I just made some really awesome soup - and of course it involved Thanksgiving leftovers.  I took the breast carcass and simmered itfor about 4 hours last night.  It totally fell apart - I had to dig out all of the bones.  I strained out the juice and then i picked out the turkey bits - surprisingly there was a lot of meat left.  I threw the meat in with some celery and onions and simmered it until they were soft and then I put it up for the night.  Today i threw in some diced smoked sausage, a bag of frozen "soup" vegetables and let it simmer some more before i added 1 cup of wild rice. 

The soup has an amazing broth - the smoked sausage gave it a great flavor and everything works well with the turkey.  I think this is the best soup I have ever made.  Lol, if you want the recipe - this is it.  I just threw it all together sans recipe!  Its too bad we live 1500 miles away - I think my dad would love it!

7:51 Stewart runs in (STOMP STOMP STOMP) and wants to get in bed with us and snuggle.  Parker is already awake.  We all lay there together for 15 minutes before the boys get too restless and I turn on some cartoons and send them to the floor.

8:35 Bill and I get up - time to start the turkey.  Due to a problem with the rotisserie on the grill, Bill will have to periodicly roatate the turkey by hand.

9:30 Time to start pie (so it's cool by the time we eat) but we are out of sugar.  Ran up to Food Lion - and yay!  They were open.  (I also grabbed some cocoa.)

10:00 Baked the pie shells - started pie fillings (key lime lemon and chocolate.  One of the pie crusts is a little too brown!  

10:30 Top off pies with homemade meringue and bake until the "stiff peaks" are pretty and brown. I am happy the meringue fluffed up - I dumped half a broken yolk into my bowl of egg whites.  I must have scooped it all out!

10:46 Time to start the corn souffle and sweet potatoes.  (What does a souffle dish look like!?  It's going in my christmas pie dish.)My sweet potato secret ingredient is a can of crushed pineapple.  I don't know why, but one year I threw it in and it is delicious.  It adds sweet and the pineapple goes really well with the sweet potatoes.

11:15 we are on schedule with the turkey.

12:01 while waiting for the dishes in the oven to cook, i added some recipies to my collection of Bondurant Favorite recipies cookbook.  I tend to shove printed out recipies in the cookbook and I never find the time to write them on the pretty paper.  I just wrote in 4 today.  YAY!  Guess I'll go set the table and slice up some turkey.

11:21 - both of the pies are done.  Sweet potatoes are in the oven and the corn souffle is looking great.  Time to chop some broccoli!  I'm already looking forward to our post lunch nap.

11:36 - I taste tested my pies - the chocolate didn't firm up as much as i would like.  The Key lime lemon is deish.  I'm probably the only person that is going to be eating the chocolate pie (unless my parents miracously show up) and I don't mind eating it with a spoon!

12:22 the corn souffle is ready.  its really good.  it is definatly going in my cook book.  Just waiting on the sweet potatoes.  Last year we were waiting on the sweet potatoes.  I need to start those first!  i guess I can go set the table and slice up some turkey.

1:08 we ate and now it's time to clean up.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am thankful for:

1.  having a healthy husband and healthy children.  Parker's hospital stay really made me think about how lucky we are to have healthy children.  We were soooo lucky that Parker only needed 2 weeks of antibiotics - there were WAAAY sicker babies in the NICU.  I can't even imagine how heartbreaking it must be to have a sick child.  The guilt, the agony, and the helplessness must be awful.  I used to worry a lot about Bill's health.  He is the oldest living male in his family.  Seriously.  Heart disease.  So I used to worry about it a lot - but every time I mention it to him, he gently reminds me that he is in AWESOME shape.  He just ran a marathon (that's 26.2 miles) in UNDER 3 hours!  This is the main reason why I don't get completely put off by the time and money he spends on running.

2.  our beautiful house.  We picked the lot in the neighborhood, we picked the floor plan - we picked everything in this house yet when we moved in it didn't feel like home yet.  15 months later it definately feels like home.  It's a little dusty, and the floor seems like it always needs to be vacuumed/dust mopped, there are kid and baby toys EVERYWHERE but it is these things that make it feel the most like home.  The house as lost that new construction smell, I have the furniture arranged how I like it, and it's cozy and warm.  Everything a house with 2 little boys should be!

3.  Bill SHAVED.  He's really supersticious.  And 99% of his supersticions revolve around college football, namely the Oklahoma Sooners.  He has to be wearing the jersey, the hat, sitting on the couch beer in hand with me next to him (asleep!) and Stewart on the otherside, Parker in his lap.  Any little variance will somehow cause the team to lose.  So as it got closer to the Philadelphia marathon, he quit shaving and eventually trimmed it up Prefontaine style.  I thought he looked ridiculous.  He did look ridiculous.  And now, because he set a new personal best he will probably grow it out before every single race.  DRAT.  Initially, I wanted him to shave it off as soon as we got back to the hotel after walking back from the finish but I forgot the damn razor.  But he did shave it off soon after we got home.

4.  I have a great job.  Quitting Sprint without having another job lines up was VERY VERY stressful for me. I get so many people that say I should just stay home with the kids - and I kinda find it offensive.  Most of the people that say that are merely acquaintences and I don't feel they know me well enough to make that statement.  But I look past the woman=stay at home mom streotype because I recognized a long time ago that I enjoy working.  I HATE having to ask for money.  I like having my own income.  If I want to buy something silly, I don't feel guilty about spending Bill's money because I'm not spending his.  But also I don't have the patience.  I know I am a better mother because I work. I have had a job since the summer I turned 15.  I have ALWAYS had a job.  This summer was the longest I have been out of work since my first job.  But my point is that I have a great job.  It takes some time to get used to a new boss, a new company, and a new position but I do feel like I fit in well with the team and the company and I enjoy it.  I do get frustrated easily but it's mostly because I like to be busy all the time and when I'm not my mind wanders and I get bored.  Kathy feels lucky to have found me and I definately feel lucky that they hired me.

5.  I have AWESOME friends.  I don't have many.  The people I count as true friend i could count on one hand.  I would do anything for them and I know they would do anything for me.  Sadly, other than Bill, I have no friends in the tri-state area.  I am thankful that Holly is back on the east coast.  Carla is unfortunately in Chicago.  Jason finally got hired as a police officer in the Village in Oklahoma City - he and I have IM'd every work day since we met at the AOL callcenter - that's 10 years ago. We've chatted about my 4 moves, getting married, multiple vacations, having kids and about his engagement, wedding, his job with his father in law that was constantly frustrating, his dreams to be a cop like his father.  And now that he's a cop we don't chat as much.  He'll pop on AIM and we catch up, but I miss it.  I tend to make friends for life.  It took me YEARS to get over Melissa - and it still makes me very sad and I'll never understand and maybe that's why I'm much more cautious.  Bill will always be my best friend but i still need my girlfriends and I miss being able to go out with them or just see them.

6. being back in school.  As much as I don't want to do it and it is such a drag, it will be nice to FINALLY get a 4-yr degree in SOMETHING.  I am a smart girl but I feel like people judge you by your resume and I need this degree to be just as good (qualified?) as everyone else - even though I know I'm better than most!  Old high school classmates have caught up with me on Facebook and I feel like I haven't done anything with my life and it's embarassing.  Holly is in med school, Daniel is out flying jets for the air foce (his dream since forever ago),  another classmate is an assistant DA in Wichita, and another is on freakin TV - I just saw her in Samantha Who.  Holly is very good to remind me that I have an excellent marriage with a good man that loves me and that I have a beautiful family and great kids - i just feel like I'm missing something.  i didn't grow up saying I wanted to be an administrative assistant - I wanted to be an epidemiologist and work for the CDC and wear the yellow suits and go to hot zones and cure diseases.  I think I might be having a mid-life crisis.  I'm not quite sure what a mid-life crisis is for a woman - but for me, it's realzing that I will be 30 in May and I haven't really accomplished much of anything.

7.  the Disney Trip we took with my parents.  It's cheesy - but I have always wanted to take a big family reunion style trip to Disney World.  it will probably never happen with all of my siblings and their kids - but this was probably better.  It was our last trip with Stewart alone, it was our first big trip to take with my parents, Bill and Stewart's first trip to Disney World period.  We had such a great time, I wish we could do it every year.  Stewart still talks about how much fun he had - and we went in January!!!  I will say that a week at Disney while 5.5 months pregnant is no picnic.  For starters, everything fun you remember doing as a kid, you can't do it.  you can stand in line and then sit around and wait for them to get out of rides.  and it's a lot of walking.  It's a Small World, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Buzz Lightyear shooting ride  are the most exciting rides you can do.  But January was a great time to go, the weather was great and it wasn't too crowded.  Plus - for all you runners out there - the Disney Marathon and half marathon is in january.  (We take a lot of trips around races for Bill.)

8.  my 5 minute commute to work.  I went from driving 50 miles each way to driving about 2.5 miles each way.  Of course, I do drop the kids off at day care and pick them up - which makes it about 10 miles each way but that is soooooo much better than driving from Charles Town, WV to Reston, VA.

9.  I LOVE that Stewart is such a great big brother.  I can tell he has moments where he feels a little sad that he isn't getting as much attention as he used to - but he has loved his brother from the frist sign of the bump in my tummy.  He is so living and caring and he really is a huge help.  Parker watches him and just wants to be doing everything Stewart does.  It's very cute.

10.  just to have another great year.  I can't believe it's practially December.  We have done a lot this year AND WE HAD A BABY!  I am very thankful to have another year to spend with Bill and Stewart, to introduce Parker to the family, to have awesome parents that dropped everything to drive to WV from OK to help me cope with Parker being sick (and to make Stewart still feel like he is a very important little boy.)  I have created special fun memories with my friends.  We have turned this house into our home.  I have a good job where I actually feel respected and can respect my boss and the other management (until recently, I didn't understand the value of having a GOOD boss.)  I am constantly learing something new about being a parent, a wife, a person and I gain appreciation for the things my parents told me that i ignored when i was younger.  I am very lucky to be HERE with this family. 

All of this does make me feel a little better about the ridiculous mid-life crisis I am having.  

I am in the final days of my Anatomy and Physiology class and lab.  I must say that it has been challenging to take this class in the online format because this is a heavy subject - i tend to learn best by visuals not just reading the text.  I would also like to mention I have the worst instructor.  He doesn't respond to email, he doesn't grade the homework, he doesn't give feedback on the homework to explain why you got the grade you did - he's awful.  It is a bit rewarding to sit down and take the final and see that what I know I taught myself.  I read, I did the homework, I did the labs.  All on my own time.  Which is another challenge of an online class - it's all on you to make the time to study and do the homework.  And when you pass the class - its a bit more rewarding (in my opinion) because I know I had the extra challenge of carving out that time to study.  It makes me miss being 19 - when my only responsibility was to get to class, take notes so I wouldn't fall asleep in class, do the homework and pass the tests.

So anyway, this class finishes up on Sunday.  I still have a final lab to comple on the Renal System (OOH!  URINE!  YAY!), I need to write a paper on a chronic disease of my choice (talk about procrastinating), and I need to take the lab final (which is times and all essay.  STRESSIN!)

By the end of the year, I will have received 10 credits.  I will be halfway through earning another 3.  Not bad.  It's almost the equivalent of being a full time college student with traditional semesters.

This year I am trying to make things we have never had on Thanksgiving.  Sadly, it means I am cutting out green bean casserole and mashed potatoes.  Anyone that knows me, knows I love those two sides more than anyone else in the universe.  For 29 years, my Thanksgiving dinner has included mashed potatoes.  I'm not sure why I'm trying to cut it out - just trying to do something different I guess.

This year our Thanksgiving menu will include a turkey breast, slow-cooked via rotisserie on our grill. We will be having steamed broccoli, corn souffle, dinner rolls, and sweet potatoes (a different recipe than I usually make.)  Dessert will be a homemade lemon meringue pie.  It's just going to be the four of us, so hopfully I won't make too much food.  (Holly was going to come down from NYC but she has too much studying. )

I am looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend - full of yummy leftovers and stupid homework!!!!!

No Thanksgiving would be complete without the Adam Sandler Turkey Song!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3L3uRDgnNM

1.  It's really cold in Philly in Nov.

2.  City Center/City Hall is really close to anything and everything.

3.  We walked a lot.  We walked 2 -3 miles to dinner Friday night.  We walked 2-3 miles to a museum before we hailed a cab.  We walked about 2 miles to the race finish line.

4.  Italian Restaurants in Philly are cash only - at least the ones we went to.

5.  The Please Touch Museum is AWESOME. They had a Disney World worthy Alice in Wonderland exhibit.  The whole place is designed for kids so everything is interactive and hands on.  It was a lot of fun.  I would like to go to the museum when it is a little less crowded.   http://www.pleasetouchmuseum.org/

6.  Bill got up and left for the race by 5:45.  We were supposed to meet him around mile 3 and then 6 (approx 7:20 and 7:40) but we slept in.  I would have kept on sleeping but Parker woke me up.  So we got up and got around - we went downstairs for breakfast (Stewart was my free romantic breakfast partner both mornings.)  We hauled our cold little cookies way up the street just to see daddy after his race.  It's one thing to get up and see him run by its a total different thing to get up and just be there after the race.  

7.  Philadelphia will always remind me of the weekend that Parker started eating finger foods - he started eating Gerber puffs, Baby Mum Mum (http://www.mummums.com/products), he enjoyed playing with orange wedges, and he enjoyed a sippy cup of watered down apple juice.  He's growing up too fast.

8.  Stewart had his first cab ride.  He is the most amazing little boy - he is also growing up too fast.  He is so smart and intuitive.  

9.  We watched Batman - the Dark Knight.  That is a really really long movie.  It is very dark.  And I'm gonna say the exact same thing that I said after we saw Batman Begins - what the hell is up with Christian Bale's Batman voice.  It's distracting, and i must admit, I think it sucks.  But I have been swooning over Christian Bale since I saw him a bagillion years ago in Swing Kids.

10.  Bondurant Family Road Trips work best when I drive and Bill navigates.  That's how we got through the stinkin tunnels in Boston and it's how we found our hotel in Philly.  It also keeps us on the MAIN HIGHWAYS and it keeps me from throwing up.  If I let Bill drive - I will fall asleep and then when I wake up we are on some back road that is winding up and down through the country nauseating me because I am weak and get motion sickness way too easily.

Let me preface this story by reminding my loyal readers that our 6-year anniversary was on Wednesday the 19th.

We went to Philadelphia this weekend - yes, it was for a marathon.  The drive up was uneventuful - Oh wait, we drove through a blizzard for 30 minutes between Frederick and Baltimore.  Lol, other than that, uneventful.  

Our hotel was right in the heart of Philadelphia - the Courtyard right next to City Hall - less than 2 miles from everything a toursit would want to see during a quick weekend trip.  We had a HUGE room - which was great.  And the rate was very reasonable - less than we pay when we go to the Courtyard at Virginia beach.   A lot less.  Anyway. . . 

Imagine this - we just spent a very exhausting dinner out with friends and their two kids (13 months and 3 years old.)  We had squirmy kids - but it was fun. It just required a lot of energy because we couldn't put the kids down on the floor to crawl around.  Both families ate in shifts. :)   I enjoyed going out with them because i didn't have to feel embarassed about our squirmy kids - sometimes you never know if your squirmy kid  is annoying your kid-less friends.

We get back to the hotel room, we get in pajamas, get the kids in pajamas, and there is a knock on the door.  I answered the door and it was room service.  A special delivery.  Champagne and chocolate covered strawberries.  I had to confirm it was for us - because we didn't order anything.  Bondurant room 535 - that's us.  I started to gush a little - thinking that my extra awesome husband ordered up the special delivery to celebrate our anniversary.  

He had no idea what it was - he didn't order and it made me call room service to confirm it was really for us.  It was - but a lot less romantic that I had hoped.  Apparently, when i booked the room, I booked the romance package which included champagne each night and breakfast for 2.  And then it all came back to me.  I did book the romance package, because it was for a bigger room and it was $10 more per night.  So all the while, i thought my husband did something really romantic - i thought he made this big grand gesture because we didn't go out and we didn't exchange gifts.  

We enjoyed it - I'm not a big fan of champagne; i've had a cheap bottle and an $80 bottle and it tastes the same to me.  So we enjoyed it with orange juice and had late night mimosas.  The second bottle arrived saturday night after I had fallen asleep - so we had it after his 2:59:57 marathon - again as mimosas. 

The point of the story is - when you are at a hotel and champagne shows up - take credit for it when the wife thanks you for being so romantic.