The Turkey-O-Lantern or Turkin

Some of you might remember the Hide the Turkey contest that Little Man's school does every year. This year he disguised the turkey as a pumpkin complete with orange appearance and triangle eyes and a stem as a hat. Chris even wrote Boo, Happy Halloween on the sign it was holding.

It was a turkey pretending to be a jack-o-lantern or a turkey-o-lantern, or a turkey that looked like a pumpkin, a turkin. What? It's funny!

Sadly, he didn't win any prize. He did get a pencil for participating. A winning ribbon would have been better. Just sayin'...as a mom, ya know?

Our original disguise was the Hulk and we were going to color him green and put ripped fabric on his legs to resemble torn pants. But then Chris changed his mind and good thing too, because he told me there were several other turkeys pretending to be the Incredible Hulk.  

Anyway, we already have a game plan for next year's turkey but I won't mention it here. You never know when other turkey fugitive enablers might be lurking about. Actually I'm sworn to secrecy and we only speak about it in hushed tones. I think next year's contest will be taken to a whole new level of competitiveness.

My car tried to kill me, and oh yeah, I'm on Christmas shopping overload

So I let another week go by without any new posts. But, I promise there's a funny story here to make you laugh at me. And also, forgive me, hopefully. You're welcome and thank you.

Thanksgiving has come and gone and except for an incident in which the turkey juice spilled out into the oven, resulting in a lot of smoke when we tried to bake the dinner rolls, it all went well. This isn't the funny story and it also wasn't my fault. No really, my brother gets that honor but since he so fabulously cleaned the oven it's all good.

This year I joined the masses and went out shopping on Black Friday. However, I didn't stand on line for hours or wake up at some ungodly hour. Instead I went late afternoon and had a surprisingly pleasant experience. Until my car tried to kill me. Here's what happened:

I was driving to one of the stores on my route. It was a gorgeous night out so I had on my light-weight long length jean jacket. At a red light I took my cell phone out of my back pocket because lately if I sit on it, the damn thing unceremoniously shuts off on me and I walk around thinking my phone is on and I can receive calls but when I go to check the time or make a call I see that it's actually off. Annoying.

When I got to the store I did what all normal people do. Parked the car, opened the door, got out, and shut the door. Only instead of walking away to the store, I was slammed against my car. No, I do not drive Christine. Apparently, my long jacket had gotten caught in the seat belt when I removed my cell phone. So in essence, my cell phone and jacket conspired with my car to kill me. Thanks a lot creepers! I shared my story with Bill who just shook his head and muttered "Only you." My mom on the other hand laughed. Out loud. Thanks for the sympathy, guys.

Anyway, I have been closely watching the Black Friday, Pre-Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales online. We're talking 7 open windows at a time and lots of price comparing. There's good deals to be had, my friends. Good deals. And eyestrain, but we won't go into that lest I be called an amateur. I'm trying real hard to stay ahead of the curve this year so I'm not out shopping like a crazy person on   Christmas Eve. I actually have a game plan. And a list! With notes and comments and pretty colors! I'm on Christmas shopping overload!!

My arm had a baby

I haven't posted anything new here in a week. Sorry, really I am. But the pinched nerve in my neck became aggravated and it hurt like a mutha to use my right arm.

Bill asked me to describe the pain and I said it was kinda like childbirth but in my right arm, so basically it felt like my arm was having a baby. Only it didn't because that would make me an alien. Or a circus freak.

Although my arm is feeling better and not throbbing, it's still a dull, achy nuisance. I can't exactly keep it quiet because I'm right arm-dominant. So when I sit I have pillows propped up on my right side and I look like a lopsided hunchback on a break.

Bill cracked my back a few times which helped and made me grunt and yelp so I'm sure the neighbors think I'm either moving furniture or contorting myself in some odd yoga pose.

More fun posts to come including this year's entry into the Hide the Turkey contest.

Walk this way

Cue Aerosmith...


Today I got up at stupid o'clock (okay maybe not, it was just 7:00 am) and dressed warmly (in Vegas? Yes, I know!) and joined thousands of other people in the Annual JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes.

As anyone who knows me and reads my blog knows, my Little Man is a type 1 diabetic. So today, he and I walked side by side along with his grandfather to support further research, funding and hopefully soon, a cure. Chris named our team, Team Lightning.

This was our first walk and it was a lot of fun. Of course I knew it would be since I spent many volunteer hours putting certain aspects of it together. Signs along the route? That was me. Carnival game prizes? Me. Goodie bags at the last checkpoint? Me, again. Oh and if anyone didn't get a bag of cheese fries in their goodie bag...sorry. But know that they were quite delicious as I sampled in the office. 

The walk itself was 5k or 3.1 miles and by the end my calves were feeling every bit of it. Okay, so maybe I'm a little out of shape. At least we didn't cut through any short cuts, so I should be given some credit. Plus I have a little cold so there's that.

Seriously though, the walk was easy. Diabetes is hard, but strides are being taken to make it less so.

My favorite holiday

So Daylight Saving Time ended this past weekend here in the U.S. This means that it now gets dark earlier at night because we set our clocks back an hour.

This is sorta depressing because now when I look outside at 5:30 pm, the sun is setting and it's night. You would think I'd prefer this since I'm a night owl who stays up way too late but actually, I prefer the longer summer days. Weird, I know.

So the night when DST ended, Bill said to me, "Hey, it's your favorite holiday! You get an extra hour of sleep tonight!"

Thanks, smart ass.

Conquering fears

For the longest time, Christopher has wanted to do rock wall climbing. He would approach it, and I would almost buy the ticket or pay the money before he chickened out. Yesterday he conquered his fears and climbed a rock wall. Not once, but twice! We were very proud.

Reaching the top of the Easy Climb

The people who ran this event at the Las Vegas Balloon Festival & Carnival (which benefits the LVMPD Search & Rescue - w00t!) were very cool and let him try out the Medium Climb right after he not-so-gracefully rappelled down from the easy part.

I want to do this, too, however, I'm not so fearless. And not nearly as agile. And would probably need a change of underwear after.