Chinese Turkey and Lots of Hockey Weekend

Thanksgiving: my favorite holiday of the year.

Thanksgiving in Alabama without my extended family, particularly if they are all together in Michigan without me: depressing.

But not so much this year, as I spontaneously decided to ward off my usual holiday blues and invite a couple of Chinese families from Tim's department to our house for a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner! One family asked if they could bring a turkey, as they already had it, but had never actually cooked one before. I'm particular about my Thanksgiving grub, so I was nervous. Guess what? Chinese people can cook turkey... I think they were surprised, too! :-) Libby and I did most of the rest of the cooking.

Kids' table (minus Jacob who is entertaining the guests in the corner of the room):

Libby was an amazing helper to me, cooking and cleaning! She even found a use for my Pumpkin Moon container.... plasticware dispenser! (Yes, I used plastic rather than wash dishes and I would do it again).

Early the day after Thanksgiving, we were off to Atlanta for Jacob's All-Stars hockey tournament. Five exciting, nail-biting games later, his team surprised and delighted us by becoming the CHAMPIONS of his age division!

Happy Car Riders:


Fun times at the hotel pool:


The family eating Chinese food (a theme?) at Discover Mills (mall). Jacob (intentionally) looking like a demon child from a horror movie!
Tim and Jacob in the Lego store:

Sarah and Jacob napping at the hotel after having to be at the rink at 5:50 a.m. Saturday:
Sarah was exhausted from plenty of waiting around:


Jacob was exhausted from plenty of this (he's number 46):

But it was all worth it to get this: (his face is directly to the right of the trophy)
Taking his turn holding the trophy:

Now it's back to reality.... laundry... grocery shopping... work and school tomorrow.....

Hey

Busy, busy, busy. I feel like lately I am running from one thing to the next, with little time for resting. And, I'm all about resting.... so this isn't how I like to live my life! :-) Right now my parents are in town and I am LOVING that! :-) But it's their fault I'm not blogging like I normally do.

Here are some updates from the past couple weeks:

Halloween:

Libby and her friend Alice were Mustard and Ketchup- so cute! Alice's mom bought the socks- I thought they were adorable!

Sarah was a "nerd"- and I never saw her completely dressed because she went with a friend, but these are the glasses she wore. (No offense to anyone who actually wears glasses like this....)

Jacob was the Incredible Hulk and I didn't get any pictures of him. You can probably imagine what he looked like. :-)

Soccer season is over... Sarah's team went to the regional tournaments and came in third. She was a star! Jacob's team didn't make it past the local tournament.... so I don't show favorites, he was a star, too, but he was like a white dwarf star or something... the kind that is small and not very bright. Ha ha. Just kidding. He says his soccer days are over and he just wants to focus on hockey. I concur.

Hockey is in full swing- Jacob is on a regular team, as well as a select team. The select team plays in like three tournaments, the first of which is over Thanksgiving break. That ought to be fun! He really loves hockey.

Libby is doing great in yearbook club and with piano lessons. She also seems to have inherited her mother's passion for pulling pranks. One night when her friend Sophie spent the night, they "forked" our neighbors' yard. I laughed at how they decided to line up the forks. I have so much to teach her!

One night I saw this beautiful sunset and stopped and took a picture!

I have more to blog about, but I'll save those things for future posts!

Nice Warm Quilt

My beautiful mother (who I posted about a couple weeks ago on her birthday) surprised me with a package in the mail today. Inside was this (made by her). It really couldn't have arrived at a better time: Me wrapped up and cozy (picture taken by Jacob, thus out of focus)....

Some of the blocks I like the most:



(Mom, did you know this one- below- is the same fabric I used in the wooden shelf thingy I found at the thrift store and painted a couple years ago?)

See?

And this last one is kind-of is silly, but I was sitting on the loveseat folding laundry (in the place I always sit to fold laundry) and I just love my "view" from there, especially today with the quilt on the chair... so I took a picture. The only thing you can't see is the red tree outside the kitchen window (because of the glare).

Thanks mommy! I LOVE it! You did such a great job!

Recent Gifts

Recently I bought this.... just because it made me smile. I don't even know what it is or what to do with it- but I like having it around.

Tulips in Autumn? The warm temperatures confused them a few years ago and now their confusion makes me shake my head and laugh every year....

When it gets chillier, I burn candles alot... and that always makes me warm and happy....

I look forward to Mums... and I wanted yellow, but Libby wanted these. Pink mums? Not so much. But when I see them I smile because I know my off-beat Libby picked them and I like them for reminding me of her way of viewing things....

Sarah

This post is all about SARAH. :-) I've been meaning to post about her soccer game last Saturday (a week ago). I was so proud of her! Her team won with a final score of 3-1. Here's the best part... Sarah scored all FOUR of those goals! :-) The other team didn't have enough girls show up, so each quarter we loaned them 3 of our players. Sarah played the third and fourth quarters for the other team and scored their only goal! Go Sarah!!



Later that evening, she started to feel kind-of tired and by Sunday afternoon was running a fever and spent the next four days at home like this.....

She missed the whole week of school - Monday-Wednesday being sick and then Thursday and Friday were our FALL BREAK. Poor thing. But, she's feeling much better now.



I also wanted to post this next interesting tidbit because I think Melissa will like it... Sarah has taken a liking to pickles and when we went grocery shopping on Friday, she put this gallon jar of pickles in the shopping cart! These jars were a staple in our house growing up because Melissa couldn't live without them. :-) So Sarah must have inherited the PICKLE GENE from her aunt Melissa.

P.S. Check out my Shelfari bookshelf. I really am in the middle of alot of books right now- which I am hoping to get on here and tell you all about as I finish them. I don't usually read so many at once... it just sort-of happened that way. And then today a friend gave me another book, "A Mercy" by Toni Morrison that I am really looking forward to starting... but I just can't until I finish up a couple others.

Luxury Beyond Compare - Part I

I just wanted to post a picture of the house we bought yesterday at the bargain price of $2,250,000. Just kidding. We couldn't even afford the monthly utilities on this place! But we did tour it and they even gave us a free hot dog and Coke just for coming! (Who doesn't love free food?) The information sheet we were given announced, "Welcome to the most luxurious home in North Alabama". I have to say, I was impressed. Something like 6 bedrooms, all with their own private full baths, a master suite with a huge loft, a kitchen with a butcher block "island" that was about the size of my whole kitchen, a "secret passageway" that looks like a bookcase when it's closed (the kids' favorite feature!), an elevator, a movie theater with recliner seating for 20.... a third floor with more big rooms with names like, "Yoga Room" and "Wine Tasting Room"... at 12,000 square feet, a family of five could live in this house and never see each other! (Hmmmm....).

It had some draw-backs. My biggest complaint was that if I had $2,250,000 to spend on a house, I wouldn't buy one wedged into a cul-de-sac where the "view" from the Master bedroom is of the neighbor's driveway. Tim wondered why there was no drain underneath the "shower" on the sun porch. And why there was a shower when there was no pool. (No pool?! A pool would have been nice-especially if it were an indoor heated pool).

I left with my Diet Pepsi in hand, thinking, "So now I've seen the best that North Alabama has to offer". Not bad. But I do have to take exception with the title on the information sheet... "Luxury Beyond Compare". I've been thinking alot about heaven lately, not because I plan to go there any time soon, but because everywhere I turn, God is reminding me that this world is not my home. It is a theme that probably started when I got Aaron Shust's new CD and one of my favorite songs on there became "Ever After"... here's the chorus,

"There's no such thing as Peter Pan

No such place as Never Never Land

I wish we all could have

Those tiny magic wings

But we live in a world with wars

It's not like it was before

We won't find our happy ever after here

There's no such thing"

I find profound and life-changing truth in this. On the surface, it may seem kind-of depressing, but take it from someone who KNOWS "depressing"... it's really the opposite. It is the only answer that makes any sense when we have tried all the world has to offer (and I have tried alot of it)... and yet, our longings are never quite satisfied. Even "the most luxurious home" didn't offer me all I could WANT in a house. And even when we do all the right things, bad things still happen, never mind the grief we experience when we inevitably do the wrong things. And even the best, most faithful christian people live every day in situations that are just hard.

I am still making my way through "Mere Christianity" and C.S. Lewis says it this way.... "If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world".

The house we toured was nice, but they are wrong that there is nothing to compare to its luxury. The many mansions in my Father's House are much more grand and leave nothing to be desired. He is all I need and all I could ever want and my soul will never be completely satisfied until I am with Him forever. I find alot of comfort in realizing that.

I have more to say on this subject.... stay tuned. :-)

My Mom

Yesterday, OCTOBER 5, was the birthday of my favorite mother of all times.... Bonnie Sue. If you mistakenly think that your mother is the best mother ever, you are... well... mistaken. I know this because mine is the best. And, there can only be one "best". (I'm sure your mother is as nice as she can be, though.)

Here is my mom in April in front of her parents' house:

And, as she is known to do, helping at my sister's house by folding laundry (wish she'd come down and fold some of mine)....

Peeling potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner....

And.... washing dishes when it was over.....
One thing my mom and I love to do together when we get the chance is.... puzzles. These are her hands on one of our recent accomplishments (along with my sister wishing you "peace")....

And speaking of hands, she has the softest hands ever. That's from using Vaseline Intensive Care handcream for years and years.

I love to spend time withher. She is a faithful Christian lady, very patient, very kind-hearted, but not afraid to tell you when you're being stupid. She used to collect post cards, she has recently started quilting (again), she knits, crochets, reads constantly, volunteers at church, loves her (ten) grandchildren, hates dogs, and is fun to be around. She has a great sense of humor and it is almost never that you will see her angry. She chooses contentment in most all situations. And I don't know of anyone who doesn't like her. Truly, her children rise up and call her blessed.

If I could be half of what she is... I would be very blessed.

I love you, mom!! Happy Birthday!