Happy Belated Turkey Day!!

**So I have a couple of pictures I could post but for some reason I don't even get the icon that allows me to post pictures. 'Tis life! I will post them as soon as Blogger allows me.**

Edit: Here's a picture...

We had a really great Thanksgiving weekend. Thursday the whole family was at my parents house. The food was amazing as usual. We had an apple pie cookoff. I made my first apple pie all by myself. It turned out pretty well. It was a Rum Raisin Apple Pie from Epicurious.com.

Friday morning I got up at an ungodly hour to do a little holiday shopping.. went to Kohl's and spent an ungodly amount of money, then went to Michaels and spent even more. But I have very nearly completed all of my Christmas shopping (however, I have yet to make a dent in E's Christmas shopping.) I ended up getting back to my parents house around 9:30am. Then spent the day playing games, working on a puzzle, and eating. Why can't every day be like that?!

The rest of the weekend was fairly normal. Picked up Nat from the airport on Saturday. Then Sunday we raked leaves. Exciting stuff, I know!

I hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving as well!

Things I'm thankful for:
-E, obviously
-my family
-amazing friends
-basketball season
-a roof over my head
-good food in my belly
-chocolate (I second that, T)
-the holiday season
-music (my dad got me the Dean Martin Christmas cd... I love it)

I asked E what she was thankful for... she said "Turkey".

Then I asked her what a turkey says and she said "Cock-a-doodle-doo." What a goof!

Veterans Day Weekend 2007

So much happened this weekend and it just feels like a blur.

Friday E and I went to Shelley's to help prepare for Saturday's cook-off. We made name-cards and place-mats for everyone. We used fingerpaints and fingerpaint paper to make the place-mats. It was really fun. I don't remember the last time I got to fingerpaint.

Saturday evening we had the cook-off at Roy and Shelley's cabin. Mom & Dad, Roy & Shelley, Sarah & Kevin, and Nat & myself competed in the cook-off. Nat's friend Jessie, Sarah's son Nathan, and John & Robin were judges. Our theme was German food. Roy and Shelley won the overall competition and they cooked Schwenkbraten (sp?). It was amazing. Nat and I made Sauteed Pork Chops with Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage and it was pretty good. We won the title of most authentic... not too shabby. We'll be holding our next cook-off in January. The theme hasn't been chosen yet, but I'm already excited.

Sunday E and I slept in and then went over to Dan & Kristi's. I designed my next quilt. Then Monday I went and got the fabric at Joann's and went back to Dan & Kristi's and got to work. The design I picked looks something like this...

The colors aren't the same, and there will be 25 of these blocks, but you get the idea.

This week I'm off to Boston. My flight leaves today at 4. And then when I get back basketball season will be starting up (try-outs are this week while I'm gone.) I'm going to be assisting the girls team at the local high school. I'm really excited.

Change

I finally got a picture to upload!! It took a ridiculous amount of time!!

Last night E dressed up as Cinderella from her dress-up box that she got for her birthday. She makes a pretty cute princess.

In the midst of getting E dressed up, making dinner, and doing laundry I decided I wanted to re-arrange the living room and my bedroom. So I had TL come over to help me move a couch I had in the basement up to the living room. So now we have 2 couches in there. I did this because I'm going to have at least 7 people in my house Christmas morning and the way the living room was set up before was not conducive to that number of people & a Christmas tree & presents. So there we go.

As for my bedroom, I just needed a change. The 11x10 room (if that) I call my own has very little room for my bed and dresser, and there are only so many places you can put them. My bed is overlapping my closet by about an inch, but doesn't hinder access, so no biggie. I like the new layout, but I woke up in the middle of the night last night and I was confused about where I was. It will take me a little while to get used to -- I now have to get out on the right side instead of the left. Is that TMI? I don't know.

Birthday Weekend

For some reason blogger.com isn't allowing me to post pictures in my post, but I can post pictures to the side. I'll be posting a picture of E at her party and a picture of the cake Nat made. (Updated: 11.07.07 - Finally got to post these pics).









We had a really great weekend. E's party was fun and she got a ton of presents. Her favorite is a baby doll that laughs and cries and sings and talks. Luckily she keeps the thing turned off most of the time. But we've taken it everywhere with us. To bed, to church, out to lunch, to daycare… good times.

Cut and paste the following link… then hit the link above the picture. This is a link to the photo montage I put together for E's birthday. We showed it at the party and it was a big hit.
http://www.logcabinstudios.tv/biographies.htm
Enjoy!

Oops... I forgot

I meant to congratulate one of my best friends. My good friend Lu is set to finish her PhD in Statistics next year. And she just got a job offer from Elon University!

I'm so proud of you, Lu! You're my hero!

Cinderella and a new door

This week has been interesting. E kind of understood what Halloween was. She dressed up as Cinderella and we walked around my parents neighborhood. We took it way easier this year because we still have candy left over from last year. E was supposed to be Tinker Bell, but her friend Dot wanted to be Cinderella so E wanted to be Cinderella too. I ended up wearing her Tinker Bell wings. It was awesome.

Last night E told me she wanted to go over to Miss Lori's house and say "Trick or Treat." I told her we had to wait until next year.

I got my new front door yesterday. Hooray! It looks so good. When I remember to get my camera back from Shelley's I'll take a picture of it so you can see. It totally changes the way the house looks.

Well, E's birthday party is tomorrow. It will be nice to hang out with family and friends. I hope everything goes ok. Hosting things like this always makes me nervous and I don't know why.

Nat is making a cake for the party. She made E's cake last year too. Here's a link to what we'll be going for... http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=50345
I can't wait to see how it turns out.