Thanksgiving

Well folks, I'm not usually one to eat my weight in turkey but our Mi Mi brought a Cajun fried turkey from Pearl's (a resturaunt here) and it was absolutely fabulous. It was a tad on the spicey side but I rinsed mine (sacralige I know) and it was perfect. There weren't a lot of leftovers which suited me just fine. The only thing we had in excess was MEAT. We had ham, smoked turkey and the aforementioned cajun fried turkey. I've made turkey salad and we are having beans and ham this evening. As expensive entertaining is these days I am absolutely streching our holiday fair into two weeks worth of dinner menues. Ha!!
I was actually really sick with bronchitis on Thanksgiving and I want to give a million kudos to my wonderful husband. He stepped up to the plate this year. He went through the bowels of Wal-Mart Hell the day before T-day and bought everything on the list. He even took it upon himself to create a relish tray. This was HIS idea. I kept saying, "I love you" in between coughing up my right lung and his wonderful relish tray idea. He's awesome. He vacumed. He put away laundry. He took care of the kids. He did dishes. He entertained guests. He made the girl's plates. He put away leftovers. Isn't he romantic?? :)

Well, today is Veteran's Day and my hubby had the day off. We were able to attend the Veteran's Day Assembly at our kid's school and it was so very cool. They had the Honor Guard there and a high school student play the trumpet. They had all of the Veteran's in attendance escorted by a boy scout troop to their seats and they were recognized individually during the assembly. The school took some pictures so when they post them on their website I'll grab it and share the one of my girls and hubby.
I was so proud of the entire student body. They were so quiet and respectful when the Honor Guard marched in and presented the flags. (Is this also called, "Presenting Colors"? I can't recall.) The 3rd, 4th and 5th grade music class sang American Tears and I almost started bawling because a little boy scout on the front row started crying real tears while he sang and did the sign language to the song. I wish I could have taken a picture of that scene. It sounds cliche but you just don't see that anymore. It was really sweet.

Halloween was so much fun!

Good grief, you would think that one would remember how to log back on to their own blog. So, I finally succeeded today! Yippee for me! I will do a celebration dance later. Okay, so on to my originally intended post.

Halloween!

For many adults Halloween is just another day unless you have children or invited to a cool party or perhaps are really bored and you dress your pets. (I think only white people do that, but that's for someone else's blog, Stuff White People like.com. It's friggin hilarius and I highly recommend it to all of my friends, white, black, brown or spray-on-bronze.) But the joy of Halloween for me has been revived. I now work in a corporate setting that hosts a "trick-or-treat" environment for our family and friends. Each department comes up with their own theme, decorates and dresses up. I know, I know, I've been sucked into the vortex of mindless consumerism and corporate greed. But, I don't think so. I think that I'm just a big kid and I probably should have been an elementary art teacher. Maybe I'll finish those 18 hours I have left from a Bachelor's degree. Yea, yeah, I know.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the winning department (which just so happens to be MY department). We were The Cat in the Hat. I was Thing One and my co-worker was Thing Two. The other Director in our neighboring building was The Cat. Oh what fun. We already have a theme chosen for next year and we are recruiting another department to join forces. Honestly, we don't want them involved in the creative process. We just need them for the purpose of extravagence. Ha Ha! No, really we won't be able to pull it off if we don't have their full cooperation so we will be subconsciously bribing them all year long.... I wish we had pictures of the whole set, but this picture of us is just a glimps into what you missed. I hope everyone had a great Halloween!

I voted today!

Okay, so my hubby takes baby to daycare today and calls me at home. He says to leave a little early to take girls to school because of "Voting Traffic". I brush him off thinking it can't be THAT bad. Can I just tell you the cars were parked 1/4 of a mile back from the building where we were to vote? I tell myself that I will wait until the traffic dies down a bit.
I go to work for an hour and leave to vote at the Assisted Living Center. I luck into a parking place right in front of the building. I walk up and there is a small line filed outside.
In the first 30 seconds a little old lady (looking confused) introduces herself as "Mrs. Mary Lee Speller S-P-E-L-L-E-R " asks me where we are. Thinking she must be a resident of the assisted living center I ask her where she needs to be. She said the bus from her hotel brought her there so she could vote and she's finished voting and the bus wasn't where it was and if she doesn't get back to her hotel soon, she will miss The View.
She pulls out a list of names and numbers and I see that she is indeed a resident of different facility and I make a few phone calls and we get her all straightened out. I don't think she made it back in time to watch The View though.
As I walked inside, the feeling you get when someone attempts to sell you a timeshare hit me. The small outside line was just a ploy to suck you in. The line inside wrapped around an entire wing of the building. I think the Fire Marshall must take a vacation on Election Day.
A nightmare number of people filled the hallways. Not just regular people mind you, oh no, these people were the perfect fodder for the doodles I create at work. During my 90 minutes in line I took notes on my BlackJack . There was a lady wearing the red shaggy swim cap matching red sweat suit and red Crocs. (She was going to be late for her aqua -aerobics class at the Y.)
I was approached by two different people who asked me if Jesus was my Lord and Savior. They almost sounded disappointed when I answered yes. I stood and listened to a pair of sassy older ladies discuss plastic surgery. That conversation is for a different blog altogether.
Only my Kung Fu reflexes saved my toes from being run over by the Hoveround Mobility Chairs that whirred down the hall. The only thing that seemed to slow the "motorized-chair-people" were the "people with walkers."
I eventually made it to the little cardboard booth with my felt tip marker in hand. I promptly scribbled out hate-graffiti written on the cardboard. Some people are so rude.
While I read and re-read the proposed amendments to our state constitution I made a promise to myself that I would accompany my parents or grandparents when it becomes obvious that they need assistance while voting. There were too many confused elderly people just standing there clogging up the lines. I do not believe a herd of people with dementia should be dropped off and left to their own devices. One lady asked out loud, "When does the movie start?"
The wonderful volunteers at my particular poling place tried to be helpful and had a great attitude all things considered. I fed the (hopefully uncorrupted) machine my vote and was handed my little "I voted" sticker. Which by the way, will get you a free Starbucks coffee, a free Krispy Kreme donut and free 3 piece chicken strips from Chick -Fil-A here in our great city.

Moral of the story...GO VOTE!

My first entry

I've thought about doing this for a while now. I'll have to start a "real" entry when I have a few minutes. My family seems to enjoy the stories I write about my kids and here I would be able to take those very true events and turn them into some REAL entertainment for all to read.