Giving Thanks All Weekend

When we built this new house I told WGO that I wanted to be able to serve a crowd.  This Thanksgiving weekend  we got to see how the "open concept" floor plan works for entertaining.
On Thursday we served turkey and all the fixings to 17 of our family.  The girl's helped me do a lot of the prep work on Wednesday including cooking and deboning two turkeys.  Granted, I would have been to bed a lot earlier if we hadn't taken the afternoon to go shopping!  But everything was ready to serve at the designated time.  The two ovens really came in handy.  As I looked over at the buffet line as we were beginning to serve, I noticed steam rising from everything that was supposed to be hot.  Success!

Several years ago my mother passed the baton for hosting Thanksgiving dinner to the next generation.  I remember thinking how much I loved this holiday....until I had to be responsible for cooking the meal.  Let's be honest, ladies (and any men who are the chefs in their house) this isn't the easiest meal to put on the table.  Couldn't our forefathers have served a big pot of chili that first Thanksgiving day?
But this year I actually enjoyed it.  I don't know if it was because of the new kitchen or just that I have a few years of cooking this meal under my belt and have learned a few tricks

My brother and his wife from Portland, Oregan traveled to Kansas for the holiday.  They spent Thursday in Hays with Deborah's folks.  So on Friday, we gathered again to celebrate family with a nice meal.  My brothers came from Kansas City and Manhattan to visit.  Instead of serving leftovers we had ham, cheesey potatoes, and funeral dinner green beans.  My brother Ray made his awesome spinach salad and others contributed desserts.  Twenty-three people in all went through the buffet line around our kitchen island.  It was a very enjoyable evening.

Saturday morning, I went in to my mom and dad's to visit with my brothers and did some Christmas shopping.  In the afternoon WGO and I went out to Burns, KS to enjoy a bowl of chili with his sister.  It was a beautiful evening for a drive to the country.

I am not nearly as tired today as I thought I would be.  I spent most of the afternoon, (between loads of laundry), making Christmas stockings for the newest members of our family, Grady and Hadley.  I've made my Christmas "to do" list and I am actually getting a little excited.  Maybe the Christmas spirit will really take hold of me this year.

I am blessed.  God is good.

My brother, Kent and his family helped with the clean up!

The Beisel's enjoying the beautiful weather.

Too much turkey?

Hadley Ann and her daddy.

Grandma with her youngest grandchild, Tori.

Uncle John

MoMo, TiTi and Raphie

There was room for everyone.

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My mom and dad, my brothers and me!

Chili at Tabitha's

Frank

Ruby

Sunset on the edge of the Flint Hills

Zootacular

It is hard to believe that it is the middle of November already and we have been in the house two months.   It really started feeling like home when we got some pictures on the walls and unboxed other decorative items for the shelves.  I have found that the routine of life takes over regardless of where you live.  The secret is to train your car to return to the right address.

I did take a break from routine last week to go to the zoo with the "rainbow tribe".  Kayla and Hadley Ann joined us on the outing to make it even more special.  It was a beautiful fall day.  Cool enough so that the animals were moving but not so cold that the humans were uncomfortable.   Each of the kids got to choose one exhibit to visit.  Monica chose the penguins.  Raph wanted to see a crocodile so we went to the reptile house.  Trinity's choice was the jungle building.  There we saw the bats moving up and down a rope and a large blue bird flew down in our path and startled the heck out of me!  Kayla had never been to the tiger or gorilla exhibit so we headed there after lunch.  The tigers were moving!  We even saw one saunter into the water for some playtime.  We saw a Gorilla run across the field.  On our way to the exit we saw the meerkats, the hippos out of the water, the rhinos and giraffes.

As you can tell I really like to go to the zoo.   All the animals with their unique characteristics remind me of the awesomeness of my Creator.  What a wonderful imagination our God has!

WGO and I have been doing some furniture shopping.  We bought a love seat and chair for the den.  We also purchased  a new chair for the basement replacing the 27 year old "brown chair". We ordered a chair for our bedroom and updated the bar stools for the kitchen island.  I really enjoyed our Friday afternoon tour of the furniture stores and am happy with all of our purchases.  Our budget is now depleted so the rest of the furnishings will have to wait until another time.

It is time to think about Thanksgiving.  We will be hosting the meal for some of our children, my mom and dad and a couple of my siblings.  Then an Friday, more of my family will be in town and we will gather again at our home.  So I have lots of cooking ahead of me this week!  Megan, Grady and Laura are coming down Tuesday evening--the help will be appreciated.

I am Blessed!  God is good!

Hadley's first trip to the zoo.

Monica watching the Tiger

Trinity

Hadley Ann

Monica

My Zoo Pals

Ray in the Jungle

The Den

October Blessings

Wow, it has been two weeks since my last blog.  Either nothing worth writing about is happening in my life or I haven't had time to blog.  You be the judge.

October is always a little more hectic at work because of the Mission Trip pumpkin patch.  I'm in charge of the daytime workers and taking care of the daily deposits.  I worked several afternoons at the patch including three the week of Halloween.  There are several us who are really glad that fundraiser is over.

WGO and I have a tradition of eating mexican fare on Friday nights.  We call it Fiesta Friday!  You might wonder why this tradition got started.  It is because mexican food goes great with Coronas and Coronas go great with Friday nights.   Come to find out, WGO has some mad guacamole making skills! WGO invited a  co-worker down for Fiesta Friday.  Josh was a great sounding board for WGO throughout the building project.  I think Josh enjoyed seeing the finished project and we definitely enjoyed spending the evening with him.

As mentioned in the last blog we were making costumes for Hadley and Grady.  On October 27th we attended the K of C Halloween party at Church, Hadley as Pepples and Grady as Bam Bam.  It brought   back many memories of taking my children to the annual party.  It was definitely one of our favorite family traditions.  The cousins did not place in the costume contest.  But they are number one in my book.

Sunday was a special day.  It was the day of Miss Hadley's baptism. Surrounded by the people who love her most in this world, she was baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Sacraments are really special times when God enters into our lives for the purpose of showering us with his Grace.  They are times we when do something out of the ordinary that helps us remember what is really important:  God, Faith, Family.  Baby Hadley was a trooper through the entire ceremony.  Knowing how she can carry on when she is not happy,  I think both Mr. Lackey and Kayla both breathed a sigh of relief when we said our last, "Amen."

Following the baptism, we all gathered at our home for a celebratory meal. Joining my 16 for the meal were my mom and dad,  my sister Nancy, my sister Judy and her husband Eric.  Mr. Lackey's parents, Alice and Elmer came from Seneca.  And WGO's sister, Tabitha,  came from Burns. Fr. Mike also joined us.  We had a simple meal of taco soup and chicken tortilla soup with the customary garnishes.  Hadley's grandma Alice provided the desserts of pumpkin pie and/or german chocolate cake.  Monica and Trinity played the role of waitress, serving each guest their dessert.  After dinner Fr. Mike said prayers of blessing on our new home, sprinkling it with Holy Water.  It is our hope that all who enter our home receive God's abundant blessings.

I am Blessed! God is Good!

WGO and Josh, our first non-family guest

Grady as Bam Bam

Bam Bam and Pebbles in the costume parade.

Hadley, as Pebbles

Hadley being baptized.  (Trinity took the picture!)

Life at a Hectic Pace

I really haven't fallen off the face of the earth.  Life has just got in the way of blogging.  It is amazing how the words busy and stressed and overwhelmed slip into my vocabulary.   I image someday my life will go at a slower pace but for now I will just enjoy the fun and excitement of it all (and try to take a nap on Sunday afternoons.)

The Wednesday after our trip we hosted the MHS Cross Country team dinner.  The main course was chicken enchiladas and chips and salsa.  It was a good first run at entertaining in the new house. (No pun intended.)  The CC team dinner on Wednesday was followed by a CC meet on Thursday.  Kayla, Hadley, Myle, Monica, Trinity, and Raph accompanied me to the field somewhere in Butler county to watch AJ run his last meet of the year.

On the 12th,  Kayla, Hadley, and I headed to Topeka.  Kayla wanted to introduce her first born to her friends in Topeka.  I wanted to see Grady.  On Saturday Megan and Laura hosted a "Sip and See" for Miss Hadley.  I believe this is the last of a year and a half of wedding and baby showers.  It has been an amazing two years.  While in Topeka we had a little photo shoot with the two babies.

The next week was relatively uneventful.  I actually worked 4 days in a row.  It was great being able to spend a Friday with my mom and dad.  I had been off my regular routine for 4 weeks.  Kayla and baby H. came in and with the help of Aunt Nancy we made Halloween costumes for Hadley and Grady.  You don't have to sew perfectly to make a costume--or so I was told.  I think I will probably never progress beyond costume making in my sewing ability.

Friday night the blind guy (or should we call him the window treatment salesman) came to give us a quote on window coverings for 19 of our windows.  Just when I thought we had made all the decisions!   If we get our order in soon we may even have blinds by Thanksgiving.

Saturday Gregg burned the brush pile and I went grocery shopping, made chili for a crowd, and went back to mom's for costume making part 2.  In the evening we all (by all, I mean all 16 of us) gathered at Dan and Myle's for a chili feed followed by a family picture photo shoot.  After getting over the realization that we had a miscommunication on timing and Ty and Laura were going to miss watching part of the KSU/WV game--we all had a good time.


Sunday, part of the crew gathered at the new homestead for hamburgers.  Megan made a yummy gluten free pumpkin dump cake for dessert!  We have yet to have the first family dinner at the house!  That will be next week!

Oh yea, we also closed on the loan for the house!
I am blessed.  God is good

The buffet line.

Part of the CC team.

AJ running

Hadley and AJ

Uncle AJ

Hadley meeting Aunt Renee

Welcome Hadley!

Smile Grady!

Smile Hadley!

The burn.

Me taking a picture of Trinity taking a picture of Megan.
I'm not sure what Raph is doing?

Ty and Laura keeping us informed of the KSU score.
Go CATS!

Aunt Myle entertaining Grady

Raph and his Dad goofing around.

A Trip to DC

Where did I leave you last?  The moving from the rental was complete and we were settling in our new home.  Right?

Before I even figured out where all the light switches were, WGO and I flew to Washington DC.  He had a conference to attend and I went along for the ride.  We flew out on Saturday (a 6:30 flight from Wichita International) and his meetings were scheduled for Sunday through Tuesday.  Since neither of us had ever been to the capitol we extended the trip to do a little sight seeing.  We stayed in the historic Willard International Hotel on Pennsylvania Ave just a stone's through from the White House.

Another couple from Wichita attended the conference and we had a great time seeing the sites with them.  We bought a 48 hour pass on a "hop on, hop off" tour bus.  Although our hotel was very close to most of the attractions, the bus saved us a lot of steps.

Highlights of the trip for me included the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier at Arlington Cemetery,  seeing the Constitution at the National Archives,   touring the Holocaust Museum, and dining at the Library of Congress.  We happened to be walking by the White House as the president was leaving so we got to watch his helicopter, Marine One, land and take off.  Sunday afternoon we also just happened to be walking through Lafayette Park as a Pro-Life/Religious Freedom Rally was getting underway.  I stayed and listened to several speakers while WGO went to the opening session of the conference.  We spent Monday and Tuesday afternoon visiting the offices of our legislators.  Since Congress was not in session we only got to visit with staff members but it was interesting to get a glimpse of how it all works.

I was amazed at the size and number of the Federal Buildings.  It gave me a different perspective at the size of the federal beauracracy  and how many people it must employ.   No wonder our debt is out of control.

On Saturday, WGO's sister and her boyfriend came down from Philly.  We ate at the Indian Museum and viewed the exhibit that her company had made.  Then we went to Alexandria and walked the quaint downtown area and enjoyed a beer together.  We had dinner with WGO's aunt and several of his cousins.  It was a fun and memorable last evening of our trip.

Our flight home left at 6:00 a.m. We left the hotel at 4:00 and arrived in Mulvane before noon.  I won't bore you with all the details or all the pictures of our trip.  But here is a sampling.

Marine One landing on South White House lawn.

Dave and WGO outside Mr. Pompeo's office.

View of Capitol at Night

The Library of Congress

The Washington Monument

The Lincoln Memorial

The Changing of the Guard at Arlington

Van Gogh self portrait at Art Museum

A Visit with Smokey Bear

The National Cathedral

At the Natural History museum

Melinda, Alan and WGO at Indian Museum

Aunt Donna and cousins (and Alan)



I am blessed!  God is good!