Thanksgiving 2009

Well it has been a whirlwind couple of weeks. Thanksgiving for me kicked off the Saturday before Thanksgiving Day. WillowWood, the facility my Mom is the Administrator of, had their resident and family luncheon. This is one of two favorite holiday's at the facility. I always go and help serve plates to the residents. (My other favorite holiday is Christmas where I dress up as Santa's elf. Unfortunately I will not get to do that this year.)

Thanksgiving Day was quiet. Mom had to work, so Dad and I headed to meet her after work at Cracker Barrel for dinner. It was very good and quite a deal! For around $9.00 you got turkey, ham, dressing, sweet potato casserole, another vegetable of your choice, cranberry sauce, and dessert!

On Friday, Dad and I got up at 3am and headed out to shop! We went to Belk, Kohls, and Lowes. For the first 250 people in line at Belk each one got a gift card with a random dollar amount on it. I was lucky enough to be handed 2 that were stuck together for $10.00 each! I was going for black scrunchy boots that were on sale for $19.99. I ended up paying only $1.39 for my boots! We were back home by 6:30 and I crashed! After taking my nap, Dad and I headed out to watch New Moon. It was actually the second time I saw it. I thought it was much better than Twilight.

Saturday is the day that the Dorsey family celebrates Thanksgiving. We headed to Forsyth, GA to have dinner with the family. We ate way to much and had a great time being together.

Sunday, I headed out to have lunch with some of my West GA girls. Every so often we get together to catch up and play with the new babies! It is always a ton of fun and I love my lunches with them!
After lunch, I headed to Mom and Dad's house and decorated their Christmas tree. Today, I put mine up and Mom came over after she got off work and helped me decorate it. I am almost ready for Christmas, just one or two presents left to buy, and then wrapping! On a separate notes, Shane and I broke up. It is a story that I would rather not go in to the details about, but I am okay with it.

Dinner for 4....sort of

Tonight I invited my parents over for dinner. Usually we have Sunday dinner at their house but Shane and I had a cookout to go to Sunday night...see the previous post...so I decided to invite them over last night! Unfortunately, Dad had to go to Augusta on a run and was not able to make it. So it was just Mom, Shane and I and a to-go plate for Dad.

I made this YUMMY dish!



http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/10/wednesday-night-dinner-spaghetti-with-artichoke-hearts-and-tomatoes/



It is the second time I have made it and let me tell you it is to die for! Especially if you like Italian dishes! I do edit it a little....I add chicken...to give it some protein, but you could throw shrimp in instead. I used angel hair pasta but I think I may use cheese tortellini the next time around (gotta try a few random things and make it your own, right?). Oh, and you may want to cut the artichoke hearts up a bit. But other than that I followed the recipe to the letter and we could not eat enough of it! I served it with oven roasted asparagus, salad, and garlic toast.
Warning, it does make a large portion! I had enough for us to eat way to much, a huge plate for Dad, a plate for Shane for lunch today and myself a lunch plate! My mouth is still watering!

What happens when adults have to much sugar?

Most blogs I read have a (almost) wordless Wednesday....I am just going to go ahead and post mine on Sunday night...
This is what happens when "adults" have had to much sugar!

Chubby Bunny anyone? I had 7 in my mouth before I started laughing and choking, Seth was able to fit 9 in, and Debbie was a rock star with 11 marshmallows in!

A new chapter...

A new chapter will soon begin! Yesterday I received word that I was offered (and yes I accepted) a new position at work! This will be a change of departments....and buildings! I had applied a few weeks ago, and to be honest had somewhat forgotten about this position. 2 weeks ago today I received an email asking me if I had notified my manager about the application. I had not! So I quickly shot him an email letting him know...like I said I wasn't expecting this. Luckily my manager now encourages us to look for promotions and opportunities to grow. Jerry was cool with it and I emailed the recruiter back. The following Monday she called me and did a phone interview and set up an interview with the hiring manager for that Tuesday(11/3). The interview went REALLY WELL! I was a little excited but tried to contain myself. He told me in that interview to go ahead and expect a second interview the next week. The following day, sure enough, I had a meeting request for my second interview for this past Tuesday (11/10). The bad part of this story is that I came down with some little stomach bug on Monday, but I sucked it up and went in on Tuesday for my interviews. I met with 3 different people in the department and each of those interviews went well. After meeting with the team I went back in and spoke to the manager again. He was asking how soon I could transition which was getting me excited and hopeful but then he turned very proper on me and started using terms like "if you are selected" and "well we have finished with all of our interviews and we will be making a decision." So with that my self doubter-ness kicked in and I wasn't so sure any more. I will admit, I checked my voicemail on and off about 5 different times yesterday! I knew they would be making a quick decision. Low and behold at about 6:20 last night I received a phone call on my cell. It was the recruiter calling me to offer the position! I was still on the phone and went out to signal to my Dad that I got it! After hanging up of course I had to let out a little scream and do a little dance...and yes I did a little dance!
This has been a long time coming and I think it is finally the right time! It is a pretty big promotion. I will be moving not only departments but it is in a different division of the company. And, I get to move to the big building. (The department I am in now is in a small building down the road from the main building.) I spoke to my new manager today and he wants me transitioned over on 11/30. When I spoke to my managers boss (my manager is on vacation this week) he said that it would be 3 -4 weeks at best. But who knows. I know that I am ready for this new chapter to begin! Granted, there is a lot to learn and I will probably have quite a few frustrating days ahead but I am ready for them! I am excited for this to begin!

A proud moment...

Shane brought Chloe 2 gifts a couple of weekends ago. 2 stuffed toy alligators. I decided to slit their throats and put squeakers in them so that it would be more appealing to the dogs. Well not 15 seconds after finishing the first gator, Suzi had already broken the squeaker and he is now silenced forever. (Or until I slit its throat again!) Anyways, one gator is still squeaking and Chloe has been attacking it all afternoon! Here are a couple videos that I must admit I am proud of!

That's a good girl Chloe! You get that gator! Tear it up!

AHA Atlanta Heart Walk

Yesterday I walked in the American Heart Association's Atlanta Heart Walk. Each year, the company I work for raises money for the AHA and we always attend the Heart Walk. In years past I have always walked in memory of my grandparents who suffered from heart disease but this year I walked in memory of another someone special.
If you follow my blog at all you will know that this past summer my Uncle Grady passed away. He was a man larger than life and lived his life to the fullest. He suffered from Congestive Heart Failure and in May went in for surgery. After about 2 months of fighting he lost the battle. (But God gained an angel that day!) His surgery had gone well, but his other organs failed him.
He was diagnosed early on in life with this disease and yet still lived a full life. He walked 5 miles a day and exercised more than anyone I can remember. Even the day before his surgery he walked 1 mile! So, this year I walked in memory of Uncle Grady!
I raised close to $300.00! Thank you to all who donated! The walk is a 5k and in years past it has taken me close to 1 1/2 hours to complete it. (Mostly because it's quite crowded and I was walking at a leisurely pace.) This year I set a high goal for myself. I decided that if Uncle Grady could walk 1 mile the day before his surgery I could do the 5k in under an hour! Now if you know me at all, you know that I don't run. I do, on occasion, walk, but never have I ran any distance. Nor did I train for this in any sort of way. (Yes, I know, not very smart.) But, I am happy to report that I "power" walked most of it and jogged the last 1/2 mile or so and finished in 50 minutes! Here are the few pictures I took!

The Fox5 Crew welcoming everyone!

And the walk begins! LOTS of people! You can somewhat see the Olympic rings!

I survived!