Thanksmas at the Combined Family House...

...back to Cape Friday afternoon and today we're celebrating Thanksgiving/Christmas with the Holyfield-Howard-Wright-Groeteke Combined Family! When we went to San Fran a couple years ago, we met a family that was divorced and remarried and they called themselves a combined family so we coined the term and use it all the time.

Saturday morning, mom and Jo (stepsis) were in the loft looking at quilting books dangling their feet. We'll be making another trip up there tonight to make ugly sweaters and gift tags.

Later in the morning, we exchanged gifts. Here I am with my loot....oh and look closely, Emma's there too!

Jo gave my mom a framed picture of her two favorite son-in-laws (check out the pics, they're really hamming it up).

I got lots of super good gifts but this one I'm very excited about. It's a recipe book with recipes from restaurants like Olive Garden, T.G.I. Friday, Red Lobster, etc...I can't wait to find one to try out. I also got stock, Lowe's gift card, Nicolas Sparks book and the puppies got a big tub of treats. Matt got lots of cool stuff too including a new board game called Last Word. I'll let you know how it is after we play.

OH! And the biggest gift was our trip to Florida!!! We're going there the week after Christmas to stay at the house my mom and David just bought.

We're about to eat lunch (I'm starving, saving up so I hopefully don't get too full). I'm really glad I brought my laptop so I can blog as the weekend progresses rather than try to remember it all when I get home. Hope everyone is enjoying their afternoon Thanksgiving weekend. I get one more day and night before I have to return to work and I'm going to try to enjoy every minute of it!

Black Friday and New Moon Review...

...Whew! I survived my second Black Friday at the mall. I worked early this morning (7-11am) and it was an interesting morning. When I got there at 6:30am, the mall seemed to be just like a typical busy Saturday afternoon but then starting about 7am it got CRAZY!!! My official job was to tell people to not go past the red dot until it was your turn at the register...if I say so myself, I think I did a good job (no one yelled at me during my three hour shift). I saw three Black Friday shirts. One was homemade tye-dye and the front said Black Friday and the back said Hussellin' and Bussellin'. The other shirts I saw were screen printed and said Black Friday Ninjas then on the back, it had their names such as Samuri Sarah and Ninja Nesha. I saw one lady who had a binder that said "Christmas 2009" and inside it had dividers with each person's name-OMG! I thought I was organized!!! Then one lady let another lady go in front of her in line because she only had one little item. After the lady checked out, she turned around and gave the lady her change which was almost $5!!! Good things happen to good people.

Tonight I went to see New Moon with my mom, my friend Laura and her sister Sarah. Matt was originally supposed to go with me but he was having too much fun with "the boys" (my stepdad, stepbrother and stepbrother's brother-in-law...follow all that???) so my mom took his place. It was definately much better than Twilight but Bella drives me CRAZY!!! Maybe its because in the book, you can tell what she's thinking and feeling but in the movie, she seems so irritated and totally over Edward. It seemed like she was more into Jacob than Edward in this movie. OH! Whenever Jacob took off his shirt, ALL the girls in the movie theater (majority high school age) freaked out....ooo, ahh...that's seriously what they did every time he took his shirt off!!! Good thing Matt decided not to go.

Definately the books are MUCH MUCH better!!!

Turkey Day...

....well, two turkeys down and one to go! I'm exhausted, we've been up and running since 6am today. We had our first Thanksgiving at my dad's in Cape. This Thanksgiving even more than usual, I am so thankful to be able to give my daddy a big 'ole hug! This week some crazy stuff went down (sorry not allowed to blog about it and don't really feel very comfortable blogging about it either) that had our whole family counting our blessings. I love my Butchie!!!

Here's a pic of me and my grandma. If you saw a close up pic of my grandma, my dad and I then you would know that we all three look exactly alike!

On our way driving to Cape, we got a surprise phone call from our friend Dusty who is serving our country in Iraq!!! After a little bit of confusion, we figured out it was him and he was just calling to wish us a Happy Thanksgiving (how sweet and thoughtful is that??? It was a major highlight of the day). He said that he had lamb for his Thanksgiving meal and he'd eaten camel just the other day. It was so good to hear from him and to know that he was safe and able to celebrate with his military family. We love you Dusty and are very thankful for all that you do over there. Come home safe-less than a year!!!

After my dad's, we headed back to the STL where I dropped Matt off at his aunt's and ran over to my sister's real quick to say hey and return a CD (they leave less than a mile from each other). Then we ate...again. I'm seriously so stuffed its not even funny. After dinner, Matt and his fam started to play Trivial Pursuit circa 19??. The questions were off the wall and only Matt's cousin Paul knew any of the answers so most everyone bailed. I played it safe and I was just the question reader. His other cousin who is a high school sophomore was there and had borrowed a formal dress of mine to wear to a school dance. I told her that she could only wear my dress if she promised to take pictures. I'm so excited to see her in it, it was seriously my favorite dress ever next to my wedding dress. I knew I'd held on to it for a reason!

OMG! Almost 10pm already, alright, I'm off to bed. I have to work my PT job at the mall tomorrow from 7-11 (YIKES!) then home to pack then back on the road again to Cape. New Moon tomorrow night (so excited!!!) then Thanksgiving/Christmas on Saturday with my mom!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I am thankful for each of you who take the time to read about my crazy, random life. You guys are the best!

Big Girls Day Out...

...Haley was out of school today but her mom still had to work so we had a "Big Girls Day Out." First we stopped at Goodwill to look for some "ugly sweaters" for an Ugly Sweater Party. I tried to explain it to Haley but she wasn't understanding who wore what sweater. She just kept telling me to vote for Stevie's boyfriend to wear mine.

Then we headed to Baked Goods, which is a paint your own pottery store off Gravois. She had three Christmas ornaments she could decorate however she wanted. She just learned how to make a star and a Christmas tree so that was two down. Then we looked around and decided on a gift for the last one. She wanted to do one side and have me do the other side. So here is my side of the ornaments:
Then here is Haley with her side of them:

We ate lunch at her choice, McAllister's so here we are after lunch with our sweet teas and purses (don't forget big girls take pictures with their hands on their hips):

Then we headed to Target where she shopped the dollar bins and picked out a couple of Christmas presents for her cousins and her black lab Champ. The handbags were actually kind of cute, would make good make-up bags. She paid with her own money too. Then we headed back to meet her mom. All in all it was a fun day doing all the things big girls do...shop!

Second Degree Burn and my Old Navy Trip...

...wow! What a day off it's been and it's not even 5pm yet. I finally decided to go get my cough/cold looked at. Doc says its a sinus infection and I'm pretty sure I heard him right when he told me that I'd done the "college treatment" and tried to ride it out since I didn't come in for almost two weeks! Anyways, after the doctor's appointment, I went and picked up the tv so Matt didn't have to. I figured if I was making the trip there then I'd stop at Old Navy because I had a $20 Rewards Card for using my Old Navy Visa outside of Old Navy twice and they basically sent me $20 so I got 2 pairs of jeans and a lightweight hoodie made out of t-shirt material that will totally be cute for our trip to Florida. Total it was $34.01 subtract my $20 rewards and I only paid $14.01 for all three items-sweet!

I headed back into St. Peters and got my eyebrows waxed and my medicine from my doctor. The doc had called it in and it was the first time I'd been to this pharmacy since I'd gotten married so they asked if I had insurance. I said yes, gave her my new card, etc...then I looked at the prescription "$123." I was like uh...I hope that's not how much it costs or I was going to be cruising the cold/cough aisle and trying to self-medicate (even more than I already had been doing). She told me no that was what it would be without insurance-whew! So I head home to start my dosage and make some lasagna...

I was using two burners, one to boil noodles and one to brown burger. The noodles were done so I put them in a strainer and turned the burner off. I started mixing the cheese mixture and the sauce and not thinking so I went to set a pan down on the burner that was still warm and then my fingers touched it. Ow-chee-wawa!!!! Did it hurt!?! I run my hand under cold water but my right ring finger kept throbbing all day. As of right now, it has a nasty red, blistery welt and my pinkie finger has just a red mark. I finished up the lasagnas and I can't wait to taste them. I tried a new recipe this time. I always make them and freeze them for night's when we don't have time to make dinner.

So five more things that I am thankful for:

1. Emma keeping my feet warm this morning.
2. Being able to put food on the table and try new recipes with that food.
3. Living so close to my sister and niece so that we can coupon together.
4. Shadow giving me big puppy dog kisses.
5. Matt kissing my burnt finger trying to make it feel better.

Venting About DH...

...dear husband, dear husband, dear husband-what am I going to do with you!?! You're driving me CRAZY! Aside from the fact that I've barely gotten to speak to him in the past week because of our crazy schedules, he's still managing to find that last nerve of mine and hop on it for a long ride.

I think you would all agree with me (at least act like you do) that I've been a pretty understanding wife with this whole hunting thing. I've gone and supported him even stayed in stands by myself so he could go hunt on his own. We've driven to and from the farm at least 3 times in two weekends which equals a lot of gas and also no TLC to our home which it is in major need of (think demo-ed bathroom and no bathtub since June, how I long to sit down to shave my legs).

First off, last night he had a friend come over to help him at the house. I knew about this for a week and I thought he was coming over to help with the hall bathroom. About 30 minutes before he got here, I find out that no, they're working on some project to put Matt's tools away in the basement. So for the next 3 hours, the dogs were scared to death as we sat upstairs listening to them pound away on their project. To make it even better, I decided to go to bed a little after 9 (that's my normal bedtime) and their project (framing the wall or something) was directly below the bedroom so lots of pounding and hammering as I'm trying to sleep. I might add that before his friend got here, I was addressing Christmas cards (I know I'm a freak for doing it so early) and Matt was sealing them then throwing them onto the foot stool ususally falling off onto the floor.

Tonight, we're supposed to go pick up a tv for people in Cape (don't even get me started on this story) and its about a 30 minute drive there and 30 minute drive back. Matt tells me he's going to go through this town after work so I ask him if he'll pick it up. He says, yeah if you'll meet me. Well, Matt that defeats the purpose. You'll already be out there, so why am I driving and wasting gas when only one person needs to do it.

I keep telling him he's being selfish lately but not like, "this is all mine and I'm not sharing" selfish, more like only thinking about himself and not about other people selfish, does that make sense? The tv story falls into this category as does the basement project for two reasons, one I'm trying to sleep upstairs and two this project only benefits YOU and we really NEED to get this hall bathroom finished for BOTH of us plus guests that stay over. The other night, he drove out to the farm and I told him to call me when he got there. He called me at 7:30 and said he was almost there. I said, okay, well call me when you get there. Three hours later at 10:30, I finally get ahold of him because I had to call him. Seriously, Matt, you know I'm a worry wart, you know I'm at home thinking you were in a ditch, come on man-THINK!

Anyways, so I just had to get that all out and since it is Thanksgiving and I really do love him, I'm going to leave you with five reasons why I am thankful for Matt:

1. He is handy around the house and like DIY projects (even if they take a long time).
2. He plays dolls with Haley but sshh! I promised not to tell.
3. He thinks I'm pretty and sexy even when I don't.
4. Even though he hates it, he still lets the dogs sleep in bed with us (we need a bigger bed).
5. He makes the best breakfast ever and sometimes he even serves it to me in bed!

Our Christmas Cards...

...so I think I posted early about how I ordered our Christmas cards from http://www.seehere.com/ I had a promo code for 50 free 4 x 8 cards with envelopes AND free shipping!!! I ordered them on Wednesday and they were at the house by Saturday!!! I'm super excited about how they turned out and even more happy that they are free!!! Wish Matt and I had a better picture together but I'll have to make a mental note to take a Christmas photo quality pic during the year.

Hunting Trip #2...

...Friday Matt and I went out hunting again and neither of us saw a damn thing! Sshh! Don't tell anyone but I got a lot of reading done in the afternoon. I think I was discouraged from the previous weekend and my heart just wasn't in it. Here is a pic of me in my hunting gear (not great with the sun in the background), I was dressed for warmth and warm I was!

In the morning, I dropped my cough drops and fruit snacks from my stand. Here I am reaching for them (I'm about 20 feet in the air and don't tell anyone I had the camera!). Matt wasn't happy when he came to get me down and I had dropped all that stuff on the ground-oops!

Here is Matt and I's convo during lunch that day:

A: I haven't even seen anything to shoot at to see if I'm a good hunter.

M: Hunting isn't about shooting, it's about what you see.

A: Then I must suck.

I went 2 days and a couple hours and only saw ONE DEER! No one in the Groeteke family got ANYTHING this year. Poor Matt's dad didn't get to go this past weekend because poor Grandma G fell and broke her hip on Friday. So until next year deer, you are safe from me but I'll get you one day!!!

"Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life" Book Review...

...I just finished reading "Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life" by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. It took me awhile to understand the format because it literally IS written like an encyclopedia but then it hit me. Hey! This is just like a bunch of blog entries in one book! In some senses, I totally related to her such as under the entry of LOVE: "If you really love someone, you want to know what they ate for lunch or dinner without you." I was cracking up as I read this because every single day when Matt gets home from work, I ask how his lunch was. It's the same conversation every day but I ALWAYS ask. I even ask what he had or how something specific was which is even funnier because I pack his lunch! You can really get a feel for her personality throughout the book which I could relate to (some stuff though was off the wall) and some of the stuff she did, I found myself saying, wow, that seems cool, maybe I'll try it (such as the entry under CHANGE)! Anyways, it was a quick read and pretty entertaining.

So in honor of this book, here is a couple excerpts of what would be included in the Encyclopedia of Alyssa:

Alyssa-that's me, that's my name (see post a couple days back). Since my sister was an only child for 8 years, my parents felt bad when I came along and let her name me (that's my story at least). She named me after her best friend.

Elvis Pretzely-Only the single most, delicious ice cream ever!?! Silky's, the ice cream shop around my corner, offers it...vanilla custard, pretzels, caramel and that hardshell chocolate....mmm...I was upset when they closed for winter without any warning, I tried making it at home but it wasn't the same.

Haunted Houses-I've worked in both a Haunted Hall of Horror and Blood Moon-Haunted Trail. After being on the other side for multiple years, they really don't scare me any more. They remind me of the hard work and creativity that goes into making them.

Ornaments-My mom used to crochet these snowflakes then soak them in sugar water and iron them. They would be stiff as they hung on the tree. When I was younger, I would sneak into the room and suck on them because they tasted sweet. I would always get busted because they would be left brown and withered for someone to find the next morning.

Reading-I recently realized that I love to read but I hate reading at home. Too many distractions, tv, computer, dogs, husband, I like to read anywhere but home.

Rich Church-He is a man that haunts me. In second grade, a big earthquake was predicted for Southeast Missouri and Unsolved Mysteries was doing a special on their show. My family watched it and the story of Rich Church came on. For years, I thought he lived in my basement and I would never go down there at night by myself or if I did I tried to be as fast as I could. I still to this day remember his name. He gives me the heebie jeebies.

Soccer-Believe it or not, soccer was my LIFE from about 3rd game until my senior year of high school. Every spare weekend was spent playing soccer. I played soccer in St. Louis (two hours away) on two prom days, my high school team got 4th in state my sophomore year (I started) the I tore my ACL and meniscus during my senior season. I like to think that set back is what kept me from working out and becoming unmotivated to play but I imagine college would have motivated me to be lazy as it did. I've also coached soccer for 3 year olds to high school girls and I still haven't decided which is easier to coach. Soccer is always a fun-win or lose (although who wouldn't prefer to win), teams equal camaraderie which equals good times.

Star-We had a boxer named Star because she was born in the Lone Star State. I met Matt, his mom's name is Star, Starlet to be exact. My family has to clarify now, Star the dog or Star Matt's mom.

Vowels-I graduated 11/294 from high school. I graduated college Magna Cum Laude. For the life of me, I can't tell you the difference between a long and a short vowel. I FAILED that in first grade, I'm surprised they passed me on to second grade.

So that my friends is kind of how the book is written. It's interesting and it makes you laugh because you thought YOU were the only one who thought that.

Moon Pie Recipe and Candace's Secret...

...alright friends, you asked for the recipe for the Moon Pie, well, it's actually called Moon Cake. Click here to find a version of the cake. I asked for the recipe but I didn't get a response so I found one that sounded and looked pretty much the same. Enjoy a piece for me if you make it!


Alright, so on to Candace's news that she's prego. Here is a picture of us at our sorority sister's wedding in July. Ahhh...aren't we cute! I felt very ANTM in the outfit and I even planned it on my own!!! Totally not old-ladyish if you ask Matt. This is also the wedding where I had a cupcake shoved in my face but that's another story.

Hmm...Candace, how did we really become friends? Well, we met through our sorority and were in the same initiation class but I don't really remember the exact moment that we just clicked and became BFF. There are so many stories I could tell about the two of us from back in the day such as when she kept asking me and some guy (we weren't each other's biggest fans) if we could just hug and make up. Or there's the time that we took a weekend trip to Chicago, the shuttle broke down on the freeway and we were stranded on the side of the road then after seeing a play, we walked by a homeless lady who yelled at us for trying to steal her energy then Candace responded to a man in the elevator that she hardly thought a 12 pack between two girls constituted a party. Those are just a few of the good times, good times that we've had together.

I think her husband Chad was pretty excited when I met Matt and we got married because he now had a buddy to escape all the women things we liked to do when we got together for the weekend. One weekend before Matt though, we'd gone out the night before and we were all feeling pretty rough so the next morning so we headed to KFC for lunch...mmm those bowls are delicious! Some lady came in complaining about her chicken from her order two days ago, she was yelling and throwing a big tantrum while we all ate in silence until Chad broke it saying, "Dude, it's f-ing chicken." We all burst into laughter and since then its been our new catchphrase.

So the whole point of this is that Candace is pregnant. So she calls me up on Thursday night and states that she's freaking out. She took a pregnancy test and it has one pink line and half a slight pink line...what's that mean!?! I told her it meant Chad only got her half-pregnant then we went on to giggle and laugh making fun of Chad to take our minds off the p-test staring at her with a half light pink line. She took the test again on Sunday and it turned out positive!!! Never having been pregnant myself, I was super excited to be involved (kinda) in the finding out process.

She's had kind of a tough pregnancy...horrible morning sickness and then to top off feeling yucko with that she finds out she has the swine flu! I'd been trying to call her and she wasn't answering then I got an email from her that said:

"so here I am. stuck in bed because I have the freaking swine flu. And the top headline on the scrolling news thing is 28 pregnant women have died from swine flu. back to sleep."

You have to know Candace and while the first thought that ran through my head was, "Oh no! I hope she and the baby are okay." Then I immediately had to laugh. She's doing much better now and she gets to find out in a couple of weeks if its a boy or a girl!

I just wish we lived closer but oh well, at least I've got a good friend that is just a phone call away and someone to visit in KC!

Thursday Tidbits...

...the random thoughts in my head today are:

*I started reading "The Encyclopedia of the Oridinary Life." I'm not 100% following the format, it seems kind of like short tidbits and not really a story line but I'm going to keep on keeping on and see what I can make of it. One thing that's cool those is that the author, Amy Rosenthal was on the Bozo Show when she was younger and got to play the Grand Prize Game (I was yelling it out in my head like they do on the show as I typed that) which is flippin' awesome! I always sent in my postcard to be the at-home contestant but I never got picked-boo. What ever happened to Bozo or do I even want to know? Google search for later.

*I am off work tomorrow then I work Saturday, Sunday and Monday then I'm off Tuesday-Sunday. I'm so flippin' excited!!!! No, I don't have anything planned for all that time off except to not be at work!

*On Top Chef last night Eli got eliminated. I didn't really feel one way or the other about him but I'm glad to see that Jenn is doing better; however, I think she's probably going to be the next to go. Kevin pulled another win-go him!!!

*I ordered our Christmas cards from http://www.seehere.com/ I'm not 100% pleased with them, their website was kind of difficult to use without very much instruction but I had a coupon for 50 free cards so I haven't lost anything. I figure if I get them and I don't like them then I'll buy ones from Wal-Green's or something. I did realize that Matt and I haven't taken any good pictures together in the last year so I had to steal a pic from 2008-oops!

*Johnny Depp is the sexiest man alive, I beg to differ.

*I made a huge pot of chili last night. We'll be eating chili for the next 3 days.

I got interrupted writing this post so I lost my train of thought so I'm just going to finish now.
Happy Thursday!

***
Addition to original post:

*Not happy with ANTM winner, I thought Laura should have. I really think Nicole looked better in photos but I think it was just Laura's personality and Nicole's lack of that made me root for Laura.

*I think I can officially announce the secret that Candace and I had...she's prego!!! Yah!!! It was fun and a privilege to know so early in her pregnancy. I'll post more about it next week but yesterday she got to hear the heartbeat so her Facebook status was 142. I read it scratching my head then I replied with my initiation number for our sorority assuming that was hers but not sure why she posted it. Then another sister did it then another-it was really funny (probably one of those you had to be there) then I finally talked to her and she told me what it meant...the heartbeat was 142!

Hi, My Name is Alyssa...

...not Angela or Abra or Elizabeth or any other name that starts with an A or ends with an -issa, my name is Alyssa. Seriously people, read before you type!!! This past week, TWICE it has happened where I send an email and the people responding email back totally got my name wrong.

Once, the lady emailed back with Angela on a contract. I politely emailed back saying, "Here are just a few things that need to be changed. 1. My name is Alyssa not Angela." How's that for not beating around the bush?

The second time, I posted on my sorority's website where it clearly states all three of my names (which all together is VERY loooong) and the girl replies back with "Abra..." Wow! Read!!!

With an unusual name like Alyssa (growing up, I was the only Alyssa I knew besides my namesake but nowadays Alyssa is popular with younger kids), I'm used to having my name spelled or pronounced incorrectly but the absolute WORST moment ever would have to be during my wedding ceremony.

There we are standing at the...rock. We didn't get married at a church and we actually stood on a rock. Anyways, gazing lovingly into each other eyes when the pastor (I might add MY pastor from growing up, not related at all to Matt), said something along the lines of, "Matthew and Elizabeth..." Kind of ruined the moment and grossed me out for a minute considering that is Matt's sister's name and I won't go into any further into any more about that. But yeah, it's on tape (err...DVD), I've watched it time and time again. Oh well, the important thing is he got our names right when it came time to get down to business.

I know Meredith is thinking I have no room to talk since I misspelled her name and I am very sorry. But it goes to show that its okay to slip up every now and again, its no big deal but when my name is staring you in the face-come on!

So friends, my name is Alyssa. I'm a non-smoking Pisces, who likes Mexican food and long walks on the beach.

Sleep Toward Heaven=Two Thumbs Up...

...as stated in my previous post, I took Meredith's suggestion and checked out "Sleep Toward Heaven" by Amanda Ward this weekend. I had this book read in less than 24 hours. It was great and I couldn't put it down.

The book is written from three different ladies' perspectives and you know from the beginning that the three women are all linked together but you don't know how. Right off the bat, you find out how Karen and Celia are linked then towards the middle of the book you figure out how Karen and Franny are linked. I couldn't put the book down because I couldn't figure out how Celia and Franny tied together. You keep reading it until you find out how and then the book goes down that lane of predictable and "that's what I thought." So the book is coming to a close and you're thinking, okay decent book, kind of predictable then you read the last two pages and you're OMG! WHAT!?! Did not see that one coming!!! It was totally out of left field...LOVED IT!!!

Anyways, I would have to say that Celia is my favorite character. Yes, she's dealing with something very difficult that hopefully none of us will ever have to go through but she's funny and she thinks the way we all do but won't admit it and then sometimes, she'll just straight up say what she's thinking. Although she was dealing with a hardship, the author made her character make the reader smile and laugh.

I also liked Karen's point of view, not because I liked her but because it was like reading about an episode of Snapped and those things intrigue me. Franny irritated me because she seemed kind of like woe is me.

The website Curled Up has a great summary but in my own (few) words...

Karen is placed on death row for killing Celia's husband. Franny is a NY doctor whose uncle and only family has passed away. When her uncle passes away, she volunteers to take over his volunteer work at the prision. All three women's paths will cross and make a change in their lives.

Seriously, it's great and an easy read! Let me know if you read it and what you think.

No Dead Deer Weekend...

...yep, my first weekend of hunting was a bust but I felt a little bit better because no one else got anything either. Saturday was a gorgeous day out which means not great hunting then Sunday morning as soon as I got into the stand, the rain turned on. Here is a picture of my attempt to keep my gun dry, you'll notice the muzzle sticking out at the right side of the picture.

So let's see, where to start with this weekend....well, Friday before we left town, I decided I just really wasn't into this Nick Sparks' book I was reading so I took Meredith's advice and stopped by the library to pick up "Sleep Toward Heaven" (I'll post about that later this week). I tried a different approach with packing and heading out this weekend, instead of asking Matt 500 questions and if he got this and got that, I took my bag to the truck, along with the sleep stuff and groceries I'd bought the other day and waited. When Matt told me he was ready, I put the pups in the back and we headed out.

So we get to Troy and decide to stop at Wal-Mart. We both took a potty break and as Matt came out, I asked, "Did you get the porksteaks?" His face dropped which I could tell was a no. (He'd planned this big grandious idea of a pork steak dinner for Saturday and he'd bought them the week before but then left town without them). So we grabbed some porksteaks, milk, cough drops, Chapstick and charcoal and were on the road again.

As soon as we get to the house and start to unpack, we realized that the pork steaks weren't the only thing we had forgotten-an extra blanket, long underwear and ice were also left back at home. So Matt started the grill and I took the doggies for a long walk because they would be spending the rest of the weekend in their cages (don't want people shooting at them thinking they are deer especially Emma). Did I mention that I'd started the book after the Wal-Mart trip at Troy?

After a debate of who was hunting where on Friday evening, we all called it a night and went to bed. Saturday morning came very early but since my MIL wasn't coming out until later in the morning, I didn't even get out of bed. I slept for about another hour then at 6:45am, I got up and fed the puppies and continued my book. By 9am, I had finished it (it was great!) and whereas I usually bring way too much stuff to do, I'd only brought that one book and now I was just twiddling my thumbs until Matthew came in to take me hunting. Surprisingly, his sister and brother came in very early but neither had gotten anything.

So after a quick lunch, Matthew and I get all suited up to head out to hunt. This would be a great picture except for the fact that Matthew's eyes are shut.
We went out about 1pm and after being told to be quiet about 10 times, Matthew fell asleep and I watched the field and wrote a novel in my head (it's going to be great!). When he woke up, I'd say look a deer and when he'd look, I'd say, "Monkeys always look!" He'd roll his eyes and tell me to quit moving. Finally about 4pm, I really did see a deer and I told him, he rolled his eyes and I whispered with big eyes, "No...seriously!" He saw it and told me to get my gun ready. The only problem was that it was BEHIND us which is the neighbor's property so I wasn't able to shoot it until it came onto ours and, of course, the silly deer went the opposite direction.

So we head back in and eat a delicious dinner of pork steaks. Matt grilled them on Friday night and then put them in the crockpot all day Saturday, they just fell off the bone and melted in your mouth-yum! Then we had a heated game of Mexican Dominoes where I didn't win but I did beat Matt!

I've had this nasty cough since Wednesday. It's like I can feel and hear it in my chest but it won't come out! So about 1am, I wake up in a coughing fit where I hit the bed against the nightstand and the tempermental lamp turns on (I'd been trying to turn this light on all weekend and it was not working!) then I couldn't get it turned off. I finally just unplugged it and headed back to sleep or tried to at least...

I never got back into a deep sleep but I was woken to the smell of sausage cooking. Yum! We headed out to hunt again about 5:30am. Matt put me in a stand by myself this time, giving me all kinds of rules and what to do if I shot a deer, I just nodded and got comfy. I only stayed out about 3 hours (headed in about 8:30am), but I was getting wet, wasn't seeing anything and was ready to call it a day. Matt would've stayed out in the rain hunting but no one else was hunting, I desperately wanted a shower and I'd already read the Reader's Digest on the coffee table 4 times!?! So he finally agreed and we headed home about 1pm, I'm now home and I'm warm and showered and I guess I'm ready to start the week. My deer season has ended for this year because I have to work next weekend but at least I've got one under my belt!

Love My Werner...

...just got home from my dinner with Werner. I seriously love this girl! It's been over two years since we've seen each other but we just picked up like we'd seen each other last weekend. We never seem to miss a beat with each other!
She just got engaged a couple weeks ago so aside from not seeing each other in forever, she had to fill me in on the engagement and wedding plans and I had to tell her all about our wedding too! So her sweet engagement story...she came home from work with a note taped to the door that said, "Pack your suitcase, our flight leaves at 7:30am tomorrow." It listed what to pack and on the bottom of the note it had the 3-day weather forecast. They ended up going to Vegas where he proposed. He'd always wanted to get married in Vegas but she wants the big wedding so while in Vegas, they had a committment ceremony and she gets her big wedding next October. Funny thing though, they'd already booked the venues in July!!! She cracks me up, it was a great time and we told each other that we're going to try to do this more often and NOT every two years.

Side note, when I got out of my car at Hacienda, I looked over and saw Jess' dad (see Slumber Party post end of September). I think I surprised him when he got out of his car but it was good to see him.

Remember when I posted about the drawing and the list for this weekend? Here is what my lovely husband left for me. Let me describe it to you...to the right is me standing on a tree branch saying something to the deer (there is profanity) then to the left is a big buck that is saying help and is scared (look at the opposite end of the deer). Boys and their imaginations!!!


Well, I'm signing out for hunting weekend. Wish me luck that we fill the freezer!

Thursday Tidbits...

...just some random thoughts for Thursday.

*Just read that my new fave show Trauma is getting cancelled...so sad, sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Boo hoo!

*My friend Stevie that I went to dinner with last night, sliced off part of the tip of her finger when she dropped a wine glass. Her fake nails saved it from being sliced all the way off-eeww gross!

*Matt made me a nice drawing for this weekend. I'll try to take a pic and post it later. It's of me shooting a deer along with the list of things I need to do tonight before we leave tomorrow.

*I'm really excited about dinner tonight with Werner! It's been over 2 years since I've seen her and the bits and pieces from her engagement sound so sweet...I'll try to take a pic tonight and post her engagement story tomorrow.

*Last night, Shadow was sleeping in the bedroom and Emma and I were in the living room. Suddenly we heard this Chewbacca noise and looked at each other, we went down the hallway to find Shadow stretching and groaning-it was hilarious!

*Top Chef has very dirty commentary! Geez Louise-its a cooking show! Glad Robin is gone now...go Kevin!

That's my Thursday tidbits!

Dinner Party...

...so last night, we had Matt's sis and her bf over for dinner. It was a good time and everything turned out great. The menu consisted of Shrimp Feta Cheese Pasta (I started to freak out before I put the feta in because it was kind of bland then I remembered that the feta was what really gave it the flavor and it turned out great), Caesar salad and garlic bread. Then his sis made something called Moon Pie and OMG! It was awesome. I must admit, I had some for breakfast today.

Anyways, after dinner, we magically turned the dining area into the living room (took down the card table and chairs-classy, huh?) and visited for awhile. We were listening to the music station on tv and you could text in messages to be put on the screen. Ben texted something and we waited over an hour to see if it came up (it never did) but one of the text said, "Love you Matt...so glad we're having a baby together" Whoa! As soon as I read that, I was like, umm...not us!!!

Anyways, I'm off work today and it's almost 10am and I'm still in my PJs. I'm going to head to Michael's and the Dollar Store and then meet a friend for dinner at 6pm and that is ALL the plans I have today!!!

Weekend Update...

...man oh man, lots of stories from this weekend. First off, today I rode out to the farm with Matt's mom so I could site in my rifle for next weekend. Before we did any shooting, Matt and I walked forever into the woods to put up his climber stand but it was such a nice day that I didn't mind.

Pic of us in the woods (love self timer):
Us walking through the woods (again self timer and I had to run back to get the camera because Matt didn't know I'd set this up).

*Okay, so on Father's Day, my grandma gave me my grandpa's 30 ott 6 semi-automatic rifle for deer season. I didn't shoot it until today and wow-is that thing powerful! My shoulder was a little sore at first but the thing that hurts the most is my jaw! I have to set my chin on the handle so I can see down the site and anyways, let's hope I only have to shoot once next weekend!

*Got an email from my grandma-her and her friend went to Metropolis to the boat this weekend and she won $5,000!?!

*Woke up this morning to find the newspaper on the roof of our house, I thought it was those kids that TPed the neighbors house. I get a kitchen chair and mop to try and get it off (had to get those coupons!!!) but I'm too short. The neighbor sees me so he comes over and helps me get it off. When I told Matt about it, he started laughing because he was the one that threw it on the roof!!!! He says on accident...mmhmmm...

*Man, usually my week's aren't that busy but I have dinner dates FOUR nights this week INCLUDING tonight. Tonight we're going to dinner at 8pm (that's way late for us but we haven't seen these people in forever) at Cyberg's with Ben and Missey. They got engaged over the summer and we haven't seen them since my birthday in March!

*Last week, I got my Kraft magazine in the mail and they had all these Thanksgiving recipes so I decided I wanted to have a mock Thanksgiving dinner at our house so I was going to invite Matt's sister and her boyfriend over on Wednesday because I was off work and that would give me all day, blah blah blah. Then we got Matt's part-time work schedule and he works Wed so I asked if they wanted to do Tuesday. They said sure but its turns out that it's his birthday so now the pressure is REALLY on!!! I'm making shrimp feta cheese pasta, Caesar salad, garlic bread and his sis is bringing the birthday dessert.

*Wednesday night, I'm having dinner with Stevie at our fave El Maguey!!!

*Thursday is dinner with my BFF from high school Sarah. I haven't seen her since like May 2007!?! She just got engaged a couple of weeks ago so I'm very excited to hear all about it and her wedding plans.

*Thanks for all the support about the craft show. I think it'll just be one of those "businesses" that's word of mouth and we'll go from there. Oh well, that $2 can buy me a Mountain Dew this week when I REALLY need it.

Have a great week everyone!!!

Craft Show: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

...the craft show is done. Here are pictures. The first one is of my mom's table and the second one is of my table.

Alright so the break down (just a warning that I might be a little Debbie Downer and whining a bit in this post-sorry!)...overall, we sold $94 so that covered the cost of the both and the lunch we bought there so that's the good. The bad for me is I only made $2 (sold two little things of gift tags). The ugly, I waited until I got home but I got very upset...it was very, very ugly! I'm like trying to find my niche...something I like to do and something I'm good at and I apparently can't find anything so I got upset when I got home.

Anyways, so that's the recap of the craft show, the good, the bad and the very ugly. I was just about to blog and make brownies when I saw the neighbors yelling at Emma so I had to jump up and sure enough, Matt left the back gate open and Shadow was down the street. Thank goodness for good neighbors!!!

NERVOUS!!!

...so today is the big day for the craft show. I'm up earlier today than I am during the week for work. I'm so flippin' nervous...I think I'm more nervous this morning than I was on my wedding day!?! I just hope we sell $40! My personal goal is to sell 2 personalized picture frames and 2 diaper cakes. If I sell that then I'll be happy.

Anyways, the craft show is at Child of God High School in St. Peters, MO from 9-3 today. It is off Salt Lick Road. Stop by and see me if you're in the area and tell your friends about it too.

Our New Tree...It's Just Not the Same...

...remember back in June when I posted about the City hiring a company to fix our sewers without telling us? Then in July they said they would replace our tree that the company killed? The tree that was our first Christmas tree together....well, November 5 they finally came to fix it.

Here is a picture of Matt planting our first Christmas tree in our front yard March 15 of this year.


Here it is today...

Here is the new one...

I know I should be excited because it is fixed and even better than the one we had but...it had sentimental value. It was a tree that we planted so every time we looked at it, we remembered our first Christmas together as a married couple, a tree so that when we moved there was still a part of us and memory for the new family that moved in. Since Matt is a landscaper, he's going to try to save the other tree and put it in the backyard but we both have little hope for it. So while we got the new tree, it's bittersweet because that means good bye to our first Christmas tree together.

My Poor PBJ Sandwich...

...so Wednesday morning, I woke up to "La Vida Loca" on the radio so I knew it had to be a good day, right? It was good until about 5 minutes later when I realized it was only Wednesday and not Thurday, such a let down. Then I go to the kitchen and I have the fridge door open while I’m packing Matt's lunch when I realize, “Hey! Where’s my lunch at? I swore I made it last night!” Sure enough, Matt had taken my lunch OUT of the fridge to get the milk and left it sitting out all night. Luckily, it was just PBJ but according to a good friend, PBJ MUST be kept cool. I toughed it out though and still ate it and amazingly let it slide and didn’t make it a big deal to him (just to everyone in the office). So all in all, Ricky Martin didn't fail me too bad!

Thirty-One...

...have you all heard of the company Thirty-One? I never had until I went to a 4-n-1 party at a friend's house. Basically, she had four parties at one time instead of having one of each. She hosted PartyLite, Thirty-One, Uppercase Living and Tastefully Simple. It was a lot of fun and so overwhelming at the same time!?! I bought Christmas gifts and I'm very excited with how they all turned out.

This is a tri-fold that is about the width of a piece of paper. I'm going to fill it with a drawing pad, crayons, stickers, etc...and give to Haley for Christmas. I thought this would be a good thing to take to church.


This is a pic of all my purchases. If you spent over $31 then you could buy the white bag for $5!!! I'm debating whether to keep it for myself and add it on to a Christmas present for someone. The brown bag (sorry I didn't take it out of the package but I had taken it in and out like 5 times at work to show people and it was really hard to get it back in there!) is for my sister with her initials embroidered in hot pink.

Then here is the white polka dot bag up close and personal. It has lots of little side pockets to put things in but it's not super tall.

They had so much other stuff I could have bought but I had to restrain myself. After the party, I had one of their catalogs and I was showing my sister and Haley saw it. She grabbed my arm, "Lyssa, wouldn't it be crazy if one of those bags had an H on it???" It was pretty funny!!! Anyways, you should go check out their website for all sorts of bags. I thought of Kristal when I saw the diaper bags that they had. Enjoy browsing if you jump over there.

Mom's Part of the Craft Show...

...here is a picture of all the stuff that my mom is going to try to sale at the craft show! Our goal is to make $40 so we'll break even...I think we can with all the stuff she's providing!!! I just hope we have room for it all!?!

So What About This Craft Show???

...so growing up my grandma, aunt and mom ALWAYS did craft shows! I loved working them with them and as I grew up, I loved seeing what everyone else had to offer. So for about the last 4 years, I've been wanting to do a craft show but I really didn't have any crafts that I could make in large quanitities and mass produce. Well, a fellow blogger and she doesn't even know it, Heidi made a diaper cake and pointed her readers in the direction of YouTube to find directions on how to make them. They were so easy!!! So over Labor Day weekend when I was in Cape, my mom and I got all the supplies, made our first one and I decided I wanted to go into business. I came home, figured out costs and how much I would charge and got a little disappointed. They would cost anywhere from $20-$35 if I wanted to make any money and that was only with a small mark-up for my time and effort (I know this isn't the way to sell them BUT I'm being honest!). So I got discouraged but mom pushed me and said let's just do this craft show up there, it was only $40 to sign up and she would include all of her stuff. Alright, so we're back on track now...

So the Craft Show is this Saturday, November 7 from 9-3 at Child of God High School at 650 Salt Lick Road in St. Peters, MO. If you're in the area or have friends in the area, tell them to stop by and visit us!

I've been hard at work making fabric gift tags and note cards (below are note cards):

Here is a picture of a three tier diaper cake with gifts.

I'm also selling the little snowmen I put in our neighbors gift baskets last year and the personalized photo frames I made for Garet and Cody's birthday (post was end of August). My mom has knitted purses, snowmen stuff and so much more!!!

I've slowly been posting on another blog I'm trying to create for the diaper cakes called Aly's Baby Bakery. I've been hesitant to post about the diaper cakes and the craft show because of that fear of rejection but I figure we're all friends here so why not let the cat out of the bag. Plus my mom has already sold THREE of the diaper cakes at her school!?! And that my friends is the info on the craft show and my big, super secret I've been keeping since Labor Day!!!

Happy Birthday Grandmas!!!

...Saturday was Grandma Groeteke's birthday. We missed the big family outing on Friday evening so Matt and I took her lunch and visited with her on Saturday. We figured that way she would have visitors on her actual birthday and we wouldn't have to share her with everyone else!!! Here is a picture of Grandma G with Matt (no hats in Grandma's house so please excuse the hat hair).


Then on Sunday it was Grandma Holyfield's birthday! Two great women shared a birthday weekend! Here is a pic of my Grandma H at our wedding.

Happy birthday Grandmas!