Thanksgiving Food Wednesday!

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

Since it's Food Wednesday and Thanksgiving Eve, it's a perfect time to talk about Thanksgiving food, right? Right.

So, we all know the traditional stuff: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and all that. But, what if anything do you or your family do that's your own tradition?

The last few years we've been going to my aunt's house for dinner and she does some things differently than I was used to. For instance she smokes the turkey today and serves it cold on Thanksgiving. That was quite different, but it's pretty good really. She also makes the cranberry sauce differently, I can't tell you what's different about it as it's been a year, but still.

When we used to have Thanksgiving at our house, or many years past at my family's business and made dinner for all of the drivers we had all the usual stuff but then always deviled eggs, stuffed celery, sweet potatoes, pickles and olives. Not sure why for the pickles and olives, but they're always there. I really miss the eggs of all...they're so yummy!

What are your plans for tomorrow? What sort of foods are your favorite for the holiday?

Andrew and I will be going to my aunts house to begin with, then to his father's family's dinner afterwords. I'll admit I'm a bit nervous as I haven't met any of his father's family so that will be interesting. Hopefully I won't be in a turkey coma by that point.

Anyways, wishing you all a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving.

Stockings!

I tried to write about this last Thursday and got a little, okay a lot sidetracked talking about the cleanse I attempted to do, but I'm focused now!

I am a stocking lover. I love finding little things to put in them and I especially love the little things that are in mine! The picture is the one I made for Andrew last weekend. I keep finding things to stuff in, so hopefully it'll stretch a bit. And everything is wrapped so he has a lot of things to open!

So, why am I showing you a picture and rambling on? Well, I do have a point. Amazing, I know. I want to know what some of the things you either like to get in yours or like to put in others' are. Do you have any must haves? I think our only tradition with them is that we always put something stuffed on top. I really don't know why...

Here are a few things I like to put in:

-Chapstick

-Nail clippers (seems people can never find theirs)

-Lotions

-Chocolate

-Small trinkets (I like little things that say words on them, like trust, hope, love, etc.)

-Ornaments

-Knives (specialty ones) or somewhat pricey kitchen utensils the recipient wouldn't buy for themselves.

Pretty much anything, just little stuff. What about you?

Weekend Re-Cap

The last few days have been pretty uneventful, which I truly don't mind!

Saturday Andrew and I went to my friends daughter's 2nd birthday party then off to the mall to browse a bit, have dinner then to a movie. We saw Role Models which was pretty funny! There were a lot of hidden jokes that depending on your type of humor kept you laughing through most of it. I also got some of my gifts wrapped that morning which is nice so that I'm not trying to get them all done at one time. Wrapping isn't one of my most favorite things to do.

Yesterday we pretty much both did school related work most of the day. Oh, and my mom and I colored my hair. I usually go dark for fall and it was about that time so I'm now a brunette. It's still kind of a shock to see myself in the mirror, but I always like my hair dark. Let's see, I know there's something else...Oh, I finished Twilight! It is so good, you must read it. It's a bit of a love story, but it's still a very good book. I gave it to Andrew and he's going to start reading it too, when school is over.

That's about it. Like I said, nothing too exciting. The next two weekends will be full of studying for both of us as we have about 2.5 weeks to go and the semester is over! It's gone by so fast and it's crazy to think that I only have one more. I start to get a little nostalgic about it sometimes, that this is my last fall on campus, but at the same time I am excited to move on.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Failed...and Stockings!

I haven't mentioned it here before and was actually going to start talking about it yesterday for Food Wednesday, but I had to stop because I'm sick and broke down to have some chicken noodle soup.

What was it that I failed? Well it was a thing called a cleanse. You may have heard of them, to be honest I had but didn't have a clue as to what they were. Well, Andrew got me this one because at the time he ordered it I was working out everyday and motivated to lose a few pounds. I started what I thought was a 9 day cleanse on Monday, but didn't read well enough so Tuesday when I was looking again to see what I could eat Wednesday I realized that what I'd been doing for two days were just pre-cleanse days! I still had 9 days in front of me so instead of ending Tuesday, the last day would actually be Thanksgiving! I was okay with it, but yesterday my throat was so sore I broke down and had some chicken noodle soup. It tasted so good!

So basically the cleanse goes like this: Pre cleanse days, days 1 and 2 you can have 1 "shake" in the morning, a sensible 4-600 calorie meal, then another "shake" for dinner. I say "shake" because it's basically some supposedly chocolate powder that you mix with water. Nothing like chocolate expect that it's brown! Let's see, the cleanse days, the 3rd and 4th days you are supposed to have liquids only. Now, had it just been lots of water I could have done it, but you're supposed to mix this highly concentrated stuff that's supposed to taste like berry's (ha!) with water 4 times a day. It was so acidic I did two doses and that's all I could get down. It's supposed to go on for 7 more days, but I gave up. I might try again when I'm not sick, but it's going to be hard.

I just feel so bad because Andrew had good intentions when he ordered and gave it to me and he paid a lot of money for it. I already know I failed, but I feel like I let him down as well. We've talked about it and he is totally supportive of my stopping especially when I'm sick and says he's proud of me that I did it for 3 days, but I just still feel like a total failure.

Well, I was going to talk about stocking today, but think I'm going to wait until Tuesday for that. I'm off to take some more cold medicine and hope this goes away by tomorrow.

Buying into The Hype

I was at Target yesterday and was in the entertainment section (books, movies, music, dvds, etc.) and saw this book:

I had only heard of it from other bloggers and many people on Twitter who claim they can't put it down. Then Friday when I saw my neighbor she asked me if I'd read it yet. When I said no she was shocked because I'm always reading the lastest book. She was on chapter 4 at that time and said she didn't want to put it down either. It is set in our home state of Washington so that should make it interesting. So yesterday, I saw it and bought it without having a clue as to the story line or anything. I'm on page 10, so we'll see how it goes.

Have you read Twilight, are you reading it now? Have you even heard of it? I hadn't until I'd read about it from others. I'll be doing a review when I finish it so there will be some vampire stories to share!

Come back tomorrow to hear about the crazy thing I'm doing to myself for 9 days!

Weekend Re-Cap!

Hi Everyone,

I know I haven't been posting too much lately and I may write about why later on, but not right now. This weekend went by pretty quickly as they usually tend to do!

Friday night my neighbor Leah and her kids Koleden and Addison came over and were here for a while. Unfortunately Andrew was at dinner with his mother who was in town and the kids were missing playing with him. I, apparently, am not as much fun anymore! Oh well, we still had fun. Andrew got home late, but we still had time to chat for a little while after not seeing each other all weel before we headed to bed.

Saturday he had to go back to his apartment to study for a big exam in his accounting class Monday morning. Fun times as always! He did change my oil before he left which is always much appreciated. Let's see, that early afternoon my mom and I went and did some Christmas shopping and while we were on our way to the last stop and on an off ramp we were rear ended. Luckily it wasn't too bad and we're just a little sore this morning, but it could have been much worse.

Sunday we ventured out again after I cleaned stalls and got everything ready for the week for the horses. We went to Southcenter, our local mall. My plan was to go to a store there (I would be more specific, but I don't want to give anything away) to get Andrew's Christmas gift, but was very disappointed with their selection and had to go somewhere else to get what I was looking for (again, I can't say what his gift is...! Any guesses? Leave them in the comments and there may be a prize for anyone who guess at least somewhat close since it really could be anything when I'm not able to give any hints!). But that's alright, I got what I was looking for! And stocking stuffers! I love stockings, they're my favorite part with all the little things that can be stuffed in there! After that we pretty much just came back, wrapped some stuff, had dinner and here I am.

Hope you all have had a wonderful weekend!

Lost

I'm feeling many things today. One of those is just plain lost. In addition to that disappointed and incredibly heartbroken. I'm actually at a loss of words for what to say or how to describe things. This is about all I can say now, I truly cannot find the words I need.

Weekend Re-Cap, Late

The weekend re-cap is a little late this week as you can see. Do I have a reason as to why? No, not really. Mostly because I just didn't feel too much like I had anything worth reading to post. Not that I do now, but you know. We didn't do anything to terribly exciting, lots of studying (on Andrew's part). We did manage to fit in a ride which was fun. Sunday was Addison's birthday party and we did have a lot of fun there. Here are some pictures of the events:

After our ride. This was just taken with my little camera that I can stuff in my pocket so the quality isn't that great. Plus the fact that it was dusk, so that didn't help much. I still like the picture though. My old boys did well on the ride, Dusty of course screwed around when I asked him to go past the barn again when we were finished, but I don't expect anything else from him. Boston did well as always and when I got on him afterwords I managed to get him to side step correctly (basically he crosses his front legs and moves directly sideways) which I haven't been able to do for a while.

Andrew on Boston. Again, dusk and little camera. The little blond blob on the right is Molly trotting along.
As I said Sunday was Addison's birthday right across the street. This is Leah Addie's mom and I. We've known each other for almost 20 years now. Her parents bought the house and property across the street from ours so Leah, her sister Courtney and I have grown up together.

The birthday girl!

After everyone left we were playing with the kids downstairs burning off some of their cupcake high! Here's Andrew and Koledon after some pro-wrestling moves!

They really liked this and of course had to do it at the same time. Taking turns, what's that?!

Each of the kids had these rubber balls and we were tossing them back and forth to begin with, then it got a little rougher which was fun too!

That was about it for us. Hope you all had a great weekend too! And hey, it's Wednesday, we're halfway to another one!

I know...

I haven't posted much lately, but I figure it's better to not write junk than to bore you with whatever I can come up with until something finally pops into my head.



I promise there will be something (hopefully) good posted tomorrow!

Election Day Re-Cap (no food Wednesday this week)

So, we have a new preseident elect: Barack Obama.

Are you happy with this outcome? Is it what you wanted? Do you have any thoughts or comments about it?

I for one am happy. I don't think that McCain would have been the right choice at this particulat time. However, I supposed we won't really know until Inagural Day in 76 days. I am hoping that Obama really can bring the change that he has promised. He has a huge task in front of him and I think the American people, as well as the rest of the world, will be looking to see if he can make his promises good. But for now, I think we should be happy about the results.

As for us in Washington, we are still waiting to see who out next governor will be. Four years ago the votrs had to be counted three times resulting in a difference of 147 votes. I am strongly hoping that our current governor will end up out of the office and let some good come in. This election will probably take a week to be resolved with all the mail in ballots to count. Hopefully we'll hear the outcome soon.

Hope your election day went well and all the people you wanted in are in.

Election Day! And a Happy Birthday.

First, it's

Election Day, PLEASE VOTE.

Second, today is my adopted neice's (she's my neighbor of 20 years' daughter) 2nd birthday! So, I'm posting some sort of a timeline in pictures!

Here is little Addison at 5 months old with her big brother Koleden.

Then with me (notice the long hair, gosh I miss that) at 7 months.

And little chubby cheeks at 8 months. This was towards the end of 2007 sometime, I'm going to guess she's about a year or a little more here.
I don't remember when this one was exactly, I think around May putting her about 18 months. Not sure what happened to all my pictures between 1 and 1.5...
Taken in August, driving the tractor.
Same day, now gardening!

This was taken the end of September when Andrew and I had them for the day.

Helping Andrew wash his car.
Happy Birthday, Birthday Girl. I can't believe you're two already.

Again, if you do nothing else today, please make your opinion heard and vote.

Weekend Re-Cap!

So, how was your Halloween? Mine was pretty good. We went to my Aunt Lisa's house like we used to when I was little and had pizza, punch and decorated cookies. They don't get as many trick-or-treaters in the new house, but it was still fun!

Here is Cody in is coustume at work: Mardi-Gras Dog!

Me going for a ride on the blow up cat.

We call these the gay ghosts. Can you see why?

Uncle Monty's mask.

Andrew and I in one of our self portraits.

Aunt Lisa decorating away!

Cody waiting for any crumbs under the table in his other costume, Safety Dog!

Andrew and Cody relaxing afterwords at home.

Saturday: paper writing (with an audience) and a movie!

Saturday, after Andrew was mostly finished with his paper we went to see Zack and Miri Make A Porno (not as good as I thought it was going to be, but still pretty funny) then to dinner at Red Robin afterwords. We both stuffed ourselves with the Royal Red Robin burger, it has a fried egg on it, then headed home and went to bed.

Sunday Andrew finished up his paper then he left to see his father then head to school. Before he left I cut hos hair for him. I've done it a few times and it turns out pretty well.

That afternoon my mom and I went shopping and I got a few things. I love Halloween decorations, but am too cheap to pay full price...I know. But, this super cool Halloween bell wreath was regularly $20 and was 75% off...$5!

And this hat. What do you think? It was originally $25, then marked down to $17 with 30% off and rang up for $8! I really do love a deal!

Sunday night my dad saw this little bunny in the cow stall snacking away on hay. It's just a tiny little thing and isn't afraid of much including the cow moving around.

Anyways, that's about it. Hope you all had a fun Halloween and a great weekend!