My mighty hunter

Hunting is my husband's passion. (well, I guess I should say his recreational passion. He is passionate about other things as well.) He's gotten to live out his passion the last couple of weeks. The great thing about my husband's passion is that I benefit. I get food to cook. The other thing he is very skilled at is butchering. Now I'm fairly frugal (some would say cheap) so I appreciate the butchering aspect as well. Meat's a lot cheaper when you don't have to pay a locker. In years past when Joe has gotten a deer, I clear my kitchen counters, get out the food saver for him, label the food saver bags and then disappear to watch the kids. I honestly wasn't trying to get out of work--one year we had four kids ages 4 and under. We still have four kids but my baby is 3 so this year I decided I should be the proper helpmate and at least offer to help butcher the 2 deer that he and a buddy shot. My dear husband graciously said "If you could just keep me company that would be help enough. (Isn't he great!) Well, as I was sitting there drinking my coffee (so I could stay awake into the night hours) I began to feel a little guilty and lazy. And then I decided "hey, I could do some of that." So I decided to offer my actual physical assistance. We decided it would be best if I "cleaned" off the bones for meat to grind. (I don't think I could cut steaks). I did fine until he brought in a shoulder. I don't want to gross you out so let's just say that the shoulder on this deer is where the shot entered and that does certain things to the meat (and creates a lot of blood). I tried my hardest, but after washing my hands every 30 seconds I realized that I truly am a girl. So I took my seat and let my manly husband finish his job. (Now I know why most meat counter personnel are men.) So here's to my husband the provider of food! I would be lost without a grocery store and a meat counter. (I took pictures but you'll probably be thankful that I didn't post them--especially if you are getting ready to eat lunch.)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I know it's not Thanksgiving yet, but our small town had our Christmas parade on Saturday. A bigger town nearby has their the Saturday after Thanksgiving, so as to not try to compete (I'm assuming) we do ours on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Anyway, the girls got to be in their first parade. They walked with their girl scout troupe. I got to walk with them and for some brief moments was exclaiming to them how excited I was to be in my first parade as well. Then my memory of high school kicked in. I've been a lot of parades and I'm sure my parents are thinking "how could you forget that??!! We stood in countless cold (and hot) lines to watch you walk by for thirty seconds!" I played trumpet in the marching band in high school. However, this was the first parade that I was in that I wasn't in the band. It is an entirely different kind of experience. You actually realize that there are people watching you. When you are in band, you are basically clueless that there is anyone watching you (at least I was). You just hope that you stay in step and don't run into the person in front of you. So we took some pictures before we left the house and then, in all the excitement, I completely forgot to take my camera to the actual parade. I felt like the abominable snowman (and look a little like one too!). I was so paranoid that I was going to get cold that I had about 3 or 4 layers on the top and bottom. My girls were complaining when we got there that they were sweating. But my motto is --always better to be too hot then too cold in a Christmas parade!

I had to include this picture. It is such a classic Ashley expression and I think it is the first time I've gotten it on camera. Definitely one of my favorites...