Thanksgiving Weekend

Mom and Melody came up to spend Thanksgiving with us. We had a great time. I spent Wednesday preparing all the baked goods I could ahead of time. I made Pecan pie, carrot cake for Dwayne's birthday cake and then I made butternut squash soup. As I was adding the last bit of cream into the soup and then letting it heat up, it started splattering all over the place. I go running into the kitchen to turn the soup down and pull it off the heat and a freak splatter managed to get past my big cheeks, up under my glasses and hit me in the eye! Luckily, my eyelid closed in time or it would have hit me directly in the eye. The soup was hot enough to scald the first layer of skin from my eyelid and just underneith my eye. The soup wasn't really really hot yet and if it had hit me anywhere else on my body, I think I would have just had a little pink spot. But because the tissue around the eye is so sensitive and soft, it scalded immediately. So now I have a nice red scabby patch under my eye and on my eyelid. But at least I have a great story to tell. The soup tasted great too!

Thursday morning, I got the turkey in the oven and started to prepare Thanksgiving dinner. One thing I always run into is the lack of oven and oventop space to heat and prepare all the variety of dishes I want to prepare. I ran across a couple of tips that made my life a little easier this time around. I prepared the mashed potatoes a couple hours ahead of time and then put them in my crockpot on the warm setting to keep them fresh for dinner. It worked out great! The potatoes didn't dry up or anything and tasted like I had just made them. I also, like I said, made many things ahead of time on Wednesday. The turkey has to sit a little anyway after cooking before carving, which leaves me just enough time to throw the dressing and rolls in the oven to bake for half an hour. I made sure the rolls and dressing were in their pans ready to toss in the oven the minute the turkey came out to help minimize the wait time for the hungry folks waiting on dinner. While those are cooking, I whipped up the gravy and then we were set. It was fun to cook for my mom and show her that I was paying attention sometimes when she tried to show me the fine art of cooking. :)

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I had to work. As most of you know, it is the biggest shopping weekend of the year for many retailers so I had no option on whether I had to work or not. Luckily, I didn't have to go in until noon on Friday so I got to visit a little before taking off. They spent most of the time letting the kids fight/play and braved the crowds to do a little shopping at Walmart. It sounds like Mom and Melody got some of their Christmas shopping done and Dwayne got the kids their first Santa picture. I don't think it turned out very well at all. They weren't very interested in sitting on some strange man's lap and I can't blame them.

So now I'm tired after working hard all weekend. I'm glad I got to see Mom and Melody and Aiden as little as I did but I really really wished I had more time with them. However, I am extremely grateful to have the job and it is so wonderful to have most of my Christmas shopping done and the money to be able to get them. Overall, I would say it was a nice weekend, and I look forward to heading down to Oregon around Christmas to see all the family again.

Thanksgiving plans

Well, I have been menu planning and getting excited about Thanksgiving. Because I work in retail, I will have to work the entire Black Friday weekend. Because of that, I get to have my normal working days of Tues. and Wed. night off. I'm extremly grateful, as I have lots of cooking plans in the works. We get a free turkey from Dwayne's work every year so that is one expense I don't have to worry about. I went shopping at Wal-Mart by myself Friday night and was able to get all the stuff I wanted and needed for Thanksgiving as well as knock out a few Christmas gifts while I was there. I have plans to make homemade Pecan Pie, a birthday cake for Dwayne, turkey, dressing, corn, olives, homemade gravy, and of course, mashed potatoes. I also have plans to make a butternut squash soup for an appetizer. After all these plans, I did a head count of who was coming. Only 4 adults and 3 toddlers. LOL At least I'll have leftovers for the rest of the week!

Yesterday Dwayne and I went shopping at my work before I had to check in and pretty much knocked out the rest of the Christmas shopping. It is pretty easy this year as we are only getting the most immediate family a gift. The rest of you will just have to settle for Christmas cards this year. But I have found that as I get older, I don't care about the gifts so much anymore. I just really like the cooking, family gathering, and some house decorating. I think the traditions mean more to me now then any gifts I might be getting. In fact, Dwayne and I have cut way down on what we have bought the kids this year too. Just one big gift and a few stocking stuffers. Jesus only had 3 gifts so that is good enough for us right? I'm so happy to have most of it done. I still have to figure out something for Evie though. It is hard to decide what she is into. She is almost always just wanting to do what Sam is doing. Maybe I'll find her her own pink car.

Sooooo Tired

Well, Evie has started to wake up every night around 3 or 3:30 am and insist on getting up over and over and over again. Crying about wanting to sleep anywhere else than in her own bed. When she discovers that doesn't work, she cries because she lost her nook, or she has to go potty again, or can she sleep in Sam's room? It all started because we let her sleep in Sam's room a couple of night's when the rain was really bad. The drainspout just outside her room would make a very very loud dripping and swirling noise when it was raining really hard. It would wake her up and scare her. So we placed her on the trundlebed in Sam's room to finish out sleeping during the night. Dwayne did finally fix the noise but since those nights she has been insisting on sleeping somewhere other than her room. Dwayne has been giving in and sleeping with her on the couch or pulling her into bed with us. I finally put my foot down last night. I just cannot sleep with the kids in the bed. I don't even let Dwayne touch me when I'm finally sleeping which is one of the reason's we have a king-size bed. I've finally decided that I'm just going to keep being consistent, even if I'm the one getting up all the time and putting her back to bed. I think if we show her she is not getting her way she will finally settle back into sleeping all night. I'm also considering not letting her nap a few days so she will be extra tired and maybe sleep all night that way too. Dwayne is thinking about taking away her nuk and just going for broke but I'm not so sure about that. I keep reading that kid's usually drop their nuks eventually on their own so I keep waiting for that. She only ever gets it when she is sleeping and most of the time when we check on her it is no longer in her mouth, once she is actually asleep.

Needless to say we are tired and a bit grumpy today. I have officially decided that I'm going to stay in my pj's all day with the kids and just be lazy for a day. I've got a raging headache and just need to chill. I think I might even have the hubby bring home some pizza so I don't have to cook either. I hope Evie breaks this cycle soon. I'm tired!

Training

I'm excited about a training that my workplace is offering. As many of you know, a good portion of Bibles created in this country is published by Zondervan. Well, Zondervan is offering a simple online training. After doing the first 5 modules, the employees get to pick one Bible valued up to $70 to pick. I've been eyeballing and really desiring, the Archeological Bible or maybe getting a Chronological Bible. I think either version would be fascinating to read. As if that wasn't enough though, after you finish all 9 modules, you get $100 worth of free products from their website. They have so much stuff that they sell. Books, movies, games, as well as the expected Bibles. That will be a blessing in disguise to knock out a few Christmas gifts this year. What is really nice is the modules range from 4 min to about 15 min to complete so we aren't talking about hours and hours of training. My boss said we had to finish it this week so she can get the order in and we can get the stuff in time for Christmas.

Other than that, everything has been the same around here. We are just plugging through every day. We did have a flu scare but luckily it has just turned into a minor cold. I was really worried that we had caught the flu and I am so grateful that it isn't. The kids are as cute as ever and I'm learning quite well the struggles of parenting an almost 4 year old. One minute he is the sweetest greatest kid in the universe and the next is a willful child with extra attitude. Spankings don't seem to be working well so I think I'm going to have to get creative and find a new punishment. What makes it extra interesting is he has the nerve to tell me "No" when I tell him to go to his room or timeout. I'll keep at it though, because I want to lay a good foundation for obediance, especially to our Father in Heaven. *Sigh.* I am so grateful God gave us so much love for our children because they can be quite trying at times. I'm trying not to think about how everyone tells me it only gets worse. LOL

So Busy

I have been so busy lately. I haven't had time to do anything really. I'm barely keeping up with the housework and Dwayne and I are still trying to figure out when to schedule family time with me working almost all weekend now. But I must admit, we are loving having the extra money. It has helped so much it is unbelievable. It is amazing how much you can do with an extra $500 a month!

The kids are doing well. I just took Evie in for her two year check-up on Friday. She is in the 90th percentile for her height and weight which is pretty consistent. She has been that way pretty much since birth. Otherwise she is doing great and healthy. We have been lucky enough so far to avoid all the flus going around and I was able to get her vaccinated for the seasonal flu and the swine flu. Since we were already at the doctor's office, I asked if we could get Sam vaccinated as well. They had enough vaccination for the seasonal but were out of the swine for his age range. At least he is protected from one of them! I figure he would probably deal with the swine flu better than Evie would anyway because he is older. When I told him he was going to get a shot he was a little worried. But the nurse came back with a nasal spray instead! I must say, Mommy and Sam were really really happy about that. But because they were both so good, the nurse gave them both popsicles. I don't think they think the doctor is so bad after that.

We decided to find new homes for the kittens. It just isn't working out with Dwayne's patience and I can't seem to keep up with the mess. I really was starting to love them and I miss them already but I think this is the best option for everyone. We have both decided that we aren't going to get anymore pets until we can have a place of our own that has a yard large enough. The kids will be older and hopefully more responsible as well. With me working now, we should be able to get caught up on our debt a little easier and in 3 or 4 years, we can get our own home again. At least that is the plan. We'll see.