SHEs Organized

Happy Thanksgiving to all celebrating today Thursday.

I'm needing to play catch up with regular jobs around the house today Friday.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I am surviving my first ever Thansgiving alone. I roasted a turkey, made dressing, and rice pilaf. The funny thing is that all these items needed the same baking dish! So my meal is piecemeal. The turkey came out well enough that I will volunteer to cook one at my parents house for Christmas. I am the first and only one in my family who can cook a turkey. The rice pilaf was overdone because I set the timer then forgot to turn it on! The dressing takes longer than the recipe due to altitude. I did use the good china for myself. There is kitchen cleanup still to be done, but it is not too bad. One of my stove burners no longer lights, so I will check the pilot light. I just showered and did my hair and my bathtub clog is back. I have called my mom and am about to call DD10. I wonder if she and XDH are eating with my XDFriend who is dating XDH?

Tomorrow, I have not decided what to do. I could brave the crowds and do some shopping, but I really don't know anything I need. I will definitely go to the yarn store and crochet with that group tomorrow night. Saturday there is no cat adoption clinic, so I can spend the whole afternoon crocheting with the coffee shop group.

Off to call DD. And I just realized I need to call Mom back and see what my neices want for Christmas.

Napped for 30 minutes and dragged myself out of bed to get on the road. Dh had finished the vacuuming on the ground floor for me and washed up the dishes so we'd come back to a tidy kitchen.

We had a nice dinner at the car dealership while they changed the oil and a number of dealer-programmable settings on the car. The car no long bugs us when we back up, all doors unlock when the driver door is unlocked and the sun roof stays open when we lock the car (a plus here since letting the sun heat up the inside of the car is necessary 7 months of the year.) Oh, and the headlights turn off when we shut the car off now.

Stopped in at the market town on the way home and picked up seconds on the sale items (including "buy three of dh's cereal on sale and get an OJ for free.") I forgot I still needed eggs (I knew I was forgetting something.) I have 2 and that's all I need for tonight.

Got home and there was a message from ds saying he was at the hospital. That's bad - he usually says he's at work, and sure enough he was being run through the ER because he wasn't getting better. Mainly exhaustion, the fever seems to be low or gone. Blood tests came back - mono.

He has a doctor's note saying he's not to return to work for a week.

I'll call my family doctor and/or the specialist tomorrow and ask if it is OK that he be here because he would like to come home if he's going to be sick. I'm just a little worried because of my immune system being off. I'm thinking of asking that the mono test be run on me again. The timing is a bit off (normally a 30 - 60 day incubation period and it has been 90 days since I was at my worst) but it still seems odd we'd both get sick with something so similar.

Edited to add: Just finished up preparing two batches of my dmil's pork tenderloin stew. It is a finicky recipe with far too many steps for my liking but does taste better when you do all the steps. It also takes another hour to cook. I think I'll let it cool in the garage rather than put it in the fridge - an advantage to living up North. Anyway, the two batches will fit in my giant crock pot and I'll heat that up tomorrow afternoon for the stew supper, keeping a serving or two aside for ds if he ends up here.

hugs to ds and to you Kathryn. I hope you both recover quickly - and take the time needed to recover as much as you can at least.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!!!
We have spent most of the day at dstepgm's w/my family... all our clan was present except dbro & ds/ddil/dgs. But that was okay. We still number over 25 people and we had a great day, I think. The food was sooo delicious. I told them, "I am so thankful that all of y'all can cook so good!" (I think dmom is getting ready to delegate the potatoes to me, though...)
Then we visited w/dmil awhile, and saw dbil/dsisil/dniece when they returned from their dinner out-of-town, also.
I opened up a question re: school affairs -- b/c the topic had arisen at my family gathering -- that was probably not pleasant, and I'm sorry I did that, but it is easy to get that bunch stirred up, anyway, when dbil is around... so maybe I didn't ruin their evening... * sigh *
Now dh is napping on the couch and I think we're going to a movie in a little while.

Harriet, you asked about the history teacher in residence. Yes -- that is dh. I thought I had told y'all. DH is a retired coach/history teacher. He is just a fanatic about history, ESPECIALLY Civil War history... so you can imagine how he was picking apart the movie. But as I said, he could find very little to fault about it, except that perhaps it overstates/confuses? Lincoln's movitation a bit.
Actually, I have a double-major in English & history, but I feel less than confident in history, and have tried to keep that quiet all these years... I've only had to teach history once.

Counting our blessings...
I am thankful for my close and loving, fun, loud, disorganized, chaotic extended family. I know without a doubt, there is nothing my family members would not do for each other, and we could call on each other at any time of the day or night. My uncle is sometimes a grumpy old man, LOL... he and my dad may aggravate each other from time to time... but they are ALWAYS there for each other. And my aunts are truly sisters-by-another-mother to my mom, who is an only child. My aunts & my cousins are so much fun to be around, including my boy-cousin's wives, and I realize not everyone is so blessed. I know we are a little over-whelming to ddil... but the minute ds introduced her to them, they all took her in just like she had been born to us, and I hope in time, she will be more comfortable with all of them.
I am thankful to be married to my very best friend in the world.
I am thankful for my dparents and my ds, ddil, and dgs.
I am thankful for dinlaws, who have always treated me like I was their own.
I am very thankful that except for dparents, everyone in our family is enjoying good health this holiday season...
and I am thankful that dparents are managing their health issues as well as they are.
I am thankful for 30 years with the best grandparents in the world... and 45 years with a wonderful, wonderful uncle... I will miss these people forever... but I am so thankful for wonderful memories. Not everyone has that.

Oh -- and someone, I think maybe Ivy -- suggested a SAD light for me the other day, when I mentioned melancholy Christmas songs being my favorites.
I'm not really depressed by Christmas! A little frantic, sometimes a little anxiety-prone, and a little exhausted by Christmas, but not depressed. It just stirs up some memories of the people above and a few others I miss, as holidays do for most people. But I enjoy remembering them, rather than being depressed by remembering them, you know?

WTG, Elizabeth! Sounds like you did GREAT!
Dmil seemed to weather her first Tgiving alone very well, also, and we took her a plate from my family's dinner. I am glad we didn't take her along for the day, though. Did I mention last night that dmom said 11:30???
Ha ha. We got there at 11:45 and NO ONE was there except dsgm!!!
They all started rolling in around 12:30 or so, I guess, dparents may have arrived by 12:00? And then daunt says, "DID I SAY 11:30? I THOUGHT I SAID 12:30!"
I said -- "Okay... I make a motion that we NEVER eat before 1:00 again down here. From now on, all family dinners begin at 1:00" They all seemed to think that was a good idea.
LOL... dh said, well, we won't eat with them next Tgiving, and we will have forgotten what we said by the next year.
It was fine though. Dh napped and watched football while waiting for everyone else to arrive, and I got to talk to distant cousin out-of-state who was on the phone w/dsgm when we arrived.

So sorry for ds, Kathryn! Hope you can take care of him w/out making yourself sick(er), too! (((HUGS))) for both of you!!!

Waving to all... scattered... Ivy... blessed... Twins... Nancy... Sunny... Harmony... Dee.. MT... Lynlee... helia...
and Harriet... I'm sorry about your dcousin. I'm sure with the holiday PLUS your other responsibilities, they will understand if you can't make the service tomorrow... but I definitely understand your wish to be there. (((HUGS)))

I hear dh stirring... better sign off. Hope you all have a wonderful, happy, and relaxing weekend...
and if you're going out with those crazy Black Friday shoppers, do be careful!!!
(My aunts and cousins, and maybe dsisil & dniece, are going to be out there, btw, but not me... NO WAY.)

Four meals in one day leaves a person wishing they hadn't. Thanksgiving is over for the day. Family and food was in excess.
DSon called tonight to make sure we were going to get an early start tomorrow. He is cooking and wanted to time the meal around our arrival time at his home.

***VBSigh**** Reminding myself what seems like a big deal will later just be one of those experiences of raising children.
I remember how horrible the 4000 BB's were to clean up a couple years ago when LO dumped them all.
Tonight a washcloth went down the bathtub drain. I was in the bathroom with LO, but was too slow to grab it before it disappeared down the drain. Now all the plumbing in the house is backed up. When the washer drained, it came up into the bathtub. *** VBSigh***
Did I mention we are suppose to leave early in the morning? The house smells like a sewer. We have tried plunger. Snaking. And now have a slim hopes that liquid plumber will dissolve the washcloth and free the drains. ***Hoping***

Hello again everyone! I just wanted to check in and thank you for 'listening'. I have had a relaxing, non-mopey day. I have finished two novels. I had read them before, but forgotten a lot and had forgotten how good they were. I have done cat care and am about to crochet and watch a mindless video or two then go to bed. I am kind of tired.

{{{OKAY}}} Hugs to all who need them.

I'm thankful that the TV in the basement is working again we just did not how to run the controls. H. got the figured out! Should have looked up on the net how to operate it but did not think of that until after he got the sound going again. I tried working with it too but w/out success. Glad we did not buy a new TV and do not have to brave the crowds for one we did discuss it.

I got the washer drain situation solved have run a couple loads through w/out problems yea! Will be keeping an eye on it this week.

We did have a nice lunch at the buffet, on the way home got groc. afterwards before the sales started. Glad the other family meal is not until Sat. evening.

I have granny duty in the afternoon tomorrow after all. H. is working tomorrow and Sat.

Had a good day did 4 mi. on the ex. bike it takes me about 20 min. I had h. time me tonight so I knew how much time to block out some days I can do it a bit faster.

I napped a bit this evening. After I made deviled eggs for our dinner.
Thinking I'll make a cherry cobbler with canned pie filling for h. for Christmas.