upeka (another lab mate) hadn't ever celebrated Halloween (not being Americans), so we all picked out pumpkins and gave the corn maze a try. The maze was supposed to take 1 hour and 15 minutes, but we were in there quite a bit longer than that. In our defense, it was dark and stormy. We later carved our pumpkins together. It's amazing to see the cultural differences reflected in what was carved (see if you can tell which was carved by a person from the U.S., Japan, or Sri Lanka). It was a great Halloween!

We also had more family visit us here in South Bend. Kevin's mom's cousin's husband and his son came to the USC vs. ND game as huge USC fans. We gave them a tour of campus and took them to the pre-game fun. I was worried about traveling around with USC fans, but people were super friendly. People were actually friendlier to opposing fans than to other ND fans. After the game, Byron and Tim took us to dinner. It was great having them visit and also fun to take part in all the game traditions. The actual football game could have been better, but that's the story of the season.

As for Kevin, he is now in his new position at Crowe and had his first Saturday off today! To celebrate, we slept in and went to a pancake house for breakfast. He seems to be adjusting well and getting to know all his new coworkers. In fact, his coworkers got him involved with them in War of Warcraft online- I rarely see my husband now. Kevin has also decided to add 'actor' to his current resume of computer guru, dog trainer, and photographer. A coworker asked him to be in a commercial he was producing for a local contest. He and the professional film crew were so impressed with Kevin that they asked him if they could call on him again. Kevin now has another commercial request set up for later. All this is well and good, but I refuse to move to Hollywood.

As for little ol' me, I was a sick for a week or so and got behind on school work and lab work. I'm mostly caught up, but my classes are really starting to get busy. Plus my GLOBES fellowship is adding a lot of extra work to my already plentiful plate. I can't complain too much because I am having fun.

Also, congratulations to Michael and Annalynne on their marriage! Wish we could have been there! That's it for now. Thanksgiving is coming up fast!