So, I’ve made it successfully through my first three Thaksgiving gatherings–now only two more to go! I’m feeling very chubby today. I wouldn’t say that I gorged myself or anything, but I’m definately not going hungry. My family has been lucky this week to spend time with lots of family and close friends. I’m so glad we’re still in Iowa! Actually, as is appropriate this time of year, I’ll take a moment to acknowledge and appreciate and express my gratitude for the many blessings in my life. I know that I am guilty of taking much for granted and greedily wanting more and more. I have a wonderful husband who enriches my life in more ways than I can count, and four of the most wonderful children to ever bless the face of the Earth (and they’re all–husband included, so darn cute)!!! I have a large, close, and caring extended family and considering how many people I’m related to now (including in-laws) as a group we’re in relatively good health. I have friends. New and old, far and near, and all of them so dear to my heart. (small rant on friends coming up.) In my life I have been blessed with so many wonderful friends. (And if you’re reading this, chances are good that you’re one of them!) Whether you consider me a friend or just a close aquaintance, or perhaps you feel compelled by relation to associate with me, or you are my kindred spirit–a bosom friend, our relationships have meant the world to me. I truly feel honored to have had so many close and meaningful relationships–I appreciate even the ones that have dissipated over the years for whatever reasons. Ok, moving on, I have a home and food and clothing and transportation etc etc. I am relatively well educated (you may not have known by my writings here–I am queen of rambling on with the comma splice!) and I have been given a ginormous multitude of life experiences. And while these are the big, more obvious blessings in my life, I am also thankful for things like having my own washer and dryer and having the kids’ school in my backyard so I don’t have to get everyone up and dressed early every morning–I can just send the older ones out the back door. I am thankful for comedy and the seasons and traditions and my senses. I am glad that Justin Timberlake decided to bring “SexyBack.” I’m not neccesarily convinced that he was the guy to do it, (or that he could) but the song has provided me with great entertainment and for that I give him Kudos. Ok again. I have grown quite weary and simply must retire for the night. I am grateful for sleep. And for the belief that tomorrow will come and be a new day…”with no mistakes in it”…yet.
Archive for November, 2006
I am trying to make my own Christmas cards. Trying is the operative word in that sentence. I’ve been feeling so crafty and accomplished lately with the scrapbooking that I thought sure, I’ll take on the cards! But, now I am feeling defeated. I am not so pleased with how they are looking and I’m feeling silly because I have like two boxes of Christmas cards from the store that are all sitting around like “Hey, isn’t it our time of year? Why are we being ignored?”
I am in Kansas City and there are several things that I would like to point out. I came on Thursday morning and went directly to where I needed to go (Mapquest is a blessing) after my first meeting I had a lunch provided by the trainers. It was fancy vegtables (which I like, but they were all to big, Baseball bat sized zuchini, so the flavor was off), Meat (which ended up being meatloafs), mashed potatoes and gravy and chicken and noodles. The last two items were the only palatable thing for me. They had us in a banquet hall with napkin wrapped silverware, multiple forks the whole bit. Did I mention this is a Construction Conference. Maybe I am an Iowa contractor and we are different, but I like simple, fancy tasted like crap! Also at this convention they have 16 different kinds of Coffees, and hot water to make your own hot chocolate. Throw me a fricken bone here!!! They gave us a snack on Thursday afternoon. German Chocolate Brownies and Rasberries. The best thing yet. The rasberries were so big I grabed more of them than I did of anything else. The meeting got over at 5:00 so I went to the Hotel. Hotels are just expensive. $58.00 for one night in a Red Roof Inn and they wanted to charge me for wireless internet and the TV had no AV connections so I couldn’t play GAMECUBE! I then wanted to go eat. I have never been to Ruth’s Chris and Sean Hannitty rants about them all of the time so I thought I would find it. It took me 30 minutes to find it. I arrived in jeans not knowing what to expect and it was probably the fanciest place I have ever eaten. They sat me down and handed me a menu. I look for meals and they have none. You order allecart (sp?) which would be fine if a side of mashed potatoes wasn’t $8.00!!! I tried a steak and was glad that it a least was filling. I was the only one alone and that was sad and made me wish I had money and time to spend with my wife and could feel comfortable in a place like that, but I know if I had money I would still take my wife to Outback and get a meal for $14.00 instead of two sides for $16.00!!!!!!!!!!! I don’t think I could ever or would ever want to feel comfortable spending that kind of money on dinner. I can cook! I felt a little better when I saw several couples come in wearing torn jean shorts!. I left the restaurant thinking it should be easy to get back, but alas One Way Streets are my down fall and without Map Quest printouts I was lost. It took me 1 hr and 25 minutes to find my way back to the hotel! I stopped and asked directions and the lady at Walgreens told me that East was North. That really got me screwed up!!! Once I figured out she had been wrong and finally got out of residential neighborhoods I found my way back. Did I mention I hate big Cities!!! I laid down at 9:00 and decided to watch some television. I watched Shark, Good show, and then flipped through the channels. Little to my knowledge that Premium Channels meant porn after 10:00. I quickly shot past this, appalled that this was coming into my room and I didn’t even ask for it. I ended up finding the Island with “Obi-Wan” Ewan McGeggor and Scarlet Johansen. I watched that untill 11:00 and went to bed. My body woke me at 4:00 to change Elena and she was not there so I went back to bed till the wakeup call. I watched Saved by the Bell and got ready for another day of conferences. We will see what today brings. Hopefully not fancy food.
Last night I had Parent/Teacher conferences with both kids’ teachers. I was slightly nervous about it because Jacob has been NOT interested in reading here at home and he’s had a bad attitude about getting up for school and Elise has been having potty accidents at school. I first met with Elise’s teacher and she had just nothing but good things to say. She said she would keep working with Elise on getting to the bathroom on time, but that academically Elise was quite advanced. Her testing scores for the beginning of the year placed her at the point they basically expect Kindergarteners to be at toward the end of the year. She is flying through the sight words and her handwriting the teacher said is the best in the whole class. She showed me a sample and it looked better than Jacob’s writing in 1st grade! The letters were sized and spaced properly and she spelled everything right! We went over her report card together and her teacher basically said that she has maxxed out the options on the report card so it shows that she’s completed the highest levels, but that means that the report card will be basically useless for the rest of the year because it can’t show any higher than she already is. Her teacher said that she will work with ‚ Elise on more challenging work. Jacob’s teacher seemed surprised that I was worried about him. She said that he hasn’t shown disinterest in class and that he is doing very well academically. She went through his math, reading, and spelling folders and he had 100% on several of his tests in all three subjects! She invited him to be part of a small group (3-4) to take on a special spelling challenge. He would do all the same spelling requirements as the rest of the class + 6 words more. And those 6 words are more difficult words and he’ll be responsible for finding their meanings and determining n, v, adv, adj, etc, (which they haven’t studied yet so they don’t really know those concepts) and writing sentences with them. ‚
My dad and Grandpa went on a family history trip recently in Illinois and my Grandpa Gerald Thrap met Gerald Thrapp.
“We asked if he knew where the two “p” Thrap had begun. He said that his grandfather Charles Corwin Thrap lived in Blandinsville with our Great Grandfather Charles Albert Thrap. Charles Corwin got tired of getting the wrong mail, so he added another p to the end of his name to end the confusion.”
It sounds like a good way to end confusion as well as cause confusion in the future generations.
Ok Kate, that link was hilarious. Of course I love the Napoleon dancing and I think if they’d tweaked it they could’ve made some of the moves fit the music a little better, but all-in-all hilarious! It did throw me off that the singing was in English though!!! (and I don’t know what I make of the song being able to understand most of the words…) If anyone wants to see what I’m talking about check Kate’s comment on my previous post for the link. I love funny. Especially clean funny. If anyone else has any funny they’d like to share with me, please, feel free.
Becca and I made apple pie today from apples provided by Grandma and Grandpa Widmer. Delivered by Sarah and Scott. Went to get ice cream for it and while there I found a rack of ribs for 6.45. BONUS!!!!
Do you all see a resemblance here? I think these pictures could practically be the same kid! (Now, I will admit that I have seen better pictures of both of these children and that both kids are much cuter than even these pictures show.)
Sorry to keep bothering you all with this. With my dad’s help I think we’ve figured out a solution to the picture problem so, now I’d like to practice doing more with these photos. So, have you met the newest member of our family? No, I am NOT pregnant! I’m talking about my brother-in-law Scott.
) So that is Scott and this is my picture-ful post! ‚
Hello everybody. The other day Josh went through his email contacts list and basically subscribed anyone he thought might care to hear news from us (via this blog) to get email updates when we post here on the blog. If you are receiveing this message by way of email and do NOT want to get an email every time I post any random little thing, please reply and let me know that you would like to be taken off the list and I will do so ASAP. Also, if you are a reader at my blog and are NOT receiving the email updates but would like to, then post a comment here and I will add you to the list of subscribers. Thank you for your patience and your presence in our lives.