Thanksgiving

I know a lot of people out there in blog land are probably talking a lot about things they are thankful for. I haven't done any of that yet, so I thought I would share one thing I am very thankful for with you today.

Mashed Potatoes made by my mother-in-law.

This woman can flat make some mashed potatoes! I would be embarassed to tell you how many helpings I had today (2). I know I should be talking about how thankful I am for family and friends and nice home and a wonderful healthly delightful daughter... and I AM thankful for all those things. It's just that today, at about 2 o clock in the afternoon, I was particularly thankful that my mother-in-law made mashed potatoes and that I was there to eat more helpings than I will tell you (ok- really I had 3 helpings).

Just a few thoughts to wrap up the day

People - I succumbed to the hype and bought the Twilight book. Yep, I sure did. If you do not know what Twilight is- well that is because you do not have a facebook account and spend way too much time on the flair page, or it is because you do not visit your local mall and see teen stores displaying all the pretty t-shirts sporting images of very serious looking, trying very hard to look sexy, teenage vampires. I did not know what Twilight was until I got my facebook account and became addicted to flair. (see previous post- I would link it for you but I am lazy). Flair on facebook is 79.8% about Twilight. So, the book. I figured I would go ahead and check it out cause I am always in search of a good book. I did not in anyway anticipate it taking the place of Harry Potter cause that is ridiculous. There was no reason to worry. I won't go into too much detail because the obsession with this book (and as of yesterday, movie) has reached such proportions that I would actually be afraid someone would track me down and try to suck all my blood out for saying anything bad about Twilight. So all I will say is "eh". It did however, renew my interest in vampires. My brother so very nicely pointed me towards some books that I might find more interesting. Brad's favorite monster is the vampire. Favorite monsters is a fun discussion to have btw- you might try it sometime.

Christmas trees. I am very indecisive this year on how to decorate. I don't know why I am so reluctant to commit to a Christmas decorating theme. Maybe I have commitment issues that are unexplored? I have always gone with white lights, and these very cute ivory colored ornaments my mom made me. They are covered with glass glitter however, and since little hands are old enough and tall enough to touch this year, I think I will forego the glass that will slice your fingers right open. (wouldn't want to chance a vampire smelling blood and coming after me now would I?) So, I am trying to decide between going with a tree with all the colors on it this year or sticking with white ornaments (this is where I would go if I didn't have a child to consider) or picking one color and going with white, silver and whatever color I picked. Why am I agonizing over this? Do I really think Anna will look back later in life and have to go to therapy because I didn't have a fully colored tree when she was 2? Geez, I think I need to go to therapy. I did make a decision for about 4 seconds today to go with all the colors but then I found exactly 2 ornaments in a whole store that I liked even a little. So now I am back to "I don't know what to do". I am gonna take someone like my sister-in-law with me to look. She will have the refreshing "are you serious?" look on her face when I get too obsessive about things. Always good to have a friend to bring you back to the reality of how small a decision you are making!

Sigh

Anna has been quite the daddy's girl lately. Actually she has been an "anybody but Momma" 's girl lately but especially loving on daddy. She wants him to play with her in HER room the minute he walks in the door, she wants him to watch movies with her, etc etc. The other day she wanted him to play with her so bad, even though they had been playing on the floor of her room for an hour already. Adam's knees had taken all the floor time they could for the day so I suggested play-doh. Anna LOVES to play with play-doh and it can be played at the table. Where there are chairs. I left the room for maybe 5 minutes and here's what he taught her to do. Sigh.

Just in case anyone missed the meaning of the yellow play-doh dangling from the nose- it's supposed to be snot. Nice.

Here's another funny picture of Adam teaching his daughter new and fun ways to play with play-doh. Yes that is a purple play-doh ball in his hand. And yes... he is getting ready to chuck it at my wall and laugh hysterically at how far it bounces. Repeatedly. Men. Sigh.

Facebook Flair

I have a myspace page AND a facebook page..... (waiting for those of you making fun of me right now to stop laughing.... all done? Ok.. moving on) I used to prefer myspace... until I discovered flair. Yep- I love flair. It's just so much fun. All these little buttons with all your favorite things on them- just waiting for you to pick them up for free and post them on your corkboard! And you can send them to friends and they can send them to you. I am such a nerd- I hear you laughing Brad! (: Now I want all my friends that have myspace pages to come on over and join Facebook - if you do I'll send you some flair!

Ambitions

I saw a moon just now as I was running out my garbage. (romantic right?) The moon was so pretty- the clouds drifting lazily over it. The rest of the sky was cloudless-all the clouds were surrounding the moon almost like they were sucking up the last bit of light in the sky. It made me wish I had one of the wonderful high powered cameras that you can capture really artistic scenery with. One day.
I have a lot of "one days" these days. I almost feel like I completely wasted my 20's. I had all the time in the world and at some points, more than enough money to pay for all the things I would love to have time and extra money laying around for now. Things like taking photography lessons with all the newest equipment. Or learning to decorate cakes. Flower arranging. Traveling. Etc. Etc.
I am on the road to fulfilling a big "one day" right now however. I am so happy with the choice that I made- just taking that blind step of faith is such a big deal to a person who has so far lived her life mostly in fear because whatever she tries might...gasp... not be done perfectly or might not work out.
I don't have a lot of extra time right now and we don't have millions of dollars laying around the house for me to go blow on tons of equipment that might not get used or trips that can be put off til later. But I am still trying to start working on small "one days". I have talked about some of them. Starting to learn to plant and garden without killing the plants so that I can have a full fledged garden that we eat out of "one day". Learning to cook different and better things rather than just spaghetti. (not that there's anything wrong with spaghetti- yum!) Blogging to practice my writing skills. I keep trying to conquer this exercise/eating healthy thing. That one is escaping me at the moment but I will conquer it! Learning to build and fix things. Running a 5K all the way through. Again...etc etc! I have so many things that I want to try and so many things I want to learn!
So while I toil away in school to get that great big "one day" accomplished, I will enjoy the small ones that come my way. The small chances to learn something new, to try something different, to take a chance on painting or writing or taking a photo with my baby digital camera (thanks to Robin and Kem for that beautiful camera that has taken so many precious photos of my kiddo). I think I am even going to give flying one of Adam's helicopters a chance. Not the big one cause dang would that suck if I crashed that! (: But hey, why not? I wasted way too much time being afraid of failure and now that I have a little more self-confidence and a bigger desire to learn and grow and try- why shouldn't I? (:
When that big "one day" of becoming a nurse and working with my pregnant ladies and babies (please God?) is fulfilled then the door will be open to some of my other big "one days". Then won't we have fun!

Brown comfy socks

Sometimes a girl just needs some comfy socks. You know the kind I am talking about- the ones that are so soft that you can't begin to even fathom how they make them that soft. The kind that feel like heaven on your feet. They are kind of furry and warm and pretty and comfy all at the same time. And when they are brown on top of all that... well that is just a recipe for wonderful. My mom bought my sister and I some of these socks this weekend. I slipped them on my feet this morning and instantly was just happy. Thanks mom!

Amber's Law

We are studying gases in Chemistry. There are all sorts of gas laws, like Boyle's Law or Charle's Law. It's interesting in a boring kind've way. What occurred to me in class the other night is that I really think there should be a law named after me. Not a gas law- that's more my husband's area. (: But some sort of law. I'll think about what I want my law to be about and get back to you.