January update

I have no idea where the month has gone! All of a sudden, it's January 31. But no weather complaints from me today, as it was a wonderful 46 degrees today! Yea for snow melting! Although, when I was standing in the garage, I felt a drip on my head. When I looked up, there was wetness showing on the ceiling boards of the garage... Being new to this house, I don't know if this is normal or not...

This month my "baby" turned 16 years old, and now is the owner of a savings account with an ATM card. I wasn't quite ready to go beyond that yet. :)

Otherwise, the main thing keeping me busy is keeping up with my homework. In Dec, I started college on-line to finish my associate's degree in business. We're now halfway through the first block of two classes, and I love it. I enjoy the challenges involved; those of time and hard work. I don't yet know what I want to specifically do once Abby goes to Kindergarten in Fall 2011. But, I mainly want to go back to the workforce more marketable. Another possibility weighing on why I want to wait until Abby's in school is a Spring 2010 deployment for David. Luckily, these are lasting (only) 12 months... Now, we just wait.

Christmas, etc.

This year we planned to stay in town to celebrate our first Christmas in our new house. David took X-mas Eve off, but ended up working from home for about 4 hours. Then we enjoyed a nice meal of Shrimp Alfredo with yummy garlic bread sticks. For what ever reason, after dinner David was craving something sweet, and decided to make a deep-dish apple pie, from scratch! Including the crust! It was really good! I showed him my mom's trick about dusting the top crust with cinnamon sugar; it just adds something special to it. I think my husband could honestly be a chef! Christmas Day was quiet and relaxing, and everyone pretty much hung out in their pj's most of the day. Amanda & I watched a marathon of Hallmark channel Christmas movies, it was fun. For dinner we made a scrumptious ham, cheesy potatoes and green bean casserole. We had apple pie and cheesecake for dessert.

The Tuesday before Christmas we received sad news that one of David's former army medic colleagues had passed away unexpectedly and suddenly. We made our way up to Duluth on Friday, as the funeral was Sat. morning. It was a touching service, it always brings tears to my eyes when the honor guard does the flag ceremony. It was very hard for all of the fellow medics to see a man so full of life pass away so suddenly. He was a mentor to so many of them. After the service we enjoyed visiting at the fellowship lunch, and then went down the road to the Sunset lounge. Evidently the boys had many-a Captain Morgan occasions with our friend during fishing trips in Babbitt, MN, so they had to toast to him with a shot. It was very nice to see our extended guard families, although during a difficult time.

We also managed to spend time with both of our families, which was very nice, especially for the girls. They enjoyed as did we, having some quality time with them.

"A Million Thanks"

Here is a way to thank U.S. service members for their service and sacrifice. It only takes a few minutes of your time and effort to lift someone's spirits.

http:amillionthanks.org/How_To_Mail.asp

Back from the stone ages...

This past Saturday our home modem decided to unexpectedly die. After many failed attempts of re-configuring it, our internet provider deemed it as faulty. Great... No replacement can be received until Tuesday, 4 WHOLE days away. Of course, this had to happen on a weekend, and while my computer guru (David) was out of town. I even tried having my dad help over the phone, with no luck. A few short years back this would have not been a problem; and goes to show how much we rely on the internet/e-mail, etc. UGH! Thankfully we live within a half mile of the local library, which has internet access and Wi-Fi available. So once a day, I would trek over there and try to remain "connected" to the world. Nothing earth shattering happened during our hiatis, luckily! I know it could have been a whole lot worse...

The morning after

All I can say (still,18 hours later) is UGH, and full! But I think our day(after many years of going elsewhere) went pretty well; although I should ask our guests?! We had pre-big meal h'ordervs of cheese & crackers, veggies & dip, shrimp cocktail and deviled eggs. We enjoyed the big meal even a little ahead of schedule, because Mr. Turkey was done earlier than we anticipated. This was good, after I spent Wednesday wondering (and freaking a little) if he would be thawed safely in time. Thankfully a friend talked me through it over the phone. Ok, so tragedy was diverted and the turkey was SUPER moist! David used what he called the "Liz" method (my mom) of stuffing the cavity with apples and celery. Worked like a charm. Although mom was unable to attend, we still had her famous homemade cranberry sauce, pumpkin and apple pies. Yummy! I know my girls thoughly enjoyed doting on their cousin Sydney, and playing with cousin Nathan. They are all just too cute!

Thanksgiving 101

This year our family is hosting a small-ish Thanksgiving. My mom and dad, and my sister Krista & her family will be coming. It's been a few years since we have cooked the big meal, so I have been prepping by watching (and recording) the numerous Food Network shows about it. Geeky? Yeah, maybe... But I did learn some new things. David likes to take his time doing meals, where I'm more the type to hurry and get it done. Example, he wants to put the turkey in a brine. I would probably be more likely to baste it. He wants to have 3 vegetables, I want to have 2. Altough I did convince him to let me make Waldorf salad. Mom is bringing her homemade apple and pumpkin pies, and her cranberry sauce. I will be doing more research for cooking tips this week!

This Thanksgiving I will be praying for our family members and family friend who have some medical obstacles they're facing.

What are your family traditions on Thanksgiving?

62,000 crazy people

When David heard the MMAF (MN Military Appreciation Fund) was offering free Vikings tickets, we jumped at the chance. Usually with MMAF, you can get discounted tickets, so free is even better. The crazy day began with David dropping Amanda & I off at church for Sunday school, while he waited at a nearby park reading a book. Then we drive like crazy people and get into Mpls a half hour before the game. Park the car, check. Walk to the dome, check. Get through the MASS of people, check. Get through security, check. Climb to our seats, check. So of course the dome is what I would call loud, as it's sold out. But then the Vikes are on defense and it gets EVEN LOUDER; 62,000 crazy people yelling. I saw Amanda plugging her ears a few times but she had a blast. By the end of the game, she was giving high-fives to people!~Nothing like seeing a game live!