It's nearing the end of the month, so it's time to catch you up on all the November odds & ends around the Waterstraut household.
Way back on the 8th we celebrated our house anniversary. We closed on our very first house two years ago (gee, that flew by, am I right?) We celebrated with our picture we've taken every year on our front porch, like the day we moved in- and a Publix dinner. (Basically we go to the deli/bakery/seafood/produce section and pick out all the best stuff). We planned on having a cookout on - but it was like 90 degrees that day, and nobody wanted to sit around a fire.
However, as I write this, it's now freezing outside. We've hit a few day cold snap. I don't think we're even hitting 60 today. I even had to share my fuzzy socks with the whole family. I may have had all boys- but they still appreciate my fuzzy socks and a good HGTV show.
Oh! I did work on a baby quilt for Layla. I figured she was just waiting till I finished it to make her grand entrance. I think I was right- I finished it less than a week before she was born.
I wanted to do a really cute night themed quilt- with stars and moons and such- but my fabric choices were blah. But I did think the material I ended up with was super cute, even if it wasn't what I had envisioned.
And I brought back a whole slew of goodies for the family. In fact we just finished putting things away today, all we have left to do is clean up the desk Hayden is going to use as a night stand.
I did bring back a whole bushel and some extra and cooked them down. I froze like 10 servings of them so we can just pull them out to have with dinner for awhile.
I was super tired the next day, but we had errands to run and a coupon for BOGO sandwiches at PDQ, so we had a little date morning.
Grandma showed up and we got our first Christmas present of the season- Christmas decorations! (Stay tuned we bought outside lights this year, and everyone's pretty excited to put them up! Well, everyone but Peyton. He was literally laying on the floor the other day while the Grinch was on complaining about Christmas too soon. I called him a Grinch and he disagreed. Until I was like 'You were literally JUST talking about how to stop Christmas from coming!'
We spent a couple days at Disney, too.
I've realized recently Peyton hasn't appeared in too many pictures lately. He really prefers to stay home most of the time. I've kind of let it go, even though I feel like the five of us never go out and about all together anymore. But you know, he'll still sit next to me on the couch, hang out, and watch HGTV with me. And given the right board/card game he'll join in there too. He even shows up for some Pokemon card trading every now and again.
He does go out and about to all kinds of gaming events. There aren't any too close to us, and he really likes Gamers on the Edge over in Saint Pete. It's about 45-50 minutes over there, so it's kind of waste to drop him off and come back. So, Asa and I usually make a day out of it. A couple Saturday's ago, he had an all day event- and Saint Pete was having all kinds of festival/markets going on, so it was super easy to 'kill time'.
We found a centralized parking spot so we were able to walk everywhere. We stopped by the Saturday Morning Market.
They had the cutest succulents! I didn't buy any, in fact I think we spent like $15 for the whole day- but these cute little cactus really tempted me!
There were lots of produce shops, and lots of homemade crafts.
Asa even tried this hot sauce, which lived up to the sign.
The market is over by the Rowdies stadium, so we got a peek of practice.
It was a lovely day so we walked along the water
and enjoyed the view.
We also did a little rock climbing.
It was also Shop-a-palooza weekend. So we got to wander through all the tents of homemade goodies.
And then, because we were passing by we had to stop by the Wooden Rooster for a crepe.
We made our way up to Locale Market to nose around, which is my new favorite way to say 'window shopping'.
We continued on our way walking through the waterfront area of Saint Pete.
We stopped at a cute little shop for some Kahwa Coffee. Asa ordered an iced coffee, where they legit give you a cup of coffee ice cubes. Then, you pour your hot coffee over it- so instead of having melty ice in your iced coffee you just have more coffee!
It was also a chocolate shop- with a $5 debit card minimum, so I got two little pieces of chocolate. They did have the cutest chocolate turkey and cornucopia for Thanksgiving too!
We made our way down to the Florida CraftArt building....
...because they were having their annual CraftArt Festival. There were a lot of cool venders from all over the country- everything from pottery, to woodwork, to steel, to paper mache. Some of the coolest craftmanship I'd ever seen.
We tried to hit the Sandsculpting festival over in Treasure Island after that- but when we couldn't find a parking spot, we went to Trader Joes and got some groceries, and then picked Peyton up and headed home.
About two weeks ago, I made a trip to Costco, and the desk Asa had been eyeing was $100 off. It raises and lowers, so you can stand at it if you'd like. Asa has to actually work a lot more in this job, and spends his whole shift at his desk, and he's not thrilled how sedentary that's making him. So, I told him we should get it, and it could just be his Christmas present. He's really pleased with it.
Hayden, meanwhile, took one look at the box and was like 'Can I use that to make a Foos Ball Table?!" Now, I try and embrace his creativity. But sometimes the hurricane he leaves behind is too much. So at first I was like 'absolutely not'. I just wanted to watch football and not deal with it all. But then I felt bad, he just wanted to be creative. And before I knew it I was out in the garage with him helping to locate the skis/blanket fort poles (aka PVC Pipe) to use as the handles. For real, everyone should keep some PVC pipe in their garage. It's very versatile.
Then he got to work.
I did tell him he could keep it through two recyclable days, and then it would go to the curb- because we're not keeping a foos ball table box for months on end. But, he was ok with that. We did have to figure out somewhere to put it though once he was done. Asa's old desk made the perfect bottom.
It's not a terrible design, but there are quite a few dead spots. But, I mean, he did make a foos ball table- so there's that.
Later, we went to Costco and they had a foos ball table for sale. Everyone was like 'we should get this'. But one, we used to have one nobody used-- and two there's one down at the lodge, so if they really want to play there's one that's only a two minute bike ride away.
Hayden did have a couple library events. He made a no sew 'Pop Tart' Pillow.
And he had a wood working class where he made a pasta spoon.
We had our first major applliance in this house die this past week. I knew the dryer was on it's way out. Every house we've lived in since we moved to Land O Lakes, I've had the dryer go out on me. I think it's because every house I moved into was about 10 years old- with the appliances original to the house. I just kept moving to slightly newer houses, and slightly newer subdivisions every time. I'm worried about the refrigerator going next- hopefully it lasts until tax return time!
But, the new dryer is great, and it was still warm enough to hang things out to dry while we waited for the dryer. At least it went before Thanksgiving so there were good Black Friday deals to be had.
Speaking of Thanksgiving, Asa went out to get us donuts on Thanksgiving morning.
We all watched the parade, and then the dog show, which Etta and Porkchop enjoyed. I was totally rooting for the whippet to win (which it did!)
We don't have lunch on Thanksgiving- so I usually make a small charcuterie to help tide everyone over.
I set the table with our 'good china' (which is just the plates everyone painted at Color Me Mine for my birthday one year). This year, we decided to lose the whole turkey in favor of a couple of turkey breasts. I had a coupon to get them super cheap (it was a triple stack!), and I suggested it to Asa. It would take WAY shorter to cook, nobody really likes dark meat or drumsticks that much, and we wouldn't have the mess and have to worry about the dogs and the bones. He totally agreed. It was amazing, and I'm not sure we'll ever go back to a whole turkey again!
In all my travels to Ohio, I ended up with an extra Cranberry bowl- identical to the one that was always on my grandma's table for holidays. I decided I'd try my hand at cranberry sauce this year, since I had the bowl. And, as it turns out, it isn't difficult at all to make. It's like one bag of 99 cent cranberries a cup of water and a cup of sugar. I even got everyone to try it.
I actually don't think I'd really tried cranberry sauce, I just always assumed I didn't like it. Turns out, it isn't too bad, so I noted it on our table cloth that everyone draws on every year. I also noted the Great Wine Spill of 2018 to go with the Great Gravy Spill of 2014.
The boys went with their usual turkey handprints.
Oh, and it was Etta's first Thanksgiving with us!
We spent that evening playing games, per usual holidays around here. Hayden also spent some time drawing some president pokemon mashups, because that's a thing in his head. My favorite was the Dragonite/Eisenhower.
Asa nabbed two free movie tickets from our Verizon Up Rewards, and he had a free small pop and popcorn from his Regal rewards. So, Calib, Hayden, Asa and I all went to see Ralph Breaks the Internet for the cost of two matinee tickets. Not too shabby. And, the movie was super cute. We highly recommend. Unfortunately, some guy spent the whole movie vaping in front of us. Blah. We complained, ever so politely, and they rewarded us with even more movie tickets. So, we can all go to the movies again for free.
We've had a couple of football bars lately. Asa was on call starting Saturday so we decided to make a slider bar for rivalry weekend games, and then we did the normal taco bar on Sunday.
In my memories of Facebook a picture came up of Peyton and Maybel from when we first got her, five years ago. They're still buddies.
Asa was annoyed nobody wanted to walk the dogs with him and threatened to walk all four at once (don't worry, someone caved and went with him- Calib, I think).
That's it from here. I leave you with the usual rest of the cute pet pictures I've taken over the last few weeks. (Oh fun side note, the neighbors behind us got a new puppy and invited us over to play with the 10 week old Boxer- it was SO cute. Plus, I got to cuddle it, and then leave him without having to worry about all the annoyances that come with a puppy, it was wonderful!)
Next Up: We'll see if we can get Grinchy Peyton on board with holiday decorating!
