Holy Stromboli!

The following contains information that may cause people to be wide-eyed, open-mouthed and produce a slight "hughh!" out of your mouth while thinking "Really? Seriously?" (humor me)

What in the heck? Thanksgiving is next week? What?! November's half over? What??!! I'm still stuck on Halloween. I think I might have been in a comatose state for the past 2 weeks, as they're all a blur. But no complaints! The faster Thanksgiving comes, the sooner we get to see all our family! YAY! But anyhew, it's blogging time today!
David got a vacation at the first of November. He got to go to Idaho! I was so jealous! He went on business during the week and got to spend the weekend with all our familia. We love our Idaho! But I was soooo glad when he got back. That was the longest I've ever been away from him, and I'll admit it. I was a wanny. I missed him like crazy! I wanted to throw a temper tantrum at the airlines for making him get home an hour late. (wide-eyed yet?)

Before Dave left for ID, we participated in some sneaky late night pumpkin hunting. All's I hafta say is you do what ya gotta do to get pumpkin seeds in our family! The hunt was successful as we came home with 6 trophy fatties and after Turkey Day, they'll be gutted to make the most delicious treat! If you're up for an addicting snack, try this: (you'll love it)

Boil 2 cups washed pumpkin seeds for a while in salt water. Drain seeds. Melt 3 Tbsp butter/margarine & mix with 1 tsp salt & 1 tsp Worcestershire. Completely coat the pumpkin seeds with this mixture and spread out on cookie sheet. Cook @ 300-350 until the seeds turn brown and crispy. Stir the seeds around every 10 mins. until they're done.

Finally, the purpose of my "holy stromboli!" We're having a ward Thanksgiving dinner this weekend, and it's a faker! I know I'm overreacting about this, but pretty close to everything we'll be eating is either going to be fake, store bought, or out of a can. I'm so sad! :( When I think of Thanksgiving dinners, I think of yummy, fluffy, real mashed taters, homemade stuffing, yummy veggies and homemade rolls, etc. Even with past ward Turkey dinners, they'd send around signups and people would VoLuNtEeR to bring all these things from home. Yeah, the good stuff. Welp, to make things easier here in Amarillo, we do everything fake. There's even a big budget for it! (I'm almost crying just typing this) I'm all for easy, but when it comes to Thanksgiving, I guess my family spoiled me cuz all's I know is homemade deliciousness. For those of you who've not tasted the sweetness of a homemade Thanksgiving dinner, your taste buds are being sooo shafted. (I was so befuddled by this that I even offered to make massive batches of mashed spuds and homemade rolls. Desperate? Yes. Did it work? No.) So my wide eyes and open mouth will stay with me until after the dinner is over Friday night, after I've painstakingly choked down the fakers. So anyhow HOLY STROMBOLI! I hope everyone out there has a happy Thanksgiving, and I hope you all get to partake at least partly, of a yummy home cooked meal. Parker's, I can't wait to come for Thanksgiving! :)

Courtnie Update

Just for a quick update on Courtnie, as per request:
After running some tests, they figured out that Courtnie has a syndrome where her body thinks she has a blood clot or a tumor in her head, but she doesn't really. So the good news is that she doesn't really have a blood clot, like they thought. But the bad news that her body still reacts like she has one, so she still has the symptoms of having one. She's got fluid on her brain/spinal cord which I believe is causing the pressure behind her eyes, thus the double vision, headache, and hemorrhaging. It has some nasty side effects that go with it, but they started her on some new meds to start treating it, which she'll always hafta be on. :( She's pretty miserable still, but she's having a spinal tap done tomorrow to relieve the pressure to help her headache and they're hoping to go home tomorrow. It's a bitter/sweet thing, as she'll most likely hafta deal with this the rest of her life. But thank goodness for good Dr's and for wonderful family and friends like all of you who've kept her and Bryce in your prayers. What a freak thing, but I guess that goes to show that you just never know what you're going to be faced with tomorrow. Thank goodness Court's such a strong girl...I don't know if I could handle all she's been going through for the past 2 weeks and will continue to deal with! I love that girl!!

We Need Your Prayers

Just a quick note to ask for a little help on Courtnie's behalf!!! For those of you who know my sister-in-law Courtnie Dayton, (Bryce's wife) I'm asking that you pretty please remember her in your prayers this week. She's been sick for almost 2 weeks now, and they found a blood clot in her head yesterday. They rushed her to Salt Lake where she's currently having tests done and being treated at LDS hospital (she had hemorrhaging behind her eyes). So please keep her and Bryce in your prayers! THANKS BUNCHES!!!