Thankful

We have had a great and relaxing Thanksgiving so far. I got quite a few tasks/meal prep done yesterday. Today, all I had to do was make the Sweet Potato Casserole and heat up the ham. There were little things to do, but we ate by 1:00 which was our goal. Our menu consisted of:
Spiral Sliced Ham from Heavenly Ham - precooked, I heated it, so good, Abbie's fav
Sweet Potato Casserole - we have this every year
Green Beans - straight from the can
Rolls - Sister Schuster, yummy
Pineapple Glaze - for ham
Cranberry Salad - made with Jello and cranberry sauce, very tasty
Pumpkin Pie - thanks to the ring Annie sent me, the crust did not burn - thanks Annie!

Snack - before we ate, we had a relish tray and an Hawaiian Cheese Ball

Everything turned out really well! Thankful for that!

We are thankful for our family, our health, and having plenty to eat.

Before we ate, we opened gifts from Peggy. Then Abbie got lethargic and sickly. She had a slight fever. After some Tylenol and a long nap, she seems to have bounced back.

Crap in My Wallet

Have you noticed all the stuff you have to keep in your wallet these days. I need a discount card for all the grocery stores I go to (two stores), I have a Hallmark card, a Barnes and Noble card, a punch card for the coffee shop I go to (buy 8 and get one free), a punch card for the car wash (buy x amount, get 1 free), a stamp card for the ice cream parlor Abbie likes, a stamp card for Keva Juice, a discount card for Pet Smart (I don't know what that is all about, I never seem to get a break when I make a purchase), a card for CVS (I never use the coupons that print on my receipt), etc, etc, etc. These are not credit cards - they are just discount cards, or really, just tracking cards.
This drives me crazy at the grocery store - my cart is full of groceries, I start unloading on the belt, and the kid immediately says, "do you have a Kroger card?" I say yes while continuing to unload, but they look at me like they need to scan the card right then. Please! I just keep unloading and ignore them. They can scan it when I get done and get to the register. Come on! They've got me trained - I'm not going to forget to give them my discount card.
This is what I felt like blogging about today :)

Friday Nights

On Friday nights, we have family night. After work, we usually go out to eat and do some other fun activity. I always look forward to it.
Now that Paul has changed his work schedule, he is getting off work even earlier on Fridays so the fun begins even earlier in the day!
Today we didn't do much more than drive around for awhile and eat at a pizza parlor, but we always enjoy ourselves. Now, we are home waiting for the new episode of Avatar to come on.
After Abbie goes to bed, we are going to watch some episodes of The Office, last season -we get it on Netflix.
Tomorrow, Abbie and I are going to a holiday cooking class (it's mainly for her), and I am looking forward to that.

Sleeping in - not with a cat

Today, I could have slept in, but Baby (our cat) had other ideas. She wanted to be fed. To make sure that I have not forgotten that she lives in the house and must eat every few hours, she acts incredibly cuddly. Being cuddly is nice, but Baby is one fat kitty. I think she is genetically driven to be fat. She is currently on diet cat food, which she is not happy about, but it is not making a difference. She is as round as ever (and I know she is not able to steal food from anywhere else in the house). Back to sleeping in...
So Baby jumps on the bed and climbs on top of me (I am a side sleeper). She trots all the way up to my shoulders and plops down. It is hard to ignore her since she is so heavy. She will gladly sleep this way until I get up, which doesn't take very long since I can't go back to sleep with that big load laying on me. If we don't close her up in the laundry room at night, she will come into our room bright and early and knock things over to wake us up.
Our (deceased) cat Molly was similar, but she didn't climb on us. She would just make a lot of noise to wake us up. If we closed the door to our bedroom, she would pound on the door with her big paws. If I got up and put her outside (so we could get more sleep), she would climb onto the windowsill and pound on the screen (which made a lot of noise). That was pretty annoying.
It is actually cat feeding time right now. Baby actually meowed at me to make sure I knew what time it was. Okay, okay, I'm coming...

Tagged - 6 facts about me

Are these supposed to be little known facts?
1) This is not a little known fact - I love animals. I'd like to have one of about every kind. I wish I could have a job working with animals. I make a huge effort not to kill bugs unnecessarily. I pull over and help lost and wild animals. The other day, I was driving down the interstate and saw a turtle attempting to cross. I didn't have time to pull over. I felt a lot of guilt about not stopping to help the turtle, and I ended up having a turtle nightmare. I swerve to avoid squashing wooly worms that cross our country roads. Some day, I'll probably be the crazy cat lady.
2) I love to read. Sometimes, now that Abbie is in school, I spend all day reading. Sometimes I have to force myself to put the book down so I can run around the house to get things done. Then, before I know it, I have devoured a wonderful book then I am sad that the book is over, but I can't seem to pace myself when the book is really good. When I really need to get a lot of housework done (or projects), I have to avoid the bookstore at all costs. There is a book that I really want to write. I just need to make myself sit down and write some every day. I was just thinking about this today (I think about it a lot), but I still have not accomplished much.
3) I'm a little embarrassed about this one....Lately, I've been listening to a lot of rap/ghetto music. Not sure what to call it. I downloaded several songs with the explicit lyrics. I can't listen to this stuff with Abbie in the car, but I sure do like it. And it's all basically about sex in some way or another. Same as all the 80's rock music I liked. I still like all that 80's rock music too. I have discovered that I like making my own mixed tapes (CD's). I download all sorts of stuff, including country music. I can be diverse.
4) I've been thinking a lot lately about getting older. About my life being half over (maybe). About the fact that I may never lose weight, that I may never be skinny again, that physically, this may be the best shape I'll ever be in. This may be the best I'll ever look - it may be downhill from here. It's depressing.
5) On a more positive note, I am a "glass is half full" kind of person. I get up everyday renewed with a lot of hope in my heart. I am a peacemaker. I want everyone to get along and be happy. I try to smooth things over and point out the positive things in a bad situation (sometimes I think this drives Paul crazy). For the most part, I am Pollyanna Sunshine. It keeps me sane.
6) I would like to travel to so many places. But I don't like to fly. Flying scares me. I get pretty anxious on flights. I prefer non-stop flights so that I only have to deal with one plane that day. There are so many places I want to go (places I want to experience with Abbie) so I will fly when I have to. I have made a list. Hopefully, I'll get to go someday. And I'd like to go to the beach at least 3 times a year.

Days Go By

Today, I worked on cleaning up the house. It was a wreck due to working long hours on closing our business. While cleaning, I decided to reorganize Abbie's bookcase. We always have a steady stream of new books coming in - trips to the bookstore, the book fair at school, classroom Scholastic book orders, etc. Abbie has more books than toys.
I have actually cleaned her bookcase many times (I like to reorganize), but I have only put books in storage once. Today was the second time that I have removed books that I will put in storage. This made me feel really sad. I removed board books - favorites that we don't read anymore but have read so so many times in the past. Favorites that I just couldn't bear to take down. You hear the saying, "kids grow up so fast" many, many times. And while I've always believed it, I actually felt it to be true for ME today. Abbie is now 45 lbs, mostly too heavy for me to carry for very long. She can now reach the sink while brushing her teeth without needing a stool. And now we are reading chapter books - Judy Bloom - instead of Mr. Brown Can Moo and Guess How Much I Love You. I felt a profound sadness today as I cleaned her bookcase. This will strike all parents, in different ways, at different times. The passing of time in books; that is where it got me.

Strange Questions

These days, Abbie is filled with questions, and she comes home with odd facts that she has learned from other kids in her class. I have to remind her not to believe everything she hears. Today, she asked me if it was true that you could burst a blood vessel in your throat if you cough too much. Yesterday, she asked me if you can be dead and your heart still be beating. Earlier this year, she asked me if there was a pink bee that could kill you. There are many more questions like that and not all of them are death or health related. Many times, we have sat down at the computer and researched things (something I love to do) to see if there is any fact to the things she hears, for example, the pink bee. We never did find a pink killer bee, but we did find some great educational bee and ant videos on National Geographic. For a while, she liked to talk about army ants (while her harvester ants were busy tunneling in her ant habitat).

While it is great that she is inquisitive, I never know what subject we are going to be discussing!