Thanksgiving

This morning we all go to sleep in!! So nice. The fog over the lake was almost a picture out of a movie. It was breathtaking. We all enjoyed breakfast and the kids played while we all watched the parade. This has been a tradition every year. We headed over around noon and the house already smelled delish! We all went out for our normal football warm up. We threw the ball around and get stretched out! Then we had our traditional family football blitz! It is starting to get interesting because the kids all seem to want to play! We got called in and we washed up!! Time for the feast! We ate till our pants had to be unbuttoned.

Every year at the end of dinner we let the food settle and we go around the table and tell each other what we are thankful for. One thing. One thing? Are you kidding me? I have way more then 1 thing to be thankful for. My family, my friends, my faith, my and my family's health, our freedom, I could go on and on. This year I think I went with "faith". We have just been through a lot this year and with out our faith, I don't know how we could have gotten through it. I have been truly blessed with an amazing support system this year and I can't thank all of you enough!

The rest of the afternoon involved my child somehow breaking out of the pack-n-play during "nap time" and ending up breaking out of the house. Only my child! Seriously! Michael, Dave and I took the 3 boys on a nice long walk and then went down by the lake to throw rocks in. Kids always seem to enjoy that activity! We went back to Grandma's for dinner and now we are getting ready to start a made game of Spades with watching "The Grinch" with Jim Carey! Yet another tradition! Hope everyone had a fantastic holiday! Tomorrow is the shopping extravaganza! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Road trip

Every Thanksgiving for the past 1,2,3....5 years now, I have been on the caravan to Arkansas to spend a few days with Michael's grandparents. This year, we are absent his Grandpa. =( So we are bringing an extra dose of pep! We awoke early, got the dogs off, had a fantastic family breakfast and then headed down south. For the second day in a row, rain welcomed us on the road. While we drank down our Starbucks, we set up the iPod. Instead of being "safe" and just going with a playlist, we thought we would jazz it up a bit and go the "shuffle" route. Sure fire way to have a fantastic time. Here are some highlights of our trip:

1) I love how 25% of our trip, I swear, is the northern, middle, southern and suburbs of KC

2) Trying not to crash as Michael dances and sings to Ricky Martins' "Ole, Ole, Ole", "Shake Your Bon Bon", and "Livin La Vida Loca."

3) Enjoying the slight traffic we cause per the above. You think I am kidding!

4) Turning 5724 songs on an Ipod to "shuffle"

5) Being in the groove, and then the next song on the iPod turns out to be a chapter from one of the 4 Twilight Saga audio books. (Side note: I did make Michael listen to the Meadow in book 1, the 'overnight' 1 and 2 and the 'overnight' on the mountain in book 3, and Isle Esme of book 4)

6) Having a rambunctious 2 year old say "Mommy" to everything we drive by because he knows it was annoying me. Don't believe me? Sit in a car for 6 hours with him and you see what happens.

7) Pulling the "Lloyd Christmas" as people pass you or as you pass people.

8) Starring people down in cars using dead eyes.

9) Singing at the top of our lungs to B Spears, NSYNC, Bon Jovi, 90's one hit wonders and many more

10) Realizing how awful I look in the sunlight without make up on!

11) Realizing how pale I am in the sunlight

12) Watching Michael play air guitar and head bang to "Enter Sandman" and then turn around and pull out a Zac Efron to HSM

13) Having a contest to see who can go longer without having to use the restroom....I so won! 
14) Michael acting like a tour guide as we pass towns

15) Having a 2 year old not take a nap the whole time in the car.
16) Actually seeing the sun!

Now we are here. We have a beautiful house on the lake and we are waiting for everyone else to arrive! Ready to get our football game on tomorrow! Yeah for Family, food, fun, football, faith and Friday shopping!!!

Emotion taking me over

I wasn't always this way. I swear. I would get emotional over the normal things. Funerals, some weddings, a sad movie, maybe a friend in need. Recently, this is not the case. The smallest of things can make me break down. No I am not pregnant or anything. This has been happening over the past year. I was starting to find myself shedding a small tear at the end of a happy movie. No big deal. Brush it off, it's a movie right? I found myself getting touched by a friends story. There are have been some cruddy things that have been happening to people around me and just hearing some of them, I would once again, find myself getting moved to tears. Then the small, insane things started making me crumble. A song...okay, many songs. I would be sitting in my cubicle, listening to my iPod and a song like "Gravity" would come on, and I would be a sobbing fool. This could happen even more then once in a day. Just depended on my mood. An email, this is definitely a new down fall of mine. A commercial. Commercials? Honestly? These aren't even Hallmark commercials. A State Farm and a Army commercial had me a blubbering mess the other night. I even cried at "The Office" when Pam and Jim got married. What is wrong with me? Then today. Today just had me wondering. We were getting ready and Michael had turned on VH1's Jump Start. A Nickleback song came on, "Never Gonna Be Alone." As the video progressed, I noticed a trend. By the time the climax of the story hit, I was crying on the edge of the bed. Michael then walked in and said, "Honestly woman, what is wrong with you?" Then I got emotional telling someone about it. I have no idea where this surge of hormones has come from. I don't mind being a little emotional and being someone with feelings, but not this many. If it gets worse, I am not sure what else I can do.

Here is the video from this morning. If you aren't moved by this, tell me how. I need to break free! Or tone it down a bit!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GWQ-oDMG6g

Gearing up for the Thanksgiving napfest.

Tomorrow is our family Thanksgiving! Start of delicious food week! We were having the debate with friends if the turkey or the sides are better. I still don't think we came to a conclusion. It's all just so amazing. There is just something about having potatoes come straight out of the oven, stuffing smelling up the house along with the turkey and the crescent rolls. My stomach is growling just thinking about it! We have double almost all the recipes so we can all have leftovers. Works for me. We are only here 2 days next week!

Since, not sense, we are leaving for AR on Wednesday morning we are starting to get everything ready now. I have 3 lists made! A Jake list, our list and our "extra's list". It's pretty sad all the things we have to take on this 5 day trip down to Bella Vista. We did do most of our grocery shopping here though. That was nice to do instead of going down there, the day before Thanksgiving and having to deal with the crazy retirees of Bella Vista! As long as we have 10 items or less, we will be out of there in 10 minutes or less! It will be nice to have a mini vacation. I don't really consider it much of a vaca though. Have you met my son? Oh well, I love him! At least it's suppose to be in the 60's all week so the outdoors will wear him out! For the first time in 5 years, Michael's parents are staying with Gigi. That means, our family, Laurel's family and David will have the rental house to ourselves!! Wooo hooo!! We are looking forward to hours of conversations and games!

One thing about going down to The Vista is we have quite a bit of down time! I have always been into autobiographies. Not matter who it is. It's always interesting to find out how someone because they way they are, how someone got to where they are at or just to see their point of view. A friend of mine highly recommended Sarah Palin's new book. I thought I would give it a whirl! Especially since this friend really isn't to reading and the book just came out and they are done with it. I think the next one I want to read is Michael J Fox "Always Looking Up" but I have to get through this one! I also want to read Hp 6 and 7 again. They were so good!

PS-

This is only for 1 person who had doubt. Did you see how much it made on Friday? $70mil! One and half stars doesn't stop the die hards! I still love ya!

The moment we have been waiting for

After months of countdowns, weeks of excitement and a day of being nervous and not eating, the big day finally arrived. I kept myself busy in the morning by setting up more Christmas decor and deep cleaning the bathrooms and kitchen. Finally, I started to get ready. I have noticed that I am starting to collect a wardrobe of "Twilight Saga" shirts. People keep getting them for me. It's rather sad. Oh well. I do have 1 HP shirt! Lol. I still have more Iowa shirts than the rest of Michael's and my clothing put together. I am a bit obsessed with the Hawkeye apparel. Another thing I need to add to my therapy list! =)

When I headed over the the theater, I really started to get nervous. Why? I still can't tell you. I think it was just one of those moments where you don't want to be disappointed. When Derrick and I got there, we went straight back! Fandango is a new friend of mine. We couldn't believe that we were finally at the moment we have been waiting for. Looking around, we were pretty much the youngest people there! It was full of stay at home moms that probably had kids in late elementary school or middle school. After drooling over Channing Tatum in his new flick, the movie started. All I can say is, AMAZING. Of course there were differences from the book, but oh well. First off, Edward...I don't care what anyone says. That man, playing Edward, makes my heart race and the butterflies fly. He is not the most attractive in person but playing the role of Edward, wow. They way that he kisses her, are you kidding me? I get tingles just thinking about it! Lol. Then there are the werewolves, can we say Yummy? I am not a Team Jacob person, but that body on him? Fantastic. All of them were beautiful creatures. I would say 75% of this movie has some very good looking men with their shirts off! I think I was most excited for the Vulturi. That whole part of the movie, was more then I imagined. Now the ending? Are you kidding me? If you haven't seen it, I will not spoil it for you. Let's just say the ending happened and everyone in the theater was like "WHAT?! No way!" I did not think they would end it that way. It did happen in the book, but still! Cliffhanger. Luckily we only have 220 days to see what happens. As a fan who have read the books, we all know what is going to happen, but still. I didn't want it to end.

As we were leaving, they were already setting up the ropes for the showings at 3:30 and the evening showings. It's so crazy to think how many people are addicted to it like me. At least I am not alone. Also, they already had the Eclipse poster out! I guess 220 days is not long to them! Oh June 30th, come soon! I was a little excited to see HP and the Half Blood Prince is coming to DVD on Dec 8th! I will have make a Target trip that day!

So, the movie was much better than I thought it would be! You can tell they had a much larger budget this time around! If you are a fan of the books, you will probably be somewhat disappointed, but you can't jam everything into 2 hours! I will be in line the day it comes out on DVD to get a copy! I will see in the theater at least one more time! I am a little sad this countdown is over with, but we have another one to start!

Side note:

We watched Slumdog Millionaire tonight. If you have not seen this film, I highly recommend it! It was a very good flick! I can see why it won all the awards it did!

T-Minus 10 hours....

That is all for today!

Any twilighters fantasy....

Today was just a plain old Tuesday. Nothing exciting in the cards, so I thought. I didn't really find that much out of sorts. I did not understand why Josie was staying until 2 when she was taking a half day. I know we are amazing and everyone wants to eat lunch with us, but she has been so excited to see her girls, the less she is at "The Wide", the closer she gets to see them. Something I missed was Sam. I saw her heading to the bathroom, wrong, I was so wrong. She had her purse and her phone so I thought she wasn't staying for lunch. I questioned her and she said something about a faulty bladder due to pregnancy. I believed her and she actually followed through and basically went into the bathroom and then walked back out. Now, TMI for some, but I pee quicker then most males, so that was astonishing to me how fast she got out of the stall! I went back to my desk, noticed a few people were missing but carried on with my work. I noticed Michael had tried to call me so I called him back. In the dialing process, Josie came over and asked me to go to lunch. Now, we go everyday between 12:25-12:30. It was 12:15 AND the rest of our crew was not with her. Then, I decided to be inquisitive. Why? I have no idea. For once I started asking questions. Where everyone was at? Why didn't Josie have her PB and J lunch with her? Where was everyone? Why we had to go to the 4th floor for a soda pop? Of course today, I decide to be aware of things around me. After we passed the break room on the 4th floor and I got all confused, we opened the door to a conference room. There, with their smiling faces, were my amazing co-workers. In the corner, stood a "life size" cardboard cut out of Edward, Jacob and Bella. At first, it scared me but then I believe I turned a tomato red and flushed. They threw a "New Moon" lunch-in. We munched on some very delicious pizza and some very tasty cake! There were even New Moon napkins. I still feel completely embarrassed and still turn red at the thought they did this for me. I don't think I deserved it and I don't think I did anything to be given such a wonderful gift. They are just amazing and very sweet. I will tell a lie, we did take photos with it! I think one involved me biting Edward and another one I was basically jumping on him! Then came the fun part. Having the 6 foot cutout in my cubicle. You would not believe the conversations and requests I had. I had 1 person ask if they could come by and pet it randomly throughout the remainder of the day. I had someone ask if they could lick it, someone else ask if they could kiss it, and even one person asked if they could take into an enclave for 2 minutes. I had 10 people at least, take photos of it or take photos of themselves with it! It was definitely a conversation starter. Met quite a few new people on my floor this afternoon. I got to know some people more then I would have ever wanted to. Somethings people really need to keep private. Examples: dreams and fantasies. It was somewhat nice to see people my age drooling over it though. At least I am not alone in Twilight Saga obsession/mania. The rest of the day I felt that I got nothing done. People just kept coming over and commenting. All in good fun. I did get a good ole JerBear laugh! Mike sure enjoyed watching me carry it out of the building. I did place it in the front seat next to me. I got quite a few stares all the way down Ingersoll. I moved it to the back seat when Jacob (my son, not the werewolf), entered the car. He kept laughing in the back seat. When I got home, I had to figure out the perfect way for Michael to find out that I had received this. I struggled between in the closet so when he went to change it would scare the "hiss" out of him or maybe behind the Christmas tree. I did place the trio behind the Christmas tree, maybe a new holiday card? I eventually landed on, in the bed. That is every girls fantasy right? He went upstairs when he got home and all I heard was "SARAH!" First off, he thought I bought it. Then I told him the story and he just laughed. He then told me to get it out of the bed and that it better not surface there again! He did comment that if he woke up in the middle of the night or in the morning and it is anywhere in bed, at the end of the bed, above the bed, or me on the floor with it, he would take it away, along with the rest of my gear! I am getting an odd look while I am typing this. Maybe because I am wearing my Twilight shirt from last year and drinking from my new New Moon mug! This made my week even better! I have a feeling I am going to be extremely hyper Thursday. This is me apologizing in advance!

Thanks again to my amazing co-workers! I didn't deserve this but I appreciate it! I love you all and you make that place worth going into everyday! It wouldn't be the same without you all and I am thankful everyday for you all to be in my lives! I am truly blessed!

3 days! 

 Photos per request...I got creative

Merry Christmas from the Janzens

How he was set up when Michael got home

OMG he is on my pillow

Coming through my window

So much better than a TV

At the foot of the bed. Yes I would love to wake up to this

All these places are now band per Mr Janzen. Fun hater.

 

Edward stuck between 2 Jacobs and an annoying Bella