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I promise I won’t be counting down until Christmas on my blog, but I couldn’t resist it today. During the announcements at both services today, Wes said there was 23 days until Christmas. I meant to tell him between services that unless they moved Christmas this year, there was 25 days but I forgot so he said the same thing in the second service. But, regardless, there is just a little over 3 weeks until Christmas. Unbelievable!! While Bailey was at Praise Team practice tonight, I finished my shopping. Hallelujah!! I have already had to wrap what I bought Thayer. He is not a lover of surprises…when he buys something for me, he’ll come home and say, “I bought your present. Do you want it now?” And if I said yes, he would go ahead and give it to me. I learned that the hard way. Once I said yes, and then I didn’t have anything to unwrap on Christmas. He just can’t wait! I, on the other hand, love surprises! Speaking of that, I have to go get my gift ready for my Secret Sister at preschool. We are to carry a small gift for our secret sister each day for the next two weeks and then we’ll reveal who we are at our staff party on the 15th. I love getting a little treat in my box each day–but, I was going to try to diet from tomorrow until our church staff party on the 19th. i know…its stupid to try to diet during this time of year, but I really enjoyed some of those Thanksgiving desserts too much! I hope you had a wonderful Sunday!
After watching the Clemson game today, we took Avery to see Santa. No one else really cared to go see him–kinda sad for me. We are going to take them to Raleigh to see the “real” Santa 
and eat at The Cheesecake Factory sometime soon, and they will wear their Christmas clothes, sit with Avery and Santa and smile! But, tonight, we were just going to the Goldsboro Mall, so I told Avery it was our practice run. It has taken her several visits the last 2 years to actually sit with Santa. The Santa in the mall has apparantly been dieting but aside from being pretty skinny, he was very kind and even though she wouldn’t sit in his lap and kept burying her head in my shoulder at first, by the time we left, she gave him a hug.
The decorating at our house is done except for putting the ornaments on the tree in the dining room. I’m leaving it alone for a day or so to watch the lights. Its a pre-lit tree and the last two years, the lights worked great until a day or so after I decorated it. Then, they started going off in a pattern that made the tree look like a candy cane. Then, all of a sudden, they all came back on. As soon as I see where they are going off, I’m going to add a strand or two of lights before all the ornaments get put on. I also need to go through the two Rubbermaid totes of Christmas clothes. Most of them are for Avery. She probably could wear something for Christmas every day until the 25th and not wear the same thing twice!
I’m also trying to decide what to do for our Christmas cards this year. Last year, we had family picutres done with an amazing photographer in October and she made our cards. I’m back to my handy Fuji camera this year, so they won’t be quite so amazing. We going to work on that this week. Any suggestions for our background?
We always get so cofused about what day it is during the Thanksgiving holiday. Yesterday seemed like Saturday, but so did today when Saturday is actually tomorrow. We’ll just be getting it straight when we go back to our normal routine on Monday. We went from a full house to a less than full house rather quickly today. Since Thayer’s parents came Wednesday, they had planned to leave today. They are going to TN next week and wanted to go home to GA for a few days before going. My parents came yesterday morning and were to stay until Saturday or Sunday. But, my daddy was feeling really bad. I think he has the same thing I had a few weeks ago, but he won’t go to the doctor. He thinks he can handle it for a week or so and then it should be gone. Men…anyway, he would feel o.k. for a while and then crash. He had a rough night so he decided that he really wanted to be home, so he insisted that they leave this morning right after breakfast. He felt horrible, and I hated that he had to drive for 6 hours. I’m sure that if you’re going to suffer it out, your home and your bed is where you need to be, but I hated we didn’t get to spend more time with them. So about 10 am, it was back to just the six of us. We’ve never not had family here on the Friday after Thanksgiving, so its seemed really weird today.
We were able to clean up the back yard and finish decorating the outside of our house for Christmas. We put away all the Thanksgiving/Fall decorations and decided to go see a movie. We saw Bolt, a movie about a dog that is a super hero on a TV show and doesn’t know he’s not really a super hero until he escapes the set one day. He meets an alley cat and a hamster on his way to get back to his “person.” It was cute and the younger girls enjoyed it. Julia tolerated it well. She had wanted to see another movie, but it was one I knew would scare Madi. When we got home, we made baked Ziti. I was so tired of leftovers…maybe we can stomach them one more time tomorrow to finish them off.
Also tomorrow, we will put up the kitchen and dining room trees and decorate those two rooms. Then, we are officially decorated for Christmas. I have about 2 more gifts to buy and then I’m done! Except for the wrapping…and the baking…and going to see Santa…and the Christmas cards…and the parties…and the parade…and the Christmas program I’m in charge of at school…and, I’m getting exhausted thinking about it, but I LOVE it all!! What a wonderful time of year but it will all be over before we can really enjoy any of it!
Have you ever tried a new dish that didn’t turn out right so you never even put it on the table? Well, I tried 3 new desserts, a new stuffing recipe, a new topping on sweet potato casserole, a new vegetable casserole and a new recipe for cranberry sauce. My mom was probably a nervous wreck…she always wonders why I try new recipes when we have people over. We had some of my old standbys like mac-n-cheese, corn and greenbeans, but I wanted to change things up a little. I think the stuffing, sweet potatos, pecan bars and peanut butter apple pie are keepers, but I would have to put less spices in the cranberries if I make it again. I probably won’t make the vegetable casserole again (it was corn and green beans with mushroom soup and crushed Ritz crackers on top). My mom liked it, but I’m wasn’t totally in love with it. But, the pumpkin cheesecake pie never even made it to the table. Thayer threw it out for me last night. It tasted horrible…I was so disappointed because I have a great receipe for pumpkin cheesecake and you all know how much I LOVE cheesecake…but, this recipe was much easier and it sounded like it would be good. The picture looked good. But after the first bite, it was out the door! Next time, I won’t skimp. I’ll put in the time to make the recipe I know tastes good.
And, if you say my Facebook status this morning, you know that I asked Thayer to check our turkey yesterday to make sure it was thawing in the outdoor fridge. It had been in there since Monday. Well, he never checked it, so this morning at 9:30, we got it out to start prepping it…it was frozen solid. I’m a much bigger fan of ham, so I really didn’t care. He was been in charge of the turkey for about 4 years or so since we bought a turkey fryer and all I ever do is just buy the bird. He was so mad (but not at me, because I had told him to check it!) but he kept working with it and somehow got the thing defrosted and we still were able to fry it and eat at 1 pm, right when I had planned on eating. He did a great job, but he had to or I woudln’t have let him live it down!
Right now, Avery and all four grandparents are taking naps. I’m about to head out to put the outdoor decorations up–who can resist with this beautiful weather! Hope you had a wonderful day filled with good food, family and friends!
Avery and I do not have school today so after the other three girls got gone, I started making a list of what I need to do today. A few cleaning tasks, some laundry (always!), a little shopping (I’ve already done the big shopping cart overflowing shopping), and I’ll need to start cooking a few things. The girls get out of school at 12:50 and Thayer’s parents will be here shortly after, so needless to say, this blog post is going to be very short!
I hope you and your have a wonderful Thanksgiving and don’t be so busy “doing” Thanksgiving that you forget why we have it! I didn’t mention in my “What are you Thankful For?” post that I am very thankful for my many friends that aren’t part of our church. I have been so blessed through the years to have wonderful friends all over the country.
I’m looking forward to all the wonderful food and desserts (yes, there will be chocolate!) and spending time with our families. And, I will finish decorating for Christmas after Thursday’s meal.
I started a tradition with the girls when they were in preschool that they still ask me to do, even in middle school. Each year at Thanksgiving, we make candy turkeys and pilgrim hats for them to share with their friends. The turkeys are made from an oreo cookie, a caramel, a Hershey Kiss, candy corn and chocolate frosting. The pilgrim hats are a fudge stripe cookie and a chocolate covered marshmallow with a yellow frosting buckle. At first, Julia didn’t want to carry anything because she thought the turkeys would be embarrassing but she did think the hats would work. However, she doesn’t really like the chocolate covered marshmallows (go figure, the queen of chocolate), so we had the idea to use an orea with a peanut butter cup upside down with the frosting buckle. Everyone helped and we finally made about 40 turkeys and 30 pilgrim hats. They looked so cute and by not having to melt chocolate to cover marshmallows, it was much quicker and neater!
Bailey did not want to carry any because her class is having a feast with NC products tomorrow. They study NC in the fourth grade. Her item to carry is mashed potatos for 30 people. Avery isn’t carrying any because she is also having a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Feast with her class (as she did today). Each child is to bring their favorite food (no matter what it is) to share with their friends. She is also carrying mashed potatos, but I only had to carry enough for 10 preschoolers today and 10 more tomorrow. Fortunately, I discovered Steam and Mash potatos. You microwave a special bag of frozen potatos (Ore Ida brand, I think) for 10 minutes. Then, you mash, add milk and butter and they are done! That, I can handle! And, it saved me from making about double the number of turkeys we made!
As I sit here in my living room that is decorated so beautifully for Christmas (have I mentioned how much I LOVE Christmas?!), I am thinking about Thanksgiving coming up this week and I am overwhelmed with how much I have to be thankful for! God is so gracious and has blessed us so much. This list doesn’t even do justice to what is rolling around in my head right now. But, here’s what I’m thankful for:
- First, having a relationship with an almighty, loving God, which is why there is even a reason for Thanksgiving.
- Second, my wonderful family. I have the most incredible husband in the world. I can’t even describe my appreciation and love for him. Our four fantastic girls–wow! What in the world would we do without them? They bring me so much joy every day (and a few headaches, but they always make up for it!!) I also have tremendous parents and my brother, sister-in-law and nephew make me so proud to be related to them!
- Third, my friends at Gateway. They are like my family as well. We serve among some of the most wonderful people and are privileged that God has given us the opportunity to lead His body there. I also am so thankful for our “family” at our previous church. The peole of Edgemont Baptist Church will always be so near and dear to us!
- The little things we so often take for granted…homes with heat, food to eat (especially chocolate!), clothes to wear, toys, tv. Sometimes it takes these things being taken away to be truly thankful for them. When the power is out, even for a few hours, we almost go crazy.
- My pets…some people don’t like cats, some don’t like dogs. We like both and have two of each! I know its crazy, but they do enrich our lives.
- Music – how dull would life be without it? There are a few styles I could do without, but for the most part, I love it all. I think God has put a love for it (and the subsequent dancing that usually comes along with it!) in us at birth, but we sometimes squelch it.
OK, those are my serious ones. I could go on and on and my list would never probably be complete. What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving season? (Now, don’t leave me hanging…I’ll be really embarrassed if no one leaves a comment!!)
We finally convinced Thayer to let us start decorating for Christmas. He has never wanted to do anything before Thanksgiving, but since Thanksgiving is later this year, I would have fewer days to enjoy everything. It takes about two full days to decorate everything (including the outside). Yeah, I know, I have too much stuff, but I LOVE it! We started working on it about 4 pm yesterday and I quit about 11:30. Julia had Cotillion last night, so my biggest helper was gone for about 3 hours. The girls’ trees are all done and the living room is finished. I’m going to work on the outside today…hopefully the sun will heat things up more than they are forecasting. The funny thing is that as we started decorating, I realized that I didn’t want to eat Thanksgiving dinner with the dining room all decked out for Christmas. Plus, it is too small of a room for 10 of us to eat in if there is a tree in the corner. So, the kitchen and dining room are still decorated with our fall decorations while the rest of the house is ready for Christmas. I’m leaving the boxes for the kitchen and dining room in the corner of the garage so they’ll be ready for next Thursday night after we eat!
Most of my shopping is done already too! I still have a little “filling in” to do for the girls and their 8 teachers and assistants! I was thinking the other day that if I were to homeschool them, I could get myself one heck of a present with all that money!! And, I think I would deserve it! Of course if I homeschooled, I’d probably have to spend that money on some nerve pills (as my grandmother used to call it)!
Our car started making horrible noises two Sundays ago as I was bringing Bailey and the Boyette girls back to our house after their Praise Team practice. It is a 5 speed so I knew the problem was either the transmission (the car is only 5 years old) or the clutch because of the type noises it was making as I changed gears. Our Life Group was here when we got home, so Thayer couldn’t go check it out until they were gone. It was nearly driving him crazy to know something was wrong with the car but he couldn’t get out there to find out what. Well, the last 10 days were super busy and no day seemed right to try to take the car in to the Toyota place so we’ve been sharing the van. We had actually been sharing the car for two months for the most part. When gas soared, it just made sense to car pool and our gas bill dropped nearly $100 the month after we started. But, the van was available when we both needed transportation. This morning, I told him it was time to go ahead and take the car in. Avery and I left for school while he was finishing his coffee. Since I am ususally either with him when he leaves or the last one to leave in the morning, I distinctly remember telling him to check all three doors before he left (I’ll come back to that later!).
About 9:30, I got a message a school to call him when I had a break which was not until 9:50. When I called him, he told me that the car gave out about one mile from our house. It wouldn’t allow him to put it into any gear. Fortunately, he was sitting in a parking lot and not in any danger. I asked him when the tow truck would be there. “I’m not calling a tow truck. I called Vernon and he is trying to find someone to with a tow strap so he can come pull me to the Toyota place.” What??? I reminded him that our insurance (that we pay for every month for this very reason!!) remimburses us up to $100 if you have to have a tow. We had AAA for four or five years up until this year!! He informed me that he wasn’t calling me to get help, just to tell me what was going on. What??? So, by this point he had been sitting there close to an hour. Needless to say, I whipped out the phone book and called a tow service. The charge was $75. I gave them the credit card number and got him picked up. What a stubborn, goof-ball. I guess men just can’t admit that sometimes they can’t handle every situation they get into.
We just found out that the transmission is totally shot. A fact that would normally throw me over the edge, but since the car is under warranty (Praise God!!!) for about 100,000 miles, we don’t have to pay. And, the Toyota place actually should pay the tow fee (and they did give him a number for a tow company when he called them right after he broke down, but he wouldn’t call it!). But, they don’t guarantee the new transmission unless they also replace the clutch and the clutch plate. The labor would be free but those parts are just over $200. Of course, the clutch is not under warranty. Anyway, they are giving him a car to drive until his is ready.
By the way, the front door was left unlocked all day…
Men, gotta love ‘em!
Today was one of those days I wish I had written stuff down so I could remember it by now, when I finally have time to blog. My day started off with Avery getting up at 8 am and running to look in her sisters’ rooms. “Where are they?” she asked. This happens nearly every day. They leave for school at 7:45 and 7:50. She sometimes wakes up before they go but not often. On Saturdays, however, she seems to wake up between 7:30-7:45 and that’s after going to bed later on Friday nights than normal.
Anyway, she has gotten very opinionated about her clothes and wants to wear a dress everyday. Since today was going to be so cold, I told her that she had to wear what mom picked out. Not very happy, she said the funniest thing about the first outfit I picked out…but, Thayer wouldn’t let me blog about it. He said I have to leave some of the good stuff for him. So, check out his blog tomorrow to see what she said.
This afternoon, I picked up Bailey and Madi and before we could even get in the van, Bailey was telling me that she had a friend tell her first thing this morning that she had a rip in the back of her pants. Thayer had ironed them last night and didn’t notice it, so I assumed it must have been in the seam. Since it was really chilly even in the building, she had left her small jacket on all day which covered up the hole. When we got home, she showed it to me—I’m not quite sure if Thayer just didn’t iron the back of the pants or what but the rip was down her whole back side. “You could see my panties, mom!” I’m thinking it must have happened after she got out of the car because surely I would have noticed it before she left. I told her that she should have called me and I could have brought her some more. “Then people would notice I had on different clothes and wondered if I had an accident,” she said. Oh well, I’ll be sure to give them a more thorough once-over before they leave each morning.
Julia had Wired students tonight, and I have been doing the check-in, so we all go to church on Wednesday nights. Afterwards, we ran by Wal-Mart to pick up a curling iron. Mine had died this morning and it was not a pretty hair day! While we were there, Avery told me that she didn’t get any dessert tonight (I had made a roast but we had to leave really quickly to get to church.) and she wanted to get something. We sometimes look at the clearance bakery cart and if they have anything decent, we grab a treat. Well, tonight they had a round, 2 layer chocolate cake that seemed to be calling Avery’s name. We got it and let them have a quick piece when we got home. Since it was her idea, I tried to give her the first piece, but she kept looking at them and passing them on to her sisters. By the time I cut the fourth piece and handed it to her, she made a face and said, “No, mom, I need an end piece.” I explained there was no end piece on a round cake, and even hough she wasn’t very happy, she took the piece. I can’t be too mad at her because I love the end pieces too! After she finished, I had to laugh. In the middle of the plate were the two layers of cake, both completely stripped of all frosting, even between the layers! I doubt she even tasted the actual cake.
Finally, I felt like I was really grumpy with the girls right before bed time. As they were brushing teeth, I happened to look in the kitchen and saw that about 6 coats were just laying around on the table, in chairs, even on the floor. I guess they think coats just hang themselves up after we go to bed. Then, I realized that none of them had unpacked their lunch boxes today. I almost left it so they would all have hot drinks tomorrow when there was no frozen ice packs in the morning, but the softie in me gave in. I yelled upstairs for them to come down and them informed them that from now on, I would not be reminding them, but that the lunch box and coat problem better be fixed tomorrow. Thayer, hearing all of this, later told me that he was afraid I was about to come after him next. He’s gotten to where he stays cold most of the time and was actually wearing a jacket still even 40 mintues after we had gotten home. But, his other two were on the floor in our bedroom…but, at least he had already taken care of all the clothes and shoes he has been leaving on the floor since the beginning of the week. I shouldn’t complain too much because he at least puts the seat down on the toilet everytime!
What a day!!!
