Thanksgiving Challenge

So, this year I took the challenge.  Every day from the first of November until Thanksgiving, I will write down one thing that I am thankful for each day.  So here is my list:

*Tonight I am thankful for bedtime

*Today I am thankful that the sun is shining!!

*Today I am thankful that it's payday!!!

*Today I am thankful for my friends. Each day they make me smile or laugh. And some of them are like the sister I never had!

*Today I am thankful for fallen leaves...as they entertained and kept Brad busy today!

*Today I am thankful for the sense of smell...smell of fallen leaves, chili cooking and a pumpkin spice Scentsy candle!!!

*Today I am thankful for my 4 legged kiddo. She is the only one who is excited to see me when I get home and loves me unconditionally!!

*Today I thankful for teachers, especially those who have taught my kiddo. Without them, he would not be where he is today!

*Today I am thankful for the 70 degree weather that allowed me to have the windows open in the house and air it out!!

*Today I am thankful for the belly laughs. Nothing is better than hearing that sound from a kid!

*Today I am thankful for all the Veteran's. They have or are fighting for our freedom and allowing us to live in the land of the free. Thank you so very much for your bravery.

*Today I am thankful for my parents, as they gave us some much needed peace and quiet last night and for fixing my toilet!!!

*Today I am thankful for all things Disney...especially Phineas and Ferb as they entertained us with their live show today!!

*Today I am thankful that Brad had a pretty good report card. The kid seems to favor Science, as this is where he got his best grades. Here's hoping he becomes someone someday!

*Today I am thankful for books. They not only educate but they can also relax you and make you forget about your own troubles for a while.

*Today I am thankful for Diet Pepsi...this is my daily caffeine fix!! Seeing as I don't like coffee, I gotta get my fix some way or another!

*Today I an thankful for my kiddo. Even though there are moments when he drives me crazy, there are moments when he is loving and super cute!

*Today I am thankful for my husband. He was a real trooper today...letting me get out of the house this morning to spend some time with some wonderful friends and then letting me go to the movies tonight with Jeanne!

*Today I am thankful for baking with Brad. We made chocolate chip cookies and pumpkin muffins. His next request was Grandma Betty's molasses cookies. Maybe later this week!

*Today I am thankful for the wonderful dinner that my mother made for all of us today!

Metro Ride

If you ask Brad what his favorite part of his vacation to see Uncle Brent was...he will say either riding the underground train (Metro) or the apartment that we rented in Brent's building!  At first I don't think he got the concept of the Metro, but it didn't take him long.  By the end of our ride, he was repeating the words that were said at every stop.  In Brad's words it said, Pinka Pinka (that would the ding noise) Stand back, doors closing!!  As for the apartment we rented, I am still not sure what his fascination was about it.  Maybe because I let him use the key to open the door, or because he got to ride the elevator up to Brent's apartment.  In any case, Brad keeps asking when are we going back to Uncle Brent's?

National Zoo

Day Two of our mini vacation took us to the National Zoo in Washington, DC.  By the time we got there, Brad was already complaining that his feet hurt!!  It was a very warm day, 82 degrees for the middle of October is pretty warm!  I was most excited to see the Panda.  My brother's fiance said that she has been to the zoo almost 20 times and has never seen the Panda until this day!  He was just sitting out sunning himself for a bit.  My brother just wanted to see the chimpanzees.  He was like a kid trying to get there as fast as he could!  For some reason, not sure why, but I thought that the National Zoo would have a giraffe...but I was sadly mistaken.  The only exotic animal that I saw that we don't have here at the Syracuse Zoo was the panda! OK...we don't have chimps or anacondas either!

Inner Harbor Fun

After our outdoor lunch in Baltimore, Brad was dieing to go on the paddle boats in the Inner Harbor.  So, my mother and I took Brad for a ride.  OK, let me rephrase that, my mother and Brad took me for a ride!  After we rented the boat, Brad decided that he wanted to sit up front and paddle.  It was more like he wanted to steer the thing!  After only a few minutes, my mother was tired!  I felt bad, but once you were in your seat, there was no moving to trade places!  So, we just floated in the harbor.  It was a nice day to sit there and enjoy the beautiful fall day and the scenery!  And the lesson learned from this, do not let a 6 year old paddle a boat!!

National Aquarium, Baltimore

Columbus Day weekend we took a trip to the Washington, DC area to visit my brother who lives down there.  Our first day there, he met us at the National Aquarium in Baltimore.  I am not sure if Brad had ants in his pants from the 5 plus hour drive down there, but he wanted to blast through the aquarium!  I think he was more interested in whether or not he could feed the sharks instead of the workers that were doing it!  The area that the sharks were swimming in was like a wide open pool.  It was neat to see them like that!  We also got to see Nemo and Dorie there too!  In the picture above, Brad was just sitting along the edge of a display and these two fish were right there.  They looked like they were kissing!  After some fun at the Aquarium, we went to a very late lunch.  We sat outside along the harbor and the day was beautiful.

Cackleberry Pumpkin Farm

Last month we found out that Cackleberry Pumpkin Farm had re-opened.  I remember going here every year with my parents and my brothers when I was younger.  So, one Sunday afternoon I loaded up the van with Brad, my parents, my aunt and her granddaughter and my brother's girlfriend and off we went!  Let's just say that the adventure was getting to the place!  My mother asked for directions at an antique shop on the way instead of listening to the directions from my father!  After a little zig and zag, we finally got there.  It wasn't as big as I remembered, but this was only the first year back after many, many years of being closed.  The two things that I remembered the most were still there.  Mrs. Pumpkin, the talking pumpkin and the totem poles of carved pumpkins.  Brad and Taylor got a real kick out of talking to Mrs. Pumpkin.  They asked her if she was going Trick or Treating this year and Mrs. Pumpkin replied, "Pumpkins don't Trick or Treat"!!  Pop bought a couple of pumpkins for the kids and then we all bought a snack.  The kids had popcorn (of course) and the adults had pumpkin pie or donuts.  It was a nice afternoon that brought back a lot of childhood memories for me!  I am glad that I got to share it with my kiddo!

Bad Blogger

Well, I guess that I have fallen off the blog wagon!  It has been a while since I have updated this!  Life just sometimes gets in the way.  So I will update this with all the goings on from the past month and half!  Sorry, if you are still reading and I haven't been keeping up-to-date.  I will promise to do my best from now on!!