First the whine:
So it all started with getting dizzy during yoga 2 weeks ago. I went to the doctor, she said I had a middle ear infection, prescribed 10 days of antibiotics, and warned me that one round of antibiotics probably would not clear it up. But that they could potentially cause a yeast infection (niiice) and I should take antihistamine at the same time to dry up the junk in my head.
I took my antibiotics like a good girl, with tons of water and an L-Lycine chaser to ward off the infection. (I also ate a little yogurt twice a day.) I only took antihistamine a couple time because it knocks me out for a good 12 hours of sleep. Now I am a week out of the antibiotics and my lymph nodes in my armpits are actually swollen and sore, and my nose is running. This is the weirdest head cold ever. Wherever I got this from — they can have it back!
On to the Love:
My kids had the whole week of Thanksgiving off school for the first time. We usually do Thanksgiving just the 4 of us at home, but with the whole week + 2 weekends, we split some time with my parents. We drove down to Ft Lauderdale Sat-Tues and were home Wed-Sun. Saturday we played games – mah jongg and Alice taught us how to play hearts. Sunday we helped my mom sell her jewelry at a boutique at a temple, that night we saw Harry Potter. Monday we went bowling. Tuesday we hung around the house until it was time to drive back.
We exchange Thanksgiving presents in my house. For us it is a holiday to talk about what we are thankful for, be together in PJs with whatever food we want, and play games. Brian got the girls Wii Party, so we played about 7 hours of that. I got the girls custom necklaces from http://www.etsy.com/listing/61753951/your-choice-personalized-wild-and-sweet. Alice’s said “Will run for cupcakes” and Wendy’s had the dinosaur we drew on her Converse a few months ago – but with an added soccer ball since she now loves to play soccer. I am happy the designer worked with my drawing. They also had those pretty, sparkly beads hanging off and their names on the back as seen in the Etsy listing. The girls also have big presents coming – Alice is going to Washington DC with her class and Wendy is getting her soccer team t-shirt and sweatshirt even though I said I refuse to buy another dumb, overpriced school shirt. She also designed her own Converse on the Converse web site. The girls gave me a car air freshner from Bath and Body – in cinnamon so the car will smell like fresh baked yummy stuff when it is in the hot, Florida sun. (Which I wanted and I don’t know how they knew…) And Alice got me the whipped vanilla lip gloss she uses from Bath and Body, so I would have my own and quit borrowing hers. In my defense, as soon as we get in the car the girls want lip gloss, and then they use mine because theirs is back in their bedroom. The kids gave Brian a huge bag of Resees peanut butter cups and kit kats with a special handmade candy holder to put them in for his desk, so he remembers to eat at work. And Wendy made a cornucopia of clay at school but the kiln caught on fire and exploded and everyone’s art from the last few weeks broke. How sad!
Alice baked for Thanksgiving. She wanted to make a cake that looked like a roasted turkey. She baked 2 marble cake mixes in a large Pyrex bowl for a LONG time. She covered that with a layer of store bought buttercream frosting, and then a layer of homemade fondant. The turkey legs she crafted from rice krispie treats also covered in buttercream frosting and fondant. She used toothpicks to hold them on to the cake. LOTS of toothpicks.
Everyone put in an order for their favorite holiday foods for dinner. I made a roasted turkey breast, Alice wanted some drumsticks, and Wendy wanted pigs-n-blankets. She doesn’t like turkey. Alice ordered store-bought mashed potatoes, which I of course doctored up with extra broth, pepper, butter, etc. I made twice-baked sweet potatoes stuffed with pumpkin and cranberries. I had never taken fresh cranberries and boiled them up to use for cooking, and they are yummy! Brian wanted stuffing. Wendy wanted corn cut off the cob – so she could eat it despite her braces. Canned just doesn’t taste the same. We had some kind of dinner rolls.
Other recipes I tried this weekend:
http://www.oprah.com/food/Indian-Spiced-Cauliflower-Dip with Kangaroo pita chips to dip in.
http://www.oprah.com/food/Spiced-Pumpkin-and-Brown-Sugar-Granola with tons of nuts and cranberries.
A soup chock-full of veggies that my mom had: broccoli, leek, carrot, onion – she added rice, I didn’t.
We also watched 2 movies this weekend – Avatar (the blue one, not the last warrior kid. Brian and I had never seen it. Very pretty movie.) and Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. It was better than we expected – even the kids said so. It was mature without being too bad for them or over their heads. I’m a Michael Cera fan and a dry humor fan and a music lover, so it worked well for me. Except the first 5 mins. And Wendy said she would never chew gum again after watching it, but immediately asked for gum the next day.
Now I have a lot of work to get done. People realize the end of the year is approaching and there are all these things they should have updated on their website months ago, and everyone wants it done ASAP! Plus a couple new sites I’m putting the finishing touches on. And we’re designing t-shirts for the soccer team and our Ragnar Relay teams.
I did manage one gym workout this week, and one trip to the gym just to sit in the sauna and see if it would help my nose. 170 degrees for 10 minutes. It perked me up a bit. Today we’re going to the park to play something that involves a ball. But basically I treated this week like the vacation that it is! I hope you did too.
