OK Bloggers...

Some of you are getting a little "behind" on your blogs and I'm getting quite anxious about it! You know who you are! Now Get Busy!! LOL!! I'm dying for new pics and an update. I know you are all crazy busy this time of year...but please throw me a bone!!!!!!!! :)

Hugs~ Nan

Thanksgiving 2008

Poor Tom! (He didn't stand a chance.) You have fulfilled your turkey destiny and we very much appreciate it!! This is my whopper of a bird...22 pounds. Enough to feed a small Army! As you can see, he almost didn't fit in the pan!

Tony and his mom, Shirley. The "spread" before the spread.

The Newell Family

Finishing up dinner...Tony was in agony and not in this pic after eating too much! LOL! Anyway, starting with Jake and going clockwise...that is Mandy (Bob's youngest), Bev (Bob's Wife), Jennifer (Bob's oldest), Shirley (Mom/Grandma), and Bob (Tony's older brother). We missed Amy (the "middle" child) this year as she is still away at college. It was weird to have her gone! We'll see her at Christmas, tho. Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving...I for one (and Tony) had a stomach ache from all the rich food. It was SO good, tho, and I finally achieved my goal of the perfect mashed potatoes. I had bought a "food mill" earlier in the year...that is my secret. There wasn't a lump to be found in those taters!! I also rocked the turkey...I'm getting GOOD! And my stuffing was YUM...course, there's a pound of bacon and butter in it. No wonder we were sick!! LOL!! Sorry...these are all the pics I took b/c I got so busy and then I was SO full and I just wasn't on my game. I promise to do better at Christmas time. Enjoy the rest of the weekend. OH!! I almost forgot! Tony got up at 5am to check out the "Black Friday" sales. He came home with an early Christmas present for me (us). It's a Shiny...Red...15 inch Gateway Notebook (Laptop)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was hoping for diamonds but I will happily settle for this. Now that I'm Blogging, Facebooking, and Emailing and what-have-you...I will always be connected wherever I go. We are quite excited! LOL!! Better Go....Happy Long Weekend to Y'all!!!!!!! Love and Hugs~ Nan XOXO

Happy Thanksgiving!

From our house to yours...Happy Thanksgiving! This year I am so thankful for my family and friends whom I love so much. I am also thankful for the roof over our head, the food on our table, and the many things that God has blessed us with. We are a very fortunate family and I am reminded once again how blessed we really are. It really hit home with my trip to POW just how alone you can feel when you don't have family or friends to turn to. My first night there I was dropped off in an unfamiliar apartment in a town I'd never been in. I don't get put in that situation EVER so it was quite disconcerting. It was dark and cold out...and I knew almost noone with the exception of a few co-workers but they were "doing their thing" as I settled in for the night. It was a very odd feeling and I must say I did not enjoy it very much. I thought I would love the time alone...but it was a whole different ball game once I was there. It made me think of all the people out there who have no-one. I felt a deep sadness for them and how the holidays were coming up and, unlike me, they had nobody to go home to. My eyes get misty now just thinking about it! So, needless to say, I have asked EVERYONE I can think of since my return if they have somewhere to go tomorrow for dinner. Rest assured, I extended an invitation regardless of their answer. I plan on going down to meet our new neighbor tonight and invite him if he has no plans. :) It's the "proper" thing to do, wouldn't you say? I can't stand the thought of ANYONE feeling alone and empty and forgotten on a holiday that celebrates family and friends and the many blessings we enjoy in this life. I am also thankful that because I know God...I am never truly alone. I can only hope that others...those without families and friends...can say the same. My prayers will be for them this holiday season.

So, with that, I will say Happy Thanksgiving and may you all be surrounded by those that you love this holiday season! I will be thinking of each and every one of you and thanking God for you as well!

More about my trip later and pictures to follow! Blessings to you!! Nan

SIGH*

Well today is the day. I am taking the ferry to POW and OF COURSE...it (almost) couldn't be nastier out. I am DREADING this trip now! Guess I'll go buy some Dramamine and hope for the best. :( If the boat goes down...I'll see you all on the other side. Pray for me!!! LOL!!!

Bye for now~ Nan

POW or Bust

Just a little overview of where I'm heading tomorrow for those that aren't familiar with this area. Craig is on Prince of Wales Island and located west of us. You can see Ketchikan on the far right of the map above. As you can see on the map there are many small communities on the island and I have friends throughout. Looking at the map now and considering it's already been snowing over there, I will not get to see my friends who I believe are in Thorne Bay which looks to be clear on the other side of the island. Darn! It's probably a hefty drive...sorrry Benson's!Maybe another time. :(

I am very much looking forward to this trip as I've never been to this big island...I plan to read and listen to Singing Tree music over and back on the ferry. It's a 3 hour journey. As I mentioned, they've already had snow and I anticipate it being quite lovely over there.

Anyway, I will spend today getting the house clean and figuring out what I still need for Thanksgiving dinner next week. We are taking Jacob and his little friend to the movie "Bolt" at 4pm and I will continue to get ready for this trip when we get home.

Stay tuned for pics from POW!!! Love, Nan

Who Is Reading This Blog? Raise Your Hand!

Hi gang! TGIF!!!!!! Hey...I set up something on my page that tells me exactly who is following this blog. If YOU are one of them...please post it on the left-hand side of this blog under "Followers". I would really like to know who all out there is reading my stuff. I would also encourage anyone out there who isn't already on MySpace to sign up with Facebook. I have SO many friends on there...I had NO idea so many people were doing it. It's been a lot of fun!

Anyway, that's all I have for now. I'm tired from staying up too late every night this week to get into too much today. Have a great weekend!!

Oh..One thing. I am going to POW on Sunday afternoon. That should be a HOOT. :)

Hugs~ Nan

Fresh Snow

This morning as I drove to work, I hummed to myself "Oh what a beautiful morning, Oh what a wonderful day..." You may recognize this little diddy from the musical "Oklahoma". Maybe not...LOL!! I've always remembered that tune after being in that play in highschool. It has a great ring to it. Anyway...it truly was glorious this morning and all day for that matter as the sun decided to grace us with it's presence. (My son was quite perplexed as to why I was pulling over to take photos when he was going to be late for school!!) Not to mention, there was some fresh S-N-O-W on the mountains. "Snow" is a four-lettered word to some around here...but I love it. And when the sun comes out and shines down upon it...it is just magical! Oh...and thanks Mr. Floatplane for flying into my picture! It sums up winter in Ketchikan perfectly. :) I think Jake *was* late this morning...but for some reason I just didn't care today. How horrible of a mother am *I*???? LOL!! Oh well...we do crazy things here when the sun comes out...which as you all know isn't often enough!! *SIGH*

After taking a few shots of "High Mountain" we continued on to town and a big "boat" caught my eye. It was indeed a USCG (Coast Guard) cutter coming down the channel. This is not a site I see often. It looked so majestic with the snow-capped mountain in the background. I could not resist getting a photo. I love boats anyway, so this is a great addition to my already huge collection of boat pictures. :)

I guess it's supposed to stay nice thru tomorrow. Two days in a row of sunshine...I can't be held accountable for what I may do!!!!!! :) I can only hope to get out of the office if only for a few minutes and soak in a few warm rays. We'll see. I'm sure I can find *some* kind of "errand" that needs running!

I found out today I may be going to POW next week for work-related training. I am quite excited about this as I have never been over to that "other island". Let's just hope we don't get 20 foot seas as I take the ferry over. I'm too chicken to fly...so the slow boat it will be. I have friends over there but probably won't have a lot of time to connect with anyone over there. I'll have to make some calls. As of right now, I'm only going to be there 2 nights with a full day of training in-between before coming right back on the morning ferry. Good thing, tho, as I will need to finish preparing for turkey day!!

Speaking of which...Jake has requested "all things pumpkin" for the big day. Pumpkin bread, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin cookies...he went all "Forest Gump" on me except it wasn't "shrimp" he was referring to...just pumpkin. :) What are y'all making this year? Any good recipes you can share? Blog it! Or Facebook it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well...I'd better get showered up and ready for bed. Hope you are all having a blessed week! Love and Hugs Always~ Nanette XOX

This Picture Cracks Me Up!!

Do you think this kid had cleans shorts on after this? LOL!!!

Bookworm

OK...so when you see the word "Bookworm" you think of someone who loves to bury themselves in a book so the title of this post is somewhat deceiving. Jake *does* like to read for the most part but in these pics he was being "forced" to do his reading "homework" for school. Oh well...he sure looks cute, huh? Can you believe how big he's getting? He's almost 10! I get all misty just thinking about my baby being 10 years old! How can that be? Surely it was just the other day I gave birth, right? Holy cow!!!

Anyway, today is Monday...UGH! It's back to the rain after a beautiful weekend. We got two days in a row of "nice" weather. Now, mind you, "nice" weather in Ketchikan is ANY day that it is not raining...it could be 10 below and as long as it's not raining...it's a NICE day!! However, we did see the sun this weekend and it was a blessing. Unfortunately, we didn't get out in it much. Jake has had a bad cough for over a week and so we kept him inside with the exception of taking him to "town" with us for grocery shopping and the like. And I don't know exactly what I did but I hurt my arm/shoulder some time on Saturday and by the afternoon I was in a lot of pain and could hardly move my arm. It hurt to even try to wipe down the kitchen table! So...I lubed it up with Tiger Balm (that stuff rocks!!) and Tony massaged it some (he's such a dear!!) and I hoped for the best. Sunday, woke up and it was worse. I almost couldn't drive myself to church! I had taken 800mg of Motrin and I kept trying to move it as much as I could. When I got home I put the heating pad on it and didn't do anything. It felt so good!! So anyway, I managed to get to Singing Tree practice but was back on the couch with the heating pad on my shoulder as soon as I got home. It seemed to really help and by last night I was doing a lot better. I was even able to pick up the kitchen a bit and fold some laundry. I lubed my arm back up with the Tiger Balm, too, so that helped. I love that stuff btw. If any of you out there have any aches or pains...pick some up at your local drugstore!!

Not much else is going on. I'm counting the days until Thanksgiving. I plan on eating myself STUPID, y'all!! Some of you may not know this but I have been "dieting" since the first of October. I decided to try NutriSystem when a friend of mine lost a lot of weight with it. So far I've lost 15 pounds! I am beyond ecstatic!! All my pants are starting to fall off of me! :) My goal is to be down 20 pounds by the company Christmas party which is December 6th. I know I can do it if I stay diligent. There are times when it's really hard to, tho. Friday night I pigged out at the Ladies Holiday gathering...but I paid the price!! I'm not used to eating a lot of food all at once any longer...especially anything that would be considered high in carbs. I was SO SICK the rest of the night!! LOL!! The food was just too good, tho, I couldn't resist (if any of you have ever had Chrissie McClennan's corn chowder...you would know what I mean). Anyway, I'm back on track and trying to get to the gym at least 3 days a week. I will also do the treadmill on the off days that I'm not at the gym. Soooo...the cat's out of the bag! I'm hoping that the next time some of you see me you won't even recognize me! LOL!! Wish me luck. It really IS a hard journey at times...especially when you love food!! And it will get even harder when I stop the NutriSystem and go back to eating "regular" food....Yikes!!

OK...that's enough for today. Hope you all have a great week. I'll be thinking about you! Nan

P.S. I tried the "Wii Fit" this weekend at my friend's house (Rachael's next door) and it is SO fun...we are considering getting this for Christmas...the jury is still out tho. :)

Facebook

OK...So recently I had two invites to Facebook from my cousin and a friend that used to live here. I didn't *really* want to do anything other than this blog and I hadn't heard of many people using FB (I figured MySpace was the more popular of the two). I was hesitant to say the least. However, when I got the invite from my friend, Jenn, I reconsidered b/c I hadn't seen ANY pictures from them in ages and I really wanted to see how her girls were growing up. Jenn and Evan were our neighbors for a short time before they left for Lake Charles, LA. I miss them a lot! Their daughter, Ella, was quite young (2?) when they left and they've since had another baby sooooo...well you see where this is going!!! Anyway, I signed up and can now be seen on Facebook. I remembered to check my hotmail account this morning (the email I designated for this Facebook account) and LO AND BEHOLD suddenly there are all these people I know using this site!!! I was stunned to find a bunch of old friends on there...some from church, some that have moved away, and some old highschool buddies as well. I was quite overjoyed!! LOL!! I'm glad I did it now! No worries, tho, this blog will remain my priority for those that aren't on FB. :) I feel so "techy" now, tho!! I am still learning how to use FB and getting to know my way around on there...it's not as easy as this blog but I'm getting there. :) If anyone out there is using Facebook and you'd like to be "my friend"...email me an invite or whatever at greeneyes99901@hotmail.com The more the merrier! :)

Anyway, it's Friday again and I can't believe how quickly the last two weeks have gone. I have been very busy at work and been trying to get to the gym whenever I can drag my butt up there. Once I'm there it's great....it's the getting there that's a struggle. Last night I just decided to go home and use the treadmill that Margie loaned us. It kicked my bootie!!! LOL!!! Who knew??? Ha! But back to what I was saying....

Jake's teacher/parent conference went very well and he's doing great in school. All As and Bs for him, which makes us both very happy. :) I didn't expect anything less. His teacher said he is really getting into reading and she's always catching him reading in class when he's not supposed to be. We'll have to have a talk with him about that. I wasn't too upset about it, tho. It makes us both very happy that he likes to read!! :) Tony and I are both avid readers and we were hoping Jake would follow suit.

The weather here has been very up and down. It's mostly been cold and rainy but we had a break yesterday with blue sky and sunshine. Today it's back to being "miserable". I'm just thankful I don't work outside!! I'm also thankful I don't live somewhere like North Dakota that recently got 2 feet of snow. I love snow but not 2 feet at a time!!!! No thanks!! Whenever the weather gets me down...I just remember that someone *somewhere* has it worse then ME!! Although...a mall to shop at would be NICE! :) Speaking of shopping...we have a new store opening here. It's taking the place of "Silver Basin" that just closed recently. We were all in a tizzy about SB closing and we are SO HAPPY that someone is stepping up to offer somewhere besides WalMart to shop at. Tomorrow is the Holiday Open House so...I'm sure it will be packed. They haven't opened yet to my knowledge but they should be tomorrow. Those of you that used to live here are probably the only ones that can appreciate what I am talking about. If you remember...we lost our Hallmark store over a year ago and it was quite devastating when Silver Basin decided to close it's doors.

At any rate...this weekend will be busy, once again, with housework, exercising if possible, and staying indoors. Tonight is a Ladies "Holiday" Gathering at the church that I am attending with a friend. I am excited to learn a new craft! Tomorrow night, my MIL is coming over for dinner and will share all the juicy details about her trip to Italy she just returned from. I can't wait to hear all about it!! :) Sunday will be church, probably grocery shopping, and then singing tree practice. Before I know it...Monday will be here again and I will be at work hoping the week goes by quickly.

Wow! It's almost Thanksgiving!! Can you believe it? I ordered my "fresh" turkey a while ago so I am set. I am DONE with trying to figure out when to take the dang bird out of the freezer for thawing. I can't tell you how many times I have stressed about cooking a turkey that's frozen in the middle!! Not fun!!!

Well...I'd better get back to work. Hope everyone has a great weekend! More later. Nanette :)

Brrrrrr!!!

The temperature has really dropped! Snow is right around the corner. It is completely dark when I get home from work now. Jake has a horrendous cold and cough...it must be November! Teacher/Parent conferences are this week so Jake has Thursday and Friday off. Tony is taking the rest of this week off since we are closed tomorrow for Veteran's day and we need someone to stay with Jake anyway. Shirley is due back on Wednesday from her trip to Italy...can't wait to hear all about it! My mom leaves Wednesday to go see my brother Chris and his new baby, Abbie, and of course my SIL, Katie. I'm SO jealous!! I'm gearing up mentally for Thanksgiving. It has become tradition that I make Thanksgiving dinner and my SIL, Bev, makes Christmas dinner. I've started my Christmas shopping and am almost finished...how envious are YOU??? LOL!!

That's all I got for now. Not much is happening. Hope all is well in your neck of the woods! Hugs~ Nan

New Baby Pics

OK...I don't have any new Halloween pics b/c Jake was with friends Friday night and when I stopped to say "hi" on my way home he wasn't in his costume yet. Oh well...he was cute, as usual, I'm sure!! I'm not too worried about it. Soooo...I'll go ahead and post a pic of Abbie, my new niece, in the Halloween onesie I sent her. She's so dang cute I can hardly stand it!! Anyway, not much new to report. It was a mellow weekend. I decided to be in the "Singing Christmas Tree" at church this year so I had practice for that on Sunday. Other than that, it was "business as usual" at the Newell house. It is getting really dark here now since we turned the clocks back! This will take some getting used to!


Have a good week and don't forget to vote!! Love Y'all! Nan XOX