Thanksgiving Week

In our family, Thanksgiving wouldn't be Thanksgiving unless we had 15 people and two dogs crammed in the same home, the sound of broken glass, screaming children, love, laughter, stuff everywhere, a fall down the stairs, broken bones and blood. Lets just say, there was a lot of testosterone in this house, a lot! I know, it sounds crazy but that's exactly what we are and we wouldn't have it any other way. With that said, we're still recovering.

Now that the house has cleared out and all the chaos, great chaos has come to a brief end I wanted to tell you about my Thanksgiving week; it was wonderful! That's not to say we didn't have a couple bumps in the road but those were small little details in the grand scheme of things.

Over the Thanksgiving week Dave and my brother went to our cousins house for a BBQ. Dave was practicing his wrestling moves with a friend and came home with a lot of pain in his wrist. He was trying to exercise it knowing it was in the healing process while I was running around trying to find a splint. Dave doesn't complain so I could tell something wasn't right when he was moaning and groaning. I don't want to bore you with all the details because I know if I'm exhausted talking about it, you'll be exhausted and logging out of my blog within seconds of reading it ;) After driving 1.5hrs to the base and getting the typical Naval runaround, they told us we had to come back the next day to get Dave in a cast since the cast place at the Naval Hospital was closed...at 11:30am...on a Tuesday morning. Needless to say, we had a very frustrating morning. Just as we were driving off base I looked in my rear view mirror to see flashing red and blue lights. Yep, I was getting pulled over. When I asked the officer why he pulled me over he said, "you failed to stop at a stop sign. In fact, you didn't even try to stop. I thought to myself, "no shit, I didn't see a stop sign!" He continued, "I need proof of insurance, license and registration." I handed him my license, registration and a pdf of my insurance on my phone which he didn't accept...which I also got a ticket for. DOESN'T HE KNOW IT'S 2009!?!?! Thank goodness this all happened on base because it didn't go on my real driving record, just on my military one. After we actually left base we headed to the happiest place on earth to meet my family. Anytime you go to Disneyland you feel as though you need to stay there from open to close just to get your money's worth. Well, that's how my family feels. Dave and I ended up staying for 9hrs and rode every ride possible. It was a great time as it is every time! My favorite thrill ride is the Hollywood Tower of Terror. I can't get enough of it. I guess I love the stomach dropping, shaky leg feeling that comes along with it. Who doesn't want to be dropped from the 13th story of a building??? We were standing in line at our last ride of the night, space mountain when I realized everyone had dropped out of line except for Dave and I. Two were nearly asleep sitting by the wall and one had severe blisters on his feet. At that point I realized, that one last ride wasn't worth waiting in line for at 11:30pm.

The next day we arose bright and early to get on the road to Dave's cast appointment. We arrived 10min early because if you don't arrive 10min early you're considered late and they make you reschedule. That rule is pretty funny since we ended up waiting for nearly 2hrs before they called Dave's name. How ironic!? They gave him two options; 1) Have surgery and wear a cast for 8 weeks after. 2) Just wear the cast for 12 weeks and hope it heals right. If it doesn't heal after that he'll need to have a screw put in the bone to hold it together, then wear the cast for another 8 weeks. He opted for the 12wk cast without the surgery in hopes it would heal. It's a full arm cast from the top of his bicep to his hand for twelve...long...weeks. After that, we made our way to the Naval Traffic Judge to get my ticket squared away. When the judge called my name I went up to his desk. He asked "where did you get pulled over?" I told him it was by the commissary. Then he said "did you run the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd stop sign?" I answered, "I'm not sure, I didn't see it." He smirked, stamped "warning" on my ticket, gave me my decal back and sent me on my way. Piece of cake! That concluded our dealings with the Navy for the week.

During the Thanksgiving week, we spent a lot of time with my family, went to the park with my niece and nephew, checked out the black Friday sales, ate lots of leftovers, watched movies, moved my brother out of his house, flew remote control air planes, picked on each other and just hung out. We really missed one of my brothers who couldn't make it but I'll be seeing him in just a few days :)

It's been a little over a week since I stopped working. Not working has its advantages and disadvantages...what day is it? I'm hoping to stop in and see all of my peeps next week. I really miss them! I also miss pilates. I was taking classes 3-4 times per week for the last 2.5 months. Now I'm just eating a lot of turkey minus the pilates. Maybe I'll get in a class next week before we start our road trip to the east coast. Since I stopped reading my most recent book last week, I've been craving for another one. I bought "are you there, vodka? It's me Chelsea." By Chelsea Handler. I'm burning through the pages. I like her sense of humor a lot.

What book are you reading? Do you have one to recommend?

I'll catch up with you again soon,
CW

Update

It's been a while so I thought I'd give you an update. Dave has been out to sea since Tuesday last week. I've been keeping busy with work, Pilate's, piano lessons, a baby shower and hanging with Nana.

For the last three months I have really gotten into Pilate's. I love the way it makes me feel and look. I am seeing a great improvement in my body. I hope there's a studio where we're moving on the east coast.

Nana and I have been playing a lot of gin, eating tasty meals, laughing, visiting with friends and drinking wine. We really have an awesome time together! We have always been really close and have a great relationship. There is something that Nana, my Mom and I love to do together; we love to stand in the greeting card section of a store, read greeting cards, pass the funny ones around and laugh hysterically. It is so fun and it's something that I have been doing with them for years. And it works because the three of us all have the same sense of humor. Some of the cards actually almost bring us to tears from laughing so hard. I'm sure we've disturbed 100's of shoppers.

My Mom is coming to visit Nana and I tonight. We're going to have dinner with our good friends which I'm sure will be a blast. Tomorrow we're going up to see Julian. I've never been and I don't know what to expect, but I'm excited to explore.

I'm missing Dave so much! It's comforting to know that this will be one of the last times he will have to go out to sea...hopefully for life. He's been emailing me every now and then but I just can't wait to see him!

It's getting to be that time. My last day of work is on the 19th. Now I've left jobs before and never thought twice about it but leaving the place I work now is going to be the hardest. I really love the people I work with and have grown very close to them. They have been my family for over two years now and I'm so sad to leave them. I started training my replacement last week. She is great and is catching on to the job quickly but that doesn't mean it's easy for me to hand it over to her.

I'll do my best to keep you posted on everything that's happening in my life but just know, I'm going to be very busy over the next few weeks. A lot of change is on the way and you'll be the first to know all the details!

Until next time,
Cw

Blackouts and streaking

I have such a great feeling about this coming weekend. The MR is home ALL weekend which I love and we don't have too many plans. One thing I've realized is that the MR and I are definitely starting to enjoy different things in life. We don't care to join in on the night life as much anymore, but every now and then its fun. We're content at home with each other and some friends, tasty wine, nice music, good conversation and we're always up for an exciting adventure. Our weekend will consist of those elements along with several walks around town, a card game or two, exercise, a friends' comedy show, great food, a family fun BBQ, snuggling, making breakfast, the perfect cup of coffee or tea, lots of laughter and...we're content! So what I'm trying to say is, don't expect me to write a post on Monday about our wild weekend full of blackouts and streaking, at least for this weekend, sorry. However, things don't always go as planned (wink wink).

Slow down this weekend and enjoy the moments.

Cereal Writer

All About The S'mores!

There's nothing better than lying in bed with my husband when I should be at work. Luckily I work for wonderful people who are very kind to me.

I got off work at one o'clock today when I normally get off at five o'clock. There's something so exciting about being off work when everyone else is still working. It doesn't happen too often but it feels very liberating when it does. I couldn't wait to get home to be with my love. We had a very nice nap, of course I couldn't sleep much, but it was relaxing.

After our nap we decided to coordinate a bonfire with a few of our friends and everyone was to bring specific items. To be honest, my main concern were the s'mores. I wasn't even really concerned if we had wood for our fire >:-) I wanted those damn s'mores! We could have cooked them in the microwave, I didn't care. Of course, the guys were more interested in having enough alcohol. You know, the key things men need to have fun; fire, alcohol, food and a lot of rambunctiousness. We finally had our supplies and were headed to the bonfire. We were at a stop light next to this lady who we thought was listening to "Scrubs" by TLC. I'm still not sure if she was but we started singing it ourselves not realizing we were getting so carried away. About 3/4 of the way through the song, rapping, harmonizing and doing solo performances in the Nissan Frontier, it hit us. We stopped our performance, looked at each other and I said "were we really just singing "scrubs"?" We laughed hysterically!

The bonfire was fun. I got my s'mores :) No one really understood why I like my marshmallows burnt, but what is it to them?! We shared some good stories and when the guys started talking about their nerd gadgets or work, us ladies made sure they knew how boring it was.

I'm so happy it's the weekend! We're going to try and cram as many fun and exciting things into our schedule as possible.

For me, life is about smiling, love and laughter. Life is being yourself, creating yourself and loving yourself. It starts with you! Who cares if others think you're weird. I love being at home with my husband because there is no holding back. I am 100% me; goofy, un-ladylike (at times), immature, emotional and he still thinks I'm beautiful, so he says. Life is too short to sweat the small stuff. Enjoy every moment!

Have a wonderful weekend and do something fun that you wouldn't normally do. Step outside your regular routine - You may enjoy it!

Quote: "When someone shows you who they are, believe them." - Maya Angelou

Cereal Writer-