Happy Turkey Day!

Thanksgiving was a blast this year. We had quite the spread, and had a lot of fun. The three day feast is drawing to an end. (leftovers make yummy meals for the next two days after T-day) In Byran's family it is tradition to watch the Macey's Day Parade and eat bread. So we did it. We ate some good bread, and I got to for the first time in my life watch the parade. My family doesn't do that, but we figured out why......we eat Thanksgiving at 1pm, instead of like 5 pm! We are cooking all morning just trying to get done in time!! We were in charge of Potatoes. Then we learned that Alison wasn't coming this year and so we took her assignment of stuffing (not hard though since my family LOVES STOVETOP!!!! We grew up on homemade stuffing but when my mom learned that we liked stovetop better she stopped making it.) And you can't have a holiday without CHEX MIX!! Yum!! We made three different kinds of potatoes, the stuffing, and a homemade stuffing for my mom the anti-gluten eater, and then made the chex mix later for the movies. The best part was Bryan's Corn Cheese Log & Indian Cheese Log. The Corn shaped one was for my mom, and the Indian....well.....it was attacked!! The Indian had a wheat thin loin cloth, and that sparked curiosity in my younger nieces and nephews. They shoved wheat thins and pretzel spears into all parts of his body. He seriously looked like he had been attacked and tortured. We'll see what he comes up with for Christmas or maybe we'll just let his mom's Candy Cane one count.
We ate to our hearts content and then all spread out. The kids headed downstairs and we claimed the couches for naps. But it was short lived because the Gerbers made their PEANUT BUTTER BALLS!!! I was up and at 'em after that. I created a song to celebrate the joy and wonderfulnessosicity of those incredible peanut butter balls. It goes to the tune of "Here comes Santa Claus" Here are the lyrics: "I love peanut butter balls from the Gerbers, I love peanut butter balls from the Gerbers, I love peanut butter balls from the Gerbers, I love peanut butter balls from the Gerbers, I love peanut butter balls from the Gerbers, I love peanut butter balls from the Gerbers, I love peanut butter balls from the Gerbers, I love peanut butter balls from the Gerbers, I love peanut butter balls from the Gerbers, I love peanut butter balls from the Gerbers, I love peanut butter balls from the Gerbers, I love peanut butter balls from the Gerbers, I love peanut butter balls from the Gerbers, I love peanut butter balls from the Gerbers, I love peanut butter balls from the Gerbers, I love peanut butter balls from the Gerbers.......(repeat to your heart's content, but beware of flying objects aimed at your head after verse 27. No worries, I am excellent at dodge ball and made it all the way to verse 32!) Peanut Butter Balls are worth all the dodging in the world!!!
Then the best part of the day happened...........Dr. Mario Tournament time! I don't play video games with this one exception! This is the best game out there PERIOD!!!

I am a champion Dr. Mario Player. My husband had no knowledge of this before Thanksgiving (luckily he married me before he found out!) I taught Alex everything he knows when it comes to Dr. Mario, and he even acknowledges it! So really when I was placing 2nd behind him pretty consistently I was really winning 1st and 2nd place every time!! I did beat him a couple times ......legitimately. I will always be the Dr. Mario champ! (at least in my mind!) But I think in the future, I won't let Bryan watch me, or my children for that matter! :)
Then we headed back to the Sun Room to watch movies on the projector. We watched Major Payne and had a good laugh before people needed to start heading home.


It was all in all a Fabulous Day!

Every Teacher's Nightmare....The Praxis!

Okay, so I have been severely reprimanded on my definite lack of blogging. I had no idea I had just dedicated followers! To you Mom, and Steph, and I am sorry. But you are the only ones that really read this so I won't beat myself up too much.
This past week has been a busy one. Grades were due as our school trimester was wrapping up. That is always a stressful time, but not as bad as last year. I didn't let myself get behind like last year. I was pretty current on their grades, it's just that late work is a killer!!
Then I had to take "thee" test. THE PRAXIS!! It is a required test for me to be able to recertify my license. But once it is done I can get my license changed from a 3 year to a 5 year. (meaning I only have to recertify every 5 years instead of 3, which will be very handy when I am a mom and need to keep my license!) It is a 2 hour long test with a mix of multiple choice and case study questions. I was writing so fast that I had to sit and massage my hand for like 5 minutes after the test to get any kind of feeling back! I barely finished in time, I had 5 minutes to spare. Then my amazing husband picked me up with flowers and chocolates and took me out for a "Congratulations! The test is finally over, and I can have my wife back!" night out on the town. He is so great, because I was so dead beat tired that we just got a movie, went home and curled up in bed to watch it, and I promptly fell asleep! Good times, good times.....
But now it is Thanksgiving Vacation, and I slept in this morning, ate breakfast, took a nap, watched some Food Network, hung out with the family and did some shopping and cleaning. In comparison, it has been a very VERY easy going day. I loved it!! I sure do love Vacations!!

HALLOWEEN SHOULD LAST ALL YEAR!!

Halloween was a BLAST!! It really is my favorite holiday, always has, always will. Bryan and I tried really hard to make it special this year by making some fun holiday food for my family's annual Halloween Orange Sunday Dinner, and our Halloween Night Chili & Costume party. Here are some pics of what we made and of our FABULOUS Costumes!!




Now you need to know that Bryan hasn't dressed up in almost ten years! Aw, what he does for his deranged wife! :)

These are the treats made into a graveyard scene (Bryan is very creative) plus, these are special made treats for the sprue victims in the family. Love ya Mom and Gma!

Here are the treats for all us normal wheat eating people. (I am going to be struck down with the sprue for that comment! My defense against the family allergy is complete denial and plenty of mocking. So far so good!) Please take note of the cute witches, draculas, and special made gravestones for Jon. :)

The Bones were a huge hit. I think the kids liked them best because when you bit into them there was red marrow (raspberry jam) that came oozing out! Aren't the eyeballs and strawberry ghosts cool!

The coffins were a breeze to make, and so good!

The Mummy Cheese Log (completely homemade by Bryan!) was such a hit! The adults as well as the kids enjoyed the yummy cheese. We made another one just for Mom and Gma and I think they are still enjoying it! :) All of you in need of the recipe talk to Bryan! He kind-a invented it!

These little mummy dogs where every mother's favorite because the kids actually ate them! The one night that you can hardly get your kids to eat anything other than candy, and they ate these! Even ROMAN!! The notorious non-eater ate a whole one!

We'd like to send out a special thank you to all of Danielle's students who donated fingers for this dish. They are still having fun trying to write in cursive with the limited amount of fingers they have left. Camryn was especially thankful as she ate most of them!! Camryn, I'll tell my class you said their fingers sure were tasty!

I couldn't pass up putting this one back up because it illustrates the kind of lengths us Raynes will go to have a Red Headed Child! :) Chance just pray your hair come in naturally red! he he (your a good sport Marsh)