Thanksgiving 09

I know it is almost Christmas and I am just getting around to Thanksgiving. During this time of year the days just seem to go by so fast. There has been a lot going on.

On Tuesday before Thanksgiving I started a new job. For me it is ideal. Only two five hour days a week and it is while my kids are in school. I will be off on all days my kids are out of school and when it is summer they said not to worry my job will be there for me in the fall. Now for the part that most people don't care for. I am working for a church in their mothers day out program. I know for many that is terrifying. I am blessed with the 2 year old room. For me this is my favorite age. Everything is still new to them and you can see them grow from babies to kids. I am also lucky because this job found me I was not looking for it. I really could not ask for a better. To top it off on the first day it turned out that one of the mom's that grew up with me across the street from me! I had not seen her since her wedding a few years ago. It gets better her daughter is the only girl in my little class. I also have 5 boys. So far I have enjoyed every day. I have learned who likes to eat what with their lunches, figured out how to keep track of who's diaper has been changed and can even call them each by the proper name instantly. I love every one of their personalities as well. So far this job has given us just enough pocket money to make our holidays run smooth. I never knew how little it would take to take away the worry.

Now back to Thanksgiving. What is so special to me about this Thanksgiving table is how it all came together. This was the first time that I have ever used so much of my Crystal from my wedding. The looks on my kids faces when they saw they were going to get to use stem ware was just priceless. This was the first time that I have used my grandmother's china since I inherited it. This brought such a warm feeling to me. I was so close to her. I surprised my self when I was washing them. I actually enjoyed it. For the first time in my life when I looked at my own hands washing the dishes I could see my grandmothers hands. She was so proud of these dishes. It may sound corny but to me it made me feel like she was there enjoying spending time with the family again. I miss her so much. I opted to leave the silver flat in its case and just used our daily flat ware when I realized there was not enough to put one at each place setting. Besides I still don't get it or like to polish silver. Another first for me this year was I provided wine with the dinner. I think this really helped some of the guests feel a little more comfortable. I also had sparkling grape juice for the kids. My daughter was almost appalled when I poured her glass. She was not going to drink any "Wine!" Have to give the schools credit on scaring her about alcohol, but that is probably a good thing. For my friend Steph if she is reading this I would like to point out that the bread basket is one that I made in her class and because I was thinking of her I made my rolls from scratch (OK I probably would have done that any way but it makes for a fun story). The actual table we used was the one my mother gave me that resembles the one she grew up with and she used it the last few years I lived at home. So you see this table setting has allot of meaning to me. It required family and friends to make it come into one.


This was my desert buffet. We had pumpkin pie, pecan pie, chocolate pie and key lime pie. In the baskets were no bake cookies and mini spice muffins.

After dinner I gave the kids the wish bone to make a wish!




The girl won. I hope her wish comes true!

I know that this picture is difficult to see but it represents how all feasts end. Triptopan overload! He went out like a light waiting for some web page to load.

I am truly Thankful this year. I have my family, my friends and my health. This year I really felt blessed and it seems like the blessings just keep coming.

I am such a Dork!

Can you tell who I met tonight? You would think I would remember my camera but no I had to rely on just my cell phone. So the pics are what they are.


I am getting a little closer can you tell yet?


I was lucky enough to get to meet Ree Drummond the Pioneer Woman tonight. I have been following her blog for several months. She is such a neat person. Even though she had a line of probably a 1000 or more people she was taking the time to have a nice conversation with each person. WOW! You would think I would remember half of the things I wanted to share with her but did I, no I was a bumbeling idiot. I was more than amazed that she remembered the fact that she had seen my name on her new site Tasty Kitchen. Don't think I can say enough nice things about her. I have enjoyed getting to know her through her blog. She is such an interesting person and talented writer. She has a multifaceted blog that has sparked my creative side in new ways. She must have the patience of Job because she is homeschooling 4 beautiful children. She is also an extremely talented photographer. Her cooking skills come across as nothing less than AWESOME! Hence my little escapade into the bookstore tonight. She has released her long awaited cook book and I can not wait to dive in. When I told my son he was excited for me to dive in as well saying something to the effect that he hopes it improves my cooking. Boys you just got to love em. My daughter was so excited saying "Isn't she the one you read on the computer?" I am so proud to see a fellow GenXr succeeding.


Thanks REE! This evening was so worth it!

My September Distraction

This is my cousins BEAUTIFUL little girl. Unfortunately for me she lives on one of the coasts which is nowhere near Oklahoma. I am so green with envy of the different family members that have been able to meet her already. It looks like it will be next summer before I can get to meet her. That is OK because by then she will probably be walking/running and giving her mommy some of her paybacks for her raisin. When her mom told me she was pregnant it made my heart sing. Her mommy needed her in her life more than she ever knew. I think she did her daddy some good as well. While they were visiting Oklahoma while my cousin was pregnant he was so attentive. Aren't new daddies to be so cute.

Anyway in September there were two different family members going to meet this little beauty at different times. I had been working on this needle point project since March and was near completed so I used this as crunch time trying to finish. I really did not want to trust the postal system with something that I had worked so hard on. So the next best thing was for someone to hand carry it with them (not check it in with their luggage at the airport). I missed sending it with the first person by just a few hours of work. So I was lucky enough to send it with our beauty's grandma on her visit.

This is the three generation pic. Sorry I was not able to rotate the picture. Chalk it up to my techno tardness.


This is one of my favorite Grandma pics.


These are just because she is just so dag gum CUTE!

Something New!

Back on August 17th our family grew. This is the first of its kind in our family and something that my DH and I have never experienced.


We bought our first brand new car! I know for many that is not a big deal but for us it was HUGE! This is the first time for either one of us to be first time owners of a new vehicle.


I know it is not the top of the line or anything but for us it might as well be a Mercedes, BMW or Rolls. We are completely enjoying it.

It took me a while to figure out why I liked this car so much then it finally dawned on me. It reminds me of my old Pontiac Phoenix that I had back in college. I loved having a hatchback back then. Often I would have time to kill between classes and not enough time to go back home. I would pop up the trunk lay down the seats in the back and study or do homework with the radio going in the great outdoors. That was the car that I think I finally experienced the freedom of independence of being an adult, looking at the world with such optimism and hope. It was not my first car but it was the first car that I bought all on my own. It wasn't a hand me down or a family member that made a deal so good that I couldn't refuse. Now this is the first car that my husband and I have bought all on our own. It is almost as if a lot of those old feelings are being rekindled.

This is the first time for me that my car has even had a CD player. I know that is a little funny especially now that everything is going to ipod and mp3's but I'll take it.


You know you are excited about something when you go through the pictures for the day. We took nearly 100 pictures of the car (See I did not bore you with all of them.) and only about 5 of the kids. This is what the kids do while they are waiting on mom and dad to quite being silly over a new car!

Oklahoma History

Back before school started we took time as a family to visit the Oklahoma History Museum. What a treat this turned into. Earlier in the spring I had visited for a brief few minutes with my son on a school field trip. It seemed the school was more interested in the state capital than the museum and what a loss it was to these kids. I decided this was going to be something we did as a family before the school year started back. I am actually disappointed in myself as a mom for not bringing the kids here sooner.


We spent several hours goofing around and learning more about our Oklahoma heritage. It seemed so strange to see things from my childhood, teen and young adult years in a museum.



Given that my daughter has her heart set on being a "rock star" it was very fitting that the temporary display was featuring Oklahoma musicians.


I loved this next picture it looks like they are gazing into each others eyes. Look out Hanson my little girl could be your opening act one day!


It seems the Rock n Roll bug was contagious in the family.



It lead to this performance. Maybe it was a good thing it was not too busy.

Now for the warnings. When the daddy is eyeing this ...

Things like this can and often do happen.


What a wonderful time we had. I would have never guessed that we would have enjoyed ourselves so much.

Seeing that I am behind on blogging the last couple of months I am sure there will be a few more of these "catch up" blogs.

Fall Fun in Oklahoma

I found this to be just beautiful. What surprises me more is that it is in Oklahoma. We spent this last weekend with almost 200 of our Geocaching friends. We were at Robbers Cave in south eastern Oklahoma. The air was crisp and the friendships warm. It has been 5 years since I last visited this state park and I don't remember it being as beautiful as it is now. We went exploring the cave area and found several of these.

One of the things that I noticed is that they were always and I mean ALWAYS pointing up. Maybe it is that the kids are finally old enough to climb themselves so that is the direction we kept going. Before I probably would have turned back at the first or second one. The only thing I think I kept repeating was "keep away from the ledge!"


They got along so well and were truly taking in the nature that surrounded us. The girl noticed several types of fungi and the boy was looking at all the different rock formations. Lucky for (me) us the only wild critter found was a small frog.

This last weekend has rejuvenated my spirit. Bringing together family and friends in nature brings its own peace. Life is Good!

To my Surprise!

After a long day of doing family stuff together we were all famished. We headed to one of the local chain pizza buffets for an easy quick dinner. Then the inevitable happened, again. "Do you have a quarter? Please! Just one, Paaaleeeaasssseeeee?" So I finally caved. Normally this is where I would inject that they should be using their own money. But we had been out for so long I figured fine. At least this will stop the whining and you know there would have been a lot more. So my darling daughter went strait to the candy crane machine. You know the one where you are guaranteed you will win. When there is candy available you can bet your sunshine my daughter will be one of the first in line. My son on the other hand. He is becoming quite the oportunist. He decided that he was going to go for one of those toy crane games that nobody ever wins. When he first went to the machine it wasn't posted how much it was. So he decided he was going to give it a shot anyway. Surprise, surprise, surprise! It wasn't a quarter and then to add salt to the wound. It wouldn't give him his quarter back. Normally I would have just said well lesson learned and been done with it. He kept saying "I know I can get one." Once again I caved and decided to let him learn his lesson giving him the second quarter he needed. Saying, "No one wins those things." Then much to my and my husbands amazement the claw actually grabbed the toy. Then it actually pulled it up. Then wonder of all wonders it actually fell into the retrieval box. Holly macanoli! He actually did it. I think you could have picked mine and my husbands jaws off the floor. That little turkey came back to the table with a smile as big as the ocean. "I told you I could do it!" Then he followed it by saying "Aren't you going to put it on the Internet where you tell stories about us?" Of course I am.

Dad's Re tard

This last week my dad is officially retired. His announcement is that he is re tard. So what better way than to take a couple of his grand kids down memory lane. My dad's first retirement was from the 45th infantry. Lucky for us we have a whole museum here dedicated to them. Honestly I wanted to make sure my kids had a way to put history into reality. It was fun listening to my dad tell them some stories about the different pieces of memorabilia that was on display and how it was used or wasn't used according to regulation specifications. It was interesting how he was (not so much) complaining about how the equipment outside was being painted black. It is supposed to be army green. Without him saying this I remember many times visiting my daddy at work and climbing on all the green trucks. Of course back then I was probably as tall as some of the tires. I remember trying to use the treads for steps. I think the young men that were doing the painting were actually listening to my dad tell some of his stories. Even if they weren't I have to give them credit for being respectful and kind. The following are pics of the kids and him at different things that he actually worked on while they were in service.


Now dad never did any work on the planes but these pics were just for fun.


As you may have read in my previous post that we have started kayaking. My son was complaining that his arm was hurting to much so you can see the posts all to well. I think the picture is deserving if for no other reason than the complaining.

This is one I really liked. My dad has always had a fascination with weapons. What better way to show that then him explaining the displays to my son. Aren't Grandpa's the best.

These next two pics are for those of you military types that understand it because I don't. They are the flags from two of the units my dad was in.

By the time we made it to the patches display dad was getting a little silly with me taking so many pictures. But just as any good grandpa would do he obliged (another) for the picture.

Now this is the bonus picture for this blog. My dad likes to skip the highways when possible and so on the way back to my house we stopped here. This is the house that my mom and dad brought me home from the hospital to. The other nice thing about this house is that MY Grandpa built it. After getting home I realized that it was close to 40 years to the day that this picture was taken for the first time. What a hoot. I love you Daddy and Happy Re tard ment!

First ALL Family Kayak

I was beginning to think this day would never come. We finally received the required state paperwork to get the titles and registration on our 3rd and 4th kayaks. After a few trips to the store for stickers and city lake permits we were finally ready. We now have something that is both fun and healthy for our family to do together. DH and I wondered just how much the kids could handle and they did pretty good. The sun was shining and the wind was mild so we headed out to lake Hefner. We were lucky to meet up with some other kayakers. I thought I grabbed a picture with them but after the down load I found that I did not. I think we were out for about an hour and a half. The kids were pretty excited and while we were on the lake they started to come up with different funny names for their boats. We have already decided that they are going to be allowed to personalize them (almost) however they want.

It seems that our daughter took to kayaking like a duck to water. She was paddling circles around the rest of us most of the time. She is pretty excited about it and can not wait until we can go out again.

Look at her go. Is that a wake she is creating behind that boat?


I hope that I get more secure in my skills soon so that there will be more pictures coming in the future. Every time I would attempt to get my camera out I kept envisioning getting dumped. So I would scare myself into keeping it in the dry box. We all know that electronics and water don't mix well.

July 4th Success

This July 4th seemed to go over pretty good this year. Our first activity was our local parade where we ran into a sweet friend/teacher. We enjoyed the parade together where we saw several of our friends including this guy. Whom shall remain nameless in order to protect his wife's children.
Dh and son decided to stay home this year and while that was disappointing we my daughter and I still had a great time.

When we came home it was time to enjoy all the food I had been preparing the last couple of days. Don't you just love my little patriotic jello with the flag made of stars. This one I was a little worried that it would not turn out right since I placed the stars on before I poured the the jello in the pan. It was also fun because I had not seen that type of marshmallow's in the store before so I just HAD to do something with them.

Then for the perfect dessert! Oh yea, you guessed it baby. Home made ice cream!


You can all ways determine the feast was a success when this occurs. I promise I did not use any triptopan or medical aid to induce this behavior.


In the evening we headed over to a friends house for swimming and fireworks. This turned out to be the best decision since the local display ended up being canceled due to a storm. We just waited out the thunder and lightening then went for it.


Those are fire works on the other side of the pool this picture just did not turn out as well on this post as I had hoped.



I'm not sure where my daughter gets this from but she insists on picking up and touch any and everything. Tonight's example was one of the toads that were every where. This pic was taken while she was attempting to kiss it! She reminds me of the that little girl from the cartoons. "I want to hug it, and squeeze it, and love it, and play with it, and, and, and..." In the mean time I am looking for the sanitizer, bleach, soap and what ever else I can find to clean her.


The final proof that the day was a success is what I found in my sink by about 10:30 in the morning today. All those empty little dishes mean they were going back for leftovers already this morning. (They did like it, they really did!)