November in Review

We have been quite neglective in our blogging, but life has thrown us some exciting curve balls lately. The most exciting news is that Monica has been offered a new job at a company called RemitDATA. This job will offer us a stable income & a normal M-F/8-5 schedule along with excellent benefits. She will be working as a customer service representative helping clients use a web-based tool that this company has created. The office is based in downtown Memphis & it seems to be a great Christian work environment. She is sad to leave the travel agency, but this opportunity will provide us with financial peace of mind while Ben is in grad school. Thank you to all who helped support our little family by booking travel through Monica this past year.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with both of our families. We spent the weekend before Thanksgiving in Hot Springs, Arkansas with Ben’s family. There were 2 newborns, 2 dogs, 2 hyper nephews, a tour of the Hot Springs bathhouses, card games & last but not least a family Dance Dance Revolution contest! You can imagine the fun that was had by all. On Thanksgiving Day we spent 10 hrs. on the road & 4 hrs. with Monica’s family in Springdale, Arkansas. We ate at Cracker Barrel & had desserts back at grandma’s house. After playing our traditional knock-down, drag ‘em out family game of Nerts, we headed back to Memphis.

Ben turned the big 25 this past Saturday & celebrated by writing a 15-page research paper. He got to blow out many candles with both of our families over Thanksgiving. Saturday night we went to see RENT which we wouldn’t particularly recommend. It was hard to enjoy such an ungodly film & we’re not big ‘musical’ people in general. That’s about all that’s been going on with us - Happy Holidays everyone!

New Nephew, Kyle James!!!!

Congratulations to David and Sarah Minor (Ben’s bro-in-law and sister) on the birth of their third boy, Kyle James. He was born around 3:45 this afternoon, November 11. His proud brothers are Weston and Garrett. Kyle weighed in at 8 lbs. and 11 oz, which I am told is pretty big! No pictures yet, but hopefully one soon. This is the second baby this year in the Thompson family. Definitely takes the pressure off us! See “Comments” for a link to some pictures from David’s blog.

Goodbye, Tyrone

On Tuesday night, October 15, 2005, at around 10:30 PM, Tyrone left this world and went to the place where cats go when they die. A stray dog found his way into Floyd’s backyard and surprised Tyrone and killed him. He is survived by Floyd (our 90 year old neighbor who has had Tyrone for 10+ years) and Repeat.com (his brother from another mother).

On Wednesday, October 16, Floyd flagged Monica over and told her the bad news. With tears in his eyes, he told her the whole story. Five minutes later Monica called me weeping, trying to tell me that Tyrone had died. Several days before Tyrone died we were wondering if he was going to live with us this winter. He even came in the house one last time to say hello.

We are still sad for Floyd . . . Tyrone was his best friend for years, and he would even call when he was away to make sure Tyrone and Repeat were okay. We’re also sad because Tyrone was our favorite cat and Cali is sad because she and Tyrone would touch noses through the backyard fence.