Our Thanksgiving...

/Straight from the pages of

Southern Living -- Sweet Potato/

Yukon Gold & Gruyere Cheese

Torte.



Pumpkin & Chocolate Chip Pie
plus real whipped cream



I know Thanksgiving isn't really supposed to be about the food but if we ever had a Thanksgiving for which I was thankful for good things to eat, this was it!Almost everything was a Southern Living recipe,  YUM!!!

Mary Rollins & Taylor

There were some pretty fun people there too.

Scary things in the night...

Harry Potter was fantastic and quite possibly, in my opinion, the best Potter movie yet.  And, I managed to stay awake through the whole movie, yeah me!  And, I survived the next day on my mere 3.5 hours sleep.  We, all three, looked a bit pale and Deatheater-like most of Friday and I'm still not quite sure I'm back on a normal sleep routine.  My unscientific research indicates that you recover from a night of four hours sleep at 14 more quickly than at 44.

A woman and her iPhone can rule
the world.  So long as she doesn't
delete the Phone app...

Last night's  post-Potter sleep might have been the worst.  Granted I've been feeling a little stressed lately so that may be more of the cause than Harry Potter movie adaptations but I had the most frightening nightmare.  I dreamed that I accidentally deleted the Phone app from my iPhone.  Seriously.  I couldn't make or receive any phone calls or get to any contact information.  Is that even possible?!?!??!!  Not only that in my dream, I had a house full of company, out of town clients needing to look at property, and my parents and children who all needed to be delivered in various spots around town (hmmm...basically my normal day).  So there I was trying to manage all of that with an iTouch because in dream world when you accidentally delete your Phone app you also can't text or access your email from your phone. 

I awoke in a cold sweat to the sound of the chirping cricket alarm.  I have now checked.  You cannot, indeed, delete your Phone app from the phone. 

I *heart* Harry Potter!!! or bad mommy...

Yeah!  Harry Potter Day, Harry Potter Day!!!  Or, technically, is that tomorrow...

On today's to do list...stop by movie theater to pick up pre-ordered tickets for the midnight showing of HP and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1. 

MR, Will and I are going AND we're going to eat a big bucket of buttery popcorn!!  MR is going to dress up because she's a geek.  I was going to dress up as Sybil Trelawny (thanks for the suggestion Peddie) but Will said he wouldn't go with me if I did.

I hope I can stay awake!! 

Wonder if I have any pictures of little Mary Rollins dressed up as Hermione somewhere from Halloween past.  She and Abby both went as Hermione one year...so cute!!

Is anybody else glad that the movie is in two parts now besides me?

Life lately...an update.

Eek...I can't believe I haven't posted in a week but I've been doing my best impersonation of a gerbil on its wheel or maybe the analogy of being the peanut butter in a sandwich is better -- hello! I am the sandwich generation, trying to raise children as my parents decline and need more attention.  Anyway, the blog has been empty while my brain and days have been full. 

Also, the At Home in The Bluegrass Blog for Kentucky.com's Bluegrass Moms is going live just as soon as a write a blog post for them -- I have an identity and everything!!  But, I'll be duplicating posts between this site and that one so if you are following here, no worries in keeping up.  I'll just put them both places.  Feel free to comment on either site.

Here's an update on that Nutcracker poster-posting activity.  I have 6 posters up so far, no pictures taken, and haven't had much fun doing it yet!  I think I would have needed to do it on bicycle with a bunch of girl relatives, if you know what I mean to have a really good time. 

Here's the dreaded poster.

Have a wonderful weekend and I promise to be a better blogger and in a better mood next week!

Nutcracker Season is upon us

Russian Corps (2009)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.  Yesterday, MR noticed on our afternoon trip to ArtsPlace that the city of Lexington has already started decorating for Christmas with garlands around the light posts (and yet a banner is still up with Autumn leaves on the same post).  Her comment, "that's just wrong." And, yet Nutcracker Season is in full gear with a Tschaikovsky accompaniment to breakfast and a daily watching of Flowers, Snow and the Party Scene from a previous year DVD.  Soon, very soon, I suspect it will take a full frontal lobotomy to eradicate the ever-playing Waltz of the Flowers out of the interior of my brain. 


Backstage at the 2008...Oh the glamour! 



Aaaahhhh...I love it. 

Yesterday, the Lexington Ballet staff offered a free ticket to the Nutcracker if you could post 10 Nutcracker posters in "verifiable" locations around town.  It makes me want to give Peddie's little "heheheheh" laugh.  I'm thinking that we could have a really good time putting posters up around town AND taking pictures to "verify." 

Reverse Scavenger Hunt + iPhone Camera = Fun Time + Free Ticket to Nutcracker.

Let's start talking...Spring Awakening

I got one of my favorite offers this weekend!  Free tickets to a Broadway show at The Opera House.  Four free tickets, great seats.  You may know that MR and I love all things Broadway.  Maybe love is an understatement so let's go with obsessed...

Back to the story, I got a very late offer for four tickets to Saturday's show of the National Tour of Spring Awakening which won mulitple Tony awards and starred both Lea Michelle (Glee) and Jonathon Groff (Glee) in the Broadway show.  I also got the caveat with the tickets that the show had adult themes and I should be prepared.  The adult themes included but weren't limited to sexual abuse, teen pregnancy, abortion and suicide.  Here's the description of Spring Awakening from the website if you haven't seen or heard about the show:

The winner of 8 Tony Awards, including Best Musical - told by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater through "the most gorgeous Broadway score this decade" (Entertainment Weekly) - SPRING AWAKENING explores the journey from adolescence to adulthood with poignancy and passion you will never forget.


The landmark musical SPRING AWAKENING is an electrifying fusion of morality, sexuality and rock & roll that is exhilarating audiences across the nation like no other musical in years.

Join this group of late 19th century German students on their passage as the navigate teenage self-discovery and coming of age anxiety in a powerful celebration of youth and rebellion in the daring, remarkable SPRING AWAKENING.

After a significant amount of deliberation about whether I should take or not take Mary Rollins and her BFF Christina, I decide after talking to a friend who'd seen the musical that the girls can go if it's okay with Christina's mom.  We had a talk about the mature themes that they might encounter (see above list) and we bravely headed off into the world of the theater.  The fourth ticket went into the hands of my neice who's a current  freshman at Transy and was dying to go see it too.

The show was great although I don't think we'll be singing any of the songs out loud in the kitchen along with the iPod... particularly not "You're F****ed".    It was indeed a checklist of difficult subjects from  masturbation and wet dreams to homosexuality, sexual abuse, teen pregnancy (following a pretty good acting job of intercourse on stage), abortion and suicide.  Yep...that about covers it.  I had some serious moments questioning my sanity in bringing these girls to the show (even the 18-year old) and wanted to whip my hand across their eyes and plug up their ears but you know what...I'm pretty darn sure they knew all of those things happen in life.  In fact, I'm pretty certain (see previous postings) they've seen pregnant students at their schools.  What was really great is that we actually talked about some of that stuff on the way home and the next day and the day after that.  Things like suicide often being fatal and the dilemma of abortion, the downside of parents who don't listen and aren't honest when their children when they ask them difficult questions.  As a mom, I know I'd much rather talk about those things with my daughter than let somebody else do it for me and Spring Awakening sure opened up the conversation. 

Oh...and for you Broadway fans, the music and dancing are excellent.  I need to see if Seth Rudetsky has any commentary on it!

P.S. I would not consider taking anybody younger than high school nor would I take my 82-year old mother!  She'd have hated the music anyway.