40th Birthday Weekend

Oh, boy. Here we go . . .

This last weekend I had the big 4-0 birthday. I have actually been looking forward to it all year. 30 was hard. It was sad. But 40 is different. I feel like I'm there! I'm proud to be 40!

So, I wanted to have a nice weekend. If I want anything to happen, I plan it myself. You know how it goes.

On Friday afternoon, the day after Thanksgiving,
we went to Ichiro for lunch at the last minute.

Oh, it was so good!!!
I had a coupon for a free entree for my birthday,
so they sang Happy Birthday to me and gave me fried ice cream.
(isn't michael funny in that picture? collin took it, so he's not in it.)

I bought tickets for all of us to go see a musical on Saturday.

We went to the Norma Terris Theatre in Chester, CT.

The play was a new play called "Hello! My Baby."

The theatre was small, and we were just a few rows back.

The play was set in 1910, and included a bunch of songs from that time.
I think 90% of the audience was actually alive in 1910. The sweet man
next to me smelled like a nursing home. And he loved the show!

We loved it too. It was SO MUCH FUN!

(these are production photos from their facebook page)

After the play, we went to California Pizza Kitchen near Hartford. What a treat!

Friday and Saturday were really great days.

Thank goodness, because Sunday was NOT great. I won't go into detail. I will just say that it was bad from start to finish. Rebellion, fits, late for church, missed the entire RS lesson, made my own dumb dinner, miscommunications (several), and on and on.

The one nice part of my day was after church when I went up to my room and watched a Lifetime movie called Dear Santa. It could have been a Hallmark movie. It was that good.

Mike and the boys came up when my movie was over to give me my first present.
I read my card. Hmph. I was not impressed. Why does Mike pick out stupid cards??


What could it be? The apron I asked for and picked out? Hahaha.

(see the pillow, amanda? i still love that pillowcase!)

So then I went downstairs for the big present. Keep in mind that I only asked for
an apron and tickets to see that play. Mike kept saying how surprised I would be.

Oh, yeah, I was surprised. Can't you tell?

The kitchen TV is a sore subject. It has been the subject of a recurring argument
for the past few years. I won't go into details. I will just say that it all started when
I went out of town and Mike replaced my little TV/VCR, that I loved to watch movies
on while I cooked, with a very big flat screen HDTV. AND he put a bow on it
and said it was for me. Not good. I never watched that tv. Mike would watch it
Saturday and Sunday mornings, and Michael watched annoying Disney Channel
during the week. Anyway, Mike was trying to make it right and do something
nice for me, but it totally backfired. (and i find myself going into detail)
I won't explain the rest.

The cute part was that he bought all of these DVDs.
I picked out a little less than half of them that I
don't want, but there were quite a few that I like.

I ended up putting the old TV back in there,
and keeping the DVD player (the tv was on top of it).

Last night and tonight Michael and I watched
The Princess Bride while I made dinner.

(so much better than the disney channel!)

"Wuv. TWUE Wuv... "






Thank goodness it all worked out in the end!

I didn't even make my carrot cake that I was looking forward to
for so long because I was too upset. And the TV thing was one thing
of MANY things that went wrong that day. It's so sad. I was really
looking forward to my birthday. Well, at least I had Friday and Saturday.

Thanksgiving Weekend

We went all out for Thanksgiving this year and invited three families to join us. It was so much fun! We had 10 adults, 9 children and 2 babies. Everyone brought a few things, so there wasn't too much to do. I loved it!

Michael was complaining about an upset stomach on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then on Wednesday night he said his throat hurt when he swallowed. That always sends up a red flag with Michael, considering how many times he had strep throat in the last year or so. It was worse in the morning, so I decided to take him in to get checked. I couldn't risk spreading strep to all those kids.

The doctor's office was closed, so we had to go to the ER.
There wasn't another soul in the waiting room, so it went quickly.

Michael was a good patient. Ha ha ha!
And his strep test was negative. Good!

We were home a little after 10am, and I went to work. The boys did a good job of peeling the potatoes. Michael peeled one, Matthew peeled four, and Collin peeled six potatoes.

I love the Fruit Gobbler I made. Thank you,
Family Fun Magazine, for a such a fun idea!

I saw a bit on the KSL news online where a Little America chef said that he never stuffs a turkey. Instead he fills it with apples, oranges, celery and onions. So, we tried it! Mike also added some rosemary and thyme. It was really moist and tasty! We also did a ham. I had planned on cooking it in the crockpot until the night before when I discovered that it was a little too big! A friend of mine said that it would be fine if I cover the crockpot in foil, so that's what we did. And it worked! We decided that we like it better in the oven, but it was still good.

The sweet potatoes were divine, the jello salad was heavenly (seriously), the green beans were yummy, and on and on.... And we had a full and noisy house. It was great.

Angela brought these cute little cups for each place setting.
I can't remember what she called them, but it was really cute.
They have nuts and m&ms and mints in them. I'm eating one right now.

My pecan pie was a GOOD one. :D

Michael played the guitar for everyone after dinner,
and Kayla sang two primary songs which were super sweet.
The first one was "My Life is a Gift." She is only 4 yrs old and
she knew every word (with a few cute changes). It was so special
to hear her sing that song especially knowing the story of her birth.
Her life truly is a gift and she is one special, spunky little girl!

No Black Friday shopping for us, especially since someone somehow made a copy of our credit card and started using it! I got a call from our credit card company on Tuesday asking me to authorize some transactions. They do that sometimes when they notice something odd. I thought it was because of the flowers I bought for my mom in California. But there was also a charge at Office Depot for $200. I authorized it thinking that Mike must have bought something.

But then on Wednesday morning I got this email:

WHAT THE HECK??!! (which is exactly what i said out loud when i saw the email). I did not rent a Barbie movie, and I sure as heck was not in Louisiana! I called right away, and that thief had made a bunch of purchases. Gosh, why does this keep happening to us? Well, anyway, we had to get a new card. As soon as it arrived on Friday afternoon, Mike went out to buy my birthday presents. I can't wait to open them! He keeps saying that I will be so surprised, and the kids even say that I will like them. Oh, the suspense.

We looked at the calendar yesterday and realized that this morning would be the only time we could go out and cut down our Christmas tree.

It was so easy this year. As we were walking out to the area where we always look for our tree, Mike stopped and said, "What about that one?" It was a PERFECT tree. So we decided then and there to cut it down. It took us seriously like 2 minutes from the time we got out of the car.

Collin did some sawing . . .

. . . and Mike did some sawing.

Timber!!!!

Hooray for easy Christmas tree choosing and cutting!

The kids enjoyed the animals as usual.

This year they had hot apple cider and cookies.















Such a fun morning!

JFK 50 Mile

You could probably say that running has become addictive for Mike. He just wants more and more! Mike ran the Lake Hughes (trail) Half Marathon on Oct. 8th, and then ran the Hartford Marathon one week later. And THEN he announced that he would be running a 50-mile race five weeks after that! Crazy. But that's Mike.

Here the history behind the JFK 50 Mile ultramarathon. Very cool:

Of all the things President John F. Kennedy contributed to the U.S. before he was assassinated, one that usually flies under the radar is the impact he had on trail running. In the spring of 1963, Kennedy offered a challenge to spur American military personnel -- as well as the rest of the country -- into optimal physical fitness. His inspiration was the blueprint used by Teddy Roosevelt, who at the dawn of the 20th century had implored his military officers to cover 50 miles on foot in 20 hours to maintain their commissions. When word got out about the "Kennedy Challenge," many hearty civilians -- including then U.S. Attorney General Bobby Kennedy -- also wanted to take the test. As a result, several 50-mile events popped up around the country in 1963, including the JFK 50 Mile Challenge near Washington, D.C.

After the Kennedy assassination, many of these events were never held again. The current course record is held by David Riddle (5:40:45) and Devon Crosby-Helms (6:29:21) on the women's side.

As much as I really like to go to Mike's races, we decided I should stay home. We didn't want to pull the kids out of school to drive down there, and we didn't want to leave them especially since we just went away last month. Mike went on his own. So sad! But Mike was planning on running with his friend Craig Thompson who lives down there in Maryland. Mike actually ran with him before in the National Marathon last year (which is weird because I thought for sure it was at least three years ago). The link for that marathon is HERE.

Mike just wanted to finish. Good goal! 50 miles is a loooong way to run. The race started at 7am, and you had to finish by 7pm. Mike & Craig thought they would probably finish in 10 hours. A station had live coverage on the internet of the finish line until 5pm which I watched from 4-5pm, and I didn't see them finish. But then Mike texted me saying they finished at 4:35pm. Good for them! I was bummed that I missed them somehow, but happy they did so well.

Mike is at the top, and Craig is at the bottom.

They stayed together until the last four miles when Mike got mad at "The Stinker" and took off on his own. "The Stinker" was a nasty smelling man who kept passing Mike & Craig throughout the race. They did not want to be running downwind of that stinky man! Mike & Craig had lost him for quite a while, but then "The Stinker" reappeared when there were four miles left to run. Mike said, in true Mike style, "I'm not letting 'The Stinker' beat me!" Craig was ok with Mike going ahead, so he took off. So funny!

The first half of the race was on trails, where Craig took one or two spills.

The medal is super impressive!

When Mike got home yesterday, he was moving very slowly. And his poor feet were not looking too good! This morning was a little better, but he was still slow.
I couldn't resist doing a video.

The announcers at the finish line kept saying
that the way a runner walks after
the JFK 50 is called the JFK Shuffle.

By the way, this is the first time Mike
has ever worn running shoes to work!

Lovin' the BedLounge!

My beloved BedLounge arrived today and I LOVE IT!!!

Can you tell?

Ha ha ha ha ha!!

It is really cozy and comfortable and supportive.

I won't be able to tell for sure until I've actually had the surgery, but I think it's going to be great. I might even be able to sleep in it. I hope! It sounds like this recovery will be like my rotator cuff surgery when I slept on the couch for at least two months. It will be wonderful if I am able to sleep in my own bed.

I can't wait to put things in the pockets. he he he.

Parent Teacher Conferences

We had some very successful parent teach conferences this week, including the one with Michael's math teacher who praised Michael for his hard work. He got an A, of course. :D

And we popped into Michael's Reading & Language Arts class to see all of the skeleton book reports hanging from the ceiling. Lookin' good!