What a great weekend.......ahhhhhhhhh.........

Tom and I thoroughly enjoyed our first four day weekend in Alabama! Although we were both sad that we were unable to come home and see our families for the holiday. And technicially it wasn't a full four day weekend as Tom was in lab for 3/4 days (not full days thankfully, more like just an hour or 2, but still).

Today was spent thinking of things to make with leftover turkey, running errands, and relaxing. We (I) ended up making chunky turkey noodle soup. Yum. We have a ton leftover if anyone wants some! Yesterday was spent watching football.

Friday I got up at 4:20 AM to go stand in line at Walmart! Overall, I made out like a bandit on Black Friday. I was able to get just about everything on the list. And standing in line at Walmart was quite entertaining. The woman behind me was talking to another woman about how bad her life has been the past 5 years.......

"I was in the hospital, and they told me I was supposed to die! I ain't dead, here I am! Boy were they wrong! Then, my one son decide he goin' to Iraq. Then my other son decide he goin' to prison cuz he done shoot his girlfriend!" Don't laugh Anne, don't even crack a smile, people are watching you.

Man, that was fun. But I was happy because they had what I wanted by the time I got to the front of the line (an 8 GB mp3 player which cost $100 less than the ipod equivalent). I also got some tupperware (wooo, how exciting!!). Then it was off to Staples for some memory cards and jump drives. Stood in line for an hour (boooooooooooo) but got everything I wanted (yay!). After Staples I went to Verizon to get my new phone, the LG Voyager, because it was super on sale. I've had my eye on it for about 8 months now just waiting for the price to drop, and then I pounced ;) Then it was off to the mall. Ugh. Sooo crowded at 8:30 in the morning. I had been wanting a bigger purse and Tom needs a few new dress shirts so I hit up the department stores to see what I could find. Done and done. Got out of there as fast as I could. Then I swung by World Market to pick up some Electric Reindeer wine (I like the name, and it was super cheap)! After that it was football, football, and more football :) Except for when we took a time out to go get Tom's new phone (LG Venus), in black, of course, not pink.

Also, if anyone wants some leftover pumpkin gingerbread trifle, please stop by! That thing was huge and despite Tom and my best efforts, we are unable to conquer it!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!! Tom and I did, that's for sure. We stuffed ourselves silly. We had a big breakfast, and thank goodness because our turkey was still frozen after 65 hours in the fridge so it took a little while longer to cook than I had anticipated! Good thing it was just me and Tom! For breakfast we finally cooked the scrapple that Pappy gave to Tom when we were home in September. After breakfast I went on my second annual walk with Bentley around the neighborhood :) It was so nice outside!! Bentley took some naps after our walk....each time with a different toy.


While I was busy cooking dinner, Tom set up an obstacle course for the chins in their "playroom" aka our second bathroom.


FINALLY it was time to eat!! We had Turkey with Herbes de Provence and Citrus, baked oyster casserole, stuffing, mashed potatoes (in a bag! I cheated!!), broccoli and cauliflower in cheese sauce, and turkey gravy.

And then there was dessert: Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle!

Beer of the Month and a Free Turkey.....

...all in one day! Remember how I said Tom was in our friends Anne & Brian's wedding last month? Well, his groomsmen gift was a pretty nice mug and a fantastic array of beers which arrived today. On the way home from work we got to stop and pick up our free turkey from Brookwood, compliments of "The Pig." We are so excited for Thanksgiving!!!

Updates!

Top 10 Style....sort of......

1. I have been ridiculously busy at work this past week so I apologize for no blog updates!

2. Last Sunday I made homemade pumpkin pie. I used a premade graham cracker crust becuase I like those crusts better than home made dough ones. It was freaking awesome!


3. We finally were able to pick up 2 of our packages that had been waiting for us in The Oaks office. Tom's sister Lisa sent us this awesome Phillies T-shirt after the World Series win!! Thanks Lisa!! Tom's sister Jackie sent us a Thanksgiving pakage filled with lots of sweets! I ate the Butterfinger as soon as we opened it! Weird, because I probably haven't had a Butterfinger in about 3 years! Thanks Jackie!



4. Thursday night we dog-sat for Stacy, but not with Casper, with Bentley, who she was dog sitting for Anne & Brian. We had fun hanging out with our pal Bentley. She was a very good girl and we're looking forward to having her over for the Thanksgiving holiday!

5. I didn't have to work this weekend! Yay :) Tom and I have been enjoying a weekend of sleeping in, football, and yummy snacks.

6. Penn State killed Michigan State today! Woooooo!! It looked like it was FREEZING there, with the snow and all. We were all toasty in our warm Alabama apartment!

7. While watching the Penn State game, it reminded me of my time at Penn State. How after a cold game such as the one today we would head back to the dorm/apartment, take a brief nap, head out to a party, and then come home and eat Gumby's or DP Dough*. That got me craving Gumby's famous Pokey stix, so I tried my hand at making my own! Not too bad! I thought they were missing something but Tom said they tasted just like Gumby's.
*Sidenote: My google search for D.P. Dough's website led me to this site! DP Dough is opening up in Philly this winter! No fair!!!!!


8. Monday we get to go pick up our FREE TURKEY!! My second job gives out free turkeys (13 pounders!) to all of their employees! Yay job perk :)

9. It's COLD in Alabama! The low was 25 degrees last night! No snow though. Oh well, a girl can dream.

10. It's ALMOST Thanksgiving! Tom and I both have off on Thursday AND Friday (and Saturday and Sunday!) This will be the first 4 day weekend we've had since we've been married! (Clarification: First 4 day weekend that we haven't been traveling!!)

Chinny Update

Sorry folks. I don't have ANY time to blog these days, let alone come up with something funny and/or exciting to blog about! Here's the latest pic of the little guys trying to escape. Lately they've really enjoyed it when Tom plays the guitar. I'll post a video of Tom's fan club soon........

Black Friday Excitement

We are still several weeks out and I’m already getting excited about Black Friday. Probably for about 10 years now, I’ve gotten up between 4 and 5 am the day after Thanksgiving to get some good deals. I usually don’t go shopping just to “go shopping” on Black Friday. Nine times out of ten I’m on a mission to get a particular item. I think bargain shopping is just in my blood. Last year I was very responsible and only purchased a microwave (because ours had just died). I’m a little too impatient/anxious to go wait in line for the big ticket items though, like flat screen tv’s or computers or the Wii.

This year the shopping list consists of a 2-4 GB memory card for my camera, a 4-8 GB USB drive for Tom, some sort of mp3 player (since my ipod died….I’m a little reluctant to buy another ipod since it didn’t even last 2 years), and perhaps some RAM or an extra external hard drive for storage. Of course all of this will depend on the flyers and the sales.

Obviously, I’m too impatient and Type A to wait until Thanksgiving to plan all of this, so thankfully there are websites like this one I can go to and get a sneak-peek of upcoming sales.

Here are some purchases of years past that I am proud of:
Shredder: Free
DVD recorder/burner: $25
Scanner: $10
Web cam: $5
Blank CD’s & DVD’s: Free
1 GB memory card: $5 (Back when 1GB was a lot!)
Cute dressy black purse: Free
DVD player: $20 (or maybe it was $10?? I don’t remember)
Baby crock pot and mini-food processor: $5 each
250 GB external hard drive: $40

I’m sure there are others but this is all I can think of off the top of my head. I’m realizing that I may need counseling considering I can remember the prices of all of these things! Happy Shopping! :)

New Book!

I'm so excited! One of my favorite authors, Wally Lamb, has a new book coming out today! It's called "The Hour I first Believed." He's also written "She's Come Undone" and "I Know This Much is True." Both excellent books. I really can't wait to read all 752 pages of his new one! And if you know me at all, you know I am a tad impatient/ADD so for me to even start a book that's over, say 200 pages, it has to be really good. I really hope the library carries this book. I probably have to get my name on some kind of wait list. I guess I should look into that!

Ugh :(

I'm so sad. How could we lose to Iowa? (No offense Kelly). We played like crap. Tom and I took a big step today and agreed to go watch the game at our friend Stacy's house (who is an Alabama fan) with our friend Kelly (who is an Iowa fan) and with other friends, a few who are PSU fans and a few who are neutral. We had to really monitor ourselves because we couldn't throw anything or scream obscenities. Okay, so maybe we did the latter. WHATEVER. I guess it's better to lose now and hopefully win out and go to the Rose Bowl than go to the National Championship and have to sit back and listen to people talk about how we don't deserve to be there for a month and a half and then get blown out by some SEC or Big 12 team. *sigh*


This picture was taken pre-kickoff. I wanted to document the day but knew if we lost I wouldn't be in a picture taking mood. I was right.

Happy Fall Y'all!

Haha. This is our neighbor's doormat. I love it! Only in the south!! Someday soon I'll post a bunch of pictures of "All things Southern" A collection of random Southern things that we see in our daily lives!

What an election!

What an exciting election! I love when it is so close like that, it makes me feel like my vote actually does count! Obviously I'm happy with the results. There are some things I've found out/realized in the past couple of days that deeply sadden me, but I won't go into detail as to not offend anyone. I wasn't even going to post a blog about the election so I didn't "step on any toes" but then I thought, Hey, it's my blog, and I'm happy with Obama being president :) Regardless of the outcome, I would have blogged either way. AND I didn't even get my free Starbucks coffee!! (Or free krispy kreme donut, or free ben & jerry's scoop of ice cream, or free chick filA). We went to vote at 7 AM but the line was so long I never would have made it through to vote, then go to get my Starbucks, then to work on time for my 8 AM meeting. So we went after work to vote, but the great news was there was absolutely no line! I think we just beat the after work rush. Yay :)

WELLLL........

Our trip home was about as good as it could be considering the circumstances. It was really sad, but the services were really nice and it was really great to see everyone. We flew out of Birmingham at 6:30 Friday morning and arrived in Harrisburg Friday afternoon. The viewing was Friday evening and after that we went to Vic's Pub for some food (our first official meal of the day!), drinks, and good company.

Saturday turned out to be a gorgeous fall day. After the funeral we all went over to my uncle's house to hang out and reminisce. Entertainment was mostly provided by Blake:

And some by my brother. Taking a shot of Chinese Liquor that Andrew brought back from China. With moral support from Jamie.

I hung out with little Lily. So sweet. She's almost 8 weeks old. She was so good the whole time!

In honor of Pappy's favorite whiskey, we all did a shot of Old Overholt. How he drank that stuff, I'll never know ;)

Later we got a picture with all the grandkids and the great-grandkiddos.

Blake was really liking hanging out with Jenni on the comfy chair. He told me that I was his friend :)

Like I said, aside from the main reason we were home, it was a pretty good trip. It was so great to see family and friends, it's just unfortunate it had to be because Pappy passed away. Oh, and I got part of the snake story wrong earlier. Apparently he was by the creek (some many years ago), and he saw this big snake and it made this noise and opened it's mouth and then all of these little baby snakes all of the sudden came and jumped in it's mouth. I guess he saw it do that a couple of times and then decided to cut the snake open and see if the little snakes were in there. They were. So, when we were at home in September, he was telling this story to Tom and he was like "Yeah, I couldn't believe it. Those damn buggers were all inside that snake!" So I said, "Pappy, what did you do with the little snakes?" and he said "Well I killed 'em!" Of course.