In Which I Find Thankfuls But My Cats Don't

Of all times, Thanksgiving weekend should be the easiest in which to write a list of thankfuls. As such, I should have written this before my daughter called up the stairs that the oven isn't working, before my son was up in the attic, retrieving the Christmas decorations, and notified us that the roof has been leaking there (that's not the only place, unfortunately), before my brother texted me that he had called our mom and she was very confused about everything when he tried to talk to her, before the cats rebelled about the new litter I got for their litter box. So I'm going to do the equivalent of holding my hands over my ears and singing "LALALALALALALA" at the top of my lungs and ignore all but the thankfuls. Deep breath. Here goes:

1. The College Boy's pneumonia has responded well to medication. He is still coughing, but it's not the horrid cough from earlier in the week, and the wheezing seems to be gone.

2. I got a Get Well card from my sweet friend Kristi from Thankful Me, as in a real, delivered by the postman through the slot in my door, card. How can you not feel better after that?

3. I had a long, lovely chat with Christine from In The Coop. We laugh a lot when we talk on the phone, and it's wonderful.

4. I made it through another year of dressing like an Indian for the Pre-K Thanksgiving feast and like a Pilgrim for the Primary feast.

5. We went to my brother and sister-in-law's house for Thanksgiving, minus my parents, who weren't able to make the trip this year. It's about a four hour drive from here (we're in the southwest corner of the state, and he is in the middle), but my dad let us borrow his Sequoia, which was nice, as our cars are not in the best condition (even though mine does have heat now, and we would have needed it). Not only did we get to drive a car that is only a couple of years old...

6. ...it has Sirius XM Radio. My daughter rode shotgun and deejayed and I drove, with the boys in the back with their electronics and headphones, ignoring us, and we sang all the way there (including lots of showtunes).

7. One of our Thanksgiving traditions for the past four years or so is to attend a Mizzou volleyball game. This year, they played Texas A&M. They lost, but they took it to five games, we sat really close, and I got my picture taken with Truman the Tiger.

8. We all make relentless fun of my brother for using a spreadsheet when he makes Thanksgiving dinner, but he pulls off one heckuva meal, and it was delicious.

9. My daughter picked up my phone when I left it lying around and took some selfies. Always enjoy a chance to post pictures of her, especially ones like this:

10. I returned the College Boy to school this afternoon. Of course, I had to feed him before I left town, and while we were eating, a woman from another table came up to me and told me I had the most beautiful hair, so thick and healthy looking. I was taken aback, because I look in the mirror and see a curly mess, so she really made my day, and I told her so.

The oven still won't work. One of the cats pooped on the floor NEXT to the new litterbox. It's been raining since Thursday morning and not expected to stop until tomorrow night. I can only find one control to my kids' electric mattress pads. The icemaker is only making about 8 cubes a day. But there are still thankfuls. Find yours.

VERY leery of this new litter. 

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One Of THOSE Days

It was just one of those days....

Today was Primary class day at preschool (3 year olds turning 4 over the course of the year). One of my students started the day by refusing to sit down in her chair and her mood (and mine) only deteriorated from there. We've been going to school for a month now, and the class still can't walk in a line down the hall (and there are only 7 of them!). It's like herding cats to get them from point A to point B. Several of them are having trouble sharing toys, which is a nice way of saying they ruthlessly grab toys from each other, leading to a tug-of-war over the toy, bawling and/or tattling, all of which were exhibited during Center Time. Juice was spilled. Playground rules were broken (don't pick up the mulch, don't pick up the mulch, DON'T PICK UP THE MULLLLCH!!!). The Sad Chair had a bottom in it more often than it didn't. And one of those damn hairy web worms fell out of the sweet gum tree on the playground and landed on my arm. 

A day like that can only get better, right?

Soon after school dismissed at noon, I was outta there, heading to Springfield, an hour east of here, to spend the afternoon taking the College Boy to lunch and to do some clothes shopping, then going to one of the high schools in town to watch my daughter's volleyball game. I had just left town, was in no-man's land between our town and the next one 15 miles away, jamming to the BeeGees on the radio, when I heard (and felt) my car run over something. I sure didn't see anything coming, and I didn't see anything on the road behind me when I looked in the rear view mirror, and while I most assuredly ran over SOMETHING, there seemed to be no repercussions from it. Kept driving. Kept singing. 

Aaaaand BANG!

Stopped singing. Wrestled the car to the shoulder just past an exit sign. Just. Past. In between cars whizzing by at 70 mph, I opened the door and stepped out long enough to see that my front tire on the driver's side was very, very flat. 

Did I panic? Nahhh. I very calmly called AAA and explained what happened, but when the agent asked me where I was, I realized I had no idea. I mean, I knew what HIGHWAY I was on, but I didn't know where along that highway I was. There were no buildings, no signs (save for the one that said "exit" right next to me). Just trees. So I made my best guess of what the name of the exit was where I sat (turns out I was a little off), and I was informed a tow truck would be to me within 45 minutes.

That is a long time to sit on the side of the road, but the bright side was that it was, literally, bright and sunny outside and not in the middle of the night. I sat there, 4-way flashers on, car running because I figured the last thing I needed at this point was a dead battery, my seatbelt on in case anyone slammed into the back of me in spite of the 4-way flashers being on, felt sorry for myself, and contemplated whether or not I should cry (I opted not to). I amused myself while I waited for the tow truck by sending my husband texts, even though I knew he was in a meeting, and playing Candy Crush. After about half an hour of being fairly certain I was going to be killed by a speeding car careening into me, the tow truck driver called me. 

He had been driving around the area where I had told the AAA agent I thought I was and couldn't find me. 

"What are you near?" he asked me.

"An exit sign," I answered. "But I don't know which exit."

"What do you see on either side of the road?"

"Trees. Just trees."

On my left.

Straight ahead.

On my right.

Five minutes later, I see my knight in shining armor pulling up behind me (not my husband, the tow truck driver). After a brief conversation about how I was only about 5 miles off of my guess of where I was (on a stretch of highway that was only about 7 miles long), he asked me if I had a spare.

"I hope so," I said. "I never needed it before now." 

"Do you know where it is?" he asked.

"Ummmm..."

"Never mind. I found it."

I will tell you that he removed the spare from its super secret hiding place, aired it up, jacked up the car, took off the flat, put on the spare, and put the flat tire in the back of the van in 7 minutes, and that included the times he had to run around to the front of the car (if he had enough time) or throw himself against the side of the car (when he didn't) to avoid being smashed to smithereens by a passing car.

During the changing of the tire, I finally got a text from my husband, who had just gotten out of his meeting and saw all of my text messages. Even though I told him I had everything under control, he headed towards where I was (which I still wasn't real clear on the exact location), arriving just as I pulled onto the highway. He followed me to Walmart, where they had exactly zero customers in the auto center. In only about 15 minutes, I had a shiny, new tire and my husband, who decided to forego the rest of his plans for the day (things like work) had me park my car in the Walmart lot (which I did, carefully parking it under a security light in the parking lot, as it would be late when we got back) and went to Springfield with me. 

We had to give the College Boy a rain check on shopping and lunch and drove to the high school where the volleyball game was scheduled. Naturally, my bladder was at the brink of bursting by this point, so the first thing I did was go to the bathroom. 

Where I got locked in a stall and was on the verge of crawling under the door to get out when the lock finally gave and I was freed.

And our volleyball team got beaten to a pulp.

And when we finally got back to my car in the Walmart parking lot at 9:30, I found that I had managed to park under the only security light in the entire parking lot that was broken.

Is it a light if it isn't lit?

Yep, just one of those days....

Back To Work, Back To Fall Sports, Thankfully

I went back to work this week, and even though I really think God intended me to be a lady of leisure, whiling away my days reading and writing and baking cookies and pies and stuff, my husband thinks otherwise. So while Ruby is missing me terribly, it's back to the salt mines for me (do they have snacks and recess and hugs from preschoolers in salt mines?). How about I give you my Ten Things of Thankful for the week?

1. I work with a great bunch of women, so if I HAVE to work, at least it's with people I like!

2. I could not ask for two better assistant teachers. There are what seems to be a million things that need to be done in order to get the room ready for students, and about 999,999 of them wouldn't get done without the two of them. 

I spent HOURS making frogs to go on birthday party
blowers so it would look like the frog was sticking
its tongue out. HOURS. HOURS AND HOURS.
This was the one thing I did by myself....

3. My Primary class changed rooms this year, and I'm THRILLED! The new room is much smaller than my old one, but it's next door to my Pre-K room; no more trips up and down the hall between the Pre-K room and the Primary room to get supplies or books or whatever else I forgot or needed. I'm thankful, and so are my feet!

4. In spite of many recent bat sightings in our building, I didn't have a single one all week. No lizards, either.

5. I pulled a bookshelf out in my new-to-me room so I could vacuum behind it, and what I thought was a bean from a sensory table kept trying to crawl away from the suction of the vacuum cleaner. I used my college degree to deduce that that was no bean, IT WAS A SPIDER, a BIG one, but as long as it stayed near the baseboard, the vacuum couldn't pick it up, so QUICK THINKER THAT I AM, I picked up a nearby hammer (yes, a hammer) that I had been using to fix said bookshelf and, well, I won't have to worry about THAT spider any more. (Before anyone gets all self-righteous about Living Things, I would like to point out that this was a brown recluse spider AND THEY ARE VERY, VERY VENOMOUS.)

6. Volleyball started this week. I won't say I'm thrilled with the amount of playing time my daughter is getting, because she deserves better, but it's still a joy to watch her and her team work together, win or lose (they did one of each this week).

7. My daughter is a pretty tough cookie, but she was upset about Tuesday night's game, and afterwards, one of her coaches, who is not ordinarily a touchy-feely kind of person, took one look at her face and wrapped her arms around her in a big hug, speaking kind words to her and helping take the edge off of a bad night.

8. It's Friday Night Lights time again! Our first home football game was this weekend, the weather was perfect, neither too hot nor too cold, the stands were full, I had a delightful evening with my fellow bleacher buddies, and the evening ended with a Joplin Eagles WIN.

9. One of our best football players and a good friend of my daughter's was injured during the game. It happened on the far side of the field, in front of the visitor's stands, and it took us awhile to figure out who was hurt. The trainers, coaches and the two orthopedic surgeons who are at the games were out on the field with the player, which didn't look good, but when they sent for his mom to come out, we knew it was potentially serious (a sweet note: as Joe's mom came out of the stands and started walking out onto the field, one of our players left the sideline and went over to her and accompanied her - my heart!). He was loaded onto a stretcher and Gatored over to an ambulance. The rumor mill, aka the student section, had his leg practically severed below the knee, but the good news is it ended up being a Grade 2 sprain (I have no idea what that means), and he will be out for a few weeks but should be as good as new after that. 

10. There is an awesome buy one/get one free coupon for one of our favorite* frozen custard places in town that is printed on the football programs,** so my husband and I went there after the game and had a little treat. 

*There are three frozen custard stands in town, and any one of them could be our favorite at any given time, although we're particularly partial to whichever one is offering buy one/get one free coupons.

**I may or may not have dug around in a trash can to get more coupons.

How did your week shape up? Do any dumpster diving? Kill anything with a hammer? Join us in the Ten Things of Thankful by linking your post up below.

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Last Days Of Summer And Other Thankfuls

I had a busy, busy week, this last one before I return to work, and I was not only embarrassingly late with my Six Sentence Story this week, but I'm also running behind on Ten Things of Thankful; however, an endlessly rainy, thunderstormy day will make for a delightful writing atmosphere, so here goes it:

1. Last weekend, we let Emma take a friend with her to the lake house. We didn't leave town until AFTER the football jamboree at a neighboring town, but that turned out to be a thankful in itself, because the girls were wound up tighter than springs and chattered the entire way there. Now that Emma drives, I don't get the pleasure of driving her and her friends places anymore and hearing them talk, and I miss that. This was two hours of teen girl chatter, and my husband and I enjoyed every funny, shocking, silly minute of it.

2. We spent Saturday at Whitewater theme park; the girls rode every ride, flirted with lifeguards, ate, giggled, and enjoyed the last weekend before school starts. My husband and I mostly just enjoyed the girls, plus played my favorite game, Fat or Pregnant, and a new one we developed, called What Were You Thinking When You Chose THAT Tattoo? 

3. We went out to dinner that night with my parents and no one fell down.

4. After shopping all morning at the outlet malls and finding NOTHING TO WEAR ON THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL, we stopped at Mecca, i.e., Forever 21, on our way home and Emma and her friend both found cute clothes to start the school year. Whew! Crisis averted!

5. Monday night, my husband, daughter and I went to a movie as a last hurrah before school started. A late movie, like at 10:00 p.m. AND an entirely inappropriate movie, as it turned out, because it was much, MUCH more graphic than I realized but funny as all get out. Okay, Trainwreck. We took our daughter to see Trainwreck. I KNOW, you don't have to say it.

Pretty much the only ones left in the entire theater.

6. We took the College Boy back last week, but, naturally, he forgot stuff, so on Tuesday, I rode to work with my husband, who was working that day in the same town where our son goes to school (he works several days a week in Springfield and the others here in Joplin). After Kyle and I had breakfast together in a cute little diner downtown, I spent the morning buying stuff he needed or forgot or wanted, dropped it all off at his new apartment, helped him clean his floors really well, then he and I went to a late lunch and went shoe shopping, AND WE FOUND A PAIR OF SIZE 15 NIKES THAT HE LIKED AND WERE ON SAAAAALE!

7. The whole shoe thing was worth two thankfuls.

8. My husband and I left Springfield and drove to a town between it and home where Emma was participating in a volleyball jamboree with her team. It was just exhibition, and nothing really COUNTED, but we ALL know it "counts, especially when you beat one of your biggest rivals. TWICE. Good job, Lady Eagles!

9. The previous weekend, while we were at the lake house with my parents, I was talking about how much I would like to go to the state fair, not having gone to it in 30 years. I've wanted to go for a long time, but school keeps starting earlier and earlier, making it impossible to go during the week, when there are less crowds. But since our school year is starting a week later than usual, there was actually time to go this week. My dad said, "Take me! Take me!" And I did. And no one fell down. And there will be a follow up post soon.

As if it weren't a bad enough picture of me,
my dad made a goofy face EVERY TIME I
took a picture. EVERY TIME.

10. And Thursday, my daughter started her junior year of high school, which is completely surreal. She's going to have a tough year, with one AP class, three dual credit classes, two weighted classes, plus volleyball this fall, show choir all year, student council vice president, theater, and a social life. Here's to hoping we BOTH survive it!

And now it's the weekend, my last before going back to work on Monday (meetings, cleaning the room, preparing for classes, but no kids yet). Be thankful with me and link up, below. 

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Thankful For Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer

When did summers go from being lazy and carefree to being insanely busy? It's been good kinds of busy, but a whirlwind, nonetheless, yet leaves room for many thankfuls. Here they are:

1. My daughter had team volleyball camp at Missouri State this week. It's really a gargantuan volleyball tournament, with teams from public and private schools all over the state (states, actually, since Arkansas was represented as well). They didn't always win, but they played hard and grew as a team.

Okay, the only picture I took all week of volleyball and it's
(a) blurry; (b) has Coach Travis's shoulder in it and (c) although
she was standing when I started to snap the picture, by the time
the picture took, she had sprawled on the floor to get a pass.
She missed....

Varsity girls are silly girls.

2. I stayed at the lake house while Emma was at volleyball camp. It was only a half hour away and I could run up there and watch a few games every day.

3. I stayed at the lake house ALONE. ALL BY MYSELF. No one else there to ask me about food or tell me they're bored or fight over the tv or come in and change the channel when I'm watching something and no one drank out of my glass except for ME.

4. I stayed at the lake house all by myself and only got a little bit scared one time.

5. Thankful for my Shark Navigator. I love that vacuum cleaner! 

6. There were some mystery stains on the carpet in the hallway at the lake house, and I got them out with only vinegar and baking soda. Pinterest win!

7. My kitties missed me while I was gone! Best part was when Fletcher wanted to sit in my lap, which was already occupied by Ruby. She grabbed his feet and tried to bite them, but he ignored her for the first time in EVER and sat anyway. ON HER HEAD. It was pretty funny, as she was rendered immobile for a minute before she got over the shock of having a 15 pound cat sitting on her head and got up.

A very determined Fletcher sitting on Ruby's head.

Close up of Ruby with Fletcher's ass planted on her head.

8. I GOT A MICROWAVE THIS WEEK! My microwave (the installed, over the range kind, not a counter top style) died towards the end of April, and I know this is a First World problem, and I know my mom and others before her heated up leftovers without one, but I NEVER HAVE BEFORE, and it's realllly harrrrrd! My mother in law finally felt sorry for me and bought me a new one.

9. The last one was worth two: one for the microwave, one for the mother in law.

10. Going back to the lake house this weekend and spend a lot of time at White Water, a pretty nice water park there. Fridays and Saturdays, they are open until 10 p.m., so we head over there around 5 or 6 and spend several hours cooling off without worrying about sunburns and excessive heat.

I'm going to spend the weekend soaking up summer and pretending it doesn't feel like a blast furnace outside. (Bonus thankful: my hair is easy to fix this time of year, as there's no fighting the curls with a straightening iron when it's this hot and humid outside.) Join our link up. Not a blogger? Click on any of the links below and read thankfuls from a variety of bloggers in a variety of styles.

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Squeeeeeeking In Under The Wire

I knew this was going to be a busy weekend. Knew it, knew it, knew it, and STILL, I didn't go ahead and write my Ten Things of Thankful list early. Now it is late in the afternoon Sunday. So late, in fact, that it's really not "afternoon" anymore; more like evening. I don't feel very well; haven't, really, in a week and a half. I just woke up from a nap and feel foggy, but by golly, I'm going to get this post written before the deadline.

Gratuitous picture of Ruby, because I saw that Yvonne
posted one of HER calico and I sensed a trend....

1. I haven't thrown up since December 23, 1971. I have wondered a few times over the past week and a half if that record was going to be shattered, but so far, it's held on.

2. With spring comes the risk of severe storms in this part of the world known as Tornado Alley, and we had our first round this week. No tornado warnings this time, and the worst of the weather mostly passed to the south of us. 

3. The American Red Cross tornado app. It is a must-have if you live in an area that is prone to severe weather. The Red Cross also has a wildfire app, a hurricane app and a first aid app, among others. Something for everyone! 

4. Diet Coke, especially first thing in the morning. Cold. In a glass. With ice.

5. I got an awesome deal through Priceline for a hotel room in Arkansas this weekend when we had to travel for a volleyball tournament ($60 instead of $120).

Look at that little girl jump!

6. My own bed.

7. Wallflowers from Bath and Body Works. I got a supply of spring and summer scents last week when they were on sale, and my house smells sunny and fresh. It's a very old house, so that's not always an easy thing to accomplish.

8. Daffodils. 

Zoysia grass, the last to turn green in the spring, first to turn
brown in the fall. REAL grass would have made a better backdrop.

9. My bilateral mastectomy with tram flap reconstruction was three years ago yesterday. So far, so good.

15 hours after my surgery, I finally got to have something besides an ice chip.

10. And this just in: I just found two new cousins by using familysearch.org. I discovered I am 10th cousins, twice removed, with Kristi of Thankful Me and 13th cousins with Christine of In The Coop. I hope I'm in their Wills now!

It's still not too late to link up your thankfuls. It may SEEM like it, but it isn't.

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A Good Sandwich Saves The Day And Other Thankfuls

I hate reality tv shows, and wouldn't you know, my husband, ever the keeper of the remote, has fallen asleep in a chair while one of the most ridiculous and contrived reality shows plays too loudly across the room from us. I can't reach the remote, so the sooner I get this week's Ten Things of Thankful list done, the sooner I can get up and slip the remote from his hand. Here goes:

1. I'm still missing my writing mojo, but I was able to make two posts this week, one I started months ago and never quite completed and the other I wrote yesterday after completing a rather messy preschool project.

2. I took a deep breath and signed up for this year's A to Z Challenge. I'm PRETTY sure this goes on the thankful list.... 

3. I found a comforter and pillow shams for my daughter on sale at Sears for $14.97. I would have been even MORE thankful if she had preferred the one that was $6.92, but $14.97 is nothing to sneeze at.

4. Thanks to a teacher in-service day in the public school system on Monday, we had a four day week, although by Friday, it seemed like the longest four day week on record.

5. "Friends" on Netflix.

6. My daughter played in her first volleyball tournament of the club ball season. The day did not go well, as far as volleyball was concerned, but I did have a pretty good sandwich from the snackbar while I was there.

7. After the long, long day of volleyball, we found a Vietnamese restaurant in the town where the tournament was being held. And we had big bowls of pho, something we love but can only get where we live during the annual Marian Days festival in August, when the Ozarks weather is nothing short of delightful for an outdoor festival featuring bowls of boiling hot soup (as in 90+ degrees and high humidity). 

8. While I'm in a thankful-for-food mode, I will add that I am thankful for cereal. As I write this, I am also munching on a bowl of dry Frosted Flakes - GrrrrrrrrrrrrEAT!

9. Earlier this week, the weather forecast for the weekend included a pretty good chance of rain turning to snow. Since we are out of town at a volleyball tournament, this was not a cheery forecast; however, it has since been amended to a chance of rain only. Who wants to drive in that crap, and more importantly, who wants to waste a weekend with snow when it doesn't net you a snow day?!

10. Which leads to my last thankful: spring begins in 48 days!

Did you have a long short week? Or a short long week? Look back and find your thankfuls, then link up below.

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Wordless Wednesday 12.2.14

Emma with her role model, the libero for the Mizzou volleyball team, in 2012 and in 2014. Both wear #4 on their jerseys (happy coincidence).

Land Of Our Pilgrim's Pride and Other Thankfuls

Here I am, behind the 8-ball again on getting my Ten Things of Thankful post done in a timely manner. Was this really a long weekend? Because it doesn't seem like one, even though it was a two day work week and five day weekend. But I'm thankful for that long weekend, plus:

1. Emma started practices for her club volleyball team last weekend. I'm so glad she's back with this team! She played with them for two years, got talked into playing on a different club team last year after deciding she wasn't going to play club ball at all, and now we're back to her original club team. Go, Spikers!

2. We celebrated Thanksgiving at preschool with feasts both days. Our Pre-K kids dress as Indians, Primary as Pilgrims and Toddlers as turkeys, and they all contribute items for the feast, plus we've talked all month about the importance of being thankful for all we have. 

Poster child for the Puritan life, right?

3. I received a delicious turkey from two darling "Indians" on Monday. Thanks, girls!

4. On Tuesday afternoon, Emma and I went to the hospital to visit a dear friend who is in hospice care. We only stayed a few minutes, just wanting to tell her we loved her, knowing it would be the last time we would see her in this life. I'm grateful we took the time to go see her, as difficult as it was for us. She looked beautiful and was so glad to see us! I wrote a 101 word story about it for a writer's workshop at Mama Kat's, and you can read about it here.

5. Wednesday morning, my parents drove to our house, then we loaded all of our stuff into their vehicle and all of us headed off to my brother's house for Thanksgiving. We turned a three and a half hour trip into a six and a half hour trip, but we made it!

6. Wednesday evening, we continued a tradition of going to see the Mizzou Tigers volleyball team play their last home game of the year. It's so exciting to watch college level volleyball! Holy mackerel, they hit that ball hard! After the game, we took time to visit with a player who is a sophomore from Springfield, Missouri, and whom we had the privilege of watching play high school ball when her high school team beat the pants off our varsity team. She even remembered meeting us last year!

My dad and brother, watching the game.

Chancellor Loftin was there. That's impressive.

This guy was wearing an SEC belt.
Who knew there was such a thing?

7. Part two of going to the volleyball game was that Emma got to visit a few minutes with her favorite Mizzou volleyball player, Sarah Meister, a senior who just played her last home game of her career. She was so sweet to take time out to speak with Emma and get her picture taken with her again. They both play libero and they are both #4, so she remembered meeting Emma before as well. When we got back to my brother's house, Emma posted the picture on Instagram and tagged Sarah, who wrote a sweet comment and then started following Emma on Instagram, which made her feel like da bomb.

Emma with Sarah, two years ago.

And with Sarah for the last game of her
college career. What a darling girl!

8. Part three: Shakespeare's Pizza. If you've ever had it, then 'nuff said.

9. Thanksgiving dinner was excellent! My brother outdid himself this year. It would have been nice to have had more mashed potatoes, though. Hopefully, next year....

My brother. Write you own caption.

10. My niece SWEARS these are not weevils in the soap in her shower, as I originally thought, but just to be on the safe side, I did not use it. (She swears it's some kind of lavender bits, but I'm still not completely convinced, given the family history, and if you haven't read this post about how my brother fed me weevils, then you should.)

Lavender? Mhm.

Now home again from our trip, Christmas decorations out of the attic and in much disarray around the house, and I've got a college boy to return to school, so I'm off and running again. Link up, if you haven't already!

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