Finishing Thanksgiving 2013 strong

I've been on a major clean out of things. I've already reported the attic clean up and then the carport came next. We have so much to get rid of, fix up, re-do, or replace, it overwhelms me. If I talk about it too much I'll stay up all night being overwhelmed by it. BUT. When I start working on a project, I find I get distracted by one thing when I'm on the trail of another and that leads me to ridiculous finds.  

Here's what happened and what I found. 

The other day I went into the utility room for something....I couldn't remember what...but I saw towels needed to be washed. So I put some towels in the washer. But then I noticed some cans of chicken stock on the floor, so I went to put them in the pantry. When I opened the pantry, it was very messy, so I took the time to straighten it. Then I saw a bag of flour on the shelf in the pantry...I usually store it in the freezer... so I took it out to put in the freezer. When I opened the freezer I saw we needed frozen chicken, but also noticed some questionable contents. So I decided to clean out the freezer. I came upon some "Caitlin store buys" which always causes me to pause and say, "What the heck?" And then summon her to ask if she"s really gonna eat the seasoned Talapia I found in the freezer. After I threw the talapia out, I found many frozen things belonging to John who had done his best to hide them in the back of the freezer. As good as anything can ever be hidden in a freezer. After perusing multi bags of frozen chicken, frozen blackberries, and fish John's caught over the last year, I discovered the ridiculous. As he and I stood there, and the freezer was almost empty, with no more hiding places, I pulled out the last bags clearly containing fur. He looked nervous. I looked incredulous. "What's this?" "That's a deer tail." Next bag.....deer tail..and another. Total:FOUR deer tails! Moving on....squirrel tail....hmmm yeah another squirrel tail....raccoon tail..." Wha....? He then explained the tails were for tying fishing flies. But I don't care because I don't want dead animal tails in my freezer. It's gross. But the most disturbing thing about the tails is, people hunt deer, and squirrel. None of John's friends hunt raccoons. Which brings us to the logical conclusion that John saw a dead raccoon and took the time to stop, cut it's tail off and move on. That is so inappropriate. And I don't think he got the squirrel tails from anyone either. And because there IS no squirrel or raccoon tail store....he has to have stopped for roadkill. Yes. Roadkill. I've had roadkill in my freezer. At least parts of it. Bet you haven't. And that's what crazy looks like here. It's really just one of many glimpses, because there are so many forms of it. That's just how it reared its ugly head the other day. 

I stay exhausted trying to keep on top of the things he sneaks into our home. Chunks of metal. He loves a "good chunk of metal." So many rocks I can't keep up. Bottles. Old TV tubes. I could go on, but I've annoyed myself just listing them. So I'll stop before I go flick him on the forehead while he sleeps. 

Lets get back to Thanksgiving with the last of the photos from that holiday. 

Melanie photostreamed her Thanksgiving group pictures to me, lets see what they are.  

Aaron, Mollie and a green eyed Marlie. 

The only people ready are Maggie, Caitlin and a mug shot looking John. He's probably thinking about a chunk of metal. 

Still grouping up, but not ready. 

In the pic above, Carrie looks as if she just went bowling. And so now I'll tell the story so as not to confuse. When she and I were in college, we took bowling together. Yes bowling. I also took archery, but that's a boring story, other than occasionally hitting my forearm with the bow string causing me to want to curse so bad because of the pain. DON'T hit your forearm with the bow string. It hurts like a mug and will make you want to curse so bad! But back to the bowling. Carrie wasn't the greatest bowler. In fact, she sucked. So when she walked up to the lane to throw her bowling ball and it went in the gutter, which happened often, she would quickly place her fisted hands on her hips in disgust. And I would laugh every single time. And that's the bowling story. Good times. 

Now back to the pictures....

Olivia is uncharacteristically cheeky in this photo. Maggie and Caitlin have imaginary guns drawn, and William and Mollie have found the camera. 

Carlie and Rebecca are having a moment. Whatever. Now Olivia also has an imaginary gun drawn. Ummm Lindsey? Bill=deer=headlights. No one else is ready. 

Then the focus turned to William, who began berating people for not behaving. 

He started finger pointing and saying something really forcefully. No one knew what.

But it amused us all immensely. However we have no pictures of him doing it. 

There is much disarray amongst the people. 

That's the money shot people.

One and done. One good one that is. 

Oh wait. We did another, but Dale is hidden.

Then it was back to see what William was doing. 

Cutie.

Bill's trying to steal my signature move with the lips. Carrie's playing hide and seek?

And then it was onto decorating.

Caitlin was caught eating the decorations. 

And so were others....Olivia. Carlie can't hide her enthusiasm. 

And even though that's not one of my trees, it's presh.

And so that closes the book on the 2013 Thanksgiving weekend. It was a good one. And it seems I've not been a good blogger since last week, but things have been busy...with me following John around to all his hiding places and stuff. And this weekend is going to be another busy one with my first trip ever to Eunice. Lafayette and now Eunice, my travel is becoming quite diverse. Usually my car just heads west to Texas. 

Also, Owen made the high school tennis team. Don't ask me how because he's never had one lesson in his life. But he's pretty excited about it so I guess this means we are tennis people now. I'm not sure what to do with that, but I know I don't own one open headed visor at all. Which will just be another type of hat that looks bad on me. Remember the Santa hat's been shelved til next year. I guess I need to start learning how to yell like tennis parents. I'll be googling for sure. 

That's all for today which is now three days since I started this. 

Remember...nuts....

The gonging of the clock just struck 2:00 AM. 

I'm so off the couch and in the bed.