Thanksgiving recap

It was good. It really was. I think all the fretting I did about it definitely helped, because it turned out to be a great day, even with my dad, his girlfriend, and my mom.

I loved how my table turned out and I think all the decorations cost less than 20$. There was enough food to feed a small country and we even got in a game of football and Pictionary Man.

Tomorrow is December 1 which starts my second annual Advent Calender put together by Teddy. I'll post photo recaps of the prizes again, but last year Teddy was working in the East Village in Manhattan, this year we live in South Alabama. I don't know if will be able to compare.

uninvited

I have been looking forward to this year's Thanksgiving for a year now. We are hosting Thanksgiving at our house and even though both of my parents will be in attendance, I was looking forward to it anyway. I have been planning my menu and my table decorations for at least a month and I couldn't wait for everyone to gather around my table and eat dinner.

I am now cranky and pouting about Thanksgiving because according to a text I got from my sister my dad has invited his girlfriend to attend as well. Honestly, I have nothing against his girlfriend, she seems fine, BUT she is only a couple of years older than my sister and MY MOTHER is going to be at dinner too. It just really bugs me that I didn't invite her and yet he took it upon himself to invite her along. It just is going to be awkward on so many levels...

The thing about my dad that just drives me nuts he always invites his girlfriends along to family celebrations. He insists we include them, and in some ways I get it..but since I have been in college there has been one fiance, one wife, and at least 3 different girlfriends. I just hate looking back over family photos and you can tell what year it is dependent on which woman is in the photo.

It is just really sucking the joy out of my preparations and it is making it hard to be "thankful." On top of that I've been in a crummy mood because...here is a shocker for you....life isn't fair!

It will all work out, and it will all be FINE, but I today I feel bloated, and headachey, and ugly and fat and moody and weepy and I actually watched a Lifetime movie last night and I have cramps...I think I must have a disease...

UGGly

I have been thinking of a post about being grateful and taking pleasure in the little things, but that has been postponed due to a burning question I have. Today Teddy and I walked around our town for hours. It was so pleasant but I kept getting little bursts of irritation due to the fashion trends on campus.


Do girls in your area wear running shorts with UGGs? I think this is about the worst fashion statement since Hammer pants. It is baffling to me, why would you wear snow boots with short shorts? Is this just a Southern thing? What about 80's sunglasses? They were ugly in the 80's, they are not any better now!

Please help me, I have vowed to punch the next UGG/Nike shorts wearing girl in the face...this is not the spirit of the Holidays!

sulking

I've been in a crappy mood the last two days and I have nothing positive to say. The job search is....going. I get my hopes up, and then there is some sort of weird caveat (you have to drive an hour each way, you have to be on call etc). I'm just grumpy, but next week is Thanksgiving and Teddy has the whole week off, so that should be nice.

Because I am helpful, I will give you some fire safety tips straight from Eli (not his real name).

Fire Safety from Penny InExile on Vimeo.

bullets for Friday

I've got nothing new to add today but I read someone else's post today which reminded me of some stuff that I know a lot of you like that I just don't get....

For example:

• Seinfeld. I've mentioned this before. I don't get it. It makes me uncomfortable because they seem to yell at each other a lot. I can't watch it without hiding my face.
• Twilight or Vampires...How did Vampires become so cool all the sudden? I have never actually read Twilight so really I shouldn't judge but I'm not really into Sci-Fi kind of stuff
• Down Vests. Aren't your arms cold?
• Why the Sci-Fi channel felt the need to change their name to SyFy Channel. Lame.

Oh, and I also wanted to give you a Mom to English dictionary in case you ever meet my Mom.

• Pandera=Panera
• Liberry=Library
• Furry=Ferry
• Burry=Berry
• Jeepy=her car which is a Jeep but she says "Jeepy" like you should know already
• Rangy Tang=her cat Meringue...the name Rangy Tang makes my skin crawl

Here are some things she keeps in her house I don't get

• Zip lock bags full of seashells on every flat surface (she likes the idea of seashells as knick-knack sort of things but she doesn't want them to get dusty)
• a shrine to her dead dog which includes raw hide bones...which reminds me of pouring out some of your drink for your dead hommies.
• a coyote skull
• giant plastic bugs used as home decor
• old nuts and Cinnamon sticks that she runs through the dishwasher
• fake flowers pushed into pots

Please feel free to tell me about some stuff that you don't get. Here are some examples of things I like that might help you:

• The Office
• The Real Housewives of Wherever
• pigtails
• making fun of my mom online
• eating till I feel sick
• smoking (not recently)

AND..........go!

fat pants

I recently went through my closet to get rid of all of my clothes that don't fit anymore. I took all these pants off the hangers to give away, and then after thinking about it I folded them all up and put them back in my closet. The pants are all too big. They are mostly size 10s and 8s and currently I'm in a size 6. I started in a size 16.

When we were moving I got rid of all my size 16s, 14s, and 12s. I think I would have tried to hang on to them if we weren't moving. I'm still not convinced that I'm not going to get fat again. When I was going to get a bag to put all the pants in I started thinking how crappy it would be to get fat again AND have to buy new clothes...that is when I put the pants back in the closet.

My weight loss journey is sort of on hold right now. I'm still journaling all my food, and running but I think I'm going to wait until the New Year and then try and lose the last 10 pounds. I am going to try and hold at my current weight until then.

This last weekend was my first race. I did a 10K with my sister and her husband and it was awesome. I finished in 1:04 and I was 19th out of 43 for my age/gender. I was stupidly excited to be number 19! It was such a rush to finish and to beat people who were younger and skinnier than me. I loved it, and this morning I spent time looking for the next race. I think I'm going to do a 12K in December called the 12 Ks of Christmas!

Anyway, I got off my point...the pants...what should I do with them?

don't judge me

I went to the grocery store yesterday specifically to get these three things: wine, magazines, and dark chocolate. It has been a stressful few weeks.

I bought these magazines because I am looking for a perfect Thanksgiving side item. Does anyone have any recipes they want to share that are always crowd pleasers?

rough morning

This morning we took Eli to the doctor for a regular checkup. He checked out just great and then he got the injustice of the H1N1 vaccine up his nose and a jab in the thigh for his regular flu shot. He seemed pretty shocked and he did the open mouth with no sound crying for a couple of seconds before he really starting balling.

We took him to school where he immediately walked in the door and then hit his head on the console thing, giving himself a huge knot. He cried about that for awhile while we applied ice and waited to see if he was OK. We took him to his classroom where he completely lost his shit because he wanted to go outside and not in his classroom. It took a few minutes to calm him down and when we finally explained it wasn't outside time we got him to go back to his classroom where he knocked his head into the doorknob and started crying again....

Man three is hard. I mean really.really.HARD. I don't know how stay at home moms do it because after this morning I was ready to toss him in the classroom and run away screaming. Everything with him is fight...he doesn't want to go to the bathroom, put his clothes on, brush his teeth, take a bath, or eat his dinner. He wants to know WHY about everything, and I can't count the number of times I've said "because I said so!"

I'm home alone now, and I have time to do laundry and clean but instead I'm sitting here worried that he doesn't have a reaction to his flu shot and I'm wondering if I should go get him...has anyone else's kids had any problems with the H1N1 mist?

NaBloPoMo No.

I had really wanted to participate in NaBloPoMo this month, but honestly I feel like I just can't deal with stress of writing every.day. right now. It is sad, I know. In other not interesting news we got our first neighborly party invite in which I was 1. charmed and then 2. creeped out.

The invite was in our mailbox delivered with a bag of candy with one of those Tootsie roll ghost pop things, that I always love so I was immediately happy because you know, candy! (I want you to know I just went and dug through my trash to fish out the invite because I inadvertently threw it out this morning. It is now covered with cantaloupe juice). I read the invite and realized it was more of a courtesy invite since it was in our next door neighbor's back yard and they really just wanted us to know they were having a party so we could call if their music was too loud, which really was very thoughtful.

I continued to read and it said "there will be no alcohol served at the party. just good 'ol fashioned halloween fun." Ummm OK, I know it is probably lame to admit this, but I don't think a party is much of a party without a beer or a glass of wine or something AND what exactly is "good 'ol fashioned halloween fun?" ....BUT THEN it was signed "In the Matchless Name of Christ" hmmm what?

We did not attend. I will send a thank you for the candy note, and I asked Teddy if I could use "In the Matchless Name of Christ" as an expletive from now on...like Eli go to sleep IN THE MATCHLESS NAME OF CHRIST!