Thanksgiving Weekend

This has been a great Thanksgiving holiday weekend :)
Happy, sad, funny, memorable, new, unforgettable, desirable, and last but not least loving -- all emotion filled events!

My 2nd ever by myself dinner turned out great. Just enough food for leftovers to send but not that UGH full feeling after the meal. Marcus yelled out "This is the best Thanksgiving ever!"...that made it for me right there :) Cooking for my family is easy but lots of different carbs...dressing for myself, mac-n-cheese for my brother, mashed potatoes for mom, and parmesan noodles for Marcus. Everyone's favorites. Then we had a relaxing afternoon of football - yes I watched the Cowboys (made me nauseated but I made it thru) lol. We also watched the Texas vs. A&M and Go Longhorns!!! Throw in a vicious game of Uno Spin of which my brother won and some hot gingerbread for dessert. All made for a perfect Thanksgiving day!! Surrounded by great company and lots of laughs and smiles. The long day ended perfectly making me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Friday started out with some shopping but not crazy black Friday shopping at 3am...I was still snoozing til 730am. Headed down nostalgia lane in my old neighborhood -- good memories! Then we headed to Firewheel since my mom had not been there before. Got home to relax a little then back out with some friends to see New Moon -- Team Edward all the way!!!! Not really into the wet dog smell...lol

The weekend has been more on the relaxing side...picked up around the house, laundry, lots of gift wrapping, cleaned out the DVR recordings and Marcus had a playdate at CEC. Gotta get ready to get back in the normal weekly routine tomorrow :(

Friday started out with some shopping

Thoughts of Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year will be unlike any precedented Thanksgiving in my family. We will be one member short at the table this year. Our beloved Nana will be watching from above. It will be very weird as I step into the kitchen this year...she's not there to either help or cook it all herself. No more of her telling us to leave the mess til later so we can play cards after dinner. No more stuffing ourselves full while she barely took a few bites cuz she was full from cooking it all.

Old habits are hard to break. I finally deleted her phone number from my house phone but can not yet delete it out of my cell. I have stopped myself 3 times so far in picking up things for her for Christmas. I always seem to find the exact point in the Christmas candy aisle with the creme drops that she loved. Marcus and I made ornaments with her picture in them to hang on the tree. She will be a part of our Christmas forever now and hanging on our tree shining bright. My only regret is letting her win when she said no pictures of her. It was so hard to get pictures of her and now that is all we have or shall I say what little we have.

This Thanksgiving (more than any other) will be a time to remember our blessings and truely thankful moments in life. She will forever be with us and we will continue to go on one day at a time.

On another sad note, I will be attempting my 2nd turkey dinner for Thanksgiving in my adulthood. It has been 12 years since I have made a Thanksgiving dinner...should be interesting. The turkey is already clean of feathers, right???? lol

So Brave!

Marcus has been such a brave boy this past week. Some new and possibly scary experiences for both mom and him. First we headed to Children's Medical Center to have a head CT done. We are on a hunt to track down the causes of his headaches lately. We practiced laying really still like he would have to do. I was so hoping he would cooperate so he wouldn't have to be sedated. I kept reassuring him there was no pain or nothing touching him. He told me he was scared but he would be brave...and so brave he was. He climbed up on the table and put his arms down to his side and told the lady to start moving the table. Perfect images 1st time around and we were done! Nothing found requiring emergency treatment...just waiting on final results from the dr.

Secondly, (part of the same headache hunt) I made his first eye exam appointment. I needed to go anyways so we got back to back appointments. Again I tried to explain what they would ask him to do. I forgot about the puff of air test...I hate that one myself so I was expecting him to protest a little after the 1st eye but not a thing...he changed eyes and took it like a man!
He did great and passed with flying colors. No vision problems of any kind and the doctor told me she was very proud of how well he took and followed directions. She said she had better cooperation and a more thorough exam from him at the age of 4 then from some patients at the age of 10. Way to go!!!

Now if I were truely a mean mom I would have scheduled a dental appointment too this week....nah...we'll save that one for later!

Date with Marcus

This past Sunday was a date day with the best little man I know! I took Marcus to Nokia Theater to see the show Curious George Live. It was great and Marcus was full of smiles the entire show. Who doesn't love that little monkey? We didn't really know what to expect but it turned out great. Theme song (and dance) along with all the favorite characters. Marcus was a little disappointed since George didn't make a big mess as he usually does. He did stow away on a plane to Rome so I would consider that BIG TROUBLE...lol

After the show we went to The Magic Time Machine for a late lunch early dinner. A first experience and again it was a winner. Marcus loved all the different pictures and decorations. We got there at the perfect time and our server was Captain Jack Sparrow from The Pirates of the Carribean. Marcus loved him and kept asking him where the treasure were. He even noticed that the bottom of our table made an X with the crossbars. Pirate Jack (as Marcus called him) proceeded to tell him to get a shovel and Marcus took that queue and crawled under the table.

The food was great and Marcus loved his blue bubbly volcano drink!

Tis the Season...

6 weeks to go...tis the season to be jolly and merry!!!
I absolutely love this time of the year...decorations, tree trimming, trees, lights, cards, picture taking opporunities, gift wrapping, shopping, baking, giving, smiles, cheers, Santa and the list goes on...
I've got a good start on it all...tree is up and decorated, decorations throughout the house, cards in the making, holiday crafts, list of items to bake, holiday parties, and gifts to get wrapped and under the tree. I'm so glad that Marcus loves this time of the year. He gets a kick out of just walking thru the stores looking at the decorations. He can't wait to see Santa and make his list. He's been reviewing the Toys R Us Big Toy Book to prepare for his list making. We have lots of plans for fun holiday activities this year and they are officially under way! I'm so excited...

Day at the Zoo

Marcus wanted to go visit his animal friends at the FW Zoo so we had the open day and spent it there. The animals were very active today...probably the best live animal action we have yet to see. The gorillas were walking around and eating fruits. We watched two gibbons (monkeys) playing a great fast game of tag and putting on quite a show. Orangutans were kissing. Most of the animals were eating left over pumpkins. We finally made our way to the tigers and lions...Marcus favorite part. The white tiger was right up to the glass window pacing back and forth. It's awesome to see those animals so up close but I wouldn't want to meet them in the jungle. We stood around with the tigers and lions for a good 30 minutes. Marcus can stay there all day if I would let him. We were able to see the King of the Jungle make 2 rounds of ROARing...just to let everyone know that he is the boss. We even managed to see him mark his territory (if you catch my drift) and Marcus thought that was funny. After we had seen most of the animals, we got some lunch then hung around in Texas Wild. Marcus was promoted today to riding the carousel by himself fir the first time while I waited outside and snapped some pics. It may seem little but just yet another step to his ever growing independence. "Mommy, I can do it by myself." :( Ending the day with a train ride back to the front of the zoo and one last look at the flamingos and gorillas/monkeys. It was a great day all around...weather, animals, and lots of happy smiles from my little man!!!

Here's the link to pictures.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jenbissen2003/DayAtTheZoo?authkey=Gv1sRgCPe456Sosof0Tg&feat=directlink

Whirlwind

This has been a whirlwind of a week, that is for sure. Again, I apologize for the distance...but for the most part we have joined the world again. I just needed some alone time following my Nana's passing Monday evening. A little communication here and there was really all I could handle. Both Monday and Tuesday evenings invovled some nausea and not so fun bouts of vomit. Probably just a form of stress relief I'm sure. Marcus had his first cry for our beloved Nana and woke from sleep the other night. He has started to ask a few more questions and I even heard him playing in his room and sending the bad guys to heaven so they couldn't be bad anymore. The angels would help them be good. It's hard for me to know how much he understands and I know children are far more resilent than we are but still I wish I could know what he was truely thinking.
Marcus enjoyed being back at school and dance this week...his normal activities as compared to the off week we had last week. I am better at talking about her and what has happened now. I believe a few days to process my intial grief, denial and anger. I am fine talking about her life and our memories of her. The nights were lonely, laying in the bed trying to fall asleep. Emptiness and sadness followed by thoughts of all the future events she would be missing out on. I am truely grateful she got to experience her first and probably her one and only great-grandchild as I know being a "Nana" was what she was meant to be. I am sorry there was no wedding for her to be part of. I know that if that day were to come in the future she would be looking down and wishing me only the best. I also know she will be looking out for Marcus as he grows up. We will always have our memories and her love as we move forward with our lives.