Turkey, big, big turkey!

Just had to share some of these pictures of the huge bird, 30 lbs of turkey!

Kevin, doing some master carving!

Sarah with her big bird! It was beautiful, great job, Sarah!!!

She handles that leg so well... just look at her!?!

Hope all of you had a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving!

some of the people I love...

This is a peak of our wonderful Thanksgiving. The two on the top are my brothers, Tanner (on the left) and Tyler. On the bottom left - our amazing cook! What an great, huge meal she made. I was so impressed! On the right, Stephen. The only little guy at our Thanksgiving. He is such a cutie though!

I'll have more pictures of our enormous bird. I am too tired right now. I was pretty sore after dinner and a little nap, so took some meds that make me tired! Good night for now:-o

I am blessed.... and thankful!

My sweet friend, Heather, gave me this cute cross stitch! I am not usually a cross stitch person, but I love this one and it's so me!!! I can't wait to find a fun frame for it. This picture doesn't do it justice.. it's got such a great, vibrant colors and the chicken at the bottom - it simply couldn't be more me! Heather had stopped in to see her kitties and left it in my cabinet with the dishes in! What a fun surprise when I opened the cabinet to get a dish:-D I treasure Heather so much cause she really knows how to be a true friend. I do miss her. What a blessing:-)

This is my new piano. It's from my grandparents. Now, I just have to learn how to play again! I took lessons for about seven years and can't play a thing=) I want to be able to... just takes time, money and energy I don't feel I have right now. At least I'll have one for my kids to learn on someday (a long time from how). It's fun to have the piano that my grandma played on. I am blessed!

Happy Thanksgiving from our home to yours!

These are my pretty little Thanksgiving bunnies:-) It's not a great picture, but they're sure pretty babies. When they were out last night they were having a great time chasing and being chased by the four cats! It was entertaining to watch..

Some new bread I made. I was bummed that it didn't come out of the pan very well:-( And I think it might have needed some more salt.. we shall see. It has a very yummy glaze on top. I don't usually make different breads. Making this one makes me want to start exploring some fun breads to make....

My first try at Cranberry Chutney! It's beautiful... I don't totally know what I'm going to do with it, I guess put it on the turkey!? lol.. I make it and then don't even know what to do with it:-} I wanted to make Pear Chutney and never got around to it, so this is my stand in. It smells wonderful, too.

Every time I make this wonderful Corn Casserole I mean to blog on it. It's sooo good, just like candy. I'm sorry, I forgot to take a picture of it before I wrapped it up so this picture doesn't really do it justice.

Corn Casserole

1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup sour cream
1 can whole corn
1 can cream corn
1 box Jiffy corn muffin mix

Mix all together, put in sprayed 9x13 in. baking pan, bake at 350* for 90 mins or until very golden brown. Let cool for a bit, cut and enjoy!!!

....some random things....

The other night I told you we were watching Heather's kitties. They are such characters! Here the lil lady is sitting next to me on the lap top. She's a cuddle bug. If we're sitting, she's sitting with us. She's got a little ADHD though. lol. Last night she was squirming around by the arm of the couch and Matt had his iced tea sitting right there... she was tip toeing around and the remote went "plop" into the iced tea. When you pet her she gets mad when you stop and lets you know it:-) He loves to play with my hair in the night. They are so full of energy! They love one another so much. It's a full bed at night w/ four cats and us!

We celebrated my dad and grandma's birthdays on Sunday afternoon. It's always a fun gathering at grandma's. Had good food and then two kinds of cake! My grandma is such a cutie...

My daddy! He is such a great daddy. He just knew how to be a great dad. He always kept you guessing what job he'd have you helping him with next. I think I get along with him more now that I'm grown then I did when I was a hard headed, rather disrespectful kid. He turned 60 this year! I want my kids to get his big brown eyes...

Grandma's kitty can't figure all of us out most of the time. Here he is, confused like always, with all the shoes..

{Before and After}

This is me and my tummy before the surgery - with my gallbladder

Here I am, about 15 hours later, without all my insides!

It was a good day really. Even though I did have surgery. All the Doctors and Nurses were amazing! I actually had fun. They were some great, great people! There was a different nurse at every single turn and they were all so very nice. The nurses that I had in the recovery room where the same ladies that prepped me before surgery and they were so much fun! It was such a wonderful experience - and I'm saying that about a surgery! I was at Franciscan Skemp - they're awesome:-)

Another huge blessing was my wonderful husband. What a man I have!??! I am so blessed. He was so great about doing everything for me and taking care of so much for me. He even helped me get dressed before leaving, because it hurt to bend over. He took me to the bathroom, got me water, made phone calls and was such a great support. I can't imagine having gone through it with anyone else. He is my best friend and I am so happy about that:-)

Matt's dad came and visited with him while I was under, that was very nice of him and Matt really enjoyed it. My mom came down to do lunch with Matt and then they both came and hung out w/ me when I was in recovery. It was fun to sit and talk with them. I was much more awake and lucid then I thought I'd be:-)

Today I have felt great. I am hoping I don't hit a wall tomorrow. I came home and napped about 45 mins and then our sweet friend, Sarah, brought us dinner! **Thank you so much, Sarah!!** After that Matt and I went to the grocery store to get a few things and then when I got home I made two loafs of bread and two pans of corn casserole. I would have kept going but I decided that might be pushing it, I want to be able to move tomorrow:-)

Taste of Summer

This is a taste of Summer for you... I just told Matt the other day, "I can't wait for Summer" and he told me I shouldn't hold my breath. So, I won't.. but that doesn't mean I am looking forward to it any less..



This morning I got to go into the Urgent care for the first time in years! I have been having really bad stomach pains. It's my gallbladder:-/ My mom and grandma had theirs removed so I guess it wasn't a shock to the Dr's. They gave me Morphine and some anti nausea meds that made me sooo sleepy! I was glad Matt was there to hear what that Dr had to say cause I was so sleepy and could hardly stay awake or keep my eyes open! Can't really remember anything about the ride home and just dropped into bed when I got home. I slept and slept all day. It was great cause I didn't sleep much at all last night w/ the pain. I get to go in tomorrow morning and do the surgery consultation. I am hoping they can do it fast so that I can eat normally again. I can't eat fat or dairy. Yeah, you tell me what that leaves!? And Thanksgiving is on Thursday...... :-/ Great way to lose weight, ha?:-)



We're watching Heather's kitties for the week and they are pretty cute. Sheba is quite the character. He just loves to sit on the blanket and watch what's going on. She is snugly! She purrs so loud. My cats weren't that happy about it. But they are warming up to the idea. When I was sleeping all day, towards the end of the day, all four of them were laying in the bed w/ me - not hissing, not growling, in the same bed! They just had their little toe nails taken out so they are busy cleaning them. They are warming up to us a lot now. We'll all be use to them and like them and then they'll have to leave! :-(



I have been thinking more and more about Christmas. I want to just skip all gifts I think and then just do some shoe boxes and some of those "tree of giving" thing. I just feel so much like we have everything we need and everyone around me has everything they need, too. I just feel really led to help other ppl that actually need something this year, need tooth brushes, need shirts, need soap - things that I take for granted every day.



That's my life right now. I think I might have to go to bed now. Tired.

Lefse

I am finally getting the pictures of my lefse making up. This is the dough!

Here are the little patties that you make them into to cool...

Here's rolling it out and then pitting it on the griddle.. It gets those big freckles on it..

Rolling it out again. There's a big stack of done lefse wrapped in a wet cloth.

Here's how you make it to eat it... you butter it, sugar it, roll it up and eat it! Yummm. We weighed it and it was about 8 lbs! We ate a lot of it cause it was so good. I had to just put it in the freezer so we'd stop eating it:-) It's for Thanksgiving. I'll have to make some more for Christmas - I just love the stuff!

Just want to make you think...

What do you believe the REAL meaning of Christmas is? This is how I feel... so don't be surprised if you don't get a gift from me! lol.. :-)

I haven't been on here to blog, really blog, in so long! Life gets busy...

We did a major cleaning about two weeks ago. That was wonderful to get done! I don't know if you could tell just walking in, but you know how good it feels so move everything and start over w/ clean and how you're using the space. We moved the bedroom around and that was refreshing. Matt put plastic on a lot of the windows today. Someday, I will have nice enough windows that I will be able to see out of them all year around. Someday. For now, I'm just glad to be warmer:-)

Matt winterized his boat today:-( It's good to get done (finally), but sad because we won't be on the water anymore this year. Matt also has his first "brush up" class tonight! :-/ I already don't like life w/ him in school! I enjoy my husband too much to lose him a few nights of the week. We can do it, though! He was kind of excited/nervous before he went. I'm so proud of him and happy for him. It will be an interesting, bumpy road:-)

Last weekend we went to the cities to visit Mary. What fun we had. We went to my brother, Tyler and his girlfriend, Jami and our good friends, Kevin and Sarah. We went up on Friday night. Mary made us a wonderful breakfast and then she took us to some fun places. Mary is always finding fun places for us to go, and if she doesn't we give her a hard time! We made a huge mess out of the house and had a great time.. then cleaned like we'd never been there and had to leave:-( It was a good, relaxing get-away though.

Today we got digital TV and the highest speed Internet. We have never had digital TV! I have wanted it for a little bit now. I'm going to cancel the Y membership (cause I just never go lately) and then get a treadmill and watch my good TV while running on it:-)

This weekend we have my grandma and dad's birthday to celebrate. I am so blessed to have so many wonderful ppl in my life, ppl that I love to celebrate the lives of:-)

Well, I'm going to upload some of my pictures and then maybe blog on that... we'll see!

Good movies to see!

These are some good movies we've watched lately. All of them are very good in different ways. They were all pretty clean. Lots of sex and swearing are our pet peeves. There wasn't really much of any of that. It was nice. Check these out soon if you haven't already:-)

I'm getting inked!

I'm going to be getting inked soon and want your ideas! I am really having a lot of trouble figuring out WHERE I'm going to put it on my body? Matt and I both want to get "agape love" the agape in the original language, Greek and then love in English. This is just an image that I found when looking for tattoos and I liked it. This is nothing like what my tattoo is going to be like, just thought is was cool.

cool blog

Visit this blog - she has lots of cool things! And free stuff to give away!:-)

StRaNgE!

This is a strange life I live... and I am pretty sure that I love it. This is Hank, he likes to sit on this chair w/ the hole in it. I still have the chair cause I like it. It's rather funny to watch him try to maneuver around that hole to try and sit on it. It's just in such a good spot in the house. In the doorway of the living room and bedroom. He can catch all the action. Doesn't he just look the sight, sitting there all serious, as if there is not a hole in the chair that he's sitting on!?

Wednesday night we had the bedroom window open all night. Probably the last time that'll happen this year. Sad. But, it was wonderful. I could hear the rain off and on.

I have been making lefse like a mad woman the last two days. What fun:-) I love to do that kind of thing. It's just not Thanksgiving or Christmas w/o lefse! When we were living in the app I went out and bought all the equipment to make it. About $300 later, I was set! I have used it a lot too. So, I do not feel bad. My friend, Raychel, says that I have an "old soul." I think she's right. I though, "what, am I 80 years old... enjoying making lefse!?" That's not something a 25 year old would enjoy doing, or even know how to do. I have been doing it w/ my brothers and cousins since I was about 13 -14 maybe. I will put pictures up later.

It's good to be done w/ another week. We've had a busy one. And will have another busy one. But, the weekend break is wonderful!

we shall see....

Well, we shall see now what happened to the land of the free and the home of the brave. There is a part of me that wants to say, "I am no longer proud to be an American" however, it does not matter who my president is, I have a KING! I have a peace even though I am scared for this nation and it's freedom and liberty. If I fell into that "I am not even proud to be an American" feeling I would be no better then Obama himself - not showing a true love and respect of this great country we are blessed to live in.

Quoting my friend, Bruce, "It’s not a surprising result because about every 15 years, the uninformed liberal “youth” vote gets enough turnout and elects a radical. It happened for Carter, Clinton, and now this guy. The result for Carter was 444 days of hostages, misery index, and gas lines. Clinton had all kinds of chances to get Usama bin Laden and ignored them, the result was 9-11. No telling what this radical is going to do (or not do) to our beloved country."

I can't wait to say "I told you so" but until then our KING does require us to pray for and respect our leaders.

I now leave you w/ these Fall pictures:-) We are slowly dying... everything will slowly be going into hibernation... turning cold and white.. I will miss the green all around me. But, w/o that to look forward to (and spring), what would we have to wait for and look forward to? It will be back.... I will... I just have to remember that!

Gone Fishin'

Matt and his dad went fishing this morning and caught TWO! We have gone all year now w/o one real, keepable fish! Matt's was 8lbs and his dad's was 5lbs. Good size. Matt's cleaning them right now. I am excited to have fish to eat!



Look at those teeth. They were Northern. For those of you who don't know anything about fish, such as myself:-)

Rigamortis set in cause we weren't able to clean them right away:-p Ick. They were so slimy!

He's getting there.. His dad told him of a new way of cleaning the fish and... yeah, it's taken him an hour just to do this fish. Matt's also out of practice! We are going to nail the fish heads to the telephone pole like our neighbors! Red necks.........

And in closing, this is why we love living on the Mississippi and having a boat!