Dover Downs Banquet, and Thanks Giving Dinner @ My House

Hey everyone! So how was your Thanks Giving? Did you eat way to much? Did you have a great time?



Banquet


So last tuesday (the 22nd) was the banquet at Dover Down (which is a casino). This was an awards banquet for the Navy Recruiting District Philadelphia. They have one every year, and this time I was able to go (thank you mother-in-law for watching the kids).

Last tuesday morning was crazy. Check in time was at 9:30am, and we had to drop the kids off first, so we had to wake up at 5:30am, and leave by 6am. Yes that's exactly what we did. We grabbed some poptarts and ate them in the car. We drove 2 hrs south east, to drop the kids off in Delmar, then drove an hour north to Dover (oh the fun). The schedule was something like this...

9:30am - 11am : Check-in
11am - 12pm : Lunch (yes the gave us lunch for free)
12pm - 4pm : Training (for the military members, not the spouses)
6pm - 8pm : Dinner (which was part of the banquet, and once again free)
8pm - 10pm : the Awards (we were hopping that after that we would be able to catch a movie. The last showing of Breaking Dawn was at the mall close by and at 10pm) (I didn't think we would make it)

So yes after getting there, and settling in, they gave us lunch which was Ghettos Pizza (super awesome). During Jeremy's training I took a nap. Wow I loved it! It's been so long. I went up to our nice and quite hotel room, and snuggle up in a nice big bed, and took a nap, and I didn't have to worry about a thing (super super awesome). I got up at 3pm, and started to get ready. All of you girls know what it's like... You have to curl your hair, and do your make up, and put on that perfect dress :)...

So this is how I looked...

So like I was telling you in this post... The dress was old, but the shoes are new. :)


So did we make the movie in time? We lucky for us, they decided to start the awards early :). The Captain was ending the ceremony at 9:30pm with a "Be safe and have a good night." Once those words were out of his mouth, I took my heels off (so no shoes on), and grabbed Jeremy's hand, and we were both running. Well how often does an opportunity like this come around? Jeremy's parents have the kids, and we are out just the two of us. So we raced up to the room, changed, and were back down again right when the first crowed (from the very same banquet) was heading up. Some of them were asking how we were able to change to fast, but we had no time to stay and chat... We had a movie to see :)

Yes we made it, and right on time too. I loved the movie :)

I think being able to watch it with Jeremy in the theater made it even better. Like most parents of young children, it is very rare that we get to do that.

We got back to the hotel really late, and I re-packed and went to bed, and Jeremy followed shortly after.




Thanks Giving Dinner


So this year I hosted the Thanks Giving Dinner for Jeremy's parents and sister. I love staying at home on any holiday. I'm just a stay at home kind of person :). So hosting is really my cup of tea. I made Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, Green Bean Casserole, Corn Pudding, Macaroni and Cheese, Stuffing, and Sweet Potato fluff. My Mother-in-law brought Coconut Cream Pie, and Brownies. My sister-in-law brought Pumpkin log.

This is a picture of my kids (well 3 of them) coloring, waiting for Mommom, Poppop, and Aunt Christen. :) (I know I love Zachary's face in this one)

We had a wonderful day. Mommom and Poppop came early to watch the parade with us. We had our dinner at lunch time (I really like early dinners). After dinner we exchanged gifts (yes early, but just the ones to each other).

After that we watched the new Harry Potter together :)


I know, Harry Potter on thanks giving? I love it :)


Well that's all for now, thanks for reading.

My Shoe Challenge

Yes this post is about shoes :)

It has been a long time since I've worn heels for more than just a few minutes at a time, and the challenge I have made for myself is to change that. "Why?" You may ask...

I have a banquet coming up next week (for Jeremy's work), and most of the time when it comes to these things I just try to get by with a ballet flat (note that I don't get to go to these types of things often).

I am a big fan of the ballet flat (I have 8 pairs of them, in a 16 pair wardrobe, so 50% is ballet flats)...

There just really cute and really easy...

:)

I'm a Mom and I always have things to carry, so wearing flats just make it easier.

But I'm also 5' 2", and I could use the extra inches.



So this time I wanted to get a pair of heels and wear them to the banquet, and also train my feet to wear heels more often.... so I went shoe shopping! :)

I was recycling an old dress for this event, so I wasn't going to spend money on a new one, so I got a few pairs of heels. Money wise it was a great idea.

So these are the heels for the banquet, and wow I am so not use to wearing things like these. I tried to wear them all saturday, and I tripped a lot. :)

But aren't they super cute?

My dress is white with brown flowers (I'll have to post a picture later) and it's tea length. I am going to wear it with brown tights, and these shoes...

I know banquets are more, no tights, big ball gowns, and strappy heels, but that's just not me :)

Big ball gowns make me look like I was swallowed by a dress (I'm just short). It's cold, so to me tights are a must, and no way am I wearing strappy heels if I can't even walk in regular ones.



So now that we are talking about shoes, want to see my whole shoe wardrobe?....

BING :)


See most of them are flat.

As far as heels go I only have these 3 pairs (2 of which I just bought this saturday)

I do have this pair of kitten heels, but I don't think that really counts

So my challenge for me, is to wear heels more, and to get use to them by next week. :) Wish me luck

Ready... Set... Wait 6 months

Hey bloggy buddies... Yup once again we experience a gap in posts. Sorry, and yes you all know that this is a busy yet boring time of year (what a surprise). Yes with all of the dinner planning / dinner going, Christmas shopping, and holidays it's a wonder anyone gets anything else done. It happens, but it's very rare (and very boring apparently).

So because of that I have decided to make my post about our impending move. Yup the BIG ONE, all the way across country AGAIN! This move (in May), will be our 3rd across country move (yes 3rd). It's a lot to take in, but since I've gone through it before, that makes it easier.

So I've started to plan already (yeah I know). Why so soon? I like to know how I'm going to go about doing things, and since this thing is so big... well... you know... All I've done so far is planning the drive (as much as I can). How many days are we going to take going across? Where are we going to sleep?... Well we would like to make the trip in 7 days (no more, and no less). So why is that? Well in the past we did it in much less time (4 days), and while that was quick, it was also stressful and crazy. This time, we are just going to take it easy (as easy as possible, if there is such a thing). We are also staying at KOAs. Perfect solution, because we have pets, and kids, and I really don't like hotels.

Okay so like I said before I'm really looking forward to moving, for many reasons.... (I'm just not sure the rest of you will understand or like them)... Okay this may sound mean, but I'm not trying to be at all. I would really like to spend the holidays alone (just Jeremy, the kids, and me). I just like doing what I want for Thanksgiving, and Christmas, and not have to go everywhere and play the "fair" game. It's not easy especially since we have lived far away before, and that's what we're use to doing. I love my family (very much so), but I'm just so use to doing it on my own. I blame it on my middle childness (if there is such a thing). I spent my whole childhood trying to get every ones attention, and now that I'm grown up, I don't want it anymore, because I'm use to not having it. But when you move back home after being away for so long, your going to get it, so I had it coming to me (I suppose). It's funny how you change and adapt over the years, and just get use to how things are. I'm also looking forward to meeting new people. Our stay in Washington should be 5 years, and that's longer than any other place we've lived so far. This will give us more time with those new people we meet (a shame we didn't have that before, I've meet some really great people over the years, and just didn't have enough time with them) :( ... (thank goodness for facebook right?) :) ...


Speaking of time... With the passing of this month, marks the longest we've lived anywhere since my husbands Navy career started. We have lived here for 2 years and 7 months (Yes that isn't very long). Isn't that sad? One of these days we will live somewhere long enough to get use to the house, the area, and the other people, but not yet (I feel like we are vagabonds). I guess staying in a place longer that 2 years fells weird to me... What people actually do that?... They settle down, and stay in one town / city for the rest of their life?... Is that normal?...

Okay yes I'm just messing, I know it's normal. :) Not military normal though

So I've been planning the move so I can kind of figure things out early. List will need to be made, and things will need to be packed, and I just want to make sure I don't forget anything (I'm sure I still will). We need to set aside things to go in the car, and things to be packed by the movers. We need to get the car tuned up before we go, and we need to make reservations. Most Importantly we need a place to live. Right now we have an application in with the military housing up there. I have really high hopes for this. They do have 5 bedroom units, but I was told by the lady, that they only have a few. She did say that we shouldn't have any problems getting a 4 bedroom one though. I told her I just really needed a house, and that I wasn't picky (I hope that puts me on her good side) :)


Okay so that's all for now... See you guys later :)

Happy Halloween :)

Happy Halloween everyone!

I want to start off this post by showing you our past Halloween costumes throughout the years

This one is from 2007. This was about 5 months after moving to San Diego. This was the first year I took my kids trick-or-treating. I'm Sheik (from the Legend of Zelda OOT), and my kids were Link (all 3 of them, also from Legend of Zelda). Yes our costumes went together, and I made all of them. Jeremy was on duty that night so he wasn't there.

These two photos are from 2008. I'm Pooh (I'm sure you all can see that), Darien is Mario, Zach is Link again (He really likes Link), and Nathaniel is Luigi. Jeremy was deployed during this Halloween, so yes he wasn't there again :(

This was 2009, 5 months after moving to ft Meade. I was Pregnant, and stayed behind to hand out Candy, and Jeremy took them out (he didn't dress up). Darien is a Jedi, Zach is a Clone (also Star Wars), and Nathaniel a skeleton. Yes this was the first year we actually bought the costumes.

This on is 2010. Jeremy stayed home to hand out candy, and I took the boys. We have Darien and Zach as Power Rangers, and Nathaniel as Batman. I was once again Pooh.













So what did we dress up as this time?...

We had one Snow white...
2 Harry Potters...
One Iron Man...
One big gorilla...
And a Star Trek girl :)

This year, we set out 2 big bowls of Candy, and we all went trick-or-treating together (the first time, we've ever been able to do that) :). It was great, we only had to go once around the block, to get all of the candy we would ever need (well you know). We left the house at 6:30, and we were back by 7:00, and the boys each had a full bucket, and I think that's enough.

So now it's time to move on the the other holidays... Thanksgiving and Christmas (I'm really looking forward to both). This will be are last holiday season here in Maryland (which says a lot because both Jeremy's family and my family live here), so I'm looking forward to one last holiday season here (and hopping that this winter isn't really cold).