Full of Thanks and Pumpkin Pie, but Mostly Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you all are having a great holiday and that your crazy uncle hasn't cornered you to discuss the affordable care act while picking his teeth with a turkey bone. I am thankful for many things, and a lot of them are so obvious that I never really think about being thankful for them. Like, I'm really thankful that I have toenails because I like getting pedicures wearing flip-flops and I'd be too self-conscious to do either of these things if I didn't have toenails. Plus, I know the Vietnamese ladies at the nail salon would be totally laughing and talking about my lack of toenails and I wouldn't be able to understand them.

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 Here are some other things for which I am thankful:

1. That I have three healthy, energetic children.

2. That I don't have more than three healthy, energetic children.

3. That when I Googled, "symptoms of a broken jaw" on the second day of Thanksgiving break, none of my healthy, energetic children ended up having a broken jaw.

Catch Up - Game Day at Ole Miss

The last few months have been so busy that I am pleased to have survived them without having a major nervous breakdown. Unfortunately, making it through busy, stressful times without requiring hospitalization isn't one of those things we give anyone credit for. College alumni magazines never publish updates like, "Susannah is happy to report that she made it through the months of August, September, October, and the majority of November without any psychological break down." But you know what? Maybe we should. The business of participating in life can be really hard, so, I'm here to say congratulations to all of you, too. We made it. We're within sight of Thanksgiving and then it's just a hop, skip, and a jump to Christmas and Hanukkah. Don't even worry about New Year's because if you're reading this blog, you're probably older than 27, which is the unofficial age at which you must stop stressing out about New Year's plans. By then, you should realize that it's the same as any other night except that we all pretend to like champagne, even though we know it gives us a rotten headache.

In the midst of all of our fall busy-ness, we decided to take a trip to Oxford, Mississippi to visit the K's parents. It turned out that the only weekend that was kid-sports free was the weekend of November 15th.  And, as luck would have it, Ole Miss was scheduled to play Troy (the college in Alabama, not the city in ancient Greece, or the movie starring Brad Pitt) that weekend, too. Since we were there, we decided to watch the game and (almost more importantly) allow the kids to experience the Ole Miss Grove tailgating scene.

All dressed for the game. The Baby picked out her outfit at
University Sporting Goods before the game. She looked adorable;
like an Ole Miss elf. 

If you've never been to the Grove at Ole Miss on a football game day you are missing a major people-watching opportunity. The scene is the stuff of legend, so let me give some facts based on my observations, so facts according to me:

1. Chandeliers - Yes. People have chandeliers hanging from their tent supports. Sometimes they even have blue and red crystals. (School colors, y'all).

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Catch Up - Teacher Appreciation Breakfast

Some of you have probably been wondering why I haven't been posting as often. Well, maybe only Dad has actively wondered that, but it might have occurred to one or two of you that I haven't been posting as regularly. This post is the first in a series of updates of what I've been up to off-line, because as everyone knows, it hasn't really happened until the Internet know about it. In the last six weeks I've been lucky enough to be in some way involved with four fall sports, housebreaking a puppy, two kid birthdays, my birthday, Halloween, Mom's birthday, Thanksgiving preparations, teacher appreciation breakfast, field trips, and a trip to Mississippi. I've been so busy gearing up for and recovering from these activities, that I haven't had time to write about any of it.

So, here we go with the Teacher Appreciation Breakfast. In addition to my room parenting duties for the Baby's and the Boy's classes, I signed on to help organize the Teacher Appreciation Breakfast that the Boy's class co-hosted earlier in November. Actually, it was just last week. My Lord, it seems like 50 years ago. Anyway, if you have kids in school, you probably know the deal with Teacher Appreciation Breakfasts. A class or two host the event and parents bring in refreshments for the teachers and support staff to show how much we appreciate all their hard work dealing with our little darlings all day. Trust me, an entire day on a field trip with the Boy's class and I was pretty well convinced that all teachers are saints, superheroes, and possibly insane.

BTW, if you're stuck on a teacher gift (I find male teachers a little more difficult to buy for), Cafe Press has some clever teacher t-shirts:

Decatur Ghost Tour

Guys, this is huge! The Girl had a birthday party and I didn't hate it! In fact, I really, really liked it! I've posted before about how kid birthday parties are not my favorite way to spend time. In fact, I'd rather coat myself in honey and sit on an anthill, but enough with my crazy hobbies. The Girl's 10th birthday is coming up and she was very specific with what she wanted, which was a small sleepover with only three friends. Even though the small size would be easier for me, I had some pangs that she didn't want to invite more girls because I hate for anyone to be left out. Also, I'm a total masochist.

The Girl and I had been concocting the big party activity since this summer when we had a chance meeting on the Decatur Square. We had just finished dinner with friends at Square Pub (really good food for a bar, plus a children's menu and board games), and were watching our children terrorize smaller children by the old Courthouse when a lady asked if we were there for the Decatur Ghost Tour. I was so intrigued! I live in a town with a ghost tour! Decatur is on the map! Of course, I decided I had to go, because my bucket list only includes activities within a five mile radius of home. Since I'm all about multitasking, I suggested/pushed the tour on the Girl as a birthday party activity. Thanks to Harry Potter, Wizards of Waverly Place, and the Haunted Hathaways, the kids are learning about paranormal activity earlier and earlier and I don't want her to get left behind.

Oh, my gosh, the Ouija board! When I was a kid, my next door neighbor brought her Ouija board over to my house and we sat in the dark and asked the board all kinds of bizarre questions: "Is disco really dead?" "Will Sonny and Cher get back together?" "Who shot J.R.?"

How to Lose An Entire Week in Seven Days

On Thursdays, I often find myself wondering where the week has gone and why I have made no kind of forward progress on anything. At best, I'm in the same position as I was in at the beginning of the week, at worst I'm behind on even my most basic household chores and the children are eating pickles for breakfast because I have nothing else to feed them. This week was special because by Tuesday the week was already shot to hell. I sit here knowing that I will get nothing done this week. We will be one week closer to the girls' birthdays, one week closer to Thanksgiving, one week closer to Christmas, and I will have done nothing to prepare for any of this. I like to think this is because of matters outside of my control, but the truth is that I do plenty of procrastinating which doesn't help the situation.

Since the Internet loves lists, I thought I'd give you a step-by-step guide of how to lose a week in seven days. I fully expect that this list will be optioned as a rom-com starring Kate Hudson in the near future. Aside: Stranger things have happened! What to Expect When You're Expecting was made into a movie. If you're not familiar with the source material, What to Expect is a plot-less nonfiction book that guides pregnant women through all the shocking things happening to their bodies when they're pregnant, with exciting bonus features including everything that might go terribly wrong and kill them and/or their unborn child. Only Hollywood could turn this into a comedy starring Chris Rock. 

I had no desire to see this movie, so I don't actually know what is going on here, but I imagine it's a big
funny that dads go overboard in getting geared up for an outing with their babies. Because: Panic! Babies!
You know what? In real life dads don't take anything for outings with their kids:
Coats when it's 20 degrees? Snacks when they'll be out all day with no access to food?
A diaper bag for an infant? These are all silly luxuries that an overprotective mom packs
because she's too uptight. Dads just go with the flow, amiright?