The Long Holiday Weekend

I can't believe I have to work for 4 weeks now before I can get another break. At least then it will be for just over a week, as we go back to work on January 3rd. Andy has no sympathy for me at all. He keeps forgetting that he has a ton of vacation that he can use.

So, it started on Wednesday evening. I went to see the new Harry Potter movie. It was pretty good, I just didn't like how packed the theater was. I should have waited another couple of weeks and seen a late show, then it might just be a little less busy.

Thursday we went to the in-laws for Thanksgiving.

Friday, I got up early and did some Christmas shopping. I had a lot of my Christmas shopping done, but I can't resist the bargains. So, I did some xmas shopping for my brother. That night we put up the tree & I wrapped the presents in the afternoon. See previous post for more details.

Saturday, went out and did a little shopping again. I have never really went out on the Saturday after. It's pretty disappointing, not all the bargains. Then we went to Carrie & Kyle house and played Texas Hold'em & Scattegories with them and Kim & Travis & ordered some Dominos.

Sunday, so far so good. So far I have felt great today, but it's now the evening and my stuff sets in and I can feel it a little, but so much better than before. Did some laundry and some cooking, which has been rare as I have not felt like cooking or wanted to smell cooking much the last 4 months. So, I made us a big brunch of wheat&honey pancakes, eggs, & peaches. For dinner I made a Costa Rican dish called "Chicken w/ Mushroom Sauce" served over the top of rice. Also made some chocolate pumpkin bread - this is absolutly fantastic - and some califorina rolls (my craving, these with some wasabi and soy sauce just go down so easily.) Mmmmm..... We also went grocery shopping and I did my prenatal yoga dvd. While I cooked Andy watched football.

Phone Camera Pics

So, I took these pics with my camera phone. It doesn't have the greatest quality, and I was too lazy to run upstairs and fetch the digital camera and put batteries in it. So, I just took these yesterday.

The first one is of my fat cat, Larry. Sometimes he rests on his back. Strange.

The second one is of the xmas tree & presents (so far!) this year. On Black Friday, I go out early in the morning and go shopping and when I come home I spread all the presents out I bought that day and before and thn start wrapping. It took me a good 3 hours this year to wrap. We still have a few people left to buy for (well, basically presents we ordered online and am waiting to be delivered) and of course Andy still needs to finish buying presents for me and get them under the tree as well. I shop for presents for my brother to give (sometimes presents my dad tells me to get for my mom too), so we usually end up with a pretty impressive spread under the tree. Wait until next year, when we have presents for the baby.

So, last night we put up the tree and decorated it. You can't have a pile of presents just sitting there; they need a tree to be under. Larry likes the tree. We have a little path through the presents so he can go sit under it in the back. Plus he has this things about chewing on the artificial tree, I think that is comon for cats.

I also have the manager and figures set up, but I need to go get some straw. It's not the same without the straw. Andy thinks it would be funny to carpet the manager. JoAnn Fabrics & Wal-mart usually have a "tiny" bale of straw in their craft area. A couple of years ago I bought one and used half that year and half last year.

We also got some other holiday decorations up around the house, but no outside lights. I am not sure if I feel like doing that.

A Great Feast & Breakfast

I was very thankful we planned our Thanksgiving Feast (Raoul's 9th Annual Thanksgiving Feast) to occur the Saturday after the cleaning lady. It made it so much less stressful to not have to worry about a lot of cleaning and cooking.

So, I did some cooking on Friday night and then finished the rest on Saturday. It was also very nice that the guys were in charge of frying the turkey (we have now acquired a turkey fryer that Raoul bought and gave to us).

There was 12 for the Saturday Thanksgiving Feast and then 6 of us for breakfast today.

Here was our menus:

Saturday Feast:

• 22 lb. Deep Fried Turkey
• 7.5 pounds of mashed potatoes (these were awesome)
• 2 acorn squash
• 2 bags of corn
• coleslaw (was gonna buy pre-shredded stuff, but the store was sold out so I had to shred my own green cabbage, red cabbage, and carrots) (dressing recipe in the most recent Lena cookbook)
• Jello Salad (jello, cream cheese, pears, abd whip cream all blended together - awesome! In a Holy Cross Cookbook)
• Pumpkin Cranberry Bread (Andy's Aunt Dee's recipe, in Deal cookbook)
• Fresh Wheat Bread
• 2 dozen white dinner rolls
• Candied Sweet Potatoes (recipe out of Deal cookbook too)
• Stuffing (used Brownberry stuff and increased recipe by 50% and added a chopped apple and 3/4 C chopped cranberries)
• Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce
• Pies (1-pumpkin, 1-peach, 1-apple)
• Lots of wine and beer!

Yes, there are plenty of leftovers. We also had appetizers that included: Harry & David Chocolate Macademia Shortbread Cookies, H&D Pepper & Onion Crackers, mixed nuts, candy corn, a huge veggie tray with dip, and california rolls (glad Jessi brought these as I was craving them, it's the flavor of the seaweed & wasabi I like).

And included in Breakfast was:

• Sausage, Hasbrown, & Egg Casserole (I added a layer of freash spinach to this too! Mmm!)
• Apple Cheese Danish (It was a Kraft recipe, but this is basically it plus a can of apple pie filling spread on top of the cream cheese layer)
• Juices (Orange and V8 Splash Smoothie Tropical Colada)
• Coffees (Caramel Chocolate Brownie flavor & Costa Rican coffee {which we did buy there})
• Fresh Wheat Bread
• Pumpkin Cranberry Bread

Yes, again there are leftovers. I won't have to cook this week at all. And considering we are going to Andy's parents house for Thanksgiving, that will be another meal I don't have to cook.

Mmmmmm! Leftovers!

Snow

It's the first snowfall of the season. The power went out last night for a couple of hours, that was a pain in the ass since the thermostat is electric and basically we had no heat. It started to get cool awfully fast. Not sure why the power went out; there was probably a lot of ice on the lines and it was really windy.

The weather this season has been weird; it's been a warm fall and all of a sudden it just got cold. It was like, "Ok, it's winter now."

I had to drag out my winter coat and was reminded that I have that issue with the zipper.......I figure I'll buy a new coat next winter since this year I can tolerate wearing my old one until it no longer fits around my stomach and then I'll claim one of Andy's as my own.

It's kinda pretty to see the snow on the trees, but driving in it sucks.

A Custom House

Last year, almost to the day, we had 3 companies come out and give us quotes on replacing all the double-hung windows in the house.....we're talking around 15 windows....yikes! That's not including 7 picture windows (included only one) or the 2 bay windows (which, other than the 3rd floor window we replaced are the newest windows in the house). Well, every window in our house is custom. There is not one window that we could go to Menards or Lowe's and buy the window and install it ourselves. Every single window has to be special-ordered, which means spending more money. So, needless to say we cannot afford to replace all the windows in our house at one time. So, this year we decided to do one room at a time (which means about 3 windows each year, including the picture windows). So, it will probably take us about 7 years at that rate, but hey, that's what we can afford right now.

Damn house with too many windows!

So, I signed the contract and we will be getting 2 new windows in our master bedroom and 1 new bedroom in the master bath. So, we can be warmer this winter. Save us from the drafts. Next year we will do the nursery for sure (2 windows) and maybe the kitchen (1 window).

Now we just have to wait for them to do the work.

Interesting Places......

Here are a couple things I find interesting that are in Northfield that I didn't know existed:

Northfield Buddist Meditation Center

Capati (Indian Restaurant)

Free Movie (@ Theatres)

Glamour put in their magazines some movies that they will be screening in select cities before it is released.......Andy & I are hoping to get to go see Just Friends. It will be in Edina on Thursday. You have to go to their website and register to get free passes. They are also doing a screening for Rent, but that one isn't being shown in MN anywhere.

Weekend Wrap-up

A pretty calm weekend.....somewhat relaxed.....some puking.....some accomplishments.....

Friday -- Went to Culver's (I've been neglectful of feeding Andy red meat, so he needed a burger & I needed ice cream)

Saturday -- Puked. Went to the movies and saw Zathura. It was a decent movie. Stopped @ Wendy's & nearly lost it from the smell of Andy's chicken nuggets (haven't had a good response during this pregnancy to Wendy's), although my Frosty went down just fine. Went to bed early.

Sunday -- Puked. Then felt decent the rest of the day. I put new flooring down in one bathroom while Andy put a new toilet in another. Today is the start of my 2nd trimester....what happened the promises of magically getting better??!?!?! EMPTY PROMISES.

Did find out that there are 2 other people at work pregnant & due around the same time as me.....one is due 5 days before and the other is due 12 days after me. I've been eating a lot of ice cream this past week, so I think I will be seeing a weight gain at my next doctor visit.

This weekend we have our Thanksgiving Feast with Raoul. We'll see what kind of mess he manages to get himself into. We did fix that door from his last episode. Funny.

Material Girls

So, finally blogger would let me post this picture of Carrie & I in our Halloween Costumes.....

Yes, we did buy most of the stuff......we did not save it....although I have to admit that the banana clip I am wearing (I'm in purple for my readers who do not know me) is my own banana clip from the 80's. Not sure why I never parted with it. Maybe a part of me always hoped it would come back.......my hair is naturally curly so it always worked well for my hair.

So, let me walk you through my outfit from head to toe to help you relive the 80's.

Ok - got the banana clip in the hair, you probably can't see it but I have purple paint streak in my high bangs and in the curls in the back. I have the big hoops in, light blue metallic eye shadow and frosty lips, big hoop earrings, layered plastic beads around my neck (the long set is tied in a knot), wearing a Walk-man, have fingerless gloves on and bangle bracelets, and oversized top over leggings, a large belt worn hanging off the hip, 2 different colors of slouch socks in penny loafers (I did put pennies in them for the night).......

Carrie has her hair crimped -- funny.....it crimped very well.....she actually had a crimper yet....

I'm not sure what is more sad....me keeping my banana clip or her keeping her crimper.....

Friendly Pictures

Here are some photos that friends sent me. They are funny so I had to share them.

The first one is of my friend Molly in her Halloween costume. I don't think there is any need to explain it. It's funny.

This next picture of Jessi & Alex. He has such a funny expression on his face.

Black Friday Stuff

Here are links to some places that are listing Black Friday sales:

Wal-Mart Don't think I will go here. Not worth it for justa couple things I maybe interested in, would need to see the actual pictures first.

Ace Hardware Think I will go here.

Toys'R'Us Some good prices on things, but not sure I want to go to the Cities.

Best Buy Here's info on the laptops out there, will try to get one from BB.com

Radio Shack Not sure if I will go here, seems like they always have the stuff available, even the door busters, so it's not as urgent to get there right away.

Wal-Greens Probably not.

As a side note - we are getting a Kohl's down here now too. They are starting contruction on it right now.

List of online deal sites.

So, Glad it's Friday

It seems like such a long week.....it really wasn't......just feels like it.....I'm so glad that it's Friday.

We're doing more home improvement projects around the house this weekend, as next weekend we are having this Thanksgiving feast at our house next weekend, so we wanted to do a few things.....

But other than that, hopefully it's a pretty relaxed weekend.....

New Door Lock

We got this keyless door lock and just love it. Granted, it was kinda a pain in the ass for Andy to install, basically because our door is old and had an old hardware setup. This would probably install very easily in a newer door with newer hardware.

But we just love that all you have to do when you leave is press 1 button (the lock button). And when you return you just need to enter in your combination number and the unlock button. No fussing with keys! And if you are in the car and realize you forgot something, you don't have to turn off the car. No accidentally locking yourself out......and when we are gone we can easily instruct the neighbord how to get in the house to make sure the cats have food. Very cool.

Playing Catch Up!

Ok - so I have not been blogging very much.....been tired and sick A LOT.......well, because I'm pregnant......which we are excited about, but certainly am not a fan of the constant morning sickness. But you can read more about that on our baby blog.

So, we had this Wine & Specialty Beer Tasting party a couple of weeks ago. It was a very successful party......I managed to stay up pretty late......the guys got pretty shit-faced on all the international beers there were drinking (then to the vodka or Jager and Red Bull). Raoul got himself locked in the bathroom, which was freaking hilarious.......we ended up having to hake the door knob off the door & door of the hinges....very funny......I almost let them break down the door....things like that happen when Andy gets drunk with his friends.....now we need to put the door back on the hinges and replace the doorknob (which is where the problem lie.)

Last weekend, I went to Jenny's Halloween party with Carrie.....we were 80's girls......got together ahead of time and got all dressed up. I took some pictures and have been trying to put them on blogger, but for some reason it keeps giving me an error code. I think I will try uploading them again in a different format. The party was fun and I was kicking ass atTexas Hold'em. Carrie fell asleep mid conversation on the way home and I had a good laugh about that. She started talking about getting rid of dog hair, while the conversation was about the price of diesel....very funny......guess she was a little tired.......

This weekend we are getting together with April, Jason, & Molly @ Benihana's. I have been VERY sensitive to smells, so I have my fingers crossed that I will do ok there. I have had A LOT of food aversions, but everything there should be fine.......And today we have our 2nd prenatal visit and get to hear the heartbeat.....

The in-laws stopped over last weekend.....they were in the area because they are thinking of moving down here (around the time the baby is born)......Andy seems pretty excited about that.....if they do move down here it will be the closest we ever lived to them.....

Today is the last day of 1st quarter for the kids....the time has sure flown by......I had let something slip to a kid the other day about being pregnant....and once one knows they all know.....so I have pretty much just annouced it. I am due right at the end of the school year and have plans to go back, which is a relief to many.......

I can't promise I will be any more diligent about blogging.......but I'll try.....