Thanksgiving

There are so many traditions behind Thanksgiving- family, food and sport. There is of course the annual Turkey Bowl--which I should admit that I haven't played in years. It is where all the "young" kids from church and all the "old" men at the church get together and play tag football. Basically in the past it was whoever was the first to "cry" at the hands of Mr. J. was the loser! I am sure that has changed over the years, but the phrase "Blood, Sweat and Tears" apply/applied to this tradition.

Of course having family together on the holidays make it even more fun! Now that the majority of the grand kids are of legal drinking age, the holiday fun and conversation gets a lot more lively!It's not the holiday's without the sound of laughter filtrating from the living room. Whether it is trying to see who could be "tricked" into eating the cracker with cheese from the cheese log along with a slice of fresh strawberry as a topper--we got 4 people to eat it! Oh and jury came to a conclusion that it wasn't bad and wasn't good either--it was unexplainable. Or the laughter erupting from the poor drugged out dog, it was prescribed from the Vet for anxiety, who laid on the floor snoring so loudly that the TV volume was jacked up to the highest sound level. But the best part was trying to find someones good side in the pictures, no I am not going to say who it is!

Then there is the actual preparing of the meal. While my Aunt Paula is very methodical in splitting up the "dinner list", I seem to be asked to make the Green Bean Casserole every Thanksgiving. The irony behind it though is I can't stand Green Bean Casseroles! I don't understand what is so appealing about cream of mushroom soup and green beans combined in one dish and having crunch onions added to it. While people who are reading this may disagree, I ask you to please explain to me what is so good about this taste. I think the best part of the meal has to be the turkey.
Now this year we had a 44 pound farm fresh turkey. I know there was a lot of measuring and a trip to go get a bigger baking pan for this bird. Usually fresh birds taste gamy, but this bird was delicious! I must add that my aunt getting up at 3 am to put it in the oven so we could eat before midnight was well worth it--she did a fantastic job! Who knew baking a turkey would have a tougher schedule than having a new born baby in the house! If you look closely at the aluminum pan the side not covered with foil is actually the pan and it is lifted up, this pan was a round cake (?) pan.


However, I think the best part of the entire day is the turkey coma that everyone seems to get in once the meal is eaten and dessert is being plated. While Uncle Mark is working on his dishpan hands the rest of the boys can be found spread out in various positions on the living room floor and or furniture. Now if you are lucky enough to be able to move after the meal that you just scarfed down than the possibility that you will be going for a walk around the block with Uncle Doug is in your future. I have no idea why I didn't go this year--oh yeah I had heals on, but Stephanie was able to kick off her shoes and get bundled up and walk and talk with Uncle Doug.

Of course just like any other house where red blooded American men who are the guys guy football was on the television, people were yelling at the TV and more than once during the meal someone would get up to check the score of the game of the minute. While the Pats were on and we are from Massachusetts, the game of the day of course was the Cowboys/Saints game. Now the Saints did win in the last minutes of the game which meant that there was more yelling and saying how they couldn't believe that Dallas lost. It was like the major disappointment of their lifetime!

Now after all the prepping, eating, yelling and sleeping I think we are going to be ready for Christmas. I think Thanksgiving is actually the pre-game of Christmas! When it is all said and done, it is all about family--however you wanted to define it.

Moving Sucks!

Let me start off by saying that moving SUCKS!!! I have been slowly moving from one apartment to another. I have been packing and purging my old apartment at a snails pace! While the move was a little unexpected at the time--I probably could have prepared better for this in the week or so that I knew I was going to move. However, it wouldn't be me if I didn't wait until the last minute to get everything packed and moved! How people ever pack everything up in a million boxes and move in one swoop is beyond me!

So with all of these boxes sitting in the hallway of my new apartment and probably a million more boxes in need of packing at my old apartment I decided that I would spend today getting some of the boxes unpacked and the clothes put away in my closet. Now I will say that I was going to do this without any complaints. But let me say I was happily surprised when my dear friend Laurie called and asked if I would like her to come over and have her help me. First after having a puppy hanging out with me for the last 8 days a little adult conversation would be nice and secondly she is Miss Organized--so of course I said I would love help!


Laurie was just through the door when she started motivating me to empty some of these boxes. We had spoken that emptying 3 boxes would be a major accomplishment ontop of putting away all of the clean clothes that I had moved up to the bedroom!

I can say that the accompanying pictures are of Laurie's handy work! Who needs Niecy Nash when I have Laurie to help me out! Yes as you can see in the side picture here she organised my sweaters (1st and 2nd shelf) by color! I know what you are thinking..."I wish I had someone like Laurie around".

We got numerous boxes unpacked (6 total), 2 bags of clothes that I don't need that were sent to the Good Will box, the bathroom organized, the kitchen straightened up a tad and tons of clothes put away. While I know I got a lot accomplished tonight, I also know what awaits me tomorrow at my old apartment and that just makes me want to...well scream/drink/faint/run as fast as I can -- you pick the perfect description!

I have 12 days before I need to be out of my other apartment and fully in my new one--so I guess I am spending a lot of quality time at the other place packing, cleaning and loading the remaining items into vehicles. I already know now that I have about 3 or 4 boxes of laundry left to move over and from these photos I question where I am going to put them.

I also know I have a lot of books, furniture, dishes and food left at the GR-residence ontop of more I am sure. I have learned that when you live in a place for so long you collect a lot of unnecessay "junk"...with this move I am purging all of that crap out of my life.
The one thing that I could say is--let me spend 2 more full days at this other place to remove the things I would like and then have the dome form over this other apartment and zap the remaining "junk" out of it like in Monsters, Inc.

The one thing that I learned about moving and packing is that a person needs to have a game plan. Tomorrow when I drive across town to my old place I will be driving into the "battle" and planning this out like a war! Each room needs to be conquered- with little to no causalities on my side (seeing that I am packing on my own casualties are not an option). I have my orders and I am ready to go in and attack like it is nobody's business.

I know that it seems odd that I compared packing and moving to war, but I needed to give myself a pep talk. Oh December 1st how I long for you to show yourself so I can stop worrying about you showing up!

Frankie!

This summer I had made a new friend--now he wasn't like a lot of my other friends, he was a four legged puppy named Frankie. He was about 3 or 4 months old when I met him. Such an energetic little puppy!

Frankie belongs to Gwenn, the wonderful woman who owns the cottage on Lake St. Catherine. You might remember the name or the cottage from an earlier post about the skunk (if not you need to go back and scroll down to that blog, worth the read!)!

I have been very lucky to spend some one-on-one time with Sir Franklin while his mommy has been out of town. The first time I watched him I didn't think it would be that difficult. I mean, come on, I have watched numersous puppies that my grandparents had while I was in high school & college and most recently Abbie (I am sure more on her later), so how difficult can it be?!?!?! The one difference between Frankie and the others...Frankie thinks he is the Alpha Male! For a tiny little thing he seems to think that he is 7 feet tall!

He seems to always be full of energy, but there are some moments where he is just calm and loves to snuggle. Even right now as I am typing this he is curled up under the blankets right againts my leg. Yes, I did say under the blanket--because he is a mini dachshund he likes to be warm so he burrows under the blankets and stays there for hours during the night.

While having Frankie these last few days I have never laughed so hard! Yesterday he decided to take my flip flops and carry them around my bedroom in his mouth. I wear a size 9 shoe, which is about the same length as him! Then there are the leaves on the ground--he decided that he was going to run through them! It looked like the Tasmanian Devil from the old Warner Brother cartoons--but instead a pile of dirt/dust it was a pile of foliage!



Now granted it hasn't been all easy--the shreading and eating of papertowels, him grabbing something and running under the bed where I can't reach him and the playing outside in other dogs poop...I have learned a lot!

1. My stomach isn't as strong as it once was--found out when I was pulling a poop covered leaf from his mouth!
2. That no matter how tiny one is--they don't make beds high enough like they use to!
3. A puppy as tiny as he is puts off so much body heat in the middle of the night! (A fan may be needed before he goes home)
4. Everything is play for him!

We have done road trip--his first experience at Home Depot was thanks to me. Granted, him and his blanket were placed inside my giant purple purse once I saw that pets we on the list of things not allowed inside the store. Poor Frankie didn't have a shirt on or shoes--he had 3 strikes against him! On the upside though, we ended last night with a playdate with his buddy Rudy! Rudy and his mommy joined Frankie and I for a walk at Cole Field. The amount of dogs there was incredible and he played so well with all! He did get a little scared so he was picked up and carried around like he was a baby until he was ready to get back in the fold of things. I should say that my favorite though was when he met the great dane! The dane had about 110 pounds on Frankie but was so cute trying to play with him. Kinda reminds me of that old Walt Disney movie The Ugly Dachshund.

Frankie has won over the hearts of many, but one is still not a fan! My Nana's dog Abbie!!! Abbie is use to be the one getting all of my attention so there is a little bit of jealousy on her part! A few weeks ago when I had Frankie for the first time he went to Nana's with me for Sunday lunch. Frankie and Abbie did play, but she made sure that he know who the boss was.

The Halloween Spirit!

So I decided to do a little history lesson for myself about what Halloween is so I turned to the highly regarded site, Wikipedia-- Halloween is an annual holiday observed on October 31. It has roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Christian holiday All Saints' Day, but is today largely a secular celebration.

Common Halloween activities include trick-or-treating, wearing costumes and attending costume parties, carving jack-o'-lanterns, ghost tours, bonfires, apple bobbing, visiting haunted attractions, committing pranks, telling ghost stories or other frightening tales, and watching horror films.

Many Christians ascribe no negative significance to Halloween, treating it as a purely secular holiday devoted to celebrating "imaginary spooks" and handing out candy. To these Christians, Halloween holds no threat to the spiritual lives of children: being taught about death and mortality, and the ways of the Celtic ancestors actually being a valuable life lesson and a part of many of their parishioners' heritage. In the Roman Catholic Church Halloween is viewed as having a Christian connection, and Halloween celebrations are common in Catholic parochial schools throughout North America and in Ireland.

Other Christians feel concerned about Halloween, and reject the holiday because they feel it trivializes - or celebrates - paganism, the occult, or other practices and cultural phenomena deemed incompatible with their beliefs. A response among some fundamentalist and conservative evangelical churches in recent years has been the use of 'Hell houses', themed pamphlets, or comic-style tracts such as those created by Jack T. Chick in order to make use of Halloween's popularity as an opportunity for evangelism. Some consider Halloween to be completely incompatible with the Christian faith because of its origin as a pagan "Festival of the Dead". For example, Jehovah's Witnesses do not celebrate Halloween because they believe anything that originated from a pagan holiday should not be celebrated by true Christians.

Celtic Pagans consider the season a holy time of year. Celtic Reconstructionists, and others who maintain ancestral customs, make offerings to the gods and the ancestors. Some Wiccans feel that the tradition is offensive to Wiccan practitioners for promoting stereotypical caricatures of "wicked witches".

Growing up I enjoyed going out trick-or-treating and dressing up in fun costumes--yes even dressing up as an adult. Growing up I was blessed to have many memories of Halloween! One of my favorite stories was when my "highly regarded" uncle and his wife dressed up in Ape costumes and went climbing on the cars parked out on the street while the area Catholic Church's evening mass was letting out.

I also remember my Nana and Poppy dressing up as Olive Oyl and Popeye! I have to say that there are times like this where I wish I had a picture or two of some of these great costumes. I also remember when my Poppy dressed up as a Chimney--now I don't remember when this took place but I know I was still very young because he took me to 2 of our neighbors houses and he couldn't get through the doors.

Now I swear I have had every costume known to man! For some of the people that I grew up with or older--remember those plastic costumes that came in the box?!?!?! At the time you would go into K-Mart, because that is the ONLY store we had around here, and search what seems like hours for the "perfect" costume. Now thay weren't the most comfortable costumes or the most sturdy. That stupid rubber band on the mask would get wrapped in my hair and by the end of the night it would take "FOREVER" to get it out!

I also remember that the small mouth and nose holes where you were supposed to be able to breath from would make your face all sweaty because they were NEVER big enough for your mouth or nose. However, over the years I think I was also a "rocker", a ghost, a devil, a madame, a prisoner and a clown--I am sure that there was more, but I can only think of some of the obvious costumes.

I should say that the picture off to the left was being contemplated as to whether or not I should post, but this blog is meant for me to rip away all my walls and reveal the true ME (both in thought and personality)! I don't think I was ever allowed to wear my costume out for halloween-- maybe that had something to do with living in the Northeast where 9 times out of 10 you would wear a snowcoat under your halloween costume.

Now I have to say that my all time FAVORITE halloween memory is the photo posted below. Now I should apologies to my Nana for posting this, but I have to say that this is probably the BEST halloween memory I have of her and my Poppy.

(Poppy, me and Nana)

The Secret Can FINALLY Be Revealed!

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog about this big secret I was keeping! I said that I would be able to tell everyone at the end of September--well that wasn't exactly true, I can say it now. So the question is what have I been up to?!?!?! Well it is 5:23 am and I am sitting in the Albany airport waiting to board my plane to Wisconsin! Yes, you did read it right I am on my way to Wisconsin. Now before Cindy gets too excited I am not going to Green Bay to protest the departure years ago of her love, Brett, I am heading out today to surprise my friend Jen for her birthday that was on the 5th of this month!

Now let me tell you this hasn't been the easiest secret to keep! On Monday Jen had started to get a little snoopy! Now I can't blame her for that--her mother has convinced her to take a day off of work because she had a birthday surprise for her. On Monday night I received a text from Jen saying that she had a feeling that her surprise had to deal with a person and that the person was me!!! Dang! Everything went through my head--do I tell her, do I lie to her, do I ignore the text?!?!?! I decided after a few moments of panic and searching to see if her mom was online I would just respond. I told her that I would love to see her (which I would), that I ws unemployed and had a lot of bills (which I am and do) and that I didn't have cash for a plane ticket (true as well)-- now see I didn't lie to her!

Cathy (her wonderful mother) IM'd me last night and said Jen was spending the night at her house and would I like her to bring her to the airport or surprise her when we get back to her house--knowing how much Jen LOVES surprises (saracasm 101) I decided that Jen should sweat out her surprise a little longer and wait until we got back to Cathy's house. Come on what type of friend would I be if she showed up at the airport to see me when I can torture her an extra hour :) . I figure it is only right after her post on Facebook last night and I quote, "Tomorrow is the day of my so-called big surprise...this better be good, it's been driving me insane for weeks...lol!!" Well I hope it is good because keeping this from her is killing ME!!!!

So the question I have been asked a lot when I have told people about my trip was-- How do you know Jen? Jen was part of my most EXCELLENT Ireland trip a few years ago. She was one of the two Jen's and just an awesome person. I have been lucky enough to stay in contact with her since we departed from the Jury's Inn at Christchurch where we shared a love for men with an Irish accent, Guinness, Jamesons, that woman that was from there originally and Leo Burdock's ontop of other things! The below picture is of the group of us with a sample of the greatest beer on earth! I should add that this was after all of us (minus Jen's mom because she was a good girl) stayed out until 2 am drinking with our tour guide and that hot guy from the hotel bar! :) Please excuse the still drunk look that some of us are sporting!





(Front: me, Cathy, Jen Back: Jen and Josh)





So I just landed in Cleveland and am waiting at my gate. Departure is in 32 minutes and I can't wait!!! It means my travel on the planes are almost done for the day! I am not to fond of small planes and I was just on a 58 seat plane--the only good thing was I was able to sleep for about 45 minutes. So while I have a quick stop in Cleveland I will then be off to Wisconsin! I find it only appropriate that I attach the bottom clip to honor Wisconsin!

The Wedding To End All Weddings!

On Saturday, August 21, 2010 my beautiful cousin, Stephanie, married Chris Shank (aka Shank). Now for the longest time we never knew Chris's name was Chris--Stephanie ALWAYS referred to him as Shank. So it came as a surprise when she told us his first name. At first thought some of the family members gasped for air as flash backs started to develop in our heads...Steph's ex-loser-boyfriend was named Chris and we were dreading having a repeat performance (the good thought was if he was anything like his predecessor, he wouldn't be around long at all).

However, to our happy surprise Shank was NOTHING like the prior. Here was a guy that came into our family with a running start...he was calling our grandmother Nana like the rest of us. He was laughing and joking around with the cousins (we are a tough crowd) and he even got along with our Uncle Doug (who is a tougher crowd). From the beginning Shank fit in. Even better--Stephanie was happy!

***On a side note*** I don't want to paint the picture that Shank is the hero that came in and saved our family from ourselves, but in all honesty HE is! He has taken it upon himself to settle the years of fighting between all the grandkids on who is Nana's favorite...Shank has singlehandedly declared HIMSELF our Nana's favorite. Now not to go into great details, but a few of us grandkids (ok, ALL 6 of us) have decided to question the validity of this!!! Judge Judy may need to be called in!

On a serious note, over the last few years we all have gotten to know Chris by spending a lot of time with him. You know Stephanie found a keeper when he would come up to Nana's for "family lunch Sunday's" when Stephanie wasn't around or had to work. It was like he has been a part of our family forever! Now there are only two reasons for him voluntarily spending all of this time with the crazy lot of us--A) he was either nuts or B) he loved Stephanie. Come to find out it was BOTH!!!

Now it didn't surprise us when Chris proposed, even though he had threatened to delay it every time the topic of "marriage" was brought up. The entire family knew that Stephanie would be persistant and Shank would grow weaker and weaker--hey what can I tell ya she's a Wright and we don't know how to back down when we find something we want.

Now I know I have been speaking a lot about Shank and what a great guy he is and all of that stuff. I haven't forgotten about Stephanie, it is just difficult to put into words what Stephanie is really like. From people on the outside she is beautiful, fun, energetic, and just alway a happy person. But for those that know and love her she is so much more. Yes, she is all that I described above, but the words sensitive, loving, caring, compassionate and smart are just a few others. Stephanie ALWAYS sees the best in people and is willing to give them a chance time and time again. She has a heart as big as this world! (love you Steph!)

So on August 21st when my Uncle Don gave away his eldest daughter.There was a part of all of us that was sad, but we were more overjoyed with the beauty and grace that Stephanie had walking down the eisle.
To say Stepahnie was a beautiful bride is an understatement. She looked gorgeous all dressed up and ready to spend the rest of her life with the man standing at the alter. Ok, I will give Shank some props too--he looked handsome in his white tux but, as anyone who has ever been to a wedding before--it is all about the babe in the gown! A traditional church wedding it was not, but I would expect nothing less from these two. They are both unique individuals and that showed during the ceremony. Through the readings, song and vows the ceremony proved to be a great chance to show this to the people gathered to witness this happy occassion. With a beautiful reception that followed Stephanie and Chris had spent their night dancing and celebrating with the rest of their family and friends.

I think the one thing that I would like to say to Steph and Shank is to always remember how much you loved each other on that day. That there will be some potholes in the road ahead, but you are going to be able to make it through and do anything you put your mind and heart to because you have your bestfriend in your corner. Oh and never let the music end...

Lots of love to you both,

April

Secrets

I am not into the keeping of secrets especially when it will hurt another person! Surprises--not a fan either! The only time where I am OK with surprises are when they are not going to happen to me. I don't want to have surprise birthday parties! I don't like being the one where everyone knows something that is going to happen to me before I know it! I do think that some secrets are good to be kept to oneself and surprises are probably the most fun--when they are happening to someone else!.

Over the years I have been asked to keep probably thousands of secret--some good and some not so good. I think the greatest one was a few months back when my friend's husband turned 40! He had no clue that he was going to a party for himself. When he walked in the look on his face was priceless--meaning that Krista pulled it off and she was able to keep the secret!

A few years back family and friends gathered for my Uncle Don and Aunt Tammy's surprise anniversary party. In order to keep this surprise going Makenzie, their youngest child, was not informed until she got to the restaurant. So when my uncle and aunt walked in to the hall they were blown away!

Makenzie wasn't informed because she wasn't able to keep the secret at that time. As people get older they are able to keep secrets. They learn that telling the person that this is supposed to happen to would not mean as much as if they were surprised by it! Makenzie has grown up over the past few years and she is now more trustworthy in keeping secrets--just a few months ago she was able to keep the surprise bridal shower for her sister Stephanie under lock and key!

So how come some people are better equipped at keeping secrets over others?!?!?! I have no idea!!! I think it is the fact that certain things excite us more than others and we are able to hold on to those secrets with more difficulty!

So what's my secret....you will have to wait a little while to be informed!