Bring it On....

The lights are on the house. The mantel is covered in garland and white lights. The tree is in place. Cinnamon is in the air. Let the season begin......

Happy Thanksgiving!

The turkey is in the oven, rolls are on the counter rising, stuffing is made, and the table is set. At 3:00, I will begin the mad rush to get the mashed potatoes done, glazed carrots sauteed, corn pudding in the oven, rolls baked, and turkey finished. The cranberry sauce will be put out, along with the desserts on their own table.

Until then, Todd is over at the shop cleaning. Austin has said, "Shop?" approximately 3,489 times this morning. He's over there lifting and closing the garage doors, looking for the stray bunny, and helping to sweep the floors.

Kalie and Jeremy are watching "Without a Paddle", laughing and chatting to friends on their phones. Ashley is now on her way home. She just applied to be a dog groomer at Petsmart. She's an art major in school, but I think she would be a great vet! She loves animals:)

I will go read a little: The Friday Night Knitting Club. Easy reading for a relaxing day. So much to be thankful for!

Trains and Trash Trucks

Two of Austin's greatest life's pleasures are trains and trash trucks. He has a Thomas the Train set out in the garage; providing hours of fun for him and his friends. He has a Thomas the Train set downstairs in our family room; providing hours of fun for him and his dad. He also absolutely loves, above all else, trash trucks. Every Tuesday morning, he is up and dressed, ready to jump on his bike and follow the trash truck around our neighborhood! Everywhere we go, he is on the look out for trash trucks, and when one is spotted, he promptly and excitedly yells, "Twash twuck, Mommy, turn, turn!":) Sometimes I do, Sometimes I don't. I have been known to follow a trash truck through an unknown neighborhood just to delight him.

This past weekend we went to Goat Hill in Fairview Park. It is a place where young and old labor with love over trains and tracks. Every 3rd weekend are free train rides. I'm on my daughter's computer, so I have no way of downloading the pictures of this adorable site. But, we sat for two rounds of train rides (each about 20 minutes) while my son watched so intently the tracks and wheels moving the on the train. If every weekend was riding trains and following trash trucks, life would be grand!

I am just now finishing my coffee, ready to get dressed and out the door to take Austin to preschool. Today is our Thanksgiving Feast. Hopefully all will go well, and I will be thankful!

So much to write about......

I will do brief summaries of our life for the past month in hopes of permanently marking in history this time in our lives. Someday, I hope to cut and paste these into Austin's album..... yeah, right.

Halloween
Halloween was a blast. We had an easy Saturday, brought home a pizza for dinner then dressed for the evening. I was a little behind as neighbors started coming over before Austin was transformed into Bob the Builder. A few treats from our doorway later, and we were off. We left about 6:30 and visited our immediate neighbors. Austin was very apprehensive at first, slowly following me up to the door where I coached him into saying, "Trick or Treat". He would get the Treat out and stand there waiting for something.... what? he wasn't sure. But the first drop of candy into his basket and he was sold. No problem. He was anxious to get to the next house, and the next, and the next. Finally, I told Todd, "Go back home and get the car, he'll never be able to walk back!" So with our faithful driver, we meandered through our streets and stopped at our favorite friends' houses. We picked up Grammie along the way and visited her friends as well. We got home at 8:00 (1.5 hours of "Treats") and Austin fell happily into bed clutching his basket full of goodies.

Church
I went to an awesome conference a few weekends back at our church, Cottonwood. Some may know my pastor, Bayless Connelly, from his TV broadcasts. He's amazing. Such a great man of God. Well, the conference was exceptional. The theme was "Connect" and the speakers all talked about building relationships with each other. One challenged everyone to give 15 minutes a day to someone that needed help, to be noticed, complimented, encouraged, etc.... He said 5 minutes is easy, but 15 minutes goes into the uncomfortable realm of, "What did I get myself into? Do I really have time for this???" Try it...
The good news was that Austin stayed in the Preschool room the whole time Sunday morning of the conference. I've been wanting him to attend, but the minute worship was over, my buzzer would be going off and he'd be hysterically crying. He did cry a little, but not for me. He wanted to play outside with the balls longer. He's still getting down transition times! So, breakthrough! Austin is going to church with me now!!

Today
We are going on a field trip to the Santa Ana zoo. A sweet, little zoo in a neighboring city. His preschool does a field trip each month. I took the day off work in order to go with him. We went to Knott's Berry Farm last Saturday and it wasn't totally successful. Austin is still learning how to WAIT in line, and how to exit a right gracefully. He tends to say, "MORE, MORE" and not get off. I drag him kicking and screaming while smiling and waving at all the onlookers pitying me. It's ok - I've been here and done this before. It doesn't really bother me. Now that I have adult daughters, I know what to pull my hair out over - not getting off a ride is not one of them!
So, today, I will bring a stroller, lots of dollars for the train ride, sandwiches and fruit and hope for the best!