Christmas Program

Dylan had a little Christmas program at his preschool last week. It was so cute. The kids all had their reindeer antlers that they made and their red noses. They sang a bunch of songs, a poem, recited the alphabet and some counting that they've been working on, and served us cookies they made along with a Christmas present for moms and dads. It was so fun to go to his class and let him show everything off.





Dylan with his good friend Eve. The two of them just love each other. They run up and give a big hug whenever they see each other, even in the middle of church.

Santa showed up, which worked out great since we haven't had a chance to see him yet this season. Dylan is still pretty nervous to sit on his lap, but once there, he knew exactly what to say. And then I handed Travis off for a quick picture with both of them. Travis hated it, but he did pretty good considering.

My Secret Addiction

Here's another blog about food and restaurants and eating. Can you tell I live for eating. I get such pleasure out of good food.

Travis and I were finishing up some Christmas shopping on Wednesday while Courtney and Dylan were in school. We left Toys R Us just in time for Sweet Tomatoes to open, with just enough time for a yummy lunch before picking up Dylan.



I do love this place. Everything about it is just so wonderful.

First of all, it's perfect for Travis. We can eat right away, not having to try and keep him entertained for 20 minutes while we wait for our order. And I can pick and choose what to get him, meaning he will eat just about everything, not just one thing on his plate. And he eats the whole time. If for some reason he starts to get a little fidgety, here's some more jello! He loves it.



Now on to my food.

They had a soup featured this month which I wasn't too sure about, but decided to give it a try. It was a creamy turkey and cranberry soup with a made-from-scratch stuffing to put on top. It was sooooo good I had to get seconds. I kept thinking how great this would be for Thanksgiving dinner instead of the usual fare.



And then the best part of the whole visit . . . the bread. Soft sourdough, hearty indian grain, and these yummy sweet orange and cranberry muffins. I won't tell you how many times I went back for more bread.



It just makes me so happy to eat somewhere that is so good, that makes me feel full in a good way, that lasts for hours after. I'm constantly thinking where to go next and how soon can I get there. It's an addiction really, this need to eat out at my favorite places. And living in this place, with so many more options then Lander, has only fed my addiction. But I don't think I'll be signing up for any 12 step programs any time soon. I'm enjoying myself too much.

On to the next one . . .

Decorating our Chistmas Tree

We got our tree on Saturday. It is a really beautiful Frasier Fur, but the pictures don't do it any justice. The picture actually looks pretty sad and pathetic. But it's so much better in person. We had fun getting all of our ornaments on tonight, trying to avoid Travis' constant swats at the low hanging ones.

Thanksgiving Weekend- Day 4

Final Day! I promise.

Carolina Beach


Here is the view from our hotel room.

We woke up to lots of rain on Saturday. But we were determined to make the most of it. Justin brought us all breakfast, then proceeded to feed the leftovers to the seagulls outside our balconies. That is, until a hotel employee started yelling at us from below. Oops! Peeking over from my balcony.


After breakfast, we took the kids to the beach to look for seashells. It was just sprinkling, but cold. Kim and I were miserable, but the kids didn't care. They loved running from the waves and finding treasures. After that cold activity, we went to the hotel swimming pool and hot tub.


Since it was so cold and wet, we decided to take the kids to the aquarium. It was really fun and the kids loved it. But that just put Bruce in the mood for seafood, so we found this great little resaurant nearby. It was such a yummy lunch. I had a blackened shrimp and mango salsa quesadilla. YUM!



After lunch we decided to head on home. Kim and Justin stayed in town for a little longer then took off for the first leg of their trip home. It was sad to have to say goodbye, but we had such a great weekend together. It's nice to be only 8 hours away from each other. We'll get to see them again next month when Kim has her baby. Courtney is out of school for the first 3 weeks of January, so we have lots of time to visit.


Now that we've had out first trip to the coast since moving here, I'm already planning when we can go again. There are so many things to do, even in the cold season: lighthouse tours, Captain Blackbeard, Wright Brothers museum, WWII battleship, Roanoke Island, civil war sites, and much more!

Thanksgiving Weekend- Day 3

We had a big work day on Friday.


Bruce, Justin, and Darlene worked hard to finish the fence. There's just a little work left on the gates, then some staining, then it is done!!! Yay!


I raked the leaves in the backyard. The kids were a big help carrying boards for the fence and helping me get the leaves to the street. Then they had to jump in them and throw them around for a while. This is the first time we've had big trees in our yard so it was fun to play in the big pile.






Kim tidied my house up and then made us a yummy lunch with our Thanksgiving dinner leftovers. Yum. That evening we took off for a quick trip to the coast. We got there late, but it was still really nice out. So Kim, Courtney, and I went for a quick stroll along the sand with our free hot cocoa we got from the hotel lobby. We all slept really well after a hard day, then had fun playing on Saturday. But I'll save that for tomorrow.

Thanksgiving Weekend- Day 2

The big day. I didn't get too many pictures this day because I was so busy in the kitchen. It went really well and wasn't too chaotic. I was on my feet most of the day and they really hurt by the end, but things really weren't too crazy. I didn't make too many dishes or plan anything too fancy. It just turned out really simple but very yummy. I worked hard to use really good recipes, and I always make everything from scratch for this one day. Lots of thanks to Kim and Darlene for their help in preparing food and huge thanks to Darlene, Bruce, and Justin for the great job they did on clean-up duty.

These two cousins are just the best of friends. They get so excited to visit each other and are inseparable the whole time.

Thanksgiving Weekend- Day 1

Our Thanksgiving weekend started out with the arrival of my sister Kim, her husband Justin, her kids Caleb and Gracie, and Justin's mom Darlene. They arrived late Tuesday night from McMinnville, TN. Wednesday morning, after some sleep, I took them to one of our favorite new spots, Pine Lake. (See link for details.) We almost didn't make it since my car began overheating just minutes after leaving the house. But we doubled up in Kim's van and off we went.


We had a nice picnic lunch and some play time on the playground.

We took a stroll around part of the lake. We couldn't go too far since Kim is 34 weeks pregnant. The kids loved running around and using up lots of energy. Travis really took to Darlene, refusing to hold anyone's hand but hers. Even though the sun was shining bright, it was a little cool and an even cooler breeze that would pick up now and then. But it was so nice to be out, nobody seemed to really care.

We stopped at the dock to feed the ducks and swan. It didn't take long for them to come. Not many people were out that day, so they were on the lookout for people with food. Within minutes we had a huge flock all around us. Justin showed the kids how to get the swan to reach their necks up and eat a piece of bread from their hands. What a great day.

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We stopped for a quick break and to find the turtles, only 2 of them made an appearance. It was a nice day, relaxing, beautiful, and more important, tired out the kids so they slept great later!

Brown, Chop, and Mix My Way to the Freezer

Today



this . . .

became this . . .

18 meals ready to heat, bake, or simmer. 18 meals that I don't have to wonder, "hmmmm, what to have tonight?" 18 meals that won't be cold cereal or McDonald's because I didn't get around to it.


Plus, my new freezer, which I've been dying to get for years now, finally has a purpose for something other than that lonely box of popsicles!

ramblings of an insomniac

It's 2:30 in the morning, here I am at the computer, sitting in the dark, hoping the light of the screen won't wake up Bruce.

I finally went to bed around 1:00 after starting to fall asleep on the couch, watching all my shows that were recorded on the DVR. I quickly got into bed before the sleepiness could wear off. For the next hour I proceeded to have quite a conversation with myself. It's not anything too unusual, I talk to myself pretty frequently. I just try not to do it out loud for fear of looking too weird. (Although the technology age has relieved me of some of my fears, strangers will just think I'm using a hidden ear phone thing. Oh wait, my hair is pulled back into a ponytail.) Anyways, back to my pleasant conversation. I redid an unpleasant conversation I had with someone, using some great comebacks to make myself come out ahead this time. I had a few converstaions that haven't happened yet, may never happen, but I'm ready if they ever do. I had converstations with people that didn't happen but I wished had. After an hour of this, and sometimes repeating the same thing multiple times, I got bored with myself, (really it should have happened much sooner, these things weren't that interesting,) I got up.

I try to get out of bed if I'm not asleep within 20-30 minutes. That's what all the experts say you should do. (And I've read plenty on what the experts say you should do for this problem, and I've tried many of them.) Don't lay in bed forever, it will only make it worse. But the problem is nothing seems to work, especially lately. The lack of sleep has gotten pretty bad. I can function fine during the day, at least after the hour or so it takes me to actually wake up. It's just the annoyance of being tired all the time, of being up so late with nothing to do, of having thoughts of my pillow all day yet thoughts of everything else all night.

I'm plenty tired at night, I just can't get my brain to shut off. Bruce is asleep within 5 minutes of laying down. That really annoys me. How can someone fall asleep so quickly. It takes time to find just the right spot. Many turns of the body, fluffs of the pillow, blanket on, blanket off, blanket half on, what's that light over there, did I check on the kids, this pillow is so uncomfortable tonight, I hated that thing that happened today . . . and there starts another conversation with myself.

I've thought of going to a doctor. First I have to find a good one, and that's a huge issue itself. I have to decide what I'm even willing to do, pills? I don't know.

And so I sit here in the dark. So far so good, Bruce hasn't noticed this noisy keyboard. I'll get to sleep eventually. I've only gone with nothing 2 or 3 times. It will come, it just won't be much. I've gone on 3 hours of sleep more times then I like to remember. Church is at 9:30 am. Perfect, I can take a nap tomorrow afternoon, which will guarantee I'm up again tomorrow night. Ah the vicious cycle. Although if I somehow force myself to stay awake all day in hopes of a good nights sleep, I still manage to be wide awake as soon as my head hits that pillow.

Pine Lake, a great find!

I wanted to do something fun with the kids on Veterens Day to get us out of the house, have a little fun, but not spend much money. I found this blog all about a great little spot, Pine Lake, only about 15 minutes away. It's small, with a paved path all the way around, about 2 miles long. There's a playground, lots of picnic benches, ducks and geese and turtles and squirrels. We walked around the lake and fed the ducks. We found the turtles sunning themselves on a log. Then we had a little picnic and played on the playround for a while. It was just a perfect fall day, crisp air, just cool enough for jackets but still beautiful enough to not want to go inside. I told the kids we'll have to go back another day with their bikes so we can walk further around the lake, (the 2 boys got a little tired.) I took a ton of pictures, but something was wrong with my camera. Most of them came out with a pink hue and too exposed. I was able to use a few of them by turning them black and white, and then the last few were okay. So here's what I was able to salvage, but I'm sure we'll be back lots for more pictures.

----- Feeding the ducks -----

----- Fun on the playground -----