Making Our Own Thanksgiving Traditions

1.Autumn woodland Mix - Place Card - Gift Card - Table Number Card - Menu Card - Holidays -weddings events – jenaitchison.etsy.com

2. Thanksgiving Recipes – Cucinatestarosa.blogs.com

3. http://www.best-thanksgiving-recipes.com/

4. Vintage Silverware Large GIVE THANKS Serving Fork – woodenhive.etsy.com

Thanksgiving, for many people, is a time of family gathering and traditions.  Neither Rogér, nor myself grew up with any outstanding Thanksgiving traditions or big family get togethers for this holiday, so maybe we're not as attached to it as others.  Are we the only ones that thinks maybe Thanksgiving with family is overrated?

Well, I know we're not the ONLY ones because last year we started our own tradition of volunteering for various orgainization's Thanksgiving events, and having actual Thanksgiving dinner with other Bay Area "orphans" (AKA other friends that don't want to travel a long way to sit at an awkward dinner table).  No offense Mom and Dad, I love visiting my family!  Which is why I'd rather visit when Mom is not busy cooking a ridiculously huge, mid-day dinner, and Dad is not glued to the football game.

Getting together with friends has been a really fun, low key, and rewarding alternative.  We each contribute a couple staple dishes, nothing too crazy or time consuming, and then enjoy the evening over still-too-much food and wine. This will be only the second year in a row that we've done this, so we haven't nailed down all our favorite recipes yet.  Our friend Karla had a phenomenal stuffing recipe last year (I'll see if I can snag it from her to share), and we're going to be brining the turkey, and that's all we know so far!!

We would love to hear other peoples' favorite Thanksgiving traditions or recipes!  Please share! :)

Quick Weekend Recap

Well...

Ronin is all healed up, Yay!  

Our Dyson Animal is in the repair shop (and it's not even a year old!)

My sore throat turned into a full fledged cold.  

I dropped a pipe on Rogér's face, and he had to go to the Emergency Room for a stitch. 

 We're cooking our first meal in our fully functional kitchen!  

And we found out that Domino is actually not a dog, but a Jedi Ewok. 

How Lazy Can I be?

I've stooped to a new low!  Wow, I thought it was bad that I pretty much wear the same frumpy clothes every single day, never bother with my hair (or anything else related to my personal appearance), drag myself out of bed later and later each morning, don't call people because it requires looking up their number in Rogér's phone and transfering it into my new phone....you get the picture. I chalk it all up to my Not-So-Glowing pregancy, but there's no good excuse for my latest move, which I just noticed when I went to the bathroom..WARNING: get ready for TMI.. and refused to completely unbutton and unzip my pants (already, the top button is never buttoned due to the bump) before I pulled them down!  That's right.  I wiggled my way out of them so I would not have to do extra Work!  Really?! Yes, I did that.

As I sit here, the thing that's really bugging me is...in my attempt to be super duper lazy, I'm pretty sure I ended up doing MORE WORK.  wtf.  Poor Rogér.

-Sarah

Horse Whoa's - Swollen Belly and Sheath

Ronin doesn't give us much of a break between his issues and ailments!  Last night, Rogér was scheduled for a riding lesson, but ended up with a lesson in horse hygiene instead.  Of course, he didn't have to do any of the dirty work!

Right before saddling up, I noticed that Ronin's sheath was swollen.....great.  Then I realized his belly had some swelling too.  Towards the back on the right side and a little towards the front on the same side too.  All I could really think to do was to clean his sheath and check for any abnormalities, so that's what I did. Ronin was actually pretty good, considering I've never done this with him before (I had the vet do it once, cuz it's not a fun job).  I didn't find anything either.  When our instructor came, I told her about his symptoms and she suggested we take his temp.  Apparently, there's an illness called Pigeon Fever that can cause this kind of swelling.  Four minutes of an antique thermometer up Ronin's butt revealed that he did not have a high temperature.  Phew!



Rogér on Ronin Summer '09

We put him back and went home and, of course, checked the internet for these symptoms.  This should never be done!  But I always do it.  Well, according to the internet, Ronin had either nothing at all, or limes disease, or liver or heart failure and would surely need to be put to rest within a month or two.  In my internet search, I did come across one sort of amusing instructional.  You can read all about it here...if you're interested. We called the vet this morning and she didn't seem too concerned just yet, so now it's a waiting game. Let's all hope that it goes away! 

Fun times!  We can always count on our animals to throw us for a loop.  Can you believe we're adding a kid to the mix? Oh boy.

$35 CSNStores.com Gift Code WINNER!

Congratulations to Annie, the winner* of our $35 gift code giveaway to CSNStores.com!  Just in time for Christmas!

Annie,  please contact me at bloemdesigns.us@gmail.com to recieve instructions for cashing in on your gift code! 

Happy Shopping!

Thanks to everyone who participated!  You still have another shot to win!  Go to bloem to enter for a chance to win a $20 gift code!

*winner determined by random number generator, www.random.org.

Another Chance to Win!!

Okay everyone, TODAY is the last day to enter our $35 gift code giveaway!  Enter the contest HERE.

I'm also giving away a $20 gift code to CSNStores.com on my craft blog, bloem.  Become a follower and post a comment to get another chance to win!  Enter for both, and you could score yourself a total of $55 at any of the 200+ stores on CSNStores.com!  That's some serious loot!

Enjoy & Good luck!

Horse Whoa's - Our Poor Farrier!!

Our 6 yr old TB horse, Ronin, was scheduled to get his shoes done today.  Up until a couple months ago, this was no big deal because our farrier (horse shoe-er), Nick, would just take care of all of it and all we did was leave him a check.  Like I said, that was up until a couple months ago when Ronin suddenly realized that he's an ex-race horse, and decided to pull some typical TB off-the-track BS.  He flipped out while cross-tied and practically took out Nick, and almost killed himself.  Keep in mind, for the last two years, we've been cross-tying him without any trouble. 

Since then, he's also discovered flipping out at the regular tie post.  We've started using a cinch buckle as blocker tie ring (it's a great, cheap solution!), for everyday tying, but getting his shoes done adds a whole 'nother level of difficulty.  Nick asked that either Rogér or myself be there to hold Ronin during shoeing, which is perfectly legit.  In fact, after witnessing Ronin getting his shoes done today, I'm surprised Nick is willing to do Ronin's feet at all!  I wouldn't.

I even gave Ronin B-Kalm (tryptophan) 1.5 hours before the ordeal, hoping that this would help take the edge off.  Didn't work.  The only thing that did work was to distract Ronin with the one thing he values more than life itself....FOOD.  Nick had a bag of little treats, which distracted the beast so well that his shoes were done in record time!

This might take a little work, but I hope that one day, Ronin will be able to stand still and quiet for the farrier and for us!

Three days left to win a $35 Gift Code Giveaway to CSNstores.com

Who couldn't use 35 bucks to use toward anything from one of the 200+ CSNstores.com websites?!  They have all kinds of things for the home, kitchen, pets, kids, office, etc.!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway here.  Only three days left!

Giveaway! - CSN Stores $35 Gift Code!!

Yay! Our first giveaway!

Thanks to the people at CSNStores.com, who are offering up a $35 gift code to use on an order from ANY one of their 200+ online stores!  Wow!

They have TONS of great stuff for your home, office, babies and kids, and even pets!  I could find so many things that I want for our house.  For instance, we could really use some barstools for our kitchen island.

I like these classic counter stools because they fit the style of our house and remind me of a red stool I grew up with, (I would upholster my own cushion for the top). 

Although...we could also put it towards a new AMAZING Blendtec blender like this one!  These blenders are so great.  They come with recipe books for soups (yes, they warm it up too), and ice cream!!

There are thousands of things to choose from!

HOW TO WIN:

1.  (Mandatory) - Browse the CSN stores and leave a comment on our blog saying what you would use the $35 gift code towards.

2. Become, or be a current Follower of One Ring Short of a Circus and leave a comment letting us know that you are a follower (+1 entry)

3.  Post about this giveaway on your blog and leave a link. Be sure to leave a comment to let me know that you've done this. (+1 entry)

4.  Head over to bloem and become, or be a current follower.  Leave a comment here that you are a follower of bloem. (+1 entry)

*Please leave a separate comment for EACH entry you do*

**This offer is only available in the USA and Canada**

Good Luck!

Contest will end November 10th at Midnight

Winner will be announced November 11th, 2010