Thanksgiving stuff - Post and Pictures =)
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Thanksgiving Update: The Return from Mayberry
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So I've never gotten back to Tallahassee this early on a Sunday after visiting the family.
I very rarely have gotten up by now this early on a Sunday, let alone even started the 3 hour trip back to Tallahassee.
So it's a little new to have all this alone time, but I plan on getting busy in just a little bit, which hopefully will occupy my mind.
It's so weird to be alone now, after being completely surrounded by people (or family and friends, rather; that makes a big difference) for the past few days of the Thanksgiving break. Not to mention that since it's still quite early in the day, the dorm is still completely deserted from the holiday, which is something I'm definitely not used to coming back to.
So I've managed to fool around with my iTunes for the past couple of hours since I've been back (time well wasted, of course). Organized my library a bit- put all my Christmas music in a separate playlist, made a brand new playlist to add to my little iPod Shuffle, which just started working again randomly. That made me a little happier. I've been quite peeved about that lately. Just about everyone's heard about that one. If you haven't, the USB connection on my iPod wasn't being recognized by my laptop (or anything else) anymore, making it impossible to recharge, therefore leaving me without music to walk or draw with, spinning me into that dimension of Pissed Off...you know the one. So anyway, I thought I was going to have to send it back to Apple to repair it which was really going to be a major inconvenience, ya know. But anywho, it seems to be working fine for now, so I'm just going to write it off as a fluke and not worry about it unless it acts up again. And *then* I'll raise hell with Apple for making the shitty products they make.
Aha, sorry.
So yes. That's pretty much the current shtuff. It looks really yucky outside, and that's really not helping my mood. None of the girls are back yet, in fact, I don't think really anyone on the hall is back yet. It's like a ghost town around here, and completely dark and gloomy. And I miss my Brandon. And my vacation. Oh yeah, and my family too.
With the current stuff gone, I'll recap some of the goings on of late. The good stuff. The meat.
I'll backtrack to...Monday night? Oui.
Annabelle and Blair's classes for Wednesday (the 23rd) were cancelled and they decided they'd just skip what they had Tuesday and leave for their respective homes early Monday afternoon. Or late morning. I'm not quite sure when it was they slipped out. But Ginny and I hated them for it. Aha, aha.
Ginny had a paper due Tuesday she pretty much didn't start till Monday. She worked all day Monday, then, much to my amusement, worked up till about 11 or 12, went out with a friend to a jazz thing, stayed at his place, then finished her paper the next day, right up until class. She was like half an hour late for class. It was really amusing. Quite adventurous. Noooooot me, bud.
And then Tuesday, she left for Thanksgiving somewhere around 10 pm with the same friend.
So, in short, I had the entire suite to myself Monday night, Tuesday night, and Wednesday. Which was pretty sweet.
My actions Monday and Tuesday are somewhat less amusing and quite inconsequential, so I won't go through the trouble of trying to remember exactly what I worked on or put you through the torture of reading about my boring activities.
Wednesday I went to class. Mythology, my one class of three that was not made optional to attend. I went, I came back to the room, finished getting my stuff together, and Bran, Dad, and Emily came to pick me up. From there we went and met up (for Bran, Em and Dad, met up again) with Mom, Grandma and Uncle Tom at a Burger King here in Tallahassee. Had lunch, Tom took Grandma on back to Orange Park and stayed with her for the weekend, and Mom, Dad, Bran, Em and I went on to LaGrange.
We showed up in LaGrange somewhere around 8:30 that night, met up with the Coles for dinner at Pizza Villa. I can't quite remember what we did after that. Probably just kinda hung out before turning in.
Thursday, Thanksgiving, of course, Lindsey and I went with Uncle Steve to get the Cole grandparents, who live about 5 or 10 minutes from Steve and Caryn's. We did our traditional Thanksgiving thing- the four Coles, the four Osts, Steve's parents, the Loyds-Caryn's parents and brother Buddy, and this year, we added young mister Gauthier
.
Food was great of course. The company even better. Went outside for a while after that. Played our old Foxhole game, in which all the kids lay face down on a blanket in the grass as Dad lobs one of those squishy footballs across the yard and attempts to hit us. Good times. I was totally the champion, bee tee double yew.
Friday we went to Rome. It was awesome. We got up about 5 or so, left at 6:30. That was not awesome. But Brandon, Mom, Dad, Emily and I left for Rome early that morning, met up with the Rucks- Uncle Mike, Aunt Luanne, Kristina and Kaitlyn; and the Lefeverses- the other Uncle Mike, Aunt Kim, Tyler and Ashlee; at IHOP. Did the IHOP thing, then went on to Aunt Kim and Uncle Mike's new place they're in till their new house gets finished. Mikey (Ruck, aka Einstein) and Luanne went and got Grandmommie O/Babushka (Mike and Luanne have two little girls they adopted from Russia, so Grandmommie has been "babushka" or " 'bushka" since Kristina came along) and brought her back chez Lefevers.
Then the entire crew went out to "The Land", where Kim and Mike L are building their new house, looked at it, and rode the four wheeler. ATV. Whatever you want to call it.
Oh. My. God.
So all the kids took turns riding it. Starting with Tyler, Ashlee, and Kristina. Brandon took it out. Brandon took Kaitlyn I believe. And I think Em rode with him the first time. Em rode by herself. Em took Mom. Dad rode it. Uncle Mike L rode it with somebody. I think Tyler. Possibly Ashlee. Possibly both of 'em. I said No Way Jose. Everyone kept telling me to go. I kept saying no no no no no. "Go with Brandon. Brandon'll take you. He'll go slow" "Yeah, I'll go slow". Psssssssssshhhhfffftttt. Yeah riiiight. They finally were able to convince me to go with Bran, under the pretense that we would keep things tame for the fraidy cat, but no. He had to go full throttle on my butt. Everyone kept cracking the joke for the rest of the trip that they could hear me screaming from LaGrange. Possibly from the Great OP. And that was wroooooooong. But yes.
From there we all went out to lunch, then went back to Kim and Mike's. Tyler had a tennis lesson at 4:30 and all the adults decided to go. 'Cept 'bushka, who can't stand to stand very long. ....Stand to stand... aha...
So Bran and I got left with the monumental task of wrangling babies. Aha. Mom, Dad, Kim, Luanne, and both Mikes went with Tyler, leaving Ashlee, Kaitlyn, and Kristina with Emily, Gramma O, Bran and myself. Emily decided to babysit the couch, and Grandmommie (the kids correct me if I refer to her as Grandma, haha) decided to lay down and rest in Kim and Mike's room, leaving the three wild ones to us. Kristina thought she would challenge our authority and put on an absolute show. Complete handful on her own. It's like having to run after 5 or 6 kids instead of the 3 we were left with.We told her she couldn't go outside, that she needed to stay in with everybody else and she did not like that. We were way too boring for her, so said the imp. But we tried to settle them down with some playing cards, which worked for a while, and then finally a long game of indoor Hide and Seek kept them preoccupied until the adults returned. At which point we were not released, and some of us were deemed Old Lady and forced to try to catch four kids running all over the house.
Needless to say, the Ost car was filled with some tuckered out people that night on the way back to LaGrange.
But Friday was great fun, and the kiddies really bonded with Bran. Tyler's the only Ost family grandson, and he's already grandchild number three. So the kids really enjoyed having another, older boy around. I would have been good with doing the Rome thing an extra day this time, but, alas, Atlanta was calling.
Saturday, yesterday, we again got up way too early. Went to the Georgia Dome in Atlanta to watch the Grangers play in the state championship playoffs. Which was a completely miserable experience this year. And the Grangers, defending state champs of two years, lost.
After that we went to a really nice Olive Garden in, well I believe it's in Noonan. We were making our way back to LaGrange. Had a good meal, laughed a lot when Brantley's buddies came over to say hello and caused trouble.
Got back to the Cole house without Dad and Uncle Steve, as they went hunting, and the rest of us watched UF embarrass FSU. Racking up two losses for the teams we were rooting for that day. I did more sleeping than watching, but I caught like the last quarter of the game, I believe, and that was more than enough.
Watched the UGA/GT game later on in the night. Aha wait a second, getting a little ahead of myself. When one of the games we were watching went off, Mom, Dad, Caryn, Steve, Bran and I got glued to an infomercial for a 70s CD collection from Time Life for like 25 minutes before the UGA/GT game started. Which was really funny, because we didn't realize it wasn't just a regular commercial till like 10 or so minutes into it, at which point we were like 'uh...why are we sitting here watching an infomercial?', and continued to watch (and sing along to) the thing until it finished like 15 minutes later. And that was amusing as anything. Brantley and Emily went over to one of Brantley's friend's where they were having a get-togther. A tame party. And Lindsey watched a movie in the other room because she was all football-ed out. But the remaining 6 of us watched UGA come away victorious in a game that made us a bit worried toward the end there. 'Twas good.
And then we were sent off to bed I guess sometime around midnight, as, much to my disappointment, we were to be leaving at about 6 or so to head back. I wasn't happy about that because, well, when I go home for the weekend, I don't get up till like noon or 1, then don't leave till about 5, getting me back here at 8 or so. So I get Bran all the way up till about 4:30. Getting me back here at 9am was really not looking so good to me. But we stayed up till about 3 talking about worries and serious things and whatnot, and then called it a night in our own respective rooms.
Got up early this morning, left I guess it was closer to 7. Slept for most of the ride, as I did for pretty much every car trip we took this weekend. With my favorite nap buddy of course. Stopped for some good ol' Mickey D's breakfast at about 10:30 when we got back into Tallahassee. Then we drove by Grandma K's old house before dropping me off back in the dorm.
And here I am. Getting things accomplished. lol.
I'll be a busy, busy girl this week. But this weekend after I'm through will all that crap, I will be transferring loads and loads of pictures from the holiday to my computer. So you guys should expect some picture updatin' to go with this post and lots of other stuff hopefully sometime next week. It'll be the last week of class before exams, so it'll be spent mainly studying, so nothing too heavy, but I also need to get my last 2 1/2 psych research experiment credits and get registration taken care of...which I'll have to take care of this week, so that won't clog up next week. At any rate, they'll be coming soon, so watch for 'em. It's some really good stuff you don't want to miss!
And thank you, Bran, for spending the holiday with me. I had a fabulous time (and so did everyone else). We all quite enjoyed your company. I be seein you this weekend.
Until the next one,
Cheesy.
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Thanksgiving Pictures
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So here they are, the pictures I promised. The good stuff from Thanksgiving
Check 'em out. Enjoy!
Thanksgiving eatin' preparation. That's Caryn's brother Buddy, Steve, and Steve's mom. Making very funny faces. Yay!
Brantley and Em, hammin' it up
What Brantley and Emily are always concerned with.... ;)
Aww, you know we're cute
Bran, you devious miscreant....
Mom caught with her eyes down...aha aha
Moose face number two.
More phonage
Yup, there's the boy I'm so very much in love with.
Caryn's dad, Mr. Loyd, and my daddy. Who looks like he's praying..
Mama readin'. We didn't get any really good pictures of her that day. But I do have some from later on in the trip.
Snow ninja. Ohh what now.
Emily. Taking pictures of herself again.
Posers.
Crazies.
I love my sister. And the camera loves my sister. And don't we know my sister loves the camera!
She's a nut. Period.
Devious looks all around. Why? I don't know.
Ewww.
Walrus?
Most of the Thanksgiving crew. Mom, Mr. Loyd, Dad, Mrs. Cole, Caryn, Mrs. Loyd, Buddy.
Apparently someone let Em have the camera again.
Eeeeevil.
The Buffers
The Ost sisters. Staring into the sun.
Again. That sun was really bright. Aha.
She can't take many normal pictures.
Hahaha. Really bright. Yet kinda cool.
Aww.
Lindsey, Brandon and myself
Emily and Brantley
The Crew.
The crew again.
And again.
Aha.
The olde game.
The Buff.
Ost family IHOPin'. Tyler, Kristina, Ashlee, Kaitlyn, Emily, moi, and Brandon
Out at the Lefevers' place, where they're building their new home. Emily, Kaitlyn, and me.
4-Wheeler fun. Ashlee and Tyler.
The Foxman in his natural habital. Just a little more to the South
Takin' me out for an unforgettable ride. (You butt!)
"Yeah, I'll go slow." Or not.
Better pay attention...she'll take off with that thing.
Bran takin' Kaitlyn for a spin. Only slow. Grr.
Bran showin Em what's what.
Gettin' ready to go
Fun fun.
More fun. And wearin my sweatshirt, too. Grr.
Emily and mom
Trying to look cool. Weirdos.
Kristina
Mikey and dad, biggest kids of all.
Dad havin fun
Dad making his Chainsaw Man face!
Aunt Kim, Dad and Mikey swinging Kristina, and Ashlee.
Emy and Ashlee
The other Uncle Mike and Ashlee
Tyler
Pensive...
Brandon where on earth are you looking...?
Aha I love it. Even if I'm getting attacked.
Squished.
Ashley, Emy, Mom, moi, Kristina, Bran
Brandon and myself
Stop complainin about the darned shadow. Goober. Shoulda stepped into the light.
Mommy and Daddy
20 years and still cute
Yes, that's what I said.
hahaha. The shadows really make this picture rather funny.
Ash and T-Ray
Brandon, getting attacked by all the children...
Do I help?...
He took that four wheeler full throttle with me on the back..
No way, I'm taking pictures.
haha. This is too cute.
No idea.
Pahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
Kaitlyn. Still on Brandon's shoulders.
Ashlee, Em, and Kaitlyn. The calm side. Helping out my photographic tendencies.
Kaitlyn, Tyler, and Bran. The wild side. Ruining my picture. Toads.
The adults' table. Grandmommie O, Aunt Kim, Einstein, Dad, Aunt Luanne, Uncle Mike, Mom
What Emily did while Bran and I babysat.
I didn't realize I had so much fat in my face. I should keep this photo with me when I try to lose weight after the holidays... Aaaanyway, that's us.
The Granger banner, LaGrange game Saturday.
The Grangers
The Osts, gameday. Aha, no, I was not having a good day.
The Coles, gameday.
Emily, wearing Brandon's beanie the wrong way.
And being a retard.
And looking high.
There you go, Lots and lots of pretty pictures. Yay. You should leave comments