The day after the Weekend before...

Thanksgiving was so much fun. There was so much food. There was so much family. Now I wish I had a maid (oh, I forgot I AM the maid)

The grandkids had fun doing their own Nativity set!

The "girls" enjoyed doing the Wreaths.

The family enjoyed playing Apples to Apples while a kitten rested on Matt's shoulders.

And on Cameron's shoulders....very weird kat

I can't get over how weird this kat is! He was very comfy here.
We did a lot of this:



Snuggy time with mom and soon-to-be baby brother:

The girls check out the Black Friday ads:

Nick got roped into helping with the Christmas wreaths. He isn't talking to me yet, I wonder why.


Happy Birthday dad!
I love my family. They are all a little weird BUT I wouldn't have it any other way.

Me and my better half. (I really need a haircut)
Well, I gotta go, the HAZMAT team AND the EPA called and are coming over to condemn my house.

What a sweet person!

Wow! What a weekend! Family, food, fun, friends!
It's been a whirlwind and I'll post pictures later of all the fun we had. But...
I just wanted to say thanks to Kimmie.
I can't remember where I stumbled across her blog, but she's pretty awesome. Fabulous cook, organizer, frugalista and all around nice person.
We live in the same town.
We've run into each other in the store. But I know her best through her blog.
She showed up to my house on Wednesday night.
She's a busy person. Just go to her blog and see all that she pulled off for Thanksgiving.
But...
She popped in to say hi and drop off a little treat.
With all she had to accomplish she took time to be thoughtful.
Isn't she darling? I had just gotten home from a 12 hour shift in the ER. She's all perky and cute. I look like I'd just gotten home from a 12 hour shift in the ER.

Huckleberry soda and ice cream.

She obviously knows how much I love huckleberries.
Thank you Kimmie. You are a doll. They were delicious!

Eh hem........mmmm

OK, so with a little bit of shame I must admit that I found myself in a theater this afternoon.
I begged my daughter My oldest daughter wanted some one on one time with me and begged me to go to a matinee with her.
We went and saw New Moon.
Uhm, it was really pretty good ANDsorta yummy
I know I was being a little self-righteous in my previous post. (sorry Cherie about the judgey comment I left in your blog about you being over the top and looney over the whole New Moon thing and you've lost your ever-loving mind and all that stuff)
Anyway, when your daughter who has been away from home living all over the country for the past 7 years wants to spend some time with you...well, what can you say? You must sacrifice to make them feel loved.
I was just fulfilling my motherly duties. Really!

Team Edward or Jacob? Neither, I'm team Bullock!

I'm probably the only person with a pulse that didn't go see New Moon this weekend.
I'm OK with that.
I'll go....sometime.
But I couldn't wait to see this show:

I LOVED the show! Sandra Bullock was fabulous!
I recommend this one for the entire family.

"Honey, you need more power tools for the Man-cave"

I'm sure my better half would think he'd died and gone to heaven if he ever read my blog and read that sentence. "oh dear, why don't you run to Home Depot or Lowes and buy some more power tools. I think they are fabulous" Well, he can thank blogs for this new obsession I have with power tools.
I need to quit looking at blogs! There are so many people doing such cute holiday crafts and have such great ideas and I wanna do them all!
Monday my better half flew to Canada, so as soon as he was outta my hair lovingly kissed goodbye, I went into the man-cave.
It's kind of a cool place.
He doesn't like me in there.
I mess up his stuff.
I've also been accused of throwing things away (my #1 rule: if they haven't been used in a decade we don't need them)
(He gets a little bent out of shape when I throw his stuff away.)
Anywayz, I was trying to cut out blocks of wood with this:

A measly piece of equipment as far as I'm concerned. It was very slow and driving me crazy. I just needed to cut out some blocks for the cutest craft and this was taking way too long.
In the corner I spy this:

It's called a chop-saw. I asked my son-in-law if he would show me how it worked and "would it cut a 2x4?" Wow! That was the funnest time I've ever had. My son-in-law had to leave the man-cave cause I made him nervous. But I promise I was being careful. I wouldn't dare cut off a digit cause I would have to go the ER and my co-workers would mock me.
After I cut the 2x4 up I was seaching for other pieces of wood to cut up. If it was loose I cut it up cause it was so fun! Then I ran out of wood, dangit! I can see why buying power tools becomes a must. I also used an electric sander. The whole experience made me wonder why I had become a nurse instead of a professional user of power tools. It was really a rush!
Anyway, I saw this idea for these Nativity Blocks here and totally fell in love.

The above picture is the blocks from Make it Work Mom's blog.
I loved the story she had about the Nativity and I wanted to do a set with each of my grandkids this year.
The plan: On Black Friday.... the day after Thanksgiving the grandkids and I will be doing the Nativity blocks while the daughters and daughters-in-law do these.

Go to Cherie's blog to see how to do this darling wreath! This is a picture of her finished wreath....uhm, I stole it from her blog....is that OK?
It's going to be total chaos! I can hardly wait.
I did a set of the Nativity blocks already just to practice. They are so cute. I might not do all the pieces. I didn't have stickers like the above picture had so I bought some Nativity clipart. There's 12 characters in each set.
That's a lot of blocks.
My oldest daughter-in-law has 4 of my 6 grandkids.
That's 48 blocks in her home....
underfoot....
strewn across the house.......
being thrown through a big window....
against an offending sibling's forehead....
On second thought, maybe I'll not do the animals, angels and drummer boy.
Anywayz, aren't they the sweetest!

We are all excited about making the Christmas wreath with ornaments.


So, I really need to quit looking at blogs and all the cute ideas out there. My head is going to explode! And my better half can't afford anymore power tools. Christmas is just around the corner and I'm pretty sure he needs to buy me diamonds or something.

Embarassing moment....

I really like this song. I have it on my ipod and it's my song I listen to when I'm at the worst part of the run and need a little adreneline. It reminds me to "breathe, just breathe"

I love this song so much that I had it as a ring tone on my phone.
That's where the embarassing experience comes in.
It was in my pocket......at work.
I was on the code team.....at work.
We had a code..........at work.
I was doing compressions, you know, on a person's chest. Cause they needed it.
Then much to my chagrin....
My phone in my pocket rings....this song goes right to the chorus....
"breathe, just breathe, ohhhhhh breathe, just breathe"
My ringone now?
Sweet Home Alabama

Guess Who Came to Dinner??

Wasn't that a movie a zillion years ago?
Well, OK, this famous person didn't come to dinner cause I was too lame to think of doing something awesome like that. BUT, she did show up at my front door! I was so excited to meet her!

Yup Cherie from Bakow Babble came to my little humble abode!!!! I love when famous people show up at my door.
I tried to refrain from jumping up and down and making a total fool of myself because I was so excited to finally meet her. Hopefully she only thinks of me as a partial fool. Isn't she the prettiest?
I met Kim this summer and now Cherie.
Does life get any better?
She brought her darling daughter
Brittany and handsome son Trent. It was a real treat to be able to yak and yak and yak. I am pretty sure I saw Trent do about fifty double-eye rollovers, but he was very tolerant. His mama has raised him to be a polite young man.
And yes, life does get better cause Cherie brought me Christmas kisses, you know the white chocolate with peppermint pieces. I hid them in my secret stash of midnight snackies as soon as she left cause I'm not so generous as to share treats like that.
She was so nice and fun and interesting. It was like we had met before. She has a beautiful smile and wonderful spirit and she was so kind. LOVED meeting her. She had met Kimmie the day before. Kimmie lives in my town and I know who she is, so there is ANOTHER famous person I know.
Cherie said she had come to visit Brittany and do Christmas wreaths. She posted a tutorial about them here. Well, being the non-crafty person that I am and being one that has no original ideas of my own, I promptly sent an email out to my daughters and daughters-in-law and informed them of this fabulous craft idea that I came up with that we were going to do on Black Friday. They all emailed me back and told me they were so excited to get together and do this fabulous craft and "you are such a wonderful mother and mother-in-law and so creative, we hope to grow up and be as awesome as you someday blah blah". (Sorry Cherie, but I'll stoop to whatever level it takes to be most awesome!)
I'm slightly embarassed that I wasn't wearing make up and looking fabulous like they were, but it was my day off and my face wanted a rest.
Again, it was great to meet her and meet such an awesome woman and new friend!

And he is released...

For over 10 years my better half has served in a bishopric or on the High Council and lastly as our Bishop. He was released yesterday {sniffle} Pretty tender hearts right now. He's loved serving but is happy to serve anywhere.
So now I get to sit with him!

I'm probably going to have to stuff my church bag with treats to keep him reverent.
I love you honey! You did a great job.

Over the top???

Gigi from Afterthoughts gave me an award!

I'm blushing!
In order to accept this award I'm supposed to answer some questions. I can only give one word answers. That is difficult because I don't ever do just one word. I like words and I use them in multiples, but I'll try. I hope my brain doesn't explode.

1. Where is your cell phone? Pocket
2. Your hair? Brown
3. Your mother? Friend
4. Your father? Outrageous
5. Your favorite food? Shrimp
6. Your dream last night? Insomnia
7. Your favorite drink? Pepsi
8. Your dream/goal? Lean
9. What room are you in? Emergency
10. Your hobby? Photographywannabe (was that cheating)
11. Your fear? SPIDERS!
12. Where do you want to be in six years? Living (stole that from Gigi)
13. Where were you last night? Home
14. Something you aren't? Perfect
15. Muffins? Huckleberry
16. Wish list item? Telephoto
17. Where did you grow up? Ain't
18. Last thing you did? Ate
19. What are you wearing? Scrubs
20. TV? Off
21. Your pets? Felines
22. Friends? Love
23. Your life? Wacky
24. Your mood? Good
25. Missing someone? Nope
26. Vehicle? Catera
27. Something you're not wearing? Perfume
28. Your favorite store? Winco
29. Your favorite color? Blue
30. When was the last time you laughed? PM
31. When was the last time you cried? Recently
32. Your best friend? Family
33. One place that you go to over and over? Home
34. One person who emails me regularly? Gigi
35. Favorite place to eat? Chiz's

Whew!
Next, I have to pass this award on to six other bloggers. This should be fun to read what some of these crazy creative people will come up with.

Thanks Gigi for giving me this. It was fun to read your post and I've loved all your photography tips and pictures. Everyone needs to bug Gigi and beg to see her wedding photos that she did for her nephew's wedding. Stunning! Seriously! Go over to her blog you won't regret it.
OK so six bloggers I want to pass this on to:

Kim at Simple Things
Cherie at Bakow Babble
Kimmie at Pink Cookies with Sprinkles
Sondra at Happy Clean Living
Marin at Marin's Creations
Nana at Nana's Kitchen

Hope you all enjoy checking out their blogs!!

November, my favorite month!

I love November cause that's means Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving! It's a no-stress holiday! Well, except the cooking and shopping and cleaning and cooking and cleaning.
It's a non-obligatory holiday. No trick-or-treaters and no gift buying/giving. Besides, it seems like it's OK to have some Christmas decorations in the store during the Thanksgiving season. It's not OK to have Christmas decorations in the store during trick-or-treat season. Seeing Nativity scenes next to ghouls is just wrong.
It messes with my head.
We did have a good time with the ENTIRE family here! Yup all 5 children, 3 spouses, 6
grandchildren, 2 dogs, 2 cats and a partridge in a pear tree.
We carved pumpkins and went trunk or treating. It was great!
The oldest child has moved home from the far reaches of the earth (Houston) They left 95 degree weather and got snowed on here! They brought my 18 month old granddaughter. Therefore, they can stay!

This is child #2 and his family.

Child #3 and his family.

Child #4 and #5 were absent from this particular activity where there was a camera.
They had nothing to do with the trick-or-treating festivities and the family dentist is very depressed about it.

Just in case you didn't know....pumpkin seeds are very slimy.

We had some pretty awesome punkin carvers.

Now I better get busy and start making a list and checking it twice....stuffing, cranberries, turkey, ham, ..........................................