Puzzling Thanksgiving

We spent most of Thanksgiving and the weekend putting together a 1,000 piece puzzle. I have to say my contribution was small. It was a toughie. There is a whole lot of white and blue in this puzzle. We were missing two pieces. It was driving us crazy that we couldn't find the last two pieces.

Luckily the Giant Man Child was able to find the pieces. We had a fine Thanksgiving.

Cherry Coke Warning

I hope everyone had a very Happy Thanksgiving! I ventured out on black Friday to Walmart with my best friend. Thank God, I had her to protect me from the crazies. I received this email on Thanksgiving Eve. It made me laugh so I thought I would share. This is from my sister from another mother/best friend. This is totally printed without her permission.
Okay, this is what happens when your best friend comes over at 6:30pm and gives you a cherry coke... this is a real story not fiction!
1. Pick a new paint color with such friend to fix the "fiesta" theme kitchen
2. Open can of cherry coke before such friend leaves and begin to drink it... did I mention this is probably close to 7 pm now?
3. Gather up kids and go to get in the van to venture out for dinner.
4. Realize that your out of gas and need to make a quick stop before dinner.
5. After filling tank with gas drive to the closest McD's and order a nutritious dinner.
6. Eat dinner in van as you drive to town because you now have had a half a cherry coke and another coke from McD's ... did I mention I was driving to go and pick up new paint?
7. Buy new paint.
8. On the way home from Home Depot stop in at Walmart to see if they curtains to match new color - no such luck only one in stock. (might call for a Mt Vernon trip)
9. Arrive home and send two small children to bed.
10. Go downstairs and put freshly baked pies in fridge... 2 pumpkins, 1 apple
11. Make green bean casserole and refrigerate.
12 Make sweet potatoes and refrigerate.
13. Finish cherry coke from earlier... Very Important!
14 Clean counters and make room for new roaster oven.
15. Open and assemble new roaster.
16 Do one load of laundry.... bedding off oldest daughters bed.
17. Oldest daughter comes in and tells me that something ate the rabbits food and neither rabbit has any in their cages.
18. Realize that we are also out of milk.
19. 9:45 jump in van and go to Fred Meyers for milk and rabbit food... Thank God they really are one stop shopping!
20. Arrive home feed rabbits with daughter.
21. Take dogs out.
22. Make regular stuffing and refrigerate.
23. Toast bread for new special stuffing.
24. Do dishes
25. last but not least ....PAINT... and yes I LOVE THE NEW COLOR!!!!!!
26. 12:52am wide awake and going to play some bejeweled blitz and hopefully crash soon!

Nov 25: Thankful

I am thankful for NEW days, NEW beginnings, and NEW Starts. We were rewarded with a gorgeous sunrise and a rainbow. Let today be a day of good things.

Turkey Treat

The Diva's Turkey
Big E's Turkey

#1 Son

Chuckles

Me and my little turkey's for the afternoon made these turkey treats. These were made with packaged biscuits and cinnamon rolls with a lot of sprinkles. You can't go wrong with sprinkles. They were delish.

IEP thoughts

After doing my ADHD post I received such a positive response. I thought I would go ahead and post this. Today was my son's IEP (individual education program) meeting. My oldest has had one of these IEP's since preschool. He is now in 6th grade and 11 years old. He will be transitioning to middle school next year. When a school system (district) decides that a child needs services a evaluation is conducted and IEP is drafted up. The IEP has specific goals that are written in it as well as who will provide the services to reach that goal. It is a contract of sorts. Today I will go again and advocate for my son. When I stared the evaluation process for my son, he was 4 years old. Many times I felt in the dark about the process. At that 1st IEP meeting there were no less than 10 people present and the first meeting resulted in denial of services. I had no idea on what I was walking into nor how to advocate for my son. I felt completely defeated, mislead, and alone in my concern about my son. I have learned a few things after 9 or so IEP meetings, I always cry. I can't help myself. It is really hard to hear negative things about my son. These things always make me feel like I have failed. I know that isn't true but deep down I feel that. Secondly, talk is cheap. We can all talk about my son but show me by your actions what you are doing for my son. Lets talk about what we can do not what isn't possible. Thirdly, I am there for my son not the school district, therapist, or teacher. I am not there to make things easier by not making you do the job that you are tasked to do. I really don't care where the funding comes from or how many kids you have to service. I am there to ensure that my son receives services or a free and appropriate education (FAE) Fourth, the ideal school setting for me is not the ideal school setting for my son. How I was educated is vastly different from how they do it now a days and what worked for me is probably not going to work for my son. I have to leave my feelings about my education outside that meeting. Fifth, the parent is part of the team. Parents are allowed to make suggestions and request that certain things be removed from the record. The parent is the only person in that meeting that is an expert on that child. I did in fact have something not included in my son's very first evaluation because I believed the evaluator inserted her personal prejudice into her report. I frequently ask them to reword or include certain things. I won't sign an IEP that I don't agree with or is not factually accurate. Lastly, keeping a binder will all the important evaluations/old IEP's is extremely helpful when questions arise at the meeting. This binder has my child's picture on the front because when I started going to these meetings he wasn't present. I want everyone to know and see who we are talking about. Many times some of the people present will not have met the child. I have yet to meet a school psychologist in my son's current district that has actually met him (a whole different post)I want them to remember who they are deciding for. I believe my experience with IEP process is average. I have had been at IEP's that have been adversarial and IEP's where my son was granted services that I didn't expect him to receive. Today was a good day and a good IEP meeting.

Do you know where your Turkey is?

My turkey is going into the refrigerator tonight. Here is the Betty Crocker chart for defrosting. We plan on deep frying our turkey on Wednesday night and reheating it on Thursday. I guess a lot of people do this. I have already made ahead garlic mash potatoes and have sweet potatoes boiling as we speak. I use Money Saving Mom's method.(scroll down to the bottom of the post) I decided I am kinda planner. I think holidays are stressful enough so I like to make ahead a lot of what I am going to serve. On the day of , I will be making dressing and rolls. My Hubby helps me with the cooking. He is going to be making his famous cheesecake for dessert.

Quilting Inspiration

Winter weather is upon us here near the northern border. It is wet and windy. So instead of doing all the really necessary projects for the coming holiday season, I decided to start a rag quilt. I saw the above bird flannel at JoAnn's and knew I had to make a quilt involving that fabric. The picture above is the layout of the fabrics I am using for this quilt. One thing to another and I am doing some appliqued blocks as well. Did I mention I am hosting Thanksgiving dinner at my house and the quilt I am working on has no intented recipient. Why can't I be inspired when I have a clean house and no responsibilities? LOL

Thanksgiving Wreath

We copied this craft from Chica and Jo. This is an almost dollar store craft. The paint and 2 packs of clothes pins were from the dollar store. I purchased the wire wreath at Micheal's for under $3.oo. The Diva and Chuckles did this project cooperatively. They both did the painting.

The Diva did all the clothes pin clipping and made the heart sign. Everyone wrote their name and what they were thankful for.

Diva "The Lion"

Nov 15: Thankful

I am thankful that I have a 7 year old who loves to vacuum.

Nov 14: Thankful

Yesterday after all the crazy weather we had yesterday, we were rewarded with a beautiful rainbow. A facebook movement and Ali Edwards on her blog have started a daily thankful until Thanksgiving. I thought I would join in. I am thankful for all the friends and family that helped me celebrate my 38th (EEKS) Birthday.

Forever Honored

Specialist Aaron Aamot came home today from Afghanistan. This is the welcome our town gave him. 3 over passes were lined with people waving flags and our downtown was lined with folks flying the flag . Thank You, Specialist Aamot for your brave sacrifice and service. You are a true American Hero.

A Little Linky Love

This is some of the random blog entries that I have been enjoying in the last month.

If you haven't had a chance to check out the nester's 31 days to the best dress nest, check it out.(link to my favorite in the series)

Change your change into a gift card. Check out this blogger's idea. I AM SO GOING TO DO THIS!

Think you got mad thrift skills/looter extraordinaire. Check out Apron Thrift Girl posts on reselling, here and here.

I checked out Owlhaven's new cookbook from the library. I can't wait to try some the recipes.

There are a few projects I would like to try like this at Flea Market Style or this project at Fern Creek Cottage.

I am in dire need of some style and love the formula looks found at You Look Fab

Veteran's Day

Me - 32nd AADCOM Darmstadt, Germany

Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way. - General Patton

Both I and my Husband served in the Army. We were both proud to serve our country. We were saddened by what happened at Fort Hood. There is so many that serve with honor and sacrifice and what that man did at Fort Hood was not honorable. It was an act of terrorism and at the very least murder. In a few days, SPC Aaron Aamot will be buried. He is from Custer, WA a town near mine.He died in Afghanistan on Nov 5. Tomorrow there will be a procession from the airport to my town. He was 22 years old. If that doesn't put Veteran's Day in prespective, then I don't know what does.If you want to honor a Veteran, send a prayer for all the victims and their families at Fort Hood, fly the flag, and thank a soldier for their service and sacrifice.

People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf. - George Orwell

Monsters at my House

We made some monsters at my house. Big E made this one last Tuesday. I peculiarly like the one eye thing and chest hair. He told me he wanted to make it Humongous. This project was based on Artist Woman's Monster Project. My kids weren't into this project. The Diva's monster is pictured below.

Pink Yink Ink Drink

On Tuesday, Chef E was in the house. He brought along his Dr Seuss cookbook. Who knew there was such a thing? We decided to make Pink Yink Drink. Try to say that 3 times fast.

It was pretty good. We had to add the whipped cream because it was the right thing to do.

Did you vote?

A small sampling of signs in neighbor's yard

This is what you would see if you see if you lived next to someone running for city council. In case you were wondering, my neighbor is running for City Council. Do you think he has enough signs? I counted about 10 signs in his yardand the giant moving billboard on his van. We were scared to trick or treat here because me might get campaign buttons instead of candy. I guess he wouldn't be for sign control. More importantly, did you vote?

My Ghouls

Chuckles as a Pirate

The kids had a lot of fun trick or treating. We couldn't have asked for better weather. It was the first time in a long while there wasn't some kind of rain happening.

Cody as Ace the Wizard