Let the Shopping Begin!!!

Yes I'm one of the crazy people who will be out on Thanksgiving night shopping and into the wee hours of Friday.  It's the only way I can get the Christmas presents for the boys.  This year I'll be cutting it a little tight.  I fly out to Boston Friday afternoon so I'm actually thankful most can be done Thursday night.  And I know some of you are against this.  Having worked retail for many years and working Thanksgiving, Christmas ... I know it sucks but I also know I needed the money and the time and a half was always nice.

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and you that brave the stores be-careful and remember to be kind to those around you.

A funny I had to share:

Weekend to be Thankful …

What a fun weekend it was like a 4 day break, but I had to work a short time on Saturday like usual but 3 hours was nothing.

As most of you know I spent most of Wednesday after working prepping and cooking and then cooking before my guest arrived for Dinner.  Sadly my dad was sick so he stayed home and my cousin and family didn’t stop by so it was very small with lot’s of food … lol.

If you’re needing some yummy weight watcher friendly holiday foods here are my two post of what I made.

First off I noticed that wow my roots are looking crazy long … then I counted and I was a few weeks overdo for a color.  I gave our cousin a call and she was so sweet and squeezed me in after hours.

Thanksgiving was a great day, my mom and grandmother stopped over for dinner.  The boys even got to stay the night with my parents! Yeah!!

Now the stores went and moved Black Friday up to Thursday PM which wasn’t bad it was kind of nice to do it early.  So I put my teenies on and my hat (Well at first the wrong one … lol).  Rick decided to work for his security job they took on security for Walmart shoppers.  That left me shopping by myself.  I was a little nervous to go by myself.  Then by God’s hand I ran into a old friends mom, I hadn’t seen either of them in almost a year.  We said hi and then I went on.  I looped around and again and ran into both of them got to talking and I had instant shopping buddies which was really cool.  So we finished up Walmart & went on to Target.  NOW the only bad thing was Fred Meyers stuck to their 5am so after we tried two restaurants to come to the conclusion who is going to be open Thanksgiving pm, we headed to my friends house for a snack and coffee.  We killed 3 hours watching Son’s on Anarchy, my first time watching.  By 6am I was done with my Christmas shopping.  I finished the boys, the boy at church Cole picked to buy for, Rick and even for me.  Plus I had a pile of things to go back, I have the grab and return later if I don’t need theory .

By Friday I had the presents wrapped and the boys home.  Rick brought down the tree and put it all up for me and even put the presents underneath.  The rest of the weekend was kind of lazy, except Sunday for church and then the boys and I helped decorate the church.  Now to finish up the stocking stuffers and we’re done!

So how was your Thanksgiving?  Did you Black Friday shop?  Is your shopping done?

WWW ~ Kids Clinic, Playdates & Thanksgiving!

Wowzer time is just flying by and you add in the holidays and it seems like it is harder and harder to fit everything in. Does the early nights with the sunset make anyone else feel like your day is passing you by??? Gosh I am sick AGAIN, I swear these little germ carriers I call kids keep making me sick and it stays FOREVER!! I've missed a few Wednesday Weekend Wrap ups so I merged them all together for a quick overview :). Yup I'm always thinking about you ... hehe yes I know my life is so not the do or die but it's still fun.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We've had a few Lowe's Kids Clinics. Ok if you haven't done one get your butt up on every other Saturday, you go it's free and the kids have fun!! Here is a few we've done in the last few weeks!

We've had a few playdates and a fun Birthday party at a gymnastic place. The boys and I have been having some fun, staying in from the cold outside!

Second I had a baby shower to go to. Usually I make a huge diaper cake that takes me like 6+ hours I whipped up one real quick in about 4 1/2 hours. OK so I get there a girl takes the cake I warn her it is not stable. About 10 min later Cole comes running up and whispers in my ear mom they are putting your cake in a bag. OH no she didn't I go down to the gifts to find them shoving (YES shoving) my cake not even into a gift bag but a brown bag! I walk over and they are like oh it fell apart we're just putting it in a bag. YOU got to be kidding me 4 1/2 HOURS of work and you're not even going to come get me to fix it! They go oh do you want to fix it, I snap you THINK I only spent 5 hours on it (I gave myself a 1/2 hr ... lol). Finally someone did come help but say the least I was a unhappy camper! So sadly not my prettiest cake and a little worse for the ware but hey it was thought that counts I guess.

Thanksgiving brought us a dinner at church with all our friends there on Sunday. Tuesday brought us a snowstorm of no school for the week! And Thursday came for family coming over! Ok so I have a friend that I offered to come over she said she had no $ for dinner. Then it became her mom & son. THEN Thursday AM she called to say her brother was coming also?? Ok she kicked this person out for drugs. I'm sorry I feel like I'm being taken advantage of, also my family doesn't care for this person I initially invited so I was already sticking my neck out. So I told her sorry this isn't going to work. She was going to go with me BF shopping since I didn't have anyone to go with. She then says I have a $1000 & I'm going with my family. So she was going to bring the whole fam here for dinner and do a dine and dash! Yup the doormat is rolled in, no more welcomed! Then I was blessed my mom said she was surprising me & taking the boys over night!! This is the FIRST time both boys have spent the night, and Cole's like 6 time staying there. THEN Rick surprised me and said he was going to go with me!! He even had to work the next AM. YUP so all works out in the end. I learned a valuable lesson and actually had a good family dinner. Only a few comments when I wasn't in the room about Cole and being hyper and how another grandkid would NEVER be like that :). The favorites are always the favorite but no matter what Cole did a pretty good job!

Few that is the world we've been having, some highs and lows but over all so much fun and no matter what anyone says my boys I'll take you hyper with all the hugs and kisses and I love yous :).

I'm a big girl now ...

Today was the day and I was going to do it all by myself no calling mom, ok maybe a little help from the Internet but really does that count? So here it is the day I did it by myself, well clean up all goes to my wonderful hubby Rick (yup he gets major high fives today).

When I woke at 6:30am you know feeling fully rested since I went to bed at midnight! I rolled out of bed and got ready to go to K-Mart's Thanksgiving Sale, hey I at least brushed my hair and teeth no comments about the outfit that I wore. All I can say thank you Lord that my children are young and don't want the Wii or whatever Guitar Hero thing people were about to throw down over. All I wanted was a few toys and some DVD's for $3.99 (who can beat that). I did end up standing in line for about 20 minutes since I had to check out in Electronics to buy the DVD's which I thought was a little silly but oh well. All I can say is WOW $250 for a game system and people where so excited about this price? I guess I'm more on the side of less is more? I was talking to a girlfriend and she was talking about a $300 truck that she was getting for her 3 year old, more power to her, in ways I wish I had this money for a gift then on the other hand this gives me heartburn (and no way do I want another ER visit). I think I'll stay away from this items. Is it weird for me to be a little freaked out over gifts this expensive for kids? Man I remember being excited over a phone and a phone line and that was at age 16 and I had to pay the monthly payment, I really think this is the most expensive gift my parents gave to me. Wait when I was 19 they did buy me a car for a $1000, but that was 19 and they were sick of driving me around so it was just as much for them. Ok getting over it and moving on to the day I had.

I was gone a total of 1 1/2 hours when I was about 10 minutes away from the house the phone rings, "Where are You?" Geez you act like taking care of the kids for the 1/2 hour they were up is going to kill you, what do you think I do every night and every weekend? So he has to go back to bed to take a nap since he's so tired, wouldn't that be nice. You know what's on my plate the dinner you're going to eat tonight. Every Thanksgiving and Christmas we have a Sausage and Egg Casserole which is perfect since you make it the night before and then heat the following morning. So while I started on the meal of the day, I put this in the oven for the hungry boys. Pretty soon the house was smelling of yummy sausage and melting cheese and I was bustling around pre-making everything so I can just slip them in the oven when it's time. The boys loved the casserole even though they had to add ketchup, I've created monsters! Everything was ready to go and I got a hair brain idea that we needed to go out and check out who else had sales going on today. We got dressed, put the turkey in the oven and left Rick and Caden who were sleeping soundly. We head to Wal-Mart who is not having a Thanksgiving Sale but if you bring in an add they will match, good to know for next year. Drove over to Target to find they were closed, so headed to a different K-Mart picked up a few more DVD's better lines this time since all the Wii's were sold out (crazy people).

We pull into the driveway and I have my speech all ready to tell mr. sleepy head what I thought of his sleeping in. I open the door and to my amazement my Christmas tree was set up, oh yeah all bad thoughts were gone! He even did all the dishes and PUT them away! He then started on a few little projects I've been asking to be done. I wanted to check to see if the body snatchers had taken him but I was to excited to care. We were gone so long the turkey was almost done, just had to throw the side dishes in and make up the pumpkin pies. Just a simple traditional meal nothing fancy for my first go around. I can't wait to see and read about the meal that Christine @ The Mistress of Cakes because she is just amazing and I wish I had just a fraction of her abilities! So my meal was traditional and not gorgeous but I was excited that I did it all by myself! I even had a nap after dinner and awoke to everything put away in the fridge and ALL the dishes done. Rick so redeemed and has a check mark in the good column, we'll see how long that last!

Rick is off to his second job and we're watching a movie and having some hot chocolate with marshmallows and whip cream! Yummy! Happy Thanksgiving everyone, Blessings to you and your families!

A few pictures of our Thanksgiving!

The Table is Set!

My 1st Turkey by myself! (Love the chili platter?)

What I'm not doing anything!

Ok fine I'll smile!

Yummy meal! Pumpkin Pie, nothing fancy this year!