Turkey for you and Turkey for me...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I often find it hard to remember where I have on a holiday / birthday in the years past. How bad does that sound? Anyway, if my memory serves me right this is how the last five have gone:

2002 - Nashua, NH - this was the last Thanksgiving at my grandparents house. They moved the following year. It is a great memory. We had MW's family and mine together to celebrate a holiday together for the first time

2003- I haven't a clue! Maybe it will come to me, but right now I have not idea. It was in Germany somewhere, but I can't recall for the life of me right now.

2004- MW was in Iraq and his parents and sisters visited Germany. We had a feast with family and friends in Eltingshausen. It was a lot of fun even though MW was not there to celebrate

2005- We went to MW's parents in Poughkeepsie, NY. This was just before they moved to NC. It may have been the last time we visited the house- surprisingly I can't recall.

2006- I stayed in Jersey while MW traveled to NC to see his parent's new house. My sister and I had a chicken dinner at my house and we hung out just the two of us. We had a good day.

This year we are going to MW's parents. We are not traveling and we will not have any house guests.

I am looking forward to Black Friday. I don't have to work on Friday, so I am going to go out early as a crazed shopper. 6am I will be at the stores! I don't know where yet, but I am going to do it. I have never done a "black Friday craze" so I figure what the heck. I'll let you know if the deals are worth it.

Evening ritual

I have told some of you about this ritual and everyone has agreed we need to get it on camera. Our loving lab is still unable to climb up the stairs to the bedroom so every evening MW carries Bailey up to bed. They have it down to a science by now.

Here is Bailey getting ready to get in position.Here is the life. Notice Bailey holds his head high! A safe landing on the second floor.

And as soon as he lands safely he runs to my closet where he sleeps soundly all night. Yes, the dog sleeps in my closet and he Loves it. I can't explain it. I finally moved the dog bed in there since that is where both dogs like to sleep.

Not a whole lot new here. I am still suffering from a killer cold that won't go away. Really, I think it is a sinus infection. I think I need to break down and see the doctor tomorrow.

I hope everyone has safe travels for Thanksgiving. We will be staying here for the holiday.

My project

I need to work on before and after shots. Recently, I recovered the cornice boards in my kitchen. The photos our below. I could not have done it without the help of JW! It was a fun project since it was something I had never done before. Where the brown fabric is used to be a pink gingham and the blue was an ugly striped fabric. I reused the board and voila!

My next project is the family room. Stay tuned.
In the meantime I have a miserable cold so I am going to bed...

A new chapter?

I have been busy running around trying to get projects done last minute. I did recover a cornice in my kitchen and plan to post the photos - soon. I started work yesterday with a long day of orientation, so my first real day is today. I am used to being at work early, so meeting at 9am feels so late. I am ready to go, but have time to kill, so thought I would type a quick update.

Let's see...

Bailey is doing very well and wrestles with Sam all the time again. He likes to run, but he hops like a rabbit when he does it...he is still making progress, but is doing exceptional.

MW is running around as usual working, playing hockey and an occasional game of golf. He is still planning on applying for an MBA program at Duke for next year.

I am working! Yeah. Finally. I joined the book club I mentioned before, but of course now need to read the book before next week- I am not sure if that is going to happen since I don't have it yet.

My mom is packing up and prepping for her move south! She should be here by Christmas. Her house looks great.

Our little corner of the world is pretty peaceful right now. As I sit here the dogs are asleep right next to me and their is silence all around. I hope wherever you read this blog you have peace, if even just in the tiny circle that surrounds you.

The fear of a jinx has kept me away

Since I was afraid it may fall through, as many opportunities have for me recently, I did not post when I received my job offer last week. This position I have been interviewing for over a month for and I felt like I met the entire firm in the process. Anyway, I landed a great job and I could not be happier about it! Hallelujah! Since I am a little weirded out about who can read Internet posts I won't say where the job is, but it is at one of the banks in town and I was offered an officer title. Again, I could not be happier. It took six long months and I often felt like I was losing my head, but I made it!!! I start my job next Monday.

While I wait to begin this new adventure I am trying to tie up any lose ends around here, but basically I have been out of work so long I could care less about all the other day to day stuff. I am just eager to dive into my new career.

I did find a book club here- so I am planning on joining. I have always wanted to be part of a book club, but they always meet in the middle of the day- and I work : ) But finally, our church has a woman's book club that meets in the evening one night a month- so in an effort to get out and meet people, and live this life to the fullest I am joining a group. I really am trying to find ways to meet people since I feel as though I still have no friends here. Thankfully we have family that helps me through that. MW has made friends through hockey, work and golf, but when I tried to make friends through golf all I met was retirees. Go figure.

Bailey is doing great. He is getting stronger each day. He still is not able to walk upstairs so MW carries him up each night for bed and down in the morning. It is really adorable and I need to get a photo. Bailey's right leg is still dragging a bit when he walks so he can't really walk on cement without cutting his feet up - but aside from that he is a happy tail wagging lab and that is what we like to see.

If any of you are wondering why I have not called---- I managed to talk my way through my cell minutes and then some and when I got the bill my jar dropped....Nights and weekends only for me for a while. Whoa. And if you want to call and chat please try my home phone first. I have managed to talk myself into a steep bill... yuck.

1. Stay well everyone.

Sammy's Home!!!

After careful consideration we decided that it was time to bring Sammy back into the house. Bailey had seemed depressed for days now and we all missed pretty princess prancing around. So, Friday afternoon I picked Sam up for the reunion. We spend a lot of time in the yard and on the deck this past weekend. I took a bunch of photos that are posted below.

We have two guard dogs whenever we go outside. Especially Sam. She is the Chief of Security at this house. Nothing is getting passed her.
Bailey never seemed to figure out that he weighs 80 pounds and not 8! He is a lap dog in his mind. Meanwhile, this is supposed to be Sam's reunion and Bailey is hogging all of the attention. Of course, this is nothing new.

The princess

I have a photo just like this one from when Bailey was 8 weeks old. He is a ham.

My lap dog.

Showing off his Salty Dog bandanna.

Notice the tongue.
Other than this, the weekend was pretty uneventful.

Time Flies

I can't believe it is the middle of October already. It feels like yesterday was September. Since I last posted we traveled to Jersey City and Belleville NJ, Hyde Park and West Point NY, and Hilton Head Island, SC. While at the brunch following Bill and Ro's wedding we got a photo of the entire Hyde Park clan plus the additions of wives and children. A few people could not make the brunch, but for the most part this is MW's old crew. I love group photos like this.
When we got back from NY we were only home for two days before we left for Hilton Head Island. We "won" a free stay there, so we took advantage of the opportunity. It was a beautiful place, but nothing like what I expected. The island was very residential and other than going to the beach you could not see it...meaning there were not many restaurants on the water or you could not drive along the coast line, and there was no kind of boardwalk. We did rent bikes while we were there and cruised all over the island. It was a lot of fun. You are able to ride your bikes on the beach there, so we rode for miles and at one point had dolphins literally swimming right next to us. The water dropped off quickly, so the dolphins were swimming maybe 15 feet from shore. It was incredible. They were so beautiful. We also went to "The Salty Dog" which is the islands famous restaurant. If anyone has ever been to Martha's Vineyard or heard of "The Black Dog" it was similar as a trademark and a legendary story.

Now that we are back I had my final? interview for this one position that has been dragging on forever. No final word yet... What a frustrating experience. Meanwhile, it still has not rained in months and the earth is so dry our yard is dead and the dirt is drying and cracking as if it were the desert. The drought is so serious that I heard the other night on the news that in some areas there is only a three month water supply left. CRAZY. We need rain so terrible. I guess tomorrow or Friday we may get a little and we will take whatever we can get!

I have traveled the past three weekend and am looking forward to spending this weekend here doing things around the house. I hate that I can't do yard work- meaning I can't do anything worth while since I can't use water on plants, grass, or flowers...I am not even sure it makes sense to put down fertilizer unless it is raining. Maybe tomorrow I will run out in the rain, if it rains, to fertilize the ground.