Busy, Busy, Busy!

Thanksgiving was great. We had a few cancellations, but all-in-all, it was a great time. We missed our friends Randy and Twila. They didn't make it becasue Randy thought it a good idea to go off-road cycling (ALONE) the day before Thanksgiving and broke his scapula. I can't imagine what kind of pain that would be, but apparently it's pretty severe. I hope to not ever have a reason to know how much that hurts. Grandma Reese came down with a cold or some similar malady and didn't feel up to coming, although she did supply the potatoes for us and they were very tasty. My mother kept the boys overnight on Wednesday night and brought them with her for Thanksgiving Day. It was really nice to be lazy on Thanksgiving morning, although I felt kind of bad when I realized she'd been up cooking since 5 a.m. and taking care of my boys, too! Then she came to my house and finished cooking the turkey, gravy, stuffing, and potatoes. We ate around 2 o'clock and Mom had been working like a dog to get the turkey on the table for quite a while. It turns out that if you're cooking a 12 pound turkey and a 13 pound turkey in the same pan, you need to treat it like a 25 pound turkey, which takes a lot longer to cook. I was impressed that we ate at 2:00. That's only an hour later than we had planned. But everything was delicious and we enjoyed the afternoon with Eric's family and my family. And we all fit in one house! That's the nice thing about small(ish) families. We were only missing my brother Eric and his family, but they live in Colorado, so they were excused.

Ethan had five days off school for Thanksgiving and, as it turns out, should have been working on some homework during that time. I had no idea how frustrating and mind-numbing it would be to help a first-grader write his very first topical report. He had to write a report, give and oral presentation, and create a visual aid on the state of Kentucky. Yes - I said FIRST GRADE! He's actually in second grade classes, but they still consider him a first-grader. It's asking a little much if you want my opinion, but no one ever does. Next month, we have the same thing due on eels. I think we'll plan a little better and not try to cram it all into one night, though. The poor kid was toast by 10:30 last night when we finished. I finally allowed him a 3-minute break when I realized that he literally couldn't write another word. His mind was absolutely shot and his head was hanging down below the table, just high enough so that his eyes could still barely see the paper. He was trying to write the number '1982' and the poor kid just couldn't get it right. So I scratched his back while he laid on the couch and we prayed together that God would give him the strength to finish strong. The break and prayer did him good and he was done 20 minutes later. I was really proud of him for sticking it out. Of course, when we left for school this morning, he left his visual aid at home, so I had to run back home and take it back to the school so that he'd have it when it came time to give the oral report. That kid....

Seth went to make cookies with Mamaw (Eric's mom) yesterday afternoon. She has an annual tradition of having each of the grandchildren over (individually) during the holdiday season and making sugar cookies with them. Acually, she already has the dough made when they get there, but they cut them out and bake them. Seth's are quite tasty - possibly the best sugar cookies I've ever had! So he did that while I went to Target and Lifeway and got a little Christmas shopping done (very little).

I probably won't post again until next week because I'm going to be busier than a one-legged pregnant woman at a butt-kicking contest. Tomorrow I teach my 2-year-olds in the morning, then Eric's taking the afternoon off so that I can be sure to be on time for a wedding rehearsal (I coordinate weddings occassionally, for those of you who didn't know that) in the evening. Friday I'm going to catch up on laundry and attempt to clean at least a part of the house, then I have to be at the church for the wedding by 2 PM. It's a 5:30 wedding, but we'll see about that...our church is located on a major interstate which comes to a crawl at rush hour every day, but it's especially bad on Fridays. I don't think some of the guests will arrive until after the ceremony. After the wedding, I have to complete the Christmas decorations in the sanctuary because the bride doesn't want wreaths in her wedding.

Saturday, we're going to the Laneys so that Ethan can have his cookie date with Mamaw. Eric and I are going to help them set up their gi-normous Christmas tree. Then we have to have Ethan to J-Force rehearsal by 3 PM at the church.

Sunday, we'll be late for Sunday School. After church, we'll go out to lunch. Then, we're going to off-load the boys to various and sundry people so that Eric and I can go see Verekai (Cirque du Soliel) in St. Pete. I'm so looking forward to that! I just hope I'm not too tired to enjoy it fully.

So, that's what I'll be up to for the next several days. If my pregnant body can hold out until April, I'll be so very surprised.

My Birthday Weekend

This weekend was just as wonderful and simple as they get. Friday, we stayed home and watched my Alegria (Cirque du Soliel) video that Eric and the boys gave me for my birthday. We all enjoyed it quite well, but I think I may have enjoyed LaNouba a little more. I made baked spaghetti for dinner, which was good, but prevented us from eating in front of the TV (one of the boys' favorite things to do), so we pulled out the hide-a-bed, which sufficed as a special treat for the evening. We finally stopped flipping through the bonus features at about 11PM and threw the boys in bed. It was a great little family evening at home - all too rare lately.

Saturday, Eric elected not to go off-road cycling with his friends, partly because he was dog-tired and partly because the rim on one of the tires of his bicycle is bent. We'll have to get that fixed soon. So we all got up and going at about 8:30 or 9:00 and had a french toast breakfast. Yum! We gradually got ready to take Ethan to J-Force rehearsal---this is a musical show he's involved in at church (production on Dec. 4 if you care to see it). While Ethan was at rehearsal, Eric, Seth, and I ran down to Sonic to grab some lunch. Yum! Then we got back, did some miscellaneous work around the church that we needed to get done, finished up at about 3:30 and took the boys to Twila and Randy's house so they could babysit while Eric and I went on a date. We used a gift certificate to Logan's Steakhouse that Jack and Elizabeth Fernandez gave us almost two years ago for Christmas, I think! It doubled nicely as a birthday gift certificate. Then we went to the movie theater across the parking lot to determine if there was any value left on the TWO AMC gift cards I had tucked away in my purse. Between the two cards, we had $45! So we called Twila to make sure she was OK with keeping the kids until almost 10PM. (I won't mention what Seth had done at that point. Suffice it to say, Twila is such a dear friend and she took care of everything.) So we went to see "Good Night and Good Luck" which was an outstanding movie, even if it could have been a little longer to include a bit more information. It was quite good. So we went to pick up the boys at Twila's and Seth fell asleep on the way home. A near-perfect day for the family!

Sunday we woke up and were late for Sunday School. No surprises there. I think we were about 20 minutes late. Pathetic. After church---I actually was able to attend Big Church, thanks to my wonderful Preschool workers who showed up for the most part, we went to a Taco Bell/KFC/Pizza Hut combo restaurant on Armenia Ave. Once we good the food, it was good. Only one mistake on the order and one food item that they didn't have. The combo restaurants like that always confound me. They are a jack-of-all-trades and master of none! So anyway, the boys behaved well and we were able to get back to the church on time for a meeting I had with a bride. Her wedding is on 12/2, so we chatted about that for a while, and we did some more miscellaneous work around the church that needed to get done until about 3:30, then went home and put Seth down for a nap. Ethan and Eric played Risk on the computer while I watched 24 (the only TV I watch - although I watch it on borrowed DVDs - Thanks, Pops!). We had lots of leftovers for dinner and then watched the Food Network and some other miscellaneous TV for a while, then capped our evening off with an Iron Chef battle, which Bobby Flay won. Ethan was quite happy about that. My boys love the food network, especially Emeril and Iron Chef America. Odd, I know.

So then we went to bed and I slept for over five hours straight! Close to a record for me, since my ever-expanded belly keeps me from sleeping soundly most nights. So, it's gonna be a great week! I'm hosting Thanksgiving on Thursday, so I'd better finish the blog and start straightening the house!

Hugs!

What's Up with this Blogging Trend? (& I'm Old!)

I'm trying to figure out why blogging is so popular. Is it because people are really so self-important that they think the world will actually be interested in what's going on in their daily lives? Or is it simply a good way to keep up with family and friends near and far? I suppose we will tell ourselves it is the latter, even though I suspect for some, it is the former. Maybe it's just a good way to waste time. Probably a little too philosophical for starters.

So I'll just start by saying that I turned 'Advanced Maternal Age' yesterday. My obstetrician likes to use that term. It's another word for 'thirty-five'. I had a good day. Started off by waking up next to my wonderful husband. That's always nice! Got ready to go and taught a class of 8 2-year-olds at Community Bible Study. They were all well-behaved and we only had a couple that cried for Mommy. Then the Childrens' Teachers gathered in the library for luncheon/lecture. It was a nice time. Grabbed some leftovers from the luncheon, stopped by Winn-Dixie because they're having some really good sales this week, dropped by Grandma Reese's and Aunt Marlene's house to say 'Hi' and then picked Ethan up from school. Put Seth down for a nap, helped Ethan with homework. Tried to get some minor components of the house organized, then Twila called. She dropped everything and drove all the way up to Wesley Chapel so that we could go to Outback for my birthday dinner. Love that girl! Then we came home and made sure my Allegria (Cirque du Soliel) DVD worked. It did! It came nicely packaged with tickets to the 12/4 production of Verekai - (a Cirque show that is going to be here for a limited time). THANK YOU, ERIC!

Then we went to bed and I slept reasonably well, for a pregnant woman.

SPECIAL NOTE: Happy Birthday to Shawn Hubbard! Congratulations on your good work at Police School! I'm proud of you, but you'd better stay prayed up! Love you!

My new blog

I got tired of everyone else having a blog and me being left in the 90s....all blog-less and boring. Even my son, Ethan (6 years old) wants his own blog. So I suppose I'll have to set one up for him. Will keep you posted as to what comes of that.