Thanksgiving festivities

Thanksgiving was great this year! I am so thankful that my husband was home this year and that we got to spend thanksgiving with friends and family. On Thanksgiving day we ate a dinner time meal with jakes family and a few of our friends. The next morning we got up early and did a little black friday shopping, but only went to one store. We got some great deals and ended up getting people what we wanted to get them all while staying inside our budget which is pretty tight this year. After shopping we headed off to Hertford. Every year when I think of Thanksgiving and Christmas I think of hertford and the nice crisp breeze, the waterway, and mom and dads house out in the middle of farm land. It is so nice to escape the crazy town we live in and sneak down there for awhile. My brother and sister in law were there as well and it was awesome to hang out with them. We discovered the new trivial pursuit card game which is a blast to play if you ever get the chance and had some good bonding time with mom and dad as well. After a nice long weekend it was kind of a bummer to return to work, but I have my vacation days coming up in a week or so and then maternity leave so i'm not complaining, especially since we really need the money right now.

Thanksgiving Recipes

Here are some of my favorite recipes my mom makes at Thanksgiving. For the cornbread dressing make sure you use home made, crumbly, non-sweet corn bread. If you try to use a sweet corn bread like jiffy mix or a recipe that calls for sugar it just tastes weird.

Corn bread dressing

6 cups corn bread, crumbled
6 cups dry bread crumbs
4 medium onions, chopped
½ cup celery, cut small
1 tsp. poultry seasoning, or to taste
3 cups chicken broth or more
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 eggs, beaten

Saute onions and celery until just tender. Mix with bread crumbs. Add poultry seasoning. Stir in beaten eggs, chicken broth and Worcestershire. Bake at 425 Degrees for 30 min. or until done.


Corn Pudding

2 C. corn
2 or 3 eggs
1 C. milk
¼ C sugar
¼ C butter, melted
1tbsp. Flour
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix dry ingredients. Add corn. Beat eggs; add milk and stir into corn mixture. Pour into buttered casserole. Bake in 350 degree over for ½ hour. Serve hot.


Chocolate nut pies

1 stick margarine
4 cups sugar

Cream together first then add rest ingredients and pour into three pie shells

5 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
1 c chopped nuts
3 unbaked pie shells
1 large can evaporated milk
1 c. coconut
½ c cocoa

Bake in preheated oven at 350^ for 50 min

nursery and other stuff

Tristans nursery is starting to look good! The crib is all put together and every thing is hung on the walls. All we are missing is the changing pad which I will pick up when I go make some exchanges this weekend. I went to the doctors this week and it looks like Tristan is getting big! I was just barely 34 weeks when I went in on Tuesday and the doctor measured me at 35/36 weeks! The doctor also said that at this point Tristan can come any time he wants and he would be perfectly fine, so if I go into labor they will not try to stop it because the baby would be fine! I don't want to go into labor this early, I would rather stay pregnant until about 38 weeks or so but we will see what the baby decides to do. My hips and lower back are getting more sore every day so I hope that as he grows my body will adjust and it won't be so painful to move around.
On a totally different note, next week is Thanksgiving!! I love Thanksgiving and this year we get to spend it with both sides of our family which is really nice. We will spend Thanksgiving day with Jakes family here in Durham and then the weekend we will spend in Hertford. I am most looking forward to my moms dressing, it is soooooo good. I will post the recipe if I can find it, truly amazing stuff.

Letting go

Two weeks ago we let our dog Lela go to a new home. God really answered a lot of prayers by sending us the perfect christian family with two kids (ages 10 and 13) with a fenced in yard in a nice neighborhood. I couldn't be more happy about the family she went to, but it is really hard to let go of a dog you have had for 2 1/2 years. It is for the best that she is in a new home because we were having a lot of problems giving her the time and attention she needed and she was like a ball of energy caged up in our little town home! Still, every time I walk in the door I miss her smiley face and tail wagging furiously, I miss taking her on rides and seeing her sleep in her chair and buying treats for her. The first week she was gone I confess I really enjoyed it because all of her bad habits were fresh in my mind and I was enjoying not having to take her out every day a million times. However, the second week is harder because all I think about are the good things about her and that makes me sad :( . On the other hand, the cat is REALLY happy and has been playing and rolling around in the floor now that the dog is gone. I know it is a win-win situation for us, Lela, and her new family, but I sure do miss that stupid dog.

Halloween

This halloween is going to be pretty quiet with no parties and no crazy costumes. The more pregnant I get the more I like just sitting around at home or going out with just the hubby. Last night we went to see the carolina ballet perform Dracula. It was nice to get out and do something so adult together. We had a quick dinner out at applebees which was just okay. Applebees is always a hit or miss for us, sometimes it is great and sometimes it is just so so. After dinner we headed to down town Raleigh and the ballet. The ballet was great and they shortened the story to a good length so that it was not boring or overly long for a ballet program. They also narrated the ballet which was a nice change from your classical ballet and the music and singing for the ballet were live which was another surprise. Tonight we are staying inside, making a nice dinner of chicken Parmesan for our selves and jakes mom and handing out candy to any trick or treaters we may have. Even though this has been a quiet halloween with no parties and no costumes, it has been really nice to just hang out and enjoy the weekend.

pregnancy...30 weeks!

This week has brought some adventures. I didn't pass my first glucose test so I had to go for a second three hour test on Wednesday. I warned the nurse that my veins can be hard to find but when she drew the first test she found my vein right away with no problems. I drank my lovely glucose drink and left for an hour. When I came back for my second test it was harder for them to find my vein and they only found it after poking me three times in three different spots. It went on like this for the other tests as well and at the end of my appointment I had been poked seven times for four blood draws. The nurses apologized to me so much that there is no way I could be upset at them but I am very upset at my body and just wish it would cooperate when giving blood! However, I did pass my glucose test this time so I do not have gestational diabetes! God is truly amazing and has blessed us with so many good things this week and it just amazes me everytime.

NC state fair

As our second fall ritual Jake and I headed out to the state fair yesterday. We mostly go for the food and to see the exhibits. We have only ridden one ride at the state fair in the five years we have been going and it is really nice to save money by not riding the rides. State fair food is expensive so you will certainly spend enough money on the food and entry fee alone without having to worry about ride tickets. Since Jake still has a valid military id we went on military day and both got in for free! We then headed straight for the roasted corn and jake enjoyed a steak sandwich. The other fun food we found was our traditional honey cotton candy, hand dipped corn dog and hot apple cider. The new things we tried this year were a fried pecan pie and a muscadine cider slushie. Needless to say the fried pecan pie was AMAZING and will be added to my list of favorite fair foods. The exhibits were also great this year and we strolled around the fruit and veggi exhibits, checked out the huge cattle and pigs and of course the flower exhibit which I love because I always see new plants and flowers that amaze me! Overall it was a great day at the fair and even though we spent about 50$ it really wasn't that bad for everything we got. Here is a list of all the things we bought with that 50$.

- 1 Large bag of kettle corn
- 1 bear squeeze bottle of NC honey
- 1 honey cotton candy
- 4 ears of roasted corn
(yes 4, we each had one when we got there then had another when we were leaving)
- 1 steak sandwich
- 1 foot long corndog
- 1 fried pecan pie
- 2 hot apple ciders
- 1 bottle of water
- 1 small coke
-1 muscadine cider slushie