Happy Thanksgiving

There were 16 people in our home for Thanksgiving dinner today, counting the 6 in my immediate family. Things were a little hectic at one point, just trying to coordinate getting the food set up and ready, but once we did, it went well. We put the extra leaves in the dining room table and managed to fit all 16 of us around it. We had the 2 junior students from Brian's program here, along with their families/significant others, plus Brian's partner from work. One of the students and his family hung around afterwards and played Apples to Apples with us; part of the time our kids and theirs were playing together around the house... the girls were playing Donkey Konga and at one point the boys were all working on paper airplanes. Their oldest son is very good at folding planes and can create his own designs quite easily. It was fun to watch him. Our kids have a great time with these kids... what is so cool is that their 3 kids are the same sexes/ages as our youngest 3, so they are pretty much ideal playmates.

We've completed the cleanup and are just enjoying decompressing from the day. We'll probably wind up playing Apples to Apples and/or Scrabble again before bedtime.

Hope everyone had a great day today!

Ready or not

It has been another day of errands and things to get done. I made one last run to the commissary, hoping to get some baby bella mushrooms to make stuffed mushrooms tomorrow, but they were out. I went ahead and got a few other things I needed and then stopped by the Class Six (base liquor store) for my $1.05 cent airline bottle of Jim Beam, needed for the currant jelly/butter/bourbon glaze I use on my turkey. The cashier looked at me when I handed her the bottle and said, "Is that it?" When I replied in the affirmative, she replied, "That's not enough." I guess she was expecting me to spent $94 like the guy in front of me, with a case of Coors, a few bottles of wine, and some vodka. When I explained we didn't drink, she said, "Oh, you're using it for cooking." I guess since I wasn't buying for drinking purposes, she didn't hold me to a minimum purchase!

Anyhow, I stopped in at Safeway on the way home... no whole baby bellas there, either, but I did score some crimini that I think will work just as well. I will remove the stems and then fill them with onion and chive cream cheese before popping them in the oven for a few minutes.

After I got home, I set to work making coconut pies and dinner rolls. I made 2 coconut pies and mixed up the dough for the rolls. I'll shape and bake those tomorrow. As I was working on the pies, Brian called and said he realized we didn't have enough chairs for tomorrow. So on the way to Noah's football game tonight, I went to Sam's Club and picked up 4 extra folding chairs (Sam's isn't actually "on the way", but I went there first and arrived about 5 minutes before the game started).

Tonight's game was a good one. I think we lost, but it was only by 1 or 2 touchdowns. It was obvious how hard the kids have been practicing this week. Noah did a great job rushing the opposing team's quarterback; you could see how it rattled him to have Noah on him, and several times Noah nearly got his flag before he could throw the ball. I swear, flag football is harder than tackle. Sacking someone would be much easier than trying to pull his flag. We have a break until next Wednesday night.

Hope everyone has a great day tomorrow!

The Soundtrack of My Life as told by iTunes

Found this most excellent meme at WonderDawg's:

Here's how it works:

1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool and no disclaimers allowed.

Opening Credits: My God Reigns - Zoe Group

Waking Up: Bless the Lord - Won By One

First Day At School: Here is My Heart - True Lift

Falling In Love: Once in a Very Blue Moon- Nanci Griffith

Fight Song: Think About That- Won By One

Breaking Up: Hope to Carry On - Caedmon's Call

Prom: I'm Not That Girl - Idina Menzel

Mental Breakdown: Daybreak - Barry Manilow

Driving: Soarin' Over California Theme (from Disneyland)

Flashback: For the First Time - Mark Harris

Getting Back Together: We Are the Body of Christ - Zoe Group

Wedding: If Not for Christ - FFH

Birth of Child: The Heart of Worship - Matt Redman

Final Battle: Walk by Faith - Jeremy Camp

Death Scene: Look Yourself - Apologetix

Funeral Song: Pray for Faith - Won By One

End Credits: Can't Smile Without You- Barry Manilow

Let me know if you do it!

Save the cheerleader, save the world

OK, how many of you out there are watching Heroes? This has got to be the best show on television this season. Tonight's episode was nothing short of awesome. This show makes Mondays worthwhile.

In other news, word is that Disney is making a sequel to the popular National Treasure movie. I am sure we'll be heading to the theater for that one when it is released.

And now a meme I found at Carrie's:

1. How old were you when you learned to read and who taught you?
I have no idea how I learned to read; even my mom isn't sure how I learned, but I was reading the Little House on the Prairie books before I went to kindergarten.

2. Did you own any books as a child? If so, what’s the first one that you remember owning? If not, do you recall any of the first titles that you borrowed from the library?
Tons of books... I don't remember first one, but I was a huge Trixie Belden fan. One of the first books I remember getting from the library was Susan and Her Classic Convertible, by W.E. Butterworth; that and The Nickel-Plated Beauty, by Patricia Beatty.

3. What’s the first book that you bought with your own money?
Not sure, but probably a Trixie Belden book.

4. Were you a re-reader as a child? If so, which book did you re-read most often?
Most emphatically yes. I reread my Trixie Belden books and also all of the Chronicles of Narnia

5. What’s the first adult book that captured your interest and how old were you when you read it?
Unfortunately, probably Helter Skelter. My aunt had a copy on her bookshelf and I spent a lot of unsupervised time at her house. I was probably 9 or 10.

6. Are there children’s books that you passed by as a child that you have learned to love as an adult? Which ones?
I can’t think of any.

Chillaxin

Not much to say 'bout today except that it was one of the more restful Sunday afternoons we've had in a while. We didn't do much after getting home from church but hang out. I folded a little laundry and Brian and I played some Scrabble with his mom. The kids watched tv and played with each other until bedtime.

We're taking the week off from school since Emily has the week off. It will be interesting to see what our days will be like without the structure.

Happy Feet

Things didn't go quite as scheduled today. My mother-in-law's flight was canceled and the airline rebooked her on a much later flight due to arrive at 7:30pm. The nice thing about that was that Brian was able to go to Noah's football game. It was another loss, but the kids had a good time. We found out that the other teams in the league were all handpicked by the coaches amd all have a full roster. Our team is made up of the "left-overs." Personally, I think the guy in charge of the league should have just divided the kids up evenly. We only have 7 kids on our team, while the other teams have at least 10. It makes it hard for the kids to practice without a full defense or offense to play against.

I took the kids to see Happy Feet shortly before Brian left to pick up his mom. It was a cute movie. The music was great, and Robin Williams was fun in his 2 roles (one a Hispanic Adelie penguin and the other a Rockhopper who seemed to be channeling Barry White).

Brian and his mom made it back here a little after 9pm... long enough for the kids to greet her and visit a bit before heading to bed. I think the rest of us will be ready for bed soon.

A streetcar and desire

So the kids had a great time on the field trip today. We rode on 2 different trains, one of which was really a streetcar. I think the boys' favorite part of the ride was seeing a dead cow in one of the pastures we passed by. It was quite large and was being used as a roosting spot for some very large scavengers. Thankfully they weren't scavenging at the time. Of course, that probably would have just made it even more interesting for the boys!

We went for lunch with some other homeschoolers from the field trip and I was enjoying visiting with the other parents so much that I was a little behind in getting to school to pick up Emily. Then it took so long to get through the carpool line that I had just enough time to drop her, Halle, and Joel off at home before taking Noah to football practice at 4. He had practice until around 5:45.

Then it was home and back out to a "Parents' Night Out" at Halle and Joel's gymnastics gym; the young ones had been asking to go all week, so Brian and I obliged them and had some nice time alone this evening (a rare thing!). Emily was off at the movies and to spend the night with her best friend.

Tomorrow, Brian and Halle will head to San Francisco to pick up his mom at the airport. Joel and Noah are staying behind because Noah has a football game.

Cha-ching and choo-choos

Today I received the statement from TriCare (the military's health insurance) showing me what the tab was for my hearing aids. They were billed $6K for them. Ouch! Of course, they didn't pay that much... their actual cost was "only" $3600. Needless to say, I have given my kids the whole "don't touch the hearing aids" speech now. Now I'm curious as to how much more the "top-of-the-line" hearing aids (just one step above mine) are, and who actually gets to get them. Definitely not military dependents or retirees!

Tomorrow the kids and I are going on a field trip to the Western Railway Museum. This field trip would usually cost around $5 a person, but someone has donated this trip to the base homeschooling group for free. The trip will include a ride (10 miles round trip) on a restored historic electric rail car. I think the kids will really enjoy this.

Print and fold

I just finished publishing (via printer) and folding 80 graduation invitations for my husband's graduating anesthesia students. Now that I have that out of the way, the next order of business will be to design and create the program for the graduation ceremony. Actually, I will probably use the design I created last year. All I'll have to do is edit some graphics and then update the order, names, etc. It shouldn't be as complicated as it was the first time. Thank goodness!

Noah had his first flag football game of the season tonight. I am so glad he is able to have fun no matter what the outcome, because it was almost a total skunk. I think we managed 1 touchdown, while the other team scored around 10. However, it turns out the other team is one that has been playing together for a few years and they also have had 4 practices before this first game. Let's see... our kids just met each other last Thursday and had one practice together. I guess anyone would agree that puts them at a slight disadvantage. We're hoping for another practice Friday afternoon, as they have another game on Saturday.

It's always something

I'm enjoying my newfound space here in the office/schoolroom. Still a little more organizing and arranging to do, but having the extra space here at my desk has made a huge difference. I'm able to keep the books I am reading to the kids here in the bottom file drawer of the desk, rather than in a big stack on the desktop. That alone has made the change worth it.

This afternoon was insanely busier than I wanted it to be. Noah was on Brian's laptop when he began getting some virus notifications... turns out they were fake notifications designed to get people to download some other antivirus program. Somehow these got past Brian's Norton Internet Security (I'm assuming Noah inadvertently "allowed" access to the programs). We've been working most of the evening to find and/or eliminate the problems with a minimum of success. Neither Norton nor SpySweeper have been able to eradicate the nasty little buggers. It looks like we'll be taking the laptop to the Geek Squad. Cha-ching! Thankfully my computer is still safe (as far as we know... no funny stuff on here). I truly believe there should be a special spot in hell reserved for people who design viruses and other malicious computer bugs.

We also had to run out to Office Max to hunt down some note card paper so I can make the invitations for the graduation ceremony of Brian's senior anesthesia students. We're running a bit behind this year in getting it done. We got home from getting the notecards and I began to make the changes to last year's invitations. That was quick enough, but then I discovered that my card-making program (Print Shop Publisher 20) doesn't have this particular Avery card in its listing of templates. It looks like we'll need to return the ones we got and get something else. *Sigh* It's always something.