Thanksgiving Thanks

I know, I know, we're all thankful today. But I am especially thankfully to:

• My co-worker, for the use of her 'roaster oven.' I think I may need to buy one of these things, because it seriously kicked ass today. Plugged it in, dumped the brined turkey in (also her suggestion) with a couple inches of brine juice and away it went. And no one seemed to notice **spoiler alert** that the turkey finished cooking an hour earlier than expected and I just turned off the roaster, covered the turkey with a piece of foil, and let it sit.
• Butterball.com, for all their wonderful insightful tips. Like covering the turkey with foil if it has cooked too fast. Although they were the ones that told me my 15 lb turkey would take 3-3 1/2 hours to cook and it only took a little over 2 hours.
• My mom, for a fantastic stuffing recipe. I have no idea how your heart is still pumpin blood effectively after this many years of eating something with that much butter in it, but it was good. Next year I will cut the cubes of my homemade bread smaller. Or just use all store-bought bread. Or stuff the turkey with the stuffing--like you told me to ;-)
• Ruth's Chris Steak House for their scrumptious sweet potato casserole recipe. I would not be surprised to find me hiding in a corner with the leftovers and a big spoon in a couple of hours. This was, by far, my favorite dish of the meal. And really not that hard to make.
  
• My husband, for keeping everyone--including himself--out of the way and letting me be the control nut that I am. And for doing an awesome job of carving the turkey and taking pride in doing it.
• My in-laws (mother, father, brother, sister, nieces) for taking a chance on venturing 2 hours to eat Thanksgiving dinner cooked by someone who had never made any of the items served before. Except the pumpkin pie. And for eating seconds. And I think liking it because I didn't see anyone drowning things in gravy or adding mass amounts of salt to things (probably because of the brine--everything seemed saltier than I expected to start).
• Evan, for his excellent co-chef skills on Wednesday and for being my taste-tester on the Chocolate Oatmeal Pie. Which turned out to be the most popular menu item, I think. I don't know if anyone who ate it will be able to sleep anytime soon with all that sugar, but it was a good pie.
• Eric, for being the only child to actually sit and watch Kung-Fu Panda for any amount of time. I don't think there was anything wrong with the movie, but I have never seen a group of children NOT want to sit and watch TV. Weird.

And now I am thankful to have my shoes off and be tucked into bed with some Tivo to watch...Happy Thanksgiving to all and to all a good night!

Two a days

That's what I'd have to do to blog 365 blogs in 2008. Two blogs a day. Looking at my recent track record, it would probably be two lame boring blogs most of those days with an occasional good one. How's everyone doing on their 365 goal?

Mad Libs

Sometimes I feel as though I live in a world of Mad Libs. Evan likes to insert random words into a sentence for no apparent reason, and is taking his job as big brother very seriously and making sure Eric does the same. The current popular word is "underpants" and can be used in the following situations:

• Singing Old MacDonald "...and on that farm he had some underpants..." Luckily(?) both kids crack up at this and I have not yet heard what kind of sound underpants make on Old MacDonald's farm.
• Praying before dinner "Bless us oh Lord, and these thy underpants..." I'm hoping this was a one-time occurrence and I don't have to explain my way out of that one at Thanksgiving dinner.
• And pretty much any other time we are discussing food and/or clothing...apparently my boys think we wear and eat a lot of underpants.

Now if only I could get Eric to WEAR underpants...

Lost in internet-land

I'm amazed at how much time I spend on the computer these days. Seriously, I don't know when I lost the ability to stop clicking and typing and looking up random useless crap. So you don't think I've completely abandoned my children, I do most of this when they're sleeping. All this time on the internet and I'm averaging what, one blog a week? If that? Sad, sad, sad. So what am I doing all this time?

• Facebook
• Looking for new blinds for our windows that cost less than a mortgage payment. Apparently my husband's expensive taste has worn off on me ;-)
• Facebook
• Reading other people's blogs--not that the rest of my blogging friends are doing much better than me ;-)
• Finding things to put on my Christmas wishlist
• Finding things to put on my children's Christmas wishlists
• Facebook
• Checking mint.com to see if they have worked out their issues with a certain bank so I can tell how we're doing budget-wise
• Ignoring my to-do list
• Looking at Thanksgiving recipes (even though I already have the menu planned, shopping list written, and a schedule of what I need to make when--yes, I am THAT anal)
• And, of course, Facebook

How did this happen??

When did we go from this...

...to this???

Hubby is sick. So sick that I'm the one who called the doctor's office this morning and then rolled him out of bed to get there despite the fact that it was 8:30 and he spent the 3:00 hour coughing a lung out. Walking pneumonia which is less contagious than a cold, but just as exhausting. So the boyz and I put him back to bed and set out on an errand-running adventure.

Both kids now have their first pair(s) of Crocs. Yes, hi my name is Jessica and I have a 5 year old and I have just purchased our first pair of Crocs. Ironman for Evan and Spiderman for Eric. Really Evan was the only one who needed the Crocs, but another $7 to keep peace in the family is a small price to pay.

The secret to getting a child (Eric) to eat is to let them dip it in cheese. We went to California Tortilla for lunch and Eric was not interested in eating until I handed him a small cup of queso. Suddenly, he was an eating machine. And the funny thing is the cheese was so cold and think by that time that I don't think he actually got any cheese on his food.

Costco does NOT sell turkeys. Our adventure included a trip to Costco because I figured I could buy a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner, but no such luck. They do, however, have a fully stocked toy aisle in preparation for Christmas and Evan would like everything that is not a 'girl toy.' The piano, drums, Star Wars, Batman, dump trucks, and, my personal favorite, the ginormous stuffed dog.

The thing was the size of the shopping cart and shed as much as a real dog. But it was still pretty darn cute. We did NOT buy it though, just stuck it in the cart for a photo op and to freak Ethan out a little. And I have no idea why Eric looks like he has a wife-beater sunburn in the picture. Another mystery of life ;-)

Recipe book

So, this will be a lame post, but I figure blogging is like exercise and you have to start somewhere and you'll probably look like a fool the first time. So bear with me ;-)

Evan: Mom, can I have a recipe book? My friend Sam has a Shrek recipe book and it's really cool.

Mom: Do you know what you put in a recipe book?

Evan: Yes--recipes!

Mom: Do you know what a recipe is?

Evan: No. But I really want a recipe book.