Okay, I am a sucker for scratch and win things. We got an ad in the mail for Sonic to win a free gift card so I scratched the circle and proceeded to the website to enter my magical code to see if I had won. Well, of course it was just a ploy to get all your information so that they can send you junk via email and snail mail but I am so hooked that I just have to know if I won. I entered in all of my information and pushed the submit button. It took me back to the original page and asked me to fix my name. Yes my name was not valid. I cannot explain it nor does it make sense but I just wanted everyone out there to know that my name is just not valid. Weird huh! I was thinking that it might be because there are only three letters in my name but there are a lot of three letter names out there. I am just so sad to know that my name is not valid any longer; to think that I liked it. Of course the computer took Brad’s name. He is quite proud and says that he has the better name; of course now he has all the junk mail though so this could be a good thing.

My mom had us over for lunch on Saturday for Thanksgiving with just our immediate family. She served a Honey Baked Ham and Turkey. This made me think about the previous year, which was my first trip to pick up a Honey Baked ham. Did you know that when you go to purchase your ham they unwrap the ham and let you look at it? This is a little odd but I guess there is nothing wrong with checking out your ham. Well, did you know that if you are unhappy with the way that your ham looks that you can send it back and they will bring yet another ham for your to inspect? This is just so totally disgusting to me for some reason. What if your ham is a ham that someone else rejected? Your ham has already been seen and greatly breathed upon by others. For some reason this bothers me. I was so taken with this whole thing that I asked the employ how many times a single person had sent back a ham looking for that perfect ham. She had someone send it back 8 times! What in the world are you looking for on a ham that you would send back 7 hams looking for this one perfect ham. This is just so beyond me. Ham is ham is ham! So what if it has a little fat on it…cut around it. This just blew my mind. Now every time that I have ham I wonder how many other eyes have seen my ham and sent it back.

Mom came for a visit today and while she was over my dear sweet neighbor called in a panic. She wanted to let me know that there was a cat sitting on my mom’s vehicle and she just knew that when cats sit on your vehicle they could remove the pant. Oh yes, and she just happened to be “glancing” out the window to notice this. She suggested that I go outside in the freezing cold to shoo the cat off so that the paint would not be harmed. I love my mom so much that I did go and shoo the cat away. How funny is this story! I am thankful for a very watchful and caring neighbor though, without her my mom would have no paint on her van in the shape of a cat’s bottom.

The grocery store was uneventful today, however I did buy the next to last package of pecans. Pretty exciting I know! I was quite proud because I am not sure what the pecan pie would of tasted like without the pecans but I am pretty sure that no one would have had any. Well, people would have had a tiny sliver just to be nice but lets just say that there would have been leftovers. The store was out of Pillsbury piecrust. They had the Pillsbury that comes rolled out and you have to put it in the pie plate yourself. No cool disposable metal tin. I am not a big fan of that though because it just taste different. I settled on the Mrs. Smith piecrust. I hope that it taste okay but I figured that it would be at least a little better than the stores generic brand. This will teach me to do my shopping the day before Thanksgiving. Anyways, I have never made a pecan pie before but it sounded like a good adventure and Brad loves them so why not boil some sugar and Kairo syrup. I did not know those were ingredients though thus began the great search for the perfect recipe. My family has a “wonderful” pecan pie recipe but when you get recipes from someone especially over the phone something is always left out or the wrong amount is told or they just cannot find the recipe and you end up chatting about nothing on the phone while the person searches for the recipe. I just decided to skip that whole thing. I looked online a little and flipped through some cookbooks that I had. Online ended up being to overwhelming everyone has a recipe for everything and their version is better but the person who made their version would change this and that so I gave up. The cookbooks are simple and you cannot leave feedback about the recipe. Sure you may make a totally yucky pie but hey that is part of the fun and what Thanksgiving stories are made of. “Hey, remember that nasty pecan pie that you made a few years ago…story… story… story…chuckle…chuckle”. I have an older cherished church recipe book where all the recipes that you try are wonderful and a lot of the same people are still in the church so you know who the really good cooks are. There were two choices for pecan pie and one of them was a recipe from a dear friends mother-in-law. I called my friend to see if the pecan pie was any good and her husband answered the phone so I just asked him. He said that it was a family favorite so that was all I needed to know. If the family likes it I am game. So this is my big plan to make this “family favorite” pecan pie. I am just thankful that the store had the pecans and at least some kind of pie shell, although if I get really brave I could make my own. Hmmmm! We shall see. I will keep you updated on this brave adventure of mine. We shall see if our family is thankful for the pie tomorrow. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!!

Happy Anniversary to my husband!!! What a sweet and precious gift from the Lord to be married to Brad. Happy day to us!!!!

Yes, you read correctly she slept for naptime today! What a total and complete praise! Brad is a total and complete genius!!! He suggested having her sleep in the bathroom; weird I know but keep reading! The bathroom is the only room in our house that has no windows so it is totally dark and that is the only thing different from when Charis sleeps at night to not sleeping during the day. Trust me anything was worth a good try at this point. I put her bouncy in the bathroom and she did look at me like I was totally crazy but I still proceeded. She cried for about 5 minutes and then she was out. She had a decent nap and I was dancing around the house like the happiest woman in the world all because the baby slept in the middle of the day! I guess our next step will be to get black out curtains for Charis’s room. We just have to make the big step from the bouncy seat to the crib now of course that is all based on if she sleeps again tomorrow. She is a smart little tricky trickster so you just never know but here is hoping!!! Super Hoorah for the best daddy ever with the greatest ideas ever!!!

Brad and I celebrated our anniversary a little early this week and we went to dinner and then to see Nickel Creek in concert. It was so much fun to dress up and go somewhere with just Brad. Dinner out was a treat as well since we rarely do that. We chose to go to a restaurant that had been highly talked about around town and it was good food but we just like to go to our normal place where we know that we like the food and we know what we want to order. Trust me we get stuck in the biggest ruts but that makes life fun also. After dinner we headed to the concert. I usually just tag along with Brad to these things never really knowing what to expect. I had heard Nickel Creek’s music but I probably would not of bought tickets to see them. I was mainly in it for the getting out of the house and just being with my husband. What a total treat though to see them and hear their music. It was such a fun concert. We had super great seats (front row) and it was just a fun place to be. I think that I will be putting their music on more around the house and in the car now. I highly recommend the concert if it comes near you. You will be in for a treat as well. Not only will you get to be out of the house but you can hear great music and have fun to. You can read about the concert more in depth on Brad’s blog. He is really good at recapping everything!

Today I had the best idea ever!!! Charis is still not taking a nap in her bed or the Pack-n-Play. She is just so worried that she might miss out on something. She will sleep some in her bouncy seat that she is quickly outgrowing so I am getting desperate, as you will be able to tell in just a moment. Today I decided that if she will sleep in the bouncy why not put the bouncy in the Pack-n-Play for naptime. I am sure that this breaks all those brightly colored stickers on the baby paraphernalia but anything is worth a good try…trust me! Charis did eventually fall asleep for about 30 minutes, which is GREAT! I will take whatever I can get. My plan of action now is to keep trying this for a few days and then remove the bouncy from the pack-n-play and see if I have made any progress. Here is hoping!!! I am still thankful that she sleeps at night without any problem but oh my a nap would be nice.

Charis has her brand new shiny big girl car seat installed in my car!!! It is big and roomy and oh so cozy! We are all elated! Brad is so excited that he does not have to hear about the car seat anymore, Charis is excited to fit into something and I am just happy that everyone is happy. Brad is the best Daddy ever! He loves his little girl a lot! It is sweet that he wants a big girl car seat for Charis in his car so that she can feel comfortable wherever she rides. We will have to wait for Christmas for that though (yes, Charis is putting that on her wish list). For now Brad decided to put the infant car seat in his car, which I thought was cute even though she will be riding in my car from now on. J/K Honey, she can ride with you also as long as you do the cramming to get her into the old car seat.

I am sure that as Charis gets older that she will have many amazing things to discover but for this week it is hair! Yes, hair! She is totally amazed by the fact that the top of her head is fuzzy! She will pat her hair, rub her hair and then pull her hair. The last part of pulling always makes her a little mad but the rubbing and patting makes her smile! It is so funny to watch her explore new things. I think in her little head she is trying to figure out how to get her hair to her mouth since that is where everything else goes.