Thanksgiving

Zeus is very thankful for his Thanksgiving dinner: canned food instead of the usual dry! :)

Getting ready to enjoy our Thanksgiving feast!

We had a wonderful time with Jeff's parents during Thanksgiving. His mom & I got up at 5:00 a.m. to do some "Black Friday" shopping. We went to ten different stores, bought some good bargains, and had a great time together. That brings me to another thing I am thankful for: an awesome mother-in-law!! Jeff jokes around and says that I have two moms and he has two mother-in-laws. :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

I trust all of you will have a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving! God has done and given us so many things for which we should be thankful. As I stated in a previous blog, my students and I have been writing down something different every day (since mid-October) for which we are thankful. It has been a chance for us to be specific, and helps us realize exactly how much we have. All of us could easily write down or think of something different everyday of the year and still not be done listing all of our "thankful things." So..... I want all my family and friends that read this blog to know that I am very thankful for you!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Christmas decor modifications

Well, Jeff has done it again. He helped me fix my outside Christmas lights, then came inside and did this to our tree/angel.

A close up of our Christmas angel with her machine gun. Kerri says it's our guardian angel. :)

Christmas decorations

Jeff's tradition of mangling my manger scene: The kneeling wiseman is holding a purse, the wiseman behind him is wearing a bike helmet, & the 3rd the wiseman has scuba goggles over his face; Joseph has a rifle over his shoulder with a blue cowboy hat on his head, Mary has an apron on, and the shephard in the back has a bridal veil on. The camel on the left is wearing a visor and the donkey on the right is carrying oxygen tanks. :)

Well it's that time of year again: getting out the Christmas decorations! My in-laws are coming for Thanksgiving, so I want to get my decorating out of the way this week, so I can enjoy their visit (As a side note, I look forward to Jeff's parents coming, because they are wonderful people and we always enjoy our time with them).

I sweet talked Jeff into putting up our outside lights on Thursday, since it was in the upper 50s. He doesn't like to put them up when it is actually "Christmas" weather. When he came home Friday, the dog decided that the extension cord looked like an awesome chew toy, so he pulled the extension cord from the lights and chewed off the plug-in end. Then, Kerri reminded us that we didn't use the extension cords last year because we thought Zeus would chew them up. Oh, the memory of teenagers :) ! Anyways, we'll have to re-rig (a Marea word) them to my outside lights.

Jeff says that I like my traditions and things done/decorated a certain way (which I do), but he does as well. The picture above of my manger scene is a "tradition" of Jeff's, as well as mangling tree branches as we put our tree together. Thank goodness that he has not done one of his traditions for the last couple of years: hiding all of my Christmas CDs and tapes!!

Anyways, as Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming quickly upon us, I hope all of you enjoy your Christmas decorating and any memories you make with your family!

P.S. To my brother: I remember our tradition of decorating at 12:00 & 1 second (a.m.) on December 1st, since dad said we couldn't decorate for Christmas until December 1st. It was always lots of fun. :)

Happy Birthday

Jeff and his girls - Christmas 2007 (sorry it's a bit blurry)

Yesterday was my hubby's birthday! He is a wonderful husband & father and takes good care of us. He works hard and does beyond what he needs to, he ALWAYS plans for our future, and he loves spending time with us-his family. There have been many times that I just go up and kiss him and thank him for being who he is (especially for the previously stated facts) whenever I hear how some husbands and fathers treat or take care of their families. I trust we'll have many more years together, for I wouldn't want to face life without him.

I LOVE YOU, JEFF! Marea

Cookware

I am in the process of looking for some new pots & pans. I have given up on Tefelon (nonstick)coated pans, since the last set (Phillip Richard) I got started warping and loosing its coating within 6mths. I have narrowed down my choices to a stainless steel with copper band set or an anodized set. I would like to know what my friends and family use and I would like to hear your opinions. For those who don't have a blogger account you can email me at: jeffmareapouzar@bright.net

Thanks for your help!!! :)

Piatt Castle

Piatt Castle: Mac-O-Chee

Sharree near one of the many beautiful fireplaces. The picture doesn't show the stenciled borders very well, but our guide said it took the painter 3 yrs. to complete all of the stenciling on the walls and ceilings.

Believe it or not we went on another field trip Thursday to Piatt Castle: Mac-o-Chee. The woodwork, stenciled borders, fireplaces, etc. were beautiful. We were supposed to go into the "haunted cellar" but the furnace broke and I assume they were working down there, so to my students' disappointment, we didn't get to go in the basement. Needless to say, we experienced how cold it could be in a castle without any heat, save a fireplace, and we didn't get to experience that either. It sure made you appreciate furnaces that supply heat for the cool and cold weather.