blue wave, grandma cheryl's birthday, clue black box show

 the beginning of november has been dark, rainy, and cool followed by a beautiful sunny weekend. the early darkness in the evenings is already feeling old. it's my least favorite part of this time of year. but soon enough there will be christmas trees and twinkle lights to lift our spirits!

last monday ashford ended up staying home from school because he was feeling worse than he did over the weekend :( it poured for most of the day. i barely walked winnie around the block and we got soaked. he watched a movie in the morning and then he and i watched another one in the afternoon. 

tuesday there was no school for election day. i'm not sure how long minneapolis has been doing that. i had already voted the week before. thatcher voted at our neighborhood polling place in the morning then headed to work. it was rainy and cool out again. i can't get over the amount of leaves blanketing our back yard.

 the kids and i had no plans for the day. i worked, walked winnie, etc. azalea asked if she could do some baking, so we took a trip to the store. she made two loaves of pumpkin bread (one went to school to share with friends) and 'halloween bark' with leftover candy. 

in the evening, we all watched the election results (while trading off keeping winnie out of trouble). early on it felt like there was good momentum for the democrats, but we all know from past experience that it's not over til it's over, so i remained cautiously optimistic. as the wins kept coming, the feeling of dread melted away and was replaced with hope and excitement for this country's future. there have been some dark, dark days in the past two years under trump and while those can't be erased, we can change direction going forward and we will! this is what america should be. representation of all people in office and a shared mission of improving quality of life for all who live here, not just a few. 

wednesday felt like a huge weight had been lifted. it felt the exact opposite of when trump was elected two years ago. the kids went back to school. we had a cabinet guy out in the morning to take some measurements for our kitchen rebuild (baby steps). i had my weekly staff meeting. thatcher had a work event that went into the evening, and azalea had theater til late after school, so just ashford and i ate dinner together after his piano lesson. 

thursday morning i dropped off winnie at the groomer. it had been 12 weeks since her big shave, so her hair was needing some attention. i told them to mostly leave her middle-section and focus on her face, paws, and tail. she was shaking when i handed her over :( she was there for 3 hours, so i headed to the galleria for my first holiday drink of the season and to window shop.

the first peppermint mocha always hits

i also tried 'sweetgreen' for the first time and this harvest bowl was sooooo good.

when i picked up winnie, they said she did great. i forgot to take a picture of her new 'do. but we take plenty of pics of her, so no doubt you will see it soon. in the evening, azalea had opening night of the black box production of 'clue' that she has been working on for the past 6 weeks. she sold tickets and handed out programs. she said it went really well. 

friday i went to the gym, ran some errands, and worked. in the evening, we all headed to grandma cheryl's and grandpa durant's for cheryl's birthday. she's one year away from a big milestone :) we had dinner and dessert with them and caught up on life; it was nice. 

shortly after we got home, i took azalea to 'perkins' to meet up with the cast and crew of 'clue'. she had the night off from the performance, but i wanted her to get to do the after-show activity. i dropped her off at 9:30pm and went back at 11pm to pick her up. i have fond memories of going to perkins (although a different one that isn't there anymore) during high school with groups of friends. she had a great time. 

saturday was a lot of raking (see tuesday's pic) and cleaning at our house. we've all decided that winnie's new hair cut makes her look like a seal pup and we don't hate it :) 

it was a gorgeous, sunny fall day. thatcher decided to make a fire in the fire pit and cook hotdogs for lunch. 

in the evening, we all headed to the high school to see 'clue'. the show sold out well before it started, so we were happy to get a seat. grandma cheryl and grandpa durant came too. azalea handed out programs and did ticket and concession sales. the show was really good. i'm always blown away by how talented the high schoolers are. it was completely student directed. 

this picture is blurry, but it's the best i could get. theater has been such a great community for azalea. 

after the show, the cast and crew all went to sebastian joe's together. 

sunday was mostly a relaxing day, with some raking and errands thrown in. we had some lingering cold symptoms during the week, but everyone seems to be back to healthy now.