Thanksgiving . . . already?

Yup. We celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday with some of my fam because my dad, step-mom, and Joy will be down south with my bro and fam for Thanksgiving this year. (But, don't worry, we'll be doing Thanksgiving again this Thursday). We had fun with extended family . . . and we had the infamous 7-course dinner. Oh, it was wonderful. Most people take pictures of all the people at family gatherings (and we did some of that), but I'm the nutty person who is taking pictures of the food. What can I say, I love food and good presentation!! I did fail to take pictures of everything . . . oh, well.

Brian and I were in charge of make butternut squash soup and apple crumb pie. I knowing you're dying to see the pictures, right? Well, even if you're not, . . . they're here:

When this came out, my 7 year old step-cousin's eyes bug out . . . he's never seen a small tree coming out of his pasta


You'd never think that you have to ration out a huge salad, but my one step-cousin can pack away salad like nobody's business. She was sad she couldn't have a 4th bowl.


So, I did a bad job of taking pictures of the rest of the courses. I got lost in the scrumpious food. When I came-to again, it was already time for egg nog. Oops! Egg nog surely is wonderful stuff, especially with egg nog ice cream in it.


Well, I'm sure we'll have more (boring) food pictures for you this coming week again :). And, we'll hopefully get some family pictures. In general, food doesn't give me such a hard time about posing for a picture (or getting it's "good side"). But, we'll see what we can do.


Don't forget to check out the two posts below . . . and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Senior High Girls

It was about time for another senior high girls sleepover at our house. I really enjoy these girls so much. We had a fun time making pumpkin pies for our church's Harvest Home ministry (a Thanksgiving ministry to those in our church and surrounding community). Some girls also made the breakfast casserole we were going to have in the morning. And, other girls made cookies . . . well, for us . . . we needed some chocolate and sugar.

Then, (with Christmas music in the air), we made some Christmas cards for older folks and shut-ins. That was a fun time. While we made cards, it was a great time of going around and sharing different things we were thankful for. I love hearing how deep these girls can get with different things they are grateful for.

Then, we played a Cranium game called Whoonu. Ever heard of it? I hadn't. Brian picked it up at a local thrift store on Friday. (Brian is the most amazing thrift store shopper, if you were wondering :). It's a fun game, where you have to guess other players' "favorites." We had some good laughs.

Around 12:30am, girls started getting ready for bed and they were out surprisingly fast. Saturday morning was breakfast casserole (yum -- good work girls), and cinnamin buns (which you can never go wrong with). After some quick clean up, we were off to Color Me Mine, where we painted pottery for 3 hours. The girls love it, and they especially wanted to go in November in order to make Christmas gifts. I love seeing each girls' creativity come out.

God has really blessed me with these girls.

Football season ended

Brian coached his 6th year of football. He was promoted to defensive coordinator this year, and I'm not prejudice or anything, . . . but I think their 7-1 record was definitely due to some good coaching :). Brian enjoyed having some good talent; then again, you should if you have 65 some guys. I had fun snapping some pics at their last game (as I froze on the sidelines) . . .

Let's go Penndale!

Brian with his defense peeps

Shaking hands . . . really the victory walk

The coaches' victory walk

A "good-season-boys" talk . . .

Introducing . . . Hand Designs

Some of you faithful bloggers might remember one of my posts last May about starting a business . . .

Well peeps, it happened. Don't worry, I haven't been holding out on you too long, . . . but that has been the reason for my very few posts . . . busy with starting up the biz.

Let me introduce you to Hand Designs. Here's a little history (for those of you saying, "Are you crazy?!!! You're starting a business?!!!") . . . Last May, I threw a baby shower for a coworker, and made up some fun invitations, and thought I'd try my hand at a diaper cake. (Here is a diaper cake if you've never seen one). My coworkers ended up loving the diaper cake to my surprise . . . so much so that my coworker wanted to order one from me later in the summer. And, she asked for some business cards to give out at the baby shower she was attending.

So, the summer is going by (and , I'm not really thinking about starting a business). I find some business cards online, and I find a website promotion. So, I fiddled around with the website and took pictures of my various products. I wanted to make sure the website was up and running for ladies that received my business card.

When I brought the diaper cake into work to deliver to my coworker, others found out. And, people commented again that I should start a business. This time I could say, "Actually, I have a website now. You should check it out." So, in a day, I had two stationary orders. I couldn't believe it. And, one of my coworkers (thanks Gina!) offered to host an evening "debut" for Hand Designs. And, the debut was a week and a half ago. It went surprisingly well, and I sold much more than I anticipated.

So, we'll see where it goes. I enjoy creating these products, and it's helping to provide the extra income we were hoping to make.

Take a look and let me know what you think.