We Are Thankful

There are so many things in life for which to be Thankful.  A few of the many things we have that make us Thankful this Thanksgiving:

good health

family

Connor and Keaton

fantastic friends

our home

good jobs

food

super support for Keaton's Autism

our children's teachers

We could go on and on and on..... but instead I'll continue the post about the Thanksgiving meal we shared with Robert's mother, nephew, and dear friends.

We have always had the "Creek Family" Thanksgiving a few days before the actual day. Up until last year it was just Rob, me and the boys, Mary, Randall (Rob's brother) and his son, Andre'. That changed last year. To say the very least, Randall made some life changing decisions that affected us all.  In his absence from the gathering last year, (We aren't sure when he'll again be albe to join us for family gatherings.) we invited Andre's other grandparents, David and Kaye, to join us as well as some other friends. We enjoyed our fellowship together and once again invited them to join us this year. In addition to David and Kaye, we made sure to invite our newest family friends, The Johnsons.

We invited the Johnsons over for Thanksgiving and then put them to work helping prepare everything. They didn't have to help get it ready, but they came over early so that the boys could play and were more than willing to jump right in and offer a helping hand. I am so thankful they did. At times, can't say always, but at times, I do enjoying cooking and preparing food for others. What better way to enjoy myself than with a good friend!

Here you can view the 'fruits' of our labor. No really, you can see what all we worked together (Mary and I along with Kevin and Jennifer's assistance) to prepare.

                             

 

Mary, Rob's mother, is a creature of habit. She has to make the same type of food each year. She always makes potato salad and baked beans. Now I don't know about you, but I grew up thinking those were picnic foods, not Thanksgiving food. Oh well, whatever makes her happy. We also make mashed potatoes and macoroni and cheese to make me happy. This Thanksgiving we even made corndogs to make Connor happy.

 I made chocolate pecan pies for dessert and Kaye brought chocolate pudding cake. It's a good thing we all enjoy chocolate. Connor and Keaton both loved Kaye's cake.....

 and just look at what happened to my pie.

I don't mean to brag or anything, but the chocolate pecan pies were wonderfully delicious. Want the recipe? I'd be more than happy to share. Just let me know.

Now on with the rest of Thanksgiving week. Tomorrow we have off from school. Yeah!! What to do, what to do? I know.....I'll try to get caught up on grading my papers before heading to Granny's on Thrusday for another Thanksgiving feast. Until then.....

Joyful Jumping

Saturday afternoon was wonderfully chopped full of outdoor fun. My friend, Jennifer, brought her boys and lots of Legos over to play. My other friend, Brittney, and her children joined us. As you can see the kids had a great time breaking all the rules on the trampoline.

I tried to get a photo of each happy face, but wasn't successful. The best shots I was able to make were of the cutie pie below.

Isn't she a doll!!

I had another that was my favorite. I couldn't wait to post it. She was nothing but adorable in it. Before I could upload the photos from the day, Keaton grabbed my camera and took off with it. You remember how well he likes to take pictures. Well, I grabbed it back from him and before I knew what I had done, I had deleted the best shot of the day. Anything like that ever happen to you?

I'll need to be more careful next time I suppose.

Fantastic Weather for Final Football Game

We were blessed with wonderful weather this past Saturday. We were able to enjoy Connor's last football game of the season without freezing our bums off. We have really enjoyed watching Connor learn the game and I have actually learned a little myself. 

I wish he could continue playing flag football as long as he wants, but I realize that all too soon he'll have to start playing tackle if he wants to continue. We'll see what happens. Right now, we are fast approaching the beginning of basketball season.

Practices begin next week. 

Girls Night Out ~A Great Success

It all started fall break of 2008. My friend, Cheri, was reading a book about a vampire. She kept saying I should try it out. I had no intention of reading a book about a vampire. I was not interested but decided if she, someone who wasn't an avid recreational reader, was enjoying it, I should at least give it a try. I was hooked very shortly after beginning the book we all know of as Twilight. I finished it in only a couple of days and couldn't wait to get my hands on the next book in the series, New Moon. 

We went back to school and I continued reading the remaining two books. There were a few nights I stayed up later than I really intended because I just couldn't put it down. Those are the types of books I really enjoy the most, the kind that you can't put down because you want to know what happens so badly and then when you're finished, you're sad that you can't keep reading. 

I absolutely loved all the books by the very talented author. So when the first movie came out I made plans to attend with who else, Cheri. She had been the one who had gotten me hooked on Edward, Bella and Jacob. How could I think of seeing the movie with anyone else? We met up with Montina and had a great time and immediatly decided we'd do it again when the next movie game out.

We waited so very patiently for the release of the second movie, New Moon. We made plans weeks and weeks ago with other friends who had since gotten as hooked as we had. Cheri ordered our tickets online and we started looking for our shirts. If your going to get into something, why not go all out!

We were so excited that some of us got together the weekend before the release to rewatch Twilight. You can read about that gathering here. We dug out our t-shirts from our first outing and had a terrific time.

The big day finally arrived and we headed off to school with great anticipation. Here are some of us during morning assembly.

Cheri, Jennifer, Montina and I met up at Buckhead Cafe for dinner before heading over to the theatre. We shared good company and enoyed good food.

We already had our tickets but knew they were probably sold out and wanted to make sure we got ourselves some good seats. We got to the theater and found ourselves to be the second group in line for the 10:10pm showing and it was only 7:30pm.

We stood outside and chatted about this and that. We debated about one of us making a run for hot chocolate but no one wanted to miss a minute of the fun and excitement. Some of our party had to get little ones to bed before meeting up with us. Thankfully no one had a fit anytime one of our party joined us in line. We all finally made it by around 9:15 or so. You can see that the line is much longer than the earlier picture.

Imagine how our excitement and anticipation grew as we continued to wait for our turn as others exited the theatre with rave reviews. 10:00pm finally arrived and we made it inside. We quickly grabbed seats directly in the middle of the theatre and our refreshments.

Finally, the moment we had all been waiting for had arrived. The lights dimmed and the film began to roll. (Do they still have it on film? Probably some digital something but I don't know what.) Throughout the movie some of us squirmmed in our seats too afraid to visit the restroom in fear we would miss some extremely vital scene. When all of a sudden the screen went black.  What happened? Did something happen to the film (or whatever it is these days)? Was there a problem with the equipment? NO, the credits began rolling. We had come to the end and I just sat there in disbelief. I've read the books and I know what happens, but man was I ever disappointed for it to end so soon. It hasn't even been 24 hours since I saw the movie and I'm ready to watch it again. Will I be able to wait until next summer for the movie? I suppose I'll have to. Can I go that long without a Twilight fix? Probably not. I guess I'll have to reread the books as soon as I find the time.

I had an absolutely wonderful time last night out with friends. We should do it more often.