"When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around."~Willie Nelson

Thanksgiving.

Giving Thanks.

Thanks for giving.

It's here.  That much ignored holiday sandwiched between Halloween and Christmas.

I love Thanksgiving.  For a lot of reasons.  Not the least of which is an excuse to indulge in all that yummy deliciousness!  I love the colors and smells of it.  I love the chaotic busyness of it.  I love the crowded house, the noise, the inevitable "remember when" stories shared.  I love my people.

Since 2003, Hubby and I have had the luxury of having people come to US for Thanksgiving.  When we lived in Iowa, it was impossible for us to come to North Carolina for both Thanksgiving and Christmas and it made more sense for us to come for Christmas since we had more time off.  So, we stayed home.  We had my BFF Kristi and her family drive out to Iowa the first year we lived there.  It meant more to me than she can ever know.  We spent the day with them and with Hubby's sister and her family who live in Iowa as well.  It was a great time.  The next year, my parents came out.  And, in spite of the fact that my parents' house was robbed while they were in Iowa for the holiday and the subsequent attempt, by the thieves, to sell all my mother's jewelry on EBAY, it was perhaps the most memorable and fun Thanksgiving I can ever remember.  We laughed a lot.  My mom has a great laugh. 

It definitely spoils you when people come to you.  However, this year, we are gladly headed up to North Carolina for the holiday.  I expect loudness, chaos, lots of food and lots of laughing.  I expect to be reminded of all my many blessings.  I love it.  I have so much to be thankful for.

Y'all have a good one!

May your stuffing be tasty
May your turkey plump,
May your potatoes and gravy
Have never a lump.
May your yams be delicious
And your pies take the prize,
And may your Thanksgiving dinner
Stay off your thighs!

HOLY BARRELS OF OIL, BATMAN!

Gasoline prices are dropping like nobody's business!

ZAP!    POW!    BAM!

Today's gas price sighting (regular unleaded): $1.87

Unbelievable.

I can't remember...really, I can't...the last time gas was under $2.00. 

And it keeps going down, literally, EVERY day.  One day last week, it went down TWICE in one day.  I don't make this stuff up people.

JEEPERS, BATMAN!  What's next? 

$1.50?? 

I don't think my heart (or pocket book) can take the anticipation.

"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving” ~Albert Einstein

We had a lovely fall weekend here...a few patches of clouds and rain, but nothing to complain about.  Just the right amount of crisp in the air.  We managed a fun family bike ride Sunday afternoon on a trail here in town.  Unlike Iowa, I have found South Carolina to be very cyclist UNfriendly.  In Iowa there were great wide sidewalks EVERYwhere--perfect for the leisurely family cyclists--here, not so much.   So, you load up the bikes and go find yourself a trail.

Wish I had had my camera with me.  We took some stops along the way at the creek, at the railroad tracks.  Imagine shots in black and white--a rear view of the kids walking on the railroad tracks with their arms out to their sides for balance.  Yeah.  It would have been great.  But, lucky for me, I got to see the real thing!  Took some mental snapshots.

Hubby somehow managed to cram all four bikes into the back of The Edge (with the back seat folded down). Two of us rode in The Edge and the other two rode in Hubby's car. 

SIDEBAR:  I just realized I have no name for Hubby's car.  Can't say I feel compelled to have one either. 

Anyhoo, I told Hubby that would be the LAST time we cram all those bikes into The Edge.  I was on pins and needles!  I'd like to keep him nice and clean for more at least a couple of months, ya know.  Hubby's comment: "Did we buy this car to use it or to keep it clean?"  Point taken.  But STILL. 

Hey, that gives me an idea...Hubby's birthday next month...he's gettin' a bike rack.  Yep.

Fun family bike rides rock.  Totally.

I must be bipolar.  It's amazing (and scary) how you can fluctuate from such elation to such despair all in one afternoon.

But first, the elation. 

My amazing daughter has gone and won herself the 5th grade spelling bee at her school!! 

I know, isn't it great?? <insert proud mother grin with tears in eyes here>

This, the child who was so nervous this morning she could not stomach a single bite of the scrumptious toaster strudel I so lovingly prepared for her.  She was having some major performance anxiety.  I informed her that all the same people who loved her before the spelling bee would still love her AFTER the spelling bee, even if she went out in the first round.  I know she is a great speller, she knows it and she doesn't need a spelling bee to confirm it.  However, I'd like to say that it did.  I was a nervous wreck...I think I stopped breathing a couple of times.  She did get lucky on some words though...giggle, slippery, early, ancient and velvet.  Oh, sweet velvet, the winning word.  On to the district bee...more to come on that, I'm sure! 

So after the excitement of the spelling bee, (which was awesome because we had to call Daddy and the grandmas, of course!) it was time to pick up Jacob from school.  And here lies the despair.  He had a hard day and so got into the car with his normal "my day was horrible" speech.  He has even developed something called "The Horribleness Scale"...1 is unattainably perfect, 10 is worst day ever in the history of mankind.  If he says he's had a 5, that's a great day in Jacob lingo.  Today was a 7 (which is about average, I'd say) and it quickly went from bad to worse with the realization of mountains of homework and that his sister had horseback riding lessons (which he hates to go to) on top of that.  Suffice it to say, the meltdown wasn't pretty.  And so it continued on a downward spiral of how much he hates himself and how stupid he is.  With me trying to console my son, all the while, silently cursing the public school system for sending my son's self-esteem into the proverbial toilet.  Then it's off to horseback riding lessons and while Emma is off riding Cody, the cute brown horsey, Jacob and I attempt to sit on the swing, watch the sheep as the sun is setting and have a calm chat...which quickly degraded into another meltdown when he heard some man in the distance yukking it up.  Laughter is evil in Jacob's eyes, er, EARS, I should say.  He is even trying to stop himself from laughing now, because it is his opinion that he should not laugh if he hates it when others do it.  Convoluted thinking, I know.  Heartbreaking, really.  So, Jacob contorts and screams all the way to the car and I collapse in tears by the side of The Edge.  I  collect myself.  Fortunately, now it is dark and Jacob can't see that I am upset and he's had a moment to cool down too.  Next up, study vocabulary...which he hates with a purple passion.

I'd say we've come full circle--from one speller to the other.  

I know it's life and nobody ever said life was fair and life has its ups and downs and every other cliche you can think of.  But sometimes I just want Jacob to have a day like Emma had today, where he feels proud.  Where he wins something.  Where he feels smart...because he is, he just doesn't believe it.  But 8 hour school days full of frustration and 2 plus hours of homework nights doesn't really go a long way toward getting that.  It leaves no room for anything in our lives other than schoolwork.  Two words: survival mode.  I feel like all I do is crack that whip...we've got to get this done.  Hurry up we've still got math to do.  Oh, heck, let me just do that part for you.

It's a miserable existence.

It just seems wrong.  So, so wrong.

And so we are at a crossroads.  An educational crossroads.

I have one child who is a round peg.  A beautiful, creative, smart, wonderful, round peg.  She is the child for whom public school was created.  She is thriving there.  I have one child, as beautiful, creative, smart and wonderful as the other one, who is a square peg and who people are constantly trying to cram into that round hole day after day after day.  It gets painful after a while.  He is miserable, beyond miserable.  And I want to cry every day when I leave him at that school and I want to cry when I pick him up.  There has to be another way--A better way, for my son.  We are looking for alternatives.  We are praying and we'll see what happens.    

If I've said it once, I've said it a million times, "I'll never homeschool.  It's not for me."  I've been thinking about it for some time now and I'm on a fact finding mission.  I've talked with people.  We are exploring possibilities.  I am seriously considering it.  It's crazy, I know.  I think that whoever said, if you want to make God laugh, then tell Him your plans, was on to something.  

You know what else they say...

Never say never. 

Cause that kind of stuff always comes back around and bites you in the butt. 

Yes, yes it does.  I have the bite marks to prove it.

A funny thing happened on the way to the fair.

I mean, really.  It was just unbelievable.  But wait, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Imagine this.  We are pulling into the Coastal Carolina Fair this past Saturday evening for a little fun and funnel cake when, lo and behold, I look at the car that has just merged in front of us.  I nostalgically say, "Oh look y'all, there's a car just like Big Red right in front of us.  <pause>  WAIT that IS Big Red!!"

You may be asking, "Oh come on, how do you KNOW that was Big Red??"

Look closely, in the circle.  Note the "ding" I have so kindly pointed out for you.  I'll give you a sec to look it over.

You see it now, don't you?  Yeah well, I know it was Big Red, because I personally inflicted that ding upon her one time when I backed into a low brick wall while trying to escape from the very small, very crowded Tae Kwon Do school parking lot about 2 1/2 years ago when we lived in Iowa.

We could not believe it.  But it was her.  We had put her in our not-so-distant memory.  We never thought we'd see her again...especially driving down the road somewhere!!

Not only was she driving in front of us, but she was then parked BESIDE us, thanks to those handy parking attendants!

It was all we could do to restrain ourselves from asking the people as they got out, "How's that dash board working for ya??"  Though Hubby did manage to stalkingly walk around their vehicle and ask them (even though I asked him NOT to), "Where did y'all get that van?  We used to have one just like it."  (Knowing all along it was our van, but didn't really want to admit it just in case it was turning out badly for them, ya know.)  They said they had gotten it from a dealer in Hollywood (South Carolina, silly, not California).  Here's my guess...the folks we traded to knew they couldn't put it on their lot and so they sold it wholesale at auction where some small town dealer took it, fixed it (for, I am sure, much less than the $1000 quote we got)--at least, I hope they fixed it--and sold it on his lot to some poor unsuspecting persons who had very little to spend.  All conjecture, of course.  But you can see what I'm saying.

So we go into the fair.  All of us were just cracking up.  When it came time to leave, we hoped Big Red would still be parked there so we could take come pictures...I knew y'all would want to see.  (Y'all didn't seriously think I had taken these while the folks were still standing there did you??  I'm crazy, but not THAT crazy.  Well, that could be debatable, but we won't get into that here and now.  Anyway...)

We had our fun and funnel cake (and candy apples and french fries), saw the sights (and there were MANY), but when it was all said and done, we decided the most fun part of the fair was seeing Big Red again.  Hands down.  I mean, what were the odds, really?

After a crazy week last week, it was fun to just let loose Friday night.  The kids were so awesome in their costumes.  Who we have here are Mad Eye Moody and Hermione from the Harry Potter series...just in case you are somehow unfamiliar with the "HP" phenomenon.  Gotta love how they are trying to be all menacing in this shot! 

We also picked up some pumpkins and took the lazy way out by doing the old Mr. Potato Head style of pumpkin decor.  I thought they were cute. 

Normally, I just stay home and perform the candy-hander-outer duties.  Clyn is usually the one who walks the neighborhood with the kids.  This year, he was working late and so I thought I'd have a little fun with it too...yeah, that is me.  I knew that Hannah Montana wig would come in handy someday. 

Clyn made it home just in time to hand out the candy.

In other news...well, I guess there really is no "in other news".  Except what is all over the news today.  Unless you live under a rock, you know we have elected ourselves a new president.  I spent 3 hours in line yesterday to cast my vote.   It was something else, but I am proud to say I performed my civic duty...for what it was worth.  Mostly, I'm just glad it's over. 

I'm just wondering what is the media going to do now??  I'm sure they'll milk it for all they can and analyze it TO DEATH (which means I will probably not watch any TV news for the next 5 days--unless I have a sudden urge to stab my eyes out and have my ears bleed).

Sadly, Saturday Night Live might just have to shut their doors.  I mean, McCain and Palin were a comedian's dream.  Obama and Biden??  Boring.  No comic fodder there.  I do hope and pray that the people of our country, regardless of their political affiliations, can stop their bickering and move forward.  It's time.  Can't we just all get along?

Maybe we'll have at least a year and a half of respite before the next guys start campaigning for 2012.

One can always hope.