For The Journey Not just the destination…

I have been having fun with Thomas’ telephoto lens though in the backyard. The woodpeckers really love our suet feeders and a few birds and squirrels have ventured up to the deck for nuts. Here are two of my favorite shots. The rest are posted in the gallery:

* More Backyard Wildlife

Last week, I saw the deer in our backyard that I saw on the day I camee to look at the house. I haven’t seen it since, so I was starting to believe that the previous owner had rented it to reel me in. Heh, guess it worked. Actually, our neighbors told us that we have a family of deer, coyote, and a huge owl that live in the woods behind us. I haven’t captured photos of any of those yet.

When I think about the Thanksgiving holidays from my childhood, there are two things that stand out in my memory for my family – yard work and interrupted blessings. We had both this year. As usual, I have photos of the weekend:

* Thanksgiving 2005 Photos

I don’t know if Thanksgiving weekend was the big yard waste pickup day, or if Dad just took advantage of the day off, but Thanksgiving just seemed to be when Dad spent the day trimming the ficus hedge that separated our backyard from my elementary/ middle school playground. Dad also gave the blessing each year. However, it was almost always interrupted by the family breaking out in giggles -first my brother, then me, then my mom.

The past 4 years or so, I haven’t been at my family’s house for T-day for one reason or another, but this year, I hosted Thanksgiving for my family at my house for the first time. I think it went wonderfully. Thankfully, I had the help of my mom in the kitchen, my dad on the house, and my brother for entertainment. Everyone helped with the yard work. Thomas was able to join in the fun after his on-call shift ended.

The food was delicious, and the company was great. This year, I started the giggling during the blessing, but I couldn’t hold back once I started. Mom gave me a beautiful set of silver serving pieces and glass candlestick holders. On Friday, Thomas and my brother visited Frys, Mom and I checked out some antique stores, and Dad watched the game.

The big excitement of the weekend was that a squirrel got stuck in my attic when he was startled by my dad. Dad had gone up there to patch the woodpecker holes, and the squirrel got his tail stuck in a crack while trying to escape. By the end of the weekend though, and after tearing down several boards, Thomas and Dad rescued the squirrel and patched the roof back up.

This has been a weekend of hanging out around the house. Thomas is confined by work to stay within close range to his computer – tethered by his pager. He’s on call this week, which means whenever his pager goes off, any hour of the day, he has to go fix something. I also think he’s coming down with a cold – lots of tissues. I’m trying my best to keep my distance, but it’s hard. And to think that I was scheduled to get a flu shot at work on Friday, but they ran out.

So this weekend, I raked the yard and driveway. We’re not allowed to burn leaves in Roswell, so I have layered them up like little barriers around the natural area. I’m sure plenty more will fall by the time my family gets here on Tuesday. We also cleaned the house, groomed the dog, and watched two Netflix movies.

Thomas let me play with his telephoto lens again. I took a ton of shots, but it was hard to get good shots – handheld, and in poor light. Here are three woodpeckers that stopped by our suet feeder – the outer ones are Red-bellied woodpeckers and the middle one is a Downy woodpecker.

The harddrive on my laptop has started clicking. Thomas says that means it just has a few days until it dies. He’s working on backing it up for me. Luckily, we have some spare computers here that I can still use.

Two ounces of skinless turkey (about the size of your palm) is 2 Weight Watcher points. A fourth cup of cranberry sauce, stuffing, gravy, and sweet potatos is 2 points each. Any guesses what a slice of pecan pie is (1/8th of a whole pie)?

It’s 12 points! For just one slice… And that’s not counting the ice cream I usually have it with. That’s more than half of what I’m allowed each day. It’s more than all the foods in the first paragraph combined.

At Weight Watchers last week, we talked about strategies of dealing with Thanksgiving. I think I’ll be okay, as long as I stay away from the pecan pie – luckily, I’m not a sweets-a-holic. I’m going to try and encourage my family to go for a long walk with me, maybe take the dogs along the Chattahoochie, before eating.

I will try to not go on and on about Weight Watchers over the holiday since it makes me feel like a nag, but it’s hard when it’s so prominent in my mind. My coworkers that I go to WW with have been encouraging me – this weekend I rollerbladed 5 miles with one of them, and last week, I bought a new pair of size 10 jeans. I haven’t been a 10 since I was a freshman in college.

I’m supposed to be in Swedish class tonight, but I’m not. Actually, I haven’t gone for 3 weeks now. I’m a Swedish class drop out.

It’s not the class, or the professor – I really enjoyed both – but something about it all was really draining me. I think a little part had to do with how late I’d get home on Tuesdays, but I think more of it was that I was feeling bombarded by it all.

It wasn’t anything that Thomas had done. Actually, I was the one that tried so hard to surround us with the language, culture, etc. Finally, I just had enough, and the class was easier to give up than the boyfriend. Just kidding! :)

Thomas is Swedish, so I have no intent on blocking it from our relationship. I love when we attempt to speak Swedish to each other, but I just needed a break from the class. I do hope that I’ll pick it up again later, but right now just wasn’t the right time.

In other news, I’ve attempted to update my Christmas wishlist. Most things focus on the house, and my favorite part – the yard. I would also gladly take any contributions to some of my larger projects plans – landscaping, deck and patio additions, and expanding the master bathroom, but I have a feeling that those are all a long way off.