Not Me! Monday!

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We did not just this weekend get rid of the pumpkin that has been sitting on our back patio since before Halloween. Said pumpkin surely was not rotting and the whole bottom had not already caved in, creating quite a mess all over the back patio!

We do not still have another pumpkin sitting in the garage (un-rotted...not a word, I know). We surely did not buy two pumpkins this year only to not carve either one of them!

I have not procrastinated again this year and haven't bought a single Christmas present yet. Of course not, who waits until the second week of December to start shopping?

And just because I like to have photos on my post, here's a recent photo of my munchkin.

                                     

   

What did you not do this week?

A Tale of Friendship

While reading this blog, which is becoming a real favorite of mine, I came across a link to a news story. I clicked on it with no real idea of what I would be viewing. What I saw was amazing!! You really just need to watch it for yourself. It's a story that seems nearly impossible. It will warm your heart on this cold snowy day. Click here to see it!

NEW today: apples, pork and potatoes...oh my! Click on the Recipes tab at the top to see this sure to make you smile meal!

Like I Always Imagined

There are so many times in life when things don't turn out like you had imagined. Whether it be a recipe flopping, your career not satisfying you like you had hoped, a bad hair cut or a number of any other things. And then there's motherhood.

I don't know if any of us really know what to expect going into motherhood. Really, how can you? Until you've been a mother yourself, there's just no real way to know what's coming. But we still have images of what life will be like. We make statements like "My child will never behave that way". Then our worlds are turned upside down when the little bundle of joy arrives and at times we're forced to eat our words and see the image we have of what things would be like crumble. I know I never imagined the bickering that would occur with my husband when we were both sleep deprived during the first month. I never imagined the stretch marks that now stand as my "battle wounds". Yes, there are many things that are not as I had imagined they would be.

But every now and then, if you're lucky, some things turn out just as you had hoped. Wednesday night we let Bailey stay up past her bedtime so we could watch Rudolph. Being the Christmas lover that I am, I still love this movie as much as I did when I was little and look forward to watching it every year. It worked out perfectly because Nick finished class early that evening and was able to join us on the couch for the viewing. Granted, he wasn't quite as excited as I was, but he put on a good face. We turned off the light so the room was only lit by the Christmas tree and we all snuggled on the couch and watched Rudolph. Bailey loved it! She followed along really well, and knew the characters because we've been reading the story of Rudolph quite often the last couple of weeks. Bailey was all snuggled next to me, Nick fell asleep and the dog was asleep on the other side of me. Yeah, this is something I had always imagined. And in the moment it felt 100 times better than I ever thought possible. So sometimes things do happen just like you thought they would. Even if they are as simple as enjoying a Christmas classic with your family, it's a feeling and moment you'll never forget.

Invite vs. Evite

Just this morning I sent out my invites for our annual Holiday Dinner Party. I've been "working" on these for the past few weeks. I had to come up with the design, buy the materials, make them and then mail them. For a procrastinator busy person, this can take a while. Nick was fussing that I hadn't already mailed them, with which I proceeded to explain how lazy busy I've been. His question back was, Why didn't you just send out evites?

I knew why I didn't send out evites. I enjoy designing the invitations. I think it adds a little extra something when you actually send out real paper invitations to an event. I know I personally love getting things in the mail. A birthday card, post card or invitation. That's not to say that I don't enjoy the ecards and evites just as much, but with my mail box usually only offering up bills and junk mail, it's nice to get a little something special every now and then.

Am I the only one who still prefers invites over evites? I know it would have been a lot faster, easier and cheaper to do the evites and I know no one on the guest list would have snurled their nose up at getting one, but I just couldn't do it.

I want to know what you think. Do you prefer to send/receive invites or evites? What's your opinion?

Thanksgiving

What a great Thanksgiving!! This year Nick and I went down to Jackson, Tennessee to see his dad for Thanksgiving. Bailey only sees this side of the family a couple of times a year, so it always takes her a little while to warm up to everyone, but she had a great time!! She calls Nick's dad (standing behind me and Nick) Papa Bear, and it's the sweetest thing. And she is officially in love with her Uncle Bryce (in the camo overalls). Her uncle that is only 11...or maybe 12...I'm bad with remembering ages!! She followed him around everywhere and would cry if he left to go play with his friends. He was so good with her and all the other little ones that were there too, I was amazed!!

It was great to see everyone, especially Nick's cousins. They are so much fun and we hardly ever get to spend any time with them. Thanksgiving night we all played Bunco, which was a first for me, and I loved it! There was also a lot of wine involved. A LOT!

Ah, I miss those girls already!!

Here's Nick's Mimi with the babies! Let me take a second to brag about Kaylen (left in the picture). She is such a smart little girl! She is 5 months older than Bailey, which makes her right at 2 1/2 years old. She can go the bathroom all by herself!! No help from anyone. I was totally amazed! She's also potty trained during the night. That's right. She wakes up, goes to the bathroom and goes back to bed. Can't wait for that day!! But I'm not holding my breath.

And baby Allie (not really sure how they spell her name!), what a good and happy baby!! I got to hold her quite a bit Friday before we left and it felt so good to hold a baby again! I was nervous about how Bailey would handle it but she didn't care at all, she just kept saying "She so cute mommy." Then Allie got a hand full of Bailey's hair, but Bailey just said "It's ok mommy, she jus' a baby." My ovaries were officially doing flips by this point!

We had a great trip and I'm so glad we made the 5 hour drive down to see everyone.

Hope all of you (you know, the 3 people that read this thing!) had a great Thanksgiving as well and were able to spend quality time with your loved ones!!

A Win for All

Yes, it was in deed a win for everyone involved. Every year, Scott County High School's FFA program sponsors a canned food drive, with all food items being donated to our local Amen House. This is a great program that has been going on for years.

My husband does not like to lose. As he told me last night, "I don't do anything small. Either go big, or go home." And he definitely went big. His classes alone brought in over 6,000 cans/food items!! There is a contest every year for the first hour classes, and just his first hour class alone brought in about 4,000 of those! The kids were great. They went door to door in several different neighborhoods "trick-or-treating" for cans. They were out in the dark and some nights in the rain. They contacted stores to ask for donations and really went above and beyond to pull off the win. And Nick was there with them. Every night they went out, with the exception of one I think, he was right there with them. Going door to door asking for cans. My guess is the people just assumed he was a student also, seeing as he looks about 16...on a good day :)

There were also people who donated money for the cause, $354 to be exact. So Monday night we went to Sam's Club to purchase more food items with the donated money. I think he said we ended up with something close to 750 food items that night.

I'm hoping maybe someone ended up taking a photo of ALL the cans...if I find that I will definitely post it. I think the entire school ended up donating right around 14,000 food items to the Amen House yesterday!

So yes, Nick won. His classes were able to work the hardest and donate the largest amount. The students won. They came together for a common cause and worked their tails off to achieve their goal. But the greatest winner in the whole thing is the Amen House and our community. Thanks to the hard work of all those involved, their shelves are now well stocked and ready to help those in need in our town. A big thank you to all those involved!!! And I am beyond words proud of my husband, for doing exactly what he set out to do and getting so many students involved!

Turkey Time - Gobble 'til ya Wobble!

While Christmas is, and will always be, my favorite Holiday, Thanksgiving is a close second. I love the fact that it's a chance to get together with my family with no gifts involved. It's just about the people you're with and the good food on the table. And in my family, we like our food!

To help ease the schedules (and stomachs) of family members that needed to travel to several different places during this Holiday, a few years back we started doing our Thanksgiving the Sunday before. So last night my family came to my house and we all sat around the table and enjoyed a wonderful meal together. This year was especially special for me because it was the first time that my entire family has been able to sit at one table together. We've never had a big enough table/house to do this before. And even though my house is no bigger than it was last year, I put my thinkin' cap on and came up with a great idea. I borrowed a folding table and chairs from my friend, and because my kitchen/dining area is connected and very open, we were able to line my table and the folding table up end to end and squeeze everyone in. It was somewhat of a tight fit, but I didn't care. It was just so nice to look down the table and be able to see everyone. Here are some pictures that my step dad took while we were scarfing down our food eating.

And yes, the window was open. After baking two pies, one cake and cooking all day...I was burning up. I'm not sure if anyone was cold or not, but I wasn't a gracious enough host to ask :)

The biggest reason for me to give thanks!

My nephew Quentin.

My cousins Jacob and Anna.

My boppy, who I'm pretty sure is the cutest old man ever!

I'm not sure what's going on here...looks like I'm giving someone the evil eye...

The Smallwood family

I am thankful for each and every one of my family members. Each one brings something different to our family and lives. No matter how dysfunctional unique we may be, I wouldn't change a thing!