Thanksgiving in Myrtle Beach!

This year we spent Thanksgiving in Myrtle Beach with my family, but two weekends before that we started celebrating Thanksgiving. Two weeks before on Sunday we spent Thanksgiving with my extended family and great grandmother at Buca Di Beppo. The weekend before Thanksgiving, I hosted Thanksgiving dinner for his immediate family and then on Sunday we had dinner at church and then headed to Taylorsville to do dinner with my other grandparents! So we ate a lot. I will definitely have to get back to Zumba the first of the year!

Thanksgiving Snacks

Dining Room Table

Pumpkin/Spice Cake/Cool Whip via Pinterest

Tyler, Josh's little brother, turned 21 on 11/21/11, so we celebrated his birthday on Saturday when we did dinner at my house. I didn't take a picture of the food for some reson, but I did manage to remember to get the dessert!

Myrtle Beach was great! I had never been before, I have been to South Carolina multiple times, but not Myrtle Beach. We headed out on Wednesday at 5 a.m., arrived at the beach at about 4 p.m. We stayed at the Wyndom Sea Plantation Resort. Each room has a balcony and every balcony faces the ocean. Oh the sound of the ocean, so serene. The weather was fare, it was in the high 60's- low 70's all week. I was wearing sweaters on the beach, but the locals seemed to think it was still summer, in shorts and tank tops. CRAZY!

We shopped for Black Friday, we really should have rented a U-Haul, because the ride home was a little cramped due to the successfulness of my shopping! I decided, as I stood in line at Kohl's for 2 hours, that I do not like Black Friday on Thursday night. When you stand in line for 2 hours at 4-6 in the morning, you have had at least some sleep, so you are pumped with sleep, adrenaline and much more energy. I am a morning person, NOT a third shift person, I worked third shift right after high school and only worked that shift for a little while. I hated it. I can not function. I could have fallen asleep standing in line at Kohl's. I took a nap after we ate Thursday but that still didn't help.

So our trip started out at Wal-Mart, where we couldn't even find a parking spot. It was a mad house in that place. Let me tell you how crazy Wal-Mart is, if it is not in a card board box it is not on sale. Do not even bother picking the same thing off the shelf, because that one is not on sale. Josh got to cash register with his arms full of stuff and he walked out with a 19 piece Dora dress-up set for our niece. From Wal-Mart we headed over to Target, we left about 10:30 because I didn't know where I was going so I wanted to give myself ample time. I was so happy that we did. I found Target just fine, Tina Tina lead me straight to their parking lot. When we got there the line was at the back corner of the building. One hour later the line had wrapped around the building and the parking lot. LET ME TELL YOU, that if I could fly to that Target every year to shop I would! I had the best experience. They regulated how many people they let in the store at once, so there was no crowd and then get this I didn't stand in line to check out. Yes, you read right. NO LINES! We were in and out in 35 minuets! From there, the girls and Josh dropped me at Kohl's while they went and ate Waffle House. After being at Kohl's for 2 1/2 hours I took them back to resort and Kaitlyn and I attempted the mall. We made it through J.C.Penny, we tried Bath and Body Works, but decided to just call it a night. So I slept until about 9, got up and went out for round two at the Tanger Outlet. I was very successful there!


Thanksgiving/Black Friday wrap up is as follows: Thanksgiving was great, even if it did last for three weeks. It was practically a month of Thanksgiving. I do not like Black Friday on Thursday, I think it is called Black FRIDAY for a reason and we should keep it on Firday! Even though I didn't like the store hours, I had a great time with my two cousins, little sister and husband shopping and I had major success! I had a great time with my family and I am head over heals in love with the beach, every time Josh and I go it just feeds our plans of having a beach house one day!

Family, Fun and Memories!

This weekend was jam packed with family time.

Saturday: I hosted Thanksgiving dinner for Josh's family. His older brother and niece weren't able to make it he ended up having to work, but his younger brother and his girlfriend, his mom and dad and even his cousin showed up. I cooked all day and throughly enjoyed all the food. We had great converstation while the girls were upstairs and the boys downstairs. Tyler hasn't been with Trish for a year yet so it was a great time for me to get to know her better. She was nice enough to come over at 9:00 am to help me start cooking!

Sunday: We attended church at Josh's family church. His family used to do a Thanksgiving dinner at his grandparents house, now they just consider the church dinner their Thanksgiving dinner. So we ate there. We had to go straight to Taylorsville to have dinner with my grandparents. We didn't end up eating there, we just snacked and visited with everyone.

Sunday was also a special day Joshua and myself. Six years ago I ate a steak dinner, in front of a fireplace, in a chalet in Gatlinburg, TN. He cooked the dinner, it was his idea to eat in front of the fireplace and the Christmas gift I begged him to let me see ended up being my engagement ring. We have made it a long way since that night. God has blessed me tremendously with him!

Just Another Night Out With The Girls!

We had our monthly Girl's Night last night.  It has only been two weeks since the last time when we did a Favorite Things party at Savannah's house, but we bumped up this Girl's Night because of all the holiday stuff and eveyone's busy schedule's.  So this month Elyse hosted the party and everyone brought pictures from when we were younger.  We laughed until our stomachs hurt.  The things we wore, the way we did our hair, the things we were doing whenever the camera snapped! It is amazing to see how people who have gone in totaly different directions can still have things in common and can get together and have just as good of a time as they did many years ago.  Now the conversations have changed they are still about boys, just the same boy over and over and over again, now we talk about babies, the news (go figure, never in our wildess dreams did we think we would be sitting around a table talking about the news), babies, work and life.  I love that although we got disconnected by life we have been able to reconnect and spend quality time together a couple of hours, one night a month.  Celeste was also there she was just getting baby Alex ready for bed so I missed her in all of the pictures!

                                               Elyse and Cristal

                                   Myself and Savannah

                          Stephanie with Baby Easton

Tia and Derek's Engagement Party!

 Saturday evening we traveled to Hardinsburg for Dinner, Drinks and Dessert. Tia and Derek's Engagement party!

                                 The Bride and the Groom

The spread!

Dinner's Menu:

BBQ Chicken (Derek's Fave)

Pulled Pork BBQ

Pulled Mutton BBQ

Mac and Cheese (Ethan's Fave/Ethan is Tia's son)

The World's Best Hashbrown Casserole

Veggie Tray

Fruit Tray

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Ham

Slaw

It was all very delicious (except the Mutton)!

Bride and Groom Chocolate Covered Strawberries! 

The cake was nicer than some peoples wedding cake!  It was three layers one with white cake, one with chocolate and one strawberry.  She severed beer, wine, champagne for the toasts, sodas, punch and coffee on a tray!

She went over and beyond her Auntly duites!  She even had horderves! Derek's Aunt was who hosted the party, she was a great hostess and her house was a mini-My Old Kentucky Home, it was beautiful!

A Saturday of Birtday's

Saturday was a day of birthday's!  The first party we went to was Dave and Becki's son, Davin who turned 1!  Then we went to Stacey and Daniel's for Daniel's 26th birthday party!  We stayed up too late and ate too much food but had a great time at both parties.

Becki, Dave and Davin

                                            

 

He racked up on the toys!

 

He wasn't too sure about the icing!  

PJ

Jeff and Daniel being silly!

A Month to Be Thankful For!

Josh and I went shopping last night for "Operation Christmas Child", it is where you go buy things for a child of a certain age range that will fit in a shoe box.  As we were shopping I became humbled by all the blessing God as bestowed to me and to my husband.  So I thought I should write a blog about something that I am thankful for, for each day of November.  So here it is 30 things that I am thankful for:

1. My personal relationship with God.  The relationship is everything and I am so thankful for the knowledge of how to obtain and maintain it.
2. My husband and pets.  I have (to me) the best husband in the world.  God has blessed me tremendously with a wonderful partner.  I call them "my pets", but truly to me they are my children and I am so thankful for both of them and miss so badly the other! 
3. I am thankful for my precious time spent with Shadow.  Although it didn't last long and I would have loved for it to last forever, I am thankful for her and the time God gave me with her.
4.  My family.  They maybe crazy sometimes, but they're the best!
5.  My friends.  From high school, from college, from past jobs and just people that I have met along the way.  They're the people in your life that you can talk to about anything and they won't judge you.   
6.  My beautiful home.  It is my small piece of heaven.  I feel so blessed to be able to call it my own.
7.  My husband's business.  God has blessed him with the ability to be an outstanding business owner, which in turn has been our financial support for these past few years as I try to better my self and one day graduate from college.
8.  To be able to be a housewife.  Not everyone gets to just go to school, I am so thankful to be able to just be a student!
9.  The season Autumn.  My favorite time of year!  I love everything about it.  The pumpkins, the food, the decorations, the smells EVERYTHING!
10.  The season Winter.  Although my favorite is Autumn, I love Winter.  My house will reflect my love for this season right after Thanksgiving!
11.  The season Spring.  I could have put all seasons together but, I am thankful for each one for different reasons and didn't think I would do them justice by stereotyping.  I love spring because well my birthday!  I love all the beautiful flowers and the feeling of being able to open your windows and air out your house.  I love planting that first plant/seed in my garden and watching it grow and blossom into something so sustaining.  
12.  The season of Summer.  I am not a fan of VERY warm weather but, I love the beach and all things associated with Summer.
13.  Stacey.  Earlier I said I was thankful for my friends but, Stacey is more to me than just a friend.  She is more like a sister to me.  We have been there for each other through life's greatest moments and life's not so great moments and I don't really know what I would have done without her.
14. Thick fuzzy socks.  There is nothing like thick fuzzy socks to warm your whole body on a cold winter morning!
15.  Christmas Music.  The true love of my life.  I have already started listening to Christmas Music and  I wish Lite106.9 stated playing it sooner than they do!
16.  My parents.  The two people in life who will never turn their backs on you.  This chapter in my life has brought the three of us much closer than ever before and I am very thankful for that.
17.  My sister.  Although there is such a large age gap, we seem to be able to bridge that gap and still have a wonderful relationship.
18.  Google.  Where have you been my whole life?  I don't know how anyone survived without Google. 
19.  Down alternative pillows!  I love them and as long as I have the choice will not lay my head on anything different!
20.  The ability to travel.  I have been to 29 states and plan on visiting all of them before I die.  I have been to Canada but plan on traveling to more countries, once I talk my husband into flying!
21.  DVR.  Just one more thing that I am not sure how anyone survived without it! 
22.  That everything will work its self out in the end.  I saw a guy say that was one thing he was thankful for and it made me think, that's a good thing to be thankful for.  I am the kind of person that thinks "it is what it is", you can't change the past but you can make wiser decisions in the future.  There is not point in worrying over spilled milk.
23.  For the ability to give back.  I am very blessed and love being able to share the blessing with people.  No matter how fortunate they are, I love giving gifts.  Gifts of all sorts not just Christmas gifts, gifts all year even if it is sending home leftovers with someone one!
24.  The love of cooking.  I love to cook and for the most part (according to my husband) I am fairly good at it.  I am not just thankful for the love of cooking but for the knowledge and ability to do so.
25.  Christmas movies.  The Holiday, The Nativity Story, Rudolph, Frosty, A Year without a Santa Clause, Elf and Santa Clause 1, 2 and 3.  The holiday would not be the same without them!
26.  Slatkin candles.  They make my life smell better.  I am an addict.  I have a cabinet full of them and I quite possibly could have almost one of every scent.  My fall scent is Creamy Pumpkin and my favorite winter scent is Twisted Peppermint.
27.  My soon to be Keurig coffee maker.  I say soon to be because that is what my big gift from my mil this year is.  I used my cousin's when we were on vacation this year and fell head over heels in love.  Coffee in one minute who would have thought it.  No more waiting.  LOVE!
28.  The ability to dream.  I am a Pisces and we are dreamers.  I love to dream about one day owning a beach house somewhere where I can escape to when my bones are too old to endure the cold winter.  The dream of going to Italy and eating authentic Italian food!  YUM!  The dream of one day raising my beautiful children and experiencing all of life's little joy's as a family. 
29.  The ability to be creative.  This is a gift from God.  I love redecorating every month.  I love finding new ideas and allowing them to come to life.  I love planning and putting that plan into action.  I love projects for every kind!  (ask my husband, he always says I have a million projects going on at the same time and when one is done I just start another)
30.  Last but not least....Lebanon Junction.  This year Josh and myself traveled to New York City for vacation.  I had been before but never as an adult.  I love the city and at times wish I would have moved there after high school and experienced the great city life.  But instead I moved to somewhere much different.  Somewhere that doesn't even have a stop light. Not a four way stop.  NOTHING!  I am so thankful to be in this small, quaint town where everybody know your name and your business.  But that's OK because at the end of the day I like it like that!

I am sorry for how long this blog is.  I was going to make a sort and sweet list but it turned out to be more than short!  I hope you have enjoyed it and it has encouraged you to think about the 30 things that you are thankful for! 

Happy Halloween!

I haven't been to a Halloween party in years, when Josh and I first moved we had a couple but I haven't been since the last one we had.  Well this year Josh insisted we go to this one particular party and I had found some great inspiration for a couples costume from Pinterest, so we went.

The one in the orange was the host of the party.