ThanksGiving Week

Our Thanksgiving was truly the week for us to give thanks this year.

First, we had almost 60 people show up for Thanksgiving.  My Mom ran herself ragged and loved every second of it.  I wasn't a whole lot of help since The Youngest infected me with a nasty little virus.  But fun was had by all despite the sickness and the food that I did eat was delicious.


Second, I finished my stairs finally!

For the observant, no the rail is not yet finished, but the stairs finally are and we are no longer having to skip every other step to go up or down.  Yay!

Third and definitely the most important reason for our family to give thanks: 

We received a call on Friday morning that my cousin Caleb (age 20), after leaving the family gathering, had fallen out of a barn loft on Thursday evening and had broken his back.  He was rushed to UAB (University of Alabama-Birmingham) hospital and he underwent about five hours of surgery.  They ended up fusing 5 vertebra together.   The surgeons said that he is incredibly lucky to not be paralyzed.  They said that they had seen less traumatic injuries that had left the victims paralyzed for life. 

Would you believe He was up and walking around the hospital just a day after surgery?!  He's leaving the hospital to head home tomorrow.

Our family will be giving Thanks for quite a while for this miracle!

I'm Back

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving.  Me?  Well, there were enjoyable things, good/bad things and some downright scary things. 

On the enjoyable side, I finished one sleeve on my current sweater project and only have one to go.  I'm about an inch into it.  The food was fantastic.  My Mom should be a professional chef.  I've gained three pounds because of it.  Wait.  Maybe that should be in the bad things category.  I also finished the scarf WIP.  If I remember, I'll block it tonight, but don't hold your breath.

Good/Bad Things - Yay!  We're not moving to Raleigh!  Now I don't have to figure out all the moving stuff.  Boo!  Now there isn't a job in the foreseeable future.  The whole thing fell through based on several factors.    Now I just have to deal with the depression that has set in with the two adults in the household and keep it from affecting the two kids.  It's hard for me to be all creative when I'm depressed.  I tend to pick up books and read to escape reality and this severely cuts into my knitting time.

Downright Scary - A family member was given some scary results on some medical tests.  The person has to go back for more tests to confirm the first tests, so we'll know more at a later date.

Whew!  It was quite the Thanksgiving Holiday this year.  November has not been especially kind to us.  Let's hope December will take pity on us and cut us a break.

Welcome to my World

Welcome to my world. The world where you spend lots of time decorating your house and tree with lots of glass and shiny bits and sundry other fragile, breakable items. Then, you spend the next month and a half or so yelling at the almost two year old who can't seem to keep away from all the pretty lights and ornaments. This is the child who also cannot control his impulses to unwrap the cool paper and neat bows.

I love Christmas and all the bells and whistles that go along with it. So, I must "gird up my loins" (so to speak) and be prepared to have high blood pressure issues and lots of mixed drinks readily available to control said high blood pressure issues.

The first of the high blood pressure issues however, have had nothing to do with the Youngest and everything to do with light strands. I began getting the tree lights out of their respective boxes. I plugged the first one into the wall. Half of the lights came on. Not an all or nothing situation as per usual, but half. Well, damn. I grabbed the next strand and plugged it in. Again, half. This happened not once, not twice, but three damn times! Why me?

Instead of going along every single light to try and puzzle this out, I'm opting for the "go shopping for more damn lights" approach. I have less patience and less time, mainly due to the help of a certain almost two year old.

*****

I had a wonderful time at Thanksgiving and I've decided that if my waistline is to survive, I really need to avoid my Mom's cooking. I gain several pounds every time I go there.


The kids and I went on a walk while we were there and here's a couple of pics from it:

Beautiful!
Chasing big brother