Fuller Thanksgiving 2008

Well I did it! I finally was in charge of my first ever Thanksgiving. We switch which family we spend Thanksgiving with and this year was my family. (we are on the ever infamous "every other annual' plan. But having it at my house was quite an experience that I am still recovering from. I still do not know how Laetner and I managed to get a brining 25 pound bird into the fridge on Tuesday morning. By the time it had enough liquid to cover it, that thing was HEAVY! Court should just be happy that he didn't have to see 'turkey juices' that had to get cleaned up from off of the counter, the floor and EVERYWHERE!

The food was amazing --although my bird did cook slightly longer than Martha would have liked--and the kids seemed to really have a good time. The women even managed to fit in a vinyl lettering craft while the men watched some football. I don't think, however, that my marriage can handle this event again. So someone else better start gearing up for two years from now!

Here is the 'spread' before the feast began!

One thing I insisted upon was that all 34 of us manage to eat at one long table together!

And miracle of miracle, my children actually ate!

Thank you to whoever brought the soccer ball!

I am just so thankful that it is all over!

Cold Play concert on Thanksgiving Eve!

Court and I had so much fun at the ColdPlay Concert! The last time I even went to a concert was back in 1996---Sting! And I would not even consider that experience an actual concert. We were sitting on the grass on blankets for that one. But at Jobing.com arena we were 2nd row baby! Chris Martin was close enough to touch--literally. They had built out platforms from the stage so he could come out into the audience more, and he would actually walk right by me. At one point they even left the stage and just walked out into the middle of the audience to perform an acoustic version of 'The Scientist.' And, although my ticket said no photography of any kind, apparently security did not care, because everyone was snapping away and pushing record. There was some crazy opening act by an 'artist' named John Hopkins that truly made me want to slit my wrists, but once the curtain began to raise everything was perfect. On Viva la Vida the drummer was going crazy on a huge liberty looking bell on the stage. I guess he didn't realize his own strength because he broke the top of the mallett right off! Court got some great shots with the camera, which is pretty amazing since the lighting was crazy. The first video clip is a short 22 second 'keeping it real' segment. The last video clip is if a live performance of 'Yellow' for any of you fellow ColdPlay fans-so it is a little long, but ENJOY!

Thanks honey for coming along and singing all the songs with me!

Twilight at Midnight!

Yes Tara, I am stealing your title, it is just too fitting.

Thusday night was supposed to be bunko night, but a few e-mails, a few phone calls, and it turned into a Twilight movie premiere night! I have never gone to a midnight movie premiere showing before---I highly recommend it. We started out the evening at BJ's Brewery--YUM! I could live off of Bruschetta and Pizzookies from this place.

About 8:30 we headed over to the movie theater to start lining up--bear in mind that the movie still would not start for another 3 1/2 hours. Luckily we had a few children that saved us our place in line. We all camped out in the hallway waiting for the time that we could make a mad dash for a seat in theater #8. I think all passerbyers were jealous of our game of "Would you rather"

I think we made the employees a little nervous. About 9 'o clock they came by and told us that we could not enter the theater unless we were all lined up against the wall. So we sucked it in and made our line up!

It appears that I missed the memo about dressing in black. I didn't think that Stephenie Meyers' world of vampires was goth--but apparently I was wrong!

Instead of filling up one row, we decided it would be easier to chat if stayed in a pack. So yep, we spanned from the back row to the front--all 18 of us!

Oh my goodness, it was so much fun. Finally at 12:05 the movie began! Thanks so much bunko boobies---I MEAN babes!

I hate to write to much about the movie, 'cause I would hate to spoil it for anyone. I DID NOT love it, but I didn't hate it either. Lets just focus on the positive, shall we? All of the Cullen's were well cast and well acted. Except Rosalie wasn't exactly Miss All That---she was sporting a little junk in the trunk. She had the attitude, just not the visual stunningness that is Roalie Hale Cullen. Billy Burke was great as Charlie. The first encounter in Bio class was so good! Special thanks need to go out to "the wind" for playing a huge role in this movie. THE kiss was sooo, sooo, good (and then immediately awkward) but all and all it was so fun to just see it all come to life. All I can say is Jacob better get a nose job if they even think about filming New Moon.

So what did everyone else think?

Meridian Family Picnic

Every semester our elementary school has a family picnic at school. Everybody brings their blankets and scrambles for the little bit of shade that their is by the Basketball Court and we get to spend lunchtime with the kids. I think this was our 3rd one since Delainee has been in kindergarten last year. Usually we do the old drive thru at McDonalds, but this year Shelby and I decided a healthier (and yummier option for that matter) would be Steve's Krazy Sub. Soooo, I dropped Shelby off at school to save us our 'spot' and I went and picked up nine sub sandwiches and chips and drinks for our whole group. Someone should have taken a shot of me trying to carry all of this stuff in, but it all worked out great and it was a perfect day.

Here is part of our group as they chow....

Laetner loves his 'brown juice'
And thank you Shelby for taking some great shots of me and my kids!

I really need to cherish these moments when my kiddies aren't embarrassed to come sit on my lap and be seen by their friends.

I hope they never get to embarrassed.

Viva la Coldplay!!!

I LOVE the band Coldplay, and they will be performing in Glendale on November 26th. I asked Court pretty please if we could get some tickets and 'we' decided that after our NYC trip we probably didn't need to spend money on another 'show'---BUMMER! So I hear on the radio that they are giving away tickets for the show if you call in as the 25th caller when they play a certain song. Right, like those are great odds. But after recently reading a book called "The Prizewinner of Defiance, Ohio", I thought I should try my hand at a contest! I turned the radio on at 7:20 to hear what the song of the day was---it was CLOCKS btw---and then my poor household had to listen ALLLLLL day long til they finally played the magical tune at 4:45. I had my house phone in one hand and my cell phone in the other, whilst Court sat with his cell phone in one hand and his blackberry in the other. We dialed our phones to 260-0969 and waited for the phones to start ringing, when we got a horrific message that this number is currently out of service. Immediately Court shouts out that is must be a 602 area code so we hang up and proceeded to redial all of our phones with the new correct number. My cell phone was in my left hand and I am not as skillful with my left hand, so when I could hear the phone actually ringing through the speaker phone, I figured I had dialed wrong. Whilst my left hand is ringing I am hanging up my right hand and redialing and then I finally make it back to my cell phone to check which number I actually dialed, when to my amazement it appears to be the correct number. This whole time the phone just keeps ringing and ringing. Finally someone picks up the phone, and I don't think he said anything other than "Mix 96.9" so I waited an instant and blubbered out, "So, am I the 25th caller???"

Indeed I was and I won 3rd row tickets to go see COLDPLAY!!!!!

So if you were listening to the radio yesterday and you heard some deejay berate the caller about a delayed reaction and that her name was Julie, then yeah, that was me!