Time for Change

That statement always reminds me of the Brady Bunch episode when Peter's voice begins to change.

For today that change is reminding me of our Oklahoma weather. I spent the last two days outside enjoying the weather even getting a light spring sunburn. Fast forward 24 hours to snow, snow, snow and more snow. I honestly have had enough of winter this year.

Changes are definitely happening in the mommyfried house. The preteen years are smacking us in the face. I know that the school will soon be sending home a note to give permission for my oldest to go to "your body is changing" class. I will reluctantly allow my kids to attend but I feel it is my duty to introduce them to this stuff myself. So today since we were snowed in became the perfect opportunity to introduce shaving. Now I know boys and girls shave differently but I thought to my self what better way to get out some of the winter dull drums than to put both kids in the tub with a soapy substance and sharp objects. At first the concentration was intense then well you know it was bound to happen. I will let the following pictures tell the tale themselves.

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!