Week of November 24 - 30, 2014

As usual, I neglected a few things from last week: receiving an awesome letter in the mail from Adam, an awesome phone call from Nate, and seeing pics on Facebook of Morgan's awesome new home.

Monday - It was cold...for me (stop laughing, Nate and Jess)...and windy (stop laughing, Morgan)...so I slept an extra few minutes and exercised.

Dad's day off started with a 7:30 Honeywell meeting and an 8:30 Honeywell meeting.

Honeywell makes bank on working from home: no sick days...you are permitted to puke between meetings; no vacation days since you can always turn on your computer or tune in your i-phone; no parties...

nada

Kaylee and I did Indian, oops, I mean Native American things: a dot dot picture, some stick puppets

Tuesday - Dee went to the temple for an early session and I took care of chickens, etc. so he could. Grampy Wally and Tracky came with Kaylee, wanting to see Dad's truck, and played with us as they waited for him to get home.

Dad worked on his truck, painting his gas tank purple. Kaylee and I did pilgrim things: made pilgrim finger puppets, a pilgrim hat - that she wanted nothing to do with, and made turkey stick puppets.

The missionaries came by to help Dad try to find more names for temple work. Dad spent time on the phone with Salt Lake to get the reserved names freed up for him to use.

Costco rolls were our trip goal for the evening...and we did it!

I received a wonderful email from Allison overnight! I had turned off Facebook for the week, but I do get notices of comments, etc. via my email. She thanked me for these blog entries, which made it easier to record these! I sometimes wonder if anyone looks...or if it totally puts them to sleep. I don't know how she ever does her posts, since mine are terribly hard to get done!

Wednesday - Dad did another early temple session. I brushed the pool, fed the chickens, picked some limes, and did as much work around the house as I could and then went to pick up Kaylee.

Grammy is a crummy hair doer but we managed and did turkey activities

I made a roux, using flour and butter, ahead of time so I could just mix it with the broth and make gravy. Fingers were crossed.

Thursday - Happy Thanksgiving

My day began early: exercised and then...

Made cinnamon cream cheese frosting and iced the pumpkin cupcakes I made the week Dee was in Utah, iced and decorated the remaining sugar cookies (they looked like turkeys with candy corn tails. At this point, I was doggone sick of candy corn!)

I wanted to test making gingerbread houses for a Thanksgiving activity, like my friend Peggy always does, so we assembled five basic houses. (The jury is still deliberating on that. With everyone eager to shop, there wasn't much interest and with full tummies there wasn't much snitching)

I cleaned up the yard with Dee, hung the wreaths, set out tables and chairs and put on the tablecloths and centerpieces. I labeled the outdoor kitchen counters with what goes where and then got my olives chilled, the two kinds of cranberry sauce ready.

Dee whipped the cream and I assembled the cranberry salad. Then potatoes peeled, boiled, riced and put in pan, while another pan of whole milk, butter and cream cheese heated (and boiled over...blech) on the stove. Mixed together, mashed potato perfection and off to a crockpot outside.

Dee grilled our turkey, and it came out awesome! Soon, Grandma arrived with candied sweet potatoes, cauliflower and cheese and pumpkin chocolate chip cake,  Nano brought her stuffing and some olives, Ethan brought his delicious smoked turkey, Cameo brought her yummy mac and cheese and her favorite Stovetop stuffing, and Amber brought green bean casserole and a blackberry/cherry pie.

We all shared what we were thankful for, the food was blessed, and we ate...and ate...and ate. Kids played on the swings. It was warm outside...over 80 degrees, so it was toasty in the sun, and the shady end of the table was the prime spot. Kelsie, Kayty, Kaylee and Cameo worked a bit on gingerbread houses...again, not sure if we will do that again.

Dee and I watched Kooper and Kelsie while Amber and Doran hit WalMart. Later, Kayty...and then Ethan, Cam and Kaylee headed to the same store. Kayty got tons of DVDs...and was pretty darned pleased she got to see her brothers at the stores.

It was mission accomplished for Doran and Amber, and they returned to a very grateful Kooper, who missed is Mommy and Daddy very much.

Friday -We started our day at the temple. It was a wonderful session and we were glad we went early, because things were filling up as we left. I never thought about the logic of marrying after Thanksgiving. Family is all here. (I wonder if they could use up leftovers for the food???)

We did hit one Black Friday Sale...Home Depot's. I so miss going shopping early, especially when Allison and I would head out and stand in a sweet line full of nice people at Target just to get a gift bag with chewing gum and toothpaste in it. Such fun! Dad got outdoor LEDs and I got a mondo flashlight for his Christmas.

I packed up the Fall/Thanksgiving decor (sad face) and put up more Christmas (happy face).

We found out that Dee's friend for years, Bob Shearer, passed away early on the morning from his cancerous tumors that were once under control and then grew rapidly. Dee had been trying to call him, and had no answers. We thought he had a new phone or something. He was a good friend to Morgan when he first arrived in Odessa and we are so thankful he was there when we could not be. We remember the family in our prayers.

Saturday - Day began with yard sales and a WalMart quick stop for Christmas lights. I had acquired parts of a door garland from sales the last couple of weeks and all I needed was lights.

House decorating, tieing up tomatoes, a trip to the library to see something I wanted Dee to construct,  a hike, spaghetti dinner for the missionaries took up the rest of the day.

Sunday - It was a wonderful day...back at our building...walking out of the chapel to Sunday school class and seeing a temple! Just awesome! And, we noticed a new group attending Sacrament Meeting. Turns out it was Elder Zwick of the First Quorum of the Seventy. After our ward speakers, he spoke as well and referred us to #ShareTheGift and spoke of the Savior and the Sacrament and His love being our gift. (Our bishop said afterwards that he was so scared sitting next to an actual Seventy!) Day went normal. Dad home taught. Kayty had to work. I put up the red, white and blue tree.