A Turkey Tale, Part 2

Success! The turkey was edible. It took longer to cook than I thought it would, but when it was finally done cooking it was good. But, I still don't want to ever do it again. The pink junk for dessert was delicious also and I will gladly make that again.

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

A Turkey Tale, Part 1

Okay, turkeys are GROSS! I never want to cook one again. I mean you have to get all that goo out of the inside of the turkey and rinse it. And then you have "rub" seasonings and whatnot all over it. What the hell are all of those extra parts anyway?! I seriously almost threw up. I had to go next door and get Chandel to help me. I know I'm a wuss, but you know what? I'm OKAY with it!

I mean look at this! Is that a head or an ass? For some people it's the same thing, but I don't think so in this case.

Here's the bird all ready to go into the oven.

Stay tuned for part 2 of the storey to see if the bird was actually edible or if we had to go to Chinese Food and sing Fa Ra Ra Ra for our Christmas dinner!

Yummy Treats

Okay, today has pretty much been a drama filled day, but I chose to put it all aside and bake Christmas goodies! Well, I didn't put it ALL aside, but I did my best. I even let Quentin help me do the baking. Hey what is a vacation for if not to make a complete mess of the kitchen and to get completely cart-locked in the grocery store? Seriously, it is like a zoo out there! People are running stop signs and speeding through crowded parking lots and to make it all worse it's raining. We all know that rain makes people crazy. Why is that?

Anyway, here are some pictures of the yummy Christmas goodies.

Here is the cookie dough waiting to go into the oven. Oh man, those are good cookies. I had to sample one...okay, maybe it was two...or three. :-)

Here are the peanut butter bars. They don't look so great in this picture, but they're really really good. Besides pink junk (fruit salad) they're at the top of the list for favorite Christmas treats.

And just for Quentin I made fudge. I kicked it up a notch this year and made it in the shape of a wreath and put red and green sugar sprinkles on it. Oh, by the way, it's yummy too!

Tomorrow I'll make the Magic Cookie Bars and then on Wednesday I'm going to attempt to cook a turkey! I got the LAST fresh turkey at the grocery store and the damn little thing cost me $33! Please wish me luck on it turning out well.

Honor Roll

Okay, to quote my Granny Minnie, "I'm just so proud!" Quentin made the Honor Roll for the 1st Trimester of school. He worked really hard I really really am really proud of him. Really! He didn't know that he scored high enough to make the Honor Roll, so it was surprise for him.

Here he is accepting his certificate and bumper sticker.

Here he is showing off his certificate.

Ah, here are the BFFs. Quentin and Hannah.

And here's the proud Mama and her Honor Roll Student.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree!

It's time for the 2nd Annual Christmas Tree Farm in HR office! All of us are having a very hard time getting into the Christmas spirit this year. We were hoping that setting up the Christmas Tree Farm would help. I guess it has a little bit, but not as much as we'd hoped. It's just too warm outside to be Christmas. And with the fact that I'm staying home this year there is not the excitement and anticipation of visiting far away family and friends. Hopefully, some family members will come and visit US this year! Hint hint. You know who you are. I'm not going to name any names.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of the farm.

This spans across the top of six filing cabinets.

This one is on the top of two filing cabinets.

Here is my wire tree.

Here is a cute little bird tree.

And last, but not least, a little snowman tree!

Thanksgiving

Quentin and I went to San Diego for Thanksgiving last week. Justin and his family were able to go this year also. It was really nice for all of the kids to get to hang out. Lily now calls Addison her "Big Buddy" and Quentin is still her "Buddy".

Our old friend Eric came to visit too. It was cool to see him again. He's the same smart ass he always was! :-)

Friday the girls went shopping, of course. Aubrey, Chandel and I were camped out in front of the Wal-Mart at 1:45 a.m. It was a frickin' mad house in that store! Wal-Mart really should do a better job of organizing for these types of sales. I mean look at the sad situation in New York with the guy getting trampled! Frickin' da-dickerless! After Wal-Mart we went to Target, where Mom was holding our place in line. Yes, some of the ladies behind her gave us dirty looks. But, we survived with no fights. Sorry to disappoint you Chandel (she really wanted to see me get in a fight). We went to a few stores after that and then went to Mimi's for breakfast. Mimi's is where it all started to go downhill. Breakfast was really good, but for some unknown reason I ended up having an allergic reaction to something and Aubrey's blood sugar dropped dramatically. We both were down for the count. I had to take Benadryl TWICE and Aubrey had to sit in the floor of Bath & Body Works and eat M&Ms. It was horrible. We didn't even get to have our Cranberry Margarita's from Chevy's! Oh, how I long for one... Perhaps a trip to Modesto is required this weekend? MMMMmmmmmm!

Saturday we all loaded into the vehicles and went to Seaport Village and Coronado Island. What a blast! The kids had a great time running around until Quentin got busted by the Po Po. Apparently some stupid tourist fell out of a tree and sued and now no one is allowed to climb the trees. So, Q-man got a little lecture. Auntie Aub was there to rescue him though. :-)

I can't believe how good the water felt at the beach. I expected it to be completely freezing, but it really wasn't. Quentin got completely soaked by a wave. I lost my balance near the tide pools and had to catch myself on a rock that was covered with "stuff" that squirted when my hand landed on it. Oh my gosh it was so disgusting words won't describe it. Seriously, I'm getting nauseous just thinking about it.

Moving on....

Here's a picture of my Sista'! Isn't she pretty?! She's so good for putting up with all of us at her house. Especially me. I always complain about her dogs. I really don't like dog hair. I just can't help it. I'm sorry! I love ya' man!

Wordless Wednesday: Fall

I'm in my "Happy Place"

That's right...I'm in Monterey! I really do love it here. It completely relaxes me. This trip is not as relaxing as most, because I'm here for work, but still it's pretty darn great! I went out at lunch time and shot a few photos.

Here's one of a pelican just hanging out on the wharf railing. He got a little nervous when I walked up and I thought for sure he was going to fly off. Or, he was going to get freaked out and attack me. I know, I'm silly but I believe it could happen. Just ask my Mom about getting attacked by birds.

Here's one of the boats. I like b-oa-ts Jean-NAY. (That's my Forrest Gump impression.)

And here are the butterflies in Santa Cruz. I finally saw them! There were not mass quantities because it is still too warm out, but at least there were some to look at.

Okay, I'm off to bed. I've got a big day of listening to seminars tomorrow. Woo hoo! :-)

Fall Photo Shoot

As a fundraiser the County Recreation Department offered family photographs for $20 last Saturday. Of course, I had to sign up for it. It was a 15 minute session and we got to keep the CD with all the pictures on it, so that we can print whatever photos we like. What a great deal! The photo shoots were done at Cover's in Tuolumne.

Here is one of my favorites of Quentin:

One of me that turned out pretty decent...

Quentin was having some fun in this one...(No, he did not drop the pumpkin.)

Quentin was tired of pictures by this time, so he was making as many silly faces as possible:

Sneak Preview

Here is a picture of Quentin in part of his Halloween costume...I love him!

Pumpkin Patch

Today Quentin and I went to the Dell Oso Farms pumpkin patch with Justin, Chandel and Lily. It's quite a drive from our place, but it really is worth it. They have tons of pumpkins, hay rides, a haunted house, a huge corn maze, hay mazes for the kids, pony rides, and best of all...pumpkin blasters! It was our first trip in the new truck. I so completely love it! I'm so glad that I exchanged the last one "like it was a shirt" to quote Miss. Jeanne.

We didn't do the corn maze because there were so many people in line and last year according to Quentin, "it made his butt sweat". No kidding! That's what the kid said! We did do the pumpkin blasters though and oh man are those things cool.

They set us up with blaster #14! Aub can you believe it?! How funny is that? I took a picture just for you. :-) A lot of you out there are probably wondering what the big deal with the #14 is...well, that's another blog on another day.

Isn't Lily the cutest? This was taken at the end of the day and she was pretty much done with the whole trip.

She just loves "her buddy".

I love this picture of Justin, Quentin and Lily.

Here's one of me looking rather large. Jeesh! I've got to quit eating! I promise I will just as soon as I finish the goodies from the Columbia Candy Kitchen gift box that I won in the raffle at Cajun Fest!

And here is the Seel Family. Lily was not being very cooperative with the picture taking so I made Quentin stand in front of me and I tickled him...that made Lily laugh and I got a shot of her smiling.

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Birthday Addis!

Today is my favorite newphew's birthday! Yep, that's right! The B0-Bad-Ass, as I like to call him, is 15 today! Wow! That makes me how old? Okay, let's not talk about that. Anyway, I want to wish Addison a VERY VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY! We love you!

Here is a picture of him on his 13th birthday....Isn't he cute!?!

Yeah Baby!

I'm a "Truck Girl" once again! Well, not officially, but hopefully the paperwork will be done on Monday. If they don't come back with the financing I want then I'm giving the truck back. It's a 2001 GMC Sierra 1500. It's four-wheel drive and doesn't have a ton of miles on it. Oh, I so hope that I don't have to give it back. Here she is...

Mom came into town and visited us for a few days. We had a really good visit. Mom made a pumpkin chocolate chip cake for the girls in the office and they LOVED it! We're all dieting, but that was put on hold for a few days so that we could eat cake. It would have been a tragedy to let it go to waste. Seriously!

Quentin scored two goals in his soccer game today. He was terrific on defense too! The whole team really worked well together...there was even passing involved!!!!

Here are photos of my cute Halloween decorations. I really like the witch. She is so cool!

Saturdays at the Park

Saturdays during Summer and Fall mean soccer. And since today is Saturday I spent a few hours at the park watching my boy play his little heart out.

This week they faced a team from our old neighborhood. The team is quite formidable. Yes, it is Coach Dave's team. Coach Dave was Quentin's coach for two years of soccer and two years of T-ball. Then I had to go and move us to a different district. What was I thinking?! Now Quentin always gets nervous when he hears that he has to play against a team that is being led by Coach Dave. Here's Coach Dave. He and his entire family are some of the nicest people you'll ever meet.

Quentin and Zach (Dave & Lisa's son) were best buddies. They went to Kindergarten together and of course were on the soccer and T-ball teams together. Here's a picture of them facing off. Zach is on the left in the grey uniform and Quentin is on the right in the black uniform.

Here's a shot of Quentin doing a little fancy footwork. He didn't score any goals this week, but he played great. Last week he scored two goals...of course I didn't take my camera!

September 11th

Today marks the 7th Anniversary of the September 11th attacks on the U.S. I had Quentin wear his USA t-shirt today. When I told him to put it on this morning he asked why. I said, "Because it is September 11th." He said, "So."

I had to remind myself that he was two years old at the time of the attacks. I explained to him what had happened on that day seven years ago and I had him watch a little bit of the news with me so that he could see that it was a very significant day in American history.

Here's a photo I took of him this evening:

Quentin-ese

My wonderful, loveable, adorable Little Man sometimes makes mistakes when he says words. I've taken to calling his mistakes "Quentin-ese". He's not aware of this fact, so sshhhh...it's just between you and me. Here are the two latest additions to the Quentinese dictionary:

Hand Sizematizer

Thumble

Can you guess what the two real words are?

The first one is pretty easy I think. Hand Sizematizer is actually hand sanitizer. This phrase has been used quite a bit lately because of school starting. All the kids had to bring their own hand sizematizer to class. :0)

The second word is actually supposed to be fumble. He's been saying it a lot due to the beginning of the NFL season. There's been a lot thumbles and it's just the first week of the regular season!

Now, I know that I should correct him, but it's just so darn cute! It's da-dick-er-less (a.k.a. ridiculous) I tell ya'!

Wordless Wednesday: Lily & Her Fav. Food