So much to be thankful for

We had a lowkey Thanksgiving.  Really, is there any other kind when you are nine months pregnant?

We had big plans to go into Philadelphia for the big parade but when we heard that the weather was supposed to be extra chilly and possibly so windy the balloons couldn't go up.  So we made the executive decision to skip the parade in favor of have Isaac pile into the bed and watch the parade from under the covers while gorging ourselves on cream cheese covered cinnamon rolls.  

We picked up Ryan's parents and headed out to my parent's house.  Football was watched, pie was eaten, and belts were loosened.  

We checked in with family near and far.  Here is my cute pregnant sister in law and Ryan's brother Patrick.  It is only a few more weeks till my first nephew arrives!

We were completely stuffed and tired when we arrived home.  We had just collapsed in bed, utterly exhausted when Ryan realized we had left his keys at my parents house: keys that he would need for work the next day. Because this is our life:  missing keys.  We called my parents and my dad agreed to meet us halfway, so we didn't have to drive a whole hour back to Leola.  My parents are so kind to us.

Since the meeting spot is a Walmart parking lot and things didn't look too crazy (it was about ten at night) we decided to stop in and see if they still happened to have a deal we had seen advertised.  They were out of Disney Xfinity but they were having a great sale on another item on Isaac's Christmas list, so we snatched that up.  Isaac's shopping is officially done!

It was a good time to relax, enjoy family and to think about all that we have been blessed with.   In no particular order:

• My wonderful family.  Especially my parents who have helped me so much this year (and every year).
• My extended family and in-laws.  Ryan's family remind me a lot of my own-- we are both the oldest of four.  I have really enjoyed getting to know his siblings and parents better this past year.  
• Our cozy townhouse.  Although sometimes it seems like it is positively bursting at the seams, it is the perfect place for us to call home.   
• Two fairly reliable cars.
• Ryan's job.  It was a rough year with a few really lousy jobs.  It is nice for him to have a job where he feels appreciated, that he really enjoys, and where is making good money.

Have a wonderful weekend!

boring

So I haven't been a great blogger lately.

Everything is fine; nothing is out of the ordinary but nothing is exciting or note-worthy. Being the token single friend in basically all of my social circles, I feel like people expect me to provide them with exciting tales of the bad dates and random escapades of my life as a exciting girl out on the town. Maybe it's the fact that I'm 30 now but I've got nothing.

Nothing at all.

Eating a fistfuls of chocolate chips while refreshing Twitter and watching episodes of Psych on Netflix on a Friday night doesn't make for very entertaining stories.

The fact of the matter is I'm lonely. I'm tired of being by myself. And I don't have any more ideas on how to fix that.

Anyways.

Thanksgiving was lovely. Just like last year I essentially slept the day away. I slept late. Got up, ate breakfast, and then went back to bed, pretty much up until we ate dinner. I don't know why. I had no business being so exhausted. But I guess I needed the rest. Isaac spent the day playing NBA Jam with my brother. We had a lovely dinner and then I went to bed early.

The night before Thanksgiving I met up with my good friend from college, Nicole and some of her family at an Irish pub. She is from Lancaster and now that is where my parents live, so it's been a nice way to catch up with her when we are both visiting family. I always feel a tiny bit of anxiety when I see her now, just because she (and all of her family and friends) are so successful and gorgeous and thin. The most ironic part-- she works for Weight Watchers (corporate office). The pub we met at had approximately 449045840958340985 people in it. I wore cords and a long sleeved cotton shirt and was disgustingly sweaty within 3 minutes of walking in. Like my hair plastered to the back of my neck, sweat rolling down my spine, armpits straight up soaked, which just made me feel even more self conscious and gross. Aside from that, it was fun to catch up with Nicole. Even though we don't see each other often, she really has been a great friend to me over the years.

Latest obsession: Spotify. I've been on a Broadway kick (probably from my latest visit to the piano bar and catching up on Glee)-- the soundtrack to Les Mis is blasting right now. I've also been listening to the Indigo Girls a lot lately (Staring Down the Brilliant Dream has been playing constantly in the car since I went to their concert). The other day I overheard Isaac singing "Get Out the Map" and when I started cracking up he was like "What?! Some of their songs are really catchy!"

I only have one more class/project and then I am done with grad school for the semester. It's been a good class and I've learned a lot about how to use different software (even though I doubt my district will be able to afford a lot of that software for another ten years or so). I'm glad I was able to work things out so I am only taking one class at a time though. Even one class can be a lot to juggle. I have an advising appointment coming up and then I can register for next semester's class: The English Language Learner. Should be interesting.

In a quest to save some money I called the cable company to have them cut the cable. I seriously never watch TV (Netflix all the way!) and it seemed like such a waste to keep paying for it so that I can let the occasional guest flip on ESPN. Turns out that I get a good deal by bundling my internet and cable, and if I cut out the cable, I will only be paying 10 dollars less for internet. So I figured I may as well just keep it. Seriously, this is how boring my life is. I've resorted to blogging about my cable bill.

Anyways, I should wrap this up and head to church. Have a great day everyone!

Everything but the kitchen sink

Thanksgiving was lowkey and relaxing. Isaac and I went to my parents and my one brother joined us. I got two random "Happy Thanksgiving!" texts from phone numbers I didn't recognize. Wasn't sure what to do with that. Isaac had his heart set on playing football but it was very cold and rainy so we had to settle for indoor activities. Dinner was delicious. We played some gin rummy and then we sacked out on the couch for a while wasting away in front of the TV. My dad and I watched the Zumba infomercial for like 20 minutes. I think he secretly wants to do it. Which he totally should. It's so fun!We drove home around eight and Isaac was snoring within minutes of pulling away. He woke up when he got home long enough to ask for some dessert and to declare "I wish we could live at Grandma's forever!"

Black Friday I went out in the city with some girlfriends, which was supposed to be a late birthday celebration for me. (Oh yeah, my birthday was the 17th, but I have been celebrating for pretty much the whole month of November. 29 is great so far). We went to Tria and I had my favorite thing on their menu (after dinner, of course): Nutella Panini. If I had to only choose one food to eat for the rest of my life, it would be Nutella Panini. I was about halfway done with it when the waitress came over, and stuck a candle in the remnant of my sandwich, which was cute.

Most of the talk that evening centered around my one girlfriend who has recently gotten very serious with the guy she is dating. They are talking marriage and she is about to buy a house and officially move in with him (she's not LDS, fyi).... AND his twin ten year olds. Although she adores the two kids (a boy and a girl) she shared some of the issues they are encountering as she essentially takes on the role of step mom in a household where the kids are pretty much running the show. I mostly sided with her (ten year olds with ten thirty bedtimes? I don't think so). I found myself biting my lip on some topics though. There are some things about having kids that you just don't understand if you don't have kids yourself (example-- she was repulsed by the fact that he let his son sleep in his bed all day when he was home from school sick. It made total sense to me. Isaac often sleeps in my bed when he is not feeling well too. I think it's comfort thing).

It was interesting to imagine being in that situation though. I would certainly want my partner to feel comfortable dealing with (minor-type) discipline issues and I recognize how important that would be in a blended family or step parent situation. But if I had to be totally honest, I think I think a little part of me would balk a little bit. Even now I feel defensive if one of my brothers disciplines Isaac. It would be a hard thing. I am interested to see how it all plays out for her.

Anyways, before dinner we also oogled clothes and household items we can't really afford went shopping at Anthropologie. My friend briefly contemplated an 18 dollar hot pad. I told her I could make her one FOR FREE and she agreed. I went home and made these in about an hour with some scraps I had from other fall projects. If you remember, I have LOTS of heat resistant batting from another potholder project, so everything was ready to roll.

I also decided to make a matching hot mitt. I didn't take a picture of it, but it turned out pretty cute. The potholders I just sort of did myself but the oven mitt I followed this tutorial.

It was very clear and should have been easy to follow, but it my eagerness to finish, I would forge ahead after only skimming and then discover I had made a mistake and then would have to go back and start over. Totally reminded me of that saying "haste makes waste". I gave them to her today and she could not believe I made them myself. I think she really liked them. Maybe there is a hope for this undomestic goddess after all. Saturday my friends (a girl I work with and her husband) invited me over for dinner and a game night. Backstory: In October they had taken me and another friend to a Halloween party where I briefly met another one of their friends. I will refer to him as FOF (Friend of a Friend). Afterwards apparently FOF got in touch with my coworker and asked about me. So anyways, when she invited me over Saturday she said she was having some people over and that FOF would be there. Okay, whatever. Of course, I show up and it is just FOF. No other people. HELLO awkward setup. We drove to Chile's and there was this moment of hesitation as we approached the booth. She even joked about should I sit with her or with FOF? I ended up sitting with FOF. And he ordered the exact same thing as me: chicken club tacos without the bacon. He was a nice enough guy, he really was. And our evening was enjoyable. Dinner was good and we played all kinds of fun games. However, to my friends' dismay, FOF is not the guy for me. I hope this doesn't sound snotty, but I will explain why.

• Strike one: over dinner passionately talked about his love of black metal music for about 20 minutes and various experiences seeing bands with names like Dying Fetus in concert.
• Strike two: at some point it came out that although he is no longer collecting unemployment while working at Gamestop, he still lives in his grandmother's attic. Seriously? SERIOUSLY?! I don't want to sound like it's all about money or anything like that, but by mid thirties you had better be in your own place paying the bills.
• Strike three: Okay, this is the one that I feel really mean revealing. But here goes: We were playing Scattergories and he hardly ever came up with anything for any category, any round. I mean, "name something in the room that starts with c"? "name a four letter word that starts with a"? Nothing... It was a little alarming. I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, but then we moved onto Uno. He had no frame of reference for the game Uno, which I just found to be frankly, odd. After we explained the game and started playing he still couldn't get the concept and was just throwing out cards randomly. We would have to stop and explain it to him again. I mean, really, the premise of the game is just matching colors and numbers. I will let you draw your own conclusions to avoid spelling out what I feel is too mean to outright say.

So anyways, it was an enjoyable night, but I don't see much of a future with FOF. It has been quite a while since I was blindsided with an unexpected set up though, so I give them props for that.

We've started decorating the house for Christmas. I dug out the huge two tubs of Christmas stuff but I haven't unloaded them all the way yet. One is pretty much all Christmas ornaments and I'm still not sure what to do about a Christmas tree. Last year my brother loaned me a tiny fake one. It was supposed to be three feet tall but it was actually more like eighteen inches. The cats had a field day with it, knocking it over and batting the ornaments all over the house. I want a real one this year, but only if the cats can behave. Anyone have any tips for cat-proofing the tree? My brother is supposed to make an appearance this week to help us put some lights up outside, so I'm looking forward to that.

Tomorrow is back to school officially, although I was in for several hours today. I felt unprepared to start the week, and it was a good thing I went in. The more I started to do, the more I discovered needed to be done. (Hello IEP meeting after school tomorrow. Didn't remember you were there!) I have been feeling a ton of anxiety about the month of December. It's such a crazy time at school, with so many things that need to be crammed in before break. There is also so much going on outside of work: parties, get togethers, plays, family commitments, stores, crowds, things to be bought, wrapped, mailed and of course money stretched thin. All of it good stuff but it is a little overwhelming to coordinate it all.

Anyways, I should go. Feel free to leave comments and have a lovely week!

A quick word regarding Christmas

I feel really bad for Thanksgiving. It is such a cool holiday. It has a historical basis.

It celebrates the harvest and all things autumnal.

It makes people slow down and consider their blessing and helps the whole country cultivate an attitude of gratitude. It brings family and friends together. It always falls on a Thursday so you always get an extra day off of work. But I feel like it is getting overlooked. Three people in my neighborhood already have their Christmas trees up. One even had their tree up before my birthday (November 17th) which is crazy. I love Christmas probably more than the average person. Black Friday all of my decorations will go up, and it probably won't be long till I buy a tree. But we have to take time to savor Thanksgiving/Autumn! There is still plenty of time for Christmas after that!!!