Thanksgiving weekend

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend and I hope that everyone else had the same! Thursday morning we left at 9:00 to head about two and a half hours south to Ryan's aunt and uncle's house. The whole family was meeting there for Thanksgiving this year. We got there well before lunch was ready so we spent time outside with all of the kids playing football, soccer, volleyball, and baseball. When lunch was ready we all sat down to a wonderful lunch and then it was time to head back outside to enjoy the nice cool weather we were having. About 5:00pm Ryan, Libby, and I left in our car and Ryan's parents left in their car and we followed them about another hour south to their condo on the beach. Thursday night was spent taking it easy because Friday was going to be a busy day!

On Friday morning Ryan's mom and I both woke up at 3:00am and were out the door by 3:30am on our way shopping! I missed my usual Black Friday shopping partner but still had fun shopping with Carole. Plus that made her Christmas shopping for Ryan and Libby extra easy since I was there to let her know the better things to get for the two of them. It was quite nice to have cold weather Friday morning...it was in the 40's! We weren't gone shopping all that long...we were home right at 8:00am and satisfied with our purchases. We had breakfast with Ryan, his dad, and Libby and then the five us went for a walk on the beach and Libby collected sea shells. We went back inside and Ryan mentioned something about going shopping (which is HIGHLY unusual for Ryan) and his dad had already mentioned going shopping earlier so we all hopped up and got into the car and headed back out shopping. After a couple of hours we were done and ready for lunch so we stopped by a Mexican restaurant for lunch and then headed back home. After dinner I had Libby take her shower and then I went into the room she was sleeping in to watch a movie with her before she went to sleep. Because I had only a few hours of sleep the night before and I had been up since 3:00am I ended up falling asleep right around 8:30 watching the movie with her. :-) Ryan came and woke me up and put me to bed a little while later.

Saturday morning we got up and got ready and got everything packed and then had breakfast with his parents before heading home at 9:00am. We had tickets to the Gator game against FSU for Saturday. We drove home and were very happy we left early because we ran into several traffic jams. Once we got home we had lunch and then headed back out to take Libby to Karen's house (Libby has no interest in football) and then Ryan and I went to his friend's house and Brett drove us to the game so that we wouldn't have to worry about parking. We got inside the stadium and got to our seats and they were PERFECT especially considering that it was Senior Day honoring all of our seniors on the team. The team ran out onto the field and then individually each senior was announced and they ran out to their family members who were waiting down on the field. It was nice watching each senior run out and soak up their last time ever running out onto Florida Field since that was our last home game...next week we have the SEC Championship game and then WHEN we win that we'll be on our way to Pasenda, CA for the National Championship game! :-) Anyway, Brandon Spikes was announced (he's one of my favorites) and he ran out and stopped and knelt down and kissed the field and I started crying. (I'm just a sentimental sap!) :-) Then it was Timmy's turn...they called out the name Tim Tebow and the stadium absolutely erupted. I watched him take his last trot out onto the field and I was still crying. :-) It was a great game to be at! The only bad thing was that we had FSU fans near us and I get a little heated when it comes to the Gators and I started to get into an argument with an FSU idiot and Ryan turned me around and told me to stop it. :-) In the 4th quarter when everyone knew that Tebow was about to be pulled for some rest I could not believe the amount of flashbulbs going off. Everyone was taking a picture of every snap so that they could have a picture of Timmy's last home snap. The stadium was lit up with flashbulbs. Even the FSU fans were impressed by that. After the game Ryan's friend came back and picked us up and I went and got Libby and then we headed home.

Today was a day just spent around the house relaxing since we were so busy all weekend and now it's time to get ready for the next work week to start! Even a long weekend flies by too fast! :-)

Tree of Thanksgiving

Like I mentioned before, for the last week we've been writing things that we are thankful for on leaves and hanging them on a beautiful branch. I really like the way it turned out and next year we'll do this for the whole month...I'll just use smaller leaves! :-)

Here is our tree:

In the morning the three of us will leave to drive a few hours to Ryan's aunt and uncle's house to have Thanksgiving lunch with Ryan's parents, his aunt and uncle, his two cousins, their two husbands, and 6 nephews and 1 niece. Then tomorrow night we'll go to Ryan's parents condo in Indian Harbour Beach and spend the night. Friday morning I'll be up early going shopping :-) and then Saturday morning we will head back to Gainesville because we are going to the UF vs. FSU game Saturday afternoon!!!!!!!!!

I hope that everyone has a very HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!

Turkey cookies

I hadn't even realized that it has been a week since I last blogged! Not much has been going on, though. Last week was a regular week really. On Saturday my friend Karen and I went to my friend Kim's house for a Partylite party and Girls Night In sort of night. I had a lot of fun being around the girls but when that was over I headed over to meet Ryan at his friend's house where they were watching football.

Sunday morning after breakfast Ryan headed up into the attic to bring down my Christmas decorations! The weekend before Thanksgiving means Christmas decorations for me! :-) I got the little "knick-knack" type items put up around the house and I strung the lights onto the tree (Libby is soooo not interested in that task). When I was done with the lights she hung all the ornaments and that completed our inside decorations. After Thanksgiving I'll take down my Harvest decorations from outside and put up my outdoor Christmas decorations and then we'll be all set!

Even though we are all decorated for Christmas inside we are still waiting for Thanksgiving. Tonight Libby and I made turkey cookies. It was fun decorating them but Libby's favorite part (of course!) was eating them when we were all done! :-) We also have been working on our Tree of Thanksgiving and we have two more nights of that. I have some paper leaves and each night we are each writing something that we are thankful for and hanging the leaves on a pretty branch that Ryan found for me. I just had the idea recently and I really like the way it is turning out so this is definitely a tradition that we'll do each year for Thanksgiving!

Our weekend

Our weekend was pretty laid back. Friday night we just came home and relaxed. I watched a movie with Libby in her room and then we played Barbie dreamhouse a bit and then she started getting tired so then Ryan and I just watched tv. Nothing exciting but it was relaxing.

Saturday morning I did my usual Saturday morning cleaning for a few hours while Libby played and Ryan was at work. Once I finished cleaning Libby and I got ready and headed to the movie theater to watch A Christmas Carol. I had high hopes for that movie but it failed to awe me. Anyone who knows me at all knows that I LOVE CHRISTMAS and anything and everything to do with Christmas. I love the story of A Christmas Carol and usually love all of the movies based on that book. Being that it's a Disney movie, stars Jim Carey, and from seeing the previews I just knew I'd love their version of the story. Eh, not so much. Libby was ready to leave at the beginning of the movie. Marley was still visiting Scrooge...we still had three more spirits to go! We stuck it out and watched the whole thing. Maybe I'm just too much of a traditionalist...the main parts of the movie were good...it was just the parts where they took their own liberty and added in parts that I didn't care for at all.

We came home after the movie and watched the Gators beat South Carolina and then spent the next few hours just hanging out together until she passed out on the couch and I took her to bed.
:-)

This morning we were up bright and early to get ready for our family pictures!! We met the photographer at 9:00am at the Thomas Center in Gainesville and had a lovely time with her as she took our pictures. Ryan, like most guys, complained about it all the way there and even during some of the pictures. He hates to have his picture taken - which doesn't make any sense...with as cute as he is you'd think he'd want his picture taken every second of every day! But he was a good sport and wore what I asked him to wear and he even smiled for the pictures. :-) I can't wait to see them!

Weekend in Savannah and a patriotic performance

This weekend was our bi-annual Girls Weekend and we went to Savannah. I ***LOVE*** Savannah. It is such a beautiful city. I love the architecture of the buildings...I love the set up of the neighborhoods...I love the history of the city. It is just all amazing. On Saturday we went to a tea room and had some incredibly delicious food and I had a tea that is now one of my new favorites! Saturday night we went out to watch the Gator game on tv. During the course of the game the table next to us had a few different sets of drunk people who sat there and for whatever reason each group of drunk people felt it necessary to start talking smack about the Gators to us. For a little bit I thought for sure I was going to end up in a fight with some drunk country boy. I eventually gave up and had to start drinking just to tune them out and I had a huge and delicious frozen margarita. :-) Sunday we did some shopping down by the river and then drove over to Forsyth Park and walked around there for a little bit before it was time to head home. It was a really fun trip. It's great to get out of town and enjoy a wonderful city with wonderful friends and laugh really hard! :-)

This morning the 2nd graders of Libby's school put on a patriotic performance. They sang patriotic songs, recited patriotic poems, and they had some veterans come in as speakers. The children were all so dang cute up there in their shirts that they made and singing thier little hearts out. Honestly, as they all sang America the Beautiful it actually brought a tear to my eye. I loved it! After the performance it was time for Libby to head to class and for Ryan and I both to head off to work. When they came in just before the performance began this morning I saw one of Libby's classmates (Avery) spot me in the crowd so I waved to her and she pointed me out to Libby and Libby waved. Avery said something to Libby and Libby then leaned over and said something back to Avery and Avery smiled. After work when I picked up Libby I asked her what they were talking about when they first saw me and Ryan sitting out in the crowd this morning. Libby said that Avery said, "There's your mom!" and then Avery said, "I forgot to tell my dad about the performance today so I don't have anyone to watch me" :-( Libby leaned over and said, "You have my mom and Ryan to watch you so don't be sad, ok?" How sweet is my girl???? :-)

Halloween weekend

We had a very busy and very fun Halloween weekend! To begin the weekend I'll start with Thursday...which was the storybook character costume parade at Libby's school. They not only had to dress up as a character from a book but they also had to take the book with them. For the parade at school Libby decided to dress as Cleopatra. When we got to school Thursday morning all kinds of kids were arriving at the exact same time...and not one single child was dressed in a costume! Libby saw that and refused to get out of the car because she said she wasn't going in to school in a costume when no one else was dressed up. I have to admit - I was a little worried about it, too...but I had to get her in to class and get myself off to work. I told her that there would be plenty of children dressed up and not to worry but she still refused to get out of the car. I literally had to drag her out of the car!! Once I finally got her inside there were many children who were dressed up and she felt a little more comfortable. They had the costume parade in the morning and after lunch each class had a Fall Party and they got all sugared up and then they were sent home. :-)

Libby then went to her afterschool care where they passed out little bags of candy to all of the children. Just what they needed! :-) Libby was picked up early from afterschool by Ryan's mom and she took Libby in to Gainesville to Libby's art lesson. After Libby's art lesson she was picked up by Ryan and they came home. When I got off of work at 5pm I had to head straight to school for the parent/teacher conference. Libby's teacher had nothing but wonderful things to say about her. She is very well behaved in class and is working above grade level. What more can I ask for? :-)

Friday school was out (for a teacher workday) so Libby spent the day at work with me. She LOVES going to the childcare at my job. After work on Friday she and I went out to dinner and then headed to Alachua where they were having a Trick or Treat on Main Street. Many (many!) businesses from around Alachua set up little booths all along Main Street (which is a small two lane street lined with shops on each side) and the children walk down one side of Main Street and up the other and get their bags filled with candy. Libby wore her witch costume and we trick or treated for about an hour and a half and then went over to the fall festival that a church in Alachua was having where they had tons of games for the children to play. Libby had a great time playing all the games (a few times!) and when she had finally had enough we headed home.

Saturday morning we woke up early and left to meet Karen in Gainesville. I had yet another fall arts and crafts festival to go to this weekend!!!! Yes,this is my 5th week in a row going to a fall arts and crafts festival! :-) We spent an hour and a half walking around the festival looking at everything being sold and I found a cute little fall sign to buy. I also found a super cute orange and blue beaded bracelet that would go wonderfully with my others and I was going to get the bracelet on the way out (we always look all around first and then once we've seen everything there we go back to buy our favorite things). Well, we couldn't find the booth that had the bracelet that I loved so I left without it. I was in a hurry, anyway, because Libby and I had a get-together that we had to be at and I was pressed for time to get there on time. We got home from that get together at 4:00 and almost immediately headed right back out to a church that is very close to my house that was having a fall festival. They had a good amount of games set up for the children and were passing out water (which was nice because it was h.o.t!), juice, nachos (yummy!) and hot dogs (eww!) :-) Libby had a lot of fun and I finally pulled her away and we went home so that I could watch the second half of the Florida/Georgia game. And of course my lovely Gators beat the Bulldogs!!! After the football game was over we ate dinner and then it was time for Libby to get ready for Trick or Treating!

Libby put her witch costume back on and I took some pictures of her before we left. Our neighborhood only has three houses built in the neighborhood so far so we went to a nearby neighborhood that is huge and right by Libby's school. That was the most perfect Trick or Treating experience that I've ever had in my entire life. I've waited "27" years to have that perfect of a night. A lot of the houses in the neighborhood were fully decked out in Halloween decor, lighting, etc. There were hundreds of people on each street in the neighborhood. There were children darting from house to house and running across the street with their vampire capes blowing in the breeze. It was a scene straight out of any (non-scary) Halloween movie. It was p.e.r.f.e.c.t! I think I was probably enjoying it more than Libby was! :-) One of the houses is a big attraction each year because they set up a haunted house. I took Libby in and one of the characters really freaked Libby out and Libby was ready to hit the character with her witch broom that Libby was carrying! I had to cover her eyes and lead her out of the haunted house.

:-) However, Michael Myers was standing at the exit and he freaks the crap out of me so I had to close my eyes and lead Libby out while I still had my hands over Libby's eyes. :-) After about two hours of Trick-or-Treating Libby was getting tired so we finished up and headed for home.

Sunday morning we slept in a wee bit and then got up to start our regular weekend chores. Libby and I left at 1:30 to meet one of Libby's friends and her mom at the mall. We met up with them and then they rode with us to the corn maze in Micanopy. The weather was cooperating completely for a fun fall day. We couldn't have asked for nicer weather...it was in the low 70's! How divine! We got there and the first thing we did was go into the corn maze...which was five acres of maze! We were lost in there for quite some time! :-) We finally made our way out and Libby and Riley went over to play on the hay fort, then they rode the "bulls", played in the corn box (instead of a sand box it was filled with corn kernels...I've never seen children have so much fun!), and rode on the tire swing. We then went on a hay ride and that took us up to a pasture where we stopped to feed the cows. The cows know the drill when the tractor pulls up with a load of people so once we stopped they all started walking briskly over to get thier cow treats that were in buckets on the hayride and the kids threw out treats to the cows. One freaking cow had a foot fetish and kept licking my freaking feet! I had on flip flops and I thought I was going to die but I didn't quite think that kicking a cow was the smartest thing I could do so I stood there and took the foot licking. :-) After the hayride Libby and Riley rode the barrel-train and then we went into the corn maze one more time. Apparently the girls didn't get enough of it the first time we went through it! :-) We spent three hours there and if it weren't starting to get dark (thanks to the time change) I could have stayed three more hours. For me that was an ideal fall day!

After such a wonderful weekend it was very hard to get up and get geared up for work but I managed to do it. :-) To be honest, I am just using my upcoming weekend as my motivation to get up and get through work this week. This weekend is our Fall Girls Weekend and we are heading to Savannah!! I can't even describe to you how excited I am about this trip with my friends!