Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! Just had a great pre-pigout workout and I'm ready to start cooking! I don't really have a lot to do this year. Actually, hardly anything at all. I feel guilty about not taking more but there's always so much food. There will be twelve of us at moms house today, me & Joe, Kim, George & Sophie, Grandma and the Staple's. Yet for dessert we have a pumpkin pie, chocolate pie, pecan pie, berry pie and peanut butter pie. Hahahaha, see what I mean? Oh well, I guess that's what the day is all about. I'm making my corn pudding. I made this for the first time a few years ago and we've been hooked ever since. It's so delicious!

Tomorrow Joe and I will be bypassing all of the crazy shoppers and (most likely) head to White Pass for a day of skiing before going to his parents house tomorrow night. We'll have our
"Un-Thanksgiving" on Saturday night with his side of the family. I'm so lucky and thankful that his parents don't mind us celebrating on Saturday instead of the day of. I've never missed a Thanksgiving with my family and I don't ever want to! I told Joe eventually we'll just have them come down here and we'll all celebrate together. Perfect solution!

Saturday is also the Apple Cup, GO COUGS! Looking forward to a nice, relaxing 4 day weekend. Happy Thanksgiving!

Joe and I are huge fans of Papa Murhpy's. We love their delite pizzas, pizza that supposedly is low calorie compared to their other pizzas. I don't think it tastes low cal and I'm a huge fan of super thin crust pizza so I love it. Anyway, we got coupons in the mail and on the back above a picture of one of their 20 pounder pizzas, it says, "Belts have notches for a reason." HAHAHA. I laughed and showed Joe but started thinking about that tagline. If I were a consumer of this 20 pound pizza I think that would totally turn me off from buying it. It even made me resist going to get a delite pizza for dinner Sunday. It's like it's saying, "eat me and you'll get fat!" I guess the truth hurts!

FRIDAY!

TGIF! I'm so excited for the weekend. Tonight: making dinner for Kendra and Robby (I've been trying to play match maker for months)! Saturday: baby shower for Mandi. Sunday: SKIING! It's all I've wanted to do after last weekend! I still don't think I'll ever be as obsessed as Joe though.

Speaking of skiing, Joe is going today since he's off of work. Not fair! He just called after being on the road for 1/2 hour to say he forgot his season pass at home so he's on his way back. Dang. I called to see if they could look his pass up but I couldn't get an answer. I told him that the message said they got a foot of snow last night though so he's coming home and going right back...just going to be a super long drive to get there today! Lesson learned: don't leave home without your season pass!

In other news, I got an H1N1 shot on Wednesday! I was very apprehensive about getting it but Dr. Nichols said it was very important than I do, more so than the regular flu shot. I had to go to the health department since all of the doctors offices are out. As I walked in they asked who my primary care physician is and after I told them they said they were only giving to those who don't have doctors and/or health insurance. Serious? After talking to the lady and explaining my situation she agreed that I'm in one of the high-risk groups. I think it's pretty crazy that all of us who pay a lot of money for and have health insurance aren't able to get the shot but all of the people who don't have insurance/jobs get it. For free. Doesn't make much sense to me. Glad I was able to get it though. At least for now, hopefully they don't come out three months from now saying is causes major complications!

Hope everyone has a great weekend. It's almost Thanksgiving. YAY!

Perfect ski day!

Yesterday we went skiing at Timberline and it was an absolute perfect day. The conditions were great, the crowds weren't bad and best of all, the sun was out! I was a little apprehensive about going since I was going to be the only girl but I kept up with the guys and even out skied two of the guys that went with us. Definitely not Joe though. I finally tuckered out around 3:30 after skiing from 9 and only about 1/2 hour for lunch. He could've easily gone till closing......my legs just weren't having it. I've come a long way since last ski season. It's exciting to see how all of my working out has made my leg strong and (for the most part) back to how it was before cancer. Can't wait to go again soon! However after I get my 5 or 6 trips in for the season I'll be good.....Joe has already gone twice, I'm guessing he'll probably go about 25 times this season. I'm good with 5. :)

Today I'm making dinner for Kim, George, mom, dad and Sophie (she eats little bites now!). On the menu: Stuffed mushrooms, chicken with wild mushrooms and balsamic cream sauce and orzo, baked acorn squash and bread pudding with rum sauce. I'll post the recipes if they turn out to be good, they're my gophers! :)

Happy Sunday!

I love that shirt! It's so true! I saw Dr. Nichols yesterday and I had another perfect check-up. I have now been in remission for 1 1/2 years!! Such a great feeling. It's funny though, when I first started going for check-ups the cancer center didn't bother me. I could go into the infusion room (where people are getting chemo) and be fine with it. Now even the smell of the place gives me the creeps. I can hardly stand to even look into the infusion room let alone go say hi to the nurses. It's become more of a scary dream than a reality and I guess I don't want to relive it.

After the appointment we met up with Kim and Sophie! Sophie is changing so, so fast. She gave me a kiss!! At least that's what I'm going to call it. I was holding her and she got really close to my cheek and gave me a wet-slobbery-something. It's like she knows what she's doing she just doesn't quite know how to do it yet. We had dinner at Arawan and she tried Pad Thai....I don't think she's going to be happy with her puffs and organic mushed peas much longer. :)

Happy Friday! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

And so it begins...

I just said goodbye to my husband. That's right, tomorrow is the opening day at Crystal and he just left me for the mountain. Tonight is the official start of my 'ski widow' status. He decided to leave tonight and drive up and stay with his parents so he doesn't have such a long drive tomorrow morning with his cousin. I want to go! Well, not really. You see, the first year I dated Joe I made the mistake of turning him into a ski monster. I'll never forget the first time we went. I took him to White Pass with my cousin Brian. If you need a confidence boost, all you need to do is take someone skiing that's never been before. I felt like a pro and he couldn't even hardly stand up for more than 2 minutes without falling down. He hated it. I remember him throwing his poles down at one point and saying how stupid skiing was. Fast forward a week and he's at it again, determined to get good. Two weeks after that he's becoming slightly obsessed. And loving it. Next thing I know he's going on all of his days off and wanting to go every weekend. Before the end of that season he was better than me and I've been skiing since the young age of 9 or 10. Not fair!

Fast forward another 4 years to today and he's 100% totally addicted/obsessed/in love with skiing. A double black diamond skiing phene. Needless to say I can't keep up.....nor do I have any desire to. Double black diamonds? No thanks.

Him and his cousin are even taking an Avalanche training course this winter. They're pretty hard core. Hopefully he slows down a little eventually and I'll be able to keep up again.........

My next car

Everyone who knows Joe knows his obsession with cars. He can tell you anything about any car, truck, SUV and van including what was included on specific years, etc. He even knows random facts (what year the headlights changed) on cars he could care less about. Anyway, we leased my Subaru Legacy and the lease is up October 2010. Joe's been researching cars since Day 1 of the lease and I think he's counting down the days until we get a new car. I'm pretty sure my next car will be the all-new 2010 Subaru Outback. I don't know how I feel about driving a wagon but it's functionality is really hard to beat. We went to Clary's last Sunday and sat in one and there's tons of room. The backseat is huge (car seats?) and I think there'd even be enough head room for my dad (that's hard to find)! I think 2010s look more like a mini SUV than a wagon. That's what I'll keep telling myself... :)

Whatever we end up getting, we'll definitely not lease. Worst. Idea. Ever. Although I know we'll probably be fine on mileage, I'm constantly worried about going over. I hate it! As of now we're about 1,000 miles over. Luckily it's only $.15 per mile if we go over 36,000 but still....it adds up!

Hope everyone has a great weekend. Stay dry!

Weekend recap

Last weekend was great! Friday night Joe and I went to Parker's for dinner. We got a $50 gift card from someone at our wedding so we figured we better use it before they go out of business. Parker's always seems to be busy but you just never know in this town! It was delicious. And even better because we didn't have to pay for it. :) I had a glass of Riesling, Joe had a beer, we had an appetizer and both had Halibut for dinner. All we had to pay for was the tip. Thanks, Steve and Shaye! :)

Saturday, Halloween, we just enjoyed being home. We made pumpkin sugar cookies and then went up to my parents later in the day. Kim and George came up so we had Papa Pete's and just hung out. As usual, they didn't have many trick-or-treaters. Can't wait until Sophie gets excited about Halloween! She was a lady bug this year....so adorable! Sunday Joe's mom and dad came down for the day. I wanted to have them down for dinner the weekend before but Joe's dad had to work. On the menu: Beef Stroganoff, baked acorn squash, garlic bread, apple crisp and homemade vanilla ice cream. I had so much fun making/baking everything! This weekend: Tacoma for the Warren Miller movie. We're going to go up tomorrow when I get off and then come back really late on Saturday night. Probably wont leave Tacoma until about 11 or so. We would stay but Joe has to work Sunday night at 8 so he wants to sleep at home and not have to wake up and drive.....don't blame him! Joe sleeping all day Sunday = Sister Sunday hopefully!

Hope everyone is having a good November so far!