The effects of Turkey Day on a Toddler

Rodney's Aunt just emailed this to me. I had to share a visual of my tired boy sleeping at the dinner table Thanksgiving night.

Thanksgiving Recreation

Well the food was delicious and I stuffed myself silly. What more can I say? I have had my fill of turkey, stuffing and pecan pie. I am thinking Mexican food for Christmas. After the feast we headed outside into the frigid air. There was a serious game of yard darts going on. Tobey rode his 4-wheeler around Mimi's & Pawpaw's field. After about 45 minutes of this, he crawled into his red wagon, laid down, and snuggled up with a quilt. After he warmed up he decided he wanted to race. This is his new thing at Mimi's & Pawpaw's house. He stands against the fence on one side of the field and waits for your cue, "ready-set-go", and then he dashes off to the opposite side of the field. This time he had an opponent, his cousin Skylar, and she smoked him. He didn't seem to mind that he kept getting beat by a girl. He just kept running with a look of glee on his face. After we wore ourselves out with yard games, we went inside and warmed up with dessert and apple cider. Then we lounged around and watched the game. It was a perfect day, weather and all. We actually had some wintry mix blow through. Maybe it's a sign of snow for Christmas. That would be so cool!

Tobey and the 4-wheeler that travels 2 mph. Yet he will sit on it and just ride around in circles.



Yard darts. I had never played before and it is actually quite challenging. The goal is to throw a dart and try to stick it in a small circle about 30 feet away. I almost made it once.




Tobey playing around with his Auntie




Snuggling up in the red wagon



Ready, Set, Go!


Tobey's look of dismay at the wintry mix!


I left the festivities around 5pm and headed home to get ready for work. My house was so empty and quiet. I was able to sit down and have some quiet reflection with God that I so desperately needed. My younger brother called me this week and he laid some pretty heavy stuff on my heart. How thankful I am for my own salvation and for the word of God. Honestly without the word of God I could not have gotten through this phone call without caving in. I know this is pretty vague but it is just too personal for me. But I will say that my brother's soul is in torment and Satan has such a grip on his mind that he is blind to the truth. He is in such denial and my heart is breaking for him. I am going to call and talk with him again soon. Will ya'll just pray. That I will stand firm in the word, that my brother's eyes will be opened to the truth, and that God will move in mighty ways and change my brother's thinking. Thanks so much!

So on a lighter note........

I called home from work to check on Tobey Thanksgiving night and Rodney told me that he was so tired that he fell asleep at the dinner table. All that racing wore my little guy out!

The Eve of Anticipation

The eves of holidays are all about anticipation aren't they? On Christmas Eve we anticipate the arrival of Christmas morning and finally opening those presents that have been sitting under the tree for weeks. On New Year's Eve we anticipate the arrival of a new year and a new beginning. And then there is Thanksgiving Eve. The sweet anticipation of a heavenly feast. My stomach is growling righ now but I refuse to eat. I have to save room for all the delicious food I will eat tomorrow. My house is filled with the aroma of sweet pecans. I am in the process of baking two pecan pies that I will take to work with me tomorrow night. Yes, I have to work on Thanksgiving night since hospitals never shut down even for holidays. But my coworkers and I are having a wonderful feast. So I will have Thansgiving twice. Once tomorrow at noon and then again twelve hours later at mignight. That is the time I usually eat dinner on nights that I have to work. So tonight I will let my stomach growl in anticipation of stuffing myself silly tomorrow. I was over at my Mother-in-law's house tonight helping her prepare for tomorrow and my mouth was watering at all the good food she was making. She is the best cook and I have learned so much from her through the years. Although my versions of her recipes never turn out quite as good as hers. Today she let me help with the stuffing and it smelled so delicious. I can't wait until I taste it tomorrow.

I want to share a very easy recipe for Frozen Fruit Salad that has been passed down to us from my hubby's Memaw. When we got married she gave us a cookbook and on one of the pages she wrote this recipe down and titled it as one of my husband's favorites. At the next holiday gathering this dessert dish was missing. When everyone wondered aloud where it was she bluntly stated that she no longer would be making this but that Rodney and I had the recipe and we would do it from now on. Well okay! We have tried to live up to it because it is something of a tradition. While I was preparing my pecan pies tonight, Rodney made the Frozen Fruit Salad. It really is yummy and super easy so I thought I would share. This is my first time to post a recipe so here it goes.

Frozen Fruit Salad:

Ingredients-
1 package of cream cheese (10 oz)
1 package of frozen strawberries (10 oz)
1 large carton of cool whip (8 oz)
1 large can of crushed pineapple
3/4 cup of sugar
1 cup chopped nuts (we prefer pecans)

Mix cream cheese and sugar and then add all the other ingredients. Line two loaf pans with foil and pour mixture into them. Then freeze overnight. You can also use one large loaf pan and fill it completely instead of two loaf pans. It just takes longer to freeze.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Love Thy Neighbor

I think I must have the sweetest neighbors a young mother could ask for. Since we moved into our house 5 years ago( my goodness that doesn't seem right) Mae and her sweet card playing husband Tubby (I don't know his real name) have been nothing less than true neighbors. For starters we share a driveway that runs between our houses. We have a pecan tree that hangs right over this driveway and it has been dropping pecans for several months now. And I in my laziness have been simply driving and crunching over the pecans ever since. One day I looked out the window and saw Mae sweeping up the pecans and I felt very guilty. Mae is not a young woman. I think it would be a safe bet to say that she is in her seventies or even early eighties. And here she was sweeping the driveway. Later when I drove down the smooth and pecan-free driveway I felt even more guilty.. A couple of days later the pecans had piled up again and I heard a little knock on our side door and it was Mae. She said " Cassi, do you want these pecans?" (Imagine this in a slightly southern, high pitched, and raspy voice). I said very respectfully" No Ma'am, I need to sweep them up again, Thank you for doing it earlier this week ". She replied " That's okay, do you mind if I take them and use them for some pecan butter". I was greatly relieved that she was not put out with us and our returning mass of pecans. I said " Of course take as many as you want".

Later that evening Tobey and I were returning from a walk and he saw Mae up ahead on the sidewalk. He wiggled his tiny hand from mine and ran to her with his arms outstretched. She immediately opened her arms and gave him a tight embrace and said "How are you little Cody". Sometimes she calls him by his rightful name and sometimes he is Cody or Colby. I don't have the heart to correct her so I just go with it. As I get near them I notice that Mae's pockets are bulging and sagging and she has a palmful of pecans in her hands. I am immediately taken with a vision of my own grandma with handfuls of pecans that she collected while strolling around her yard. This is why Mae is so endearing to me. Since we first met I have been drawn to her because she reminds me of my grandma in so many ways. We chat for a few minutes and then we each head to our separate houses. She yells over her shoulder "Thanks for the pecans and I will have to bring over a pecan pie sometime". Oh yes please do!

Mae has been a wonderful neighbor in other ways too. She was very encouraging during the years before I got pregnant. She was one of the few that I opened up to about our difficulties in getting pregnant. She always had a kind word and simple words of wisdom that I took great comfort in. The week we brought Tobey home from the hospital she stopped by with a gift. It was a homemade cloth book. Now I don't know if she made it or bought it at a garage sale. I didn't ask but it was the most perfect gift that could have come from her because she is homemade all the way. Let me paint a small picture of Mae. She runs a fresh fruit and vegetable market here in our town. She has the most beautiful flowers in her yard and she sets buckets around her house to collect rain water to water these beautiful flowers. She is a faithful recycler. She even has a compost pile in her backyard. She has a clothesline and she hangs "everything", I mean "everything" out to dry. She used to do all the yardwork too but she finally broke down and hired someone to take care of the yard. Oh, and she has a pet turtle and a pet rabbit. How can you not love this woman and be inspired by her resourcefulness?

That day she came over to see Tobey for the first time she told us that if we ever needed her to babysit or sit with Tobey while we ran to the store that she would be around. She has repeated that several times over the last two years. Tobey was over a year old before I took her up on her offer. There have been several times that I have taken the baby monitor over to her while Tobey was napping. She would listen out for him so I could make a quick dash to the grocery store. She even kept him one afternoon so that I could go to a conference at church. This morning I got home from work to find her sitting in our living room reading a newspaper. Rodney had to leave so that he could catch his flight and he had asked her to come sit for about thirty minutes until I got home. She did not hesitate. She is that kind of neighbor and I do love her dearly. As the holidays approach I am looking forward to our neighborly tradition. We have a basket that we fill up with goodies and treats to give each other. Whoever was the last to recieve the basket is the first to intiate the gift giving the next year. If anybody has some yummy holiday recipes feel free to post them in a comment. I want to make the basket extra special and yummy this year for a neighbor who is easy to love and deserving of some lavish holiday treats.

The Sheriff is in Town

Tobey was a cowboy for Halloween or more specifically a Sheriff. He was a cutie. He actually kept his hat on all night and I was very proud. We met up with some friends and went trick or treating at a few houses and then headed over to our church's fall carnival. We had a blast but I was worn out. I know Tobey was too. He had a meltdown in the middle of the gym floor when he came out of a bounce house and didn't understand that he had to wait in line to go back in. He and his daddy went into the big kid's obstacle course and had lots of fun. It was crazy though. Kids running everywhere. Tobey saw his Aunt Libby and gave her lots of love. I handed him over to her after the gym meltdown. I looked over at them later and he had his cheek pressed next to hers. It was so sweet. I wish I had taken a picture.

The Mac is back

I cannot express how excited I was to sit down in front of our Mac computer last night. I immediately downloaded all of our pictures from the last week and a half. There were over two hundred. And I was able to fix the picture problem on my pumpkin patch post. The office is almost finished. There are still some finishing touches left to do. I was amazed at the work my husband accomplished this week. He is such a handyman. I am so blessed. Here are a few pictures of his handiwork. I just want to point out to you that he made these closet doors himself. And he did get the new flooring in. I was a good wife and stayed out of his way except for those times he asked for my help.




While the hubs was busy working on the office, I was busy trying to stay out of his way and keep a little boy out of his way. When daddy is around, Tobey tends to migrate to where ever he is in the house. Plus he was fascinated with all of daddy's big tools. Which was fine at times but it is hard to work when a toddler is up in your stuff. So Tobey and I tried to stay busy. Thankfully the weather was beautiful this week and we were able to get outside alot. We made trips to the park, went to the zoo with Ava and jackson, and went on a road trip. It was a busy week but lots o' fun. We drove up to Oklahoma on friday afternoon to spend the night with Nana (my mom). Tobey was getting a cold and his asthma also flared up that afternoon. I just brought his nebulizer along and gave him his respiratory treatments at my mom's house. It was so nice to know what to do this time. He was better the next day but still has some congestion. We had a good time hanging out with my family. It had been a while since I had spent the night with my mom. We ate dinner at the house and watched a movie. On Saturday we met up with my sister-in-law and went to this neat little park on the outskirts of town. I was able to snap some really good pictures of Tobey with his cousins. My brother and his wife have really had some struggles over the last five years but they are doing so well right now. Praise God! I pray that they can stay on the right track. They have three kids. Maddie is the oldest and just beautiful. Logan is the middle child and wild, wild, wild. Sean is only six weeks old and adorable. I got to cuddle with him lots and he made me want another one. Yikes! Tobey was very curious about him also. He kept playing with his little feet.