2005-11-25 - 3:20 p.m.

Enjoyed a nice relaxing Thanksgiving at home. We decided to skip travel to VA as Westley was tired after extensive business travel the past month. He really enjoys relaxing at home with the girls and me most of all. It was relaxing. I have to work tonight and picked up a shift tommorrow too in the hope that extra help over this weekend makes my boss more inclined to not be upset when I request off for Christmas! I should do that tonight! I am a bit disappointed to miss the Baptism of my sister in law's new baby, however it is more important for us to spend Christmas with them so we are waiting until then. We hope to spend two or three weeks in VA then. I am also working on planning a Buffalo visit to celebrate Katerina's birthday and holidays with the kids there. My one sister in law just called to ask if she has pierced ears and I told her she was interested in that so I think it would be a great gift to get her earrings. Katerina recently asked me if I THOUGHT it was OK for her to get her ears pierced when she turned 12! I told her as long as HER FATHER said so as he needs to approve, but that I thought if she wanted to and was committed to taking care of them that I thought she was mature enough for that! She was excited by that. Perhaps I could take her to get them pierced as her gift. Westley went out shopping early this AM to catch a sale and came home with a TV which is a nice improvement. For the $200 I thought it was a nice idea. But only after he hooked it up, then called me upstairs to our room saying "Can you help me?" and I went and saw the OLD TV (which is a small 13 inch) elevated up in the corner of our bedroom did I REAllY GET EXCITED by the purchase! Then I really got it-- I said "OH! NOW I see the wisdom... I forgot about that!" The TV holding thing was there in the corner of the room when we moved in and I completely forgot about it! I think this will indeed improve our quality of life! There isn't yet adeqate seating for even Westely and I to COMFORTABLE watch anything together in the living room. The futon the girls like in the family room is my old one from 10 years ago and gives us adults back touble when we FORGET that fact and do watch a movie while sittin on it. The living room furniture consists of this my desk and chair, and a big poofy college dorm like thing called a FOOF chair which for some reason I STILL DON'T UNDERSTAND Westely thinks is comfortable and bought back when we lived in Pittsford. I think its real appeal was that the girls love to sit on it with him and it was a more affordable option than any other at the time for the family room that was decorated at that time with the equally dorm like futon. It is pretty funny to be in this big beautiful house with only our crappy disposable furniture! Westely also picked up curtains from LOWES for our dining room. So a little at a time we spend money on things here and there as we can afford to in an effort to make this big empty house decorated and feel lived in! Until that goal (which will be achieved right when we are ready to sell it no doubt!), the girls actually LOVE The big empty room with wonderful hard wood floors as they DANCE FREELY on them daily! Things on my list that I hope to be able to afford for myself in a few months: A dance class and BIG POOFY THROW PILLOWS which I hope to find on sale after the holidays. There are a bunch of deep red and green that TARGET got in stock for the holidays. Somewhow I think buying pillows SOLELY for the holidays just might be going overboard even for the most fanatical holiday decorators! SO I am eying those and hope they hit the CLEARANCE bins as they match the family room sheet that I have covering the otherwise hideous futon. I discovered the other night when SADIE was sick and I was up with her as she was puking all night, that with the futon fully open and a bunch of pillows against the wall (AS Oppossed to sitting with the thing in the upright position) that it was actually COMFORTABLE sitting there for an extended period of time and I did not have back trouble! Sadie has some stomach problem. Likely something she either ate or was exposed to when we went toy shopping and she handled all the toys! We took the girls out and had fun discovering what they are interested in. That was fascinating! The FAKE KITCHEN toy that WESTELY and I thought would be great for them held little attention. Sadie liked instruments and a basketball hoop like the one she used to use a t a gym. Katie was entralled by an ABBICCAS, and Raitlin had to be DRAGGED AWAY IN PROTEST from the DORA doll whose hair grew every time Raitlin pressed the button on her ! IT was really fun to take them to the store! Toys R US had a sale on boots for kids but I didn't get any as I wasn't happy with the quality. I was surprised after looking around that TARGET may indeed have the best boots for kids! They have a line which include RATINGS for HOW COLD the temperature can get and the boots will remain functionally warm. I am sure I could find that at EMS, or REI and other sporting goods stores where I would pay more. But after looking at other stores I realized the ones at TARGET that include this rating system are the best deal. So I have to take the girls shopping there. They have boots rated for 30 degrees BELOW zero, and since this ain't VA and is Central NY where there is serious lake effect weather wind chills get that cold here REGULARLY. This has been a most unusual WARM FALL! THe first REAL snow fell on THANKSGIVING! Thankfully Sadie felt better and no one else got sick (likely as I had them all upstairs in their bedroom playing all day and quarantined her to the family room and didn't let them in it on WED!) So on Thanksgiving DAY the girls had a lovely time playing outside in the snow! It sure beat making "SNOW ANGELS" on the floor of the NY DMV office which is what they did on TUESDAY after our wait there as I registered my car here! The teller who helped me said that was first!

�

�