We have a farm-fresh, preservative-saline-additive-frozen-free turkey coming to us tomorrow compliments of Mike's boss who raises turkey (chicken and goats) on his hobby farm.  I'm wondering if it will taste different, as in better?
I love Thanksgiving and all the food, but I think the leftovers are my favorite.  When you are standing in a kitchen cooking for several hours, the excitement of eating that food kindle dwindles, so the leftovers seem to taste better.
Mike and I might brave the crowds Thanksgiving night to go to Target, I just can't do it by myself.  There are some crazies out there.

Looking forward to a nice, quiet weekend and spending time with my family.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!

PS-I am on day 21 of not biting my nails.  I've heard it takes 30 days to make or break habit so I'm almost there and my nails are looking good.  I'm rewarding myself with more shellac manicures. Yay!

Mike and I have held off for many years buying new furniture or the latest TV.  Actually in our whole marriage we have only bought one set of living room furniture and have never had any kind of home theatre anything.  We have kept it pretty low tech around here.  So about a month ago, we re-did the whole family room. We didn't mess around.  We love it and we have dispersed the existing furniture to my office and the master bedroom which now actually looks like a bedroom!!
Here are the results (master isn't ready for photos yet, the walls are still pretty bare):

Now when we all watch TV there is enough space for everyone.

I love having the love seat in my office.  The kids sit on it and chat with me, or I can sit down and be comfortable while working on client sketches.  Yay!

Hannah helping me with the apple strainer I borrowed from my sister.  A wonderful invention when you are making buckets of applesauce.

We have been enjoying fall activities around here, as well as loading up the pantry and eating/canning all things apple.  How I love fall apple season!  Since I have read the Little House book series approx. 5 times in my childhood, I think I would have faired well back in those days.  Except for not having running water and riding in a bumpy wagon, and having excess amounts of children, and dying of diseases we don't have now...besides all that I would have appreciated the season of harvesting.  I have 14 quarts of apple sauce, 14 half pints of apple butter and we have enjoyed apple pies and caramel apples.



We added a new and exciting tool to our pumpkin carving activity-the drummel.  That thing can really carve a pumpkin well.  When I was in art college, my roommate who was a very gifted artist, always entered the pumpkin carving contest at school.  Now you can imagine the works of art from all those art students,  and she won two years, compliments of that drummel tool.  She sculpted and carved the pumpkins until they no longer looked like one.  Being the clean one in the house, I was the one that spent months after cleaning tiny dried-up pieces of pumpkin off the walls, table, floor.  So it brought back memories as I cleaned up dried-up pumpkin off my counters, floors, cabinets and hair.


Hannah and I enjoyed an afternoon at the pumpkin farm while the boys stayed at home.  Taylor has grown up and matured since last fall, where now going to the pumpkin patch is not a cool or age appropriate activity anymore. Blah.

I am trying to put an end to a very bad habit I've had since I was a child...nail biting.  My nails aren't very nice even when I grow them out but I figured since I was 35 it might be time to stop that habit.  I had my nails (really short nails) manicured and she applied the shellac polish.  It's supposed to help your natural nail and the polish doesn't wear out for 14 days.  I am at day 11 and only one nail has chipped.  The polish is very shiny and durable and I have NOT bitten my nails!  The pay off is nice looking nails, so I am setting aside money in my budget to get regular manicures and shellac.  That is my reward for not biting the darn things. 

On another bad habit front, Hannah is still sucking her thumb regardless of the expander appliance she had installed about a month ago.  We have to turn this one every day with a little key that fits in it.  By the time she gets actual braces it will be a walk in the park with all these appliances she has.  The ortho said we could have them weld a bar across the top of it, but most kids stop sucking their thumb after the regular appliance since it's at the roof of her mouth.  Well, Hannah isn't most kids and she relies on that thumb to put herself asleep.  Oy.


 The pets in our house are beyond pampered.  Alley cat got a "window seat" to discourage using the new couch as his pillow.

Isa likes to burrow in my covers because she is cold all the time.  Good thing we keep her clean.

And lastly, this past weekend my Mom and sister and I finally went on a fun weekend we have been trying to plan for awhile.  We left hubbies, kids and pets, and went to IKEA in salt lake!  We love that place and both of us used to live near one so we went there and to the outlets in park city and other stores.  We had a grand time and got in some holiday shopping. We shopped, got to eat whatever we wanted (lots of asian and sushi twice!), we had nowhere to be except where we wanted to go.   I think we need to start a tradition and make it 2 nights instead of just one.  We had a couple hiccups.  It snowed and the fan on my car decided to stop working so it was a little chilly inside.  There was heat, just no fan.  Of all the times to do that.  My car never does that.  And then we took a different way home and the worst accident of that area including a 49 vehicle accident happened and the road was closed all day.  So we waited about 3 hours for it to open.  But you know, when you don't have a schedule it's all okay.  I got to hang with my favorite ladies and I hope we do it next year!

Let's start with some good facts.  Neither of my kids have been to the emergency room, which is pretty good considering I have an 11 year old, in fact he hasn't even had to go to the doctor in probably two years.  No stitches, no broken bones.  I always knew that Hannah, my energetic, crazy climbing, gymnastics girl would be the first one to go.
Last Thursday, unfortunately that came true.
It was the afternoon, the kids were home from school.  Earlier in the day I had picked up the candy pictured above.  I rarely buy candy. I have no willpower and it makes Hannah WAY too hyper.  But I had a crazy work day and I needed sugar.  So I gave her a couple pieces.  Minutes later I hear a choking noise.  Followed by more choking.  Then feet running into my office.  Her face was red, she was grabbing her throat.  I wasn't too worried.  I asked her if it was stuck, she only nodded.  I looked in her mouth.  I turned her around and did the heimlich about two times.  It didn't do anything.  Her face was really red.  I was worried at this point that she wasn't getting air.  The size of these candies are perfect for getting stuck in her airway.  Without hesitation I tell Taylor to call 911, now.  Hannah is now on her hands and knees drooling and I can hear that damn candy rattling in her throat.  Now I'm freaking out, but she is so panicked I can't be.  I tell her it's okay, people are coming to help.  I'm giving the dispatcher our address and she is telling me to look at Hannah's face.  Then I hear a wonderful sound, a little voice that says, "I don't want an operation."  That sound told me she COULD breathe, if she was talking, she was getting air.  She was really scared and the paramedics came and said she had to go to the hospital, as the candy was now lodged right in her trachea.  She was upset because it was hurting and she couldn't swallow, so she was drooling.  Her vitals were fine, she wanted paper to draw on, because she  said, "It relaxes me."  We get to the ER and she starts looking really pale.  The nurses get us a bed and check her and leave, saying the doctor will come in.  Now, the ER was really busy. I understand we are about a 1 on the important list here, she is breathing, etc., but everyone's attitude was killing me!! This is like a #10 emergency to me!

She is looking really uncomfortable trying not to move because her throat really hurts.  Then she starts gagging and I'm worried that stupid candy is moving-well it did move.  Up and out! I've never been happier to see bright blue puke!  She leans back on the pillow and starts watching TV, like nothing at all had happened. 

Good grief.  I've stayed calm and re-assuring but at that moment I lost it.  What could have happened was racing through my mind and I was so incredibly grateful she was okay.  Mike picked us up and in an hour she was running around the house antagonizing her brother, like usual.

It's crazy how a couple minutes or seconds can change your life.  I'm so thankful my girl is okay.  She said she wasn't eating candy anymore, but that didn't really stick for 24 hours. However, we will not be eating any Tootsie drop pops soon, or at all!

I read an article the other day about rising food costs and it had some families in there that were talking about how they shop and how much they spend, and how higher food prices have affected their family budgets.
 
Now before I go on, I'm really not a professional shopper, or couponer...just a regular mom that shops for a family of four BUT I use some strategies that has really saved me money.

Anyway, the Mom, who has three kids and a husband complains that she used to spend $100 a week and now because of food costs she has to spend $150 a week.  She said that her kids ate 8 boxes of cereal a week and it was hard to keep up because of how much they eat.
I'm thinking to myself, cereal is one of the most expensive things to buy right now.  Only if I can get it for a little over a dollar a box do we buy it.  So we eat pancakes, oatmeal, toast, fruit, yogurt, smoothies.....etc. instead for breakfast.  There's your extra $50 a week lady!! You're spending it on cereal!!! Make some muffins the night before and serve them with fruit and milk.  I admit I live in an area where food costs aren't as high as national prices but if you are trying to reduce grocery costs, you can't just do into the grocery store and shop to buy whatever you want.  
I'll stop now.
I'm just sick of hearing people complain about all they don't have, what they lack, rising costs, down economy.
Go look at your healthy kids, stand in your home, look in your cupboard and feel thankful for all you do have!  And if you don't have any of those, call a friend-they can help you see the goodness around you.

something I made for today.  It was fun to think of all the things that make up our life together

Confession: I don't have any videos of my kids when they were really young.  Well that isn't completely true, I have some from my digital camera, but they are really short.  When Taylor was a baby, we were so young and broke, just paying bills was an accomplishment.  I was going to be prepared for Hannah though! Two months before she was set to arrive, we bought a camcorder with a work bonus I got.  I was so excited to fulfill my parental duty of getting videos.  So we taped our way through Thanksgiving, and Christmas before she was born (Taylor was almost 3) and Mike videotaped her birth.  I specifically remember getting my epidural, gripping my Mom's hand, and he is filming behind me saying, "Wow honey, that needle is REALLY long".  Um, thanks babe for sharing.  Well right after Hannah was born our house was broken into by some naughty teenagers and they took the camera.  I was so upset (hormones still running strong and all) and heart broken.  For weeks I put fliers up around our neighborhood pleading to just give us back the tape-leave it on our front porch, anything! Keep the damn camcorder, just give me my tape.  No such thing, it was long gone. 

Since I'm a visual person, I make "pictures" of things to remember them and ever since my kids were born, I have been making these memory snapshots in my head when I really want to remember a specific moment.  When I held each baby for the first time, I will never forget that.  Details of their birth gets fuzzier as they get older but I remember that moment of holding them for the first time, looking into their beautiful face.  Another one I have is of Hannah as a baby.  We lived in this old home built in 1920 and her room had a great built-in dresser, high moldings and we painted it a lovely lavender color...can you tell I loved her room?  I had a rocking chair by her window and I spent hours rocking, singing, nursing and holding her.   I remember telling myself to remember this time with her, those moments of holding my sweet baby, getting her ready for a nap or feeding her through the night and the feeling of complete happiness I had.

This morning since Mike was up before me as always on a Sunday morning, he brought in the Sunday paper. Taylor was already up too, but like me he likes to glide into the day.  Meaning a slow start, so he came in, nestled into his Dad's spot with pillows and read the paper with me.  That was a snapshot of him so comfortable, hanging out with me, reading the paper and the comics, giggling every so often, or sharing a story he was reading.  I love that kid and the ease of the morning and just relaxing.  I love that he enjoys the paper, it shows me how curious he is about everything in the world. That was today's snapshot.

There are so many memories with these kids, and as I keep this digital keepsake of memories and write in their journals that I have kept since I was pregnant with them, I guess it will have to be enough and in place of videos. I'll keep making those snapshots of memories....and there is always the thousands of photos I have taken, too.

Now here is a really dark video of Hannah taking her first steps (while sucking her thumb):