It is Finally Here!

Well, I did it! I hosted my first Thanksgiving dinner. It went fairly well - meaning that I didn't freak out too much and we didn't have to go to McDonald's for dinner. It was just a small party. Matt's Mom and his friend Edgar came over. We had some good food and a great time talking and just having fun. Bev made some amazing rolls and a great home-made pumpkin pie. It was wonderful. After dinner we headed over to my parent's house and had the second helping of pie (I love Thanksgiving!) We just missed my sister and her family, but it was still great to see my parents.

Here is a picture of our dinner all set up.This is Matt, Edgar, and Bev. I caught them getting ready to leave, that is why Matt has his shoes in his hand. I forgot to take any other pictures during the night.
We also put up our Christmas tree this weekend. Matt dug the tree out of storage on Friday while I was at work and made sure all the spiders were out of it before we decorated. Then on Saturday we added all the ornaments. It was fun. Here are a couple pictures of our tree. (you will notice there are no presents under it - we haven't had time to go shopping yet).

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I am sitting on the couch watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade (actually the commercials, there are SO many commercials) and I wanted to wish you all a happy Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving. I love the comfort of the day - the family and the food and the football. It is great to surround yourself with people you love and just remember all the things for which you are Thankful.

This year we are attempting to do Thanksgiving at our little duplex. Luckily it is for a small crowd, just Matt's mom and his friend Edgar. We will see how it goes. If we end up at McDonalds or the Chuck-a-Rama I wouldn't be surprised.

Hope you all have a great day!

Who Knew Shopping Could Be So Much Fun

I went shopping with my little sister Val yesterday. She was looking for a nice dress to take on her cruise with her next month (I won't even begin to expound on how jealous I am of that). She had looked down in Salt Lake but couldn't find anything she liked, and time was running out. We were determined to find something.

So we hit a couple of stores, and at first had no luck at all. We didn't even get to the point of trying things on. Just looking and walking away.

Our last stop was to JC Penney. We found a couple dresses with try-on potential and she went to the dressing rooms. I was going to just walk around and wait for her, but then I saw it! They have the whole little area - a waiting room next to the fitting rooms. There were comfy chairs, and even better, a TV. At first all that was on the TV was truck commercials, and I wondered if it just showed commercials. Boy was I excited when the commercials ended and I got to watch me some Monday Night Football while she tried on her dresses.

Unfortunately Val was too fast in finding a cute dress and we were out of there before the first point was scored, but I figure - hey - if you don't have cable and want to watch some Monday Night Football, head to the JC Penney and enjoy the game!

See- you can't blame me.

I don't know how many of you have looked up Biorhythms, but this is my chart for this week. Pink is emotional, blue is physical, and brown is intellectual. I guess you can't expect much from me this week. But I guess it explains why I can't gt over my cold!

Either Early or Late

I went home for lunch and saw these flowers blooming in my front yard.

This flower either is WAY early or WAY late. But it did make me smile.

Gratitude ... goes beyond the "mine" and "thine" and claims the truth that all of life is a pure gift. In the past I always thought of gratitude as a spontaneous response to the awareness of gifts received, but now I realize that gratitude can also be lived as a discipline. The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy.

--Henri J. M. Nouwen

This quote is again a good one for me. I know that I am often a rather negative person, so this is something I need to work on.

"Some complain that roses have thorns - others rejoice that thorns have roses!"

--Unknown

You Get What You Pay For

We had a tragedy at the Clark house yesterday. I got home from work and Matt asked me to cut his hair. Now, I have been cutting his hair since we got married, because he thinks I do a better job than he does, and because he does not want to pay to for a haircut when he can get one for free. So I pulled out the clippers and attached the length attachment and was going at it when - Uh Oh - the attachment fell off the clippers and I shaved an amazing bald spot on the side of his head!
So now this is how he gets to go out into public

No, it isn't that bad, but he does look like he enlisted in the army now. He went to substitute at the Juvy today, and they made fun of him. Soon it will grow back and we will put this behind us. I just hope that happens soon.

Quote for 11/18

I needed this one today, because I REALLY didn't want to come to work. (I have a cold)

"Thank God every day when you get up that you have something to do that day which must be done whether you like it or not. Being forced to work and forced to do your best will breed in you temperance and self-control, diligence and strength of will, cheerfulness and content, and a hundred virtues which the idle will never know."

-- Basil Carpenter

Christmas Joy

A week ago I watched as my neighbors put up their outside Christmas decorations. I was filled with anticipation for the not-to-distant day when the neighborhoods will be lit up with bright lights to celebrate Christmas. Then I was a little bummed because I am not really putting any up. See, we are still renting and I don’t think I should be climbing on the roof hooking up lights. I did however, have a hankering to do some Christmas decorating. So I called up my dad to see when he was going to hang the plethora of lights that illuminate our home during the Holiday season.

To my shock and dismay I found out that he was planning on saving a little money this season by NOT putting up lights in all the trees. I knew that this could not happen! There was family honor at stake and I wasn’t going to let my parent’s have the house without the Christmas lights! So I went down there on Saturday (I left Matt home with a cold) and we climbed into the attic and got the lights down. I conceded that we didn’t need lights in EVERY tree, but we did need them in at least one, and we chose the pine tree in the front yard.

The sunlight was quickly disappearing and so we climbed through the boxes and grabbed out the lights for the tree. Unfortunately – also in Haun tradition – half the Christmas lights didn’t work. We didn’t get them going in time to put them up. But I did get to participate in the wonderful tradition of light testing. We even made it all the way to the end of the row and had to start over. Oh – the Joy of Christmas!

Monday's Thanksgiving Quote

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."
--Melody Beattie

Sunday quote

"Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it"
--William Arthur Ward

Saturday Quote

It should be easy to be thankful today. I mean, who isn't Thankful for Saturdays?

"We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures." --Thornton Wilder

The day has finally come

I was told this day would come – and it has. Today is officially the day that I no longer need to have cash! Those of you who know me well know that I am addicted to Diet Coke, and as such I have to have cash on had – either 1’s or change – in order to feed my addiction and get me drinks out of the machine. But that is no longer true. They just installed pop machines at work that accept credit cards. You heard me right, I can now get my drinks without even having to plan ahead enough to have cash in my purse.

Isn’t technology awesome!

Quote for Friday the 14th

There are less than 2 weeks until Thanksgiving. Would you believe I haven't even thought about it yet! I need to get into the spirit. Too bad there isn't some Thanksgiving music, or movies, or something! I will just have to get into the spirit some other way.

"Courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest in the grateful and appreciating heart." --Henry Clay

My favorite new exercise

I have been a good girl and have started to go to the gym here at work. I am so happy I did because they have the best machine for exercising! I have super bad knees, so I can’t run or jog, and walking – while great – doesn’t burn a lot of calories quickly. I moved on to the elliptical, and that was a lot of fun, and much nicer on my silly legs. But now a regular elliptical will never be enough – I have experienced the AMT (Adaptive Movement Trainer). I know, it sounds silly, but it is great! It is like an elliptical except you get to control the length of your stride. So if I want it to be more like a stair climber, it is, or if I want a short stride, I get that. Or I can run outright and it is great for that too. The only problem is that there is only one at the gym, so when Matt comes with me we have to fight over it. But it is great!

Thanksgiving quote for Thursday November 13th

"We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude."
--Cynthia Ozick

Tuesday and Wednesday Thanksgiving Quotes

"Lord that lends me life, Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness!"
-- William Shakespeare

"Gratitude consists of being more aware of what you have, than what you don’t."
--Unknown

Veteran's Day

Tuesday was Veteran’s day – which means I had a day off of work. I will admit that I am still in a place that I get all excited over my new holidays. I haven’t had a Veteran’s day off ever! So it was great to have a day off in the middle of the week. I didn’t make any big plans, since it was a Tuesday, other than to sleep in. I love sleeping – I sometimes wonder if it is not my natural state. I am meant to be asleep and not awake. I didn’t get to sleep all day though, because my sister Chrystie asked if I would go up and help my other sister baby-sit her kids while she was at work. I am always happy to have the opportunity to play with my adorable niece and nephew, so I went up. Matt didn’t come with me this time, and I realized how valuable he is when babysitting. Usually I am the one that takes the baby and he chases the 2 year old around. But this time I was the chaser – and while it is lots of fun, I don’t have that kind of energy!

After babysitting I got to go to lunch with my sisters and we had a good time. I got home and met Matt. We decided it was time to go and get him some new clothes (well, his old clothes decided that by wearing out) so we also took advantage of my not being at work to run to the store and get some stuff. Normally I hate shopping for clothes, but it isn’t bad when I am shopping for someone else! So that was fun.

Unfortunately all that fun was too much for Matt, and he is down sick with a bad cold today. Poor guy.

Happy Birthday Dawn

Monday was my best friend Dawn’s birthday. We were lucky enough to get to have dinner with her to celebrate. She brought her cute kids over and we had an impromptu party. Cute Carson is doing good and walking again, though sometimes he does go too fast for his legs. Natalie is getting old enough that she is smiley and giggly. We had some yummy pizza and good cheesecake.

Happy Birthday Dawn!

Sunday and Monday Quotes

I missed posting yesterday, so here are two very good Thanksgiving quotes to get you in the Turkey-day mood.

"Who does not thank for little will not thank for much."--Estonian Proverb


"You say, 'If I had a little more, I should be very satisfied.' You make a mistake. If you are not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied if it were doubled."
--Charles Haddon Spurgeon

"Grace isn't a little prayer you chant before receiving a meal. It's a way to live." ---Jackie Windspear

A Quote a Day 'til Thanksgiving

In the spirit of the Turkey and Stuffing Holiday that is coming up, I thought I would post a Thanksgiving quote each day until Thanksgiving (or at least every day that I remember). So here I go. Quote number 1:

"The unthankful heart...discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!" --Henry Ward Beecher

Picture Tag

My sister Chrystie had a cute tag on her blog. It is to take the 4th picture from the 4th folder in "my pictures" and post it on the blog. So here I go.

This is a cute picture of my husband. I don't know when or where it was taken! But I would guess a wedding. I got a bunch of pictures from Matt when I was putting together our wedding video last year.

But that was a fun tag. Thanks Chrys!

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween this year. The day before Halloween we carved up our pumpkins and I made some Halloween Cup Cakes. I don't know why I made them, since I didn't want to eat them, but it seemed like a fun thing to do. We had to borrow eggs from our neighbors to make them! Shows how good I am at planning ahead.

We both had to work Halloween day, and it was fun to see some of the crazy costumes that people wear! Work seemed to drag on forever, but when I finally left I hurried home. Matt was just finishing up his costume, and then we got in the car and drove down to Matt's sister Becky's house. We got there in time to have some dinner and watch the kids get ready for Halloween. Matt's Aunt Amy and her family were their too. It was fun. Carson dressed up as Spiderman - with some very impressive muscles. Cailey was a cute Dora the Explorer, complete with purple backpack. Little Cameron was a puppy. Amy's kids were all pirates, and some very good looking ones too!

When they set off to go Trick-or-Treating we drove up to my sister Chrystie's house. Her daughter Arden was just finishing up her Trick-or-Treating and we were able to play with them for a little while. Arden was a little skunk (lil' stinker) and Daxton was a Dragon.

It was getting late at this point, but we stopped by at my parent's house to trick or treat ourselves (got some good candy) and then we went to a party that our friends Chris and Whitney were having. They had their Wii set up, and we brought our Dance Dance Revolution game and had a good time.

I put together a slideshow of our Halloween. I threw in some pictures of my niece and nephews in St. Louis even though I didn't get to see them. They were just too cute!