Turkey time!! It was great to have our first Thanksgiving in our new house! Our family (Matthews two sisters, brother, and our nephews) came over early in the day, which was nice because we had lots of time to talk and I got help with all the cooking. It was raining outside, so the kids did a lot of this on and off all day:
Our kitchen is big enough to have everyone helping at the same time, and because we have the two ovens, we managed to get everything ready right around 2:30. The turkey was so juicy, when I went to take the drumsticks off, the bones just slipped right out! This picture of me carving the turkey cracks me up. Look at my expression! Not sure what I was doing here, but Matthew was clearly amused!
I made these rolls from scratch that morning, and they turned out really good!
The turkey fresh from the oven, all 24.5 pounds:
The turkey all carved up and about to be devoured by a growing teenage nephew:
The kiddy table:
And some cute kid pictures to round everything out. Here is Takoda (4) saying "No more pictures Auntie!"
Rowan loves having so many older cousins to look out for her!
It was such a pleasant day! I missed my brother and Kami a lot, and I had occasional twinges of sadness for my parents not being there. But it is what it is, and I tried not to dwell on it. The day went smoothly, the kids mostly all got along, and as always its so much fun hanging with the family!
This year more than ever I feel we have so much to be grateful for. I am so blessed to have the family that I do, and I never want to take them for granted. We are so fortunate to have this new house, a place to grow as a family and build some great memories. We all have our health, something I am not taking for granted this year! We have a bond of love and patience and acceptance that will carry us through any tough times that come our way. We have awesome family, who will stick by us through anything, and they know that we will do the same for them. We have some great friends in our lives right now, two couples who we adore and who both mean SO much to us. You guys are irreplaceable, and we love you! I am grateful for everything that we have, and everything that will come our way in the future.
And here is an update on my health saga. I got my results back from my CT scan on Wednesday night. The Doctor said that they found a "wedge shaped condolidation" in my right lung and that they thought it was a blood clot. Of course that totally freaked me out, along with her "urgent" order for another more detailed CT scan Friday to take a closer look. So I got to spend two days freaking out about blood clots, and wondering why the heck nothing was showing up on my left side, where all the pain and swelling is. So, I headed back to get another scan, with more kidney damaging contrast dye, and of course, more cancer causing radiation. :/ I probably glow in the dark now with the amount of that crap in my system. Scary stuff, but it had to be done. Except, once again, we didn't get the results we were expecting. This time they say the area was smaller than it was on Tuesday, and they no longer think its a blood clot. YAHOO! But...WTF is it then? The doctors diagnosis? Walking pneumonia. Sure as heck beats a blood clot. Apparently with this kind of pneumonia, you don't often have a cough or fever, but you do have extreme tiredness (check), lightheadedness (check) and shortness of breath (check, check, check). So she says that this can turn into regular pneumonia, but hopefully I can beat it without having to take antibiotics. So, that leaves us with the left rib mystery. Or the "bulge" as we have taken to calling it around here. She thinks that, get this, I have somehow done the equivalent of spraining my ribs. She says that the cartilage and muscle connecting my ribs is all messed up, and causing this horrible pain, swelling, and heart attack mimicking chest pain. She told me the clinical name, and I looked it up and....check, check, check. I have all the symptoms. So how does this go away? You ready for a good laugh? I cant pick up Rowan, do laundry, lift anything, exert myself in any way, or in general take care of my family for two weeks. Hahahahahaha. That and taking lots of Advil is supposed to cure me of this strange sprain and I will be back to doing the rumba around the living room. Except I am not very good at asking for, or receiving help, and Matthew is not very good at laundry ;) So while I am going to try really hard not to lift anything, I am not betting on a speedy recovery! Think I can get some room service up in here?
And, my last topic up for discussion....BLACK FRIDAY! I have been going shopping the day after Thanksgiving for the last 5-6 years. I always go with my Dad, and we rush around and generally have a blast together. This year I obviously didn't get to go with him, and that really bummed me out. But tradition is tradition, so I woke early this morning at 3am, after a measly 4 ours of sleep, and stumbled to the kitchen to load up on coffee. Once halfway awake, I felt I could safely drive and I headed out armed with copies of the ads, and the plan of attack Matthew and I made the night before. I started with Kohls, because they open at 4. I was in and out, and at 4:15 headed to the mall, because JC Penny was also open super early. I was in and out of there by 4:45, giving me 15 minutes to wait for Sears to open. Now, I usually dont go to the mall on black Friday, and I now remember why. Sears was INSANE!! Everything good is apparently downstairs, so people were running in a mad dash to get to the escalator. It always cracks me up to see grown men and women running through the store trying to be the first to get whatever great deal they want. Anyways, picture all these people, streaming from multiple different entrances, descending on one pitifully narrow escalator. Luckily nobody was trampled, and I was only minorly grossed out and claustrophobic about being squished in with that many people. I made it out of there alive, and stopped by the Disney store to indulge my biggest Little Einstein fan. I was out of the mall, and back to Beaverton by 6:15! In and out of sock hell, AKA Fred Meyers, by 6:45, and I hit up Target and Game Stop within the next 45 minutes. I headed home with my treasures by 8 am, and caught up on some much needed sleep. My sweet shopping hating husband had taken the day off to stay home with the kids, and he let me sleep till Rowan snuck in and woke me up at 10. We hung out for a while, then decided that I should head back out to ToysRus real quick before my CT scan, since they were both out in Tigard. I was able to knock some more stuff off my list there, and all in all, we saved a ton of money.....although we spent an awful lot too. We really are trying to do less this Christmas. More meaningful gifts, less junk (not that we usually do much of that anyways). But a deal is a deal and tradition is tradition....right? :)
I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and spent some wonderful time with your families!
Our kitchen is big enough to have everyone helping at the same time, and because we have the two ovens, we managed to get everything ready right around 2:30. The turkey was so juicy, when I went to take the drumsticks off, the bones just slipped right out! This picture of me carving the turkey cracks me up. Look at my expression! Not sure what I was doing here, but Matthew was clearly amused!
I made these rolls from scratch that morning, and they turned out really good!
The turkey fresh from the oven, all 24.5 pounds:
The turkey all carved up and about to be devoured by a growing teenage nephew:
The kiddy table:
And some cute kid pictures to round everything out. Here is Takoda (4) saying "No more pictures Auntie!"
Rowan loves having so many older cousins to look out for her!
It was such a pleasant day! I missed my brother and Kami a lot, and I had occasional twinges of sadness for my parents not being there. But it is what it is, and I tried not to dwell on it. The day went smoothly, the kids mostly all got along, and as always its so much fun hanging with the family!
This year more than ever I feel we have so much to be grateful for. I am so blessed to have the family that I do, and I never want to take them for granted. We are so fortunate to have this new house, a place to grow as a family and build some great memories. We all have our health, something I am not taking for granted this year! We have a bond of love and patience and acceptance that will carry us through any tough times that come our way. We have awesome family, who will stick by us through anything, and they know that we will do the same for them. We have some great friends in our lives right now, two couples who we adore and who both mean SO much to us. You guys are irreplaceable, and we love you! I am grateful for everything that we have, and everything that will come our way in the future.
And here is an update on my health saga. I got my results back from my CT scan on Wednesday night. The Doctor said that they found a "wedge shaped condolidation" in my right lung and that they thought it was a blood clot. Of course that totally freaked me out, along with her "urgent" order for another more detailed CT scan Friday to take a closer look. So I got to spend two days freaking out about blood clots, and wondering why the heck nothing was showing up on my left side, where all the pain and swelling is. So, I headed back to get another scan, with more kidney damaging contrast dye, and of course, more cancer causing radiation. :/ I probably glow in the dark now with the amount of that crap in my system. Scary stuff, but it had to be done. Except, once again, we didn't get the results we were expecting. This time they say the area was smaller than it was on Tuesday, and they no longer think its a blood clot. YAHOO! But...WTF is it then? The doctors diagnosis? Walking pneumonia. Sure as heck beats a blood clot. Apparently with this kind of pneumonia, you don't often have a cough or fever, but you do have extreme tiredness (check), lightheadedness (check) and shortness of breath (check, check, check). So she says that this can turn into regular pneumonia, but hopefully I can beat it without having to take antibiotics. So, that leaves us with the left rib mystery. Or the "bulge" as we have taken to calling it around here. She thinks that, get this, I have somehow done the equivalent of spraining my ribs. She says that the cartilage and muscle connecting my ribs is all messed up, and causing this horrible pain, swelling, and heart attack mimicking chest pain. She told me the clinical name, and I looked it up and....check, check, check. I have all the symptoms. So how does this go away? You ready for a good laugh? I cant pick up Rowan, do laundry, lift anything, exert myself in any way, or in general take care of my family for two weeks. Hahahahahaha. That and taking lots of Advil is supposed to cure me of this strange sprain and I will be back to doing the rumba around the living room. Except I am not very good at asking for, or receiving help, and Matthew is not very good at laundry ;) So while I am going to try really hard not to lift anything, I am not betting on a speedy recovery! Think I can get some room service up in here?
And, my last topic up for discussion....BLACK FRIDAY! I have been going shopping the day after Thanksgiving for the last 5-6 years. I always go with my Dad, and we rush around and generally have a blast together. This year I obviously didn't get to go with him, and that really bummed me out. But tradition is tradition, so I woke early this morning at 3am, after a measly 4 ours of sleep, and stumbled to the kitchen to load up on coffee. Once halfway awake, I felt I could safely drive and I headed out armed with copies of the ads, and the plan of attack Matthew and I made the night before. I started with Kohls, because they open at 4. I was in and out, and at 4:15 headed to the mall, because JC Penny was also open super early. I was in and out of there by 4:45, giving me 15 minutes to wait for Sears to open. Now, I usually dont go to the mall on black Friday, and I now remember why. Sears was INSANE!! Everything good is apparently downstairs, so people were running in a mad dash to get to the escalator. It always cracks me up to see grown men and women running through the store trying to be the first to get whatever great deal they want. Anyways, picture all these people, streaming from multiple different entrances, descending on one pitifully narrow escalator. Luckily nobody was trampled, and I was only minorly grossed out and claustrophobic about being squished in with that many people. I made it out of there alive, and stopped by the Disney store to indulge my biggest Little Einstein fan. I was out of the mall, and back to Beaverton by 6:15! In and out of sock hell, AKA Fred Meyers, by 6:45, and I hit up Target and Game Stop within the next 45 minutes. I headed home with my treasures by 8 am, and caught up on some much needed sleep. My sweet shopping hating husband had taken the day off to stay home with the kids, and he let me sleep till Rowan snuck in and woke me up at 10. We hung out for a while, then decided that I should head back out to ToysRus real quick before my CT scan, since they were both out in Tigard. I was able to knock some more stuff off my list there, and all in all, we saved a ton of money.....although we spent an awful lot too. We really are trying to do less this Christmas. More meaningful gifts, less junk (not that we usually do much of that anyways). But a deal is a deal and tradition is tradition....right? :)
I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and spent some wonderful time with your families!