Thanksgivings Day 2007!

What a wonderful, long, relaxing weekend!
Tim flew in on Wednesday afternoon, and kids were absolutely thrilled! I found it easier to park in a "cell phone" zone, right before you get to the pick up lane, and wait for Tim to page me. It saves me time (and money) on parking, and that's what it's for anyway. I only wish other people would follow my example and STOP parking in front of "no parking at any time" zone and blocking my way!!! :-)

Although, kids requested that next time we go inside the terminal and wait for Daddy there.

(Too long of waiting...)

Kids and I did all the food shopping days before Thanksgivings Day and avoided most of the crowds, so we were all ready for the feast.

***
On Thursday I woke up first and got right to business. I intentionally bought a small turkey this year. I got tired of trying to figure out yet another recipe that calls for a pre-cooked turkey meat. AND I actually defrosted the bird in time for baking it! Yea for me (pat on the back).

I also made all the traditional staple foods, like a pumpkin pie, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, bread rolls, etc.


I think by noon all the food was ready or almost ready. I even surprised myself. So, we went to the next step, which has became a family tradition now.

Every year, right before we sit down to eat, we get cleaned up and dressed nice (unless you look at Gabe, then it's more about comfort or the outfit hanging closest to his reach...). Then, we sit down on our Living room couch, get the camera timer set up, and create a family portrait that we later use for a Christmas card.


Everything went right as planned, with a small "fall out" (pond intended). I was the last to descend from my bathroom and just as I was getting down the stairs, Jon (who was sitting on Tim's lap, facing him) turned around, lost his balance and fell backwards, hitting a coffee table with the back of his head... Of course, blood starts pouring out, as it does with any cuts to the head, and the first thing that I think of (bad Momma!) "is it bad enough that I HAVE to take him to ER, or can we go on with our pictures?"

It turned out to be a superficial cut, only ~1/4" wide, but what a bleeder!

***

Black Friday: wasn't worth getting up at 4am!! Especially, not after a some wine the night before ;-)

I did take Larissa shopping for "the brothers", and then Gabe to do the same for the other two later in the morning, but I think even that was a mistake, because I kept seeing good deals on something "the person with me" would like, and of course, I couldn't get it right then...

I think I got most of relatives (we get presents for) covered, and I plan on shipping everything out early this year. No more wait-till-last-second for me!

When is a good age to talk to kids about Santa?.. hmmm...


***

Saturday was another showing at the house, so we went to Garden of the Gods for lunch and a walk. What a gorgeous day, but a bit cold!

Later that night, we drove up to Palmer Lake Chili fundraiser. All benefits go to support a light up star on the side of the hill. Apparently, it's big enough to be seen off an airplane, and it is supported by a local volunteer fire department.

Every one have to pay per head to get in, and then they also had a whole lot of donated prizes that you had to buy raffle tickets for, then drop your ticket in the basket next to the prize you wish to win, wait and see if you get it. More tickets bought, greater chance of winning. I won nothing :-( but had a great time anyway.


***

(A trip to Garden of the Gods with Daddy)

Sunday was the day to take Tim back to airport. Off he went back to OR.

Since we had, yet another, showing at the house, I took the kids to have lunch and to hang out at a playground in the Mall

I can already tell that getting to school on time on Monday will be a challenge!

Three more weeks before Winter Break!!!

Nov 17th-18th weekend

Another week just past me by...

This was mostly a cold weekend, which started out nice, but got cooler and cooler as we got closer to Monday.
Kids were really excited over not having to go back to school for a whole week, sleeping in, playing video games.
I was playing around on Paint Shop and they asked me to put their faces on Shrek's characters. I gave it a shot:

(You can find the other two characters on my Flickr.com)

Saturday turned out to be pretty disastrous... I got an email from an old friend regarding free flu shots that were to be offered at a few locations in town (as a part of Pandemic Training). Since I already got mine, all I needed was to get the kids'. I decided not to tell them and just take them there, so I wouldn't have to deal with tears too far out...
It was scheduled to start at 9am, and based on what I was told happened last year, I wasn't in much rush to get there. Well, big mistake! I went to a location closest to my house (and coincedentally, in a middle of largely populated area), and I could tell this was not going to happen when I saw a line going around the block! Parking attendant told me to "just go home and do something else". They already estimated that they were short on vaccine. :-( Darn!
In a final desperate attempt, I headed out to another location 10 miles North of us, thinking that since it was on the outskirts of town, with less population, etc. I might have better luck.
As I got closer, I found out that my proactive Google map search sent me to the NEW location of the high school, and I had no idea where the old location was. A little driving around, getting to know the town better, finally got me to it, all too late. They were not only all out of vaccine, but done with the crowd too! Grr!
On the way back home, we remembered seeing an article in a newspaper about an alpacas show by the local farmers, with some merchandise for sale:



Honestly, I was rather disappointed with the fact that about half the product was not locally made, but imported from Peru! So much for a local flavor.

Sunday was another day of enjoying the last of Fall's warmth, playing on a playground, and taking it easy!

Plus, we had to get out of the house, so that potential buyers could look at it...

November 13th, School show

Another season, another school performance.

This time is was Larissa's first on-stage Music Show "The First Thanksgivings". There were a lot of jitters and worries prior to it, but everything went really smooth.

Although when we got there and were walking through the parking lot, I noticed that Gabe wasn't wearing any shoes!!! To which he replied: "I told you , Mom! I forgot... You rushed us out of the house too fast and I didn't get to put them on..."
Never mind that he was sitting in the hallway for 10 minutes as I was gathering everything together. Boys!..

We got there, I though, plenty in time, but all the good seats were already taken! I have a pretty short video-camera tripod and I had to figure out a way to tape Larissa's performance over everyone heads. I ended up sitting on the floor in the middle of the isle, but that's no problem at all!

I actually left my camera running and went to the back of the auditorium to keep Jon busy from singing alone with Larissa's class and then making really loud comments. I really need to work on "whisper voice" with him!

After the show, a quick glucose check, a snack and we headed back home to watch Larissa on DVD :-)

November 10th-11th weekend

This was one of those busy but not very productive weekends. Loved it!

On Saturday we went to a Doll Sale, benefiting Goodwill Industries. Basically, it was a warehouse size room full of donated dolls, toys and Christmas decor.
Larissa got a $20 present from her "Grandma in NY" (as she refers to her), and that sure took her far! They happened to have some Bratz dolls at $3 each set, so she loaded up on those. I don't particularly like them, but it's her money...

Boys got a couple of soft toys too.
Gabe had his eye on an old GI Joe's set (with a storage box and all), but the price was quite a shocker - $100.00!!! Never mind...

What was bugging me all through out the shopping is the fact that this was the second (of two) days for the sale and a sales person told us that they are open till 4pm, but at 3pm, EVERYTHING is going 1/2 off!!! Unfortunately, we had plans of having lunch with our friend's family way out in the boonies, and there was no physical way of getting back to the store by 3pm. So, I kept thinking: "Darn, we could have paid half as much or gotten twice as much for the money..." Oh, well...
Spent the rest of our day hanging out at the friends' house, eating pizza, playing till it was dark.

Then when we got home, I tested Larissa and her blood glucose was "high" for no apparent reason. (Normal person's numbers would be between 80 and 120 this long after eating).

Wouldn't you know it?.. her insulin pump's tubing broke off! It was hanging slightly bent at first, then totally fell off:

had to do a site change ahead of the schedule. I am just glad we figured out the cause!

On Sunday we went to see a Bee Movie at the mall. It's been a loooong while since we went to a "regular" movie theater. We have been going to a "dollar" theater lately. The quality is less than desirable, movies are a few weeks (or sometimes a few months) old, but the price is right. For the four of us, with three-four hot dogs and a couple of popcorn meals, we can still make it under $20.00! Can beat that. Not to mention "Tuesday - half price day"!
The movie was pretty good, but way too many previews before it. We got to the theater at 12:01pm and the movie was scheduled for 12:00, got in, sat down and still had to wait till 12:20pm for it to start! Jon just about lost all his patience by then.
Other than that, not much went on this weekend.

Larissa has a Music Program at school on Tuesday, so she is all worried about that already. Funny girl!

Wednesday, November 14th is a first UN observed World Diabetes Day (http://www.worlddiabetesday.org/), and we will try to attend the event downtown, but for whatever reason, it starts in the early afternoon, on a work day! What were they thinking?!!

Halloween week, 2007

Sometimes my Halloween week turns into a Hell-oween week...
One thing for sure, it went by really fast.

At the last minute everyone changed their minds about what they were getting dressed up as, so, Jon was a Dinosaur, Larissa was a witch, and Gabe was a doctor.

All in all, kids got a whole lot of candy. Usually, on the night of Halloween it gets really cold in Colorado Springs. Last year kids kept slipping on ice as they were walking up and down the street, which usually means a short trip, then back home for hot drinks and the warmth of a fireplace.

This year was probably the best weather we had since moving to CO. It wasn't warm, but it also wasn't freezing or foggy.

Jon got too cold though and wanted to go home earlier (his fault, he wore a costume too small, and his hands and belly were exposed to cold air), but Gabe and Riss continued a little longer with our neighbors.
As soon as they got home, I dumped out all the candy and separated it into "has nuts" and "does not have nuts" piles. The pile with nuts went to my work :-)

The next day we had to go to the airport to pick up Daddy. Kids were so excited! It was Tim's and Larissa's birthday weekend. Since Tim had to go back to OR on Sunday (his actual birthday), we did all the celebrating on Saturday.

We had all the bells and whistles (pinata and dessert)

Presents for the Princess and even a present for the King:

Then Larissa took me by surprise and said that this year she didn't want a cake, but rather have a (frozen) cherry pie that we bought earlier. No need to ask ME twice, that's one less thing to worry about!

The only problem we had with it was the filling temperature. It was actually hot enough to melt candles, and they started shifting out of place. So, we had Larissa blow them out really fast :-)

Later on, on a Saturday night, Larissa woke up with a sickness to her stomach and ended up throwing up around midnight. I don't know if the food the night before had anything to do with it, but she was much better by Sunday night

Weekend issues - When I woke up on Sunday morning, it was totally freezing in the house. Apparently our thermostat broke. I had to run to the nearest ACE Hardware store to get one. At least it was fixed while Tim was here and I didn't have to worry about it by myself.