Turkey Thursday and Black Friday

This year we made a quick trip up to Cache Valley for Thanksgiving. We got there a little late, but really in pretty good time. Dave's grandma, parents, and 2 of his sisters families were all there. It was great to see them. We would usually visit both of our families; however, my family went to Nevada this year. I would have liked to go, but it was nice to be closer to home. I think we may get brave and try Thanksgiving ourselves in the next couple of years.

The much anticipated day after Thanksgiving, that of Black Friday. I remember going a couple of times with my mom, but I've never been a die-hard crazy shopper. I found some good deals this year, although frankly I wasn't sure if I'd get up or sleep in. It ended up that I got up and went out with the crazies. I went to Target, not sure how busy it would be. I realize that a lot of people venture out for the Black Friday sales, but I didn't know how many people would be at what stores.

The line outside wrapped around the whole shopping strip to the back of the building and I was at the back. However, I know tons of people were still piling in after I was inside. Amazingly enough, I really got just about everything I wanted. The one thing I didn't get was a little sandwich maker, but it wasn't a big deal. I ended up getting more than I had planned on. The deals were just too good to pass up and things that I had been thinking about getting anyway. Once again, I ended up saving more than I spent. Yes, I am very proud of myself. The line to check out was insane, but the time went by pretty quickly.

All in all, we had a good couple of days. We are definitely very blessed. I'm grateful for all that we have, the big things and the little ones. It is easy for me to take for granted the little things that are often viewed as every day commodities, but I do know that I am lucky to have it so good and really pretty easy. I am especially grateful for my sweet husband, the family we've started, and our families and friends!

Ongoing Home Improvements

It turns out that Dave is not the only handy type Porter in our house. Saturday morning I got to play the part of an electrician. Nothing major, but still a feat for me. Throughout our house the light switches are beige and the plate covers are white. So a year ago we bought white switches to change out. Dave replaced one...about a year ago...in a closet. The rest have stayed beige.

Dave slept in a little, which is a rarity in and of itself. So I looked around our house, couldn't decide where to start cleaning, and ended up concluding that I'd try changing out some of the light switches. I managed to do 5 in an hour, hour and a half. Being the perfectionist that I am, it took me a little longer to get a couple of them in straight. Nevertheless, I got it done and I think it looks pretty good.

I initially thought that if things didn't work out in healthcare that maybe I could go to being an electrician as a back up plan. I later thought better of that plan. I think I will stick to my job in the medical field and only occasional in-home electrical work. Next project for Dave will be to finish re-installing blinds to our back patio.

Sunday Summary

This weekend we had our annual primary program. In our church the kids 3-11 attend primary. Each year the kids present a program where they speak and they sing songs about the things they learned throughout the year. Since I play the piano for our primary, I got to participate. This was actually my 2nd primary program in our ward.

We have a very young ward. The kids 18 months to 3 years old attend nursery, and we have 3! When we have baby blessings it's rare that we only have one at a time. Usually it's 3 or 4 at a time. We have approx. 100 children in our primary currently. Despite the large group, it went really well today.

After church my sweet hubby made me an awesome lunch. He's so good at improv cooking. (I didn't think we really had any food in the house.) He made a really good chicken dish, stuffing, and green beans. Yum!

Finally, we started our needham chocolates this weekend. We've talked about trying some different varieties, but until now have not done it. This year we made mint, cherry, and orange flavored candy. We also tried forming the candy in molds - hearts and snowmen. It went pretty well. Dave has been trying to figure out a more efficient way to cover the candies. So we tried spraying the chocolate through a paint sprayer (new). That one didn't really fly. Thus, we'll have to keep working on that one, but overall it was a success.

Perspective

An 8 oz glass has 4 oz of water. Is the glass half full of half empty? If you stand on one side of a fence, is the grass actually greener on the other side? Hypothetically speaking, would it be better to be locked INside or OUTside of your own home? In the short time span of less than 12 hours, we managed to do BOTH.

Today we changed out our locks on our front door. It was a good planf, and needed to be done. We got the dead bolt replaced, no problem. The door knob however, required more effort. Dave had to drill down a little bit of the door to get the new parts in properly. He put the new part in, without the knob itself on, and it fit. But apparently without the knob you cannot actually open the door. After toying with it for a few, Dave got smart. He put the knob on, and using the key, got the door open again.

We got together with some of the neighbors for dinner tonight and had homemade pizza. We cooked one of the pizzas at our house. Well, I ended up locking the door knob and then left the keys inside the house. Pure brilliancy on my part. We ended up getting in through the window because our back door was locked as well. It's great to have new locks, and they look amazing! Now we just have to remember those little details...like keys. Of note, we also have a peep hole now. So when Dave's not home I can see who's at the door. Hooray!

Home Sweet Home!

After 15 1/2 months, "Welcome to our home!" I have wanted to post pictures of our place since we moved here. However, for various reasons it just hasn't happened until now. Although we don't always appreciate the commute, we LOVE our house!

First of all, a little background...

When we bought:
~ 1350 sq ft
~ 3 bed, 2 1/2 bath
~ New/updated carpet, tile, & paint

Since we moved in:
~ Updated kitchen appliances
~ New faucets/light plates
~ Awesome backyard

On to the tour...

Halloween '09

This year we bought a few pumpkins, but we didn't get around to carving them. Plus, we didn't have the tools to carve them. Oh well. Hopefully next year we'll be able to do some carving. We went and hung out with our good friends/neighbors tonight. We had dinner, visited, and watched "Jurassic Park". Dave really likes that movie, but I think it's a little scary. I don't mind scary movies...sometimes. However, I usually don't prefer them. We also watched "Hanted Mansion" and "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown". We were big party poopers and put a sign on our door requesting no trick-or-treaters in an attempt to keep Sadie from completely freaking out since we weren't home.

Both Dave and I worked yesterday. This year I was Raggedy Ann. I think I pulled it off pretty well. :0) I sure had fun with it. Amazingly, Dave dressed up too. He's not all that into Halloween, dressing up specifically. His branch at work was collaboratively "The Adams Family". He was Fester Adams. I thought he did a great job with his costume.

I didn't get a picture of all of his co-workers, but he says a picture was taken. So we'll have to add it later. There is a group picture of some of my co-workers on my facebook page. Sadie got to dress up as a pumpkin this year, and Jack was himself. All in all, we had a pretty good Halloween.

Happy MA Week!

Random note - I don't like to post more than once on the same day. It's a weird quirk, can't explain it, but I just don't usually write more than 1 post at a time. Yet, here's entry #2 for today.

Last week at work we had medical assistant (MA) week. I don't know if it was just our clinic, IHC, or what, but it was fun. Pretty normal week for the most part. Clinic days with doctors, PCI days for paperwork and phone calls, and a 7:00 AM meeting to complete the week. :0)

Okay, actually Friday was the most fun. We totally got spoiled! One of the MAs made shirts for all of us, we had snacks - crackers, cheese, tomato, avacado, peppers, pita, humus, and chocolate chip zuchini bread. So good. We got lunch brought in, which was kind of amazing. It was sandwiches and pie from Marie Callendar's, not our usual pizza or cafeteria catering. Anything would have been great, but it was just a special treat to get "outside food".

My awesome doctor brought me cookies and a Macy's gift card. It was more than I expected, but very much appreciated. My job is trying at times. I know that the work I do is appreicated, but it was nice to have an official/unofficial week of recognition for what I do. The other MAs I work with are amazing! They are all so good at what they do. Happy MA week everyone.