Turkey day leftovers

I hope everyone had a fab Thanksgiving!! We really did. Nice stormy cool weather (instead of cranking down the AC so we can use the oven like last year). I didn't get my tree up, boo hoo but thats OK. My mom and grandma came over wed night and helped me get things ready. I helped the kids make these cute little candy/cookie turkeys:





and we had a great time just hanging out and baking pie and cinnamon rolls. I was up so stinking late that I slept right through my 5 am alarm but luckily my dad came over and made the stuffing and got the turkey in the oven on time. He really played a prank on all of us and stuffed the turkey with a game hen and then when he was carving it (I thought it was wierd that he wanted me to videotape him carving....) he was like "what's this?? Is this a baby turkey or something....what the heck....." and he's all freaking out and everyone was shrieking and out pops this little "baby turkey" it was so bizarre! So it was a crazy practical joke. For some reason he thinks I really freaked out and he just thinks its so funny and that he "got me good", but really I was just laughing, I was just so confused there for a minute like everyone else. Its like wait, no somethings not right....baby tukeys grow from eggs, they don't give birth!! LOL ANYWAY for whatever reason, the joke was targeted at me and I will never hear the end of it, but for the record, other people were way more freaked out than I was. HA!



The food was Yummo! Everyone's contributions were great. Yummy everything! I brought all the leftovers up here to Thatcher, so I won't be tempted to eat Thanksgving dinner every day for the next 4 days!!


Then as soon as we were done eating my awesome MIL took ALL the kids (even the cousins...8 kids all together) to the movie Bolt. So we had nice peace and quiet after dinner. They said the movie was really good. Then after they got back the kids all went with my sister and brother up to Thatcher. After everyone cleared out it was just Mark and I for the night. Cha-ching!! We went out to see a late show (4 Christmases-funny, but mostly the funny stuff that is on the preview) and yadda yadda yadda and we slept in till 10 am!!! ;D We spent the rest of the morning doing some Christmas shopping for the kids (we're almost done, YAY!) and then I headed up here to Thatcher. It was a nice calm drive alllllll by myself. Before I got here the kids told my mom "Its OK if my mom dosen't come, she just tells us what to do!" LOL Nice to know that I am missed! :p Tomorrow I will be helping my mom put up her Christmas stuff and hanging out. Great times!!

So.......

What are everybody's plans for this week?? We are doing the usual thing over here. I'm excited to have Thanksgiving in my new house and bigger kitchen. I didn't get any painting done though :( I got really sick and was in bed for 2 days last week! I think we will have about 23 people for dinner on Thursday. My dad is coming over to make his awesome stuffing and my mom is making her unbelievable apple pie. I love it when we are all hanging out the night before getting the stuff made ahead of time, it is my favorite 2 days of the year. It is going to be so YUMMY! I splurged this year and ordered a super fresh turkey from a meat market (that has the BEST ever steaks and meat!) so we will see if it is worth the extra money and effort. The other stuff we have had from that market has blown our minds so I have high hopes for our turkey. I am a litle nervous though because it won't have one of the pop out thermometers to say when its ready, I will have to actually use a meat thermometer. Yikes! I'm going traditional this year, no fancy stuff with the food. Last year we brined the turkey, which was really yummy but it ended up a little salty and the gravy was super salty. This year no tricks, just the basics. We eat around 12 noon, if anyone wants to join us! :D


I don't think I will be running anything this week, it will just depend. (I am still doing Iron Girl and Londons Run though!) There is the Turkey Waddle that starts at the school 2 blocks from my house that would be ideal, but I'm havng a bit of a health issue and I might need to take a week off running to fix it, plus I'm not sure what cooking stage I will be in during that time. I might still do it though if I can get everything in line early enough. On friday I am pretty sure we will be going to Thatcher to hang with my parents for the weekend. My dad built a sauna in his backyard that he wants us all to try out. Thatcher is always a good time for some R&R for me and the kids have fun so that will be cool. I LOVE this week!!!

Oh, the drama!!!

Today is a regrouping day. Yesterday I had it all going on, got my workout done, got my chores done, got all cuted up to go do some fun errands and get out of the house (I haven't really left the house this week and I was feeling a little antsy). As soon as Dayton was off to school I go out and the garage door chain was broken. So I open the door manually and go to start the car....dead battery. So another day stuck at home, this time, with no plans. I just talked myself out of being upset about it by realizing that mabye I was being watched over, and had I gone out I would have gotten in a wreck or something. I truly believe that everything happens for a reason. So I shopped for fabric online and caught up on DWTS but I think all the TV and computer gave me a BAD headache. Borderline migraine, light sensitivity, nausea, the works. So from about 2:30 to 5 I was on the couch, immoble, eyeballs immoble, while the kids and the the entire neighborhood literally RAN through the house. So much for the chores being done, huh??

I finally came to and felt better around 5:30 and for some stupid reason decided it was a good night to try making a chicken pot pie, which is really easy except for the pie crust, which I obviously have yet to master. I am very hit and miss with pie crust. It took me almost an hour to get dinner in the oven. It looked really terrible, I finally gave up and literally layed the broken pieces on the top as best as I could and threw it in the over. It tasted pretty good, the crust was a little thick. Wyatt and Dayton were watching me struggle with this crust and they were calling it a cooking show. After I was about to ball it all up and reroll the 2nd crust for the 4th time Wyatt says "Oh no, we don't want to watch this show AGAIN! I'm like, neither do I, guys!!! It did actually make me laugh. And I needed every ounce of comedy I could muster to get me through the next few hours of breaking the news to poor Mark about the garage door and the car, after the week and a half of hell he's had. (he's going to "special" school for work and they have been pushing them past every mental and physical barrier they thought they had...eeek! Sorry, honey!) He got things fixed up and I was able to pamper him back to his usual self. Although my hedache flared back up a little. I haven't had a truly disastrous night like that in a loooong time, but I guess my time had come.

Today we ran 3.5 miles in 45 minutes, I feel really good about that and I'm glad I get to start a new, different day today!!!

Thanksgiving Plans

I've only mentioned on here about 500 times that Thanksgiving is my favorite. I'm so happy that I can start getting ready now. I know I don't HAVE to do all these silly projects to be ready, but I like to. I think I'm even ready to do some painting! I got my house together this morning so there are NO more excuses! If I get crackin I can be done by Thursday night, which still leaves me a week before the big day. I may even get my tree up(no other decorations though, that would be crazy) and mabye it will feel more festive this year. I think oneo f the main reasons I am ready so much faster this year is that since we just moved, I don't have the heavy cleaning I normally do. Everything just got set up a couple months ago. And I have NO yard to worry about so that isn't even on my radar. Hopefully I can get Mark to do some trimming this weekend on our pathetic bushes.

3 more sleeps until TWILIGHT!!!

Hey, you missed my pity party!

Well, my poor excercise partner Lisanne didn't miss it, I went out to run yesterday and kinda fell apart. I think I cried for the first mile. I have been super frustrated with this whole running/excercise and losing weight thing I have (not) going on. I was feeling pretty sorry for myself, but like she reminded me (and I have told other people SO many times) that it IS hard to lose weight, that is why so many people don't do it. And I know I have lost some, but so slow you'd never really know it. Boo hoo! So we ran our 3 miles and I ate good all day and cleaned my house from top to bottom and took a nap and I felt better. Then today we did a Biggest Loser DVD workout that was good and fun. I'm not quitting!!! I am making myself do this, and I will like it!!! I'm going to step it up on all levels. I guess what frustrates me is that I can't just "eat better" or "exercise more", I have to be all in, killing my workouts 6 days a week and eating PERFECTLY to see even the smallest results. It is very time consuming and mind-consuming and just......HARD. But, I'm just not happy when I'm out of shape. Tomorrow will be lifting and then a big run on Saturday.

OK anyway, Sadie did perform on the Channel 3 morning news and was so cute!! She also sang her solo that they will broadcast on Christmas day sometime, I hope we can see it. She did a really good job, she is such a cutie! It was really fun going to the station, and we got some cute pictures. One of the other moms has them and will get them to me hopefully soon!


Today on the agenda, winter clothes for the kids! I think it is officially jeans and log sleeves weather, especially since they walk to school. Sadie got hers before science camp and I have some stuff from last year, but I need to fill in some gaps. Shopping is always fun times!

Its the Holidays!!!

Can you believe it?? Christmas music on the intercom in Walmart and Frys, displays everywhere, Yikes!! I really don't mind, even though this will certainly be a scaled back Christmas this year. Aw, who am I kidding, it is scaled back EVERY year!! LOL I really need to start trickling in the shopping so it won't hurt so bad. I found the movie White Christmas at Sams club the other day, I was so excited! Its my favorite and really gets me in the holiday spirit. Every year I have to try to find when it is on TV, and even then it is usually some scaled down version (they cut out the best dance scenes!) and with commercials. Now I have my own copy!! Yes, I already watched it!! :D Tomorrow is the last day of calm before I start getting things together for Thanksgiving. I have a LOT of projects to work on. A LOT.

Tomorrow (veterans day) Sadie will on TV with her Sunshine Generation singing group. Channel 3 's morning show is having the kids sing a couple of patriotic songs and then they are going to tape them singing some Christmas songs to play on Christmas day. I think Sadie will be singing a little solo for one of the Christmas songs, so that is super fun. It will be an EARLY day tomorrow. If I can find out what time they will be on I will post it. I'm excited to go to the studio and see it all happen.

This weekend Mark and I went out to watch the Rage In The Cage fights. I was actually only going so that Mark didn't have to drive over there and go all by himself. Someone we know was fighting, that was the reason we even went. We were able to meet up with Chandler and Casey and hang out with them too which was fun (Chandlers brother was fighting) and it was fun to just get out. I'm really sad that he will be back working weekends for a long time again. Dang. Bummer.

So now what??

Heres my recap.....

What does it boil down to?? Not much. I truly don't think that things are going to change THAT much. Especially not for a couple years. Like when it was the Clinton Era. Everyone knows that they are really bad as far as power hungry, immoral, and they probably did murder their way to the top.(I know Maddy is cracking up right now) OK but really the only harm they did that people can really remember is the fact that a lot of kids were exposed to some sexually graphic shenanigans going on in the White house because it was all so public and scandalous. I was a teenager then, but if I was a parent of kids my kids ages at the time I would have been freaking out. We all just thought it was funny. Yes, the economy was strong and everybody got richer, but in general our society took a big step down morally. Hmmmmm, interesting. That can't be good. ANYWAY my point is, Obama may have all these beliefs about aggressive abortion and wanting to tweak the constitution and redistribute wealth to lean us even more towards socialism, and all of this other horsecrap, but most presidents have all these high ideas, making them actually work is another story. Of course, now that the house and Senate are majority Democrat, he has more of a shot, but I don't think he can come in and just reform the country in a fowl swoop. He will have to compromise a lot. I realize that people think they are going to get a handout, and things will be more "fair" but we have an example of that. Its the Indian reservations. Yikes. If people don't work for what they get, they don't appreciate it. Easy come, easy go. I just have to have hope that there can be a happy medium, because things are obviously not working as they are. I am totally disgusted with how the Republicans have conducted themselves the last 8 years. It is all such a mess. Unfortunately this country's moral compass is shifting, and there is nothing we can do about it besides try to teach our kids and be prepared. If Obama wants to teach his daughter that if she makes a "mistake, she won't be 'punished' with a baby". Thats his perogative. I'm just glad he won't be teaching my kids. That gets to be my job. It just makes my job harder when the current I am trying to swim against gets stronger, but that dosen't mean I'm going to fail. Things are going to continue to go downhill, because these are the last days. No election is going to change that.

On the positive side, I am happy that so many people are enthusiastic about this election. It always really bothered me in the past when people just felt like "so what, I'm not even going to bother with it". That definetly hurts our country. We are Americans, if we don't care, who will? It was nice to see some energy in the whole process. I'm glad that people are happy, because just the positive energy alone will help all of us. We need some confidence back. And 102 passed, which is great news! We do still have a lot of say at the local levels, which is reassuring. Honestly, I would be a lot more bummed out had McCain won and 102 not passed, so I'm trying to see it as a positive election. I just have to keep doing my part.



THE END

Now back to our regularly scheduled blogging

Halloween and Politics

Well I think I'm over my bit of Halloween scrooginess. I'm usually way more into it than I was this year, I'm not sure what the heck happened. I was pretty bummed that I had to miss BOTH grownup costume parties, so mabye that was it. We had a really fun time while my mom was here, so that helped and Mark was able to come out with us on Halloween, which he never does so that was good too. The kids had a blast, so thats what counts.

Now on to the Political scrooginess: Warning: soapbox rant ahead!

The election and voting on the propositions have my guts in a knot today (and for the past couple weeks). I don't want to write a novel about it, but lets just say I m not thrilled with McCain at ALL, but Obama is truly scary. I'm so ticked off that McCain was so wimpy as far as not bringing up some issues about his opponent that are SO important and SO wrong. People are so concerned with little things and not looking at the big picture as far as our constitution and what this country's purpose is. People have rights and priveleges so screwed up and backwards. Everything has to be politically correct and fair all the time for everyone, and its ruining our country. Bottom line is that this country is going to hell in a handbasket, whichever candidate wins will determine how fast we get there. If 102 dosen't pass and our state takes the same road as Massachusets has with it, I'm going to have to home school or something which will be really annoying. OK I can't think about it any more its making me sick. ARG! I voted on friday. I got there at 6 am, and was 7th in line. The office opened at 8 and by the time I left at 8:15, there were about 300 people behind me. Crazy.

Mark is gone for the week(basically) and I am so bored, I'm gonna go do some errands today which will hopefully help my mood. Right now its time go get a good workout in and work off some stress. I vow to not watch ANY more news or TV until at least 5 pm tonight. I need Election Detox.