What's in a year

Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving 2011

Lots and Lots of updates

Thank you all for the sweet comments about my Grandpa's passing.  It was very sad, but I know he's in heaven probably fishing or dancing with my Grandma.

Last week was tough with the wake and funeral and then Thanksgiving.  My family decided not to travel to our home for Thanksgiving this year, just given the circumstances, so it was just Jesse's parents and us.  We had a delicious dinner and enjoyed the company.  They made a nice short trip and it was wonderful to have Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday just the two of us. 

I had my 37 week appointment last week and my 38 appointment this week.  I will get pictures up today or tomorrow, I swear!  Appointments went well, passed my Strep B test which is good.  Everything is looking fine so far, I'm up 33lbs total and the doctor said that my cervix is softening, so whatever that means I suppose it's good!  I'm not dialated at all, but I'm trying not to get down about it, because I suppose that can change in a few hours. 

Plan is to see how things go next week at my appointment and if I haven't had him yet, we'll do an ultrasound on Dec. 15th and then plan for an induction the week after. So, sounds like anywhere between the 20th-23rd if he doesn't come on his own before then.  I'm hoping he decides to make an appearance on his own, but we shall see. 

Moving date is still set for Dec. 27th, so we have a lot going on in the next few weeks.  Say a prayer for our house to sell very soon and for a healthy baby to be born very soon :-)

More updates to follow as I have time! 

Thanksgiving 2010

What are your plans for the big Turkey Day? (I don't actually refer to it as that, just an FYI).

Well.... Crazy mama to be here.  I will be 37 weeks on Thanksgiving and we are hosting Thanksgiving.  Yes, at our house and yes, we are cooking the turkey.... A 22 lb turkey to be exact.

Call me crazy, but this is my favorite holiday!  It is the 4th year in a row that we have hosted and I figured heck, I can do it.  I can only imagine how tired I will be after getting up at 6am to put the turkey on, followed by finishing my cleaning and making a few side dishes.  

Everyone coming is contributing something, so I'm not all alone here.  And the hubby is a huge help when it comes to all things Thanksgiving Day.  

I just hope I get through the day without having to ditch everyone for a nap... haha

This is the last Thanksgiving that we will be this far away from family, so I couldn't hardly cancel it.  My in-laws live 4 hours away and my parents live 1.5 hours away.  We will soon live in the same city as my parents and 2.5 hours from my in-laws.  So, it will be o so nice.  

Will we host next year?  Who knows, probably!  

Hope you all have big plans for the special day next week.  I know I have a lot to be Thankful for, this year especially.  

Do you host Thanksgiving?  Do you cook?  What are your plans? 

Weekend Recap

This weekend we were able to get out and visit some friends we haven't seen since their Wedding in May!

Friday:

We headed to my hometown to drop Bear off at my parents, we stopped at my Brother & future-sis-in-law's house to hang out for a bit and then stayed at my parents for the night.

Saturday:

I woke up early to attend a Spin class with my mom, Oh my goodness my buns are killing me!  It hurts to sit! haha We then went out for breakfast with my parents and got on the road to Peoria to visit Katie & Scott!

We arrived around 2:00ish, played some cards and talked.  We headed to a delicious Mexican dinner and then went out for drinks and to play shuffleboard.  It was a great night!

Sunday:

We went to breakfast with Katie & Scott and then got back on the road for our 4 hour drive back home.  It was nice to get home but it was so nice to visit friends & family!

I just realized that I didn't ever tell you about Thanksgiving!  Oops.....

Well here's the short rundown.

We had my parents, my brother & future-sis-in-law, my hubby's parents & his brother for Thanksgiving.  I cooked the turkey, mashed potatoes and the green bean casserole and then everyone brought a dish.  My turkey turned out amazing!  I was so proud.  It wasn't my first turkey, but my 3rd, so I'm pretty seasoned now... haha Anyway, I didn't take any pictures because I was too busy getting ready for the dinner, but it went off without a hitch.  It was delicious.  My mother-in-law made Pumpkin & Apple Pies, my future-sis-in-law made a chicken salad dip and Snickers Salad (YUM!).  My mom made a corn casserole, a Pumpkin dessert and stuffing. Anyway, it was great.

I'm hoping that since we're getting a new camera for Christmas that I will get back on the horse and start taking some pictures to show you all! :-)

Happy Monday everyone!

I did it!

After 14 months of marriage, I've finally ordered wedding pictures!! :-)  Just a small victory over here at the Crane's, as I've been putting it off for some time now! (14 months to be exact!)  It's a process as I'm sure a lot of you brides know! And the fact that my photographer didn't use a digital camera (don't even get me started), we have less pictures to go through, but we don't get to see them online! :-(  So anyway, I'll be happy in the moment for now and forget the things I cannot change!

Update on how Thanksgiving went at our home to come later this week.  I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!! I've officially started decorating for Christmas, as I can see, many of you have as well!  Isn't it great?  I love Christmas!!

Happy Monday! :-)

Thanksgiving

What are you thankful for?  So, right about now I'm whipping up a turkey, mashed potatoes & gravy and green bean casserole, awaiting the arrival of my In-laws, my parents, my brother & future-sis-in-law and my brother-in law. I cannot wait until our home is filled with the delicious smell of Thanksgiving and the sound of family.  So, I've planned ahead of time to provide you with my Thanksgiving Post.  I'm sure many of you are busy today but, I just want to wish all of you a very happy and family filled Thanksgiving Day!

I thought there would be no better day to do a Thankful Thursday than Today, Thanksgiving Day 2009! 

I am thankful for:

• My family.  There is nothing more important in this world than my family. I love them and do not know what I would do without them. (This includes all family members, extended family & In-laws!)
• Good Food.  I am hosting Thanksgiving for the 3rd time and I am very excited.  I love that everyone is willing to come to our home (even though we live a ways away).  Everyone brings something to share, we make the turkey & the potatoes & gravy.
• Thanksgiving.  This is my favorite holiday!  I love eating delicious food and relaxing all day long.
• My job.  I am thankful that I have a job and even more thankful that I get Thursday & Friday off!
• Great weather.  I think this is probably the first Thanksgiving day that we haven't had snow on the ground.  It's suppose to be about 40 degrees and beautiful!
• God.  I am so thankful that I believe in something bigger and grater than myself.  With Faith anything is possible.

What are you thankful for on Thanksgiving of 2009?

Stuffing

So, here is the conversation I had with my mom this weekend...
(First, let me get you up to speed, I LOVE my mom's stuffing, it's fantastic, and she makes it every year)

Mom:  I'm not making stuffing this year

Me:  Um.... Why not?  You have to, its delicious!

Mom:  I was just watching something on TV about how each serving of stuffing has the equivalent saturated fat of 3 Large orders of french fries from McDonalds!!

Me:  Well that probably depends on how you make it and I'm sure you don't make it like that... Right?

Mom:  Yes, Kayla... It's how you make stuffing. 

Me:  Well I'm sure it depends on how much you eat, nobody can eat that much stuffing.

Mom:  It's 1 cup, one cup has the same amount of saturated fat as 3 large french fries...

Me:  So you mean to tell me that the helping of Stuffing I enjoyed last year was like eating 12 large orders of french fries from McDonalds??!??!?!

Mom:  Yes.  That is correct.

Me:  You better not make stuffing this year!

Weekend Recap

This weekend was great! 

Friday:

We spent some quality time together, just the hubs and me!  We cooked dinner, listened to music and then watched The Wizard of Oz together! :-) It's a tradition in my family for my Mom and I to watch the Wizard of Oz every year around Thanksgiving time.  I will be sure to start that same transition with my children!

Saturday:

We got to sleep in!  It was wonderful.  We then got ready for the day, cleaned a bit, I cut hubbys hair, and we packed for the rest of the weekend.  My friend Tiffany got married in my hometown.  She couldn't have been more blessed to have such a beautiful day to go along with her beautiful wedding!  It was perfect!  It was sunny and 70 degrees in November for her wedding!!!  I could hardly believe it.  (for those of you who don't get to experience the dreadfully amazing Iowa winters, it's usually very cold with a possibility of snow around this time of the year).  Saturday night my whole family was able to get together at Tiffany & Jake's wedding reception for drinks & dancing.  Pictures to come tonight!

After that, we were able to meet up with my old good friends, Natalie & Bri & their men.  It was so great to see them!  I hardly ever get to spend time with them anymore, so it was nice to catch up.  Natalie's getting married next year and Bri's having another baby!!!  I'm so excited!  Such big changes in all of our lives and I am so glad that we are able to remain friends!

Sunday:

We woke up early and headed to breakfast with my mom.  Aftewards, we got packed up and headed back home where I was FINALLY able to get most of the leaves taken care of in our yard and cut the backyard once more before winter.  our yard looks so much better!  On a side note, it was such a great day to be raking leaves, because with each stroke I took to rake, 1/2 of them would fly off and out of our yard! haha, yes it's probably considered cheating, but do you think I was going to chase after them? haha no way!

How was your weekend?  We have two weekends in a row coming up that are stay at home weekends!  This hardly ever happens and I am so excited! 

My to do list before Thanksgiving includes:

Buying place-mats & napkins (anyone know a good place to find cute, cheap, brown ones??)

A table runner (I'm also having trouble finding this!)

Buy a gravy boat

Buy my turkey! ( A whopping 25 pounder!)

Change sheets in guest bedroom

Clean house from Top to Bottom!!

It's going to be a busy two weeks!!

Catching up!

It's been a few days since my last post and I have no real good reason why.... I mean, I'm busy, but I could have sat down to type something up.  Nothing was blog worthy, but now that I have a few minutes, I thought I would catch you all up on what's going on.

This weekend was great since we were able to spend it at home!  Jesse was home sick on Friday, so most of the weekend was spent taking care of him and watching movies.  I have my first draft of my lit review for my research paper due this Sunday (which I was able to START on this past weekend)  I'm only about 2 pages in, so I've got a long way to go.  We did get to see some great movies though.  We watched The Proposal which was cute and a must see!  We also watched Lies & Illusions which was the worst movie we've ever seen a very odd movie to say the least. State of Play was the other one we watched and it was ok, not my favorite, and not my least favorite.

Other than that, Saturday, hubby drug me kicking and screaming took me to a speaker competition.... Yes, I said speaker competition.  More on that in a later post, but really, it wasn't that bad.  It was quite humorous and fun to see how creative people are when it comes to building speakers that sound really great.  It's hubby's new found passion in his free time.  He's working on a new project for our movie theater room, so I'll have to show pictures of that soon as well! 

I'm currently loathing my research class.... It's got to be the most waste of time class I have ever taken.  There is so much busy work.  AND get this, the research project we are putting together, well we aren't even following through with the research (or at least we aren't required to and since I'm not currently working in a school, it's quite difficult to do so).  So, I'm going along, doing whats required of us, but not really learning a damn thing in the process... I keep thinking only 7 more weeks to go and I'm finished with the class!!! (I wish it seemed like a short amount of time!)

I'm having a crap-tastic week, I can't really share a lot of the happenings, but just know that I could use some prayers to help fix things... 

I'm excited for this weekend, it's our biggest annual fundraiser for Big Brothers Big Sisters called Bowl for Kids Sake.  Hubby and I are bowling with two of my co-workers, Angie & Katie.  We've raised our money and now we are ready to celebrate!  We'll be bowling, enjoying food, hopefully some prizes and just having fun.  Afterwords, my parents are coming to visit and go out to dinner with us.  I haven't decided on a place yet, but I'm sure I'll think of something! :-) I'll be working on my lit-review the rest of the week/weekend, so no other fun will be had!

Lastly, I just want you all to know that there's only 66 days until Christmas!!! I'm very excited, can you tell?  Although, I'm also almost as equally excited for Thanksgiving when both sides of our families will join us for a home cooked meal by ME!  Yeahhh!! 

I hope everyone is having a crappy week like me great week! (No really, I hope it's better than mine!)

Random Thoughts

So, this post will be very random, try to stick with me!

Does a certain smell or season ever trigger memories?

Today, its very chilly, very fall like.  Fall reminds me of the day my husband too me on our first date.  It was back in October of 06' and it was a chilly fall day.  For some reason, when it gets just a bit chilly, the smell of the cool, crisp air reminds me of that day so well.  It brings back memories of a first true love and of happiness.  I suppose maybe it's because this is a good memory that my senses always remind me of it around this time of year.  It's lovely.

It is my favorite season, mostly because it means the holidays are right around the corner, I can look forward to good food, family time and laying in front of the fireplace at my parents.  It also reminds me of apples, pumpkins, beautiful leaves and great fall TV.

Anyway, just wanted to share that with all of you, since I know you have nothing better to do than listen to me ramble on.

Tonight Grey's & Private Practice are back on!  I'm pretty excited.

Have any of you started Christmas shopping?  I've found a few things on ETSY that will be perfect for Christmas gifts!  Other than that, I really haven't started.

I'm hosting Thanksgiving this year, for the 3rd time.  Last year the meal was even better than the year before.  I'm hoping the trend continues!  I probably basted my turkey 75 times to make sure that it didn't dry out on me.  How embarrassing when I have people traveling up to 240 miles to be with us for the holiday!  I'm excited, it's my favorite holiday and I get to host it for my family and for my in-laws.  That is, if everyone can make it.

In other news, I'm feeling pretty blah about my job right now.... I think it's the fact that somethings aren't going just the way I like and the fact that I'm soooooo close to being able to have my license as a Professional School Counselor. I cannot wait until the day that I'm doing what I want to be doing.  I.Just.Cannot.Wait.

I also have baby fever, but that's a story for another day :-)  No, we aren't pregnant, but hopefully we'll have a baby within the next year or so.  Only God and Time will tell.

Have a wonderul Thursday and remember, Tomorrow's FRIDAY!! :-)