Post Holiday Recap...

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday! Ours turned out to be very nice. Thanks to a few special people, we were able to give gifts to the kids and my Mom, and we got some great stuff in return as well. The most important thing was that we had a great time with the family. My Mom cooked an amazing Christmas dinner, and it was scrumptious! So in the end, it ended up being very nice.

My Yule plans did not go as well. Alex was not feeling well, and instead of the baking and crafting I had planned, we just made a few chocolate covered pretzels and that was it. Maybe it was just the timing, and the fact she was not feeling great, but I was a little disappointed. We will just have to try again next year, right?

I have to admit, I am glad it is over. It all ended up being very nice, but the stress leading up to it all was killer. I am hoping this year we can plan ahead and not be in such a panic when it comes to buying gifts. I know that is not the important part, but I love to give, I love to make my family happy with a well thought out gift.

I am grateful for the people who helped us this season, we really appreciate it, and I am so grateful that we were able to spend the holiday with my Mom and the kids, as well as two of my cousins. I missed my Dad very much, but I could feel him there with us. I did not even cry, as I expected to.

So all in all, it was a very nice holiday, and now I am ready to bring this year to a close and strive to make next year a much better one!

Until  next time...

Busy Busy Busy....

I am smack dab in the middle of a super busy long weekend, of which I will not bore you with all the details and most of it is largely mundane.


Still, I am running around like crazy. Today was shopping and tearing up the old tile in my kitchen and laying new tile, the usual cleaning, etc etc.


Tomorrow is happy time at the lake, which we have not been to in 3 weeks, laundry, and preparing cheesecake stuffed strawberries for the cookout at my parent's place on the 4th. Yes. Cheesecake stuffed strawberries. It is okay to drool, I did when I first saw them.


I am so freaking happy that my kitchen floor is mostly finished. All that is left is the strip under my desk. We were just to tired to get to it tonight. Then comes the laundry area which will be the same color as the kitchen, and the bathroom, which will be a different, undecided color. Now you can walk in the house and see nothing but new tile instead of half new, half old and shitty looking. I happily threw my floor protector ( the huge plastic sheets you see in offices, especially ones with carpet, so the chair will roll easily ) out the back door to deal with later. It was never to protect the floor, but to prevent the crumbling old tiles from getting caught up in the chair wheels and to hide the worst of the damaged spots. 


As we scraped off the old tile, we found that someone had laid new tile on top of old tile so it was nice and thick and a pain in the ass to get rid of. We scraped down to the wood floor and sanded it so it was a clean base and not the shoddy half assed job the landlord or whomever did the last time. It looks so much better and I am so excited that I will be able to mop without the mop getting snagged on peeling tile or caught in the old adhesive, ripping my mop up.


Here is a pic of the tile, not on the floor but from a website. Looks just like this:

Eventually we will do something with the carpet, which I keep cleaned with my steamer but it is so old and threadbare cleaning it does not make it look any better. Sad part is, we rent. Have been here for 7 years in August, but the landlord will fix NOTHING unless it is structural. Out of all the houses this dude rents, we are the only ones who have stayed and are on time, for SEVEN years. You would think he would be a bit more grateful but I guess not. People ask me why we do it, when we rent, since if we ever leave we do all the work for "nothing," and I tell them it is not for nothing. I have to live here. My family has to live here, so if it makes the place nicer while we are here, then it is worth it. We can not afford some huge swanky place, so I will make what we are blessed with work. It may not be super pretty but it is clean and it is home. That is good enough for me.


Other than that, not much else going on out of the ordinary around these parts.  I hope you all have a lovely weekend, and be safe during your celebrations!

Surprising weekend...

So my weekend started off like any other.


I got to sleep in for a couple of hours which is great, but as soon as I stumble out of my bedroom door, the chaos starts. Alex sees that I am mobile ( notice I did not say awake ) and immediately starts yammering at me like she has not seen me in a month. I head to the bathroom and lock the door and stay there for the next 15 minutes, sitting on the edge of the tub, so I can wake up in peace. I come out and of course there is something that has to be done or cleaned right THEN, thanks to Alex. Jack is usually outside wandering around in the yard, and that day was no exception. Thirty minutes later I was yelling at Alex, which I hate to do, to just please BE QUIET and let my brain wake up. Apparently I was loud enough to be heard outside, because Jack came in and I was hollering again, broom in hand, wondering why I can go to bed with the house clean, and wake up to a scene from a tornado aftermath.


Jack took one look at me and took the broom out of my hand and said " Enough. We need to get you out of here, you have been super stressed for a couple of weeks now. We are going to find somewhere to go swimming, go get ready."


I started grumbling to myself as I followed an ecstatic Alex to my room to get changed about it being hot and having to deal with 400 skinny chicks in their teeny bikinis while I lumber out there like a whale with my white skin in a t-shirt and shorts, wondering how many people would look at me and think "Cow. Go home."


My stress level jumped. After 45 minutes of self administered mental abuse, we were ready to go. We went to the corner store and got a couple of 12 packs of sodas and water and some ice to throw in the cooler, and off we went. We decided to not go where we originally intended to go, and went to a place called Lost Lake.


There was no one there when we got there, much to my delight, and even better, we were alone the ENTIRE DAY. The water was clear and warm, we all had a blast. It was relaxing and fun, and even the little sunburn I got on my back was worth it. I am hoping that it was not just a fluke and it is usually empty like that. It was a perfect day for swimming, so if it were still popular, it would have been crawling with people, so I am crossing my fingers that everyone forgot about Lost Lake lol...


Alex does not know how to swim yet, and we started teaching her. That child has NO fear. She was in water up to her chin with no floaties or anything, and she did not bat an eye. We had a wonderful time. We finally drug our sun and waterlogged selves out around 5:30 and headed home. Alex went across the street to play and Jack and I watched a few episodes of The Tudors before the night race at Darlington came on. We all made it until 10 that night before we had to go to bed, even though the race was not over.


Sunday (Mother's Day ) I got up and took a shower and we headed over to my Mom's for our Mother's Day/my birthday dinner. We had a huge spread, and my cousin Shelby and her girlfriend Mal ( you might remember Mal, she is the one who wrecked in my parents Suburban and almost died..she is pretty much 100% back to normal, which is a miracle ) were there, they finally moved back up here to go to FSU after Mal recovered from her wreck and subsequent surgeries. It was so awesome to see them, I love them so much. It was a great day of food, fun and family, and when we got home, Jack even cleaned the house up for me. We watched more Tudors until 10 and headed to bed and here I am.


It was a wonderful weekend, with a lot of fun and time to relax, and just enjoy being together.


I hope to have many more like it in the future.


I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Wishing you all a Happy New Year!!!


May the coming year be full of love, health, happiness, and prosperity!!

After Christmas Post

First of all, Merry Christmas since I did not get on here to blog on the actual day lol. 


Alex was nice enough to spill a large full glass of pink grapefruit juice all in my other keyboard, so I was stuck using one of those rubber flat keyboards which was a nightmare. Today my nice new ergo board arrived in the post so here I am!


It was a great Christmas, the best I have probably ever had. Being with the family was a delight, the food was excellent and everyone loved their gifts! I even got gifts this year. My mother got me a gorgeous light emerald and sterling silver ring, which made my jaw drop. It is beautiful! I also received two shirts, one white and one black, which were lovely, homemade bath salts that she and my son made, a book called Threads of Malice that is unlike anything I have ever read and is amazing, and some home baked goods I look forward to all year.


When I got home, it was time to open the unexpected present that Jack got for me. It surprised me because we have not done gifts for each other in years because usually we spend all we have on gifts for the kids, and as far as I knew, that was still the plan this year, but he had other ideas lol. I opened the heavy box and the first thing I pulled out was a cord...a power cord. I looked at him in confusion and he just grinned wickedly and nodded for me to keep going. I reached in and my hand closed on something cold and metal. I pulled it out and it was a new pocket knife, in silver and blue ( my fav color ). Yes, we are kind of country, hush lol. I loved it. In the clip of the knife were two handwritten index cards, one for a new computer desk, but I had to find it, and he would buy it come income tax time ( which is less than a month away for us ) because all the ones he found he knew I would not like, and the other one was of a personal nature that I will not share here ;) I reached farther into the box and my hands felt some kind of box, which was heavy, and I could not close my hands around it, so I had to slide it out of the box.


Imagine my surprise as I finally wrestled a brand new PLAYSTATION 3 out of the box!!!!!! My mouth dropped open and I squealed in delight! I have wanted one since they first came out but they were soooo expensive I did not think I would be able to get one until the ps4 comes out or whatever is next lol.


Then the slight downside came, which was we found out the PS3 does not play PS2 games, which is stupid, and that because he did not know what I wanted he did not get any games to go with it, but I hopped online and ordered 3 right off the bat so those will be here in a few days and I can also finally play BluRay movies! 


So that was my very awesome gift from him.


The best gift came from Alex however...


After I opened the gift from Jack, she brought out a little wrapped gift that has been sitting under the tree for a couple of weeks that I had forgotten about. It was something she made in school and had brought home before she went on winter break.


I opened the gift that she wrapped herself, with my name on it that she wrote herself, and inside was a little white plaster heart she made in art class...with waves of red and gold glitter on it. I hugged her and told her I loved it ( and I do! ) and she said " it is a heart because I love you and the waves of sparkly stuff because I know you love the water and shiny stuff"


I have been bawling off and on about it ever since lol. It sits here in front of me on my desk and I get teary eyed every time I think about it or look at it lol. She is such a sweet little girl at times!


It was a great holiday, filled with family, food and fun, and it was the first time in a long time that I have enjoyed Christmas. Even my dad was pleasant which is a miracle in and of itself lol.


I have to admit I am glad it is over though. I am ready to get back into my routine. Alex goes back to school next Tuesday and tomorrow and Wednesday the older two are coming to spend the day with me, so I am looking forward to that.


After the New Year I have some changes to make and that is something I will write about later. Most of it has to do with the house, and a few things to do with me, so keep an eye out for those posts. 


I hope you all had a great Holiday no matter what you did, and I hope you have a Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Holiday Cheer!

I am really getting into the Holiday Spirit this year. This is saying something. I usually DREAD the Holidays, it is always a huge stress inducer. We never have enough money for presents, ( Yes I know that is not what it is all about, but when you have kids, and love giving things to people as much as I do, it is a big deal to me ) there is usually family drama, and it is just an uncomfortable time for me, and I am always glad when it is over.


That is not the case this year! Thanks to some special people and special blessings in my life, I managed to complete my shopping already, and I was able to get some really fantastic things for both my kids and my parents, and I know they are going to be so happy this year. That makes ME so happy. Nothing makes me happier to give my kids something that makes their faces light up with joy, and this year it was really fun because my older two are young teenagers, and the things I got them are fine tuned to their individual personalities, instead of generic crap I usually had to get them.


This year things are different with the family drama aspect this year as well, because of some hard work on my part, and my Mom's part. For the last few months we have been working really hard ( especially me, since I was the one with my ass on my shoulders ) at repairing, or, more aptly, CREATING our relationship. She and I are closer than we have ever been, we spend a lot of time over there, and I have done my best to help her out whenever I can. I helped her with a big bill that would have really messed them up, in more ways than just monetarily, since my dad would have went off the deep end had he been aware of the situation. He spends money like they are rich, when they are not, and my Mom, who has fibro and only has half her lungs, works her ass off for insurance and to survive, because what my dad makes off his paltry social security is a joke. Dad does not seem to realize this and spends money like a rock star. 


So I helped out in a crunch for her, which started the ball rolling, and then I starting doing little things every time I go over, like running the vac at her place, which is a job, they have a lot of carpet, and helping her clean and cook and such when I can. This Thanksgiving I was so excited, I made a lot of stuff and helped with the prep of her own stuff, so she would not have so much to do, and could enjoy the day instead of being exhausted from cooking and cleaning for a week prior. She and I have gone shopping together, and we have hit some yard sales and done some fun stuff, and it has been so awesome, and I am so happy to feel close to her, I love her so much and having this new relationship with her means the absolute world to me.


Yule will be extra fun this year to I am hoping, since I have none of the gift giving stress, and I fully intend to help her with the Yule meal. My cheesecakes were a huge hit at Thanksgiving ( It was the first baked cheesecake I ever made ) and everyone raved about it. Mom told me that it was the closest thing to my grandmothers cheesecake she had tasted ( my grandmother died when I was 3 ) and you can imagine how good that made me feel. It was as if I could feel my grandmother there for a minute, smiling at us, her first daughter ( Mom ) and her first granddaughter ( Me ) and first great granddaughter. ( Mariah ) It was a magical feeling....


I also made a couple of casseroles, a corn casserole and a broccoli and cheese casserole, which came out a little dry, but it was the first time I had made either of those from that recipe, and I know how to fix it next time. I made deviled eggs, which mom usually makes, and they went like hot cakes. I also made peanut butter fudge, which was divine! Mom did not want to share LOL!  Rod, my Dad's best friend, kept asking who made the cheesecake and the eggs, they were so good, and mom said "Angel did!"    ( Bella is my craft name, for any new readers, my given name is Angela and my family and friends who do not call me Bella call me Angel ) and he said " Get out of here! Angel, what in the world has gotten into you? You are starting to cook like Judy!"( Mom )


That was the biggest compliment I could have gotten, my mom is a phenomenal cook! I just felt really close and part of the family, which is a major thing to me since I am kind of the black sheep of the family. It was a wonderful day, well, week really, I was over there 3 days in a row lol.


Yesterday afternoon, Alex and I set up the Yule trees. I have a small place, and no room for a full size tree, and I am not much of a traditionalist anyway, so we have two small trees. I have a red and silver tree that sits here in front of me, and a 3 foot lavender tree with white lights that I have sitting on a table in the living room. They are small, and kinda of scraggly, but we love them. I needed more lights and a few more ornaments, as some had gotten broken while they were put up in the closet, so Alex and I hopped in the truck and took off to the dollar store while Jack napped. I got two strands of lights, one for my desk tree and one to hang under the bar to add some color to the room, a pink tree skirt to accent the purple tree, and some ornaments. I also got a cinnamon broom, which smells soooooo good right here next to me. I looked at these cute mugs, from the fall collection, one was an apple and one was a pumpkin, but I did not get them. However, I thought about them all night and all day so Alex and I went back this morning and I got them, as well as another cinnamon broom for my bedroom.


Here are some terrible pics of the trees ( the ones without flash are so blurry, sorry, but I have very shaky hands ) and a pic of the cute mugs!

No the lavender tree does not lean, I am just over to the side of it as I took the pic lol. Look how cute those mugs are! Please ignore the desk stuff and stuff on the wall behind the bigger tree, that is Alex's Fall art she made in school lol.


I am going to make some glitter snowflakes or something with Alex later, to hang around the room, and we are going to go hunting for pine cones later, we are going to glitter those up too!


I am just so happy this Holiday season, and it is really showing in my actions and attitude.


This is going to be the best Holiday season yet, I can feel it!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Pic found at Clip Art Guide

I hope that you have have a wonderful and blessed day filled with joy, no matter what you are doing or where you are.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

Holiday Shopping Time!

This year seemed to fly by, and now it is drawing ever closer to the holidays, and that means shopping! I admit, usually I am a last minute shopper, but I am trying not to do that this year. I am also a heavy online shopper. I love perusing websites looking for stuff for my family, and usually find some things I really want for myself in the process.

Right now I am shopping for a new coffee table and end tables. I have neat glass top ones that came with my living room set, but they are a pain for me to keep clean, and the coffee table is round and takes up a ton of free space in the middle of my small living room. I found some really neat end tables at one of the CSN stores. They have an awesome network of over 200 stores, and they have just about everything you could want! I will be doing a lot of shopping from their sites, especially their cookware site. There is a new set of Rachel Ray pots and pans with my name all over it! (I am a sucker for anything to do with cooking or my kitchen! )

I have found some really cool stuff for my kids already this year, who, now that two of them are teenagers, are really hard to shop for. My Dad is easy, he just wants new books, and my Mom is a turtle knickknack collector, so I can find stuff for them pretty easy.

This is the first time in a long time that I am not totally dreading holiday shopping, and that is a great feeling!

Have any of you started ( or maybe even finished! ) your holiday shopping yet?

Winding down....

I hope everyone had a good Yule/Xmas week! For the most part mine was great, and it was nice to spend time with the majority of my immediate family for the holiday. Things are winding down finally, but my body and mind are still not ready to return to long posts of cohesive thoughts just yet, so I am taking another day to recover so to speak.

I notice it is still fairly quiet in blogland, so I guess a lot of you are in the same boat I am.

Again, I hope you all had a good week and I shall return to the writings of the Crazy Witch soon enough!

*Hugs and Love!*

Yule ( almost ) greetings!

Howdy do guys and gals?!

It has been a busy few days in the House of Bella, and I am finally getting enough time and mental coherency to type out a short post.

Xmas shopping is done, finally. It was not much, but the stuff I did get was pretty awesome if I do say so myself. Hopefully the kids will be pleased.

Today and tomorrow are holiday gift baking test days. Jack made Lemon Bars courtesy of Deep South Dish and O.M.G. were the divine. My mom LOVES Lemon Bars and these turned out so damn good, so we will be making these for her in a couple of days for a gift, and tomorrow I am making yeast bread, but instead of baking it, I am going to let it rise the first time, knead it out and then instead of letting it rise a second time, I will roll the dough into balls and freeze them for yeast rolls. That way when she wants fresh yeast rolls she can have them on hand, she just has to thaw them and let them rise before baking. I might also make these Vanilla Shortbreads  from Girlichef because mom loves shortbread and those look freaking awesome and I want to try them myself lol.

So tomorrow is more gift baking...and present wrapping me thinks. I have to force myself to do it because I SUCK at gift wrapping. Jack, of course, is excellent at it, but hates it so he runs the other way when I bring out the gift wrap, damn it lol.

He made chili for dinner and we had lemon bars for dessert and I am officially miserable and full but I don't care, it was so worth it lol. Now he is stretched out on the couch pretending not to nap, and I am digesting and doing a whole bunch of nothing.

Yesterday I washed, dried, and folded 6 loads of laundry, ran the vac  in all the house except Alex's room, which she is picking up now so I CAN run the vac in there, hung more fairy lights, washed dishes, cooked, all while battling a mild case of food poisoning. So today, other than the sink full of dishes from cooking, I can pretty much relax today.

Since I might not get to post for a couple of more days,I wanted to wish you all a Merry and Happy Yule, and  a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!

Holiday Survey!!

It has been a minute since I did one of these survey type things...since the big Unappreciated Blog Award month actually...and Marvelous Magaly over at Pagan Culture tagged me and I thought it might be fun. I am only going to tag maybe 5 folks however!

So here we go!

1. Have you started Yule shopping yet? Not in the least. I am one of those last minute shoppers, which sucks, and you would think I would stop that, but it happens lol.

2. Tell me about one of your special holiday traditions? The fun part is the fact we are making new ones. There never were any set traditions growing up, other than we opened presents on Xmas Eve and had presents from "Santa Claus" on Xmas Day, followed by a huge dinner. Now  we seem to just make it up as we go along, but we still open gifts and eat on the same days as it was when I was a child.

3. When do you put up your tree? As a child we used to do it on Thanksgiving night, but the last two years I have put it up the first or second weekend of December...

4. Are you a Black Friday Shopper? Not even if everything I got was free. I would go postal.

5. Do you travel at Yule or stay at home? If you want to call driving 10 minutes to my parents house "travel"..then we travel *winks*

6. What is your funniest Yule memory? I can not really remember anything overly funny happening, other than the lucky times when my parents are in a good mood and laugh and joke with the rest of the family.

7. What is your favorite Yule movie of all times? How the Grinch Stole Christmas, hands down.

8. Do you do any Yule baking and what's your favorite treat? In the past no...but I am learning how to make some pretty awesome things now, so that is changing. My favorite treat is my mom's Peanut Butter Pie for sure!

9. Fake or real tree? Fake...cutting down a live tree just to sit in the corner of my house is not cool to me...

10. What day does the actual panic set in to get it all done? I would not say 'panic' but I get stressed right after Thanksgiving, wondering how we are going to pull off buying gifts for the kids..

11. Are you still wrapping presents on Yule Eve? It has been known to happen lol..

12. What is your favorite family fun time at Yule? Cooking :)

13. What Yule craft do you like best? I am not a big crafter to be honest...it is not where my artistic talents are at lol..

14. Yule music? Yes or No, and if yes, what is your favorite song? Most people I know will groan at this, but I LOVE Elvis Xmas music lol...

15. Do you plan to finish all your shopping? I certainly hope so!

Now the hard part...trying to tag folks who have not been tagged yet lol...

Here are my picks, and if you do not want to do it, then of course you do not have to!

1. Carnelian Chronicles 

2. Rayden's Rants 

3. Heartsease Hollow

4. Ordinary Enchantment 

5. Sadie's Journey 

Hope ya'll have fun!

Why yes, it WAS a Happy Thanksgiving!

 Oh it was all that I hoped it would be, and even more!

First of all I want to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving, and I hope you all got to enjoy the day, no matter what you did.

Second of all, today was AWESOME!! I got woken up by the smell of cinnamon...under my nose. I opened my eyes to find Jack holding a plate of cinnamon rolls he made this morn...Hazelnut and brown sugar icing rolls to be exact and they were from scratch! I adore cinny rolls and he knows it, so he decided to try out a home made recipe and wow. I had three lol.

He had been cooking since he got up, and he had to run to the store after I got awake, and when he left I set to making an oreo cheese cake and started my eggs to boiling so I could make deviled eggs later. I also made the dressing.We had: Turkey Breast, Honey Ham, green beans and potatoes, dressing, sweet potatoes with marshmallow on top, Cajun rice, deviled eggs, jellied cranberries, and the oreo cheesecake, which we did not even eat yet lol.

Cajun Rice

                                                      

Deviled Eggs

                                                        

Sweet Potatoes

                                                        

Dressing

                                                         

Ham and Turkey

                                                          

                                                          

I did not take pics of the cranberries or cheesecake....and I had to add that Jack did not want me to post these pics because it was just us, so he did not make it "all pretty for presentation." But between the two of us, we literally washed dishes about 10 times, and we were starving, so I snapped pics and we dug in lol. So while it may not look like much, it was absolutely divine tasting. I just finished my turkey and cranberry sandwich so I am a happy camper right now.

It was just the best day. It was relaxing, and fun, we laughed and joked and talked, cooked together, watched a few movies, and relaxed. No fighting or being pissy or anyone yelling or stressed out like it would have been with the rest of the family...I am very pleased we got to do this today. We even got to have an hour of uninterrupted adult time, thanks to Alex taking an after dinner nap!

Jack even took a couple of pics, and a couple of them turned out ok. Here is my fav, of Alex and myself...

He caught me off guard here lol..

                                                

My Sassy Girl Alex

With the wind blown hair

                                                   

Remember me saying I burnt the old couch?

Here is the pic of it burning!

                                        

I think that about sums up the pics lol...

I also wanted to say thank you for the comments on my post yesterday...especially Ryan, what you said helped a lot. Sorry I scared the crap out of you lol..but I am glad to have helped. As it stands, one of the people I was referring to decided to just up and remove themselves from my life over it, but like Ryan said, sometimes you have to say what you have to say and walk away. On the other hand, sometimes you have to listen, and walk away, because that is what is best for you. I understand that, and wish those people well on their life's journey.

So now the evening is winding down, Jack's boss is on vacation this week, so usually he would use HIS vacation days and take a 4 day weekend, but as second in command, when his boss is away, he is the boss, so he has to be there, and Saturday as well..but the overtime will help a lot with Christmas coming up. He is in bed already, and so is Alex, and I am sitting here rocking out listening to the Paul McCartney concert on ABC...I am not a huge Beatles fan, but he was my fav out of the bunch, and he is singing all the songs I like!

If any of you go out in the commercialism war known as Black Friday, be safe. I would hate to hear of anyone getting trampled by the herd! I will be safe and warm here at home...eating cinny rolls and drinking coffee, and counting my blessings....

Love to you all!

*Music of the Moment: Hey Jude by Paul McCartney (Which is the song that reminds me of my Mom..Judy)*

Sometimes wishes come true...

Well there have been a few developments since I posted last night. I talked to my mom this morning, and she told me she was finally being released today, and she was. She is now resting at home. She was nice on the phone, and totally understanding that we had been sick as well, and she said with everything going on, that we would just skip the family Thanksgiving this year, saying we would make up for it on Xmas. Her tone of voice said she was expecting me to be upset, but I could hardly contain myself to get off the phone and call Jack to tell him our wish had come true, we would get to spend turkey day at home!

Well when I called him, he told me that he had gotten off the phone with my Dad a few minutes before, and my Dad was very rude to him, and snapped that Thanksgiving was cancelled since no one would be able to cook or anything because no one felt like it. Jack said well that is fine, but I was calling to check on you and Judy ( my Mom ) and see how ya'll were feeling. Dad snapped " We are fine, Judy might be home today, I got to go" and hung up on Jack..who was ticked.

But we were happy that we get to spend Thanksgiving exactly the way we want to, in a relaxed and happy atmosphere. I am glad my Mom is home however, the longer she stays in the hospital the more worried I get, so it is a relief to have her home.

Jack came home with a big turkey breast and a ham to cook for T-Day, and we are going to have dressing and deviled eggs and mashed potatoes and he wants to make Cajun rice, and I will make my special green beans, and who knows what all else we will come up with.

I am so excited!

Jack also built more shelves in one of our pantries tonight, so tomorrow I get to rearrange all my cooking pots and pans, and the little bit of food I keep in that one. Things are just great. In a couple of weeks we are replacing the kitchen floor, which is coming up in some places and is all ewww, so I am stoked about that.

Things are moving right along, and before we know it, it will be the end of January and I will be taking a weekend vacation, just Jack and I ( hopefully ) and I can not wait.

So here is to a stress free Thanksgiving, and I hope you all have a great holiday!

*Music of the Moment: For Your Entertainment by Adam Lambert*

Hooray for Fairy GodChicks, and a long post about stuff...

I am very pleased to announce that I will not be without my Internet after all, thanks to a Fairy GodChick that I am most grateful for. She swooped in and rescued me in the 11th hour, and I can not thank her enough!

I know that I have not posted real stuff in forever, but it has been a crazy couple of weeks, with Alex and myself being sick, my mom is still in the hospital, and Thanksgiving is only a couple of days away, and my parents are probably pissed at me. I got VERY ill the very next day after bringing my mom's obviously germ infested Jeep home from the doctors office. ( I was fine that day, and after driving her vehicle, I wake up the very next morning dying from chest congestion, the very same thing she was in the hospital for.. Not a coincidence. ) But it hit me so hard and so fast, and I was coughing my lungs up, I lost my voice by the next day. I just started getting my voice back yesterday, but it is a very low whisper and if I try to talk louder, my voice cracks and it goes back out. This means I have not been able to call and check on my mom, or talk to dad. I have been talking to my eldest on the computer and getting updates. But I know my parents, and it does not matter that I was horribly ill, they will still end up being pissed that I did not do whatever they thought I should have been doing. They are just that way. My Dad even told Jack it was not their fault I was sick, I obviously must have gotten it from Jack, who was sick two weeks ago, and the fact I had my hands alllll over my moms germ infested steering wheel has nothing to do with it. So this means either Thanksgiving will not happen until later, if my mom even gets to come home tomorrow, or that my Dad will expect me to get there and help cook everything.....which I do not feel up for. My Dad is a tyrant in the kitchen and nothing you do is good enough and he yells and it is just not something I want to deal with. In fact, I honestly want to stay home.

I was just talking to Jack about this tonight. We were watching House tonight ( well he sort of was..he was making us Butterscotch and Chocolate Chip Cookies ) and a Thanksgiving commercial came on. I think it was Publix or something but anyway it was about several families about to sit down to dinner and the heads of the families were standing up and telling their family members how grateful they were to have them there and how happy they were to share the meal with friends...you know, the usual family blessings and stuff. Well I said that I might look forward to Holidays more if I had a family like that, instead of having one that freaked out about cooking, stressed out the entire time they cooked, and leading to dinner, then it was hurry up and scarf down what took two days to cook so we could start the massive job of cleaning it up and sending everyone home to get the hell out of their hair. Then I said that was not totally true, because when I was a kid, we ate with the neighbors on a couple of occasions, and my "Uncle Dick" ( I grew up with these people, they were my aunts and uncles of choice ) used to stand up and say a blessing, and how thankful he was that we all came together to share good food and company. At the time it was cheesy and I just wanted to dig into that awesome food, but looking back...I really miss it.

Now it is not a joyous occasion at all. My Dad is a grump who bitches about everything, and my mom stresses out about it all ( which my Dad just adds to ) and usually ends up in the hospital or laid out in bed, unable to breathe. If I had a house big enough to entertain, I would totally cook here for my parents and older kids, and start a new tradition, but I live in a tiny place. The kitchen table is my desk, we eat in the living room lol. But now I also want to just stay home with my little family unit and do it our way. Cooking together, happy, watching movies, listening to music. Being totally relaxed and happy. Not the neurotic mess it usually ends up being. But I have my elder two kids to think about, and spending it with them, is more important than what I want. I just hate that it will be yet another tense year. Don't even get me started on Christmas.

Jack feels the same way. When he was a kid, and his grandparents were alive, the holidays were a great time, family and food and fun...and then as he got older, family feuds and such after the grandparents passed away split the family into sectors, and it was never the same. Now he does not interact with his family and the only ones I talk to are my parents. It is just sad.

Anyway, enough about that. I want to show ya'll a bit of why two weekends ago was an AWESOME weekend. Some of you may know about the fact I hated the massive sectional couch I had. It was 2 years old, was a hand me down, and I just hated it. It took up half the living room, could not be cleaned, just bleh.  I have been begging for a new living room set forever but we had to pay the TV and washing machine and other stuff off first Jack said. Then a couple of months ago he told me I could have a new set at income tax time, which was great. Well three weeks ago he tells me that we only had one more week on the TV and it would be paid off ( we were discussing bills at the time ) and we paid the washer off a couple of months ago. I was thinking "Yay, some breathing room for bills!"

Well two weeks Friday's ago he finally gets home and I did not see him pull up. He came in and we get take out on Fridays so he brought the food in and some other stuff, and was talking to me and Alex was jumping up and down on the front steps freaking out and yelling for me to come here. So I get up and walk across the room and look outside...and see the brown leather living room set I have been wanting in the back of his truck!!!! I squeeeeed and bear hugged Jack and covered him with kisses and he smiled and said " There is your Yule present...but now you have to help me unload it lol"

Well before that we had to get the Couch of Evil out of the house, which meant we had to tear half the house apart to get it out the BACK door, it would not fit out the front door. Well even then, we had to take an ax to it, to bust the frame enough to get it out. ( Three big dudes got it IN the house, my weak arms were NOT much help, as it weighed a freaking ton, with Jack to get it OUT. ) We were going to trash it anyway so he went to town with an ax and I clapped and cheered. We finally got it outside and then got the new set in, which was pretty easy. I made good on my promise I posted about here a while back about if I ever got a new couch, I was going to burn the old one and do a dance around it, and by gods I DID!

Now I have a gorgeous set that I love, it is so soft and comfy. I actually have a coffee table and end tables now, and two neat lamps. I am so happy. Yes I took pics and I am going to share now. Please ignore the carpet and walls, they are next to be replaced. One thing at a time..so we never get overwhelmed...is how we work...

So here we go!

Does it not look so warm and cuddly? You just sink right into it when you sit down..I love it so much!

The other cool thing is that Jack has embraced his inner chef, and spends the weekends, and sometimes a night during the week, creating the most awesome dishes. He is quite the baker, and made two apple pies from scratch this past weekend, and he made the cookies tonight, and last weekend he made some divine yeast rolls that give mine a run for their money. I love his cooking so much I spent all day today rearranging my kitchen so it would be easier for HIM to cook lol. That is another reason I want to just stay home this year for Thanksgiving, because with both of us cooking it would be awesome, and fun.

I don't know...I just want to start my own family traditions...instead of trying to keep those that should be left in the past alive...

But enough for tonight, this is 9 miles long lol. Thanks again to my Fairy GodChick, and more from me later!

*Music of the Moment: Need You Now by Lady Antebellum*