Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year has been absolutely wonderful. Of course, I think it always is. I didn't take the time to blog leading up to the holiday. Which, now puts me behind, but what else is new : ) I immersed myself in some heavy duty cleaning & preparations. Once it was all done on Wednesday night we kicked off the cooking. I have plenty of helpers in this area.


Angel made this cherry pie from scratch.

Gotta lick all the good stuff off the bottom!


We spent hours & hours of cooking. I didn't get to bed until 1 a.m. It was worth it to have such a clean house, yummy treats lining the counter top and a house filled with scrumptious aromas.



The next day we had fun putting the final touches on everything & waiting for our guests to arrive.

Our first set of guests for the big turkey dinner was the Fairlie family.


The turkey turned out perfectly!!!! Jim gave me high praise & compliments on how well it turned out. Cooked enough where it just fell off the bone, yet not dry at all.

There was plenty of yummy food for everyone to enjoy.

Later we played games:
Mandy & Ronda split the wishbone:

Mandy won!
Later that day my parents & two nieces came over for supper. We had a more laid back supper of soup & sandwiches.

It is a Martin tradition to sit around playing marbles.



We can sit around for hours playing game after game.
On Friday Jim had to work, but the kids & I spent the day lounging around and just relaxing. I am so not a shopper and didn't even think about setting foot outside the house for any kind of retail activity. I did have to do a bit of cleaning up from the day before, but considering I did all the big cleaning earlier in the week it took very little time. It's nice to have days to lay in bed watching movies or playing games with the kids with no thought to time.

On Friday night we had another family of friends join us for more food & time of playing games. It was so nice to have plenty of family & friends pass through our home. I didn't have much prep to do, I dug out all the leftovers and we went to town having a feast. The kids had a good time entertaining themselves while the adults played a nice game of Scrabble.

PIRATES!

Arrrrgh me matey!

Brianna & John had their school musical last night. Only the 5th graders are given principle/solo parts. The 4th graders are only allowed to be the choir. Nina was given the lead as the Stowaway. When Brianna was in 3rd grade she also was given the lead role (the same rule is applied to the 2nd/3rd grade musical).

Even though John was "only" in the choir, he made a mighty fierce & handsome pirate.


Brianna in action:


Singing her main solo, Lost at Sea.



Nina posed for me on this treasure chest. We've had this chest in our basement for years. I use it to store things. I got it at a yard sale down the street for $5. It WAS blue, but I re-painted it specifically for this musical. Now we have a nice pirate-y looking chest in our basement : )


Below you will find the youtube links so you can view the musical. There was a audio malfunction toward the end of the 1st clip. I stopped the video while they tried to fix the problem. Once things got rolling again MY CAMERA malfunctioned and while I tried to fix it I missed the Stowaway song that they had re-started.


The audio malfunction turned out to be Brianna's microphone. So you see her messing with her mic a lot. Her main solo, Lost at Sea, can be found at 10:20.


The last part. Can I just say....she does an AMAZING job!!!! I know I'm totally biased. But they are BOTH great in this musical. I'm so proud I just wanna weep big ole mommy happy tears!

FIVE years

It seems like a decent chunk of time, yet it passes by rather quickly.

One goes from looking like this:



To this:


HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY ANDREW JAMES CLARENCE!!!!

Flashback Friday

It's been awhile since I have done a FF post. Mostly cause I have been "too busy" to blog on fridays. I don't have much time today either, but wanted to make sure to squeeze this one in. Since yesterday was Veteran's Day I knew I'd better flash back to a time when both Jim & I served in the military.

Jim served in the Army. He was full time for 4 years & was amongst the first troops to be sent to Saudi Arabia in 1990. Yep, he is a war vet. And, no, as his joke goes, I was not in grade school while he was off fighting the war. I was in high school. The last thing on my mind during that time was serving my country. Unbeknownst to myself though that I would some day join him in the ranks. Later, Jim served 4 years in the reserves. This detail is extremely crucial because that is where we met.



I joined the Army Reserves when I was still a senior in high school. My military days are not nearly as decorated as Jim's, but I did my part, I served my time.


Our military days are but a glimmer in our past. They are very important to who we are. Without it, there would be no Jim & I. We are both honored to have served our country and am thankful for the opportunities it gave us.

It is official!

Today I signed up Jim & I for the Illinois Marathon. Our first marathon!! It's not until April 30, but, believe it or not, you have to sign up for these big races MONTHS in advance or else they sell out. Not to mention they will continue to raise the price every so often making it more & more expensive to do.

I'M EXCITED! (I know, shocking that such events would tickle my fancy)

Below are some pics, not related to signing up for a marathon or race of any kind. But some fun fall pics to add since I am blogging. We have had such great fall folliage I had a bunch of great pics that I've taken. Will need to blog about all of that : )

John up in a tree.


John & Brianna in a whirlwind of leafs.

You create a big pile of leafs and they want to climb in & play. Instant entertainment : )


A late fall bloom outside my dining room window.


My front door:

Screaming Pumpkin

Last weekend I raced as a team in a marathon. This is not your average/normal marathon. For several reasons....1) It was ran at night time. Yes, as in the dark. For most of the race that meant complete pitch blackness. Some areas of the course were lit by near by streetlights. And some, but not all, of the people wore headlamps or carried a flashlight. The only way to know where to go was to follow the path of glow sticks they laid on the ground. Glow sticks (like the ones kids like to wear)that after awhile started to fade. (I did see them putting out new glow sticks from time to time). 2) It was run through a cemetery. Well, that just made things a lot funner. Pitch blackness AND a cemetery. 3) The whole point of the race was not to see who could finish the fastest, but rather who could finish the closest to midnight & not go over. You had up to 6 hours to complete the course. So anytime after 6 you could start and pace yourself for that specific time. To make this a little more interesting, there were no clocks on the course and you were not suppose to wear a watch or any time keeping device.

So a group of my running girlfriends, all hear about this race & think.....THIS WOULD BE SO MUCH FUN! (I know, we are such a rare breed of people). For the most part, it was fun. We had a blast. Not that we'd always want to run in such conditions, but we got into the spirit of it all and never gave it a second thought.

When I signed us up for the race there were 3 of us who was going to run for sure. We were looking for a 4th person, but didn't have that detail figured out yet. We were worried that the race would sell out so we decided to sign up anyway and figure out the rest later. (If all else failed we knew I would be crazy enough to run 2 legs so that was our back up plan). I filled out all the necessary forms online, but it required we fill in that 4th name. In an attempt to be a smart alec I put the name Minnie Mouse in that spot. I had been planning to make & run in a full nun costume, but my smart alec moment turned into a stroke of genius and I decided to go as Minnie, since, after all, I did say she would be there.

I'm not much of a sewer and what I do concoct it's fair to say I'm not much of a by the book or by the rule type of sewer. I bought the fabric & a pattern. I only used to pattern for the main pieces of the outfit. For fun, I tried to actually read the sewing directions. It was like reading a foreign language. I found myself quite amused at how complicated they made it in writing. I put all that aside & just started sewing....my way.

Back to the race. We guesstimated how long it would take us to run & set off. I ran the first leg with Sarah, to keep her company. Then I started the next leg with Angela and the same with Elizabeth. Finally it was my turn to run my leg. It actually really helped that I had already run with the others cause I knew what to expect when. It was not an easy course to navigate. Running & not seeing where your feet are landing is hard. Some of the path was wide & well paved. Other parts were narrow, uneven and gravelish. For some extra fun there was also some nice steep hills thrown in from time to time. I would run looking down so much to "watch my step" then realized that I had not looked up for some time. Which looking up is helpful when there are other people on the course and some of the traffic is two way. Not everyone wore any kind of lighting or even much reflective gear. So all of a sudden about 2 feet in front of you a black image would pass by you and scurry past. The cemetery we ran through is the largest & oldest in the area. So there were plenty of big mausoleums & statues to pass by as well. Not that I could see much of it in detail, but I knew they were there.

Here we are as a team before we started to run.



And here we are right after we finished. (Sarah had to leave early). We did finish before midnight. We had 1 minute & 52 seconds to spare, but even that wasn't close enough for us to receive a team trophy. Anyone that finished before midnight received a tiara & magic wand (that was the prized possession we were really after) and if you finished after midnight you got a pumpkin. So no matter what...everyone was a winner. We all made a pact that we would wear our tiara & sport our wands the next day no matter what. I guess, it helped that it was the day before Halloween. Plenty of people were wearing some sort of costume around town that day. I just happened to blend it with it all. But if anyone asked I'd get a big grin across my face & tell them about what great fun I had the night before.

Halloween

I'm on a roll today with house work. So this is meant to be a quick stop on the computer to get a few things done. First on my things-to-do-on-the-computer-list: blog! If I wait until everything on my housekeeping-to-do list is done then I would probably never get to blog. EVER. I promise myself though that if I keep it short & sweet then I can give myself just this little bit of time. Of course, I'm not really blogging for me, but for the masses of people that check out this blog everyday. Ok and now I am rambling on, trying to be witty and not meeting my short & sweet goal. (Can you tell I've been home all day & with no one, but a 2 & 4 year old to hold a conversation with?)

Halloween was last week. If you didn't know that they you are missing out on a lot of good candy....and maybe cavities too, but we'll stick with candy cause it taste so yummy! Here is the roll out of what we all dressed up as.

Angel was a ballerina. Gotta get plenty of use out of those costumes that we spent hundreds of dollars for. (no, that was not an exaggeration, the one she is wearing cost over $300).



Mandy was an 80's girl. Or as she would say "a girl from a LOOOONG time ago".


Brianna was Little Red Riding Hood. Paid $1 at a yard sale for that cape.


John was a football player. No stretch of the imagination needed for that, but he does play the part quite well.


Andrew was Batman. Rummaged through the toy box to find that get up.


Carmen was a blue M & M. We've had that costume for 14 years or so. It originally belonged to my nephew & was then passed down to Angel. Every kid, except Andrew has worn that costume.


Here is the group shot. I didn't post about my specific costume, that belongs in another post. But for now, I will brag....I made/sewed it myself.