Who You Callin a Turkey?

It started for me on Wednesday. I was sick... like really sick. Like thought I was going to die sick. I wont get into the details but between the chest pain and the quick runs to the bathroom I was fairly certain I was going to fall over dead. It wasn't the flu...like when you cant function and you are in bed for days. But this was a pretty horrible 24 hour stomach bug (that has been going around for weeks). I was at work Wednesday and nothing looked good in the cafeteria so I went for the standby slice of pizza which tasted fine. Roughly one hour later though it was a different story- I was miserable. Was it food poisoning? It didn't matter because all I cared about was feeling better. I could hardly do my job I was so uncomfortable! Luckily I only had to make a few more hours and then I could go home. That was the longest four hours of my life. And its not like I could call in cause I was already there... and really who is going to come into work the night before Thanksgiving to cover- yup, nobody. So I stuck it out hitting the lounge couches in between my patient calls and trying not to revisit that mediocre pizza from supper. Which never did happen thank goodness. I inched my way home and hit the hay immediately. Now to those of you that don't know me well Thanksgiving and Black Friday are huge for me like HUGE. They are my 2nd and 3rd favorite days of the year right behind Halloween. So to be sick these days seriously put a damper on my 2012 (sad face Trina). But I was going to try and make the best of it... poor Timmy. I woke up a hot mess not feeling much better and cranky as hell. I usually would watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade at this point and eat my Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls but that was not to be... I couldn't get out of bed-YUCK. So Tim DVRd the parade for me to watch later and I slept while he did all the cooking and cleaning for the company that were coming over at 130. My parents were nice enough to take Katie over to the farm with them to visit her favorite person in the whole world (Great Grandma) and how fortunate for Tim to only have Via to look after especially with me out of the game. And he did it. I have to say he did an awesome job. The house was acceptably clean and the meal was delicious. I got up around 11 to make my scalloped corn and his birds were already on the grill and the pies made, the potatoes boiling and the rolls ready to bake. I had to literally walk through the house to soak up all the wonderful things he did because I always knew he could he just never has (he even dusted... I know right!) After a quick lunch with his parents, Jeremy and Karla I had to go back to bed-I just couldn't do it. I fell asleep and was out from 2 until 6 when i got up and we headed out to pick Kyra up for our portion of the holiday with her. I had Tim stop quick at my work and I ran up a pecan pie quick to my coworker Ed who had covered my a** the night before and kept me from getting screamed at. He was surprised to see me walking and I told him that I was feeling better. Being the close nit family of coworkers we are he said to me with the slightest hesitation "You know you look like crap right?" Thanks Ed...

 This year Black Friday shopping actually started on Thursday evening. Last year it was late like 10pm and midnight and this year it crept up to starting at 8pm and craziness from there. I have to admit that I am a little disappointed that they keep pushing the shopping hours forward and into the holiday. Half the fun for me is to sit around watching Home Alone and looking at the ads mapping out my plan of attack. It didn't work out that way this year and who knows... maybe next year they will go back to a more conservative insanity. Nevertheless, Kyra and I faced the crowds and threw down with the best of em. Timmy and Via even joined us at our first stop which was Target at 9pm on Thursday (I promised myself that I would not go on a rant about how Black Friday shopping starting on Thursday is borderline blasphemy but I cant... and I wont... but I do). I wanted to pick up some Disney DVDs that Target had on sale for 10 bucks and Tim found these Xbox points for his video games (that never go on sale I guess). It didn't really matter to me because I was in super shopper mode which kept me from thinking about how sick I still was. Earlier in the week I had popped into Target and they informed me that if you are a "red card holder" which is their store card, there would be a special line for those specific shoppers and it didn't cost me anything. The 5% discount off the top of your purchases all year long is a plus too! Anyhoo- we headed home by 930pm and Kyra took a nap while I watched Home Alone by my lonesome. It was okay though because then Kyra didn't have to watch me ball my eyes out into my pumpkin pie (my Grandpa Herrman used to full on belly laugh during this movie when I was a kid). I was feeling horrible and tried at least three times to talk Kyra into staying home but she would have none of it... at 12 bells we were marching into Kohl's with the other 200 people ready to nab our deals. I have to say this year it was not bad at all. Green Bay is split into two sides of the city- east and west. The west side has all the major department stores and any retailer you can think of. The east side is a bit more conservative and has the major ones but nothing fancy- even the speed limit is slower on this side of town- my side of town :) So I was not surprised to see that there were not hoards and hoards of people shoving their way out of the 23d degree blistering wind. But once we were in the store it was game on. I sent Kyra barreling towards the shoes to pick out the boots that she wanted. I knew it was a slim chance that she would find the exact pair in her size on the sale price.. but low and behold- the girl has inherited my luck- there they were in all their absolutely age inappropriate glory- and she got em (shaking in my head in my utter poor parenting choices sometimes. A more responsible parent would have told her no way was she going to wear these lookin all Pretty Woman... but have you seen 12 year old girls lately--- eesh!) Anyways, after scoring a few deals and stuffing my "old lady shopping cart" that I borrowed from my mother full to the brim- we were in and out of the store in less than 30 minutes. Whew! Then it was off to bed for Kyra Jean and I took a little cat nap till 445 when I set out to Home Depot to get my mother's poinsettias (for a buck!!! I got 7.) Came home 15 minutes later and I was back into bed until 8am when we got up to meet Karla for breakfast at Hardees. At this point I was feeling way better not knowing if it was my stomach bug easing up or my body on cruise control from utter exhaustion but wither way- I was happy. After breakfast we hit a few more stores while Tim was home with Via and then one of the local thrift stores because Kyra had mentioned that she needed dress clothes for her band concert. When I asked when she needed them she looked at her feet like a typical kid and said "Monday." REALLY??? Its Friday and its not even my weekend to have you- I have to have you home to your mom in like 5 hours--- how is this going to work!!! Well somehow it did because we found a super cute outfit including everything she needed for less than 10 bucks ( I was pretty pleased). Kyra got on my case for looking at children's books-which I totally understand as we have roughly a million- but they were 15 cents--- come on I had to! As I was perusing the Christmas themed board books out of the corner of my eye I saw this person walking towards us. You know how the first time you see someone you judge them (on purpose or not- lets be honest here) and I was like "oh- that person seems awesome I totally love her whole thing she has going on. Then I took a full on direct look and WTF-- its my best friend on the entire planet walking towards me! Jackie, who lives in Chicago (Via's godmother) was rockin an awesome scarf striding right past me. I literally jumped on her out of sheer excitement. The day before she had visited us at the house and dropped off some delicious treats from her bakery- yes bakery: The Folded Apron, Chicago Illinois (check it out). I don't think you can be in love with food- but if you could- I am cheating on my husband with her chocolate cake and peanut butter frosting... yah- its that good.