THANKSGIVING DAY PHOTOS

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Mom and I tried to take the easy road out this year and cut a few corners. One thing we did was use paper plates and plasticware. That way we did not have so many dishes to do. Last year they got me this cute little craft kit that you use to make name cards and some ribbon to tie up napkins. Here mom is working on one.Wes wanted to be the one to decide where everyone would sit.Here is how they looked. I did not get any pictures of the meal or all of us at the table. Mom has all of them on her camera and I forgot to load them to my computer. After the meal it was time for our BINGO game. We started this tradition about 4 years ago. We never had much to do after we ate and who wants to sit around watching TV on such a special day when your whole family is together. It is so funny how the room gets so quiet when I start calling numbers. They take this so serious! Here is Sara and Wes using some buttons she brought.Here are Melissa and Tyler focusing on their cards. This was the first year that they came over. Melissa is still having a hard time and wanted to do something very different for the holidays, so she was so happy when she heard about our bingo game.Ok, Austin is the strange one in the family. He wore a suit to dinner with a cat in the hat hat! He is really concentrating on his board.We had 15 prizes to give away. Some were real nice and some were funny. Sara helped me buy most of them this year. I really need to start preparing early on and pick up things all thru the year. Wes was sad to have won the light up reindeer ears. He actually ended up having fun with them and making people laugh.
Tyler won the cash!
Bridgette won some mugs and apple cider. She looks so happy all the time now that she is pregnant :)


Mom, Billy and Austin did not win but someone gave Billy a big box of gum balls and Wes gave mom a candle. How thoughtful they all were.

I love traditions and I grew up with many that I have passed on to my own kids. I think that this bingo idea has been a great hit. Everyone always looks forward to it. Just to hang out and have fun and have a little gift to take home too. Hope your day was fun too!

Sometimes it feels like this when I have to deal with those 'bad' customers at work.I am so tired I do not even feel up to typing. Maybe I will just rest here awhile and read all your blogs.
It is a friday night and most girls are probably out dancing or doing something fun.

I think I will just have a nice bubble bath and then..................
Just go to sleep.Oh, and I forgot to tell you........Aaron got his first speeding ticket already. Speeding in a school zone. Bad for him. 2 points and $80.oo. Hmmm, now how can I get him to work that money off?

KOOL-AID PIE

So I have been trying to come up with cheap food ideas. Feeding all these growing boys is tough on my budget. I dug out this old cook book that I bought years ago at a yard sale. It is called Dining with the pioneers. Hmm, sounds like cheap food to me. LOL!

So I am looking thru it and found something that really caught my eye. Kool-aid pie. Yes, kool-aid pie. Well, there was absouluty no way that I was going to pass this one by. It was just so funny to me that I just had to try it.
4 ingredients. 1 package of kool-aid, 1 large can of milk, 1 cup of sugar and 1 pie crust. Can't get any cheaper than that. Then you freeze it and cut it. I chose cherry kool-aid but will try this again with another flavor.
So my store did not have a "large" can of milk so I bought 2 cans. I figured I would just add a little extra sugar and an extra pack of kool-aid. Well.............I ended up having WAY to much mixture. And what do you do with the left overs...........................let Austin eat them right out of the bowl! The kids really liked the taste of this pie. It was a little to 'cherry' flavored for me probably because I used two packs. Maybe next time I will do it the right way. That is the chef in me- trying to do things without measurements.
I did find some other great recipies that are budget friendly. I will share more later.
PS now the kids are all doing the "oh yeah" kool-aid guy commercial.

OUCH!!!

Aaron went for some allergy testing today. They stuck many, many needles in his back and arms. Isn't that crazy looking. They actually had a hard time reading the results because he hived up every time they pricked him. They had to get a couple people to help read the results. Lately when he scratches himself, or someone scratches or hits him, he get hives. See below where he scratched his back? Strange.Well, good news for him- he had NO food allergies. We were really expecting him to have a wheat allergy due to his symptoms but he did not. First thing he did was go to Subway when he found out that he was negative for all foods. He did however test positive for EVERYTHING in the environment including our sweet cat! His allergen levels are very high right now which explains the hives. At least with a food allergy you can eliminate it, but your surroundings are not as easy to change. We hope that getting control of this will alleviate his migraines. He has had migraines since the age of 3. He has had several MRI's and we know that he has a cyst on his brain, but we were told that would not cause his migraines. Maybe now we have answer to that. Took long enough- huh?
Poor guy- looks like I could play connect the dots on him tonight!

SATURDAY PLANTING

It was a beautiful day here yesterday. I decided to get my hands a little dirty.
And plant all these bulbs that I got on clearance for $1.25. I can't wait to see the giant tulips, Mediterranean bells and the allium.

Happy Birthday to Kayla and Ashley. They would have been 18 years old today. Seems like yesterday when God took you home. I love you girls!

He's home

Sandy is home safe and sound. Check out this awesome plane he flew on. Pittsburgh Steelers! That is so cool.
He did bring me some special treat. My favorite PA chips- and yes that bag is almost empty.
And my very very favorite thing. Whoopie pies straight from the Amish country. They did get a little messy in the luggage but they tasted just WONDERFUL! Ok, there were 4 in that box!Sandy did bring me some very pretty Amish salt and pepper shakers and a really cool PA Amish country Tshirt. Sorry- no pics on them :( He did see these dolls in one of the shops that he would have loved to get me, but they were very expensive. He knows I am crazy about frogs and redheaded little girls. They are so, so adorable.


Look at her little shoes. Aww.....well maybe next year when he goes they will still be waiting on me.

OH, and see what is new on my desk at work. I made this mouse pad at Walgreens.com. Isn't it neat. They have some great gift ideas there if you are looking for a neat Christmas gift for someone.

Hope ya'll have a wonderful weekend.

Hmm. Where are we? The leaves are just beautiful, aren't they?
Do you remember that I told you my husband, Sandy got a great promotion at his work? Well, he got a nice little write up about it in his company's national news letter. It had a little guy climbing a ladder with his story. I couldn't take a picture of it because my camera phone would not capture it right. He was so excited when he saw it. His office manager did not even tell him it was in there. :( not very nice of her. Well, along with promotion comes new things. Very new things for us. Like travel! And......................Flying on airplanes. Ok, so this might not seem like much to you but.....Sandy has NEVER flown and I have NEVER flown. This is why I said it would be exciting but scary too. We were totally clueless when we got to the airport. I was so funny. We didn't know the first thing to do. The airport was so secure that I just had to say goodbye and leave. I didn't get any pictures or get to see the plane. I did get to look thru the glass and see them search him and his bag. Then up the escalator he went and I about started to cry. I was very happy for his new adventure but I was scared too. I got online and followed the whole flight. I kept my self busy until he called. I cleaned out my fridge. Looks empty huh? It is hard to keep cabinets full with all these boys!Then I started to get the things out for Thanksgiving dinner. Look at these cute pumpkin candle holders that I got at Biglots for half price.
I am not sure if I like that color of tablecloth. Might change that.

Oh and the drug store next to my work had everything 75% off way before Halloween even ended. I got these towels for 74 cents each. I also got two of those big scarecrow people that you put in your yard. They were $1.24 each.

So, Sandy made it to PA safe and sound. I am kinda jealous that he is in Lancaster without me. I grew up in that area and have a lot of family close by there. But I tried to stay busy here. Aaron had basketball practice and Billy and Wes were off with friends. I did lay around and watch movies, but it got way to quiet and boring. I am not one for all that quiet!
It will be really strange not having him here. I am sure I will be fine! LOL!
The picture of the leaves is from the airport. It was so beautiful out there. I REALLY really need to get a new camera. I could have gotten some great pictures.
Hope you all have a great week!!!

THERE IS A FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING

Something new, exciting and scary is happening tomorrow.........

MEET THE FLINTSTONES

Just wanted to share this photo of my friend and her husband and two kids. They dressed up like the Flintstones for Halloween. She made all the costumes. I am still not sure how she got hubby to participate. Aren't they cute?

Happy Halloween

I hope you all had a fun and happy Halloween. If you remember, last year I was very disappointed with the way our Halloween went. I helped my niece pass out candy at her new apartment. To many grown up kids with no costumes, begging for candy. To many kids saying they didn't like the candy we were giving out.....on and on. However, this year Austin and I decided to participate in the "Trunk or Treat" that was going on at church. I had never done this before so I thought it would be fun. We got some dollar tree decorations, loaded up our battery power and got a string of orange lights.

Here we were getting it all together.

Austin helped pass out the candy. There were some kids who did not dress up, but all in all the little kids were so cute. I was surprised that many of the parents dressed up with their kids. Look who stopped by....Shrek!
Here is our trunk after dark. Of course, I am still using my cell phone camera and it does not take night pictures at all! But, you get the idea.


Austin and I had a great time! I hope you all had a fun day too!