The Unspoken Rules of the Thanksgiving Table

Julia and Julia is playing in the background (the ladies won that battle), the dog is snoring, the men are talking cars, and Mimi is watching videos about cats with a sweet smile on her face. This year is Aaron's side of the family's turn with Thanksgiving. Although I have eaten at a variety of Thanksgiving tables throughout the course of my young life, I have discovered there is a list of unspoken rules that occur at these tables, no matter what location or who surrounds it. Here is the condensed version:

1. Stories that have been told 100 times will be told a 101th time.

2. The Thanksgiving meal will never start on time.

3. Something will be spilled or broken (usually by yours, truly).

4. A comment will be made on how Thanksgiving has snuck up on them.

5. Someone else will comment on how everyone's head is in their electronic devices

6. It takes a lot of convincing to get the men away from the football game once dinner is finally ready.

7. A forgotten dish will be remembered once everyone is finally in their place at the table, causing the person positioned closest to the kitchen to retrieve it, along with 10 other forgotten items.

8."I will never eat like that again," will be uttered.

9. Turkey will sedate the consumer.

10. No one is happy with the Cowboys.

Of course, there are traditions that belong to different branches of family, but these universal rules of the Thanksgiving table are as comfortable as a thousand blankets.

Deck the Hills

Deck the Hills with blankets and vicks.

cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough

Tis the season to be sneazy 

sneeze sneeze sneeze sneeze sneeze sneeze sneeze sneeze sneeze

Don we now our sweats and hoodies 

cough cough cough, sneeze sneeze sneeze, cough cough cough

Troll the ancient songs of sickness. 

sneeze sneeze sneeze sneeze sneeze, sneeze sneeze sneeze sneeze. 

Turn the heat up, it's really cold.

cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough 

No, nevermind I'm hot as Texas

Sneeze sneeze sneeze sneeze sneeze sneeze sneeze sneeze 

Follow me and you'll get sick 

cough cough cough cough cough, cough cough cough cough

Wait, I'll spray with disinfectant

sneeze sneeze sneeze sneeze sneeze, sneeze sneeze sneeze sneeze 

Fast away this weekend passes 

cough cough cough cough cough, cough cough cough cough 

Hail the new week, swollen eyes 

sneeze sneeze sneeze sneeze, sneeze sneeze sneeze sneeze

 

Now we are coughing all together

Cough cough cough cough cough, cough cough cough

If only we had more sick days off. 

Sneeze sneeze sneeze sneeze sneeze sneeze sneeze sneeze! 

cough cough cough, sneeze sneeze sneeze sneeze! 

Hope you enjoyed the oh, so clever parody (cough, cough). It may not be clever, but it is the song of this household. We seem to be in that time of year when one of us is sick for a week, then the other takes over, and then we have two weeks in between of being healthy. 

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. It's hard being married to a teacher. 

Let's Pawty

Today we had a birthday party for Lucy because why not? If she is going to be my subsitute baby, we might as well treat her like it. 

To start, I played the part of making her wear a birthday outfit she had no desire of wearing...

and she played her part by rolling her eyes, fighting me on it, and finally complying to make me happy.

We made up for the embarassing photo- op with yummy treats.

My  dog usually takes her sweet time eating food so we knew she really liked it because she ate this right up. 

Oh, and Lucy made sure the festive hat wouldn't bother her again.

As you can see, it was quite the chore getting a somewhat decent picture...

Until next time, pawty on!

The Knighted Beatle

Last May, Aaron found me weeping in the bathtub essentially throwing a full on tantrum.  Why? Well I happened to catch on the radio that Paul McCartney was coming to Lubbock in June. 

I mentioned this to Aaron, and he somehow thought I figured out that he was going to try to find tickets for our anniversary. To be honest, I had no idea and didn't think we stood a chance to get tickets. He joined the fan club to buy pre-order tickets and the website wouldn't accept any of our email addresses. 

So I went from being excited beyond belief to being way disappointed. ( Hence, the grown-up tantrum in a bathtub.) It's a good thing Aaron is blinded by love because that display wasn't the most flattering.

Fast foward to two weeks before our anniverary; I accidentally found Paul McCartney tickets in the place I usually hide gifts. We seriously cannot keep secrets from each other. I wanted Aaron to feel like he still surprised me so I planned on keeping that a secret. Whenever I saw him, that plan was thrown out because I couldn't stop smiling. Again, secrets cannot be kept in this house. 

Fast foward again to anniversary weekend. Paul McCartney got sick and had to postpone the concert. (No, I responded like a grown-up and didn't throw myself in the bathtub). 

Fast foward one last time (sorry about all this time travel) to last week. We were so excited because on Saturday, we would finally get to go to the concert of our lifetime. Thursday during lunch, Aaron tells me we have a problem. The concert isn't on Saturday, it is tonight. If Aaron hadn't happened to have the radio on to the right station at the right time in his two minute commute from the church to the house, we would have gone to Lubbock on Saturday expecting Paul McCartney and would have ended up having another bathtub temper tantrum. 

While we were driving, trying to find a parking space, I kept seeing these motorcycle cops passing us. I start to realize there is a reason for all of these. In slow motion I turn my head to see a black SUV with a window rolled down with PAUL MCCARTNEY passing by and waving! I would have driven up to Lubbock just for that two second experience.

The whole night was perfect! We found a parking spot right next to the building. We were pretty close to the front door whenever it opened. We got to join thousands of other fans singing at the top of their lungs to all of his songs. He was so entertaining, funny, and full of so many stories from the past. He sounded like he did when he was in his twenties. It was so much fun that there were three encores! 

I really wish I was more eloquent with my words so that I could truly paint a picture for you. All I can say is this is a concert that my grandchildren will get annoyed with hearing all the time. Both Aaron and I grew up listening to The Beatles so this was a dream come true. 

'Twas the Night Before Homecoming Week

The day came where the sheet that told you what you must wear to show school spirit was passed out. I explained to the students what the different days meant and then lined them up to be dismissed for the day. It was so fun talking to the other teachers what we could do for different days, figuring out how far out of dress code we could go, and if mustaches should be involved.

Then comes the night before the first day of dressing goofy. 

Many thoughts go through my head: 

What if I get the days mixed up?

What if I am the only teacher to dress up? 

I wonder if I could dress normal? 

Should I bring a change of clothes just in case? 

I am going to be the one person to take this too far.

Am I the only one to get ridiculously nervous to dress up for homecoming week? It is all fun and games until you actually have to go through with it. 

This  kind of reminds me of a couple years ago on my birthday you could get free food at Chic-fil-a for dressing up like a cow. I was so excited. Aaron and I worked really hard on our trash bag costume. He didn't really want to do it but he was a sport to go through with it, anyway. We got ready, took the obligatory facebook picture and headed that way. As soon as we got within a mile of the establishment, I was willing to forget the whole thing and pay for food somewhere else. Aaron made us go through with it and I didn't melt even though we saw people we knew. 

When I was in ninth grade, someone told me they liked how I didn't care what clothes were cool to wear. Well, to them I say I did care, I just wasn't very good at it. And to you reading this, I shall be school spirited and wear goofy clothing because that apparently is how to show you support your school. Just know that I would rather be wearing my plain, unfashionable clothing. 

A New Kid in Our Lives

Made you look! I apologize for the deceptive title and for the inevitable rumors that will be running around. There are no little Hills just yet. To explain the attention grabbing title, let's start from the beginning:

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 

Okay, maybe not that far back. A couple of weeks ago, Aaron and I had the opportunity to go to our Alma Mater (Hardin-Simmons University) for a worship conference with the Gettys. If you don't know who they are, basically they are the most influential hymn writers of this century. 

In the evening, they had a concert. I say concert, but it was an amazing worship service. They are from Ireland so they had an Irish folk meets bluegrass kind of sound. And no, it was not a strange combination because bluegrass comes from Ireland. 

Anyway, they had a presentation for Compassion International. Basically, they work with children in poverty all over the world. Taken from their website: 

Compassion International is a Christian child development organization dedicated to releasing children from poverty. Our ministry is twofold: We work through local churches to provide child development programs to deliver children from economic, physical, social and spiritual poverty, enabling them to become responsible, fulfilled Christian adults. And we speak out for children in poverty – informing, motivating and equipping others to become advocates for children.

Basically what sold me was one of the people in the video that was a sponsored child came out on stage and talked to us about his experience. He talked about how the program gave him hope in a country where there was none. 

We are now supporting a child from Bangledesh with letters, money, and prayer. 

So yes, we have a new child in our lives. He just happens to live in a different country. 

I write this not to brag, but to encourage you to support a child. There are several kids waiting! Their website is compassion.com for more information.

Left, Right, Write

Outside of school, here are things I googled today: 

How often do dogs steal rings

While in my home uniform of sweat-pants and naked feet, I hear my husband calling me to check out Lucy's collar to make sure her tags weren't missing. Confused as to why he couldn't look himself, but obliging anyway, I discover a ring connected to her collar. My sweet husband replaced the ring the same dog stole a couple of months ago.

That's right, he liked it so much, he put a ring on it twice. 

Statistics of people who wear their watch on their dominate hand

Last blog-post, I wrote on how, as an introvert, I am very observant. As an observant one, I have noticed that I seem to be the only one who wears a watch on their right-hand. After minutes of searching, I have found that most people wear their watch on their non-dominate hand. So that's why I've been getting all of these judgemental glances aimed towards the old time-keeper...

I hold my pen with my thumb out 

Along with admitting that I can't dress myself properly, I have to admit that I can't hold a pen properly. I hold it with my thumb out and it motions what I am writing. Another way to say this is my thumb wraps around my index finger. It's called an "inefficient grip." I am now convinced that I have poor visual-motor integration.

I guess I am done internetting now. Any longer and I might think my pale skin is a symptom of mad cow disease.