Chris and I were both awake pretty early today and not because we had to be up, just because…we were up. We got dressed and went out for breakfast. Then we headed over to Coffee Slingers for a really good cup of coffee. As we were leaving the coffee place, Chris and I were almost giddy. This is the first holiday we’ve ever had to ourselves. Ever. No choosing between families. No stress of getting across the state with a dish that needs to be kept warm. No chaos or miss communications. Just us (with the exception of Mrs. Swan, who will be heading off to the casino very soon).

In about an hour, I’m going to start cooking our Thanksgiving dinner. On the menu is a lovely turkey breast (this year’s recipe) for Chris, a Tofurky with orange glaze for me, baked squash casserole, baked sweet potatoes, grilled asparagus, rolls, and (of course) canned cranberry sauce. For dessert we have pecan or pumpkin pie. We also purchased a red and white wine from an Oregon winery.

Things I am thankful for:
My husband
My family
My dog
My friends
My scooter
The roof over our heads. Even though it’s not the roof I want right now, it’s still better then a cardboard box.
My job
The opportunities that have presented themselves to me this year.
My health

Hope every one has a safe and blessed Thanksgiving!

My niece-in-law celebrates her 30th birthday over the Thanksgiving holiday. So we all got together this weekend to celebrate since we’re all scattering for the holidays. While we were in Tulsa, we took advantage of their Whole Foods store to stock up on groceries for our Thanksgiving dinner for two. I got a tofurky and Chris got a really nice turkey breast from the butcher. We also got some things that we don’t have easy access to at our local grocery stores like tempeh and fancy cheeses and other things we didn’t really need. But who cares? We are going to have the best Thanksgiving dinner this year!

Yes…the best Thanksgiving dinner, even though it involves a fake turkey. My mother is having a hard time accepting my vegetarianism. I was going on and on about the tempeh I purchased and the future tacos they would become when my my mom turned to my niece and said “can you believe they eat like that?”. Can you believe it? There were other little jibes through out the visit, but it got even better when we met for Melissa’s birthday lunch today. Melissa’s original choice for today’s lunch was closed on Sunday’s, so it got moved to the local BBQ joint. I casually pondered what I was going to eat when my mom said “well, they have chicken and sides”. Yum… sides. While I was looking over the menu, Mom said to Melissa that this was a great place to take a vegetarian. She made it seem like I was the “complaining, stick-in-the-mud, how could they make me eat at a BBQ place” vegetarian.

Melissa didn’t know I had gone vegg. I told her that I didn’t care where we were eating. It’s not my birthday and it’s not about the food. But the incident left a sour taste in my mouth. It made me feel guilty and wrong. It was like I was asking my family to go meatless on my account. But that’s not what I want and I’m not asking for a seven course vegetarian spread, just a little bit of consideration and a tiny bit of thinking outside the box. Everyone has been pretty accepting of my food choices except my mom. She sees it as a big inconvienance and that our only eating out options are places like iHop or the Cracker Barrel or something with eggs (and once again…chicken is not a vegetable!). Being a vegetarian is not that big of deal. I do live with a carnivore and we seem to be making it work.

My mom hasn’t always been this way. When my sister went vegetarian for a while, my mom was very supportive. She praised JaNell and how well the diet was working for her. Why am I any different? She sees me as odd and eating foods that no one in their right minds would eat. I’ve become a hassle and require more “work”. It’s like I’ve decided to take on a new radical religion and shave my head.

I’m saving that one for next year.

When Stephanie had Cati (I used to have an entry about that day; must have been eaten by blog moths), it was total chaos. No one was prepared because she came a whole month early. There was a franticness about Cati’s birth, not on Steph’s part. She was cool as a cucumber. But the rest of us turned into whirling dervishes. But they say each pregnancy and baby is different. William Lucas McGee entered our lives this morning without all the Lucy and Ethel moments that accompanied his older sister’s birth.

He’s perfect. I guess I’m getting sappy in my old age, but his sweet little face made my Grinchy heart swell three sizes. Don’t misunderstand. I’m not rushing home to throw the birth-control pills down the toilet. I’m just saying that I appreciate the miracle. And when that miracle happens to a friend you love like family, well…then it’s all the more sweet and spectacular.

Welcome come to our crazy little world Luke.

William Lucas McGee
7 lbs, 11 oz

Huh? What’s that you say? I have a bog? Oh….I have a blog. I have this internet thingy that I’m supposed to write things for and stuff? Well, I got nothing. We’ve just been busy, but not busy with anything fun. Busy with work; busy with yoga stuff; busy with house stuff.

Actually, it’s rather boring around here. We’re going to my parents house this weekend, but we have no plans for Thanksgiving. How did that happen?!? We almost don’t know what to do with ourselves. We decided that we would cook a small Thanksgiving dinner for two. We’ll get a small turkey breast for Chris and a tofurkey loaf for me. Though my mother informed me that I had to have real turkey on Thanksgiving. She obviously missed the point of A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.

Speaking of cooking, I have been power Chef Cindy the last couple of days. Monday night I made baked squash casserole. It’s the same recipe The Black-eyed Pea used use. My mom has had the recipe for years, but the last time she made it, she left out the sugar and the casserole tasted blech. Chris was not so sure about baked squash casserole, but he liked it so much that he’s added it to our Thanksgiving menu. Tuesday I made a new polenta recipe, which turned out to be another hit. What I love about this dish, is how easy it is. I prepared it all the night before and cooked it in the crock pot the next day. It makes a lot, but that just means I don’t have to worry about lunches for the rest of the week. Tonight…grilled asparagus omelets. Thursday is pizza night and Friday?…I don’t know about Friday. Cereal?

Good God! Is it only Wednesday?

Last night was not a good night for sleeping. Chris got called out to baby sit at some crazy hour. I’m not sure when, but I remember hearing the phone ring and the door shut. Then I woke up again when he came home a few hours later. I woke up again when I heard Mrs. Swan getting ready for work sometime around 4:00 AM. Then the phone woke me at 5:30 and I was mad because I thought I had set the alarm for 5:00 AM so I could get up and do yoga ( I know, but this the only time I can guarantee that I won’t have some other thing to do like cook dinner, clean some room in the house etc.).

In between all of that I dreamed. In the first dream, I accidentally rode my scooter onto the highway. Then it started raining and I was freaking out because I was on the highway, it was raining, and I couldn’t find an exit. I woke up and had to pee (weird). The second dream was just awful. I had left some clothes in the dryer for maybe half a day. In that time Mrs. Swan had taken my clothes out and just threw them outside. When I asked her where my clothes were she just shrugged and said that she threw them away. This is the part in my dream where I flipped and started yelling at her and telling her that’s she’s disgusting and inconsiderate. This is when I woke up and realized I had overslept and would not be doing my yoga practice this morning.

Things are just piling up. I know that’s where the last dream came from any way. The first one…who knows. I’m sad because I think today is the last scooter day for a while. I desperately need to clean the clutter out from around me, not to mention the rest of the filth. This morning I discovered an area in the kitchen where mice have been hanging out. I lump mice into a “you are dirty” category and right now I’m feeling like I’m living in a trash dump.

Maybe it’s time to take that salt bath. At least the bathroom would get cleaned.

Well… IKEA trip went well. Way better then I could have expected. My plan worked perfectly (bwahaha). There’s just something about IKEA that makes everything better. It really is the happiest place on earth and a bit overwhelming for first timers. I was not surprised when Chris’s family said that they would not be following us to Pappadeux’s. Score!

We bought so much crap this weekend. Most of the things I purchased needs to be (carefully) packed away and put into storage. I bought these way cute tumblers but had to talk Mom and Katrina into also buying a set so we could swap them out. Now I have a set of six way cute elephant glasses (I can’t find them online). They’re for the new home.

The only problem with IKEA weekends is that I get nothing done at home. The house is grossing me out. It needs to be cleaned. Homework! I still have done nothing on the yoga homework front. Tonight I will tackle one homework project and maybe dust the living room. I think the dusting part is being a little ambitious, but hey. Who knows right? Maybe I’ll get home and Mrs. Swan will have done it. Ha! Hahahahaha!

We’ve been telling Mrs. Swan how great IKEA is and that we would take her one day to bask in the glory that is IKEA. Well, that day has arrived and I’m starting to get a little panicky because it’s not just going to be the three of us. My mom and Katrina are coming and then I found out last night that Chris’s brother and his family are tagging along too.

Mom and Mrs.Swan together I can handle. Katrina is no problem. Love her. I need her there for support and back-up. She’s my inner bitch who actually says the things I’m thinking out loud. Brian and Amiee, I’m not so sure about. I haven’t even seen them since I found my ornament trash. I haven’t said anything to Mom about it either (she is going to be soooo pissed!). I don’t want this to be the time for confrontation. Well… actually I never want confrontation, that’s why I make a pretty darn good door mat.

So here’s my game plan. First, they are going in a separate car (whoosh). Once at IKEA, I loose them amongst the kitchen displays. If I am required to interact with them I will say things like “I am so proud of this country for electing Obama” and “Isn’t it just great that Obama won the election?!?”. Amiee reads Ann Coulter (I know, vomit right?!). I’m hoping that by the time we leave IKEA, she will be so fed up with me that they won’t tag along with us to REI and Pappadeux’s. I think this is a solid plan. And if that doesn’t work, I’ll shove them into a Hopen/Komplement with Katrina. It will be like the Thunder Dome with Katrina being the soul survivor.

Chris and I got to our polling place at 7:30 this morning. We waited in line for two and half hours to vote. I know I’m taking it for granted that they were there to voting as democrats, but all around me I was hearing (good) comments about Obama and people calling friends telling them they better get up there and vote. I haven’t felt this positive since I voted for Clinton.

Afterward we stopped by Starbucks for our free cup of coffee. When I got to work, I opened a box of stuff that I had ordered and there was a small bag of candy inside. Score! I had two Starbursts, a caramel, and wedge of chocolate. I have been running around like I’m on crack all day. Usually Chris drives, but I drove us home today. I made ravioli lasagna and I was so jittery, I added an extra layer. I can’t sit still! I am on freak-out mode. Meanwhile, Chris is sleeping. We obviously handle stress differently.

You would think I would be the one sleeping since I got up at 5:00 to do my yoga practice, but no. I feel like I’m going to leap out of my skin. I know I’m going to crash and when I do, I’m going to crash hard. Oh please let me wake up to happy!!!

I feel like it’s time to bring back scholar Cindy, that part of me that was oober organized and studied nightly and had assignments turned in early. That Cindy hasn’t had to be around in a very long time and I’m having a difficult time pulling her out from under the pile of garbage that’s built up since she went on hiatus. Yes, I had yet another yoga teacher training this weekend that included a long list of homework and due dates and more homework.

One of my assignments is to teach someone how to visualize auras. See, the focus of this weekend was energy bodies, auras and chakras. All the things about yoga that I think are hooky. Apparently we are surrounded by our own personal electronic fields that consist of several layers. There’s the physical layer which is our bodies. We can see, smell, and touch this layer. After this is the vital layer, the emotional layer (this is the one that’s colored), and the universal layer. When some one says they can see your aura, it’s the emotional layer they are “seeing”. This layer varies and changes in color and size. I cannot see auras, or if I can, every one’s auras look alike to me. So I’m really not sure how I’m going to teach someone else how to see auras when I can’t see them myself (or even believe they exist).

I will admit that I learned something about the chakras this weekend that is pretty cool and will make a great party trick. We have seven chakras (crown, forehead, throat, heart, solar plexus and root) and they spin clockwise. They spin counter clockwise every now and then as a self cleaning mechanism. If you hold a pendulum over any of these chakras, the pendulum will spin. I’m not kidding. We all got to hold the pendulum and we all got to have the pendulum passed over us and it was freaky. You don’t need any thing fancy. You can even use a washer tied to the end of a string. You’ll need to add a handle (maybe another washer) so you can’t manipulate the string. I’m thinking of stopping by the wicca store and buying an actual pendulum, but I also want to make one just to see.

So… crazy weird weekend. Lots of homework which includes a 20 minute salt bath. Most people would be thrilled with the idea of soaking in a tub for 20 minutes. I am not normal. I think baths are disgusting and the idea of “soaking” makes me cringe. I’ll have to bleach the tub, shower, bleach the tub again and then do my soak. And even then, 20 minutes is a lifetime! It’s too much work to clean my aura. Can’t I just leave it dirty?