3 Things I Learned This Thanksgiving

It is not very nice to call people's parents who are over 50 old. Even though I still think they are. Though I bet if you ask me again in 15-20 years my tune might change, but I make no promises.

4 families totaling 14 mouths fed, apparently, eat far less food then my average of 13-15 hungry mouths; 3-5 of which are single sailors. This year the single sailors camped out at Best Buy for whatever awesome deal they could score on this Black Friday. Boys had no clue what yummy delights they were missing.

When your 3 year old falls asleep at 5:30 the evening of Thanksgiving and stays that way until 7:15 the morning after, life is good.

Mmmm... Thanksgiving

As we're all aware, the great turkey day feast is tomorrow. Like many other years, I'll be doing just a bit of cooking. Unlike many other years, I won't be the only one doing the cooking and hosting and I'm not quite sure how I feel about that.

Two of my girl friends will be sharing in the whole preparations and responsibilities for the Thanksgiving Feast. Using some of my recipes.

It's not like I'm one of those people who like to hoard recipes and not share them. By all means, let me know what I cook and you like and I'll gladly tell you, show you, write down how it's done. But, in all honesty, I'm afraid their going to screw up my recipes, or worse, out do me!

I'm shallow. Yes, thanks for pointing that out.

Its not like either one of my girl friends can't cook. One of them makes some bitchin' cheese enchiladas while the other makes a stuffed shells meal so delish I often want to make out with her after eating such yumminess.

The thing is, I'm the friend known for the awesome southern cooking and when I don't have complete and total control.... well... I'm just not sure how to handle such things. It gives me that whole fish out of water feeling.

Tomorrow is going to be great, though, even if I'm not in complete and total control. Because tomorrow, I'm only in charge of 4 dishes- instead of my usual 345- and tomorrow, we're not hosting it at my house- which means Jer doesn't have to dust the walls again this year.

I'm not nearly as stressed as previous years which has seemed to thrill Jeremy to no end. Apparently I'm not a very nice person when overly stressed. Instead, I'm just feeling a little empty handed, as if I don't have enough things to do.

To top off that whole not enough things to do, I'm also finished Christmas shopping. Everyone who is getting anything from Jer or myself has been bought for and wrapped with pretty, decorative paper. What in the hell am I supposed to do now?

Look! More Pictures and Not One of My Pregnant Belly!

Guess what?! We had snow on Friday. Not a single bit which stuck to the ground and stayed but it was big fat flakes of snow none the less!


In other news, I have another OB check up today. I'm seriously considering asking the doc if he could just cut me open tomorrow and take this little termite out because, frankly, I'm done.

I am so uncomfortable and hormonal and I'm tired of crying and wishing a car would leap out of no where and just end it all and, damn it, I need some good drugs. Or a husband who understands that avoiding me by playing video games is NOT going to make my whacked out hormones go away.

So, what are the odds the Doc will agree to slice me open at 34 weeks?

The Sunshine State- In Pictures

As promised, here are the pictures from our visit to the Sunshine State.

First, we paid a visit to a local dairy farm.

Here Jeremy and Kyra are hand feeding a bottle to some baby cows.

Apparently, the cows enjoyed their lunch.

Next, Jer started taunting the cows. Or tried to kiss them, I'm not exactly certain which is actually going on here...

After the cows were fed we started on the corn maze. Even with a map, it took us 20 minutes to complete what I'm certain was 30 feet worth of trails. Kyra was extra cute and adorable during this part of the dairy experience thanks to the long strip of reed she used as a walking stick. Because you know just how well a dried up piece of long grass is going to help you.

A few days later we took Kyra to see the naked mermaid show! Okay, so really this statue was the only thing that was lacking clothes, but Kyra insisted on taking a picture with it while gushing "look at this beautiful dermaid, Mommy!"

Here Kyra and Jeremy are intently watching the bird show. Don't they look so sweet?

After the bird show, they posed for another photo op inside the clam shell. Jeremy told Kyra to act like she's afraid the clam is going to eat them. Some days I think I should only be too lucky...

We ended our trip at Granma's house. My most favorite place in the whole wide world. I keep trying to talk the old lady into leaving the land and her various number of critters to Jer and myself in her will. She refuses. Because I'm a spiteful person I posted a picture of her here. Not like it would do any good anyhow, she never reads my blog.

But I kid, I kid. Granma really is one of the most awesome people I know, even if she won't leave me in her will. My mom swears she didn't use to be so cool but often I beg to differ. As far as I know, this is the lady I hope to resemble in youthfulness and spirit when I grow old.

Think my mean ass has a chance in hell of aging this beautifully inside and out?

Ya, I have my doubts too!

Hey Ya'll!

We're back. Minus the divorce papers. Yea for us!

Trip went well. Pictures soon to come.

Thought that I'd let you know the weather man is a liar liar pants on fire kind of guy. He totally said this morning that the western half of our state would see snow flurries but we here on the coast would get a whole lot of nothing.

Liar.

I'd like to just say that as I was bringing the Babies back home from the kennel I totally had snow flurries sticking to my window. It was 12:31 this afternoon, to be exact. I noted the time because I was also noting the temperature at that very moment being 45 degrees.

Too warm for snow, isn't it?

But, apparently not for flurries. Because I saw them. Lasting just long enough to make my heart skip a beat as they were sticking to my windshield and then promptly melting.

Guess even here at the Mason Dixon Line I'll still be worrying about the possibility of snow.

Leaving on a Jet Plane....

HA! I wish.

We're leaving for another vacation tomorrow. In the car, not a plane.

Jeremy is already driving me absolutely insane. I'm not certain we're going to make it all the way to the Sunshine State without threatening to sign divorce papers. (lets face it, in 5 years of marriage we've only managed to make one trip together without our hands at each other's throat)

Mind you, I've done all the packing, double checking, making sure every thing is set and ready to go for tomorrow. And while he's helped, I would hardly say it was willingly. Unless you count loud gasps, sighs and mumbling as he walked away as excitement to help me get the show on the road.

When I told him I was almost finished with the packing, he proceeded to hop on the computer and play video games for the next two and a half hours. And when I jumped on (at 10:30 tonight) he informed me that I don't need to stay on the computer all night, I need to get some sleep.

Ahhh.....

Mind you, I have one last load of laundry to fold tonight, cords and chargers to find, gather and pack (cell phone, digital camera, etc.) and last minute toiletries to store away. Jer? He's gone to bed.

I really would rather not travel with him in tow. It's much easier to travel just Kyra and myself. Jeremy just throws an overweight monkey wrench into the picture and, frankly, you'd think a grown man would be able to help out just a little bit more with just a little less lip. One day I'm gonna surprise him with a plane ticket to our destination and inform him that Kyra and I will gladly make the drive. Alone.

Seriously, the toddler is more well behaved and helpful then the husband...

Good News/Bad news

The good new: Kyra's ice skating coach raved quite highly about what a natural she is on the ice. (tonight being her second class) The coach asked Jeremy how old she was, when Jer said she just turned three the coach was amazed- she thought Kyra was a "petite 5 year old!"

Apparently Kyra's listening skills and ease at picking up new techniques is well past the norm as her coach proclaimed she hasn't had a 3 year old with the abilities Kyra has shown. Oh, and she also wished she could scoop Kyra up as her own child prodigy.

I think my jaw just might have hit the floor. I mean, I knew Kyra was doing much better then most of the kids in her class, but I had no idea she was doing that well!

The bad news: Jer didn't get the really great, fantastic school with wonderfully set schedule and hours that his detailer said last. week. he was going to put the paperwork in for. Gah!

Apparently he "forgot" that he had already filled the position prior to the conversation he had with Jer last. week. Asshat.

So now we're weighing our options for a recruiting job down in what I like to call Hurricane Alley (the Louisiana/Alabama/Florida border) or another school with shitty rotating hours in the North Eastern part of the country. Both require a major decrease in pay, the school being $100 less per paycheck then the recruiting job, but the recruiting job requires yet another tremendous amount of paperwork that could take up to 8 weeks to get approved. Oh, and the job could very well be filled by the time it's all been submitted and approved. Any one up for a game of Russian Roulette?

Oh, and did I mention Jer and I had set a time limit that we wanted to be up and moved out of our tiny humble abode by February 1st- mere weeks after I give birth the little termite? So we're kinda stressing A LOT! about what our living situation is going to look like come the new year. (and when I say "we're stressing" what I really mean is "I'm stressing" because Jer doesn't stress over this kind of thing. He has a bed on the barge at work if he ever needs one. The children, dogs and myself? He'd just as soon send me to my Grandmother's house- which is a cool place and all- just not where I want to be post baby) I'd like to have all of this where are we going to live business secured BEFORE the baby is born, but when it comes to the Navy- nothing gets done in any kind of timely manner.

Have I ever mentioned to you that the Navy is run by a bunch of fuck ups who probably couldn't hack it in the real world? Lets face it, most of the branch is run by a bunch of men who, I'm very well assuming, stand around scratching their balls talking about the latest sports figures, video games, and/or dirty, slutty, whore they screwed last night instead of doing their actual jobs.

And Jer laughs at me for insisting they need more women in the military... At least the only thing we'd be doing is getting into petty cat fights with one another- but, hey, at least we'd get people to where they needed to be in a timely manner.

The Obligatory "How Cute Was Your Kid on Halloween" Photos

These pictures were actually taken several days before Halloween. She looked exactly the same, with the exception of a black turtle neck under her costume for warmth.

You see, Halloween night after she was primped, dressed and asked to take a pretty picture- she decided then that there was no chance in hell we were going to get her to stand still long enough to take a decent shot of her in costume. So this is what you get.

I present to you all- KYRA, THE SEA WITCH! (in a regular ol' witches costume, just don't try telling Kyra that)