First time for everything.........

Today, for the first time ever, I ate in a restaurant for Thanksgiving. Mountain Man and I went to a local steakhouse where he ordered a steak with bleu cheese and bacon and I had pistachio-crusted salmon. Hey, at least I had garlic mashed potatoes! It was delicious and we topped it off with creme brulee and cheesecake with pumpkin drizzle. So, basically I bookended my day with pie, since our morning started off with a very early trip to the airport, followed by breakfast at Denny's nearby while we ensured our precious cargo actually made it airborne before we got all the way home (holiday travel is fickle). My pie at Denny's sucked so I only ate three bites. But, still, pie to start and end the day is never bad.

Except I'm on Weight Watchers so of course those indulgences are forbidden. But it's Thanksgiving so I'm giving myself a pass. Last night I was really hungry and wanted ice cream. As Jeff dug into the carton of coffee ice cream, I mentioned I'd really like a milkshake, but that I was out of points for the day. Licking the spoon, he yelled "Hold the line! Don't give up!" Can you tell he was watching "Gettysburg" just before his dessert? Needless to say, his Civil War motivation did little to quell my cravings, but I did not indulge and went to bed with my stomach growling.

Speaking of Civil War, since we just returned from our trip back East and having just visited Gettysburg, Antietam and other historic places, Jeff has been obsessed with watching movies and reading about these places. I guess we should have done our homework BEFORE the trip, but after is fine, too, since it's history, right? Still, he talks about it all the time. This morning, he was drawing imaginary fighting lines on the table at Denny's, explaining some strategy or other while I was busy texting Arlie at the airport. (I'm listening.......really...).

I remembered that I usually do some online shopping on Thanksgiving morning, but the crack-of-dawn trip to the airport kind of threw me off. Still, I logged on during the commute, and completed a few transactions. God bless smart phones!

When I got home I had a sudden urge to make this coffeecake I'd had once about 15 years ago. I have no idea what made me think of it again, but I picked up a can of cherry pie filling at the store just to make it so I looked for the ingredients. The first ingredient was Bisquick and I only had enough to make half the recipe, but that was fine since there were only four people in the house at the time. I was reminded that my box of Bisquick was from Costco, a place I have not ventured into for almost a year. I let my membership laspe, even! Gasp! But tomorrow I have to pick up my Christmas card that I ordered from Costco so I'm sure I'll have to renew my membership. If anything, I'll appreciate the ginormous packages of toilet paper because we go through that stuff like water.

I did some more online shopping today. What a cluster! It's so confusing to navigate all the black Friday specials (yes, it's Thursday, it just gets earlier and earlier each year) and it gives me a headache and anxiety trying to shop for four kids. Plus, one significant other and two extras we've acquired for the uncertain future. Yes, this year I have seven kids to shop for - all teens and young adults. I'm going to need a lot of Bailey's and Xanax to get through the season.

But today is about Thankfulness........and I'm truly thankful for everything in my life. I mean, I'm thankful every day - for my beautiful, but cluttered and often messy home, for my comfortable bed and the old electric blanket I found at grandpa's that still works great and keeps me so warm at night, for waking up with various kids under my roof, always happy to have them around for their goofiness, laughter and the way they amaze me every day with how smart they are. I'm thankful for food and flowers and my sweet old dog, and my lazy cats, and adventures with Mountain Man, and the fact that, even though not all Thanksgivings are full of family and friends and a turkey in the oven, a fruity adult beverage and the company of my husband are just as welcoming on a day we celebrate gratitude. I'm lucky.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

The Good Things........

Just time for a quick update. Nothing much in the past few days except I'm SO TIRED! I swear I'm getting old. And menopausal. Wow. Hayley has been super busy with ASB stuff and registration today for jr. year. That cost me over $200 for ASB sticker, planner, yearbook, spirit gear, and pictures. Yikes. I checked the bank statement. Taking out the mortgage we'd have about $300 left over but, oops, we have $322 worth of bills to pay, plus we need a few groceries for camping (and never mind we have to EAT till the next paychecks come), and we have to pay the dogsitter for this weekend while we're camping! UGH! I am so sick of being broke. Oh well, story of our lives, right? Us and a zillion other people. Time to appreciate what we have. And go for experiences rather than things! I'm already thinking about "homemade" Christmas ideas.

Arlie came back tonight after two weeks away. She is so missed when she's gone and so happily received back into the fold of the family. The kids are glued to her side (well, Hannah and Harrison are, Hayley is glued to the TV!). It's so cute to see how sweet they are for at least a while after she comes back. Everyone is happy and no one is fighting. I love that immensely!! That's a good thing.

Kids gave me a fashion show tonight trying on clothes. That was a good thing, too. I ordered everything online from Old Navy, spent about $100 per kid (which was amazing for all we got) and most everything fit and was cute. They were happy and I didn't have to spend one minute at the mall with bored kids! Yay for online shopping. What a good thing! And love Old Navy.

We're going camping tomorrow! I'm really looking forward to it because we're going with our great neighbors, Amy, Jason and Abbie and Carla and Mike. They are our best friends in the neighborhood and we've been planning this trip for a while. We're staying in some new yurts so it should be a fun experience! Plus, we are on the Stillaguamish river (my favorite!) and we're going to try our hands at fishing in the river. So, that's a good thing too!

Harrison and I baked snickerdoodles and cocoa-oatmeal fudge together tonight. He really loves to cook and bake and it was nice to pull him away from the TV for some cooking instruction, with delicious results!

Ok, I feel better now that I've layed out some "good things" on my blog. Today had some major stresses and I got pretty bogged down but I'm feeling a lot better now! Gonna go have a snickerdoodle and some milk!