Mission accomplished!

I feel a little like Dora!!!  I did it - I set my goal and I did it!!  30 posts in 30 days!  Yay me!!!

So, what did I really accomplish here? 

1.  As a new blogger, I really did not have the habit of sitting down and blogging every day - now, I will admit, it has kind of worked its way into my routine after I get the girls down to bed at night.

2.  It helped me learn more about what kind of blogger I am.  I don't think I will ever have one of those blogs that becomes a "go to" gotta read like Snarky Mommy or Love that Max are for me, but it is a good place to record my musings and share them with the Cyberworld, for whatever that is worth. (Hey, I know I have at least a handful of regular readers.  My people - I love you!!!

3.  It taught me what I am not - one of those hang it all out there and everyone's opinions be damned.  I have lots of off-limit topics that I don't discuss here.  I don't curse on here for the most part, because while I don't seem to have any issue with popping off with a word or phrase of the four-letter persuasion when in a close gorup of friends, I tend to automatically not write the same words that I sometimes say.  Who knew???

4.  I met a goal!  Nuff said - big or small - an achieved goal is always a rush for me! 

Where do I go from here?  I am not sure.  I really don't know if I will continue with the Post Every Day Or Else approach I have followed for the past month.  Maybe I will, maybe I won't. But I do think that I will be a more regular post than I was.  And at least for me, that is enough. 

52:52 Challenge, continued...

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote this post.  Since then, I had read three more books, bringing my total for the year so far up to 55.  They are:

52:53 - Bed of Roses - Nora Roberts

52:54 - Dead Until Dark - Charlaine Harris

52:55 - Living Dead in Dallas - Charlaine Harris

I am halfway through Club Dead - Book 3 of the Sookie Stackhouse novels - they are great.  Quick reads, funny and engaging. Since I only started Book 1 Monday, that should tell you something!

What the girls ate for lunch #12 and 13 w/e 11/13 and 11/20

This is 2 weeks worth of lunches - well, really 1 week and 1 lonely day during Thanksgiving week.  Anyway, here we go:

Monday - Savannah had a slice of banana bread, cut in half, some "cutie" wedges, a slice of ham and vanilla yogurt.  Tara had a slice of ham, wheat thins, "cutie" wedges and banana slices and vanilla yogurt.

Tuesday - Tara asked to "buy" today instead of Wednesday, so it is only Savannah - hot dog and mozzerella chunks, "cutie" wedges, orange bell pepper chunks, wheat things and a chocolate covered ritz cracker.

Wednesday - Tara only - yogurt, pretzel goldfish, blueberries and grape tomatos sliced in half.

Thursday - Tara had pasta and broccoli with cheese sauce, baby carrots and blueberries.  Savannah had a strong cheese, mini pretzels, an organic fruit strip, baby carrots and ranch dressing and "cutie" wedges.

Monday - wheat thins, mini pepperonis, mozzerella cheese chunks, red bell pepper slices and strawberries (with some blueberries for Tara).

Enjoy!  I hope everyone had as great a Thanksgiving as we did!  Now on to Christmas!!!

Around the world in 80 days...

Well, around Memphis is 12 hours, anyway.

I am zonked so you don't get much tonight - I'm sorry!

We were up at 4 a.m. to go to Walmart.

Then, after dropping the girls off at Kid Station, me and my mom headed to Kohls, then Toys 'R Us,  and Target.  Took a break for lunch and a mimosa at Olive Garden, then off to the mall for round 2.

We hit Sears, Dilliards, JC Penney's and Macy's. 

I am worn out - my feet are killing me and I can't hardly string 2 coherent thoughts together.

My favorite way to spend the day after Thanksgiving!!!!

Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!  This will be a quick post because I have to get in bed early so that I can get us at the crack of dawn for Black Friday shopping.  Anyway, here are some pictures of the day:

Charles shaking the cream to make butter - was supposed to be an activity for the girls...the novelty wore off in about 5 minutes.

Is it ready YET?????

FINALLY!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Savannah wanted to eat the turkey "bone".

Tara said  "I love turkey day!"

The wishbone - About 10 seconds after I took this picture, Savannah was in tears becuase she didn't get the big piece!

Happy Thanksgiving Eve

So, today I was off and my mom is here, so we used the day to menu plan, grocery shop and prep for tomorrow.

We made caramel sauce from scratch for the caramel-whipped sweet potatoes. Well, actually, we made it twice because we, ahem... over browned it the first time - we were going for "amber" colored and ended up with nearly black. So, yeah, that batch went in the trash. The second batch turned out beautifully and yummy!

We baked the sweet potatoes, mixed the dough for the potato rolls and put it in the fridge to do its first rise, made the corn bread for the dressing, chopped up the onion and celery for the dressing, and made my mom's fabulous coca-cola chocolate cake!

So, tomorrow morning, I will be up bright and early to prep the turkey - 16 pounds of it!!! Once I get it in the oven, we will finish the rolls, make the dressing (Paula Deen's recipe!), make the whipped sweet potatos, make mashed potatos, prepare the "giblet" crazy, make the grean beans almondine and do the marinated asparagus - oh, and the 5-cup fruit salad. Whew! Hungry yet???

Enjoyed having the girls here all day - they played pretty good all day and did not want to go to sleep tonight - having too much fun!!! They are excited about Thanksgiving and when my mom asked Tara what she was thankful for, Tara said she was thankful for Christmas! Savannah is thankful for her birthday, which is next weekend on the 6th.

I will leave you with a little ode to Thanksgiving courtesy of Adam Sandler:

Once a Princess...

Following is the St. Jude spot on The Today Show this morning.  This one really touched me - she is 3 and so is Tara.  And they both have that princess thing going that I talked about here.  So, it is one of those stories that expecially affects me.

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I got to take Tara to ballet tonight - she loves being a ballerina. I hope that someday, this little girl's mother gets to do the same thing.

Tonight I give thanks for Tara and her larger than life personality and the joy with which she just "is."

I love you, Tara!!!