Holiday Smoliday!

Turkey Holiday Update...

Thursday...up early... clean, cook a bit, wash dishes, clean, cook a bit, wash dishes...and then the little red button popped up.

A Thankful moment... Thankful for moms, dads/in-law, brothers, sisters/in-law, nieces, nephews, my kids, spouse, dogs, cats and friends. Thankful for Meat, tatoes-sweet and not, rolls and butter, pies and coffee. Thankful for my mom and sis who wash dishes and my dad who cleans up the table. Thankful for my spouse who is willing to take on a big meal. Thankful for the magic that makes it all come together and super Thankful for my comfy bed and newly repaired soft blankie!! Thankful I got to visit Sarah at Odyssey house for t-day and I am so Thankful for buildings that get knocked down and the chance to build new ones :)...

Friday...Grandma Grimbles b-day is the beginning of November and every year I give her the same gift... A clean house and the holiday decor up... I do enjoy it and she does also. So off to Ogden with spouse and girls in tow. Whirlwind through making messes, cleaning them up, this here, that there, vaccum, dust and "voila" (10 hrs later) its Christmas!!

Again Thankful for my bed and newly repaired blankie.

Saturday... Home...relax... HaHaHa!!! The girls stayed with Granny Grimble so there is no way I was not going to take advantage of a quiet day at home and get MY holiday decor up! In the basement by 6 hauling out the massive excess of holiday SH*# (its mine I can call it that!) I have a 'new' (meaning new to me) tree from my mom (un-lit (see Doriens post)) so I spent 2 hours playing with lights but did get them just right, and another OK WAY TO MANY hours decorating. Somehow, despite the work I do love a clean and festive house!!

I had to have this job done by 5pm which meant no rest just go go go!!

Saturday evening.... Laura gave Andre and I her tickets to see Into the Woods at Hale, I thought that sitting for 3 hours would feel great but my butt really hurt....HOWEVER...the show was just incredible, loved it loved it loved it and so did Andre. Such a great show and so well done with so many good messages and awesome songs!

Again, Thankful for my bed and newly repaired soft blankie...not home until 11 OUCH!!

Sunday...thats today...a day of rest... YES!!! We did goto Ogden and retreive the girls, Wash had made a huge meal and all the Washingtons were there, good fun, good food and a good end to a long holiday weekend.

Scrooge!

M is for Mothers obsessed with new socks...
E for Eccentrics buying sparkly rocks!
R is for Reason when we get out of line...
R is for the Reality that things will be fine!
Y is for Yule if I knew what that was...instead its for Yuck from the holiday buzz!

C is for Cold we all expect at this time...
H is for Help when we're all losing our mind!
R is for Ribbons and trees and the wreath...
and I is for Icicles were standing beneath!
S is for Sanity soon to be lost...
and T is for Trinkets soon to be tossed!
M is for Money the true meaning of Christmas...
and A for Accepting a fate such as this!
S is for Sorry I had to ruin the bliss!!

I am not really this negative about Christmas, well at least not every day!

Happy T-day

Well Thanksgiving is only 4 days out... this week is going to be busy so despite my lack of thrilling content I will make some stuff up!! Ha ha.

Darren will be cooking for the T-day which means I get to be soux chef for the day (a glorified name for dishwasher, counter cleaner, ingredient getter/putter awayer, and presenter, amoung other things I wont mention.) I will not complain about his love to cook, it has definately expanded my plate of foods I love to eat.

I was raised on the basics... good food but basic good food-nothing fancy, nothing green, nothing more than salt, pepper and accent as far as I can remember. However the basic-ness of it I still remember feeding the dogs under the table, now I cant imagine what my mother could have made that could have been so gross hmmm.

Now we (I love to include myself in Darrens culinary adventures) have a recipe book full of secret concoctions and family favorites with one (maybe 2) unsuccessful disappointments... 1 being brisket.

Several times I have bought this big hunk-a-meat, he has cooked it and it tasted like a big chewy hunk-a-meat...

Last weekend i pulled out a brisket i had found on sale (of course) threw it on the counter and said... "lets try again"... it came out of the oven (after 5 hours) sat on the counter for one hour and was completely gone, it was the most tender tastiest meat (beef) i have ever had... we made another one last Sunday and another this Saturday for the game (this time we found a really big one so we might get leftovers.)

So this is my BLOG tribute to GOOD BRISKET.
Usually Darren takes pics of food I have tons but this ONE time he did not!
Happy T-day everyone and do enjoy some Good Eats!!

Eli Eli he sells socks...

I often say..."oh how i would love to have a toddler again" its part true, I love that 3-5 age... where they are just learning to communicate, everything is a conversation and they make really really funny faces!! Well today I got to spend a couple of hours with Eli while his ma went to the chiropractor. We had to go get new tires on my car via a side-trip to "grandma becky's" first he was just so happy to see her, like it had been a year, and of course she brought him a little treat to put in his bag :). Driving down the road... this is the conversation:

Eli: What is this?

(shows me in the rearview mirror)

K: a gumdrop

E: a what?

K: a white gumdrop

E: I do them on my trampoline!

K: a gumdrop?

E: yeah i do gumdrops on my trampoline.

::translation gumdrop=bumdrop, unless he has really invented a new move... the gumdrop!!::

Then we are sitting at Wendys (while the car is in the tire place) and this is the conversation...

K: What color are your eyes

E: Blue

then he rolls his eyes way up into his head (yeah freaky funny)

K: what are you doing

E: Looking at my eyes...

DUH!

Turning in assignment!

Alright alright alright... Laura has given me an assignment (to blog/update on-goins) and I simply can't NOT do it! damn teachers... j/k I love teachers.

Speaking of teachers, I did have a great conversation with this guy who is studying to be an elementary school teacher... its gives me hope to know that despite the poor pay and large class sizes that there are still people out there who are passionate about the future of our kids.

This is the 2nd week of the 2nd term...report cards arrived last saturday. A couple of weeks ago Andres Language Arts teacher said Andre was the best writer he had ever taught... his history teacher kept an essay wrote because it was "that good"... good points pointed out! His report card was fair to partly cloudy... ugh... that said we have spent this 2nd week working on it:( !

Branden Lee who was a pain in the A.. to get through elementary school has turned some magical corner and surprised the he!! out of me. 4 years ago a counselor told me that maybe I should get him "checked out" put him in "special classes" he was so uninterested and unmotivated to accomplish anything other than a Mario Kart win... well this is proof that kids change and GOOD teachers (Mr. Airhart) make a HUGE difference!!

The girls are moving right along, Lacy has read 3 chapter books from start to finish since the beginning of the year, that is quite an accomplishment for her, I see leaps and bounds every week... not sure her test scores would say the same but HEY I am not real big on test scores!!

I see the same improvement with Lu, we phonetically sound out words, add with little blocks, do fun graphing story problems, its about time to get out the skip counting cd and start singing!! Greatest thing ever... if your kid learns that way?

Personally I am busy. I have 3 jobs running...1 house/ like a big toybox with a couch, tv, tiny potty and a terrible tubby... (see pics), 1 business/ art gallery downtown in the middle of a 'too much crap' remodel and one regular weekly cleaning job (an organizing job that simply decided it just couldnt end)... Its hard work and despite the little hole in the ozone over the tub cleaning project I do love doing it!!

Darren is keeping the end of the couch warm... oh and working at the JOB 40,50,60 hours a week. Dogs are furry and Bella kitty is licky!

So there you go Laura... tag you're it!

Proud to be an American

I am proud to be an American today, I am proud of my young college going niece who got out early and voted, proud of the mom who dragged her toddler out of bed to be at the polls at 6:30 AM, proud of the son who brought his old mama out early so she wouldnt have to wait in line to cast her vote, proud of the 100's of thousands of Americans who realized we need CHANGE. I have heard the media say a million times in the past few days that this is "a victory for African-Americans", I am of the opinion that this is a victory for HUMAN-Americans that we finally pulled our heads out of our butts and realized that the character of any human has nothing to do with the color of their skin! President-elect Obama said it best....
"If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.
It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen; by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the very first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different; that their voice could be that difference.
It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled - Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America.
It's the answer that led those who have been told for so long by so many to be cynical, and fearful, and doubtful of what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.
It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America." To read the full speech goto heidis rants blog!

Trick or Treat

Some people call it Trick-or-Treating, Darren and I call it the opportunity to gawk at beautiful houses for the time it takes our kids to solicit strangers for treats! This year we ventured just east of 13th East in the Harvard/Yale neighborhood... the weather was perfect and the houses up there are just so pretty to look at. I am grateful for nice people, so willing to answer the door 500 times with a "cute costume" comment. Andre finally hit the age where he was not playing the game so he sat home with a freind and they answered our door... to the 8 halloweeners (most of which are the kids' friends). Branden had claimed he was not going either until his freinds rang the bell and convinced him to throw on a sombrero and go out for an hour... good thing for him because he came back with full size reeses pb cups! All in All Happy Halloween!