Oh this holiday, it’s just never quiet or calm no matter what my intentions are.

We spent some nice time with my family in Arkansas. Taryn and I cooked all day Thursday, and then I thought I gave myself food poisoning most of the night and into the next day. Some sort of slight bug, not enough to stop me from doing anything, but enough to make me not want to do all of the things.

No worries, though. We rested, we watched my sister and Bret’s brand shiny new smart tv with awe and a little fear. We traveled back today and just kind of hit the ground running. I had errands to do, Mark got the fire pit ready and loaded and we are headed to OKC to celebrate Pseudo Sis#1’s entry into the 40 and F-Off club. I’ve got chips and salsa out the wazoo, we’ve got food and booze and music and many a friendly face is expected.

I adore this girl. I totally hit the jackpot that day in the salon when she said in the shampoo room, “I think you and I need to be friends.”

Thank GOD she was smart enough to make that connection!

She and I have many similar personality traits, we’ve a low tolerance for bullshit and a high tolerance for cold beer and laughing. We love our families, and our friends and most of the time the line differentiating the two is a very blurry one.

We’ve seen some pretty amazing moments, births of nephews, new jobs, travels and adventures. (She jumped out of a perfectly good plane one time.) We have sought solace with each other during the darker moments, propping each other up when the other lacked the life. We have this ability to just be the most honest, the most bare bones truthful with each other…it’s the most valuable and freeing thing in a friend. In a sister.

I love that she’s 40. She may not love it. She has yet again reinvented herself, made some choices and never looked back. I stand in amazement. I’m excited that she’s 40. Because she has embraced this newfound fierceness, she’s got this life by the balls ya’ll, and she’s doing this pretty awesome cowgirl lasso over the head move with it and I just cannot wait to see where she leads us.

Because, she is a leader. Always has been.

And you can bet your boots I’ll follow her wherever she goes.

So this is how I end my 30 posts in 30 days. With a toast.

I raise a glass Michelle Wynn, to you.

I cannot wait to see what this year brings!

CHEERS!

 

Sister and I loaded up this morning and headed out to see if there were any deals left from the masses last night.

We have four foster children’s wish list that we were shopping for. There is a 75 dollar limit so ideally getting some of those über discounted items would allow for us to get things they want and things they they need. A bike for the four year old boy who also wanted a Thomas train set. An art set And an easel and a craft set. A CD player alarm clock and the makeup mirror. Everyone got a winter coat and gloves and some pj’s too. And we didn’t go over our limit.

I’m thankful today that we didn’t have to choose between wishes, that we could make all of them come true and them some.

I like this crazy shopping day. I know four kiddos who will like it in about three weeks.

When Hayden aka WonderBoy was little he said Ganks instead of Thanks. My sister and I have kept that. We use it with each other, and with other people. I figure those that don’t know just assumes it’s an autocorrectfail when I text them Ganks!

We got into Taryn’s house last night and had some dinner, and began to prep the food. I made MeMe’s Cherry Coke Salad, and the brine and put the bird to bathe for the night. Taryn did cornbread for the dressing. Mark fell asleep on the couch and we all called it a night.

We got to see Mom and Burl for dinner, they will go to Oklahoma to see Burl’s side of the family for the day then return tomorrow. We will leave Saturday morning, and head back so that we can prep and enjoy PseudoSis’ birthday party! It’s a busy awesome weekend surrounded by family and friends.

Taryn and I will partake in our usual tradition and do some shopping, we both have wish lists for foster kids that we’re going to fill and by taking advantage of the discounts for Black Friday tonight and tomorrow we can probably get EVERYTHING on the list!

So I don’t care for everyone getting all ass up in the air about the shopping thing. I wish it was still on Friday, too but it’s not. Stores that are never ever ever closed on Thanksgiving are…what? OPEN on Thanksgiving? Pffft.

I’m looking forward to having my Sister Tradition and eating delicious bird and spending non-rushed time with my family. We may get a movie in there too!

I give Ganks for this time.

This holiday, more than most, reminds me of Dion and Elizabeth and how much I miss them in my daily lives. We did Thanksgiving sooooo right many moons ago. I carry that in my heart every year. So much fun we had. So so much.

I give Ganks for those memories and for them.

I love reading the Facebook posts of everyone and their celebrations. Whether you choose to spend this in a BIG way or in a really low key way, I hope that you’re doing exactly what you want with exactly who you want.

I give Ganks for you.

It’s time to treat the bird! and the Parade! THE PARADE!

We made it to my sisters house and are in the throes of food prep. She is making the cornbread for the dressing. I’m doing the cherry coke salad and the turkey and brine. All is well with my soul. I hope your evening is just as perfect.

 

After some inquiries, and with a bit of time on my hands in front of a computer, I’m adding the recipe for MeMe’s Cherry Coke Salad.

1 large box (or two small) cherry jello.

1 can crushed pineapple

1 can dark cherries (NOT PIE FILLING)

1 12 oz can coke

1 cup (give or take) chopped pecans save some for garnish.

1 package Dream Whip Original

1 block creme cheese

 

Drain pineapple and cherry juice into pan,add the can of coke, add enough water to make 4 cups liquid. Bring to a boil, add jello to dissolve. Pour into pan, add nuts, pineapple and cherries and stir. Refrigerate until set.

Prepare Dream Whip as package directs. Add 1 block creme cheese. Top jello with this then garnish with left over crushed pecans.

BOOM.

Now you have just been transported to every childhood Christmas and Thanksgiving I ever had.

 

Mark woke up this morning stuttering like a fool and exclaiming that he’d been incepted.

This is just part of the ridiculous that happens in this house on a daily basis.

I coughed all night long (thanksobama) and finally woke up enough to take come cold medicine, then proceeded to have the craziest of dreams.

I dreamed that I was in some sort of performing gig, maybe a pageant type thing? Maybe a play or a music thing, or maybe it was Maggie’s wedding again. I don’t quite remember. What I do know is that I kept coughing. I was pegged to open the show with some songs, and decided I wanted Mark to sing our song with me for the last number. I kept coughing and proceeded to pee my dress. Just all down my damned dress. At this point, I was told to just get into my performance dress and roll with it! YAY! for two reasons YAY! This performance dress was my Jr prom dress. So that meant I was SKIN-NEEEEEE. and YAY for not having to go onstage with a pee soaked dress.

I was trying to find Mark to explain the whole thing when I woke up to him talking in his sleep and chomping his teeth.

maybe we were both incepted.

Happy Tuesday ya’ll!

I’m so out of it with this crazy cold…I ran about 99.9 fever all day long…I don’t feel bad, yet I feel bad. Make sense? Ugh. I slept most all of yesterday, and while I was so sad to miss the Red Molly concert at the Depot, I was asleep by 7:45 and only woke up once or twice.

I started my day with a volunteer meeting at 10am in Newcastle listening to some horrid stories about a mother in a troop. Horrid. Lord people just can make impossibly horrible choices, can’t they? Ugh. Then I spent the day answering emails, coordinating a winter camp partnership with the YMCA, and it occurred to me that every time I blinked my eyeballs felt cool to my eyelids. That’s some fever bullshit, my friends. So I came home and ate some soup and sat for awhile before I had to leave again.  I just got home from a CST meeting in Moore. I really do love those volunteers. There are a few salty pieces of that group but they hardly ever show up anymore. I have some plans to help develop this volunteer base, but like all things, it takes time and strategy.

All of that to say, I almost forgot to post today.

That would’ve really pissed me off.

Now I’m going to drink some juice, take some meds and go lay down. Same song, different verse.

We are looking at cameras.

Actually, we’re both on the couch, Stormy is snuggled between us, both have our laptops and we’re checking out deals on cameras. Mark is looking up the specs and I’m checking out deals on the line. We’re looking at a Nikon 3200 and a Cannon something or other. We want some lenses too.

Who out there has one that they love? Who out there has one that they think sucks? I’m interested in your thoughts.

I woke up from dreams where I had strep throat this morning to a throat that feels like barbed wire and a voice that sounds like a drag queen on a four show night. I feel semi-ok. Just tired. I’ll snooze this morning, listening to the sleet pour down, waiting on the snow. Crazy MeMe has 9 inches of snow down in her neck of the woods. DANG!

I’m going to bake cookies today. Sometime. When I can get off the couch. Or when I can wake up. Or when we decide on a camera…

 

I feel less than creative in terms of writing this morning.

I can’t even think of a title for the post.

But we’re over halfway into NaBloPoMo and I’m not quitting, so here we are.

I could tell you about last night, our house was warm and cozy, full of smells and friends. Food and drink apleanty, ending with music and song and it was soul filling. I took this picture with my iphone and once again am reminded about how I wish I had a real camera.

 

We had spiked cider and hot music and the ice outside didn’t stand a chance.

I wish you could all have been here.

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I could write about the bloody nose and cat vomit experience that began my day at 7am. But I don’t think we need more than that, do you?

I could tell you that I really really really want this print for my office. 

We could talk about our Thanksgiving menu that Taryn and I texted each other about this morning, deciding what we were cooking, who was bringing what.

I’m making a cherry pie for my dad and some cranberry salsa/creme cheese delicious thing and bringing the stuff for the turkey brine. I’m making Marks favorite oatmeal raisin cookies (blergh) this weekend. I’ll probably make some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies too.

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I could tell you that today will consist of getting a new phone (for me) maybe new hiking boots (my birthday present from Mark) and stopping at the grocery for the cookie supplies. Maybe you should know we’re talking about seeing a movie. I really want to see About Time, have any of you seen it?

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All of this is kind of boring and doesn’t seem blog post worthy.

Except that this is what my life looks like these days. It’s really nice to have time to be boring. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need another cup of hot tea. There’s a game on tv, two cats sleeping on the couch beside me and I’ve got a book to finish. (I restarted the Outlander book…and the next one in the series was pushed back to June for release so I could totally re-read the whole series before that one comes out.)

happy boring Saturday to you!

 

So my whatever that is, cold/sinus/bullshit headache thing that I was fighting at the beginning of the week came back this morning with a vengeance. Bloody nose, ear ache, sneezy all of it. I stopped today and got some real Sudafed and am doing the neti pot and feeling better, but damn. Enough with this already!

It’s freezing here. Literally. The winter weather has moved into our area with crazy cold temps, freezing rain right now. I’m finishing my day working and answering emails from home sipping hot tea and planning on how I can recruit more Daisy/Brownies using our new partnership with Barbie. I know. What a job, right?

I’ve got to get the house clean/picked up as we are having our friends over tonight for food and fellowship. I’ve got a big pot of vegetable beef stew simmering on the stove, we’ll have spiced spiked cider and everyone is bringing their instruments for some singing afterwards. It’s just the kind of thing we need to keep us all cosy and warm and grateful on this pre-Thanksgiving weekend.

I usually cook by intuition. I rarely use a recipe to the T, or sometimes I combine two or three that I like. I pulled out my favorite cookbook and turned to Beef Stew and was surprised at how my recipe is really close to theirs. I did tweak a bit and take a few from theirs. It smells delicious. We’ll pair it with some delicious cornbread and a dessert and grownup drinks and it will be a grand night. I may even make a cranberry dish to go alongside it. The old geezer fella at my office told me he loves cranberry jelly with his beef stew. What’s not to love, I ask? I do have a giant bag of cranberries in my freezer. We’ll see how far along that goes.

What do you love to make/do on cold days like this? Do you have a go-to recipe? Activity? I’d love to know what it is…I’ve a feeling that this is only the first of a pretty cold winter ahead of us.

One week from today we’ll be gathering with our chosen people, or we’ll be hibernating and sleeping in, some will be watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, lots of us will be watching the dog show. (Some will be passiveaggressively posting against dog shows on social media) We will be inundated with Thanks and Giving and shopping or anti shopping or movie watching or staying inside your house protesting ANY open businesses…whatever you tend to do with your Thanksgiving holidays, it’s here in a week.

That to me is nuts.

The time it’s a flying.

I’m taking a moment here, to reflect on the past year. Last Thanksgiving was fast and furious and I was meeting Mark’s family for the VERY FIRST TIME and I was knee deep in grad school homework and papers and I stayed at this house for consecutive days for the first time (I put stuff in the shower, yall!) and it was all so freaky and new and exciting and scary and I really really really missed my family.

I’m thinking about how it’s all changed, about how it’s been kind of a shitshow at times, but it’s been our show so we feel good about surviving it. I’m thinking about all the lessons I’ve learned, especially in my career and how I want to use those lessons and where I want them to move me in the future.

I’m thinking about all of you, and the changes that have come about in your lives. About the faces I crave to see, that have gone way past our due date. *ahem. Becky. Scott. SERIOUSLY. In the midst of this I sat on the couch and listened to Mark play along on his guitar to a commercial, I made plans for a trip to NYC in June with my crazy Whores to see NPH in Hedwig, and I’m prepping for the ribbon cutting ceremony at my office today. The Norman Chamber of Commerce is coming, several people will be there, it’s kind of a thing. I feel proud of that. I’m happy that I’ve said yes to all of these choices and that I’ve lept when faced with uncertainty and that I have landed (mostly) on my feet.

When I was at Council last week I checked my mailbox. Someone had put a copy of a paper in there that held this poem. It makes me so happy I’ve put it in my office so that I can read it daily. I thought that today, you ought to read it too.

Yes. You.

yes.