Thursday things I think...

Oh, here's some randomness for ya today...

1. I have a love/hate relationship with Christmas cards  I love love love love getting them.  I check the mail multiple times a day (I check it every other day during non-holiday times...whoops).  I love seeing my friends' families.  I love seeing the design they choose.  Seriously, I adore getting them.  We hang them on our kitchen door and the kids look at them every day. 

However.  The act of sending them is another chapter in itself.  Getting a good picture (thank goodness for Amber Byrd...!), finding the right card, ordering cards, waiting for cards to arrive, addressing cards (and figuring out addresses that are missing/changed), sealing cards, stamping return addresses on cards, buying stamps, attaching stamps....and mailing. 

The price of it all is CAH-RAZY! Especially when you add in postage... and photographer fees... crazy! Granted, we don't have to use a photographer... but it reallllly makes a difference for us (or so I tell myself!!!)

But, it's worth it! I know it is! Hopefully others are as excited to get our card as I am getting theirs. And, truth be told, I love the whole entire process.  All of it. 

2. Usually, I make a big fat wish list for birthdays and holidays.  I am struggling this year! It sounds so stupid! I don't know what to ask for! I have ideas for everyone else.  I have a few ideas for myself-- I would like new dishes and I need a new pair of slippers... but I don't have a big list, like normal.  Eddie does really well with a list.  He is nervous going gift shopping without one.  I promised I would work on one this week.  Any must have things to ask for??

3. We have a bunch of holiday things coming up-- cocktail parties, dinners, nights out, New Years Eve.... and I have a closet full of clothes with nothing to wear... know what I am saying? I also suffer from being extremely cheap.  I hate spending a lot of clothes.  I went to the outlets today to do some Christmas shopping and I walked past Francesca's, the jewelry store...? There was a cute dress in the window so I stopped in... y'all, I could have tried on 60 things in there! They had fun going out tops that are easily paired with jeans or black pants or a skirt.  I tried on a bunch of dresses and loved most of them-- one was wayyyy too short, but super cute.  Every thing I tried on was under $50.  Whaaaa???

I got this green dress...

And this fun dress for New Years Eve... 

along with a skirt and some other little gifts for friends-- all for under $150.  Now that is crazy.  Most dresses I find that I like are well over $150 (I don't like to spend money, but I like expensive things-- you figure it out....). So, if you're looking for a few fun pieces-- look there!

4. Andy wants a pogo stick for Christmas.  Why? I wonder if he thinks it is easy to hop around? Where did he get that idea? Why? Seriously, Andy.  Why?

5. Cal's reading has taken off in the past 2 weeks.  It is crazy-- he is actually picking up a random book and reading it.  I walked in to his room today when it got too quiet (y'all know the kind of quiet I am talking about.... nothing but trouble...), and he was reading to Andy- a book picked off of the shelf.  It makes me proud and excited-- just crazy to watch him grown and learn.  Makes me feel so blessed to have healthy kids.

6.  All of that said above, I love teaching.  I looooove my job with the 2 year olds.  I loved teaching middle school.  But I do not think I am cut out to teach my own children.  I could never EVER homeschool.  Talking about rhyming words yesterday about made me lose my mind.  It is a hard concept for Cal-- cat and hat rhyme... why don't cat and cow rhyme? I say, "do they sound alike?" He says, "yeah- I hear the c sound..." and then I explain (AGAIN) how they don't rhyme and what makes words rhyme.  And I want to scream: "WHY DON'T YOU GET THAT CAT AND HAT AND FAT AND MAT ALL RHYME?!?!?!?!?!" But instead, I say "you go ahead and repeat those words and see what sounds alike, while mommy walks away and counts to 10.  Again."

7. I am knocking out the Christmas shopping this year- slowly, but surely.  Today at the outlets, I really crushed my list.  I love that place.

8. Speaking of lists- I am a list making queen.  I always have been.  Currently, I have a to do list, and to buy list, and to make list and a to blog list.  I just started a "Carrie gift idea list" too.  There's a chance I might have a list making problem.  Maybe I should make a list to find out. HA!

9. I got a mammogram last month.  I wrote about it a while back.  Just being proactive.  Cancer sucks.  Why not try to catch it early? Well, I got the bill from that boob squeezing....$800.  And guess how much our insurance covered? $50.  Yeah-- and whole WHOPPING $50.  It is infuriating.  I have it on my list (ha!) to call them and discuss.  Not that it will do any good.  But seriously- would they rather have to pay for all of my cancer treatments? They are dumb.

10. I ordered a new phone case.  And I love it.  But I ordered the wrong size case.  What is wrong with me? Can't decide if I should order a new phone to go in my new case? Or just a new case for my phone.  That's a joke.  kinda. 

Those are enough things I am thinking for right now.  What are you thinking???

(I am totally thinking more things, but I felt I needed to end this on number 10.  Maybe I will do another one of these on next Thursday!)


 

#carriedaway: week 47

Week 47:

 Day 324: Hank begged to go pick up his boys from school today. It was appreciated.

 Day 325: Their "best friends" hats were on...and then they played basketball.

 Day 326: he now sleeps in boxers.

 Day 327: Hank sitting in the seat like a human and Andy hysterically laughing.

 Day 328: "I am thankful for my mom. I love my mom. I see my mom.  I like my mom because she is prede. My mom likes to play weth me. I spent the morning with her. I like to play with my mom and my dad." Cal is a man of many words.

 Day 329: we spent just about all day playing outside. Thankful!

 Day 330: THANKFUL!

 

MEAT LOAF!

I had several people ask for this recipe after I posted about it a while back.  It is so easy.  And so good.  Serve it with some sweet potatoes and oh yummmm...

To start, we get reaaaaal fancy up in here.  Grab this packet:

And follow the instructions on the back.  Yeah.  I know.  Don't add the ketchup though. And I love some panko crumbs in mine...

Mix it all up in a bowl....

And then form it into a LOAF:

I usually do mine on a foil lined baking sheet, but we were out of foil when I made this one.  Pat it down and get it all loaf-like...

And then get your sauce started... and this is where the magic happens:

2 eight ounce cans of tomato sauce
6 tablespoons of vinegat
2 teaspoons of dry mustard
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup of brown sugar

Mix all of that in a pot and bring to a boil-- then pour a little bit on top of your loaf before it goes in the oven:



Now, it has to cook for close to an hour.  So I reduce the heat in the sauce to the lowest low and let it simmer while it cooks.  Your house will smell amazing.  I can't stop taste testing this sauce while it cooks. 

When it comes out, serve it up and give more sauce. 

YUM!

(I do not have any pictures post-oven...we ate it all up too quickly....)


 

oh!!!! {f'n!} Christmas Tree...!

We bought our Christmas tree the Sunday after Thanksgiving at the beach...

The bottom of the tree was slightly uneven, so we had to adjust when we put it in the stand.  Got it up and got it decorated.  Boom.

 

 A timehop popped up with a picture of our tree last year with both boys and both dogs sitting in front of it with the caption: "if this tree is still standing come Christmas, it will be a miracle..." and I thought to myself "thank goodness we don't have to worry about that this year now that they are all a year older!"

Ahem.

Wednesday morning, I looked over at Hank, snoozing in front of the tree and the fire... and I had to take a picture because it all looked so sweet...

 

Then comes Wednesday afternoon.  I am in the kitchen working and Andy and Bruce are in the living room, in front of the tree.  I have no idea what happened, but there was a HUGE crashing noise...and a lot of Andy screaming.

I walked over and saw a lot of broken ornaments.  A lot.  I asked Andy what happened and he just sat there crying.  When he finally stopped crying, he told me Bruce was chasing him...and then he burst into tears again. 

After calming him again (thinking, only a guilty person would cry this hard....), he told me Bruce ran into the tree.  Bruce has wanted nothing to do with this tree since we brought it in.  So I found that hard to believe.  I put Andy on the stairs so I could tackle the millions of billion of shards of glass that were covering my floor.  As I got down on my hands and knees, surveying the damage (and crying, I admit!), Andy walked over, put his hands on his hips and said "huh. I do NOT know how all of dis happened...."

 

The other side of the tree held more broken ornaments.  At this point, my very best friends were offering to come over and help me/drink with me.  We had our carpets cleaned that morning so the entire upstairs had soaking wet carpet-- so we couldn't have friends over.  Sweet Sally offered to just come get Andy- just may have been worried about his well being at that point..... my mom showed up and talked me off the ledge. 

We stripped the tree down and then put it back up again, secured it to both windows and then redecorated it.  Round two:

Look, I get it-- they are just ornaments.  Most can be replaced, right? I am weirdly sentimental, especially about Christmas stuff. I only lost about 12 ornaments, of those, only 4 or 5 were super sentimental.  My mom and I collect an ornament each year from our girls trip.  I lost a few of those, unfortunately.  She offered to give me all of the ones that broke from her tree (since we have the same ones), but I told her I would rather see them over there.  I lost two babies first Christmas ornaments, which is soooo not great.  But it is what is it.  I know it could have been much worse.  Imagine if there was a fire and we lost the whole tree and everything on it (and who knows what else!!!)? I got off lucky only losing a few ornaments. 

Ironically enough, I put all the special ones high up so they wouldn't fall prey to wagging tails (or little boys....ahem...).  Well the higher up ones fell harder and hit harder and shattered more! Oops. 

So, lesson learned.  We shall tie that tree down from now on!!!!


Ho ho hoooooooo......


 

Thanksgiving at the beach

We were beach bound for turkey day this year and we could NOT wait to get down there! Eddie was so excited, he left on Sunday- ha! I had to work and the boys had school, so we hit the road on Tuesday, after preschool. 

Driving over that bridge makes me so so happy.... because we left around 1:30, we missed all traffic.  

We had the best time with ideal weather.  The boys were well behaved, the food was delicious and the company was PERFECT! What more could you want??


 The boys spent 98% of their time outside playing.  I was IN HEAVEN! They would wake up (early) and eat and then they were outside the rest of the day.  Playing, bike riding, swinging, running around, throwing balls, fishing, etc etc...

This was a fun game: hang off the side until you fall all the way over into the dirt.  

 Grandma and her boys!!! These two sure do love her!!!

The bike riding tricks were taken to a whole different level.  And it was terrifying.  Legs spread wide, legs turned side ways...

 Andy put his feet up on the handle bars.  Talk about scary!

Mom and I pulled up chairs and sat watching them ride while we split a bottle of champagne-- why not?

CalBoy came over for some sweet kisses-- I was not hating this! He will not want to smooch me much longer.  I am soaking this up!

All of the outside play time made for some DIRTY boys.  The tub was put to good use....and I feel confident we left a massive ring around that tub when we left! ha! And, Catherine/Margaret must have left some barbies in the bathroom because these two found them and cracked up.  

 After getting cleaned up, we spent some time decorating gingerbread cookies.  And eating them. 

Thursday was Thanksgiving and mom and I spent most of the day in the kitchen.  I took no pictures during the day because we were cooking machines.  I so wish I had taken pictures of everything we made! I made some delicious green beans and some garlic mashed potatoes and some monkey bread for breakfast...

After eating and cleaning it all up (I swear to you, the eating part takes about 5 minutes... compared to the effort for cooking and cleaning.....uhhhh.....), we headed outside for some more bike riding. 

This kid has one foot on handle bars and one hand in the air..... who is he???

Then they had a big fat wrestle match in the grass.  Of course they did.  

My people make me so happy.  I got my vest on sale and that makes me happy too.  

Andy has really become such a dog lover.  He always has been, really-- both boys are.  But he is soooo sweet with both dogs.  He is gentle and loving to them.  I caught him talking to Bruce and telling him he "would always share his piddow" with him.  Talk about heart melting.  

Eddie and Andy went out to watch the sunset over the beach.  Talk about gorgeous!

The crew did lots of fishing-- they didn't catch anything... but they did some trying!

And Edide bought a boat (have I already mentioned that on here?). Well he bought it a few months ago and hasn't had much time to spend on it.  We spent a ton of time on it this weekend!

I hadn't gone on it and was dying to.... so my mom and Tricia and Tommy offered to keep the boys so we could take a little date cruise-- it was so much fun! It was a little chilly, so we bundled up, but his helm is protected by a windshield so we weren't cold out there at all (plus we wore pretty sweet hats to keep us warm....)

The sun set on the way home from our "date" was amazing!

I made this amazing Monkey Bread-- this breakfast food is always a big hit.  I think I am making it for Christmas Eve.  You can make it the night before and then just pour over some yumminess and pop in the oven.  

This dog played so hard the whole week.   He has slept a ton since being home....and is so so calm.  He needs a week at the beach every other week!

 We walked over to the beach one day and it was just beautiful out.  Hank ran and ran and ran like a puppy.  My mom made a good point-- you really don't know when his last trip to the beach will be.  Cue my tears.  Seeing him this happy totally made my day.  See in pic below? I swear, he is smiling. 

Eddie came over and paddle boarded.  I took this picture, which I think is a neat shot, but there were dolphins jumping all around him while he was out there-- I just couldn't time my picture just right!

 Love my salty dogs! Seriously- I love these two like they are my children... that's kind of alarming, isn't it?

Cal and Andy both wanted to sit in my lap and I just wanted to take a sip of some beer.  Tricia took this picture-- they were about to wrestle in the sand.  (of course they were)

Our friends came over to the beach to meet us with their two little girls.  I guess they all decided to dip their hair in the water...

 Next thing I knew...Cal was full on swimming...

We had quite the set up on the beach.... 

 After much swimming and playing in the sand, we loaded up the truck to head back to the house for the UNC game.  Tricia and I rode in the back of the truck on the way home!

This was our view-- don't think it could have been any prettier!

When we got home from the beach, the boys stayed outside playing until wayyyy late.  But they were so happy, it was hard to call them in! They got all bathed and clean and then I caught Andy bringing a picture frame over to Hank from when he was just a little puppy... he set it right by Hank's head (facing the wrong direction, whatevs).  This kid loves these dogs!

It was a beautiful week at the beach!!! I can't wait to go back again!