(ahhhhhhh.)

It sure does feel good to sit. I haven't done much of that for the last 5 days. I baked, cooked and cleaned for Thanksgiving all day Tuesday and Wednesday, of course MORE cooking for dinner on Thanksgiving, and again on Friday for our second Thanksgiving celebration. Friday evening, after dinner, after the family left, DNK and I went out and did a bunch of our Black Friday shopping. I was surprised how much the two of us were able to get done in about 2.5 hours! Finally, DNK, Jay and I spent almost the WHOLE day today putting up Christmas trees. The 2 large living room trees are up, lit, decorated and are just beautiful, if I do say so myself. I'm actually sitting in the living room tonight instead of my scrap room because of how festive and gorgeous the trees are. I've been looking forward to decorating for Christmas this year ever since I painted the house and had the new carpeting put in back in Feb. Why does it seem like it wasn't that long ago, yet in actuality, February was FOREVER ago!

Anyway, tomorrow I'm a door greeter at church, and hopefully after church we'll go out to eat somewhere that DOESN'T serve turkey or dressing, and when we get home, Jay will be up on the roof hanging the Christmas lights, while I put out the rest of the decorations and DNK and I decorate the remaining 3 smaller Christmas trees. I wish I had some pictures to post for you tonight, but that would entail me having to actually GET UP, go to the office, get the memory card, etc etc etc.... and right now, it's all I have in me to just be able to hold my head up. Yep, I'm a tired woman. But a happy woman. I'm loving the peace and quiet, sitting here blogging by the light of the Christmas trees...

{Happy Thanksgiving!}

Should there be any concerned readers out there, be comforted in the knowledge that the altercation yesterday with the worms is over. I won. Well, me, some latex gloves, kitchen shears and some tongs, but darn it -- I WON! The "Granny greens" are cooked and ready for consumption! I even got my Thanksgiving dinner table set before I crawled into bed last night.

Oh, and in case you're wondering... I'm not up at this ungodly hour because I want to be. As a matter of fact, this girl is crawling back INTO bed in about, say, 10 minutes. I have a date with Jay, DNK, and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade at 9... but until then, I'm spending a few more ZZZ's with the Sandman. I'm ONLY up this early to get Tom into the oven. I got a big 23 lb bird, which is good, because he's gonna be enough for BOTH of the Thanksgiving dinners I'm hosting. I've been thinking..... how cool is it to belong to 2 families? I get DOUBLE the enjoyment, double the celebration, double the fun! It makes double the work not so bad when you think of the positives! I'm very Thankful today for many things.... for my precious daughter DNK that is the light of my life, for my wonderful hubby, that loves me regardless of my many shortcomings. For my family, the closeness I have with my brothers and their wives, and for the ZANY fun we always have when we're together. (amazing how childlike we become when we get together!) For my parents. Although we are in the midst of a stressful situation, I am thankful for them just the same. For my in laws and family, I am thankful that NONE of those Mother-in-law jokes apply to our relationship, and that we all have a wonderful relationship. I'm also extremely thankful for all of our extended families on both sides! I could go on and on about all the material things too, but well, frankly folks, this blogging is cutting into my time with the Sandman, and well, I'm pretty darn thankful for him too. Momma likes her sleep.

Tom is now in the oven, and soon we will be begin to smell his heavenly aroma permeating the house. When he's done, I'll throw in all the other goodies to do their final baking. My family will arrive around noon, and we'll begin to THROW DOWN on some serious grub. ;-). I believe our annual trip to Deep Run Road will follow this evening. ( A house here in town that is the gaudiest and most wonderful representation of Christmas Commercialism in the world - We love it and have gone for years! The owner starts decorating at Halloween to have time to get everything put up!!)
Then, tomorrow, we get to do it all again! (Minus the ME getting up at Odarkthirty.) My father in law is bringing his WORLD FAMOUS twice baked potatoes. Ok, so they may not be WORLD FAMOUS --- But maybe they SHOULD be. Either way, you get the picture. I'll be back at the gym on Monday for SURE!

Hope y'all have a pleasant and wonderful Thanksgiving Day. And to copy something I read yesterday. Please be sure to consume your Tryptophan responsibly! LOL.

(Happy Thanksgiving mom and dad. Your presence will be severely missed today. I love you.)

{HELP ME!!!!!!!}

Apparently this little guy and his friends were not given the notification that I really DON'T do bugs. It's bad enough that I'm having to touch and tear WET LEAVES (ugh), and that it's been raining the last few days, and these collards were freshly cut yesterday right before I bought them, so they are covered in mud..
Have I mentioned before that I DON'T DO DIRT AND BUGS? OMGosh, I'm itching all over. I've found 3 of these little worms in the first bag of collards that I bought. Really, you have NO IDEA the problems this is causing me. It's bad enough that instead of cooking the greens right now, (have 4 pots to cook!) I'm sitting here blogging, trying to decide if a Xanax is in order or not. I have a TRUE phobia about this kind of stuff. I just can't touch dirt/mud, wet leaves creep me the heck out the way they cling to my hands, and now THE BUGS. The awful WRETCHED BUGS FROM HELL!! I KNOW that bugs are part of "the curse".
Anyway, so y'all, I need some prayers that I can get through this other 10lb bag of collard greens. I gotta prep them, which is tearing all the soft leaves off the hard stems, then washing them over and over and OVER before squashing them in the pressure cooker to cook. I don't mind the cooking part. It's the prepping part that is REALLY hard on me today. What with the WORMS.
OK, (deep breath) back to work. Now. I'm getting up from my desk now. Any minute...
You know, I think I'd rather go scrub the toilet with my bottom lip. Yeah, I REALLY HATE DIRT AND BUGS... ugh.

{Visit with Santa, and Thanksgiving preparations}

I've been trying to write a decent blog post for a week now, but what with the holidays looming ahead, and the fact that my parents haven't spoken to me in over 3 months, it's been hard to sit down and write a HAPPY blog.

Let's just say I've written PLENTY, but always deleted it.

Anyway, today has been busy busy BUSY!!! I started the day at the gym (6 times in the last 5 days!) then hit the collard green stand on the way home. I purchased 2 large outdoor yard trash bags FULL of fresh, picked THIS morning collard greens! I also made a run to Food Lion for some last minute items, such as eggnog, and pie crusts.

I've already baked 2 pumpkin pies, I have a pecan pie in the oven right now, and a chocolate fudge pie that will go in as soon as the pecan is done.

Also, on top of the stove, there are 2 large pots of sweet potatoes boiling, so I can mash those and make some sweet potato casseroles. I'll prepare them, and not do the final bake until before Thanksgiving dinners.

Yep, you read that right. DinnerS. Plural. As in more than one!

My family, including my aunt and granny (minus my parents) will be coming at noon on Thursday, and we're having all of Jay's family over on Friday afternoon to do it all again and celebrate with them!

I'm looking forward to celebrating the holiday twice, but WHEW.... I'm already worn out!! Lol! Which is why I'm trying to start a day earlier than usual, to stretch it out so I won't literally collapse come Thursday. I plan to still have enough energy to last through the weekend, because all the CHRISTMAS decorations will be going up!! OMGosh I love this time of year! So, anyway, not a lot of time to blog today, as you've read, I'm a wee bit busy, but I just couldn't put off posting these pics of DNK from this past Sunday when we went to see Santa. She still believes in him, (which makes me soooo happy), but like I said last year, I expect this to be her last year... =(

She asked him for another American Girl doll, which just so happens to be already ordered and should be shipping here any day!! I can't wait....

Oh, and I loved the Santa pictures so much, I just had to post a bunch of them. I'm not sure which one is my favorite!!!

{that Holiday HIGH!}

(Sorry that yesterday's blog post seemed to be a bit, um, thought filled, or, um, serious, or something like that... well, that's what I get for thinking on a day like Sunday was. So, I thought I'd be a bit more CHEERY today and share my Saturday with you. It was actually a TERRIFIC day, and I did spend a bit of the day with the holidays on my mind, however, much HAPPIER thoughts of the upcoming holiday season, which I am determined to keep. Anyway, on with today's blog post that was actually written Saturday night!! )

It's unbelievable that it's almost Thanksgiving. I've really found myself getting in the Holiday spirit, which is actually a small miracle in and of itself, considering all that I've been through in the last few months. Honestly, I can't wait to get this party started!! I began to do a bit of Christmas shopping earlier last week, and started some holiday baking this past weekend. I baked two homemade apple pies with some of the apples we picked at the apple orchard last weekend, and OMG they made the house smell WONDERFUL! I can't wait until Thanksgiving Day. DNK, Jay and I are really looking forward to watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade this year, seeing as we were just in NYC (our first trip there ever) this past July, so to actually recognize the sights has DNK all excited. She can't wait to go back to NYC again!

Even though the dynamics of the holiday season will be different this year, we are all looking forward to a great time. There will be lots plenty of good eats, plenty of laughter, of listening to the kiddos play together, and hopefully we'll have some time for some games, or maybe a movie after dinner or something. Anyway, I love how now that the cousins, "H-man" and "K" are getting older, DNK is more able to play with them. Their favorite game right now seems to be hide and seek. Guess I should add "clean out closets and dust under the beds" to my Holiday cleaning list so the kids can hide without dust bunnies the size of oxen attaching themselves to their holiday outfits!! =D

We have all agreed to make this a great holiday. I have promised myself to not let DNK feel as if she's missing anything. Her holidays this year are going to be memorable, and NOT in a negative way. I'll make sure of that fact.

Isn't' it funny how the smell of the apple pies just set off a big holiday BUZZ for me? A high I don't want to come off of any time soon. If I hadn't started baking those pies so late on Saturday night, no telling what kind of damage I may have done! I've already purchased most of my Christmas cookie ingredients, and we all know that cookies freeze well... but, I didn't want to be up at 2am still baking, because as fun as that sounds, I would also have to CLEAN before I could crawl into bed. SO... it didn't happen. At least not on Saturday....

Maybe I'll be able to do some more baking this week. I know I need to start my granny greens early to have enough to feed this family. My brothers, DNK and I can eat a ton all by ourselves. It takes me longer to make the collards than anything else I make, including the cooking time of a 20+ lb Tom. And, the greens are also the most costly item on the table. Last year I spent almost $45-$50 on fresh collards. I buy them from a local farmer that sells them on a stand around the corner. I might pay more, but OMG they are sooo good. And, Yeah, I buy the biggest turkey I can find, so that everyone gets LOTS of leftovers.

Anyway, I've rambled long enough for now. Just wanted to share my holiday buzz. Hope your holiday preparations are in full swing, and that you are all enjoying it, not getting too stressed about it!! Now, don't ya wish you could SMELL these bad boys?????

{I hate thinking.}

Just thinking tonight.....
So much on my mind after spending the whole afternoon today in the ER with DNK.

Watching her hurt so badly.
She's OK, they believe it was an extreme migraine, compounded with very congested ears and sinuses, although no infection.

She was dizzy, lightheaded, complaining that her vision was messing up and dark, and her hands were tingly like she was touching cacti.

She said that it felt like someone was stabbing her in the head and in both eyes.

She was pitiful. But she's OK now. No more pain, and tucked in bed, sleeping soundly.
The whole ordeal just really got me thinking about a lot of stuff.

(That's not always a good thing. Lol.)
'Cause I have a lot on my mind recently.

Sometimes I think more stuff than my mind can hold.
Much of it is useless crap, but still... lot's of stuff weighing on my mind.
Don't you hate it when you turn your brain on, but can't seem to turn it back off?

Out of all the stuff currently running through this head of mine, the holidays are in the forefront.
I keep thinking that what you make of this Holiday season is up to us.

But it can't be undone.
There is only ONE chance to make THIS YEAR great.
To get it right.
Or one chance to TOTALLY blow it.
"Jack" it up good.
There's just NO "do overs" in real life.
There is only one Thanksgiving Day.
And one December 25th.
One very special day each.

Make wise decisions when planning how to spend your holidays.

Time can't be replayed.
There is no rewind button.
No backspace.
No delete key.
Once the holidays are over, THEY ARE OVER.
No practice drill.
No dress rehearsal.
Only the final curtain call.....
Once the memories are made, they are FOREVER etched in the psyche.
Never to be changed or altered.
History can't be changed.
Only the future.
Now you want to know what I'm thinking?
I think it's bedtime.
Yep, that's what I think.
Have I mentioned that I hate when I can't turn the "thinking" off? =/

{Thanksgiving.}

Normally, a day is approximately 24 hours, give or take a few.

But, did you know, that without the luxury of electricity, a 24 hour day grows to be approximately 68 hours, 43 minutes and 13 second long? Approximately...

Ugh. Yes y'all, we endured 31.5 ACTUAL hours of being powerless, but it didn't seem any longer than a child's wait from Easter until Christmas day.

Were y'all aware that it's hard to DO STUFF without power. The cooking I was fine not having to do, but I couldn't blog. Or Facebook. Or watch FoxNews. Or vacuum. Yes, I was having vacuum withdrawal. Because everyone kept walking leaves in on my new carpet. And by everyone, I mean Jay and I. I only went outside when I took some of the foods from the fridge and the freezer to the camper for safekeeping. (which worked wonderfully btw). All I had to do was open the door, and the leaves would come flying in. Which is what happens when you have wind gust over 50 mph.

The Nor'easter hit this area pretty darn hard, and as of right now, there are many people still without power. Ours finally came on last night at 10pm. Couldn't have been a better time. Jay was working, and DNK and I had just crawled under 72 blankets (slight exaggeration) in her bed, and were all cuddled up getting ready to fall asleep when the light EXPLODED into the house. It was WONDERFUL. I always swear I'll never take electricity for granted.... but I think I already have. ha. It was getting pretty cold, the thermostat was showing it to be 61°. It was bearable, cause DNK and I were all flanneled up, thick socks, fuzzy slippers and heavy furry robes. We looked adorable if I do say so myself! ;-).

Within 20 minutes of the power coming back on, I was shedding the layers like a snake sheds it's skin, and actually starting to sweat. Of course, I was also running around the house putting stuff away and straightening up because I COULD ACTUALLY SEE THE MESS AROUND ME. And it was bothering me. MUCHLY. So, DNK went back to bed, after we pulled about 70 of the blankets off her bed. I spent the evening straighting some stuff up, and watching local news to catch up all I missed, and of course spending some time online. That goes without saying though.

DNK and I never left the house during the storm, or even after it yesterday, as my truck was locked in the garage. (electric garage door opener) and it's too difficult to do it manually. Well, I guess I could've done it if I had really WANTED to, but I was OK staying off the roads. We'll just say I was using my smarticles...

So although I didn't get any really crazy shots of all the storm damage like I did when Hurricane Isabelle hit, I did get some shots in the house that I really kind of like. So I thought I'd share them. MY VERSION of the Nor'easter storm of 11-2009:

I just want to end this blog post by saying thank you to God for his protection. Thankfully, we suffered NO damage, NO loss of property, and very little loss of sanity! ;)

{Thanks to all the our Military & Veterans}

First and foremost, I want to take a moment to thank all our wonderful Military and their families, past and present. The sacrifice you have all made to allow us our freedoms can never be repaid. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU.

Now, in case y'all hadn't been alerted to the fact, I have declared today an OFFICIAL jammie day. Yep... feel free to stay inside in those nice warm jammies, and those big fluffy fuzzy slippers. ALL.DAY.LONG. Just make sure they're clean. You know, like put on a new pair of jammies that you didn't sleep in last night. That way it's not like you didn't get dressed or anything, cause I'd hate to have y'all seeming like some kind of lazy jammie wearing slobs. Just sayin.

I'm in mine. And I feel COMFY. Nothing warms the buns and the heart like a pair of hot pink and black bunny jammies with little presents all over it that says "I'm not spoiled, I deserve all my stuff". LOL. It's dark, cold, rainy and windy out today. The remnants of Hurricane Ida are hovering over us, preparing to dump a butt-ton of rain on us for the next few days, and since I have NO where I have to be today (wooo hooooo!) I decided that today was just as good as any, to declare a jammie day.

But lest you think I've been lazy.... I've got laundry in the wash, the beds are made, and the kitchen is clean.

Now, if you'll excuse me, My jammies and I have some scrapping and Ellen watching to do today. Have a comfy day!!

{Michie Tavern and the Ordinary}

I bet y'all are just itching to see some more of my fall camping trip pics aren't ya? haha. Well, I'll post a few more for ya today. I love looking at them myself, considering the trip almost didn't happen this year...

We spent Saturday at the apple orchard first, then we walked around Michie Tavern, since it's RIGHT up the road a few feet. We walked through the shops, around in the leaves, and then had a WONDERFULLY delish 18th century style lunch at the Ordinary, which is a fabulous restaurant where the wait staff all dress in period clothing, the foods cooked are the kind that would've been served in the 18th century and the restaurant itself looks like it's right out of a history book page. DNK was really interested in everything about it, because she's been reading some American Girl books about Felicity, that take place about the same time as the Michie Tavern first opened. Not only that, she has just finished a big study and project a week or so ago where she was studying the Virginia Piedmont, so she kept Jay and I quite informed on our whereabouts, and all the facts about the Piedmont that we might have forgotten. Haha. She found it interesting that from Charlottesville, she could see the "Piedmont" and the Blue Ridge Mountain ranges. I guess that makes the trip somewhat educational huh? She had fun, and if it was educational along the way, then I suppose that's OK, right?? Anyway, here are some pics from the Michie Tavern and Ordinary.

(yes, I'm aware that this is a TERRIBLE picture of me, and that I have some gosh awful fake looking smile going on, but it's the ONLY one of me..... so I'm not too proud to post it! lol!!)

{Glorious FALL beauty!}

Well, we're back home now and all unpacked. AND, I've gotten a chance to get the pictures loaded for your viewing enjoyment! =) I really hated leaving the fall beauty in the mountains, but it's all good... Jay let me listen to Christmas music almost all the way home, but when his eye started twitching that way it does just before he blows his lid, I finally turned it off. LOL! So, right now, we're all relaxing in seperate areas of the house, Jay on the livingroom computer doing the bills, DNK in her room, playing a game on her computer, and me in my scraproom/office listening to Christmas music on the Holiday Channel on TV while updating the blog with pics. The first two pictures make me the happiest, because every year that DNK has been alive, she's been photographed in front of the pumpkin, and behind the apple. The first time she was only 4 WEEKS old. Wow... seems like forever ago. Anyway, the rest of these pics were all taken at the Carter Mountain Apple Orchard. It was much less crowded this year, being as we went so much later, but they still offered EVERYTHING they do during October. I was quite surprised actually. We enjoyed picking the apples too. DNK would've cleaned the trees if we'd had enough bags and ALLOWED her to do it. She was so funny!

Here is Jay, waiting ever so patiently, while DNK and I suck up the beautiful fall scenery. Although it was apparent we had missed "peak season" there was still plenty of fall splendour to be seen. I made sure to get up close and personal with my camera on those trees that still had beautiful bright colors!

I don't know really why it is that I love going to the apple orchard so much. Possibly, it's because I like routine and tradition, and we've gone every fall for at LEAST the last 11 years, although I believe we'd gone a number of years prior to DNK's birth. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a child of habit. I'm most comfortable doing things repetitively, however, I'm not against trying new things too. As long as the old comfortable things are still there to fall back on! =)
DNK insisted on bringing her American Girls camping with us, but we only allowed ONE into the apple orchard with us. So Molly was the lucky gal. Guess who the lucky gal was that got to HOLD Molly while DNK picked apples. Yep... that would be ME. haha! DNK even found one little tiny apple and a tiny pumpkin for Molly. (we didn't end up buying any pumpkins this year, as we already did the pumpkins at Halloween).

Here are some examples of some of the color that was still out there! The wild bright colors were much more sparce than they usually are when we go in October, but there were still some fabulous colors, and when I came across some, I made sure to try to capture them with my Nikon. I think I managed to do that with these pics.

And finally, finishing up today's blog with some pictures from down in the actual orchards. The first picture here is of DNK heading down to the orchard gate, the rest I just snapped during our apple picking fun.

Tomorrow I'll blog with some of the pictures I took at Michies Tavern and the Ordinary. Hope everyone has a great week. I'm going to try!! =)