Ten on Tuesday

1. Mr. Bubbles enjoys his sleep. 

2.  Barrett baked a cake for her friend's surprise birthday party. 

We didn't get to taste it here at home.

It WAS a pistachio cake with some kind of awesome frosting.

3. Can't seem to wrap my head around the fact that prom is just around the corner and it is time to start thinking about that prom dress. We've ordered two dresses online and unfortunately Barrett loves both of them.  She is having a difficult time making a decision.  

4. I moved my spice cabinet from above my cooktop to the lower cabinet beside it.  I bought some clear organizational bins and divided my spices up by category. 

As I was in the middle of doing this task, I turned around to get one of my bins and found this...

5. We drink a lot of hot tea in the Odom house. 

Mr. ManaTEA gets plenty of exercise. 

6. Barrett's high school soccer team plays indoor soccer in the winter to get ready for the spring season. Their games are on either Saturday or Monday at 10:00 PM! This is her getting ready to leave on Monday night. 

Do you know how hard it is to leave the house on an extremely cold Monday night to go play soccer? 

7. One of my favorite things to make for dinner in the winter is a chicken pie recipe that was in Brooke's Thanksgiving Cookbook from kindergarten.  

It seriously is the best recipe. 

I think it is the buttermilk that makes it so good.  

We've adapted it and experimented with the recipe by adding peas and carrots sometimes, by in the end the original  recipe never fails. 

8. I forgot to post this picture on Barrett's birthday post. 

I replaced her already picked out birthday outfit, that was hanging in her closet, with a new dress and  jewlery and this little note. 

I thought it was a great way to start her day.

She woke up to a brand new dress to wear to school on her birthday.  

9, Brittany (NICU nurse) is working tonight. She never texts us while she is at work, but tonight she did. 

Since she is a new nurse she is still experienceing new things. She was in the process of admitting  a baby that was delivered tonight at just 25 weeks gestation. I looked it up, this baby is the size of a dollar bill.  I am keeping Britt in my prayers tonight and especially keeping that baby and the parents in my prayers. 

10. I am sickened by the news tonight. 

Evilness.

I am ready for someone to stand up to it.

Why aren't we? 

MID HOLIDAY UPDATE

I guess I better get my Thanksgiving pictures out into the world before the holidays are over or at least before Christmas.

We decorated our two Christmas trees the weekend before Thanksgiving. We usually wait until the Sunday after Thanksgiving and do it as a family, but our weekends this year are full and my two older girls have work schedules to work around. 

We were into the holiday spirit early this year.

Wednesday night before Thanksgiving, some of Art's family came and had dinner with us. 

Lola really tied one on that night! 

On Thanksgiving Day we went to my father's house and had dinner with my family. 

(I sure do miss my mom.)

My little family officially celebrated Thanksgiving on Saturday. 

The biggest thing I have learned with my children growing up, working and no longer living at home is that the date on the calendar is just a number.

Their professions do not have typical nine to five hours...

nurses and flight attendants usually work on holidays.

We celebrate when we can.

That being said, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Both Brittany and Brooke had the weekend after Thanksgiving off.

Mr. E came with Brooke from DC and they spent the weekend here in Raleigh. 

(Mr. E is Brooke's boyfriend.)

Brittany's boyfriend, BF1, also was able to come and eat with us too. 

(He lives here in Raleigh.)

My aunt (mom's sister) also came. 

I have roasted a lot of turkeys, but this one was the largest and by far the bet one yet. 

After dinner we attempted to get the perfect Christmas card picture, but that ended up being a major FAIL!

Christmas cards will go out l.a.t.e this year and I am not so sure how they are going to turn out. 

bummer

The next day we took Mr. E to Homewood Nursery to look at all of the poinsettias.

They have greenhouses full of them.

It is the place to go to get into the Christmas spirit. 

The pups were exhausted after the two older girls left and Barrett went back to school on Monday.

Literally, I don't think they moved!

We struggled to get back into a routine.

Barrett has been so busy at school.  

She is exempt from all of her exams for the semester so she doesn't have to go in next week and 

today was her last day of school! 

Unfortunately, she was bombarded with tests all this week. 

Bubbles and I sat on her bathroom floor and called out AP European History terms while she took a shower. 

It is called multitasking.

What will I do with my evenings when she goes to college next year? 

Am I going to miss this? 

Art, my wonderful husband, packed up a few shirts and a pair of khakis and went to Las Vegas for five days for a vacation conference.

The day he got home, someone at work gave him a very large cooler of fresh oysters. 

With it just being the three of us here at home.....we roasted and ate oysters three nights in a row.  

They were delicious!

The house is all decorated and I have put a good dent in my wrapping. 

Bubbles always loves sleeping under the tree, and this year he plants himself under the two cat ornaments to nap.

Charlie... 

is just hanging around waiting on Santa.......

or another piece of turkey..... and will be happy with which ever comes first.

IPHONE DUMP

Well, look at me……blogging again!

Go me!

I ran out of storage space on my iPhone and so I need to spend some time cleaning it up 

and deleting some of the 2,500 photos.

I think I could spend a month just posting pictures of the food I 

have taken pictures of

and

then after that I could post tons of pictures of my dogs and cat.  

Here are some of my favorites,

in no particular order:

Charlie….he knows how to sleep….

Barrett, trying on her prom dress, trying to make her final decision. 

DON'T read her lips……or body language! 

(I guess I take too many pictures.)

"Mom, does this look okay on me?'

"No my child it does not."

"So you would not wear this if you were me?"

"You are my child, and I love you….but, NO! You are not wearing that out of this house!"

My cute beach nappin' buddies

We looked all over the beach house for Bubbles.

He knew we were getting ready to head home because we started taking things to our car.

He knew he was going to be stuck in his crate for three hours

and 

so 

he

hid.

Me and another mom did the soccer team lunch on Saint Patrick's Day

Hubs is only handy if…..

it means he is hooking up that mammoth TV he had to have at the beach….

but that is okay, it IS the beach! 

We'll take it! 

(50% off the sale price)

 Charlie and Lola expect a treat every time the pantry door is opened. 

I wish I knew more about french wine…..

I shared this wine on my 27th anniversary….

(May 2nd)

also this swan cream puff

with my handsome husband

at 

our favorite French restaurant. 

I woke up the next morning and took needed this glorious picture…..

on this glorious thing…

and burned this many calories….

while he sunbathed on the floor beside me. 

Charlie…… there he is again……

doing his thing!  

CHRISTMAS 2013

Well, now that the entire world has moved on from 

 the holidays, I guess I should post my Christmas pictures.
Hey, I am doing good,

at least it is still January!  

We had a great Christmas here at our house. 

It was different, but it was still a great time. 

Because #2 is a flight attendant, and a new one at that, her holidays were spent working

(or at least being on call). 

She had to be in DC on Christmas Eve and Christmas. 

That meant it was the first time ever that we were not together.

#2 did have Saturday and Sunday before Christmas off and so that was when we celebrated it.  

I thought it was going to be a little sad or not even feel like we had a Christmas,

 but actually it was great. 

Our family had a relaxing (mock) Christmas Eve and Christmas Day together just the five of us. 

Everyone agreed, it was one of our best Christmases because we got to stay home together for two days and stayed in pajamas most of the time!

So, here come the pictures of the entire holiday season….

Art wanted us (his family) to decorate his office building and so we spent an entire day there

one weekend getting it ready for the next Monday morning.  

Lots of hard work!

I love when our house is all dressed up!

Bubbles loves that there are a lot of boxes and containers around…

Barrett was exempt from exams and got a full three weeks break!

Her first day off, we jumped on a plane and headed to DC to see #2. 

(gotta love the airline employee  benefits)

It was a cold and windy day in DC

 but we still loved walking around and looking at all of the Christmas decorations.  

Once we got back home, Barrett worked on the gingerbread house ….

Brittany had a cookie exchange at our house.

The girls did a great job baking cookies, but I loved the North Carolina cookie the most. 

So cute!

A few days later, Barrett had her friends over for a cookie exchange. 

She baked these beautiful cookies….

Lola was right in the middle of it all and  wore her new Christmas bow!

A few days later, Barrett baked home made cinnamon rolls

for Art to take to his office for the company's Christmas breakfast. 

They were a hit!

There was a lot of baking happening in our kitchen!

The weekend before Christmas, Lola kept a look out for Brooke.

We were all so glad that she was coming home. 

We really miss not having her around.

Saturday was our Christmas Eve.

We did everything we normally do on Christmas Eve…had dinner…opened our Christmas pjs….

and watched a Christmas movie.

The girls still all sleep in the same bed on Christmas Eve. 

That tradition started many years ago when they all fit! 

Sunday morning was our Christmas morning.

We opened gifts…

and had our traditional sausage biscuit breakfast. 

Bubbles kept an eye on the shrimp for us!

That night we decided to do something special and went to the Angus Barn. 

I do not know how to even begin to describe this place to those who are not from this area and aren't familiar with its reputation. 

It was the most wonderful Christmas experience I have ever had.

There was wassail, hot chocolate, apples, banjos, jingle bells, Mrs. Santa Clause, reindeer, little elves skipping around, burning fireplaces, gigantic Christmas trees and even some ugly elves that photo bombed pictures….

Some of the little elves were handing out warm ginger bread men as we left.

On the real Christmas Eve we made homemade pizza…

and my grandma's chocolate pound cake to take to my dad's house on Christmas Day.

Brooke was working/flying…

and sent us this picture of Jamaica.

If you can't be home with your family for Christmas, Jamaica will do!