Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving Friends and Family!! 

Here in our house there is no turkey in the oven, no sides in preparation, no table set with beautiful decorations... Nothing at all...

Not that we don't like Thanksgiving, we do - a lot. It's just that, not only the much talked about retail stores employees have to work on a day like today, there is a lot of others that work all through every holiday, every year..The military can't take off. It comes with the job to work during sunny days and stormy days, during normal days and during holidays. My husband is one of them. He is working today. Nothing new, but still a shame when it happens. Same thing with Christmas...

So, our 20 pound turkey is still in the fridge, taking up space together with plenty of other good stuff that we will prepare on Saturday, when he is off and we have the time to celebrate together.

Some of you might think, well, working isn't too bad, you can still celebrate and eat when he gets home. Well...if he had normal 8 hour shift yes, but not with his work hours. He is now on days, and that means that he leaves at around 4am and he isn't home again until around 7.30pm. So not much time for celebrations there, as he is tired and needs to go to bed early.

It comes with the job, and I can't stop getting annoyed with all the publicity about mostly poor Walmart workers that has to work today, as Black Friday Sales now have started during Thanksgiving Thursday. Walmart is normally open 24/7, seven days a week, so why is it such a surprise that they now have to work today? It comes with the job and the workplace. If they tell you that store is open,  you have to work. Simple as that. Most of them most likely don't have to work full day either or only 8 hours, so there will still be time for some celebration today, or in worst case - adjust and celebrate on a day that they are off - like we have to do and many other military-/police-/firefighter-/first responders- and hospital personnel have to do and many many others with them/us.

I am thankful that my husband is safe and out of harms way, many other military families can't say the same and my heart is aching for them. Many are the families that don't know when their loved ones are coming home, and many are the families that will have to try to coop with the fact that their loved ones never will come home and celebrate with them again. Many are the chairs that forever will be empty and on holidays like today, they probably seem more empty than ever..

Even if I have posted this pictures on FB and Insta today,

 it's a good reminder and I like to put it up here too.

But anyway, I hope that if you and your family is celebrating today, that you have a wonderful time and that you don't forget to count your blessings and say a toast to what you are thankful for!!

I'm thankful for the love of my life, 

the life that we have and our beautiful three children. 

I'm blessed with the greatest gift of all - a healthy loving family!

I'm also thankful for having such wonderful friends in my life, and from who I'm lucky to have a few  true and dear ones that I can count on anytime. You know who you are!

I'm also thankful for the sweet friendships that I have developed here through the blog, it's something that I wouldn't want to miss anymore. Even if my time and physical health haven't let me have as much computer time as I'd like to keep up on reading and commenting lately, I am glad to check in here and there to keep up to date with you all. 

Wishing you all a wonderful beginning of the Holiday Season!!

Busy Bees

Yesterday morning, I heard something from our yard, when I was taking our bunny outside to play on the patio. I went over to have a look what it was and it bees. Very busy buzzing bees! They were all hoovering in, above and around the flower on the palm tree. There are actually three or four of these hanging flowers on each tree, and they were very busy now after all the rain to gather a lot of pollen. It was fun to watch and I went back inside to grab the camera, as I wanted to see them up close and these are the pictures:

Look how full their little legs are already!

The palm trees looked a little bit more inviting too, compared with the other day when everything was wet and gray, with the normal blue sky in the background!

Sunday Afternoon

After a couple of cold and rainy days, the sun was back on Sunday afternoon and the wind had eased too, so it was very much enjoyable weather. I haven't dared to do a lot of walking, much less power walks since my problems with my back and hips, but since I started on this new medication, I do feel much better, and haven't had any really bad days.

The kids had been cooped up inside for days, so I decided to take them out for a walk in the afternoon. We all needed fresh air, and a walk seemed to be a good thing to do.. Cassie felt like taking her bike, and it's been stored away in the garage for a long time and so has the stroller, so the first thing I had to do was to pump up all wheels to be able to start. The kids haven't sat in the stroller for a long time, (a year ago maybe?), so I wasn't sure that they were going to stay in there, but I really didn't feel like driving to a playground, and I wanted to see if my back/hips could stand a walk.

The kids were nice and hopped into the stroller for a little adventure, we told them that we'd go and see if any people had started to decorate for Christmas yet.

It was nice, and even if I didn't dare to walk in the speed that I normally would, I must say that it felt better than I had dared to hope for. Not without problems, but not with the pain that I have had before, so that was very positive! Especially good to know as the weather will be inviting for more walks here the next couple of months!

Some nice flowers on the bushes along the way.

A typical street in our neighborhood, with the mountains in the background.

Typical type of houses here in the desert.

 There are 95% sand colored houses here...

Happy girl in on her almost outgrown bike...

Blue skies, white clouds and sand colored mountains...

 Our bushes outside our house are getting more and more pink flowers on them!

It was a great two hour walk, and very hard to believe that we had these conditions below, just the day before....

Not So Impressive Balloons...

On Saturday, we had looked forward to go to the annual Balloon Festival here in Yuma. They launch the balloons Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning and on Saturday night, they have the "Glow" where they light up all the balloons on one of the arenas here in town.

I took the kids last year, and we loved it which you can read about HERE and HERE. Last year it was very nice weather, which you can't say that we had this year! It was freezing and I had to dig through the wardrobes here at home to find the kids some hats and mittens before we left. Double fleece jackets on the kids and they were good to go. Why not just put winter jackets on one might wonder, well, we don't have the winter clothes ready to go so to say. It normally doesn't get that cold that we have had need for winter attire and the jackets from last year were too small. I will have to look around the stores, as there isn't such huge selections here in the desert for winter clothes. Still, the kids were warm and ready and very excited to see the balloons glow.

 They got stars that light up to play with, they were also selling the balloons that we bought last year. They are still intact and hanging in the kids rooms here at home.

While we were waiting for the balloons to be ready, we set up our chairs and got some snacks out from the bag. The kids thought it was very funny to eat with mittens, as mittens isn't something that they are used to wear!

This is the biggest the balloon got, before they let the air out again. It was too windy and only two balloons tried in the first place, where the others didn't even unpack their balloons. Such a shame and we were very disappointed, but at least we  knew what it would look like from last year, many people were there for the first time, and now missed it all.

 For some action, some of the balloon handlers, lit their fires here and there, which the kids thought was exciting as it made quite the noise too.

The kids were happy anyway, running around with their stars and having fun. Most people started to head for the parking lot, and it was busy before we got out. As we on the way home were passing "Toys'r'us" I decided to let the kids have a look in the store to see if they found anything else that they wanted to put on Santa's list. After a while, I wanted to get home to get dinner, and Isabella was begging me, "just one more aisle mommy, please just one more aisle"...There is a lot to see on the shelves when you are 3 years old...