Wow! It was a GREAT Thanksgiving! Lots of good food....it's too long to list. Lots of happy family...also too numerous to list. Laughing so hard I had to run to the sink to spit my water out. The excitement of an engagement. And on top of all that, Kara had her first four basketball games. What a wonderful time watching her play. She is one of five players left on the freshman basketball team. The team has been decimated by the sophomore and varsity coaches taking freshman up to fill their rosters. This past weekend they brought one freshman back down, so they had six players. The other teams had at least double of that and usually way more than double. On Friday they lost their two games, but fought hard. On Saturday they were amazing! The first game they were behind 16-5 at the half and ended up coming back to win 23-22! A nailbiter, for sure. Then they had about 5 minutes to rest and they played again. I don't remember the exact score but we won by about 6 or so. She had a huge cheering section for that game, as many cousins and siblings and an uncle came to cheer her on! Tomorrow is her next game and I'm excited to see how they do! Meanwhile I'm praying for my boys who are getting ready to make a long trip back down to FC. They are in Indy tonight at her house (well her house too), resting up until midnight when they will travel to Bowling Green and pick up another driver and head to FC.

No comments about swimming in Egypt, okay?

There is no way that Thanksgiving could be here in two days. Am I supposed to be doing something besides sitting here in my robe, talking to a black screen?

The list for today:
Pick up clutter
Go see Jonah perform with the Madrigal singing troupe at the local elementary school check
return books to library check
spot shampoo the carpet check
wish i had cleaned the upholstery too
cook chicken check
assemble dinner check
chop veggies for stuffing, steamed veggies and squash casserole (is it too early for this step?) check
determine whether the avocados i bought last week will be too ripe by Friday. check
if they will be, then make huge batch of guacamole to give away and buy more for Friday
if they won't...hope i'm rightcheck
pack up jonah's "art table" (clutter table) and move the stuff downstairs.
clean some of the more used cabinets in my kitchen so people won't know how messy i am ;-)
put money in bank so kids can get home check
run to grocery store for other stuff check

Tommorrow:
kids don't have school so they'll be doing some of the dirty work!

bathroomsmine's not done...sshh!
washing sheetslast load is in, interrupted by college dirty clothes
vacuuming check
mopping flooruh....no!
clean off hutchcheck
i'm sure there'll be much more...can't think of it now there was lots more, but it's done!


Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I'm going to try to relax a little. ;-) dinner with just the immediate family...way more than 2 and a half minutes

This week seemed to drag and then it flew by! How does that happen? The basement has gotten a "once over" and I think it needs another. So much dust!! The big boys' rooms are all cleaned up and ready for visitors. Washing curtains that are full of dog hair...vacuuming up dog hair...still have much stuff to do, but at least three beds are ready. I'll have 17 people ages 10-25, plus three of us over 40 staying here...and no, we don't have a big house. The rest of the adults will be staying at my parents' house a couple of blocks away and at my grandma's apartment across town. All together we'll have 31 people...if we've counted correctly! Still have to buy my white elephant gift, but the stocking stuffers are ready. We do things differently here. No surprises there!
My oldest boys will be home from college. We'll have about two and a half minutes with them before the whole crew of cousins descends, but it will be a nice two and a half minutes.

Once the bickering stopped and we all figured out how to work with each other we were able to pull off a pretty nice party. I kept my mouth shut a lot. I mostly managed the food and the flowers and left the rest of the decorating and the cake to the others. I was in my element....had a blast! If I could find some clients, I think I'd like to do this for pay! I had never done a flower arrangement for real before, but I think these turned out really nice. I don't think anyone took pictures of them though. Oh well!
Because my in-laws are deaf, about 2/3 of the guests were also deaf. It makes for an interestingly quiet party. Which is kinda nice! :-) There was lots of picture taking, but it was odd to me that there was no request for a picture that included the daughter-in-law. I tried not to be hurt by it and just count it as a blessing. No broken cameras!! I think Mike took a few of me working in the kitchen, so at least we know I was there. :-)

Well I've put it off as long as possible...well, not really. One year I forgot to renew my license until I was in with Jordan to get his license and they said, "Ummm...ma'am this expired 3 months ago." oops!! Sometimes they just let us mail something in and they give us a sticker that extends it. Guess it was that speeding ticket a couple of years ago...my privileges have been taken away! Off to the testing center. Have a good day!

UPDATE: Every so often in our state you are required to take the written test (I think it's every 8 years or something like that...i actually have no idea, i just know i haven't taken one in a long time) and if your birthday falls on one of the random days they have selected, then you also have to take the driving test. On the way to the place I realized I had forgotten to put our new "proof of insurance" card in the car last month when I renewed our insurance. Oop! If I was a random one who needed to take the driving test, I have to show proof of insurance to take the test. I decided to chance it and go anyway. I walked in grabbed my number and took a seat and then immediately remembered that I forgot to bring the mandatory piece of paper that i was supposed to bring. I put my number back, walked back out and went home. As I got home, one of my college sons called to get my help with picking some of his classes for next semester so I did that. Then back out the door with the paper and the proof of insurance. Turns out I just had to do the eye test and the written test (which really isn't written at all...it's a touch screen and it was like playing a video game). Most of the questions could be answered by any fifth grader and I only missed one. There was just one awkward moment in the whole experience... the matter of changing the "weight" on my driver's license. It went up significantly. :(


UPDATE: Because of her funny story below, i decided to give the details of "weight changing" story. After all, it's just a number, as she said!
Here's how mine went down....Last time I got it renewed (2008) the guy didn't even ask. And the time before that we did the renewal thru the mail option, so it has actually been 12 years since the weight on my DL has been changed. So, yesterday, when the lady said, "You are still 5'9" and 120 lbs?" I almost burst out laughing. Instead, I lowered my voice, bent down lower to the counter so that her computer monitor was blocking my face, in case anyone was trying to read my lips, and whispered, "Actually, I weigh one hundred and fifty.........five." Yep! 35 lbs. in just 12 short years!! That's less than 3 lbs. a year, but if I keep this up they may have to make the doors wider in the house!! Granted 15 of that I needed to gain anyway, so I figure if I can lose the other twenty I should be in good shape...anyone want to go to the gym? :-)