Hi everyone! It's been a few weeks since my last post. At first, I didn't really have much to talk about, but now, it's like a bombardment of events! That's what November usually does to us. So, get comfy, and I'll tell you all about it.
First, I went to the dentist. Actually, I went to the dentist on Halloween. Weird, right? I had three cavities (naughty, naughty.) I got them all filled the next day. My mouth was so numb I couldn't feel the entire lower half of my face! But, it is nice to have a healthy mouth again. And I'm glad I got it over with. Whew!
My numb mouth gave me a lopsided smile. This was me trying to cheese it.
Do you remember from previous years why November is so significant to me? It's the month I was born!!! So, we've been pretty busy celebrating my birthday with different families.
First, we celebrated with my family the Sunday before my birthday. My mom made ginger pancakes with lemon sauce, an egg casserole, bacon, and orange juice. Yum! I love having breakfast for dinner! I also got to take the birthday cake home and enjoy it all week long. It was cookies and cream (white cake with crumbled up Oreo cookies in it. My favorite!
Getting ready to open presents at my parents' house.
My actual birthday was pretty lame until the evening. Our Pathfinder's battery died and needed to be replaced, so I was out of a car. Since it was a Wednesday, Lance had work AND school, so I didn't even get to see him until 9:00 PM. So, my parents picked me up and took me to dinner at Chili's, which was fun! I ordered a chicken sandwich with fries. It was delicious! The sandwich had avocados and red onions. I love avocados and always have, but I've also decided that I really like red onions on sandwiches.
Since Lance was unavailable on my actual birthday, we made up for it the day after by going on a hot date. Seriously, though, I loved it! We went to dinner at Zhang's Chopstix. We ordered cashew nut chicken and sweet and sour chicken. It came with ham fried rice, crab and cheese wontons, a huge shrimp, and egg drop soup. They gave us a dessert wonton too! It was chocolate flavored (yum!) And of course, we got fortune cookies. It was delightful! I think it may be my favorite restaurant right now. But I like a variety of foods, so that may change in the future. After dinner, we went to the super cheap theater and saw Cowboys and Aliens. I thought it might be slightly lame, but it turned out to be a good one. Then, we went for a drive and looked at some super nice houses. So, I'd say that Lance definitely made up for not seeing me on my birthday.
Then, the Sunday after my birthday, we celebrated with Lance's side of the family. They all came over to our house for dinner. We had tacos, which is one of my favorite foods, Spanish rice, green salad, and for dessert, chocolate pudding dessert, delish!
Getting ready to blow out candles.
Opening presents!
Here are the presents I got: a lot of clothes, three pairs of shoes, a set of hooks to hang up my necklaces, a set of hooks to hang up pans (which I haven't set up yet), a Halloween decoration that won't be on display until next October, some wrapping paper that I'll use for some crafty projects soon, a staple gun with staples for future furniture projects (yeah, I'm handy), a super heavy duty egg slicer, a bed skirt (to hide the storage under our bed), and some Sudoku books.
It's fun being able to celebrate my birthday multiple times. I just wish I wouldn't get older because of it. I'm over a quarter of a century old. When did that happen?
Something else we've done this month is rake TONS of leaves. That's a major drawback to having lots of trees in your yard. We're still not entirely done, though. They've been a little stubborn this year.
The blanket of leaves in our backyard.
I raked the back half of the backyard while Lance was gone, but he took my picture afterward. Don't you love my holey pants?
Lance finished up the raking and put it into a huge pile then put it in the truck.
Just two days before Thanksgiving, I got my hair cut. I like it a lot! I just need to get used to doing short hair instead of longer hair.
This year, we celebrated Thanksgiving with Lance's family. I was lucky enough to host. I was a little nervous, but it turned out great! Luckily, his family divvies up the assignments really well, so I wasn't cooking constantly the entire week. I cooked the turkey (which was provided by Lance's brother, Scott, since he already had one in his freezer), made the giblet gravy, made two pumpkin pies, provided the drinks (cranberry ice cubes with 7UP), and a couple of appetizers (an impromptu cream cheese spread with crackers and acorn cookies).
Everyone came around 11:00 AM, we ate just after 1:00 PM, and everyone stayed to hang out the rest of the day. We had two projectors in our basement (borrowed from Lance's work and Scott's work) with video games, the kids played upstairs in the playroom, and the rest of us had fun on the main floor talking. Lance's dad also brought some software to record music from the keyboard, allowing me to play a duet with it on the piano. It was so much fun!
My place setting.
The table is all set.
Place cards. Pumpkins made from toilet paper rolls, spray painted, intertwined and glued, paper stem, and a name glued on. Idea from Pinterest.
Acorn cookies. Vanilla Wafers, Hershey's Kisses, and Peanut Butter Chips (but this time a cinnamon chip substitution), all put together with frosting. Idea from Pinterest.
Pie buffet on my credenza. We had more pies than that. The others were in the fridge until serving time.
Thankful tree. We played a game of trying to guess who was thankful for what.
Lance's first time carving a turkey. He did a great job!
The host and hostess, AKA Lance and Me. I'm sporting my new do!
Kiddie table.
The feast has begun.
Cranberry ice cubes with 7UP
Around 9:00 PM, Lance and I ventured up to my parents' house for more pie and a little visiting. We also looked through the Black Friday ads, but the only thing we got was a package of batteries that were ordered online that we didn't have to brave the crowds with. That, and Lance got some golf passes to Remuda Golf Course for a cheaper price. That man sure loves to golf.
The Saturday after Thanksgiving, I was able to have a girls' day with my family. We went to the matinée showing of Ballet West's The Nutcracker. It was amazing, of course! Even my nieces got to go! Well, all except one. Merrin was sick. So sad! But she's feeling better now. It was fun being with the girls and seeing one of my favorite things . . . ballet! I think my favorite part of the Nutcracker is the Russian dancers. They're awesome! But I really loved the entire performance. Ballet is one of my passions.
Well, that's how my month went. Super busy, but super fun!
