Kids, Thanksgiving, and more kids!

Hey everyone!


Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! Mine was filled with many many gluttonous moments that I will not soon forget, but it was all worth it.


It all began Wednesday since I had a special Thanksgiving meal for my kids and their parents at work, which was really nice. The kids sang some songs for their families and then they ate some turkey sandwiches and got the heck outta there. These parents were the most laid back I've ever encountered. So quiet and they left so soon. I was lucky to get some pictures (which later I discovered my memory card was acting wacky and I lost most of) before they took off.


Thursday was nice. I got up nice and early to bake an oreo cheesecake for my mom's house which we were going to eat at Friday. We got ready then headed out to Jersey to have Thanksgiving dinner with Patrick's family. Dinner was good, and we ended up staying overnight so we could go shopping Friday. Now, Black Friday is something where every year I say I'll never do again, but every year I do it again. Patrick's uncle wanted to buy tools at Sears, so that was our first stop. We were going to get up at 4:30, but of course the tryptophan coma from the turkey had us out until close to 6. So we arrived at Woodbridge Center Mall around 6:30, and although the parking lot is packed, we get a good parking spot. We enter Sears expecting the worst, but it's actually pretty empty. I guess not much of a need for tools! I bought a couple of shirts, and then we hit the actual mall. OMG! People were packed like sardines. This is the point where I say, "I'm never doing this again!" But anyway, we walked around a bit and then left.
After breakfast at Uncle Ed's we headed back home. As we're headed to our house, Patrick says, "I just want to check what it's like at the Target and Circuit City." I'm like, "okay, sure" and then we get there. Holy cow! It looks like there is a line to get into Circuit City? Huh? It's 11 o'clock! I go to Target. It's empty. Patrick tries heading to Circuit City. Yes, there is a line to get into the store! Are they giving stuff away? No thanks. Plus it was freezing that morning/day!
Anyway, we head home to lounge for a few hours and then head to my mom's for ANOTHER thanksgiving feast! Well for those of you who don't know her, my mom redefines the word feast and takes it to a whole new level. She makes: a ham, a turkey, a prime rib, lasagna, stuffing, baked potatoes (both sweet and white), sausage, veggies, rolls...am I leaving anything out? Does it matter? It was all good!
Saturday, another event....Joyce and Arvy's little bundle of joy was being christened. Patrick loves this kid's middle name: His name is Addison Kalel Villanueva. I know....yep...after Superman. It's inspiring Patrick for our future children. Not so inspiring for me.
Before we knew it, it was Sunday again! Ah! What happened to the LONG weekend that we were gonna have? Oh well. It was fun anyway!
GOBBLE GOBBLE!

Professional Development Day

Just got home. What a dumb day it was at work. Basically PD day means teachers sit around listening to stupid crap that doesn't really matter to fill up a school day since we don't have students. What a waste. I was lucky cause I kinda got out of a meeting on a technicality. My principal didn't write "pre-k teacher" as a participant in any of the meetings after lunch, so I just stayed in my room. I would have gotten away with that too except my principal walked into the kindergarten meeting and had to hand something out. Of course she's like, where's Stacey? CRAP! Of course I went groveling and claiming stupidity, but it was her bad too cause she didn't put me down for that meeting! HA! Oh well...you know that won't EVER happen again now. I'll have to sit in boring meetings that have absolutely nothing to do with me. Ugh.

Anyway, I've been feeling sick the past few days, and I feel a little better today. Last night we got together with some peeps and had dinner at a Thai restaurant in Brooklyn. It was pretty damn good I gotta say. I wasn't feeling great but I figured I'd go because the spicy food could clear me up a bit. Boy did it ever! I ordered an eggplant and chili dish. Patrick didn't go near it, and he just ate his usual pad thai, especially since the dish included two of his least fave foods: chilis and eggplant. I loved it! We got to sample some appetizers too, which are really good! It was pretty cool, since most of the people there were teachers and we knew we didn't have the kids in school today, but you could tell everyone was pretty tired.

It's going to be a busy two months, Nov and Dec...

let's see...b-day, grandma's b-day, parent teacher conferences, open school week, wedding, thanksgiving, cookie exchange, engagement party, friend's baby's 1st bday, holiday parties, christmas...what else? I'm sure there's more!

I look forward to the madness that is about to happen! More updates to come!

I'll leave you with this nice picture of Hawaii, as I was reminiscing about it with someone last night at dinner....ahhhhh.....