Thanksgiving Week.....

As I expected, it is quieter than a tomb at work this morning. Granted, I come in a lot earlier than most people, (6:30 am) but when I arrive at to work, there are usually at least 4 or 5 of my co-workers here already, running around like loons.

Apparently they're all on vacation this week. I know that one person is in Florida, another person is heading off to Mexico, and my 'teammate' (the woman who moved here with me from the Boston office) is visiting her family in Michigan for the week. That means I'm in for a VERY quiet week. Won't that be nice??

Unfortunately, Jim and I didn't come away with any cash from the Hungry Persons Dinner (I know, don't get me started on that name...) but we did get a nice consolation prize....a GIANT Tootsie Roll!!! Remember that from Bozo the Clown??? I was SO jealous of those kids who got a giant Tootsie Roll as the consolation prize...

ANYWAY.....we got a very nice basket (NICE BASKET!) filled with all sorts of goodies; a bottle of wine, two wine glasses, a bunch of yummy cookies, a few different types of holiday napkins and some other cute 'holiday themed' stuff. Since we weren't destined to win the cash, I was happy to have received the gift basket as opposed to a scratch ticket. Lots of other 'non-winners' received scratch tickets as their consolation prizes and as far as I know, not one of them won anything significant. All in all, it was a fun event and nice to catch up with Jim's family and some fellow 'townies'.

Saturday morning Jim and I got up, had some breakfast (COFFEE!!!) and painted the ceiling in the soon-to-be-nursery. Soon after we were finished, Jim's dad came over and showed us how to 'fix' the walls. Essentially, all we had to do was to slather this 'joint compound' stuff all over the walls in an attempt to make them smooth. It was kind of like spreading frosting on a cake....but a lot more difficult. Once I got used to it, it was easier, but it is NOT easy work. Of course, I tend to be rather 'particular' about projects like that and I had to realize that it wasn't going to be perfect. Once I accepted that fact, it was a lot easier to get through and between the 'repaired' walls and the newly painted ceiling, the room came out looking REALLY great. There is a strong possibility that we're going to be able to paint the walls after all....which would be AWESOME. The next step is for us to sand down the walls and then throw on a coat of primer so that we can see if painting is an options. Jim's dad is coming over tonight to bring us some special 'sanding device' that he has which will make that job a lot easier. I would really love to avoid wallpapering, but if painting turns out to be impossible, we'll have to wall paper.

We shall see!

Once we were done working on the room, we went out to the wallpaper/paint store to try and get some ideas. As it stands, I think we're going to try go with a light yellow for the walls (don't worry - it won't be too bright) and then we're going to do the trim in brighter colors (blue and red). We're planning on installing shelves all around the room, so that may be where the colors are used if the brightly colored trim turns out to be 'too much'. There's a closed up (and painted over) fireplace and mantel in the room that we have to take into consideration as well. That might be a fun place to paint a mural or something creative like that.

Just a thought...

Saturday night we had our friend Charles over for dinner and then we watched a (terrible) movie. The movie was called 'The Houseboy' - no it was not an 'adult film', although it was pretty close - and it was bad. I'm not even going to go into WHY it was bad, just take my word for it. You'd be better off going out for a long walk that sitting through this movie.

In spite of the bad movie, we had a nice night....Jim made a delicious new recipe (whole wheat linguine with green beans, ricotta, and lemon - thanks Giada!) which may or may not show up some day on 'Jim's Whims' - only time will tell....

On Sunday morning, we got up and went to church...yes we did!!! We went to the congregational church (the one where Charles and Jerry's twins were baptized) and it was a great service. As it turned out, Sunday happened to be the day they were celebrating the 10th anniversary of their pastor, so after the service, there was a not-so-brief 'ceremony' celebrating that fact. It was very nice service and great tribute to her...but it went on just a bit too long for my liking.

After all was said and done, the congregation gathered in the church hall for a luncheon, but Jim and I took off and headed home. We spent most of the day getting stuff done around the house, relaxing, and catching up on our recorded shows (the new DVR is working out JUST fine, thank you very much!).

Jim's brother and his family showed up for a quick visit - which was nice - after they left, Jim and I had dinner and planted ourselves on the couch for the rest of the evening.

Hooray for Sunday nights!!!! :-)

Now I'm here at work (all alone) and getting excited for the week ahead!!!!

Have a VERY happy Monday! xoxo

PS - the beard is coming along nicely....I just passed the "I want to rip my face off, it's so itchy" phase....yahoo!!!