so very thankful

Growing up I loved Thanksgiving because we would spend it with family that we would only see once or twice a year. We would travel hours to be with them and we have so many great memories. It has been hard for me as I've gotten older to not be sad about not having those memories anymore. This year...I've tried hard to focus on the here and now and make some new memories while mixing in some of the old. Last night I went to the movies with my parents, my older sister and my nephew. This was always a family tradition on Thanksgiving day to go to the movies with my Mom's side of the family. We saw The Blind Side which I highly recommend. It was an awesome movie.
Today we had dinner with my inlaws. While not with my side of my family it was a day filled with "my" family of Dan, Alex and I and that made it a good day. I started my day by burning 1000 calories at the gym which hopefully helped some in digesting the turkey in the early afternoon :)
I'm so very thankful for my son, Alex and husband, Dan. Oh and having the next four days off work is certainly something that I'm looking forward to!
Happy Thanksgiving!

Christmas Crafting...

Let the Christmas crafting begin :)

This weekend I was inspired by May Flaum's amazing creation for Scarlet Lime and just had to try it for myself.This little jingle bell flower was so much fun to create! And...bonus, it has inspired me to get my December album for 2008 complete before December 1st, 2009. You can see if you check out the sidebar slideshow that I didn't get very far last year. I WILL though have this done VERY soon!!

we will miss soccer!

Alex's team had one last practice this past Thursday night. They played in a church gym with a carpet court. It was a lot of fun. They ended the night with a pizza party.
Today was the last game :( and it was a gorgeous fall day! Above is a photo of Alex before the start of the game. He loves soccer and always has a smile! I love his enthusiasm for sports!! Here are Dan and Alex warming up...

And some shots of the game...





The Rockets won 5 - 0. Alex had two goals :) After the game we celebrated at the Macaroni Grill. I had the best lunch. Grilled Salmon with orzo pasta with tomato and spinnach...YUM!! We will miss Thursday night practices and Saturday morning games...now it's time for basketball!! :)

fall photos, halloween and soccer ... oh my!

This past week has been exhausting. Getting over the flu takes some time. Every day Alex came home from school and took a nap. We did get outside a little bit to enjoy the fall colors and take some photos...

Trick or Treat night for us was on Friday...and emotions were running high...Alex tried on his Optimus Prime costume and HATED it! And it didn't help that his cousin and his friend that he invited over, both couldn't come :( So after some tears...we came up with a football player costume and he was set...
We were off! We live in a development with a ton of kids so he almost immediately hooked up with some friends and had a good time...PHEW!!
And then on Saturday morning we were off to Alex's second to last soccer game...one of his friends had goodie bags for all the boys...what goofballs!! I've really enjoyed this soccer season! I'm sad that it is ending :(

today I went back to work...

after being off for a whole week...and no, it was not for vacation...my whole family had the flu and we were home in bed for a whole week!! It was no fun!! I'm SO HAPPY to be among the living again...even if it means going back to work...ha!
Yesterday we were so happy to enjoy some sunshine...even though we all weren't still feeling the greatest. We headed to a pumpkin farm and enjoyed the outdoors!! It was the only thing we could do without spreading the yuck on to others!







it was a fun family afternoon.

bad things happen in threes??

Oh goodness, I hope not!!

About two weeks ago my car was vandalized while it sat in my work parking lot. Someone unscrewed the lugnuts on one of my tires. It was pretty tramatizing...I drove it home, but the whole time it was shaking and not cooperating. I didn't want to stop along the road so I kept driving...turns out it was vandalized. I am lucky I was going slow and didn't try to go on the highway or my tire would have come off my car!

Then last night after being sick all weekend my oven caught fire. I was just heating up leftovers and Alex came in and said that something was flickering in the oven...at first I thought it was the oven light, but it was on fire. We had to call the fire department :( So embarassing! But, thank God no damage to anything, but the oven. It is the strangest thing too because it wasn't a spill fire...the heating coil caught fire.

In better news...Alex's team played their best game yet on Saturday! It was such a great game and Alex had such a great audience because Dan and I were both there, my parents, my nephew, Ethan and Dan's parents. Alex's team won 4 to 3! Alex scored two of the goals!! Go Rockets!! :)


And it was also picture day. I snapped these...

makes me happy...

this little spot of mine...is coming together! Yesterday I received in the mail the newest addition to the spot my new laptop mini...LOVE it! Love the green color...When I created this spot by bringing down my scrapbook desk from the upstairs my hope was to have my computer on the desk, but there is no cable hookup close enough...so this is my solution and I couldn't be happier with it. Ever since seeing Sex and the City and Julie and Julia where they write in the window with their laptops...I've wanted the same thing for my little alcove. A pretty little spot to create :) The paperweight was a gift from my Grandmother...when she gave it to me many years ago I thought it kind of a strange gift, but now it is priceless to me. I absolutely love it! The fossil tin is there just for it's color...it makes me happy! And the photos of my sisters also do the same along with a fun little create pillow that I bought off of etsy! A happy little spot just for me!!

Happy Sunday!