Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We hope everyone had a relaxing day and plenty to eat! We're up in St. Louis this weekend and had Thanksgiving at my parent's house. It was delicious as always! I can't wait for leftovers the rest of the weekend! Because today always reminds us to focus on the things we're grateful for, I made a quick list I'm thankful for this year...

- our wonderful family and friends that we love

- being able to SEE and VISIT those family and friends

- an amazing husband that works so hard every day and NEVER complains

- that same husband who is allowing us to spend both Thanksgiving and Christmas in chilly St. Louis this year

- our (family and friends included) good health

- the delicious Starbucks hot chocolate I got at the airport this morning

- the Shout and washer/dryer that took the hot chocolate stain out of my jeans when we arrived in St. Louis (I was pretty clumsy this morning!)

- a FIVE DAY weekend (including Monday!)

- talking with my brother in Italy on the video phone and his safety overseas

- our freedom and safety

- being able to celebrate with Katie and Erik at their BIG DAY tomorrow!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Enjoy the leftovers!

Christmas Survey

Usually I don't take the time to fill these out. But I was cracking up with some of the answers my friend Leah sent. So I thought I'd do my own!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Absolutely wrapping paper! I love having nice 45 degree angles and sharp corners on my presents. I look forward to spending hours on end getting them just right!

2. Real tree or Artificial? That's a no brainer for me! Real!

3. When do you put up the tree? Usually sometime soon after Thanksgiving.

4. When do you take the tree down? Typically the end of January unless it has become a fire hazard from not getting enough water!

5. Do you like eggnog? Not so much.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? I'm not sure. The only thing that comes to mind is an air hockey table. It was very fun!

7. Hardest person to buy for? Probably Greg...I honestly don't know that I've ever gotten him anything that he's really liked! What can I say, I like practical gifts...Greg, not so much!

8. Easiest person to buy for? Mom and Dad. They always like what we get them (or at least pretend to!)

9. Do you have a Nativity scene? No, but maybe that's what I'll ask for this year!

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail. Unfortunately sometimes they are more like New Years card! Oops!

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I think I'm pretty easy to please and I've liked everything I've ever gotten!

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Hands down...A Muppet's Christmas Carol! Love it! And I just got the special edition on DVD last year! I could watch that movie 100 times each year!

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Throughout the year, but mostly after Thanksgiving.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I doubt it. I tend to like the gifts I get and want to keep them for myself!

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? I'll agree with Leah on this one and say "everything"...except cheesecake.

16. Lights on the tree? Absolutely!

17. Favorite Christmas song? Oh Holy Night

18. Travel at Christmas or stay at home? In order to see my family travel is required.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeers? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, Rudolph! (I took that from Leah too!)

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angels

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Both with my family!

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? I don't know. I can't think of anything right now. Ask me December 26th!

23. What theme or color are you using? Again, no clue! Let's go with..random!

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Turkey and lasagna!

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? I already got it! A lateral file and a scanner for receipts! So excited! I'm going to be so organized!

Oh Happy Day!

Hopefully you all won't have that song stuck in your head like I do! Anyways, I'm so happy because we got my car back yesterday! It looks great! They replaced both bumpers, both back lights and a front light along with something called a rear end panel. And they washed and vacuumed it! Oohhh! Very nice! And the trunk closes! What a luxury, I know! It's so nice to drive my own car again. But I did go ahead and double the mileage on the rental car in the 3 weeks that we had it! Off to start the weekend! Have a great one!

Eagles, all-you-can eat sushi, babies and veterans!

We had awesome fall weather in Dallas this weekend. It was in the low 70's and sunny! Perfect weather for being outside. Greg and I went up to Plantation Golf Course in Frisco, which was a pretty nice course. On two of the holes you literally drive through the middle of a pond! Good thing Greg was driving! I would have turned around because I thought we were going the wrong way!


This is the view right before you drive across the pond. I was a little frightened because there was moving water on one bridge we drove over! I thought we were going to get swept away!

Greg played really well. Look at that perfect form. He made several birdies and an eagle throughout the day! Very nice!Greg multitasking...it's hard to see, but he's talking on the phone while chipping the ball left-handed onto the green. Don't worry that he's so close to the fence! I think the previous shot went a little too far to the right!

After golf, we met up with friends at an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant. Fortunately no records were broken this time! The last time we went Ryan ate 49 pieces of sushi! He tried for 50, but all the rice expanded in his stomach and he couldn't fit another one in! This time we all left full, but not too stuffed!

This weekend we also found out that some of our friends welcomed their new baby girl into the world! We can't wait to see pictures! We're so happy and excited for them! And tonight I'm going to visit a friend from Pate whose baby is a couple months old! I'm so excited! I haven't seen her since I left.
Enjoy Veterans Day tomorrow! Click here for a brief explanation of Veterans Day.

2nd Annual Pumpkin Carving Party!

We had friends over Saturday night to carve pumpkins. It was so nice catching up with friends we haven't seen in a while. Everyone's kiddos are getting so big! We had a great time visiting and the pumpkins looked awesome! Hopefully they'll last until Halloween! There was some pretty intricate detailing going on!

I think the trampoline was a big hit!

One of Greg's co-workers jumping and Desiree and me trying not to double bounce each other. I think everyone agreed that jumping on a trampoline is a good workout!

And in more exciting news...I got the rental car today while my car is being fixed! We were upgraded to a Chevy Impala. Ooooh! It's fun to drive. It feels really big and it's really quiet. And you can start the car with the clicker! Fun, fun! Here's the nice, new car sitting in the driveway with only 600 miles on it.

Addendum to the last post

Since the last post ended with a little bitterness, I wanted to share some funny things that I've noticed since the accident...

1. Last night I attempted to get things out of the trunk by reaching through the small opening in the back seat. I was only able to get our toothbrushes out last night. (I was tired and that's all I had the energy to do!) So this morning Greg needed the rest of his stuff out so he could go to work. So I started by reaching through the hole again, but then I decided to try to open the trunk again. Apparently you have to push the trunk down while you push the clicker and the trunk pops right open! What a nice feature! So that made it a lot easier to get things out!

2. The radio controls on the steering wheel change the station no matter what button you press! That was fun trying to turn the volume up or down and the radio switched to another preset station! Interesting!

3. I've been the safest and slowest driver in Dallas today! 35 is the new 40! And there can't be enough room between me and the next car! Especially when I'm stopped at a light!

4. I have switched my seat setting to be just barely within reach of the pedals. I may need to get pedal extensions, but there is no way my face is getting close to those airbags!

OK, well I just thought I'd share my new insights and car features! Have a good day everyone!

Weekend Adventures

Greg and I started the weekend having separate adventures of our own and then ended the weekend together with a bang...literally unfortunately!

On Friday I flew up to St. Louis for a wedding shower while Greg drove up to Oklahoma City for a fun, wedding weekend. I was exhausted when I got into St. Louis at 11:30, but apparently Greg and the guys stayed up until about 5 am the next morning! At a more traditional time for the general public to be up, I went shopping with my mom before the shower...I'm sure Greg was still sleeping! Then we went home and raked leaves! I miss raking leaves! Isn't weird how you miss things you never thought you would when you aren't able to do them any more? While raking leaving I spotted a preying mantis! OK, I'm not sure that's really what it was, but it was big and ugly! And it kept turning its head to look at us!

I'm sure Greg was still sleeping at this point!

The shower I went to was great! There was tons of yummy food, lots of good presents and I was able to see some of my high school friends' babies. They are all so big now! I wish I would have taken pictures, but I completely forgot! Meanwhile in Oklahoma...Greg was playing sand volleyball with the guys in the wedding.

I had to leave the shower early to get to Mass and dinner with my parents and nephew, Sammy. He did awesome at Mass! He didn't make a peep and he was all smiles! Then we went out to dinner at PF Changs. Here is Sammy and my Mom waiting to be seated.

Look at those chubby cheeks!

On Sunday morning I flew down to OK for Matt and Amanda's wedding. It was an absolutely beautiful day for a wedding! They had the ceremony and reception on the OU campus. Which, despite Greg's UT bias, is a very pretty campus. They had the wedding in a courtyard on the campus.

Here is the ring bearer, Michael, who is Andy and Alisa's son.
He did a wonderful job walking down the aisle and ringing his little bell!

This is the view that I had initially of the wedding.

Then Greg switched places with me and I had this view.

Much better!

Michael with Alisa after the wedding.

This is the groom's cookie cake! Not only was delicious, it was a great picture of the Dallas skyline!

This was my other favorite food at the wedding! Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! Mmmm!!! What a great idea! I had to restrain myself from eating too many! They were so good!

Here's what Greg thinks of arms length pictures!

The gorgeous couple cutting the cake.

They didn't end up as messy as I did at our wedding. Greg was too good at dodging my attempts! This is a before and after at our wedding...

What a nice husband!

OK OK, back to the real world! So we're heading out of Norman and I decided that I would be nice and drive so Greg could get some sleep after his long weekend. Well, we were stopped at a red light no more than 2 minutes down the road and the car lunges forward! So I stomp on the brake harder because I thought for some strange reason that the car just started moving forward on its own. Well, it turns out that we were hit from behind by a teenage girl who was probably not paying very close attention! Why else would you run into someone who had been stopped at a red light for the past 30 seconds? We ended up bumping into the car in front of us, but luckily we didn't do any damage to his car.

It took 20 minutes for the police to get there and I was a nervous wreck the entire time! I was shaking from being scared so badly and because it was really cold! Fortunately no one was seriously injured. I'm sure Greg and I have whiplash and Greg had a headache last night. I made him take a nap in the car while I drove home so I could be awake while he slept in case he had a concussion and stopped breathing. I think that shows just a little bit of how paranoid and crazy I am! I was contemplating setting my alarm when we got home to wake us up every 2 hours. But Greg vetoed that idea and we went to sleep and woke up feeling better this morning.

Here are pictures of my once beautiful car...

Fortunately it's still drivable, even if it does look a little ghetto with the bumper hanging off! I've been calling the Norman police department all morning trying to get the case report faxed down here. Then I get to call the other person's insurance company and figure out how to get my car fixed. Note to the wise, apparently you should get the other individual's insurance information when you're in an accident. Who knew! This was my first (and hopefully last!) car accident! No more please!

So that's how our weekend went! Very eventful again!