The Turkey Report

Thanksgiving has come and gone now. I think it was a success. I spent many many days (weeks perhaps?) preparing for that big meal and our company.
Ian's sister, Bruck, Nick and their baby Ezra arrived late Tuesday evening. We quickly got dinner on the table and we all dug in to a great meal of seafood peanut thai curry. Ady quickly ate her dinner and wanted to play with her cousin. But she changed her mind when she realized he wasn't going to go anything she told him to do. He was just going to play with her toys and make a mess in her room. At one point that first night, I was helping Ady pick up that mess when she heard Ezra climbing the stairs. She starts yelling at me, 'Levi is coming! And he's going to get my toys! And destoy my room!! Don't let Levi in my room!" I just laughed and laughed. Levi is a one year old little boy that Ady goes to daycare with!
Wednesday Bruck and I spent a lot of our day cooking. That was exhausting! But I wanted as much of the food already prepared as possible. Since Nick had never been here, and is also a scientist, a trip to Mayo was in order. We bundled up all the kids and took off for downtown. We showed him around some of the Mayo buildings and then grabbed a very late lunch at a greek place downtown.
Earlier in the day I had declared that I wasn't going to make dinner that night so Bruck and Nick offered to prepare some fish that night. They went off to the store and came back with Swordfish. None of us had ever had it before but our meal of fish, salad, fresh greenbeans, and rice turned out to be very good.
After dinner we all loaded up into the car and went the Lights of Bluff Valley. It's a drive through lights display. Ady narrated the whole way for us, which made the trip even better. Owen and Ezra slept through it!
It was late to bed for all of us that night!
Finally, Thanksgiving Day.
The day started off fairly quiet. by 10 I had gotten my turkey out of the brine and roasting in my turkey roaster. Before I knew it it was time to get all the side dished heated up and our two guests had arrived for dinner. Dinner went well. The food was all good and we all left the table feeling very stuffed.

I'll admit it, I was very nervous about this meal. Ian's sister and I haven't always gotten along in the past, but this year, things couldn't have gone better. It was a great meal and a great holiday with lots to be thankful for!

Happy Eater

Like I said, we have started Owen on solids. So far, he likes just about everything. We've tried Brown Rice cereal, carrots, peas, green beans, bannanas, and oatmeal cereal. His favorites would be the carrots and green beans. I got some funny looks this morning when I gave him bannanas for the first time! :)
Becki has given him oatmeal ceral and she said he doesn't seem to be a big fan of it.

I've applied for so many jobs it getting ridiculous. Have I heard anything back? Nope. Nothing.

On today's list:
clean bathroom
try new Rosemary mint shampoo. Walgreen's finally opened today and went there right after dropping the munchkins off so I could get their Rosemary mint shampoo!

The next step

I have started Owen on solid foods. So far we have tried cereal and peas. He's a fan of both! Next on his list are carrots and green beans. I found myself at gerber.com this morning and ended up printing off a recommended menu for him. We'll see how that goes.

Ady is doing good. She is ready for christmas already and keeps asking me when it will be here. :) I cleaned her 'natural disaster' of a bedroom last Monday and she has done an EXCELLENT job of keeping it clean. When she gets up in the morning I tell her to make her bed, and she complies! No whining, no throwing of a fit! Her room is still spotless after a week!

Today, I get to tackle my room. That will be a long chore. I tried to get Ian to help me with is this weekend. You can guess how that went since my plan is to clean it today.

Ian reminds me daily that he is going to be gone more and more as he gets deeper into his research and class work. I know this. I've known this. I don't like a daily reminder. I'm weird, I like having my husband around. I know that there will be times when we don't get to eat a single meal together for a week. I know it's coming, but, dangit, I don't want to think about it now! Thank you very much. Right now, I want to look forward to him coming home at a semi-normal hour 4 out of 5 days a week.

As for me, well still looking for work, still not finding a darn thing. There just isn't anything out there. I'm starting to wonder if we shouldn't pull the kids from daycare now. I know it's only been a couple of weeks but it's grim out there. It would save us a good chunk of money every month. I would probably have to give up my sanity if I was taking care of those 2 babes all week on my own..but we all have to make sacrifices, don't we? I haven't mentioned this to Ian b/c well, it's not my favorite idea. I want to work. I want something that's just for me. And I know that yes, we can live on just what Ian is making while in school, but it would be very very hard to do that. We would have to live on a VERY strict budget. I'd much rather live with two incomes and have a savings account and be able to buy the things that we want not just what we need, and be able to save for vacations. So I'm not giving up yet.

Oh! We had our pictures taken last week. They were ok. I wanted family pictures and they ended up only doing one pose of us as a family. Tons and tons of pictures of the kids though.

Bulletin Post

It's been a while since I've updated this thing, so it's going to be bullets b/c I don't think I could get my thoughts all together!

• Ian took me out for my birthday to a place called 300 First on the 30th. My food was great! I have scallops in mango salsa with grilled polenta. Ian had a steak that was dissapointinly small. Dessert was the best though. Pumpkin cheesecake. Yum!
• For my birthday Ian bought me a new cookbook. 'The Complete America's Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook'. It's fabulous. I'm only about a 1/4 of the way through 'reading' it and there are already so many post-it tabs to mark recipes that I have to make. I've made three so far and each one has been very good!

• Halloween was ok this year. Ady dressed as Snow White. She loved her costume. That downside was that it was very cold that night! We didn't have very many kids come to the door and our doorbell has stopped working so I had to leave the door open so I could see kids coming to the door. Ady came home very cold and tired! 

• My baby is somehow 5 years old now. I can't believe it! She had a good birthday. Ian and I bought her a set of markers that when used on special paper turn out extra bright. She loves them. My refrigerator looks like an art museum now! :) Granny and Pa in Alaska sent some warm winter clothes, Snow White barbie, and a really cool Alaska hat. Granny and Pa in Indiana sent Ady a pretty dress and a 'Willow Tree' Birthday Girl figurine that Ady declared to be 'beeeautiful'. I made a good dinner that night and we finished the meal with carrot cake complete with pink cream cheese frosting:)

• I'm still searching for work. I applied for the director of a small library. We drove to the library this weekend to check it out and see how bad the drive is. That trip pretty much ruled it out for me. It's a very long 1.5 hour drive. One way. And there is nothing but open fields the whole way, so terrible roads in the winter. 
• I think thats all. On today's 'to do ' list: dishes and cleaning Ady's 'natural disaster' of a bedroom!