Thanksgiving Morning

Well here I am on Thanksgiving morning, sitting on my couch in front of a cozy fire waiting for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade to start.
I've always loved holiday mornings, particularly Thanksgiving and Christmas. When we were younger we would always celebrate with the Sharp side, rotating houses each year, and those are some of my favorite Thanksgiving memories. Aunt Betty's cream cheese bars. Aunt Donna's famous banana bread. Uncle Johnny's white hots (I don't know exactly what they were....some sort of sausage sandwich....but they were GOOD!). All of us kids wrestling with dad and Uncle Dean and Uncle Steve. (For the record, we kicked their butts ;) Definitely some good memories. And now we're all grown up. And soon Mike and I will have our own little one running around on Thanksgiving morning, and we'll get to start our own traditions. I hope they're just as fun and exciting as my childhood memories!
Ok, so following in Ange's footsteps, here is a list of things I am grateful for this Thanksgiving (In no particular order):

-my Savior and my God, Jesus Christ
-my incredible husband who takes such great care of me, especially in these early weeks of pregnancy
-my church and their commitment to preach the Gospel
-our new house!
-a baby on the way
-both of our amazing families (Sharps and Smiths!)
-our Community Group
-Friends
-Cheesecake Factory :)
-a Fireplace (i love this one)
-stable jobs
-two working vehicles
-Fruit
-camera
-the YMCA (we need this place to stay in shape ;)
-History (it's fascinating!)
-J Crew coats :)
-bagels (which comprise most of my diet these days)
-new laptop
-Christmas trees
-parents. I'm convinced we have some of the best around!
-water
-snow!
-Change of seasons
-the beach
-doctors and medicine
-health
-good magazines and books
-Music and art
-a country that allows us to worship freely

I think what I was most aware of as I made this list is how many of these things are not necessities. God has been so good to bless us with not only our needs, but also wants. What a gracious God we serve!!! I hope to celebrate Thanksgiving every day, not just once a year. Gratitude certainly is a powerful weapon against anxiety!
"Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. but seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." - Matthew 6:31-33

SURPRISE!

Soooooo.....lately (in spite of recent blog posts) most of my food intake has consisted of these:


And I've been drinking this stuff like medicine:


Because, a few weeks ago when I found out I had swine flu:


We also found out something else:

We are having a baby :) SURPRISE!
However, because I had swine flu when we told our families, I have yet to receive many congratulatory hugs from many beloved family members. Being pregnant didn't change the opinion that I deserved to be quarantined ;)
Rosie did have the best one-liner though. When we told my family, Rosie was relatively quiet until she felt compelled to voice an epiphany she had. She said, "Huh, so I guess this is the first time you've ever really been surprised, Sarah." That kid knows me and my snooping tendencies all too well!
Now here's another funny part to the story. We found out on a Tuesday that I was pregnant. That Sunday before was Sean's birthday and, keeping with traditional Smith gift-giving techniques, we informed Sean his gift was still forthcoming. He joked "is it a baby niece/nephew?!"
We told him yeah right - go jump in a lake.
So, when we told the Smiths a few days later, Sean's first response was "you guys DID get me a baby for my birthday!"
Sorry to burst your bubble, Sean, but our plans for a birthday gift probably looked something like a book. But since this clearly counts as far as you're concerned, we'll just say we got you a niece/nephew for your birthday and call it even ;)

Simple, Perfect Enchiladas

These beauties....


Came from this beauty....

It's a wonderful cookbook. Buy it ASAP :)

But I must warn you: they are rather messy to assemble.

At least....I got messy....i wonder if Pioneer Woman gets messy in the process as well. She didn't say anything about it in her instructions.
Anywho, this is what they look like if you like fun, smothered with sour cream:

And this is what they look like if you don't like to have fun, and don't like sour cream:

I'll leave you to figure out who is fun and who is not so fun ;)

I do Exist

Sorry....I know it's been a while....there've been several events going on :)
Today I had off and I cleaned my house. I can now breathe. I can also now see the floor in my bedroom, which is a major plus.
Anyways, tonight I made Pioneer Woman's Chicken Parmigiana. It was sooooooooo good. Please make it sometime soon.


The side was this amazing Garlic Parmesan Monkey Bread. It was to die for. Mike and I ate half of it. And half of pretty big = still pretty big. Which means we will be going to the gym tomorrow. You have got to try it - it's super easy and super tasty. The melted parmesan makes it super cheesy too! (Wow...that's a lot of supers. Sorry.)



And a side note: this is what my kitchen looked when I was done. Clean, right??? That's because I tried the novel of idea of "cleaning as you go." I liked it. But because I am slow to learn, I will probably not adopt this as a regular habit until I'm 100% desperate and banging my head up against the wall every day for 5 weeks straight. I wish I wasn't like that. Anways, I thought it was an accomplishment so I included this picture as proof that I can cook and be clean. They are not mutually exclusive.


Coming up:
Saturday - Mich and Alex's wedding!!!! Woohoo!!!!! Can't wait!
December 7 - this is an important date for many reasons ;) but among them will be going to Pioneer Woman's booksigning with Alex and Michelle!!! Yes, that's right, the boys are coming with us :) For my birthday Mich gave me PW's cookbook and included a date to the book signing and dinner after. I'm so excited!!!!

Dust Bunnies

Currently, the dust bunnies in my house bear a strong resemblance to this:


And they're staring at me just like that.
Now see, it's both freeing and unnerving to not be able to clean when one is sick. Freeing, because I don't feel guilty. Unnerving because, well, for some reason I can't relax if the room I'm in isn't clean/in order.

I can hear the Swiffer calling my name......

oinkety oink oink

So....it's true. I have H1N1. Lovely, I know. So this is what I've been up to this week:
Drinking lots of tea with honey (Michael picked out the honey bear at the store since he had to do the grocery shopping this week :)

Trying to figure out which one of these will end up working....

And wiping down any and every surface with this:

I'm terrified to think how many germs are lurking in my house right now. Mike went on Tamiflu as a precaution....so we're hoping he won't catch it even though we haven't had a chance to disinfect yet.

And, because I am bored, and not much else exciting has happened this week, here is a picture of the groundhog that lives under our deck.

Mike is not so fond of him. But I think he needs a name anyways. Let me know if you think of one.....he can't just be called Groundhog.