Outside My Window

Here's the view from our office window today . . . a dude hanging from a scaffold from our 50 story building (in the 30 degree weather) washing our windows. WHAT? He's nutz! We are on the 22nd Floor of the 50 story building so he's nearly half-way up the side of our building, blowing in the breeze on this tiny structure cleaning the windows. NO WAY MAN!!! You can see the Atlanta/Midtown skyline behind him (the building Daddy used to work in is directly behind him on the left - it's the tiny striped building - the big tall "Bat-Man" looking building is the new King & Spalding building - it's the same height as ours). Would you do this? There's not enough money in the world!!

My Son The Chef

These photos are great because I took them with my blackberry however, the pie was fantastic. Zachary made this apple pie (his specialty) again this year for one of the family meals we had over the Thanksgiving Break. He does the entire thing himself (including the crust - from a box) but isn't it lovely? He peeled the apples, mixed the ingredients and did the egg wash on the crust to make it shine - delicious - maybe he'll own a restaurant someday?

Tree Triming in The Rain

This weekend it rained so hard that we decided to stay in doors all weekend (except for the brief hour we went to Home Depot to get our lovely Christmas Tree during the GA vs. GA Tech Game). We were getting stomped so bad that we decided to get the tree and miss part of the game with no problem. We let the tree sleep in the garage in the tree stand overnight to "drip dry" because it was too wet to bring in doors. On Sunday, we decorated it since it was then safe to not electrocute Doug as he put the lights on. We laughed about the Grizwald Movie where the cat chomps down into the string of lights underneath the recliner and he blows himself up. The next day they look under the recliner and there's a huge black burnt cat mark under the chair - Muuuuuaahahahahah - how funny is THAT? Zachary has never seen the movie - I think this Holiday Season, it's worthy of a Blockbuster rental - don't you?

Fast Abbey Grace

Clearly, I have nothing better to do than to play with Doug's new camera so I put it on "action shot" the other night and got these cool pics of Abbey Grace (shirtless no less before bath time) dancing around in the bedroom, juggling her socks in the air. She's that blurry thing with the pink bow in her hair!

Gobble Gobble . . . .

Thanksgiving Weekend was really fun. I planned to stay on my Weight Watchers plan all weekend and for the most part, I did pretty good but certainly didn't eat within the plan on Thanksgiving Day! I think I drank my points on Wednesday and certainly ate them Thursday in Turkey Skin alone (that's my favorite part to snitch). Doug fried a turkey at our house and made a pumpkin cheesecake. I made sweet potato casserole. We took everything to Mom and Dad's where everyone ate. It was a great day - the weather was beautiful! We are very thankful for everything we have - we are very blessed!

Doug in the driveway frying our turkey.

Fried Turkey being lowered into the pot of hot grease - yum!

Slowly it goes into the hot oil. Our turkey was 18 pounds - Doug was scared it wasn't going to fit into the pot. According to Paula Deen, you are only suppose to fry a 14 pound turkey or less (clearly I didn't know this rule when I purchased the bird).

It turned out just beautiful though!

Doug and Daddy carving the birds. Mom roasted a turkey too so we could have traditional stuffing cooked inside the bird. We had 2 turkeys and 1 ham. No one was hungry!

Two turkeys! (and I don't mean Daddy and Doug)

Granny waiting on a snitch of bird.

Uncle Archie and Aunt Selma patiently waiting for the dinner bell.

Zachary gets a snitch of skin too!

Noah comes in from playing outside with the kids.

Each of the 4 grandchildren got to read a special prayer from written scripture as our blessing prior to eating dinner. We also toasted with Mead brought back from Ireland by Honey and Pops. Mead is made from Honey.

Noah and Abbey Grace reciting their portion of the blessing.

Olivia reciting her portion of the blessing.

Finally, Zachary reciting his part, the final part, of the blessing.

The, we all raised our glasses and Daddy explained the history of the Meade as "Meade became very popular at weddings and often, the bride and groom were given special Meade goblets from which to toast each other, as well as enough Meade to last a month - which is where we get the word honeymoon. Often, a bridegroom, laced with copious amounts of Meade was carried to the bedside of his bride after the wedding feast. According to custom, Meade has powers of virility and fertility - thus, if a baby was born nine months after the wedding, it was often attributed to the honey wine (i.e., Meade). Today, it is still the tradition to signal the end of the wedding feast by raising glasses of Meade to toast the newlyweds."

Noah and Abbey Grace eating.

My wonderful Husband-to-Be . . . fast asleep after a long haul home from Alaska (and a full belly of turkey)!

Granny quickly getting some dishes ready.

The boys.

Putting away left overs.

Come Home To Me Darlin'

You might look at these photos and say "Buuuuurrrrrrr." I say . . . hurry home Doug - I miss you! For the past 10 days, Doug has been here . . . on the Pipeline, in Alaska. It's a place called Deadhorse, Alaska in the Alpine area. The oil facility is owned by Conoco Phillips where he is doing a job. Doug is an engineer with Honeywell and helped design the fire alarm system which has been installed at this oil facility. In order to test and "get online" the new systems, Doug is required to be tested here and then be present for installation and testing of the system there.

After Thanksgiving, he will return for an additional 12 days to provide additional tech support for the system. His job is to design the panel boxes for these systems - it's pretty complicated but he's really smart and I'm very proud of him (specifically because he sent me photos of his dorm room at this place and it looks to be pretty harsh conditions - it's certainly no Marriott). He should be leaving there today and be home tomorrow by 3:30 (an entire 20 something hours of travel). I'll bet he'll want some WILD TURKEY for Thanksgiving?

Days of Our Lives TRAGEDY !!!

Days of Our Lives is DOOMED!

I just read on Yahoo that the beloved, long time soap stars John and Marlena got FIRED due to budget cuts. WHAT? The economy is so bad that they got rid of them? Couldn't they fire some of the ridiculous teeny boppers on there - the ones we don't know of . . . the ones that we make fun of whose wardrobe is extravagant - how about getting rid of Grandma Horton - she can't remember her lines anymore anyway - what about Stephano - he's been reincarnated 100 times! Get rid of some children and then bring them back from the dead - yeah, do that! John and Marlena though? The travesty! Days will never be the same! I used to plan my college classes around the show . . . perhaps this is why I never graduated?