So, I am about to unleash on the blog an epic tale of heroism and pizza. I speak of course of the notorious game of D&D. If you're not familiar with it, you might as well stop reading now, lest you be thoroughly confused and begin wondering about my sanity. So anyway, we played D&D with Brent, Heather, Alex & Kimba today, with Heather being the DM (person running the game).

This story had left us as the heroes of a town, with an open invitation to stay for free anytime. While enjoying our spoils, a turn of events involving a crazy man and a church of our Cleric's faith led us to the next town. The town was abandoned, and 3 party members were sucked into a vortex while obsessing over treasure, the paladin went blind when he stepped into the church, then the cleric (me)went blind stepping into the tavern that almost lured said paladin to the dark side.

Once in the dungeon, many fierce battles were fought, runes were collected, and trees (not to mention Andrew ) were molested. We traveled through planes of existence, stole some golden statues and tossed a corpse into a mysterious ooze. We also fought a white dragon, the druid broke an elaborate sword trap just as the rogue disabled it, and the wizard unleashed his secret weapon: an electric weasel.

All in all, a great time for any nerd!!

So today was spent catching up on cleaning that I got behind on recently. Andrew helped Grandma purchase a new snow blower so he was occupied most of the day with that. We enjoyed leftovers from yesterday, and tried to relax when we could.

I'm looking forward to a fun book club tonight and D&D tomorrow. Perfect holiday weekend in my opinion. (I can hear Heather's voice saying NERD!!) She's a part of both for those who think that's a bad thing.

Not much else today, so I'm gonna do a brief history of me for those who haven't seen me in a while and might be reading.

I was born and raised right here in Oskaloosa, went to college at Upper Iowa University. After graduation, I moved to Cedar Rapids with Andrew and Kimba. I worked in an Art Gallery for a while, and Andrew had a couple of odd sales jobs. In April of 2002, I married "the love of my life" Andrew, and then became Kerri Wilson. In November of that year, we moved back to Oskaloosa and I got a job at the Herald. Andrew went to school for Networking and Computer Forensics. We moved to Beacon to live next to Andrew's elderly Grandma, allowing her to have help, but still be independent. I quit the Herald because it made me miserable and started freelancing with art, graphic design and web design. I've been looking for a new career path or direction recently, cause Andrew has benefits through the VA that will pay for my school. Andrew is working part time for a tech support company and working on building his business, Heartland Data Recovery (www.heartlanddatarecovery.com).

Anyway, that's a brief view of where I've been. Enough of that though. I'll try to keep posting frequently.

Just back from the 2nd Thanksgiving today, and a wonderful feast it was. My 3 year old niece, Kylie, set the tone for the evening. She was elated from the time we got there to the time we left. She was excited about everything from the mashed potatoes to the marshmallows in the apple salad. Her happiness was totally contagious.

Right before dinner, I was sitting at the table and she was telling me the most fascinating story about flying bears and stolen trucks when finally I asked her, "why are you so happy today?" Kylie looked around at the people next to her and said, "everyone's here, we're all together!" She said this with a tone of how could anyone not be ecstatic when surrounded by these wonderful people. My heart glowed at this amazing little girl who was speaking words that are wise beyond her years.

Anyway, it was a wonderful day overall, the only thing missing for me was Zach who had to go home earlier than we got there. But I think I learned something today, and that makes it a great day for me.

Well, I have about 10 minutes of down time before I'm off to the next family Thanksgiving. The first one was with Andrew's family, which is always an interesting time for me.

I was very excited to see my niece, Kristin who is home from college this week. And I'm always glad to see our nephew, Matthew, who makes me laugh every time.

Unfortunately many of the adults at this Thanksgiving were what we call, "in a mood." I can't help but think, what a waste. To spend one of the only times this family gets together lecturing or snapping at people and being generally unpleasant. To be fair, there was one main culprit, but the mood kind of rippled throughout the rest of the people, causing many to be anxious to leave.

Andrew and I are going to try very hard to shake this feeling before going to my family's Thanksgiving. But it's a good thing to think about, I don't think this person came to dinner with malicious intent, yet ended up alienating everyone.

I've often noticed that some people are able to have fun no matter where they are or what's happening. These people are always on the top of my invite lists. There are also the kind of people who manage to have a miserable time, no matter what the circumstances. These are "downers" and tend to bring others down with them. I've noticed this about other people, but never wondered which one most applied to me. I think I am going to strive to be one of the "fun" people.

I just took the time to make my blog look pretty. Of course I had to do it in purple, which I'm sure you all know that I'm crazy about.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all my family and friends!!

I love the idea of this holiday, in that we should all stop and give thanks for the wonderful things in our lives. It's so easy to get caught up in day to day life and forget how lucky we really are.

I am so thankful that I have wonderful friends and family. I am also thankful to have found a new spiritual path this year, it has changed my life in amazing ways. I am thankful for new friends and old. I am so grateful for the understanding of the universe that I have, and that I have so much still to learn.

I am so happy that I can look forward to a life of learning and growing.