Thanksgiving.. in shorts and a t-shirt

Such is life in Arizona.  Always warm.  But at the same time that I complain about it, I am also very thankful that I'm not freezing and stuck indoors.  Our Thanksgiving was a lot of fun!

Note to self: not even a small army could devour a gigantic pot of cranberry sauce in one meal... so our little party of 18 won't even make a dent.  Stick to one bag of cranberries, next time.  K, bye.

I made a touchdown... so did my stud husband.  Family football on Thanksgiving is the best.  And this year we added in volleyball.  Like always, there was excellent food and lots of family.... oh, and me sticking a camera in everyone's faces.

I also brought the pretzel jell-o.  And heavy duty paper plates... in case you were wondering.

 

Brody loves his cousins :)

and I love

BLACK FRIDAY!

yes, I was one of the crazies amid the madness.  I think it was actually my first time.  As a mom/wife, anyway.

Although I have to say I was very-much-so impressed with Target!  Not only did I save 80 bones but I stood in a line that wrapped all the way back to the book section- for no more than 5 minutes!  Amazing!

And check all this stuff that  I got at Michael's for $14.  $14!!!! ....I'm a little excited...

Now, K-Mart on the other hand was absolute chaos.  The ads intrigued me but once I got in, I was out of there so fast- and have no intention on ever going back.

Wal-mart was kind of a disappointment too... I thought I was going to save a bundle on new toys for Brody.  Not so much.  Here are the kind of savings  you can expect from Wal-mart. 

Gee, thanks guyz- I'm so glad I woke up at the crack of dawn to save a dollar eighty eight.

But I can not forget about my savings at TARGET!  Holla!

...and the fact that I've made progress on my Christmas shopping... feels good to cross stuff off my to-do list.  I even finally got to get the "big bulb" Christmas lights and put them up (thank you non-apartment living).  I love these kind of lights... I love Christmas time.

How did your shopping go?

Brody man

School is really crazy right now (in other words, sorry I have been a horrible commenter lately.. I will make up for it)...

When I'm not practicing piano or editing pictures I spend time with this little guy right here...

and that time is so precious these days.

Baffled

I've been scratching my head for about 6 months straight... I'm starting to see a little bald spot.  I'm not sure what happened (ok maybe do) but somehow my quaint little family blog has some followers (some of whom, I have yet to cyber acknowledge- consider this a warm [[[hug]]] from baldy)  Anyways, I guess the only thing I can say is "thanks" for the love.
*scratches bald spot
Anyway what I really started writing about today was

HI!!!  I think, if we are talking age Jacob would say I'm twelve right about now.  I was sooo giddy after seeing that!  Allow me to explain why though...
Well, first check out our awesome shirts...

I was the only Team Jacob but it's all good...

can you tell this shirt was crumpled up on my floor all night/day? haha

OK.... First of all, back in the day when I was reading Twilight I didn't care much for Edward.  I was a Jacob fan all the way.  Jacob ADORED Bella- and wasn't rude in the halls one day and making out with her the next.  I know Edward adored her too, he just had a funny way of showing it most of the time (and that bothered me).  Although, I understand where he's coming from (since he didn't want to eat her) but I would think- dude make up your mind.  I don't have issues with the vampires, I think they are super.  But I deep down always wanted Bella to go for Jacob (=
...there's just a little background for ya.  So with that said, this movie sure did it for me.  It's a great time to be Team Jacob (;

I'd stop reading if you haven't seen it and plan to!!

SO anyway, there were like one or two things that irritated me just a little.  Mostly just the parts that were different from the book... it makes me wonder why they just don't follow it sometimes.  They could've!  Oh well, it was great despite that.

My favorites were Mike Newton

just hilarious.  That whole scene cracked me up!  Same with this one...

I totally love that they added this part from the book!

the Volturi!  They are straight up legit.

I can't wait to see more of them later on.

Esme, oh my gosh!  She looked awesome- the hot vamp mom I expected all along.  Now without that huge hideous wig.  The other thing I liked was that the vampires eyes looked soooo much better than they did in Twilight.

The dream scene with gram was one of my favorite parts of the movie.  Something about it... I about cried. lol!

I don't care what any one says... I think Kristen is the perfect Bella!  When I was reading the books all I could say about Bella was that she is crazy.  Kristen plays her so well.  I think it would be hard to portray a "person" like Bella who is such a thinker.  Who thinks about more than she really says.  Do you follow me?  Ah well...

It kind of bugged me that they showed Edwards face in every "hallucination" Bella had.  I thought they could've started off w just his voice and move to her seeing him... would've been less corny, I think.  And follow the book, of course.

The wolves were awesome- I was afraid they'd look too weird or fake but they were perfect, I thought.

Even though I knew exactly what was going to happen here I was still on the edge of my seat.  This part was so good!

These parts were a bit awkward for me...

Eh.

Well I guess I went on long enough... when I blogged my feelings about Twilight, the movie, I had a lot more to say because it just wasn't as good.  I'm so glad we do not have to wait another full year to see Eclipse!  But I'm wondering how it's going to be.. what, with a new director and all.  Arg. OH- but one thing I did love was that they actually really did make Jacob look older in this one.  In the books he goes from looking like a cute lil kid in Twilight to practically an adult in New Moon.  Props to Taylor for working out as much as he did because he definitely did look "HUGE" like he was supposed to.

The End. 

Your thoughts?

Sometimes life calls for a day trip

It's true, it does...  in which case, I answer.  I flew solo on this one...but I missed my silly boys tremendously. 

There was a reason for my travels... but I can't tell you that.  I might as well blow my cover as a secret agent.

...

Crap.

Here's what I can tell you... 

...it was a lot colder than Arizona.  Naturally.  And I look awkward in this picture.  yessss.

Oh, and popular movie sites are a must-see-if-you-want-to-be-awesome-and-have-any-friends, kind of a thing.

No, I didn't go to Washington and Oregon just because New Moon is coming out... but I did make a crazy reporter think that!  MuhahahahaHAHAHA!  I couldn't bare to burst his bubble. He was pretty excited.  I never had a reporter stick a tape recorder in my face like that and snap dozens of pictures of me.  (Click here to read the article... it cracks me up for some reason.  "I really like the movie." the end.  Bahahaha!) *edit, I removed the article link, it had my full name sorry.

...but that was really just a detour on my otherwise secret mission.  Although I couldn't very well be there without snuggling up to

New Moon in the process, now could I?  I'm brushing up.

There was much to see...

 

told ya.

Best of all, I got to meet a nephew of mine that I hadn't yet.  Meet Jeff.  He's my new buddy.

And then it was time to go.

Just like that.  I didn't even have time for a

And that's the extent of my "dirty jokes".  Heh.

Every time I visit Washington state I long to move there.  Maybe eventually... maybe not.  I also got to (finally) step foot in Oregon.  Which means the only states I have left on my list are Maine, Alaska, and Hawaii.  Maybe I'll hit all those on my next trip.  But maybe not.
My memorable experience in Oregon went a little like this:
Do you see the name??  "Life Guard"?  I'm sorry but if I were ever drowning in  pool I would not reach for one of those.  It's nice to know that our heroic life guards are now being compared to toilet seat covers.  An unspeakable outrage! (name that movie)
Anyway.  Back to.. it...
Bottom line?
1. fell in love with it all
2. spent time with family
3. did something out of the ordinary

...mission accomplished.