Been on hiatus

So sorry for the long lapse in posting. I wonder if I even have any remaining readers any more. We've had a very eventful last couple of weeks and I've been overwhelmed by the holidays.

We're currently in North Carolina at my parents' house. The house smells magnificent -- turkey, cornbread, freshly-peeled oranges, and all things Thanksgiving. We've been eating like kings (and queens and princesses). It's so hard being pregnant this time of year. Even though I'm supposedly "eating for two," I feel terribly guilty for every bite that ends up in my belly. Pretty sure I'm way ahead of schedule on my weight gain this pregnancy, but I've been told I should either be more careful about the types of foods I'm eating or just delight in the fact that I'm fat anyway and enjoy it. I guess I'll enjoy it!

The holidays bring the most decadent foods and family gatherings require everything in a casserole. Bring on the butter! We've tricked ourselves into thinking we're eating healthy by masquerading these butter dishes behind vegetable facades, too. Not only that, but you MUST have a bite of everyone's casserole -- troublesome if you attend a gathering with a large family as everyone is responsible for bringing a different dish.

I learned this morning that the number one food on the day after Thanksgiving is take-out pizza. No wonder! It's so much easier to prepare (just pick up the phone!) and clean-up is a cinch. It's probably healthier than all the casseroles anyway.

Black Friday is absolutely the worst thing about Thanksgiving. It's pitiful how people bundle up their exhausted, cold children and force them into what is essentially the running of the bulls at 2 a.m. Not my idea of a fun time. We woke up at 9 o'clock this morning. Yay! I'll stick to catalogs and online shopping.

We wish you and yours all the best the season has to offer! Happy holidays!

God is taking pictures!

Yesterday afternoon, Avery and I zipped outside to get the mail around 4. What a nice afternoon. And then.....the clouds rolled in. It got incredibly dark incredibly fast. With a cold front on the move into town, it bumped right into the warm front we'd had going on here for the last few days. Yikes! The perfect storm.

With it getting so dark, Avery was acting hungry, so with Chad at a work event, we were on our own for dinner. What does that mean in our house? Spaghetti-Os! I pulled Avery's bowl out of the microwave and put her in her high chair. Her high chair is right by the back window. When I couldn't see the head and tail lights of the cars on Old Hickory from the window, I went in for a closer look. When the lightning flashed, all I could see was swirling wind and rain.

I very quickly rolled the high chair to the safest interior space in our house and then the power went out. It was pitch black. I managed to keep Avery calm by telling her that the lightning was God taking pictures of us. The power blinked on a couple of times, so Avery clapped and cheered. Then it was off for a long time, so I pulled out the candles. Avery had Spaghetti-Os by candlelight. I, on the other hand, had peanut butter crackers since that was all I could see to find in the kitchen that didn't require heating. Oh well.

We moved our party to the car in the garage so we could listen to the radio. (No, we don't have a battery-powered radio within easy reach in our house.) Avery enjoyed "driving," beeping the horn, flipping the turn signal, turning on the hazard lights and climbing from front to back seat. Once we were sure the storm had passed, we returned to the comfort of our living room and played puzzles and read books by candlelight.

I called NES to report our outage on their automated phone system. The final prompt tells you to press "1" if you want to be called and informed when your power is restored. Hmmm, let me think about that. No, thanks. I think I'll figure that out when EVERY LIGHT IN MY HOUSE COMES ON AT THE SAME TIME. Give me a break!

Whirlwind holiday

The last week has blown by so quickly. We jumped in the car immediately after church on Sunday to meet my aunt Amy to hitch a ride with her to North Carolina to visit my parents. The journey there took FOREVER, but we managed to arrive before midnight. We spent Monday hunting for shopping deals on last-minute Halloween costumes (and collected a couple for next year, too!) Monday night, mom had a bunch of friends over to see Amy's fall CAbi clothing collection (Carol Anderson by invitation). After lunch on Tuesday with mom and dad, we jumped back in the car and returned to the central time zone. Yep! Quick trip!

Wednesday, I forced myself to hit the YMCA and then met with the Creative Planning Team at Otter Creek for lunch and a brainstorming session for Tim's upcoming series on Time. I'm really looking forward to his message this season. So much preparation and prayer goes into his message. I am grateful that we're blessed with his talent.

I made an early dinner for our family and we tried to get Avery out the door for some quick Trick-or-Treating before church. No such luck. The child didn't want to put on her costume. Chad had let her try it on that morning, so she was a bit freaked out by it. Marvelous. We thought we'd be able to bribe her to put it on for Jay, Melanie, Tori and Abby Brown before church, but they weren't home, so we just zipped off to Parade of Bible Characters. Rather than wear myself out (and the kiddo who'd have to actually wear the costume) we opted to be audience members at church. Surprisingly, Avery really enjoyed clapping and cheering for each kid that crossed the stage.

We headed home to see if any porch lights were still on in our neighborhood. We convinced Avery to put her costume on and we popped over to our next door neighbors' house. Here's our adorable pink poodle.

I'm also overdue for a post from our visit to Walden Farm. Avery had the most fun with the tractors and shopping cart. We brought home two "punk nins" that day that Avery is VERY proud of!