Thanksgiving 2009.....One for the books

Thanksgiving, a time when families come together and celebrate abundance and all the many things they have to be thankful for. Extra time has been put into the setting of the table so that it is just so and looks beautiful with the antique plates that came from Grandma when she got married, the turkey is roasting giving the house a delicious, mouth watering smell and life is good.

At least that is how it is supposed to be........and usually is around my house. However this year it was a little different. At 12:07 am to be exact I was awakened by my son vomiting in his bed. As I rushed in to help him I realized this was beyond my mom capacity and thankfully my wonderful husband came in and took care of the mess while I took Spencer down stairs to rock. Which then turned into a vomit fest of every 30-45 min all night long until about 8:00 in the morning. At that point my husband came down from slumber land and sent me up to bed for a few winks, called everyone who amazingly enough said that they would still come over. I know, crazy. He took care of everything, got the turkey roasting etc....... What a man!
I went through the day like a zombie on sleeping pills going from my family downstairs to checking on Spencer upstairs, but it was still nice.

As is our tradition, we went and got our Christmas tree on Friday since Spencer was better by then. Then, Friday night as I was getting the lights on the tree, I heard Jordan start in with the vomiting around 7:00. Lee started in as well. this was shaping up to be one very bad weekend. Sure enough I got sick on Saturday too. So did everyone else who was at our house of thankfulness. Interestingly enough so did my husbands family who did NOT come to our house.

Into this brewing petrie dish walked my daughter's boyfriend who is obviously insane, and took her out for the night. She and Derek are now back at Purdue and I am just waiting to hear of his porcelain worship................So if you hear of an outbreak of stomach flu at Purdue, you can blame a very pathetic little seven year old boy who we are calling patient zero, and one very ___________(insert your own word here) young man who had to see his girlfriend.

My aunt Jackie, whom I haven't seen for 15-20 years came for a visit to her old stomping grounds. I always loved Jackie and really wanted to see her, so last Saturday we packed up the kids and trekked down 52 to the local Dairy Queen for a short visit. It was so nice to see her and the pictures of my cousin's that I also haven't seen for years. I can't believe that one of my cousin's is a grandfather! Boy, time does fly.

After our visit and an ice cream cone, we went to 310 E. Main St. The house where my Mom was born there in Thorntown. Someone was there and let us in to look around. I was surprised at how much the house had shrunk since I was a little kid. It is just amazing how that happens.

It was really nice to be able to see Jackie and visit with her. She still has the bright blue eyes that I remember. I wish we had had more time, and I hope we can get together again soon.

A Massachusetts Weekend

The year...1990, the place...Purdue University. That was the year that Samantha came into my life and became my best friend. Through thick and thin, and I'm not just talking our waistlines here, we have withstood the test of time.

So..for her birthday this year, my wonderful husband flew me to Massachusetts to visit her for the weekend. Isn't he just the best!

Needless to say, we had the best time!!!!!!!!!!! I arrived on Friday the 2nd of October. We cruised over to Boston Gliders a segway tour company. After a half hour of practice time, which ended up in playing around time because it took all of 5 minutes to master a segway, we were off with our tour guide Katie. Let me just state right here that the pedestrians were lucky we had mastered them as we literally raced back and force along the sidewalk, spun in circles and generally acted like a couple of teenagers with a new toy.

Here is Samantha right after she got on for the first time. Notice the look of uncertainty on her face. With a couple of helmets that made us look utterly horrible, we were off to tour the city.





The battle of Bunker Hill spot. "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes."

Riding along and seeing these historic spots made me wish I had paid more attention in school. I loved it, you could just feel history.

The Constitution, better known as "Old Iron Sides" A beautiful old ship. It is the oldest ship still in commission. A ship has to sail one mile per year to be in commission, so on the fourth of July each year, they take her out a half mile and bring her back in.


The old North Church.
"One if by sea, two if by land." I loved the beautiful old architecture of the whole city.

Paul Revere's house. He only lived in it a short time, then rented it out.



John Hancock's house. Wow!

The tiny little cobblestone streets are so cute, and narrow! I kept thinking that they were just alleys we were going down, but no, they are real streets that people live on. It was like we were on a movie set or something.

Boston Harbor. Where, of course, they have the fourth of July fireworks each year.


Segway's MOST FUN EVER!!!!!!!!!

After the segway tour, we looked around in some shops, then went to the cutest Italian restaurant. Run by real Italians. OK, I may impress easily but Italian to me means going to the Olive Garden, this was cool.

We had the best dinner ever! Lobster stuffed ravioli for me and chicken parmesan for Samantha. That was after having bruchetta as an appetizer. Boy do I love basil.

We then stood in line and hit up Mike's pastry for canollies. Yum yum! I have never had canollies before and these were the bomb! And yes, I know I spelled cannolies wrong, but I'm NOT Italian and my spell check does not have it in there!

Sunday, we went to Plymouth, MA so I could see the Plymouth rock. Now, like most of you I was expecting this really big thing.

It is exactly what it says it is........... A rock. They don't even know if it is "the" rock, but hey it is in the spot they obviously had to step out onto so it works for me.
It is down where you can't get to it, but I tried to get Samantha and it into the picture. If you look hard you can see it there on the left.

It does have a really big impressive canopy around it.

Some shots of the seafaring boats etc around there

This picture is just a little "dingy". Yeah, pun intended no matter how bad.
Imagine my surprise when I discovered I had my own hill in Plymouth.

Shots around Grafton where Samantha lives. It had not been cold enough to bring out a lot of color to the trees yet, but it was still beautiful.


Oh, I just love all these old buildings. I want to just soak up the atmosphere.

Thanks babe for sending me to see Samantha and reconnect with her, and thanks Samantha for taking me into your home, driving me everywhere, and being the best hostess in the world. I had one of the best times of my life.

Oh, and by the way, now every time I walk by a segway in the airport I have to really work hard at holding myself back and not climbing on and going for a joy ride. I wonder if I could ask Santa to bring me one for Christmas?

All I want for Christmas......Part 2

Well, it's official. Spencer lost his second top tooth at school on Monday. He looks so funny to us, and the lisp he has is way to cute for words.

To cute to resist

Lee often asks me, "How do women learn to work men for whatever they want?" Today, the answer came, they learn to work their daddy's for whatever they want. First they find out what is cute, what works and hone their skills from there. Here is Jordan learning her lesson. "Daddy can I have some watermelon...please?" She was so gosh darn cute that first Lee laughed, then dished out the watermelon. Good job Jordan, only 10-15 more years and you'll be after the big stuff.

Playing with Grandpa

Last weekend we went over to my brother Craig's house. While there the little girls went out to swing with Grandpa. It was so cute to watch and listen to them saying "higher Grandpa, higher". I love it that we are close to the cousin's and they can get together and play. I hope they will always be close.

Like Mother, like daughter

Callie and Moglie together. I thought this was cute.

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth

Spencer lost another tooth last week, on the top. The one next to it is also loose and is now crooked and will be coming out within the this next week I think. You can see how crooked it looks. We have going around the house singing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth". Unfortunately, the first will be grown back in before Christmas so we wont be able to sing that classic song then, and worst yet.....school pictures are this week. Oh well, what a way to document a milestone.

Kate is now a co-ed

Last Friday Kate moved into her dorm room at Purdue. It was a time of mixed emotions for both of us. We are both ready for her to move on and grow, but yet not quite ready to let go.

She is very lucky, her dorm room actually has air conditioning and two windows, not the standard one.

The house just isn't the same without her, but at least she will be coming home on the weekends.

Spencer's first day

The 17th was Spencer's first day of first grade. He loves school and could not wait until it started again, however on the first morning he was nervous, very nervous. He made it through, and came home saying it was the best day ever!

Had our chance, muffed it.

Jordan was born with a head full of thick dark hair, and kept growing it from there. She never lost any, had the traditional bald patch in the back or anything. Here she is at 20 months, that's not even two and look at those locks!!! By the time she was three it was down to her bottom, with beautiful curls at the ends. We should have had her become a hair model, we would have made a tons o' bucks for college. Ahh, 20/20 hind sight.

Twister anyone?

A couple of months ago we were at a birthday party for my brother in law John, and they broke out the twister game for the kids. Thought you might enjoy the pictures and bring back some memories for you.

I liked twister as a kid, obviously Jordan does too.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Ever since I was a teenager I wanted to either go sky diving or on a hot air balloon ride. So my wonderful hubby gave me the choice for my birthday this year. Being older, wiser and more of a chicken, I chose the hot air balloon ride. Who wants to die in a sky diving accident on their birthday right?

I anxiously awaited the big day with much excitement and anticipation. I couldn't wait........Two days before the big day my wonderful hubby surprised me again. We weren't going on a hot air balloon ride, we were going to DISNEY WORLD for my birthday. YEAH!!! I love Disney World.

Everyone knew except me. He had been planning this for many months, my parents were to watch the kids, he arranged everything in advance and all plans were made. He even had his bag packed and in his closet. All I had to do was pack my stuff and hop on a plane.

So Thursday the 30th, we hopped on that plane and were off to Orlando, FL for some fun in the sun with Mickey.

When we got there, we first hit the Disney outlet shops for gifts for the fam, then went to Downtown Disney where he surprised me again.......with a ride on a tethered balloon ride.
Here is the balloon. We were hoping to get up and back down before the rain started.














This is how it looks when it is up in the air.

And here we are, 400 ft up in the air. I have my Happy Birthday button they gave me at the Disney store. Unfortunately, you cant see that I am covered with pixie dust. Sparkly, very very sparkly. What a view from up here!

Looking down at the landing pad.

This was so awesome! I loved being up so high looking down on everything. You could see all the Disney parks and much, much farther on.

Friday, my birthday, we spent the day at the Magic Kingdom. Thankfully I had registered my birthday and was able to get in free!

Breakfast buffet at the Crystal Palace, one of our favorite places to eat in Disney.

View of the castle from the restaurant.

Inside the Crystal Palace.

Splash Mountain! We went on this about a million times, it was so hot and humid out we needed to be wet and cool.

A rare photo taken of the Castle and Space Mountain taken from the top of the ride just before we went down the big plunge.

Some of the rides we went on.

The haunted mansion.

It's a small world

Philharmonic 3d show.















Buzz Lightyear

Birthday dinner back at the Crystal Palace.

SpectroMagic electric light parade with Mickey, Cinderella and all the Disney characters.
I LOVE this parade!

Disney fireworks over Cinderella Castle are the best ever!

Some of the hidden Mickey's I have found.

Tomorrowland and Main Street at night.

I hated having to leave Disney so soon, but my dream did come true. What a great birthday.

Saturday we went to the Orlando temple. I didn't find any hidden Mickey's, but we had a great experience as usual. Unfortunately we did not get any pictures.
Thanks Lee for making this one of the best birthday's of my life. I love you honey.