Gobble Gobble... going, going, gone

Well Thanksgiving has come and gone and I for one am stuffed.  We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner with family who also happens to be friends.  All of Larry's immediate family came, plus his Aunt Margaret and her beau Kevin.  On my side I had Crystal and Jeff and Mom.  It ended up being 16 in all which was just about the perfect size for a get together.  We had wondeful food, fine conversation, and lots of love.

I am so thankful for my family and friends, today and always.  I had a lot of help in preparing for this dinner and cleaning up afterwards, as well as food and beverage contributions from pretty much everyone who attended our celebration.

I am very thankful for my husband who supports me and my health issues on a daily basis.  For my mom who makes me laugh and helps me around the house as best she can.  For my little boy who shows me love and makes me laugh on a daily basis.  For in-laws who love and support me and my family.  For my own family who love and support me.  For my dog Bubba who although old is a puppy at heart and my constant companion.  For our ever growing family of pets that add fun and even more love to our household.  For my cat Callie who cuddles with me each night, keeping me warm.

I am most thankful for this wonderful life that I have been given.  Thank you to one and all who have contributed to making my life more meaningful, and I won't name names because you all know who you are.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Thanksgiving Prep

Well I cooked an extra turkey last night, and threw another in the oven at the crack of dawn this morning.  Got my yams all prepared, the carrots ready for baking, a gazillion potatoes peeled then Larry took them down to his sister Mary's with instructions of what was to go in the oven at what time since we're having to borrow her oven as well since ours only accomodates the turkey and nothing else.  Larry was a champ cutting all the potatoes and carrots for me, and mom helped by keeping on top of the dirty dishes for me.

Then when Crystal showed up we got the appetizers going and out - just simple faire, a little hummus, crackers and cheese and a veggie tray, plus the cheese ball and crackers that Crystal brought.  Then Crystal whipped up a little fruit fluff salad so that my borther-in-law Chuck wouldn't be heartbroken.  It's not the 24-hour fruit salad I usually make and that he loves, but I'm sure that he'll love this too.

Larry carved my birds and did an awesome job so all I have left to do is take the spiral ham out of the oven and throw together my green salad.  Then we can lay out the spread and let everyone dig in at 1:00.  I think it's going to be an awesome Thanksgiving.

Daddy and his Shadow

Larry put up our outdoor Christmas decorations over the last couple of days so I could have them lit up this evening - in our community it's against the "RULES" to put them up or have them lit prior to Thanksgiving Day.  To that I say PHOOEY on You!  Any way I digress... the whole time Larry is doing his thing outside Joey is doing his best to get outside.  He keeps opening the front door and I keep telling him to stay inside and close the door.  Finally I think I'll outsmart him and put the deadbolt on thus eliminating his ability to open the door.  Instead he outsmarted me because he went to to the laundry room door and before I knew it had snuck out to his Daddy through the garage.  I finally gave up and told Larry that it was his responsibility to keep an eye on him.

So Joe followed him around for a bit, basically getting in the way, and then he promoted himself to foreman getting his little chair and moving it from location to location so that he could sit and tell Daddy what to do.  It was to cute.  At the end of the process Larry had to change out some light bulbs on our Santa's and snowman and had to use the screwdriver.  As soon as he set it down, Joe was on it and imitating exactly what he'd seen his daddy do.  They really are to peas in a pod.

Anyway thanks to my boys I have a marvelously decorated house with lights, ornaments and all kinds of characters.

Trains

Trains and boys just seem to go together like peanut butter and jelly.  Uncle Armas gave me a four car train set for Joey the last time we were up there and he wasn't quite mature enough to play with it, so we put it away until the timing was right.  This weekend seemed to be the perfect time.

Daddy broke it out and set it up on Joey's crafting table and he has been playing with it for hours.  He's added Bert into the mix and his cows and dinasours so his train now has quite the ecclectic managerie with it.  He's put his garbage man on the tracks and let the cow catcher do it job of scooting it aside and of cours ehe's managed to derail it several times in the mix.

Anyway I don't think it would be an understatement to say he loves his train.  Thank you very much Uncle Armas for thinking of him.  I'm sure it's going to provide him hours of fun and make believe.

Miss JoAnna rocks!

I have the best day care provider ever.  As I said in an earlier post I've had to cut back on day care each week because of finances, and today was technically Joe's off day but since I'm feeling so lousy right now she took him off my hands with one quick phone call.  I love having a friend for a provider because they always have your back, even when their life isn't right on track.  Her oldest son came down with Strep yesterday so he's also home from school, poor little bugger.  (Man that saying just made me think of my Grandma, Queenie - I wish she could be with us this holiday season, and to see my little guy... I think she'd instantly fall in love with him and vice versa.)

Anyway for day care providers out there everywhere, I say THANK YOU!

Mead Making - Like Father Like Son

Looks like Joey is going to be a chip off the old block.  He just had to help Daddy rack off his ice mead so that it could go the next step in the process... and boy is it ever tasty and I don't even like booze. 

First he helped him rack it off, then carry the two liter bottles to the freezer, ending with putting the tubing and buckets away in the closet.  He really is the man to have at your side when you need a little help.  He's pretty good at following directions, so long as you aren't telling him to eat something he doesn't want to, and does it just like you tell him to.

I can already see it - Jesters Meadery and Son.  Watch out Samuel Adams, you've got nothing on my boys.

Cake Decorating 101 Continues

Well Crystal and I, and my other mommy friends, had our second class this past Monday.  It was a lot more fun this week as we actually got to work on something.  I did the recommended rainbow cake and if I do say so myself, it came out pretty good.  Larry took that one to work for his coworkers to enjoy and I began my own cake number 2 for our family to enjoy.  This time I free handed it all the way doing a simple daisy and some generic designs that we'd practiced on the night before.  It turned out cute also and was a big hit with mom, Joey and Larry to when he got home from work.

I can't wait for next week when we attempt to learn out to make those fancy roses you always see on the store bakery birthday cakes.  Should be fun, and I'm sure a little frustrating too.

Joe and his Gang

My friend and daycare provider JoAnne took this photo at the park one day.  Too cute.

She refers to them as "her boys", although today she was willing to trade my Joey for her Joey (far left in the photo) since he was having one of those days and didn't even want to go to school.  I declined her generous offer with a laugh.

Change of Format

I had to change my background, again, because I just realized that my sister and I had chosen the same one.  How dare she, she knows that "leaves" are my thing so she should have left that one for me to utilize.  Oh well, I think this new background is cute as well.

In future Sis - step away from the leaves backgrounds (lol).

Cousin Time

Joey got to spend some time with his 2nd cousins, Gabriel and Benjamin this past weekend.  He stayed the night with his Aunty Crystal and Grandma at Crystal's place and they had his cousins over for dinner and play time.  I only got to hear about it after the fact, but all the same I'm so proud because Joey shared all the toys he took without a fuss.  He didn't want to share his train though, so he told his Aunty and together they hid them under a pillow under the couch. 

What impressed me the most is that in one photo Gabriel is holding Joey's beloved piggy and he let him.  Crystal told me that when he saw Gabe with it he said very softly, "My piggy" and Crystal respond with "He'll give it back" and Joey said "OK" and went back to playing without a worry or a fuss.  I'm one proud momma.  He hasn't been to great at sharing these past couple of months so it's nice to hear for a change that he was gracious with his possessions.

He had a good stay with his Aunty, although he got up at 1:30 and stayed awake until 3:30 and then was back up for good at 5:30 which is his normal time.  Poor Crystal didn't get much rest at all.  I'm blaming Larry cause he gave her the impression that Joey could only have milk right before bed and that was it, and so when he got up she gave him water, which doesn't really soothe him much at night.  I wish she'd have known that it was okay to give him milk all night long because I think he would have went right back to sleep for her if that had been the case.

Anyway, thank you sis once again for the night off.  Even though Larry and I just cuddled up on the couch and watched a movie at home it was some quality time with my hubby that I needed.  And Joey got to spend some much beloved time with his favorite Aunt Giggles.

A Cake Decorating I Go

Crystal and I went to our first Wilton Cake Decorating Class this past Monday.  It seems like it's going to be fun, but expensive.  We thought it a great bargain - 40% of the class fee so it only cost $27 and then another 40% off one item - our Course 1 Kit, so it only ended up costing $14... sounds like a bargain, right?  Wrong.  We get in the class and the instructor, Annie, gives us another sheet listing other must haves, about another $75 worth per participant.  I don't know about you, but my money doesn't just grown on trees.  I was trying to justify the $41 dollars that I thought this adventure was going to run and now I learn it will be over $100.  It made me want to sit on the floor and cry.

Crystal came to my rescue offfering to buy my supplies for my Christmas present.  A very generous Christmas present.  I was grateful, but at the same time humiliated that I couldn't afford to provide my own supplies.  What had started out as such a fun adventure with my sister now seemed like a burden with little joy left in it.

Crystal again came to the rescue today, baking her first cake to practice on, leaving me in hysterical laughter at her 1-hour updates.  According to her it wasn't near as easy icing the cake without getting crumbs as Annie had indicated.  She said that it looked like a speckled cake by the time she was done with the thin icing coat no matter how hard she tried.  As we all know she's a Virgo, and a perfectionist so I'm sure it's not as bad as she thinks.  What had me really laughing was her comment that her cake didn't even look like the ones in our instruction manual.  Now technically we haven't even attempted anything, that's this coming Monday, so far we've only watched the instructor make icing in several consistencies and ice a 6-inch cake and yet my sister, God love her, thinks she should be able to produce a near perfect decorated cake.  You just gotta love that kind of enthusiasm.

I'm waiting with baited breath to see the photo of the finished product.  If it turns out well enough, which I'm sure it will be, she's going to take it to work for one of her co-workers birthdays tomorrow.  Yum.

Sister-in-Love Rocks!

My sister-in-love Kelli is just the coolest.  We attempted to have a creative day together yesterday, but everything seemed to be going against us and we still had a good time.  We were going to do card stamping only the coordinator of the event didn't have any extra supplies and I tried to add Kelli in to the mix at the last minute, so we had to scratch that one of our list.  We then thought we'd go to a place called "Color Me Mine" to paint ceramics only once we started adding up the costs we were a definate NO.  $10 for the studio fee per person, $1 to fire your piece, and then the cost of your piece which started at $12 and went up to $60 for a big ol' piggy bank.  That's just ridiculous if you ask me, or Kelli.  So we headed over to the Bead Shop hoping to get into a class and got there right as they ended for the day.  It seemed creativity was not to be ours on this day.

We decided to get a bit and had lunch at Rubio's.  Kelli had never been but I think I have made her into a convert.  We both had tacos - she had carniasatas and I had surf and turf.  Both were delicious.  We then went on the serch for a crimp iron for her hair.  We found straighteners of every kind but no crimps.

I took her on a little tour of down town Ranch Cordova, we checked out some new homes, and ended with a yummy treat at Yogurtville.  And all the while we talked and laughed and just had a relaxing time of it all.

We ended the day at Wal-Mart, both buying a $3.84 ceramic picture frame of sea life that came with five little paint colors.  We're going to do them on our own and then compare, and at last we'll get to be creative.

Kelli thanks for spending the day with me.  I really enjoyed our girl time.

Wacky Ways

That's me, just plain wacky these days.  Days feel like night time to me, nights like days.  Fatiqued all the time but down right exhausted usually by 3-4 in the afternoon.  I've been hitting the sack before Joey lately, and then waking up 3 hours later for the night.  I try to go back in and get back to sleep after a little while, but it doesn't seem to work very well.

I'm so foggy these days that literally I feel like I need to write myself a note when I need to go potty that says "You were on your way to the bathroom" because if Joey interrupts me enroute, I can't remember where I was going by the time I've taken care of his needs.  Hope this is just a phase of my Fibromyalgia and not something more menacing like senility or dementia.

I swear sometimes I feel as though I'm 83 instead of 43, although I must say most of the 80+'s that I know have more get up and go than I do at my age.  There off to the casino, or playing Bunko with friends, going out to lunch, etc.  Just having fun.  Can't say I have a lot of fun these days, though I'm trying.

I'm doing a card stamping class once a month and Crystal and I just signed up for the first course of a cake decorating class that will be on Monday evenings for four weeks.  Hope I can manage to stay awake to take it.  I'll have to be sure and get in a nap as soon as Larry gets home from work so that I'll have the energy to go and focus.  Seems like everything in my life these days takes a lot of pre-planning in order to actually get accomplished.

Ahhh, the wacky ways of being an older mom with health issues.  It's my life, so I've gotta love it, and for the most part do.

Boys will be boys

Man oh man, Joey decided that wake up time today was 4:00 AM.  Nothing I did could cajole him into getting back into bed - his or mine.  So being all boy he has been on the go since that time.  We're dogsitting two dogs - Soc (a Chihuahua mix) and Leia (a Lab/Pit mix), and Joey has been chasing them through the house for the last two hours.  I had to put them in their pens for a while just so they could get some peace.

I've been trying to get some of my group organizer stuff done this morning on the computer and it's all but been impossible with two dogs and Joey vying for space under the computer desk.  Talk about akward.  If it's not the dogs pushing up against the chair making it move it's Joey banging his head on the keyboard tray.  I give up... I might as well join in the fray as I'm not gonna get anything done with this chaos taking place.

Luckily Bubba has just found himself a place to hunker down and is being my good boy.  He's just trying to stay off of the boys radar I think.  Wish I could follow that plan.  I just want to sleep but that will have to wait til Larry gets home and that won't be til sometimes after 3:00 this afternoon. 

Wish me luck, and I just might make it through today.