Give thanks, Eat turkey, and Shop

I love when my kids bring home their art projects from school. I'm one of those mother's who keep her kids projects and frame them and turn their office area into an art gallery. I try to make sure that each of the children are represented in the gallery, and sometimes I switch things out for the different holiday seasons. This week I was getting ready to retire these to switch out for Christmas pictures. Sam did this first one in grade school (he's a freshman now), the second is brand new from Todd (I'm so proud of my little kindergartner), the last is from Chris when he was a kindergartner (he's in the 6th grade now). I'm looking forward to adding one for Rose someday.




My in laws are visiting for the holiday and we'll do what most everyone else in this country will do. Eat. A lot. Afterwards we'll try to find something to watch on television, or put a movie in and I'll procrastinate cleaning up after the frenzy of cooking and eating in my extremely small kitchen that lacks counter space.
Tomorrow I will sleep. I will not stay up just to leave the house, shortly after midnight, to go shopping for "Black Friday". Why on earth do they call it Black Friday? It's not dark all day, and I would think that if you leave your house for a 3am sale that you'd surely be home before lunch. I've never really gotten into the whole shopping the day after Thanksgiving thing, I prefer to shop the day before Christmas. It's not crowded and the sales associates are so friendly (probably because they know they get to go home early and not work the next day). I don't have to fight for that last barbie dream house (not that I'd allow a Barbie in my home), or PlayStation game, because the stores have long been out of whatever is way popular. I don't condemn shopping the day after Thanksgiving for all those fabulous deals, on the contrary. Online shopping is a wonderful thing and you can still get those amazing deals without leaving the comfort of your bunny slippers and reindeer pajamas. One place you should definitely check out, from the comfort of your own home, tomorrow is CreatedbyMom.com .It just happens to be where I sell my fabulous custom made tutu creations. I don't know what all the amazing deals will be there tomorrow, but I know they are going to be fantastic. So, instead of shopping all night and sleeping all day tomorrow, stay home and shop from your computer in the comfort of your own bunny slippers and buy "mom made" goodness from CreatedbyMom.com. Of course CreatedbyMom isn't the only site to take a gander at. Have you seen the list of shops over at SITS? Have you seen the fabulous goody up for grabs this week?
Now that we've talked art, turkey and shopping I want to say "thank you".
I want to thank Kaycee over at My Life as a Mom at 22 for this lovely award.
"This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

The rules state I need to pick not one, not two, but EIGHT people to pass this on to. So here we go.

Embellishing My Life
Life Just Keeps Getting Weirder
Nanny Goat in Panties
Sweet Bites
This,That and the Other
Cirque du Vivre
Never a Dull Moment
Fleur de Aleta

What are you all doing for the Thanksgiving holiday? Do you celebrate with family and friends? Do you have any special traditions?

Twilight to Big Love in a few easy steps

How can I go from Twilight to HBO series Big Love? Easy... It's kinda like six degrees of separation but it's not gonna take six, and now you might see how eclectic my mind really is.
Ready?

You had to be living under a rock to not know that Twilight came out this weekend, but then you didn't have to be under a rock to know that it did incredibly well, not that any of it's fans are surprised. Staying along the lines of vampires and even Rob Pattinson, if you want we find ourselves on the steps of HBO. Did you know that our beloved Edward auditioned to be a part of HBO's series TruBlood? I can't even imagine what part he tried out for, but he did, and I bet they are really kicking themselves for not hiring him.
Well, Tru Blood had it's first season finale last night and it's scheduled to come back this summer. Yay! Have ya'll seen TruBlood yet? If you don't have HBO don't worry, I'm sure that it will be on DVD very soon. So now we've made our way to HBO and since we're there let's take a look at another popular HBO series.
Big Love. Have ya'll seen Big Love yet? Okay, just in case you have no idea what I'm talking about I'll give you the quick overview of the series. Big Love is the tale of suburban polygamy in Utah. Okay, I'll admit that is a very short, non descript, overview. How does anyone really describe this show? You have Bill, a businessman living the dream with a beautiful family. A beautiful family with three wives and almost eight children. Yes, there's more to it all but you'll just have to watch the show to learn more and the first two seasons are on DVD. The good news here is that the wait is over. The new season of Big Love starts this January. Can you hear the fans around the world rejoicing at the news? Finally season three is here.
There you have it...Twilight to Big Love in a few easy steps. I told you my brain was eclectic.

They're Watching Me

When we moved to the Chicago area a few years ago there was something I noticed right away. Not the weather, even though it we had actual snow before Thanksgiving that year.

It was not the lack of house work I'd get done because I'd spend all day at the giant IKEA that I found. Who needs home when you can have breakfast and lunch in there? It was the size of the squirrels. I mean these things are big enough that I'm afraid they'll eat my cat if he's out. I never have to say, "Jinx, don't bother the squirrels", or "Jinx, don't eat the squirrels". No, he prefers to watch them from inside the house where he's safe. I think the squirrels are plotting against me. I think they want to take over my house. They try to assume nonthreatening poses. They try disguising themselves.

But I always catch them coming out of their hiding spots, acting like they are just ordinary squirrels. Uh huh...right, because every squirrel on the block is hiding in a pumpkin on your front door step.
They are even so bold as to not run when I take the pictures to hold as evidence. I know I'm going to come home one day to changed locks and a squirrel answering the door. They are just biding their time til I'm gone long enough to make the switch.
I swear they are watching and waiting.
Do you have animals in your neighborhood who watch you? Maybe it's an uprising? What do you think?

what 12year olds do

So maybe not ALL 12 year old kids do this, maybe he's just showing off how tall he is, but for some reason my 12yo, Chris, has decided to turn his 6yo brother's birthday balloons into fake helium ones. As ya'll know from my blog, last week, Todd turned 6. He wanted balloons and decorations, ect... We got a bag of regular balloons, had Sam blow them up and we streamed them around the living room. Of course what kids don't love to play with balloons? Soon enough all the balloons were littering my living room floor, and believe me when I say my living room floor has enough liter on it without the help. I asked the kids to clean up. Yes, I asked (okay, really I told) them to clean -- if I'm gonna go through all the trouble of having them the least they can do is provide some free labor. Right? I come back into the room to this:
I couldn't figure out how, on earth they managed to make all these balloons stick to the ceiling. So once they all fell Chris demonstrated what his giant stature is really good for.
Silly me, it's all just static electricity. I'm so happy that public school science is teaching my children something useful. What about you? Do your children like to turn your house into a science experiment?

the ULTIMATE Twilight contest

I've spent the last week in the mist of Forks, or as I like to refer to it-- Edward and Bella Land. That's right, I just spent all week reading the entire Twilight saga. Of course I did have some pesky breaks, Todd had a birthday and the new expansion for WoW came out so some time was commit ed to those things, otherwise I'd have finished these books a few days earlier. I'm one of those people who submerge myself into a book and if I've discovered a book that happens to be a series of books I submerge myself into the entire series before coming up for air, not that you need it in Edward and Bella Land.
So, what do I do when I finish reading the books? I go see what I've missed in the blogging world. Wouldn't you know that Kat over at Sunshine and Lemonade would be having the ultimate Twilight contest? Go! Run, don't walk, and check it out!!! You will then, of course want to enter and post about it for the extra entries (just like I am). I was the lucky winner of her Wicked contest a few weeks ago. :)I wonder if I can be so lucky as to win two contests from the same blogger or if you win once you get tossed out permanently? Hmm....? To get started just go and click the button below and it will take you over to Kat's page and you can enter her great contests and read her amazing blog.

Today, 6years ago

Six years ago, the day started out with me looking like this.
I was finally going into labor with baby number three. It was a Monday morning and my doctor was going to induce me on Wednesday if I did'nt have you before then. I had been eating eggplant like crazy trying to get my body to go into labor without the pitosin and even though my water did'nt break, I actually had contractions. Daddy took me to the hospital and it was'nt long before they gave me the best epidural ever. I was in heaven, not being able to feel a thing. It took a while but you were born shortly after 1pm, and daddy almost missed it. You were 9pounds and 1 ounce and 22inches long with the chubbiest cheeks and fullest head of hair ever. Over the year you grew and grew, you met new people who'd be important in your life like your godfather, Dave, and your best friend, Lambie.

You spent a lot of time in your snugli, wearing underwear on your head with your brothers, and learning to share your food with the cat.
Then, like a flash, you were suddenly a big ONE year old boy.
So much happened in your life between the age of 1 and 2. You moved to a new house in a new city (where you enjoyed dancing on the dining room table), you went to the beach for the very first time (and weren't that crazy about it), and just hung out with your big brothers (who you were crazy about).

And just like that you were TWO.
Being 2yo went by in a blur for you and me, and it wasn't long before it was time to turn Three.
It wasn't long after you turned three that you became a big brother yourself.

You also started going to preschool when you turned 3.
Four years old brought another trip to the beach (that you loved, this time), and days where you loved dressing like a Roman soldier. You called yourself a knight.

Five years old brought you your first family reunion, where you got to meet all your mommy's brothers and sisters and their kids. You had your first kiss, with Bailey (it's a good thing her mommy is your mommy's BFF), and your first day of school. And this year you love being Scooby Doo.



Today you turned 6years old. You insisted that you needed balloons and party hats so that's what you got, along with a house full of people who love you so much. You are never without a smile, and always talking, your sweet and a good friend and a wonderful brother. I love you so much, my sweet little Todd. Happy Birthday!

Wanna Bite?

After reading the book, Twilight, over the weekend (okay it didn’t even took 24hours, I’m a REALLY fast reader), I decided it might be fun to investigate some other popular vamipres of the screen. Let’s start at the beginning, shall we.
Who could forget Nosferatu,. Ya gotta admit that the silent screen stars had the creepy thing down.

Of course we then have Bela Lugosi’s Dracula.

One of my favorite vampire’s of the screen is Barnabus Collins of Dark Shadow’s. C’mon, when you can turn supernatural into a soap opera you have me. What’s more fun than vampires and ghosts on daytime television?

Skip a few years and we come to a very tan vampire version of Dracula played by George Hamilton in the film, Love at First Bite.

How about the cult favorite, The Lost Boys? You all know you’ve seen it, and loved it, and can’t picture Kiefer Sutherland any other way, and what about the Corey’s?

Who here hasn’t seen the 1992 version of Bram Stocker’s Dracula? Gary Oldman, Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder? Ring any bells??? This is the first movie that I actually feel bad for the guy and want him to win the girl and live happily ever after.

Two years later brought Anne Rice’s, Interview with a Vampire, to the big screen. Louis and Lestat. What more do I really need to say about them?

When the series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, aired we were introduced to our first really “good” vampire with Angel. A vampire with a soul, who’ll turn evil at the first moment of happiness, and of course cute too. We were also introduced to Spike, a not so good vampire who redeems himself in the end and we all love him too.
Finally a female vampire! Another Anne Rice novel brought to the big screen with , Queen of the Damned. We get our first real lead vampire with estrogen.

Then there’s Blade, the hybrid vampire. Another good vampire fighting bad vampires, plus he’s got a really cool sword.

Kate Beckinsale dons a latex outfit to become a hunting vampire in Underworld. Where she’s tormented between staying loyal to her Vampire family or getting to know the truth about their relationship with their mortal enemies, the werewolves.

Finally we have some new blood with the HBO series, True Blood. A series about giving vampires their rights and trying to live with them in your neighborhood. How can you not love a vampire named Bill? He’s got it all down. The inner turmoil trying to find his place, the brooding, the protectiveness, the southern charm.

Last, but not least, and the real reason to even write this post is Edward Cullen. As you may have read in my last post, I finally picked up a copy of Twilight. I had it finished in under 24hours. What can I say? I’m a fast reader, but double fast when I like what I’m reading. I could not put the book down! I’m absolutely in love with the characters, and am cheering for Bella and Edward. So, to all you Twilight cultists (the book ones, not the ones in WoW), you have me and I’ve shaved my head and joined your cult. It’s a good read and will promptly be forcing everyone I know, who hasn’t already, to go read the book (and series).
Have you read any good books with vampires in them lately? Would you let one bite you?