Thanksgiving...new traditions

For the past fifteen years, things have gone a certain way on Thanksgiving:

1. Wednesday: head to Grandma Duke's house...stay the night, help make food while watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
   
2. Thursday: have lunch with the Duke side of the family and head back to McAlester for early dinner with Mom and Sister.
3. Enjoy eating my second Thanksgiving dinner in a day...mmmm, mmmm, good!
4. Meet up with Katie K and either see a movie or plan out our Black Friday.

Good plans, eh? After fifteen years (well, point number four has only been since we could drive so, you know, a solid decade or so), you get used to it. I look forward to it and can't believe how awesome my Thanksgiving is ever year.

This year, it's a new tradition starting. Due to some ridiculous family strife on the Duke side of the family (not kidding--the family essentially split due to a dog's dish of water), this year I went on Saturday *pre Thanksgiving* to my Aunt Patsy's house in Waxahachie. It was a great day! I got to sit at the adult table by my Grandma, see my precious family, and it was nice to do something different (eat off of cowboy china, change of scenary, you know good times).

Due to my sister's custody situation, she doesn't get the children until Friday evening so my traditional Thanksgiving dinner is now a lunch on Saturday at my Mom's house. Good times.

Today Chris & I are having fajitas at his grandma's house with his aunt and uncle from Colorado. Tomorrow I will have Thanksgiving with Chris' family. :-)

So my three Thanksgivings aren't happening on the traditional Thanksgiving day. Non-traditional? Perhaps but I love it. I'm excited for the new tradtions starting this year. Pictures to come soon my friends...Happy Thanksgiving!

brown bird

As often as possible my college roommie & I like to catch up on life. As I have a pretty different work schedule and she's teaching as well as attending grad school, that doesn't happen as often as either of us would like. It is a blessing though to go months and be able to pick up like we saw each other an hour ago.

The plan was to meet at our usual Starbucks. I couldn't wait to see Maggie & enjoy a peppermint mocha. Due to traffic (thanks 820), I arrived before she did. I ordered my extra large drink...mmmmm.

I waited outside for Maggie and tried to not eavesdrop on the conversation a table away. I noticed a brown bird hopping around outside...I watched it for a minute or two when it stopped hopping, turned, and looked at me. I made eye contact with the bird...then it started to hop again until it was perched on the chair next to me. The bird looked at me a little longer then hopped to the chair across from me. It lingered for about thirty more seconds before it flew away.

Two minutes later another brown bird started hopping around me. This one had a broken wing. Symbolism anyone?

Twilight

So let me tell you a little diddy about how I turned back into a tween girl....

Last winter my friend Deanna told me I had to read a book called Twilight. I was pretty hesitant...I mean, vampires? werewolves? dumb...dumb...dumb. I noticed in every class I had at least three students with one of the books from the series. So in an effort to connect with my students, I borrowed Deanna's copy. A day later I finished the book, returned it to Deanna, and promptly bought the series. Within a week I had entirely devoured the series.

We had a book event in the spring for Twilight. I did whatever I could to help...and did a significant part of the planning and pretty much led the event. I dressed up as Esme (too many Alices and Bellas around & you know I like to be different) The event was a huge success! Over one hundred of our students stayed after school for it. It was awesome--we had prizes, vampire cupcakes, and a prediction board for Breaking Dawn (the last book in the series).

When I left CMS, I didn't leave my love of Twilight. I preordered my copy of Breaking Dawn & marked it on my calendar. I was bummed to not be able to attend the midnight release (i was at camp) but was excited to come home & find my copy.

At midnight, the Twilight movie opened. I didn't go as I have Fridays off....so today at 10:35 am I left my house. I parked my car at Tinsletown and forced myself to not run into the theatre. I bought my ticket, a large cherry coke, and a box of sour patch kids and as calmly as possible walked to my theatre.

Due to the limited amount of cars in the parking lot, I thought I would be one of a handful of people for the 11 am showing. Wrong. A solid 40% of the theatre was full. I was very fortunate to get a good seat by some twilight moms. I scanned the theatre: very few teenagers, mainly moms, and a few couples around my age. One man came by himself; he sat two seats down from me & I kept waiting for his wife to appear. Nope...no wife--just a twilight fan ready for some awesome.

As the preshow entertainment flashed on screen, my excitement continued to build. The previews started & I was hooked by The Half Blood Prince and Bride Wars. I still can't decide if there were more previews than usual, but it seemed to take FOR-EV-ER!!! My anticipation continued to build and then: Bella's narration began!

I was hoping my beloved book would translate on film...so many books are ruined when they make the jump to the silver screen. Sure several things weren't the same but the general feeling, message was accurately portrayed.

I loved it! I can't express how much I loved it! I immediately called my Katie K to discuss it when I left the theatre. Oooh....so good!!! I can't wait to see it again! I plan on taking Chris so he can understand why I love it oh so very much.

Well done summit & catherine hardwicke, well done!

Confessions

It's good for the soul...

1. I have The Lion King Soundtrack on my itunes...
2. I made fun of guy friends in college for having 'man crushes' on their professors; I now have a 'man crush' on Dr. Evans. I want to be his friend & soak up everything he could say. creepy much?
   
3. I wish I could either eat tacos or hot dogs every day...not chocolate but tacos or hot dogs.
4. Mice freak me out. With the recent articles about them coming into houses in my county, I'm scared I'll find one in my house.
   
5. I once read a book of confessions at Barnes & Noble. I realized I don't have such a dark side after all. ;-)
6. Kelly Clarkson's song "You Found Me" always makes me think of Chris.
7. I want to grow up & be like my Grandma Duke. I have never met anyone who automatically and unconditionally loves all she meets. It's the most beautiful gift.
8. I get frustrated with the people who go 50 mph on my 30 mph street...
   
9. I miss all the reading free time...I have several books just waiting to be devoured.
10. I am counting down until my vacation...Wednesday, November 26 is going to be a very exciting day! During my five days off I plan on seeing my Mom & sister, Katie K, sweet pea (the dog), and spending each day of my vacation with my wonderful, amazing boyfriend.
11. I'm desperately trying to find a cutesy nickname for him...so far all I've come up with have made it: dino, t-rex, huggy bear, grizzly bear...maybe I need to stay away from animals.

jobby jobby job job

I love my job. I can't believe I get paid to creatively tell children about Jesus, get up on stage & act/sing, and write curriculum for my classroom. It's amazing. I am very blessed.

Every now and then, I take stock on life...what would I want to do if I weren't here? Seriously how could I best utilize my abilities outside of the church? Sunday night I found it: World Vision. Yep I would be a representative for World Vision, organize events, and tell people why sponsorship is such an important part of my life.

I volunteered at a World Vision Concert & got to see 96 children get sponsored. It totally filled me up with joy and excitement. I loved it. totally loved it!!

If that didn't work out my second choice would be: Toms Shoes. I own three pairs...I wear them all the time. In fact, I wore them so much over the summer (minimum of three times a week) that my original pair is starting to wear out. So on Tuesday at our ladies' event, I bought two more pairs. I love them!!!

Election Day

Remember this on election day: the electoral college determines not the popular vote. Don't forget what happened a couple of elections ago...

For more information check this out, it should answer any additional questions you may have about today's election process.

My first big holiday...

Chris loves Halloween! It's his absolute favorite holiday. :-) I was very excited about dressing up as a couple. Every year I think of about fifty to seventy-five halloween costumes. I just love brainstorming different ideas! We settled in on the idea back in August. Why not go as the dynamic duo? We saw the movie together three times this summer; we both watched the 1960s show; we know useless facts about the series...it was the perfect costume for us. We've decided it's never too soon to think of what to go as for next year. The front runner so far is Glinda & Elphaba from Wicked. hehehehe....if we go with this idea, we won't have a Fiyero for obvious reasons.

Friday we got ready, headed out to Southwest Airlines corporate party, and had a couple of gigles on the way. While at the party we went through the Haunted House. Chris had not experienced me in a haunted house. I don't think he was prepared for it. I am apparently a big disappointment to all haunted house workers. Greeting them, saying excuse me, and complimenting their masks is not what I'm supposed to do.

We also watched his mom rock the house in her show. She was an "Ikette" aka a back up dancer for Tina Turner in a telethon skit. It was the most wonderful thing I'd seen in a while! She did a great job! :-)

That evening we went to his grandma's house to spend the evening with the rest of his family. It was fantastic. We took them trick or treating. His youngest cousins were too cute for words: a fifties girl and a pink cheetah. Too precious!

We had some pecan pie while the kids evaluated their candy stash. It was a fantastic holiday!

I can't wait for Thanksgiving! We'll have three celebrations in two days. Thursday we'll have lunch at my grandma's and dinner at my mom's house. Friday we'll come back to Texas and have Thanksgiving at his grandmas! :-D Holidays with Chris are definitely something I can get used to!