thanksgiving, untraditional

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we are working in our community this year for thanksgiving. it is the first year either of us had to work on this holiday, and it is a little weird. last year we were in a whole other state celebrating by ourselves and this year we have 140 friends to celebrate with, although most of them were with their families for the noon meal.

our chef made a wonderful turkey dinner with all the traditional sides (well not all. there were no la seur peas). the phones arent ringing and our bosses arent sending out tons of emails, no one's toilet is overflowing... so far a good day.

there are so many things we have to be thankful for. obviously for our jobs and home and each other, our health, family etc. but there are other things.

things like feeling my baby move around inside me. this little guy has tons of energy y'all!
things like sitting in my rocker with my feet up and having a soft fluffy cat crawl into my lap and purr.
or hot apple cider available 24-7 in our coffee bar.
my netbook that allows me to get online anywhere my phone gets a signal.
our dvr.
my down comforter and quilts on cold nights like last night.
jeremy going to starbucks whenever i feel like a hot chocolate.
friends in new hampshire that we get to see on sunday.
friends in la that are having babies (and the ones that arent).
friends all over the country, and really the world, that love us.
half and half from nantucket nectar
granulated honey


there are so many little things that i take for granted all the time. today is a wonderful time to sit and reflect on some of those things.

what little thing are you especially thankful for today?

welcome to parenthood

yes, we will be parents. in april. but thankfully i have two amazing furry friends that like to give me wee little glimpes into what life will be like as a mom.

take this saturday as an example. it was like day 15 of working straight without a day off. i was tired. when my alarm went off at 6:$5am it was all i could do to peel myself out of bed and head into the shower. rumpy and cricket both wait very impatiently for me to wake up in the mornings so i can feed them. after i used the bathroom, i stumbled into the kitchen to get the cat food out and almost stepped in a special little gift in the middle of the rug. im still not sure which end of which cat it came out of, but i am sure that no one should have to deal with something like that before coffee. i put on gloves and dealt with the mess and put the rug in our empty laundry basket (yes they waited until i had finished all the laundry to make a nasty mess).

i fed the cats and the fish, took a shower, got dressed and got ready for work. jeremy got in the shower and i was in the bathroom burshing my teeth and putting on makeup. cricket and rumpy both came in, because they like being around and rumpy is obsessed with the shower. cricket looked at me, walked over to the bath mat and peed. right there. only about three feet from their litter box. looking at me the entire time as if to say "im mad that you are working so much so here's what you get." and she is supposed to be the good cat!

so, inbetween serving meals, answering the phones and all the myriad of other tasks that come on a saturday at windham falls, i got to do dirty nasty laundry. i thought i still had a few months of carefree living before having to deal with stuff like this!!!

book review: maybe this time

synopsis from barnes and noble's website:

The New York Times bestselling author of Bet Me, Tell Me Lies and Welcome to Temptation delivers her long-awaited novel


Andie Miller is ready to move on in life. She wants to marry her fiancé and leave behind everything in her past, especially her ex-husband, North Archer. But when Andie tries to gain closure with him, he asks one final favor of her before they go their separate ways forever. A very distant cousin of his has died and left North as the guardian of two orphans who have driven out three nannies already, and things are getting worse. He needs a very special person to take care of the situation and he knows Andie can handle anything.
When Andie meets the two children she quickly realizes things are much worse than she feared. The place is a mess, the children, Carter and Alice, aren’t your average delinquents, and the creepy old house where they live is being run by the worst housekeeper since Mrs. Danvers. What’s worse, Andie’s fiancé thinks this is all a plan by North to get Andie back, and he may be right. Andie’s dreams have been haunted by North since she arrived at the old house. And that’s not the only haunting.
What follows is a hilarious adventure in exorcism, including a self-doubting parapsychologist, an annoyed medium, her Tarot-card reading mother, an avenging ex-mother-inlaw, and, of course, her jealous fiancé. And just when she thinks things couldn’t get more complicated, North shows up on the doorstep making her wonder if maybe this time things could be different between them.
If Andie can just get rid of all the guests and ghosts, she’s pretty sure she can save the kids, and herself, from the past. But fate might just have another thing in mind…

my review: if you haven't read a jennifer crusie book and you like fun, flirty chick lit, then you better get started. her characters are funny and quirky and off-beat, and the plot lines, while a little odd, keep one's attention and keep me laughing. this book was no exception. i loved the characters, especially the kids she is taking care of. if you like ms. crusie's work already, then rest assured that this one is just as good, if not better, than her previos novels. definitely read it.

baby pictures!

this was our ultrasound at 12 weeks. i'm 17 weeks now and scheduled for my anatomy ultrasound in a couple of weeks. yay! you can see baby's head, wee little hands, and belly in this picture. cute, isn't he? (or she...)

book review: A Deadly Row

A Deadly Row

Casey Mayes

Capturing the hot new craze:
The new Math Puzzle mystery series.

Math whiz Savannah Stone makes a living creating Math puzzles in rural North Carolina. But when the mayor starts receiving death threats, Savannah needs to solve this puzzle-before the next box to be filled is the mayor's coffin.

my review: this was a fun mystery, not too brain bending or terrifying. savannah makes math puzzles (i assume sudoku but it is never explicitly stated what kind of puzzle) and her husband is the retired chief of the charlotte police. i had a pretty strong hunch who the killer was throghout the book but there were other plot points and interesting tidbits to keep the story moving. it is a genre mystery, meaning if you like math puzzles and mystery books you would prolly like this one more, but i prefer the siamese cats of the cat who series for my genre mystery reading. there was nothing objectionable or exceptionally bloody in it. i'd be interested to see what subsequent book sin the series are like.