Thanksgiving 2008

I'm so thankful to have my whole family here for Thanksgiving. Ashley and her gang +1 a friend of Morgan's named Shayla came from Tennessee for the feast. First things first, I had to get a pic of Emma and Matthew with their pumps. Some families have twins, some have physical anomalies, we have two diabetics :-(

We have Morgan, Paul, (Shayla - family friend).

Nolan, Emma, and Matthew.

My mom LOVES to make tablescapes. She does this every Christmas, for a dinner that her Sunday School does, and actually almost anytime she can justify doing it. As i was about to take the picture my sister Amy asked if I wanted her to take the beer and wine cooler off the table. I told her I was going to "keep it real" and put it all out there. So here is mom's Thanksgiving table.

Now, Nolan was grounded from ALL Electronics this nine weeks in an attempt (however futile) to help Nolan learn the art of remembering his books, assignments, and to study for tests. OK, Nolan's report card was very good, I just saw a lot of slipping in his responsibilities. Anyhoo, since his cousins were going to be in town, Nolan and I entered into a contract where he would do 3 math sheets each day. So...all that to explain why Nolan is actually doing "homework" and how I got him to do it on Thanksgiving.



I know the "BIG GAME" isn't until Saturday, but since Ash and the kids were going to be gone by then...we thought we would have our stand off now. WAR EAGLE!!!

A day with Emma

I don't usually get a "girls" day with Emma unless I am taking her to the Dr. Today however, we met up with the Lee and Emily Atherton at Painted by U. Nolan went with Ashley's crowd to see their other set of grandparents so Emma and I had a day together. We had a great time painting a turtle plate for her teacher. I had my camera with me but didn't think to get pictures of the event :-( Anyway, after that we grabbed lunch while I went into work for a little while. We then proceeded to Hancock Fabrics and to Hobby Lobby to get some things I needed to make Christmas things. By the time we got home Ashley was back with her crowd. We ate pizza, played on fb for a while, watched juno, and I started making the deviled eggs and sweet potato cass. for tomorrow.

Historic Birmingham

I did the historic tour of Birmingham today with Emma's 4th grade class. 

This is the class getting ready for the bus ride!

The bus ride...

Our fist stop was at Morris Avenue. This street is still cobblestone and has many of the original buildings that were used for grocery stores, banks, etc.

The train tracks ran behind the buildings that were used to carry in products. The horse and carriage would then distribute it around the city.

the peanut depot

We then went to visit the four skyscrapers on a street corner. This corner is known as the "Heaviest Corner on Earth". The structures heralded Birmingham's coming of age at the turn of the century when the smokestacks of heavy industry belched the soot and grime of prosperity.

The residents of Birmingham were sure the dominance of the soaring structures made the intersection the "heaviest corner on earth." - Birmingham News

The John A. Hand Building is one of the four original skyscrapers.

We then preceded to drive by Sloss furnace and learned the history of the steel making in relation to the growth of Birmingham. We continued on to the Alabama Sports hall of Fame. The kids got to meet Jennifer Chandler. She won the gold in diving at the 1976 olympics and is pictured below with the girls in front of her display in the hall of fame.

She gave each of them an autographed card with a picture of her diving on it. Our next stop was lunch at Brookwood Mall and then on to Vulcan.

Now, they have really changed Vulcan since I last went. It has always been a joke that he was "mooning" Homewood and instead of the spear he now olds, he used to have a torch. This torch would glow red if there had been a fatal car accident in Jefferson county within the past 24 hours and green if there had not.




We got to see the opening to the mine which Vulcan is build on and also the trestle that still stands where the train ran.

It rained off and on during the day but we had a great time learning our history and being together.

Cinderellie...Cinderellie

Techincally.... I'm not a stepmother. Those of you with young children will not understand the following pictures. When you have little children you clean up after them in all ways. But, as they get older..you realize you are not their maid and start expecting them to clean up after themselves. I gave the kids (ages 12 and 9) instructions last night to "mama clean" the t.v. room and the computer room while I was out being disappointed at the movies with my sister. Please be warned that the following contains crude and violent images that are only to be carried out in extreme and dire circumstances. They were taken to prove my side of the issue when my kids are on the couch one day at $150 an hour talking to some shrink about how horrible their mother was when it came to cleaning.

I know there are smiles on the faces but I actually think it is just a reflexive thing when they see a camera pointed at them.

We were able to bag up two trash bags of junk and now my baseboards are dust free. Do you think it would be too much to have them wash down the walls.... humm, stay tuned.

How can U tell it's time to clean your house?

What, you say you have some dust bunnies in the corner? There is a pile of clothes ready to be washed? I laugh at your definition...HA. Let ME tell you how you can tell it's time to clean the house. When you find a spider on top of the bookshelf that makes your husband flinch and ask for more paper towels before killing. when you go to clean the sink in the kitchen and find a build up of ??Stuff?? on the drain that makes you want to shower for an hour after touching.

I don't really consider myself OCD, but when I get into the "over the top mood to clean" it can get fairly ridiculous. My kids know to stay out of my way and not to bother me unless the house in on fire. I hate to get distracted when I am in the zone. I've been there a little tonight and hope that tomorrow provides more of the same... my house could use some major OCD time from me.

Today is my sister Amy's B'day...happy one Amy. All she wanted was to go see the Twilight movie, so what is a big sis to do??? Take her there (yes, I was one of those people who read the books).  

I also made Russian tea for my workers this morning who seemed to love it. I had to make copies of how to make it so I thought I would post it here.

Ingredients:

2 sticks cinnamon

2 cups H2O

1 tablespoon whole cloves

3 tea bags (individual size)

2 cups sugar

2 cups o.j.

1/2 cup lemon juice

Boil the cinnamon, cloves, and H20. pour over tea bags and let steep 4-5 min. While warm you need to add the sugar, then the o.j. and the lemon juice. Mix together and remove tea bags, cinnamon and cloves. You will need to dilute this with equal parts water.

WAR EAGLE

We attended the Auburn game yesterday and had a great time. They played UT Martin and on the first kick off Auburn ran in for a touchdown. The rest of the game didn't play out so easy but we did win in the end. We met with Dr. Disney and family for some tailgating before the game.

We went and bought some t-shirts and had our faces painted (what else!)

The kids went with the dads to the Tiger walk while Lee and I set up all the tailgating stuff. It's a little hard to tell from these photos, but the Tiger Walk at Auburn is " An Auburn tradition which began in the early 1060's when Auburn players would walk from Sewell Hall to the football stadium and fans would line Donahue Drive to wish them well. Over the years the Tiger Walk has grown into a major part of fame day at Auburn, so much so that it is listed on the players' game weekend itinerary. The largest Tiger Walk is believed to have taken place prior to the 1989 Alabama game when more than 20,000 well wishers lined the street. Every Tiger Walk prior to home games draws thousands and over the last couple of years the Tiger Walk has become a standard as Auburn football players enter stadiums on the road. " - taken from the Tradition, History, and Legend page at the Auburn website.

Of course, then comes lunch.

Finger lickin' good!

Dr. Disney has a trick he likes to preform ... one cupcake in one bite.

Now comes.... GAME TIME!

Here is another Auburn tradition ... the eagle being released over the crowd to fly around the stadium and finally land on the AU at center field. This game, the eagle "Tiger" was released almost directly behind us.

Toward the end of the game we were able to finagle our way into the student section and see some up close action.

Of course since Auburn won ... it's on to Toomers Corners.

Of course when you have 85,000 + at a game, it takes a while for the roads to clear. So we tailgated some more and had a snack before heading out.

We had not had anything to drink but I'm not so sure about the person who took this fuzzy pic??



Not having gone to Auburn myself, I'm sure looking forward to the day my babies get to have all this fun (while attending classes of course!!)

I'm a die hard Auburn fan, but having landed in Alabama by way of North Carolina through Montana; I can honestly say that the best fans are those that are born and breed.

Saturday at the Craigs

Recently all Saturdays  have come to look the same. Todd, Nolan, (at least one of the boys from across the street) , and now the two boys from up the street....It's all about FOOTBALL!!