Thanksgiving prep

The turkey and all the ingredients are purchased. Well, except the fresh thyme. I really don't feel like running from store to store trying to find it either. I might put my mother-in-law on the case or I might just *gasp* use dried.

Thomas's room is almost company ready. That was yesterday's major task. It turned into a major, desperately needed declutter session. I have finally convinced him to give away his Rescue Heroes. I've been trying for about a year, I think. We put lots of books up to save for any future grandkids, I guess. We put lots of books in a box for Grandma to go through for Miriam. We have another huge give-away box going. Oh, and 2 bags of trash. Geesh! Tomorrow I'll launder all his linens so that Mike's aunt & her husband can sleep there. Thomas will move to an air mattress in our room. I won't have time to do that on Thursday so Thomas will just have to spend an extra night in our room so they can have clean linens.

Today I'll finish picking up around the house and start the meal prep. I can't do too much until we get the turkey in the brine tomorrow and free up some fridge space. But I need to bust out what I can today so that tomorrow and Thursday aren't so bad. I like cooking. I even like cooking big meals. I just hate the cleaning up. And since company is coming, I'll have to clean before it's even all really finished. 1 meal, probably 3 times the kitchen will have to be tackled. Yeehaw!

On the menu:
brie, pecans & cranberries (that was yummy, Kamas!)
Good Eats brined turkey
dressing from my mom's recipe
mother-in-law's homemade noodles
the Pioneer Woman's mashed potatoes (chosen for their make-ahead and reheat-ability)
the Pioneer Woman's whiskey glazed carrots (because they sound yummy!)
green beans
pickled beets
olive & pickle tray because my family always had one
bread from the breadmaker because I can set it up out on the patio & not take up oven space
cranberry sauce
pecan pie
pumpkin pie
chocolate pie

eye exams for everyone

Last week before the trip to San Diego, we all went to the eye doctor. When I called to make the appointment for Thomas, the receptionist asked if anyone else in my family needed to be seen. So I put myself on the schedule. When I told Mike he asked me to call and see if they could get him in as well. So, we all went at the same time.

Turns out Thomas does not need glasses! Yeah, those ones he's been wearing for 2 years that we've been fussing at him about wearing? Big waste of time and money. It all started out with his occupational therapist in GA trying some prism goggles on him in therapy one day. He immediately stopped toe-walking. So we made an appointment with the developmental optometrist they recommended. He got glasses with prism in them and a little prescription for farsightedness. The whole prism thing turned out to be a bit of a bust - it definitely wasn't the magic answer we had hoped for toe-walking. Last year when we had his eyes checked, the doctor had him do the chart with his glasses & didn't see any need to change the prescription. Lately, though, we'd been finding Thomas not wanting to wear his glasses & we had to keep after him or we'd find that he'd taken them off in the middle of the day. The doctor we saw last week had him do the chart with and without glasses. Turned out he could see better without the glasses!

Mike had a change in prescription, which we expected. He spent longer than I did picking out frames, which was kind of funny. The people in the office kept having him try on all these outlandish things. Dude, we all know you're going to get the conservative ones, so let's cut to the chase, eh? There was one retro, throw-back to the 50s pair that looked surprisingly good on Mike. He hemmed and hawed about those for a bit, but in the end, went with something really similar to what he already has. Hopefully these frames will hold up a bit better than those.

I went in with the hopes of getting contacts. The last time I had been to the eye doctor, it was a very frustrating experience. I got glasses all fine and dandy, but had really wanted to switch to contacts. The office never seemed to have the right contacts in for a trial and the doctor kept having me try some that weren't quite right and come back. Finally, after about 6 weeks of back and forth, I gave up. I stopped wearing my glasses because I didn't like the way they looked and I could see "good enough" without them. Lately, though, I had been getting frustrated with reading signs on the road and anything that involved reading on the television. I could do it, but I had to really concentrate to get things to come into focus.

Turns out that I barely have any prescription needed at all. But that if it bothers me, I should definitely correct it. Most people who wear glasses or contacts see so badly that getting close to perfect vision is such a tremendous improvement that they're happy with the results. I have close to perfect vision, but "some people just demand perfection". That cracked me up. Really, anyone who knows me would tell you that I'm a 'good enough' kind of gal. Anyway, this guy told me that I'd have a hard time finding contacts that made it perfect, and would probably end up frustrated with all the effort of contacts, so I should probably stick with glasses. Fine, but I had to find some glasses that worked. That had been my biggest frustration - finding glasses I liked that fit my ginormously wide face and didn't get all splayed out at the arms. The people in his office are good, though. They helped me find a couple of options that I actually thought looked good. Don't tell anyone I wear men's frames, though, okay?

So Monday I picked up my new glasses & went out Tuesday for a haircut. The glasses were definitely too hip for my daily ponytail. Whatchya think?

San Diego

Took off last week for San Diego. It was a trip we had been planning for awhile, just kept putting it off for other things. But, it was getting way past due for Thomas's birthday present, a trip toLegoland, so we finally got it together. We stayed in a surprisingly nice Travelodge in LaMesa, CA. Mike said it had recently been remodeled & used to be a Ramada - a step up the Wyndham food chain, I believe. Good room, very clean, typical continental breakfast offerings + the make-your-own-waffle station and super helpful staff. Incredible considering we paid $50 for the weekend nights and less for Tuesday - Thursday.

petting bat rays

feeding the bat rays

We rode this. A lot.

Journey to Atlantis - kind of a cross between a roller coaster & a log flume.

mama & baby koala

Thomas working on getting his license at the Volvo Driving School

Let's just say, you people should all be very frightened in 9 years.

Mike & Thomas on some sort of robot arm ride

Thomas driving the boat. Again - frightening.

They had this cool place where the kids could build cars, test & race them.

Here's Thomas with his creation.

Why, yes! We are homeschoolers.

We had a great time. We did 1 day at Legoland, 1 day at the zoo & 3 days at Sea World. It was a nice change of pace from the past several trips. Once we were done for the day, it was time to relax - no cooking or cleaning! Thomas liked Legoland the best. I really enjoyed Sea World. Mike enjoyed the trip to Trader Joe's where he bought 25 different varieties of beer to try out.

4WD

A few weekends ago we finally used the 4WD on the Escape. A friend told us about a road up to Browse. We started the day off with the intentions of going to the Arizona Strip, but decided to head to Browse before they closed the road for the winter. It was a good time and nice to get off the beaten path a bit.

an old fence - to hold in what?

crabapples

saw something under all the leaves - turned out to be these shoes

I can imagine that little girl got fussed at for losing them.

DANGER

DO NOT ENTER

POSSIBLE HANTAVIRUS

CONTAMINATION

Makes you feel all warm & fuzzy about the place, eh?

yet another camping trip, part 4 - yay the end!

So, we were in Fresno (you know, back in September when all of this happened, right?) and Mike had the Escape looked at & "repaired". That would be in quotes because the air conditioning worked for 2 days after we had it fixed. Turns out there was a leak when we bought it. There was a lot of dye in the system, so the mechanic could tell that someone had been trying to find the problem, gave up on it, charged it with freon and sold it. So nice & honest. Once we got back to St. George, we had it fixed again, so far so good.

Anyway, once the air conditioning was repaired, we headed to Yosemite. We saw a bear cub right outside the Mariposa Grove, but I wasn't quick enough with the camera. Enjoyed the park, driving around a bit before heading out to our campground.

We waited too late to get reservations for somewhere in the valley, & it was too cold up high for tent camping, so we ended up camping outside the park in a KOA. We spent that first night by ourselves, but were joined the next day by Kerri, Jesse & Miriam!

Half Dome

squishing Half Dome

Kerri & Miriam

mountain jay

Kerri & Elton John's doppleganger

We had a really good time camping with them, although I don't think Kerri is signing up for the adventure again anytime soon. Miriam isn't the best sleeper in the world, and it made for a long night in their tent. Me? I sleep with earplugs so I was pretty oblivious! We didn't so anything super-noteworthy. Just enjoyed our time together, hiked a bit, checked out the scenic overlooks, cooking dinner in the park picnic grounds & had an "illegal" campfire in the grill at the KOA.

computer problems & the Halloween costume

So we've been having issues with our main computer. When we try to boot it it hangs up & is generally irritating. We have to try multiple times before it will actually boot. Grr. This is the computer where we have all the photos stored, the one with the camera software & card reader. So, I finally took the camera card to Costco and got the Halloween photos on a CD. I only got a few shots because the camera card was full. Because the main computer wouldn't boot & I couldn't offload them.

Anyway, here is the futuristic bounty hunter.

The costume did not turn out quite like Thomas envisioned it. He was, um, less than grateful about the end-product . . . until I told him that he could be something from the store next year. Much back-pedaling ensued. "Maybe I can wear this again next year." That's my boy with a disdain for the mass-produced!

the futuristic bounty hunter and his good pal, Optimus Prime