Thanksgiving

#5 That’s where LSU ranks in the BCS standings!! Yay!! That game Friday was fantastic!

So, to catch up…Wednesday we went to Eva’s Thanksgiving Feast at school. It was very cute. They sang songs and said a poem. I was surprised, because normally Eva doesn’t participate too well in front of a crowd, but she was singing loud and proud. I was pretty impressed that most of the kids knew all the words to the songs and the poem. After that they served us a Thanksgiving dinner. That was really amusing. I actually did take some pictures, but of course I haven't taken them off the camera.

Thursday we started off going to my mother in law’s house. That was nice. It was fairly quiet for a change. She has a rather smallish house and when all the men would get together it’d get super loud…even when they were all outside. The weather was very nice so we ate outside. The kids ran around and raked leaves and had a good ole time. Then we went to my grandmother’s house. That was nice too but we were getting tired by then. I have pictures of this too...LOL

Friday my mom and I left at 4:30 am to go shopping. We started with the intention of going to Kohl’s, but when we got there the line to get in the store was across the front of the store and down the side of the building. We decided to go to Wal-Mart next door. It was pretty wild in there, but we were able to get the stuff we wanted without much incident. My grandmother bought Eva a used computer for her Santa and I got her a Lexmark printer/scanner/copier at Wal-Mart for $29. I was pretty excited. We got a few more little things. My mom got like 5 Cabbage Patch dolls for $8 each. Then we went to the mall. It was pretty subdued there. I guess because there was more room for people to stretch out. We went to the Disney Store and there was a line just to get in the store. And the reason for that was you got 20% off your entire purchase if you got in the store before 10 am. Since it was 7 am we decided to go for it. I did so good there. I got a ton of stuff for Lauren and Maria. I waited in line for an hour and a half, but it really wasn’t too bad. I immediately got in the check out line before I even put anything in my basket. Since the line went around the whole store, I figured I’d eventually pass everything I wanted to look at. I found a lot of fun stuff on sale and on the clearance rack and all that was an additional 20% off too!

Saturday we did what seems like our yearly tradition. We went to LSU to see Mike the Tiger, play on the Indian Mounds, and walk around campus. Then we went to lunch at a little pizza place just off campus. Then to Target to get Christmas lights and get the Cars DVD for the girls. We had tried to go to the movies, but nothing was playing when we got there. So that was a consolation prize.

Yesterday I had to work the church nursery. There were 3 adults, 2 teenagers, and 7 children, three of which were mine. It was a pretty easy morning! Then we just hung out at home the rest of the day.

My grandmother is going to buy me a vacuum cleaner for Christmas and I’ve decided which one I want. I’m going with the Dyson DC15 Animal. I can’t wait to order it!

Birthday Party

I'd have to say that the party was a success. There were so many people there, that we couldn't have fit anyone else in the house. It was wild! We rented an inflatable bouncy castle (Spacewalk for us old people) and a Spin Art machine. Both were a big hit. She did very well in the gift department and got her very first prepaid credit card LOL She's so spoiled. I told James we ought to hold on to all the gift cards and use them for Christmas shopping because anything else she got right now would get lost in the midst of all the other stuff.

Oh and I made cherry cordial brownies from the recipe on the back of the box. They were excellent! Kristen, they made me think of Thelma Bars!

Saturday

I was going to post about something yesterday, but I kept getting sidetracked and now I can't even remember what it was.

Nothing much going on. Today I experimented with just taking one of the twins out running errands. It was getting way too overwhelming to take all three kids anywhere. Lauren wasn't feeling well this morning so she stayed home. It made the shopping experience so much nicer. We made it through three stores with no major meltdowns...amazing! We went to Kohl's first and fortunately we were there really early and caught some early bird specials. Then to Sam's for diapers and wipes. Then grocery shopping.

Earlier this week I was really pleased to learn that Bobby Jindal will indeed be running for governor. So it'll be a Jindal Blanco showdown again. I suspect that this time she probably won't come out on top since most of her base is living out of state and just can't bus people to the polls quite so effectively from Houston. She's also been accused of "ethnic cleansing" in New Orleans, which I found to be a riot. I'd say her base in New Orleans has completely turned on her. And her "Road Home" program isn't handing out checks like everyone thought it would. They've had that $6 Billion dollars for how long? And they've only handed out like 24 checks. I sure hope that 6 billion is in some really good interest bearing account. But she announced last night that since there's a 300 million dollar surplus in the budget she's going to hold a special session to give out raises and spend it on a bunch of crap that probably won't affect the regular people.

Tomorrow is Eva's birthday party! I think we'll actually have a decent turnout, I was starting to get a little worried. It's supposed to be cold and clear, no sign of rain!

My Round Robin is Home!

My Teresa Wentzler Round Robin has made it back home! My theme was TW borders. And I have plenty enough fabric for a second round...although that would be contrary to my promise to myself to cut back on RRs for awhile.



I still have 3 slots open for my Pay It Forward challenge

Weekend Update

My parents decided to get Eva her birthday present early. So Saturday morning we set out on the premise that we were taking Eva to pick out her cake. We went to a little bakery that's supposed to be the best in our area. She decided on a Bratz cake. It's a pretty cute design even though I wouldn't have rathered her pick something else.

Then we went to the bike store. Eva was so funny. She ended up picking out a periwinkle colored bike. It's so huge compared to her other bike. Then we went to Hobby Lobby and bought paper mache ornaments to decorate and I was struck with inspiration to get some christmas tree shaped paper mache boxes. We painted them when we got home and the girls can decorate them later and we'll put treats for their teachers in them. After that we hit the do it yourself pest control store and got stuff for ants. I'll just say that stuff worked really good! Then we had lunch and went home.

Sunday, I dragged everyone out to the Rennaissance Fair. That wasn't such a great idea. James hated it, he didn't like all the "weirdos" and I'll admit, there were quite a few. There were too many overly large women wearing way too few clothes. Eva didn't like all the people "looking at her". Maria had to hold on to me even though she was riding in the stroller. And the stroller was a bad idea because all the walkways were gravel and hilly and it was hard to push it. Lauren was pretty cool the whole time so maybe next year I'll just bring her without the stroller.

That's all folks!

Pay it Forward

Ok, I'm going to make the commitment...and do the challenge that everyone else is participating in. The first five people who comment to this blog with receive a handmade gift from me. I don't know what that will be yet, and please give me a few months to get them out. Make sure you leave your email so I can contact you for your mailing address.

H is for

"Comment to this message and I will assign you a letter of the alphabet. Then go to your journal and post a list of 10 words that begin with this letter and what they mean to you."

I volunteered for this on over at the Wonderous World of Whiz and got assigned the letter H

Horcrux-I've been listening to HP and the Half Blood Prince over the last few days
Hey-My most common greeting
Hornbook-What the heck are they for? I've always wondered
Hurt-My stomach is now
Hellacious-The way my kids act when they need a nap
Hoot Owl-I saw one on the way to work this morning sitting on my street sign, think that's a coincidence that it happens when I'm listening to Harry Potter?
Happy-My feelings about my life over all
Hate-Apparently my kids hate everything even if they like it, I don't think they really understand the meaning of the word.
Heaven-Getting to sleep late, in bed, by myself, in absolute silence
House Elf-I desperately need/want one and I promise I'd be really nice to it.

Voting Post Mortem

I'm so severely disappointed in the people of the 2nd District of Louisiana. You gave William "I've got $90,000 stashed in my freezer" Jefferson 30% of the vote?? I'm praying that "Dollar Bill" loses in the run off. However, since the people of this state have a really annoying habit of reelecting incumbants no matter what they do, I'm sure that he'll win.

Once again I voted Libertarian for my state candidates and once again they lost decisively, but I think they're doing a lot better than anyone ever expected.

I've got my eye open for the Governor's election even though it's a long way away. If Bobby Jindal doesn't run, in one way I hope he does, in another, I hope he stays in Washington; then I've got my eye on Walter Boasso (that's BWA-so). He has a new website up, Get It Done Louisiana. He hasn't announced that he's going to run for Governor, but he's definately been doing the dance.

Neato RAK idea

RAK= Random Act of Kindness

Check out Ann's (and Annette's) blogs, they're doing something kinda cool. I'd like to do it, but right now I'm pretty tapped out as far as stitching goes for awhile. Maybe after the first of the year I'll be able to do something like that.

I'm Getting Nervous

I don't do so well having people at my house. It really stresses me out. All the cleaning and cooking and then the hostessing. Eva's birthday party is coming up (the 19th). I scheduled it for 2:00 pm, I figured at that time I wouldn't be required to serve an actual meal. We've done that in the past either gumbo or BBQ. But, everybody and their brother is being invited. So, now I'm stressing over what food to serve. I'm sure I can ask my MIL to make finger sandwiches. She likes to do that. And chips, veggies and dips. That's the easy stuff. But what else?? I'd rather fingery type food so that I don't have to worry about tons of forks floating around. Oh I just thought of something...cherry and jalepeno jelly poured over cream cheese and served with crackers. That would be something good and maybe a little different.

Ok, painters are coming over Wednesday....need to buy paint!

I'm just really praying it doesn't rain on the 19th. If half the people invited show up they really won't fit in the house.

Peace and Quiet

James took the girls to his parents house today and I got some blessed quiet time. Which I spent cleaning the carpet, washing and folding laundry, cleaning the kitchen, and taking everything off the walls in anticipation of the living room and kitchen being painted. I'm hoping the guy will be able to do it next week. Oh man, Eva just brought me a bag of cookies that my MIL made and they ware soo good. Chocolate chip and Pecan and really buttery tasting. The pecans were most likely out of her own yard. That's what the kids always do this time of year when they go over there. Pick pecans. They always come back so dirty. Oh well, it's worth it for the pecans and it's easier for them to pick them up since they're so much closer to the ground.

And a little funny story about me. I was watching the shows I had DVRed during the week. One was The Unit. I was watching it with all the windows open and our next door neighbor's lawn mower backfired. I about had a heart attack. My heart was beating so fast. '

Biscournu Exchange

I'm moderating the Biscournu Exchange over on the Rotation BB if anyone is interested in signing up!

An Interesting Bonus

I noticed something quite nice from my little oil concotion. This morning Eva had no knots in her hair. Normally brushing hair is a screaming fit, but it was done in like 20 seconds this morning and her hair is nice and shiny, but not greasy looking. I think it's definately something I'm going to stick with for the long term. Buying those oils is rather expensive, but a little goes a long way I'm hoping.

I've Been So Busy!

This weekend, I discovered lice on the girls, actually I never saw any of the gross creepy crawlies, just the nits. After all my efforts to NOT get it! So Sunday I had to treat everybody on the assumption that we all had it. And I vigorously cleaned the entire house, and washed all the linens. They've been egg and nit free for 3 days now, so maybe I conquered it for now. I did a little poking around on lice deterrents, and found that rosemary, lavender, and tea tree oil are natural deterrents. So I stopped by the health food store and picked those up and made up my little concotion. It smells pretty strong. I put a few drops in our hair last night, the girls didn't like it at all. This morning I put it on the brush as I brushed hair, and while they still didn't like it, it wasn't quite as strong.

I've been super busy at work lately, lots of new work bidding finally!

Then we had a Halloween party at Sunday School, a Halloween Party at School and then finally Trick or Treating last night. I couldn't believe how many people were out last night. Tons of kids were out. At most of the houses people were just hanging out in their driveway. There might be 3-4 different families at each house giving out candy, so the kids really racked up. It reminded me of a big block party, but it covered the whole neighborhood.

Tonight I have to go shopping for Christmas outfits so the girls can get their portraits done. My mom wants new pictures done. Plus, I have to buy paint. My parents are getting my living room/kitchen/halls repainted as my Christmas present. We really really need it. We have matte paint now on the walls and you can't scrub that, so we have crayon marks all over the place and Magic Eraser just doesn't work on matte paint. I think I'm just going to keep the color pretty much the same.

Oh and we managed the Greater Baton Rouge State Fair in there too. Lauren completely surprised me. She's normally quite shy. They had a big petting zoo type thing and she just marched right on in there and started petting all the animals.

Here's the link to the Picturetrail Album for the last few days.