Thankful!

I'm on day #3 with the Thanksgiving foods. Only TWO MORE DAYS till the actual day, and boy I am wiped out with stuffing my face with the delicious turkey, ham, broccoli casseroles, mash potatoes, green bean casseroles, etc. You name it, I've had it and already eaten way before the Thanksgiving holiday! I have had my small group dinner, then my work lunch, and then today's lunch.


Today, I was happy to enjoy a Thanksgiving lunch with Evan and all of his school buddies. Cy joined us too! It was really nice to eat and chat with other parents. It's so cute when I'm walking around the school and some of the kids say, "Hi, Evan's Mom" to me. I know Evan does the same thing to other mom's and dad's. Very cute!


This morning, we had a good start with a good meal - PANCAKES! Cy made his pancakes, per Evan's request and I sat and enjoy some too! Again, if you didn't read my previous blog entry - read it. Cy came up with a unique way of making these pancakes extra special. Check it out:




Evan loved it and ate it all up! Here's another picture of Cy making pancakes and his way of checking to make sure its cooked - using his own temperture sensor gun. Yeah, such a guy!

I'm thankful for a wonderful family who loves me for me. I'm also thankful for my friends - near and far and want to wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Easy Breakfast

Ever need a quick and somewhat decent breakfast meal? Especially those who have children who despise the mornings and just seems to move like a sloth when they should be a roadrunner?

I believe Cy has found a solution for a quick and easy breakfast for Evan. When it comes to the M-F morning routine, Cy is in charge of getting Little E ready...which includes waking the boy up, breakfast, brushing his teeth, and changing into his clothes. In the meantime, I'm getting ready for work and will make E's lunch in between. Everything is timed. Hey - I can't help it if I'm that organized. :)

Okay - getting back to Cy's breakfast solution. We went to Kroger's on Sunday...gathering up for dinner meals and such. Low and behold - Cy sees the most clever thing ever. Pancakes in a Redi-Whip type canister. I was busy looking at Sister Shupert bread, so I didn't think anything of it. Cy kept saying, look at this...this is cool. Man, this will make life a little easier in the morning for me. Finally, I turned my attention to him after he mentioned it being organic and read the ingredients. I thought - wow, that is actually cool. Then I asked him how much was it. He didn't say...I knew right then it was costly. I'll admit it people - Cy is frugal and I'm one to follow. I checked the price - $4.99. "Heck no...we are not getting that, I said. We can buy a box of Aunt Jemimah's or Bisquick for less then that and make over 1000 pancakes."I told him, not a good idea, turned around and went to the next lane. He didn't follow. I could hear him thinking about it (making gesture noises) and could see his brain just churning. Little E was singing, "I'm cold, I'm cold, it's cold over here, Mommy, where are you?".... then I hear Cy saying out loud, "I'm getting this, I will be responsible for the finances for this decision, Evan you're going to have some cool pancakes tomorrow." Hah! I didn't want to argue, I just said okay.

Cy made the pancakes this morning - talk about EASY PEASY! I even sat down to eat some. And boy, they were good! So all you busy mom's out there who needs a quick breakfast and a change from your normal breakfast routine, even though cereal and milk is quick -- try Batter Blaster! We did, and it was YUMMY!

Who ROCKS?

The Thanksgiving Holiday's have started for me already. On Wednesday, it was a huge blessing to share a meal with my small group. I truly enjoyed it and felt so blessed to be surrounded by people I love. My small group ROCKS!

Cy and I bought the turkey, ham, and a sweet potato casserole and everyone else completed it with sides and desserts. I can tell we all did good - we were all stuffed! We were so grateful for my parents watching Evan during this time. It has been a really long time not having to "worry" who watches Evan while we have time to ourselves. Mind you, we have wonderful friends who have watched Evan and greatly appreciate it. But when its family watching your kid - its different. I'm sure some of you can relate. When we got home, Evan was asleep and tucked in bed already. My Parents ROCK!

I was up this morning at 4 am, catching up on last weeks Grey's Anatomy episode, while eating leftover ham from our small group dinner, and rice. I even ate a Chess Square for my dessert. Yes - a complete meal eaten at 4 am. If I wasn't pregnant, I'm sure I would've been snoozing at this time or waking up to go to the gym. BUT GUESS WHAT? I am pregnant and its acceptable to do "weird" things such as that. Hah! I'm already starting to have some weird and funky dreams too! It's funny how I don't remember doing this when I carried Evan. I am so eager to find out how this little boy will look. If he'll be like Evan when he was a baby. Will he look like Evan - having lots of hair when born (looking like a Japanese bombucha baby)? Or because of Cy's background...will he have curly afro hair? Only the Lord knows and I can't wait to see how our cute baby burrito will be. Only 17 more weeks to go. Seems like a long time to me. But, I'm sure it'll go fast. Especially with the holiday's rolling in.

We are slowly making some progress at our house. Though lots of things need attention, we are focusing on priorities. Like the ditch that surrounds the front and back of the house. Well, it's our french drain in progress. Cy has been working on this project for quite some time now. Every weekend so far has been somewhat interrupted from bad weather to other committed activities. It has been a process. He had to dig and make a ditch, literally lift/jack-up the front corner of the house due to foundation settlement, then mortar loose bricks, then he stuccoed quarter of the wall. The next thing is to put the french drain in - adding the pipes and rock, then finally push all the dirt back into the ditch so that it'll look like nothing ever happened. Oh, another thing he had to do before digging was dig out the beautiful bushes that surrounded the front of the house. We're hoping that they haven't died since they have been uprooted for a while. We put them in plastic bags and we plan to put them back where they were. So, like I said...it's been a process. I'll mention the other projects later. For now...the french drain is our #1 priority. :)

It amazes me how much house projects/renovations my husband does. He's my Handy Manny and I'm so blessed to have a wonderful husband who has the talent to do all this. Cy ROCKS!

Have a great weekend and enjoy this SC weather. Heard it was going to be nice and sunny today and on Sat. Woo hoo!!

A Very Busy Week...+ weekend!

Thank the Lord it's FRIDAY! Woo-hoo! This has been the busiest week for us. I'm so glad its Friday...and its the end of the month too! I'm not fond of October. It seems like a long month to me and well, there are no holiday's. For me - halloween IS NOT a holiday.

Growing up, my family always went to the fall festival at church. I can't remember when I ever dressed up and went trick or treating in a neighborhood. Now that I have a child of my own, we're doing a little bit of both. We had our rOctober Fest (aka Fall Fest) at our church last Sunday and had a blast. Evan dressed up as a gorilla. Every year so far, he has been an animal. A giraffe, lion, kangaroo, turtle, and this year - he's a gorilla. At the rOctoberfest all small groups participated in the chili cook off. I must announce - our table won BEST OVERALL and also thanks to Carl, Hottest Chili awards! It was great!

rOctober Fest - Marriage Enrichment Group

Yesterday, Cy volunteered to paint primer on the front-face of a building for Evan's school. Since Cy was there, he picked Evan up too! That was nice, since Evan has been "dying" to show daddy his new trick on the monkey bars. I'll post some pics at the end of this blog. I headed home, stopping off at Chickfila to pickup dinner. When the arrived at home, it was hussle and bussle our tails to get ready to go to Boo @ the Zoo. This is our first year going, and our friend's were kind enough to get our tickets. It wasn't too crowded, and we all had fun. The most fun Evan had was at the foam station. Boy, was he soaked afterwards! We got home at a reasonable time, and managed to put Evan down for bed by 9:15. He woke up with a good attitude, however, he also woke up in our bed! Lol....he said he was scared and when I checked the clock, it was like 5:30 am this morning. So, he jumped in the bed with us. This was the first time he's ever done this -- since Evan is a super-duper sleeper. Must have been the excitement he had at the zoo.

Evan's new trick - hanging upside down - no hands!

Evan at the Foam Station - Boo @ the Zoo

Evan had a halloween party at his school this morning and I volunteered to bring a snack. It felt good being mommy-homemaker and making something for his class. Considering that I don't "celebrate" halloween, the snack I made was very appropriate and cute for Pre-K and Kindergartners. Can you guess what they are?

Snack for Evan's class: Spiders!

Gorilla Evan and his teacher, Ms. Debbie - a skeleton

Hope everyone has a great weekend. Since I was busy this week, guess I better catch up on the piles of laundry, vacuuming, dusting, and room cleaning at home. Anyone want to help?

We're having a

BOY! oh BOY!

Yes, that's right. We are expecting a little baby boy in March and we're pretty excited. Granted, I already have a boy, but having another one means a double blessing!

I'm so out numbered. Let's see, I'm married to the man of my dreams - my bestest friend EVER - and then together we have a sweet handsome boy - who is the SWEETEST BOY EVER - and then we have three cool cats, all males of course. So, that just leaves little ol' me. Wah!

I had mixed emotions of us having a girl. To me, it's scary...just not my territory. I mean, I have so many friends who have girls and I see how their girls act and just the difference between girls and boys is a HUGE DIFFERENCE.

Anyway, we have a busy week this week. I like keeping busy..its just that I hardly have time to do "housework" when I'm too busy!

Another rainy day

Yes, another day of rain. Too bad for all those people going to the State Fair! It's the first day of the SC State Fair and its only one dolla to get in! I'm all for it, but its raining and well -- I rather go to my small group tonight. :)

Feelings I'm feeling:
- Eager
- Excited
- Nervous
- Tummy hungry for some mall food!

Will share some good news in my next blog entry!

Drip-Drip-Drip...

That's the sound I hear in our office, and its not coming from outside - it's inside! We have several leaks in our office due to the rain and the roofing guys just showed up to figure out what to do. I put trash cans under each leaking area...hopefully, they won't fill up by the end of the day.

Weekend went by fast. I finally, finally put my fine china in my china cabinet. We have lived at the Marley house for two years now and I just NOW did that. Better late than never. I'm starting to clean out the two closets in the guest room, since my parents have moved into their own house. I realized how much baby clothes I've kept and need to consolidate some. Brings back memories when I see some of Evan's baby clothes. My, how time flies!

On Saturday, we had a Community Car Care Day and it was very successful. I stood on the corner waving to people as they drove by - trying to convince them to come get a free car wash or car check. By the afternoon, my right arm muscle was aching from waving too much. Hah! I wonder if those girls in beauty pageants have the same aching arm feeling when they are on the runway or in parades?? My back started hurting too....so maybe its just my age or the weight I carry up front?? I'm sure none of the those beauty queens have that!

Drip...drip...drip... - the roofing guys just left. I overheard them say, they have to wait until it stops raining before they can do anything. Oh no - I hope I can stay awake. The sound of rain makes me sleepy and now its dripping even more. Oh well, I could go back to Starbucks and try the Peppermint Mocha they had listed on the menu or get another PSL - decaf of course. :)