Happy Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving day - a day to be grateful for our great abundance and blessings. I am truly grateful for ALL things in my life - good and bad. I could easily do without the bad, but would not be worth much. Top Three on my list of the good are: My redeeming Savior, my Family, my Friends. Then we get to the more wordly things - my home, job, van. I could list a few thousand things I am THANKFUL for, but I don't want to right now as my hands won't type fast enough and my brain is already on two hundred thirty! Just know that if you are reading this then you are probably in the top one hundred or less!

I spent Thursday with my fave 5. We had a light lunch of different gourmet cheeses, meats and crackers, and Martenelli's in fancy punch glasses. The kids thought I was crazy but enjoyed themselves completely. We then went to the theatre and watched Madagascar 2 - was fun, but thought a little lacking in the plot department, felt a little too much like Simba! BUT the tradition is a trip to the theatre for a movie the whole family will enjoy so that is the choice we made.

After the movie we went to visit Grami and Pops. Grami took the kids for a ride on the golf cart while I helped Pops clean the kitchen. After about twenty minutes they came back and were all excited because they got pulled over by a policeman. Mind you, they live on acreage in Gilbert with quiet, sleepy roads. (very safe in my mind) The cart was licensed for the road, however, my thirteen year old driving was NOT! The threat of jail for Grami and no driving till 18 for daughter was made along with a hefty fine for no seatbelts for littles. Quite funny considering Grami is a "by the book" kind of Grami! Because it was Thanksgiving he "let them off with a warning" but sent them straight home. I laughed as these things just don't happen to my mom!

That was too much excitement for the day so we came home and watched Fred Clause on DVD, eased a little tummy after vomiting cheese, crackers, popcorn and soda, and then off to dreamland!

So thankful for all the blessings in my life - like mom's willing to risk jail to let granddaughters learn to drive- hehe!

Jasper

Look at that FACE! Who can say no to that?!? Well I did for the first hour that I saw him, but then he was just so dang cute! I always said "we will never have a dog, so get over it!" Well that is what was quoted back to me when my kids learnt I had brought home Jasper for them - do I love my kids or what? They had to vote a few times over the name, but they finally decided that Jasper was a good fit. He is an Australian Shepherd/ lab mix. He is a good dog as well. Lays/Lies (never could get that one down) by the back door and sits up whenever someone talks to him. He has started to chew on things but lucky for me they are all the things that I would prefer left my yard anyway - weeds, broken toys, etc. So after he is done it goes in the garbage! The kids are teaching him to "hug", sit, fetch. He doesn't bark unless you scare him and he is terrified of the pool - yeah, I won't tell you that story cuz someone might try to take him away from us! He is like all dogs in that he poops quite a lot, but, as conditions of keeping him for a long and fruitful life I don't worry too much about that as it is almost always picked up on a daily basis by one child or other terrified I will give him away!

My Knight

Last week I went to the dentist to have an old filling removed and then a root canal done on a tooth. The old filling had cracked and a cavity formed underneath - thus the root canal. Well, after getting all the cavity out there was not much tooth left and it would have cost way too much to try and save. They ended up pulling the tooth, only pulling is just the half of it! I thought he was going to break my jaw - he yanked to the left and right, then up and down, then he took the scalpel and cut the gums to see if it would release. He then states to me, "sorry about this, but I am going to try and spread the bone to see if the roots will release." Yeah, he did! Well, I don't know about you, but I don't think bone "spreads"! At least my bone doesn't. Finally he breaks the tooth in half and pries one root out at a time. Needless to say I felt like I had been beat up! I went home and had some nice percocet that let me sleep a restless night -meaning not very well! To make it all worse, I had happily the day before sent my dear hubby on a fishing trip with some friends. With my job I am required to take on call four days a month. My day just happened to be the following day - Saturday. Supposedly the on call person "never gets called out". Whatever, they were calling me by 8 in the morning! I had tried to get someone to cover for me but to no avail. The scheduler did her best to keep me home until around 2 pm. Then I was told to see three different patients. I couldn't believe it. I was unable to take my pain meds because of needing to drive and work, and the morning dose of tylenol was not helping at all. After seeing one patient and getting upset with the scheduler I was able to get someone else to see the other two patients and I started for home. I was in pain, tired, could hardly talk and wanted to cry. My phone rings and it is Chad to tell me he is home. I immediately bawl into the phone and he listens as I tell how horrible it was that he was not here to witness such obvious torture on me! He tells me to come home and so when I get there he meets me in the garage with a big hug and a gentle kiss on the cheek. Then the next thing he says is give me your phone and pager, go take some pain pills and get into bed - yeah, he is my knight in shining armor! It helps that he works for the same company as I do and he went out on a call at 10pm and didn't come back until almost 1 am. Yeah, he is my Knight. I love him to pieces! Thank you, Babe.

My own Little Vampire

So Ashten hasn't stopped talking about Twilight and spent all day yesterday making a power point of the people she still thinks should have played the characters in the movie - interestingly enough she placed some of the actual cast in the power point (not Bella and Edward though- she didn't like them). So anyway, I am sitting at the computer trying to be better at this blog thing and catching up on some post that were sadly neglected all this time when I hear a little growl behind me and turn to see this! Funny enough that while I read Breaking Dawn this is kinda what I pictured! (if you can't tell, she has plastic vampire teeth in her mouth - they look almost real)

She's got Talent

One of Ashten's friends is a great "artist". She wanted a T-shirt for the movie night but didn't get one before hand. So as we are driving to the theatre she is drawing in the back seat with a permanent marker. I had to keep opening the window for the smell. When we got there this was the finished product. Way to go Mikey!

Her favorite character in the book is Alice.

She has a sketch book with many more awesome drawings. I hope to be able to say "I knew her when" someday.

Twilight!

So, about two months ago I posted on my ward blog about wanting to go to see Twilight with my friends and make a big girl's night out. Knowing that many friends stated interest in going to see the movie, my first thought was to have enough go to rent our own theatre - dream big, right! Well as the days passed I learned that I don't have as many adventurous friends as I thought I had - still love them though. So anyway, tickets went on sale and I decided that I would buy ten tickets to be safe. I had almost that many RSVP so I did not think it a problem to talk a few more into coming with us. BUT, as the week approached and then the day before my friends got tired, scared, boring, ... not sure what, but I was down to only three - what am I gonna do with seven tickets??? Ashten to my rescue of course! She had been begging to crash my all adult night anyway so I caved in the pressure of wasting $70. And rescue she did! The only problem is now instead of it being my night, I am taxi to her friends (I really didn't mind, but this is MY whine session so just keep readin'!)
The plan was to go to the theatre to get in line for a good seat by 6pm. Wouldn't you know that the good friends that DID come are too tired and old (except you Katie - new baby is a good excuse to come late!) to show up that early for JUST a movie! SO, I take 7 teenage girls to the theatre, just ME, and have to talk to total strangers (which by the way had their friends with them!) for three hours while I wait for MY friends to show. We get into the theatre, pick seats, buy AND drink a large soda and go to the bathroom - all before they get there to rescue me from the squealing teenagers I am accompanying! If you can't tell I am trying to make you feel bad for not being there for me- YES, ALL of you! If you are reading this you should have been there and the guilt had better be eating at you right now!! AND, just to add more to your deep sorrow, We had a BLAST!! What better time could be had by a mom and her daughter than to do what SHE wanted for a whole six hours? I will be forever known as the COOL mom - ha!

SO... eventually my good, dear friends did show and we got to talk for about two minutes and then the theatre burst with squeals as the lights dimmed and the long awaited movie started! It was worth the wait! I was not happy with the cast at first and so when it started I was saying to myself "I can't believe they thought he was Edward!, Carlisle, etc." but I have to say that for the most part it was very well cast. If you are gonna see this movie keep in mind that it is NOT the book. There are disappointments if you think it will be. I heard an interview that the main characters had not even read the books before they made the movie - they probably should have to make it even better, but they did well. And the main reason to watch a movie is for entertainment and that goal was thoroughly met!

I do not regret the standing in line or the sleepless 24 hours. It is all part of the adventure! We have to do things that SEEM crazy sometimes. We didn't just watch a movie at midnight. We created a memory for one night that will last forever!

PS: I am so glad that I have you as friends, and if you can't be crazy with me sometimes well... I love you anyway!

Oh, and PSS: The good friend that started me with going to midnight movies moved to Colorado and she called me to see if I was in line - that is a great friend. (so I guess I didn't talk to strangers the whole three hours) She went with her girls in Denver, but it is different there, people did not start coming to the theatre until around 10pm so they didn't get the crazy experience that we did. She said it just wasn't the same!

Not so Great!

I am learning that I am not so great at this blogging thing so far. I am finding it hard to post on my blog when my friend's are so much more fun to read. I get so engrossed in their stories that I run out of time to post my own. And I refuse to give up more sleep than I absolutely already have! So, have patience with me as I figure out the balance. As you can see I think I might have the picture thing almost figured out. I am still working on getting them in the post itself (I wanted the above picture after I wrote). But don't I have some cute kids?! That day was NOT fun, but looks like it might have been worth it!