An interesting Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving dawned cold and rainy, fitting my mood, I was not in a very Thanksgiving-y place this year, missing my family and friends in Vegas and all that...anywho, Wednesday night I had decided to get a jump start on the baking and made the pies and Mark made the Green Bean Casserole, all that was left was the turkey, potatoes and stuffing..oh and the gravy. Put the turkey in around 10 am and watched football for a few hours.....the turkey cooked faster than we anticipated so around 1:30 it was a mad dash to get everything else done...as I was preparing the stuffing and gravy, Mark was warming up the greenbean dish, not wanting the turkey to overcook, we decided to take it out of the oven...in my mind things still happen very slowly, I remember picking Nate up so he would be out of the way, Mark grabbed the oven mits, opened the oven....began to lift the turkey out and next thing I know I'm paralized watching FLAMES shoot out of my oven and LICK the top of the stove....Mark was quick and slammed the oven door shut, extinguishing the flames, but not before smoke escaped and invaded the whole house..the turkey was fine, we were fine, stove and oven were fine...sadly my gravy didn't make it and the stuffing..well..it wasn't the best that I had made...all in all it was a very interesting Thanksgiving, and another thing to add to my thankful list...I'm Thankful we still have a house :)

Thankful

I am most thankful this year for my family and friends, without their love and support over the past year and a half really, I don't know where I'd be, more than likely I'd be in a looney bin, but thanks to them I am at home with my boys and will be celebrating the holidays with a bittersweetness. I miss my mom and my grandma more at this time of year than any other. I am so glad I paid attention when they cooked over the years! I find myself constantly wanting to pick up the phone to call about how to cook something. My family has always been big on getting together to eat, food seemed to be the glue that held us all together along with my grandma, she always used to make SOOOOOOOO much food, I mean even though I have a big family, she would cook like she was feeding 100, and there was usually only 20-25, everyone always had leftovers to take, maybe thats why she did it, so that she could take care of us for more than just that one night? I really wish I could be in Vegas this year, I have missed now 2 Thanksgivings now and it stinks! Sometimes I am glad we moved, but I get really really really homesick especially now. So, now that I have thoroughly depressed myself, and probably those that are reading (sorry about that), I will move on to more poignant things that I am grateful for.
1. I am grateful that Nate has finally started talking more clearly, makes life so much easier :)
2. I am grateful that my husband still has a job :)
3. I am grateful that I am going back to school next year for a psychology degree
4. I am grateful that I will be turning 30..they have got to be a better decade than my 20's
5. I am grateful for the new blog friends that I have made..seriously some days just reading funny anecdotes about someone else's life just makes me happy :)
6. I am grateful that I jumped on the Twilight bandwagon (even though mark thinks I read too much..lol)
7. I am grateful for the gas prices having gone down!
8. I am grateful for all the life lessons that I was taught this year
9. I am grateful that I have a wonderful support system
10. I am grateful that I am alive.
I know the last one was kind of dramatic, but I really am grateful to just be alive, to be able to experience every day. I don't live my life like every day is the last, because I believe that there will always be tomorrow, not that I take everything for granted, but to me when you say this could be my last day, its not a feeling of oh I better do everything I can, its a feeling of doom. I don't want to think its my last day I want to believe in a future :) So on that note, may this coming year be more than anyone hopes for :) and remember to be thankful for all you've got!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sunday Fun!

Today was family day for us Bush's, we decided to check out the Tucson Zoo, which up until about 3 days ago I had no idea even existed! So off we go bright and early to show Nate real live animals, all he's seen are dogs and cats and birds :). Now I must say that the website for the zoo is somewhat misleading, it makes it look like the zoo is really big and will take 2+ hours to see everything, soooo not the case! Even though it was small we all had a great time, Nate especially. I really did enjoy myself until I saw the Lion, when I saw this animal I almost cried, it reminded me of the lion from The Last Unicorn, the one in the traveling circus, Mommy Fortuna's traveling circus (I think is what it was called?), anyway the poor thing is literally skin and bones, not an ounce of meat on it's body ANYWHERE, it makes me sad and angry to think about it, needless to say we didn't linger long at that exhibit. My favorite animals there were the giraffes and elephants, they were most active and really neat to watch, one of the elephants was doing some sort of little dance all by himself :). Nate's favorites were ALL of them, he was so fun to watch, he just laughed every time he saw a new animal and asked very eagerly, "what's THAT?" every couple of feet :). The zoo only took about an hour to see and I am sure we will go back one day soon, just so I can watch Nate's face light up, that was the best part!

29 going on 13...

It seems that I am going back in time these days, I'll be turning 30 next month and yet my insides feel as though I'll be turning 13! By the way Twilight, completely obsessed with it! So much so that I went and ordered the entire BOX Set yesterday and had shipped overnight so that I wouldn't have to wait and buy one at a time, what can I say the saga appeals to my inner teen!

All day long I have had my front door open waiting to see the beautiful brown UPS truck pull into my drive way, which just did about 30 seconds ago, I probably gave the poor guy a heart attack as I came running, YES I SAID RUNNING, out of my front door to grab the box from his hands! He looked at me like I had 2 or 3 heads, but I don't care, I am that excited about these books! So now that I got them, I can calm down and read them! They really are quite pretty though, all hardbacks with beautiful slipcovers, I love BOX sets! :)

Ok so off I go, back into the Twilight world! :)

Peer Pressure!!! Or maybe it's just the bookworm in me :)

After a late night phone call from a very dear friend of mine YELLING at me to "GO BUY TWILIGHT, YOU'LL LOVE IT!" I finally succumbed to the peer pressure and bought it today. My inner bookworm has been craving something new anyway, and since I have been into Vampires lately, thanks to a show on HBO called True Blood, I figured why not? Also I have to say that my curiosity has been peaked ever since Tia over at CGGB (Clever Girl Goes Blog) did a post about it and then put a video of one of the songs from the soundtrack up too, I was pretty much sold! *Side note, if you haven't checked out CGGB please do, you won't be sorry, Tia is a great writer and makes me laugh on a daily basis!*

So tonight I will dive into the world of Twilight :) Expect a full review once I'm done, I love passing on good books! :)

A Few of My Favorite Things for the Holidays

I live in the desert, literally out in the middle of the desert, there are other houses around, but we all have an acre of dirt and weeds that can sometimes pass as "grass", between us. Since it's the desert it's HOT 10 months out of 12 (sometimes 11), which means that I get ONE whole month of fall/winter :). So in honor of that I am going to share some of my favorite Fall/Winter/Holiday things..

1. Normally it would be the colors changing, but out here everything is Brown 365 days a year, so I guess I will say I like watching the colors change everywhere BUT here :)

2. I love the COLD and as soon as it hits 75 degrees I break out my sweaters! HAHA!

3. I love to bake, I usually bake all year long, but for the Holiday Season I tend to go overboard and become a comfort food maniac! Some of the things I bake are...chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, fudge, brownies, cupcakes, pumpkin crisp, pumpkin tarts, pumpkin pie, apple pie and if I keep going I'm going to get really hungry.....

4. I love hot chocolate, mostly the Starbucks kind because I always get a Peppermint Hot Chocolate...if you haven't had one TRY one this year, I promise you won't be disappointed!

5. I love YANKEE Candles, their Fall/Winter Scents are so wonderfully yummy! I have a whole list of those that when you burn them together or even separate they make your whole House smell so good, so here goes..Harvest, Red Apple Wreath, Pumpkin (anything except spice, I'm allergic to it), Christmas Cookies, Jack Frost, Silver Bells, Atumn Gold, Autmn Leaves, Sparkiling Cinnamon....That's just to name a few... I'll add to the list later :)

6. I Love to GIVE presents, sounds corny I know, but since most of my friends and some of my family's Birthdays are during this season I get to give presents for like 3 months! Oh and I like to GET presents too, my birthday is 8 days before Christmas (Dec. 17 for those that don't want to do the math..hehe). Serioulsy though I think giving presents is way more fun, especially when it's a REALLY good present and you get to see the person's face light up, it's just the best feeling!

7. I love Holiday FOOD, not just the baked goodies, but Turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes, and stuffing..did I mention stuffing? And gravy and sweet potatoes, and green bean caaserole, and even though I don't get to eat it anymore, I loved my grandma's Carrott Bread Pudding with lemon sauce, it was something she ALWAYS made at Christmas and only she and I would eat it, I can't think of anyone else ever eating it but us (Brit correct me if I'm wrong please..), I also love my Aunt's Blueberry Yum Yum, it's also a Family tradition, Thanksgiving and Christmas ONLY, but I swear if given the chance I could probably eat it EVERYDAY!

8. I Love Christmas Music and movies, it just takes me back to being a kid and I get soooooo giddy, another great feeling! Some of my favorite singers/movies are Josh Groban, Nat King Cole, the soundtrack to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, A Christmas Carol, T'was The Night Before Christmas....another really long list.....

9. I love TRADITIONS, putting up the tree and decorating it, wrapping presents (even though I suck at it!), watching A Christmas Carol on Christmas eve, singing songs with my family....everyone gathered around opening presents...(man I miss my family!)

10. My favorite thing about this time of year is all the LOVE you can feel from people, except for the crazy ones that are out shopping, some of those people are not about the love...most places you go to though people are just kinder around the Holidays, something about this time of year that just makes you want to LOVE everyone...maybe it's just me?

There is alot more stuff that I really love, but I'll stop here because my child is banging on things.....What do you love about this time of year?

The Wii Fit!

Mark and I had a deal for Christmas this year, the only thing we were getting for each other was the Wii Fit, so for us Christmas has come early! I found the Fit Board and game at Target, it was the LAST one, so naturally I had to buy it! The other night we set it up finally, and I stepped on...Now keep in mind it comes with a warning label that says be aware that others will be able to see your weight and BMI and all the fun stuff that you don't really want others to see (especially your husband!)..So with Mark holding the remote controlling the process, I held my breath and waited for the numbers....I will not at this point disclose that information all I will say is that I have now taken to working out EVERY DAY! Now after the Board/Game tells you how fat you are, what your inside age is and makes your Mii (game version of yourself) fat just like you, it tests your balance. For those of you that know me really well, you will agree that balance and me are not friends, I fall off of sidewalks, I trip or stub my toes at least 2-3 times a day...well the Game is now on to me! It ASKED me if I frequently trip or fall when walking?! What kind of crap is that?! HAHAHA! Also, I did an exercise yesterday (apparently I did it wrong) because at the end of the exercise instead of telling me to do it again, it called me a COUCH POTATO! Usually I get ok scores after each attempt, but not that time! I have to say though that I absolutely LOVE the Game and all the exercises, I have never done Yoga before and I am actually learning alot about it! My legs are killing me today, but I will keep it up! Oh and Nate loves Yoga too! He does all the poses with me :)....So even though it yells at me and beats me up....I have give it to the creators at Nintendo, they did an awesome job!

A new tattoo

Over the weekend my wonderful tattoo artist imprinted upon me a now daily reminder of my mother, as if I really needed one, but it's beautiful nonetheless. I chose this particular piece because it is indicative of who my mom was in a sense, the butterfly represents the freedom that my mom had (when she wasn't chained down by her addictions) and the 4 bears represent the different facets of her personality, each one is different, each one is placed in it's own world and thats how my mom was, she was something different to everyone, but the butterfly contained her while also allowing her to be free. I added a few personal touches, one bear is holding a football (my mom loved her 49ers) and one is holding a baseball (she also loved her Giants), each of those will be done in the colors of her favorite teams. I know you can't really see it at the moment but I placed her name along the lines at the top of each wing, you can sort of see it, but the flash kind of whites it out a little. I know she would be "proud" of the tattoo, since it represents her so well, oh yea I forgot to mention, I chose the Grateful Dead because of her love of the band :) and my love of the band as well. I miss her all the time and I know this holiday season is going to make me a wreck, but I will get through it and pretty soon each year will get easier (I hope). I wanted to share this part of me with all of you since I can no longer share with her in the physical aspect, I feel her looking over me from time to time, and every now and then I hear her laugh especially when Nate has done something truly hilarious :). I guess she's not really gone, she lives on in me and my children and for that I am grateful.

Miss you mom, I love you and I hope you like your tattoo :)

Grandma Bush this is for You!

Nathen LOVES the phone and so last night while I was out Mark decided to take a video of him talking to his grandma in Michigan...so Brenda this is for you :)

My 50th Post!

Ok so I know that most of the blogging world doesn't commemorate the 50th post, but for me it's a milestone since I don't blog everyday like I should. So in honor of the 50th I would like to say thank you to my friends and family for stopping by and reading and commenting and stay "tuned" for the next 50, cause once I reach 100 I will be doing the faithful give-a-way!

Crayola Markers Rock!

Nathen is currently becoming quite the artist, he has stopped coloring walls and now colors on other things....I'll let the pictures do the talking :)

At least he is color coordinated :)

Look he colored inside the squares :)

A New Day

Barack Obama is our president. I must say that even though part of me has turned conservative over the years, watching this election unfold the way it did and watching the faces last night in all the different parts of the country, it felt like the whole country was holding a breath and when Obama won there was this huge sigh of relief and hope surged through the country. I know that Senator McCain could have done a great job as president, there was something about him though that just didn't create the hope that I saw last night. I don't know how to explain it, I listened to President Obama's speech after he won and I was crying, I couldn't help it, it's the first time I have ever felt emotion for any kind of political candidate. Most of the time when thinking of politics I would get angry..lol.. But now, it's different, President Obama represents a change, a HUGE change, he's the first black man to be President of the FREE world! I mean who would've thought, I know when I was growing up I was told you can be president some day, a woman in the Whitehouse seemed far fetched and to have a man of color (trying to be pc :p) was beyond anyone's thinking and now here we are. Amazing..simply amazing. I am hopeful and I feel like the country is actually United again. I hope I hope I hope that he will take us where we need to go and that the country will continue to stand together and say "Yes We Can!"

It's Here!!!!

Election Day is here! GO VOTE!!!! Make a difference!!! :)

http://www.BarackObama.com

Be Informed....

Make a Decision...

http://www.JohnMcCain.com