Happy Turkey Day!

I hope you have a wonderful day filled with family, food, and fun!
And if you don't have anyone to be eat turkey with, I hope you have a day filled with peace and contentment.
My Thankful List:
1. That Man because he loves me even when I don't feel like I deserve it.
2. The married K's and their spouses. I love how my family has grown and I love that all of them get along so very well.
3. The younger K's. They're amazing people.
4. K5 and Baby B. Both are huge blessings full of joy.
5. My friends and family, including my awesome writing group.
6. Being home all day for now. The money part of that is pretty awful, but the financial bull crap aside, I could get used to this.
7. Surviving this year (so far). It started okay, turned awful, got a little better, turned awful again...I hope the pattern means we'll finish okay.
8. Spending this day with family we have never been able to celebrate with on this day!
9. My kids and their big hearts. We'll be spending part of today helping to serve Thanksgiving dinner to people who wouldn't have had one otherwise. I so love that they are so willing and excited about being able to do this again.
May your day be awesome and your turkey coma satisfying!
Behave!

Date Night!

*This was supposed to post Saturday night. I don't know why it didn't. I swear I checked and it was there...
Or date day!
I woke to the smell of coffee, followed by breakfast in bed - complete with the coffee and flowers! That Man said it was the beginning of our date.
It was a good beginning.
We talked over several more cups of coffee, and made more flowers for the bridal shower (these flowers are going to kill me, I swear! But they're so pretty and easy to make - unless you have to make a million of them...Oy!) He had plans to do yard work while I went to my writing meeting.
I skipped lunch after the meeting. I wanted to go, but we're totally under the gun with upcoming events and upcoming visitors (we have a month until That Man's brother arrives and the bridal shower - shhh!!). Plus, it was date night!
There was a massive amount of yard work already done when I got home. I helped, but not too much since I had to make flowers, and at this moment in time, I have only one pair of jeans and didn't want to get them dirty before our date.
We dropped the only kid home off at a friends for the night and went to a local steakhouse to use our gift certificate. The service was phenomenal, the food was pretty good, too, and so were my margaritas. We laughed, talked, and had a real chance to just "be" together. After dinner we did some normal errand running - craft store for supplies, grocery store. Then home to sit around the fire with our adult beverages. Alone.
It was a very nice date!
Behave!

Sunday Recap...

Today was cooking day. I don't know why... because I felt like it, because it's been so long since I've had the chance, because I wanted to...
I slept later than expected (like for ten hours straight), clipped coupons, and headed to the store. I only needed a few things, but ended up spending almost $60. (I saved $10 though)!
1. The homemade coffee creamer was excellent. I added the raspberry puree left over from yesterday's breakfast and it was so much better. (Plus, no chemicals and very little sugar)
2. The breakfast burritos are in the freezer. The kids are excited about them.
3. The avocado chicken salad is on hold due to not ripe avocados. Everything else is ready.
4. I made crockpot cashew chicken for dinner. The recipe needs tweaked, but it was kind of okay. (Everyone else loved it. I was disappointed.) Not sweet enough, not enough liquid, a little too salty (that could be me) though I followed the recipe. I added portabella mushrooms at the end. I should have added the broccoli, too, but there wasn't enough liquid. I'll try it again, but with modifications.
5. Tomorrow's dinner is ready to go. It'll be put in the crockpot in the morning.
Laundry is done. The house is in decent shape. I even put the Christmas dishes away and organized under the bathroom sink.
I'm not looking forward to the regular grind tomorrow brings, especially since I saw we're supposed to have a "wintry mix".
I'm going detox tomorrow - no diet soda, no booze, limited caffeine, nothing prepackaged or manufactured - a modified system tailored to my personal findings. I'll let you know how it goes. I'm excited about it because I hope to give my metabolism a boost and begin getting rid of the last of the tonnage I want to shed. Less than 8 months until the wedding, and I need to rock my mother-of-the-bride dress. Also, I need new clothes and refuse to buy them until I'm at my goal weight.
And now... I must make some serious writing progress. I have a few hundred words so far, but that's not enough...
Behave!

Random...

I know it's Wednesday again already... Yay for short weeks!
The long weekend was awesome (and so was the black raspberry sangria). It rained. A lot. Though the rain didn't hamper much of our plans. It definitely cooled things down and gave the teenagers an opportunity to get muddy. We ate a lot, hung out with friends we don't get to see much, shared many an adult beverage, worked on the new pavilion in the camping spot, laughed, cooked, stayed up too late (which was fine because sleeping in the humidity was next to impossible), laughed, and had a blast.
It was over far too soon. And now it's Wednesday.
I'm not sure what's up for the coming weekend besides my writing meeting! In the meantime, I must get to work!
That is all for now!
Behave!

Mother's Day!

I hope you had a good one...even if you're not a mother!
I had a spectacular day!
1. Sleeping in... that was beautiful and so needed after the neighborhood fire at 12:40 am  (and the motorcycle accident earlier).
2. Mimosas! Yes.
3. Coffee with awesome creamer! And breakfast!
4. Having the day off... no obligations, nothing hanging over my head, nothing to do but relax.... yes....
5. The family coming over... we had a fantastic time!
6. More mimosas!
...and tomorrow is Monday...
Which is really okay because there are only 3 working days until Retreat!!!
Behave!!!

Snow Saturday!

We had snow around here!
Enough to keep that man at his snow plowing gig all freaking day (like for 17 hours!!)! He is one tired man!
That meant our shoveling fell to the people living in this house... namely me...K2 has a bum wrist (one that will most likely require surgery, but we won't know until she has her ortho consult. And it hurts her. A lot.), K3 is still under the weather thanks to the stomach flu (not to mention, he has a mondo science project due Monday). K4 helped a lot. More than she thinks, but I shoveled my rear end off (one could only hope) today.
I slept in. (That was wonderful!) Made three pots of coffee, did laundry (even though my washer is now spewing water all over the floor! Gah!) And we took the rest of the Christmas decorations down. (Thank goodness) And played a lot of video games (I stink at that). And cooked. And cleaned. Plus, I did a little bit of editing. Okay, more than a little bit, but still...
Good weekend. So far.
How about you?
Behave!

What's Been Great About This Weekend...So Far

We're at T-3 hours until Alternate Thanksgiving begins here so I'm sure there will be more greatness to add later (especially since K5 will be here! Man, I miss that kid!).
Here's the list so far:
1. Watching movies with my girls. We've watched X-Men First Class. Pretty good. Red Riding Hood. Also, pretty good. The new Pirates - better than the other two, I'm just not a fan of the actress. We still have Thor on deck.
2. Cleaning dance party.
3. Freaking my youngest out with 80's music. Ha!
4. The vast array of cookies and brownies made. And cream cheese frosting with pumpkin spice. That will go well with the weird dessert I made from scratch...fresh pumpkin, flour, brown sugar, spices...not measured, just thrown together and baked. It's a little denser than intended, but goes fantastic with the cream cheese frosting.
5. Serious laundry progress. Three more loads. Then...my guys will be home from camp...oy!
6. Good phone conversations.
7. Mushroom cheesesteaks! And chinese food! (We won't talk about the crap-tastic pizza and how I ate it anyway hoping it would get better)
8. Sleeping in both days!
9. Waking up to the smell of turkey in the oven.
10. Knowing I have a short week coming up. And having to dress up for work, because I don't do that much (no one sees me) and sometimes I like to be a girl!
11. Plotting progress. I still need a name for the hero, a title, and to work out the end game, but I will soon be ready to start FRESH writing! Wooo!
12. My kid saying she feels better, even though she still sounds like crap.
13. Looking forward to the evening's chaos!
That is all for now!
Behave!

Christmas Lists...

So, yeah, I'm trying to get organized for this Christmas thing that's going down next week. My holiday spirit meter is at 0.003.56% now. That's something. I guess. Right?
I still haven't shopped, but I have collected lists from 3 of the K's. They know it's a tight year, so they were very easy on me with their wants - for the most part.
But I also got things like this:
K2 wants a pony. Her reasoning is that she never asked for one when she was little. And she promises to wash him and feed him and pick up his poop. She also wants Wellies.
K3's list has about sixty video games on it. His system is older, so the games are cheaper, but sixty? He also made me a sensible column with things like socks and undies and an xbox 360. ?
K4 would like Elvis, the Beatles, and a dolphin. In her serious column, she asked for a hermit crab, but not one purchased from a hobo. (Exact words: don't get it from a hobo)
It makes me shake my head. And laugh. And feel a little bit better about that Christmas thing that's going down next week. It's the reason my spirit meter climbed a little. Now if I could only get it all done in time.
On a side note: B has to take cookies to work tomorrow for their Holiday lunch. Of course we had none made, so we're still working on it tonight, but we found the absolute best Oatmeal Raisin recipe on Pioneer Woman's website. I hate raisins and I love these cookies. They're fantastic and I will be making them again very soon.
That is all.
Behave!