heather__ , 28

[font=georgia]We had a hectic holiday this year...

On Thanksgiving day, we had multiple places to visit. We got a late start thanks to Seth and his newest obsession of ripping all the seams out of his clothing. His latest casualty was a pair of socks. I can't wait for this phase to be over with.

First stop was my stepdad's parents house. We only see them once a year or so, even though they live about 4 streets away from us. My step-grandma started complaining about how I never call, never visit, etc. My response? "You have my phone number and you know where I live. I have one vehicle, a kid in school four days a week, and a husband that works out of town at least twice a week. I'm a bit busy."

She shut up after that.

After our short appearance there, we went to Brian's grandparents house. We stayed there for about an hour and left to go to my grandma's house for our annual Thanksgiving dinner and early Christmas with them.

My grandma seriously needs some antidepressants and she needs to be checked for Alzheimer's. Seriously. She's getting BAD.

The highlight of everyone's evening was when we figured out that my grandma had wrote what every gift was on the tag. She wrote it in the "from" part of the tag. It was hilarious. We all got a good laugh out of it.

All in all, it was a fun holiday, but I'm glad it's over with. One less headache I have to endure in the coming month. Brian and I came home with our car's trunk full of new things and the back seat was pretty full, too.

My brother decided that he wanted to go Black Friday shopping this year. He stayed the night at my house and we left at seven on Black Friday morning to go shopping. I got the majority of things that I wanted. I got a few new clothing items for Seth which he desperately needed. Brian got 2 new pillows for his half of the bed and I picked myself up some new pajama bottoms to wear around the house. My brother ended up with three new shirts and a couple pairs of pajama bottoms for around $45. I didn't think he did too bad.

He's already asking to go Black Friday shopping again next year! Crazy kid.

I also had to order a new microwave this weekend. Ours has been slowly dying for months now and it's finally started to lose power. I found one at Kohl's, but they were out of it in the store so I had to order it off their website. I got it for about half price, which I don't think is too bad of a deal. I read some reviews on the microwave before buying it and the only complaint I found was that it was loud when you punch the buttons. If that's the only complaint people have, then I'm okay.

I also had to do my grocery shopping on Friday, but it waited until afternoon so all the crazy shoppers could go home. I didn't need a bunch of stuff, thankfully. Craig came along with me and helped me, which was awesome. I scored 2 fresh turkeys for $.29 a pound! Awesome! I gave one to my mom and kept one for myself. Mine's in the freezer cause I have a ton of leftovers from my grandma's left to eat.

I also filled my car up with gas for $1.65 a gallon. If only the gas prices could stay this low forever...

Brian's currently working. He got called out to work about 45 minutes before his rest day was supposed to start. Neither one of us were happy about that. He'll be home sometime tomorrow morning and he'll get 24 hours off. I'm hoping that we can get started on Christmas decorations when he gets home.

Seth's recovering from the busy holiday. He got a TON of stuff from my grandma, including some new clothes that he really needed.

Oh, I didn't mention my favorite gift from my grandma -- my new Crockpot! It's a big six quart one and it's a SmartPot, which means it has the spiffy electronic controls on it. I don't have to keep an eye on the time anymore. I just set it and leave it. It's awesome. I used it yesterday and made enough chicken that we got four more meals out of it!

Tanya's been in the hospital since Wednesday. She's on a diabetic diet and she's been puking it up. Apparently her body isn't used to the good stuff (that's what happens when you live on fast food). She has surgery next Wednesday on her back as long as her blood sugar levels are okay.

That's about it for us.
Like I said, it was a hectic holiday!

Here are some pictures. Enjoy!

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[font=georgia]We got an inch of snow a few days ago! Seth was thrilled, but it all melted as soon as the sun came up. We're supposed to get an inch of slushy stuff today and 2-4 inches of snow tonight. I hope it sticks for a little while so Seth can get out and play in it. He's itching to throw snowballs!

My anniversary was good. Brian and I ordered pizza in and basically lounged around the house for the majority of the night (we made a quick run to the grocery store for pop for him -- he's a grumpy butt without his caffeine). It was so nice to have a night to relax and not have to worry about doing anything.

While Seth was at my mom's, we figured out another trigger for his ADHD-ish behavior -- artificial sweeteners. So, we will be doing our best to keep these out of his diet. Thankfully the sweetener was out of his system in about 24 hours so it wasn't too terribly bad. He slept most of it off.

It's going to be a hard holiday season with all of Seth's diet restrictions. The restrictions are for the better and we're definitely sticking to them. I've found quite a few recipes that Seth can have that don't need much modifying.

By the way, I found butter that Seth can have. It's soy! BUT, the only place that sells it is 40 miles away. Ugh. Looks like I'll be taking special trips a few times a year for his butter.

Smudgie's recovering from her spaying surgery very well. She's getting more lovey every day and she's even learning tricks now! She's such a stupid cat (seriously, a spoon is sharper than her), but she's very easy to train when she's willing to learn.

Brian got called out to work. He should be home early Wednesday morning. Hopefully he won't have to worry about getting called out again before he goes on his rest day Thursday. I'm excited to have a holiday with him and not worrying about him getting called out to work!

The railroad is being amazingly family-friendly about Thanksgiving. They're running zero trains on Thursday, not even the regular nightly trains! Anyone that has to work on Thursday is being sent home immediately. The only exception to this is that coal trains will be running as needed. The coal mines are shut down right now so there won't be many coal trains running until the middle of next week at the earliest.

Here's hoping that the railroad is going to be just as giving at Christmas.

Also, Brian found out that the head yardmaster will be retiring after the first of the year. The guy that will be taking his position is really nice. He knows how to run the terminal and he'll get stuff done. He's also a family-friendly guy. I'm sure we'll see some changes next year and I'm hoping they're all good.

Tanya was supposed to have back surgery today, but her sugar level is way high (she's a diabetic) and she can't manage it. The surgeon gave her 8-9 more days to bring it down or they're going to stick her in the hospital and bring it down that way. After she gets her sugar under control, she can have her surgery. They're saying her recovery time is 6-9 months, at least. Glenn can't leave Tanya's side at the moment (I understand this -- poor Tanya can't even move right now) and Tanya's daughter doesn't want to stick around and help her poor mother out. I'm basically sitting back and watching what happens. I've already extended my help to them if they need it and there's not much more I can do right now.

I'm all geared up for Black Friday shopping! I have my list (mostly) ready. Now I just have to hope Brian's paycheck goes through on Friday without a hitch cause the bank isn't open that day. It should since it's direct deposit. Either way, I'm ready and excited! My little brother even wants to go Black Friday shopping this year.

I guess that's all from us. It's been a busy week and it's only going to get busier. We have an early Christmas with my grandma on Thanksgiving day and she's already driving us all nuts. Seriously, she needs some mellow out pills or something.

Hopefully I'll have pictures for you guys next entry.

Have a good day!

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[font=georgia]C'mon, take a guess!

It's my six year wedding anniversary!

My mom's keeping Seth overnight tomorrow night as long as there's no major catastrophe between now and then. Our first kid-free night in about a year!

No idea what Brian and I are planning, but no matter what it'll be special cause it'll just be us and we won't have to worry about rushing to pick Seth up from someone's house.

We've been through hell and back in the past six years. We've dealt with tons of family drama (does "Angie" ring a bell?), we've dealt with Brian being diagnosed with something that will eventually cripple him if he doesn't take care of himself, we've dealt with Seth being diagnosed with the same disorder, and there's the common every day stress that affects everyone.

We've already got a "congrats" and an "I'm proud of you two" from Brian's dad. That means a lot to me.

Happy anniversary to me and the hubby!
I love him more and more every day...

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[font=georgia]I think winter decided to come a bit early.
We've had snow flurries all day long! Nothing's sticking to the ground since it was warm a few days ago. It's been nice to look at, though. The snow is supposed to stick around for most of this week, but it won't accumulate to much. Maybe a dusting if we're lucky.

Brian's work is starting to get busy again. Everyone's trying to get trains ran before things shut down next week for Thanksgiving. It won't completely shut down, but it'll slow down to the point that only the regular nightly trains run and a few local runs work. Brian's holding a Thursday off day currently and I'm hoping he keeps it for a while since both Thanksgiving and Christmas are on Thursdays this year.

Seth had to go back to the doctor on Friday. I had to pick him up early from school on Thursday cause he had a fever of 103 and he had the chills really bad. Turns out he has another ear infection. His doctor put him on a different, stronger antibiotic so I'm hoping we'll finally get rid of the ear infections after we're done with this round of antibiotics.

Brian's shoulder's been bothering him again. He's afraid to mark off work to go get it checked out, even though I've told him that he needs to. He has some pain medicine that he can take if he needs it, but he usually doesn't. I guess guys at Brian's work have threatened to kick his butt for marking off sick to go to the doctors and whatnot. It amazes me that some people are that childish in a profession like this.

We got Christmas decorations out of the attic today (which is why Brian's shoulder is hurting -- it was cold in the attic!). I can't wait to start decorating!

This week is Seth's last week of school before Thanksgiving break. He gets 10 days off! I'm excited to have some time with him, but I know he won't be excited. He gets really ticked off when there's no school.

Oh, here's a link for the Butter Braids so you can see what they are:
Butter Braid

Don't they look delicious? I ended up ordering two of them for us. Seth can't have them, but Brian and I can eat them for breakfast or something. Yum.

Oh, I finally got the school nurse to help me get Seth's diet plan changed at school. She faxed a form to his doctor on Friday, so hopefully the diet change should be in effect starting tomorrow. I'm hoping that Seth's teacher doesn't have any more accidents (she gave him a carton of milk a couple weeks ago!) after this is all said and done.

For those that don't remember Seth is on a no milk, no milk products, and no artificial food colors diet. His teachers were concerned that he might have ADD/ADHD so I opted for a diet change instead of medicine and we've seen great results both at home and at school.

Smudgie got her stitches out on Friday. She's been doing really well. She's happy to be out of her cone. She's healed up really well from the surgery. We haven't noticed much of a difference in her other than she seems to be a bit more lovey than before and she's a bit more stupid than before. I always seem to end up with the unique animals...

Anywho, that's it from us.
Here's a few pictures for you to enjoy:

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[font=georgia]Brian's away working again. He got kept in the hotel in Grafton. He should be home sometime tomorrow evening as long as things go the way he was told.

There's been lots of engine issues with the trains this week. I figure the engines just needed a tune-up for this colder weather and never got it. I hope Brian gets a good engine on the way home.

My sperm donor's family went home without incident. They didn't bother me or my mom. They usually don't bother us, but I like to go into hiding when they come around just to be safe. Now if we could only get a Sandy-free holiday season...

Smudgie's still driving me nuts. She's feeling much better, though. She's been climbing her kitty tower today and she's also gotten back into her flinging habit. She flings litter everywhere. It drives me nuts! She figured out today that she could scoop up some food in her cone and just fling it on the kitchen floor so she could bat it around. She's amusing somedays.

Seth and I did his school project tonight. He had to decorate a turkey on a piece of paper. The turkey was outlined and we had to make it "gorgeous." Seth picked out some feathers at the craft store so we used those for the turkey's tail and we used crayons to color his face in and some pom-poms to decorate around its face. Seth was so proud of himself. I had to help him with the glue, but he put everything on the turkey by himself. If I remember, I'll get a picture of him and his turkey tomorrow morning before he leaves for school.

I had to have Glenn come over and get me and Seth today so I could go to the yard office and get the car. Glenn and I get along as long as it's just me and him. He's not too bad when he's not influenced by others. I thanked him profusely for taking me to get the car.

Seth decided to get an earache last night. He's doing better today, so I'm not sure what to make of it. I have some over the counter ear drops (Hyland's makes them) that I put in his ear, so maybe those took care of it.

Seth's selling Butter Braids for his school. I'm debating on whether or not to order one. He can't have them with his diet, but they do look delicious...

My six year wedding anniversary is next Saturday (the 22nd). Brian and I are still trying to figure out where the past six years have went. We've went through SO much in the past six years, but a lot of days it doesn't seem like it's been that long yet...

I better run. 5:30 comes early for me in the morning and I'm hoping for more sleep than I've had the past few nights.

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