911 Thanksgiving!!

Spoiler ALERT:  Everyone lives!  Well - except for those 5 turkeys!!!

I am a little confused how or where to start this posting - the begining of T day, the day before T day, dinner, or what...

Jumping in - a tiny bit of background.  First, Thanksgiving is not my favorite holiday - there I said it.  But, Seema had said before she even arrived in the USA that she was excited for "thingsgiving".  Therefore, I wanted it to be a good one for her...let's say memorable.

We were invited to a dear friends home with her daughter wanting to prepare all the food.  In preparation I ordered the halal (special dietary blessed turkey) for the group of 23 going to Merlines house. That accounts for 2 turkeys.  In the end we went with non-halal turkeys for the group - due to sausage stuffing - so that accounts for 2 more turkeys.  And then the one I picked up for the Duffin family. 

Well - enough about the turkey s and the day before... the morning of the big day, I get a call from DeeDee (Lamiaa's host mother) and she is having heart palpatations as the neck of the turkey is still attached and she is not certain about giblets inside.  She is slighty freaking out - so I tell her I will bring my turkey down and we will prepare them together.

DeeDee's turkey hanging out in a pot waiting for love and butter.

Our turkey waiting for the big reveal

Here is Bob working on getting the neck of the turkey!!!  Seriously - that looks so so wrong!!

DeeDee takes a look...for the giblets - for some reason her giblets were absent...

Up close and personal with the turkey...

That seems like enough turkey business...

On to dinner and fire.

We were thrilled to be invited to Merline's for dinner and her daughter Jan was kind enough to prepare all the food.  At 4:00 Seema and I headed up to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner with the Cindy Kindred clean, Leamings and Ingham's.

Seema and I arrive first to a wide open front door!  Once inside I realize why - the fire in the fireplace is roaring and smoking and the flue is NOT open.  Smoke is filling the house, there are no fire pokers in sight and Jan is wondering if it is best to just call the fire department.  In hind-sight I should have said, YES!!! But I thought, we can handle this ~ maybe???   I get on the ground to see if I can see the flue lever and if I can reach it without getting burned - cause that doesn't sound fun.  The flue opening is clearly a no go.  Jan says well it will just have to burn out... hhmmm....

Scott Ingham shows up a few moments after this and says you can't let it burn out - it will just keep billowing and filling the house with smoke and soot.  Fire extinguishers - NO!!!  Scott and Heather go to there houses to get extinguishers as the Kindred clan arrives with equally good suggestions. In the end, Marian calls the Fire Department.  We are told to leave the house and wait outside for our fire heroes to arrive. 

We do leave the house, the fire is put out and we move on to dinner  - but not without a bunch of photos with the fire truck...

Enjoy!!

Waiting outside for our fire heroes!!!

Serious fire fighter

More outside standing

Constantine, Hailey & Bella by the truck

The contents of the fireplace

Fire trucks up the street

And more fire trucks up the street

The HOT fireman with the HOT fire grate

ta da - fire grate...

Hailey's photo op in the truck - I am pretty sure, she could not drive away.

Seema's attempt in the drivers seat

Bella in the drivers seat

Scott Ingham party of 4 - Ryan is at soccer, maybe we can photo shop him in for a Christmas card!

Heather rescued Jan's dog Ginger from her walk-about down the street along with Seema and Aunt Peggy

The whole gang with the fire peeps.  Let me just say how amazing and nice are heroes were.  They showed the kids the truck and equipment, they were professional and kind for having to work on Thanksgiving.  It made me very thankful to live in a place where when you call 911 wonderful, well trained and kind people come and help you - whether life threatening or a small fire they are the best. 

I am thankful for being able to say all is well, no one was hurt - not even a bandaid was unwrapped. 

Saying goodbye!!!

Another MOVIE NIGHT!

We have been good so far in hosting a Movie Night once a month - and November was no exception!  Our busy weekend with Disney On Ice and horses was capped off with Movie Night. It is so much fun to watch these kids as they become more comfortable in America and with their families.  Truly a priviledge to have all of them in my life.

Seema and Cammie with too much candy!

Mimi and the girls!

And if the weekend was not busy enough, Seema had a Foods & Nutrition assignment due. It was to make soup.  I don't make soup - never found the right seasonings etc. So I enlisted Myra to help with this assignment as she is a champion at soup making.  They made cauliflower soup - and Seema liked it

 
Thanks MYRA!!!

HORSES at the Haglunds!

My darling friend Lori Haglund invited us over to meet the horses as both Lamiaa and Seema LOVE horses but can't ride in their countries.  We headed over with great anticipation to meet the horses, brush them, feed them and give them some love. 

Lamiaa at first was freaked out by their very active new puppy Watson and not sure if the horses were more interested in her fingers or the apples.  It took some time, but eventually both girls were experts at feeding them.

Watson would really like some of what the horses are getting.

One silly monkey, one horse

You can't really tell, but Lamiaa has a treat in her hand and getting her courage up to get a little closer.

Perfect - you have to kind have to shove the apples into their mouth keeping your hand flat so they don't find your fingers!!!

Even though this isn't the greatest picture - I love everyones faces.  The joy and fun on the girls and the patience on the horses.

More apples.

And then they brushed them...

Lamiaa and Layla

Seema and Taffy, Sandy,  okay, I can't remember.  Seema says Sandy - does seem quite correct.   I will find out so our blog doesn't have ANY inaccuracies.  HA

Amazing - the love of a girl and gentle, sweet horse.

They did try to ride Layla - but Lamiaa didn't quite get on and fell to the ground and Seema almost was almost on when Layla decided she didn't want to go for a ride that day and started to run and BOOM - off came Seema right to the ground.  The ending to that was that neither girls were hurt and they want to try again when Layla or Cactus is up to ride.

Roger Haglund and Layla...

Seema moment before the ride kinda and the fall.

Oh so close - and I was waiting to get the picture where she is on the horse... that didn't happen.

But we had a great time... thanks Haglunds!!! We will be back!!

Disney On Ice and SILLY MONKEYS!!!!

On November 11th we celebrated Veterans Day by going to Disney On Ice.  Thanks to a good friend, Dustin Dehlin at Energy Solutions he was nice enough to score me some free tickets and I went with Bella, Lamiaa and Seema to see the extravaganza of "Treasure Trove" on Ice.  Needless to say - they all loved it.  Even with my strict rules of NO cotton candy or slushee as both those treats suck at Disney On Ice - yes, I am speaking from experience.  They did all end up with the $10 lemonades ~ I justify this with the souvenier bottle.

Oh yeah - Dustin hooked them up with posters!

Yup - THOSE are the $10 lemonades in cool cups...

After Disney we headed over to Gateway for some shopping and dinner.  I could not resist buying the silly monkeys these silly monkey hats and Bella choose Oscar the Grouch...

And the girl behind the camera, me Laurel is wearing a bee hat.  As we walked through Gateway, most people thought we kinda goofy - but who cares and I wear my hat proudly!

Halloween Day!

The big day was a busy busy day for me - so needless to say my photo snapping was a big NOT!!! Sad I know... but here is how it all came together.  On Sunday, the day before Halloween Seema & I went to get a costume, I thought she would be a cute Snow White.  We found a costume and she tried it on and it wasn't cute on and I am still not 100% she was into it or doing it to make me happy.  The culture change of doing whatever your parents tell or ask is shocking on my side. 

So - after a little bit of dragging her through Halloween City I ask are you done?  Yes!  She says she will wear her Pakistani outfits.  okay...  and we left and made our way to the Quinn family party.

After the party we went over to raid the costumes of Alex & Joe because Lamiaa DID want to get dressed up.  We borrowed ABBA, pirates, lederhosen, a few wigs and boas.  We figured that Lamiaa could choose from those and at this point Seema was a bit more amiable to the idea of a costume.

The big reveal is that they went as ABBA - and the sad part is we have ONE photo of Seema in a blonde wig and gold lame jumpsuit!

I could kick myself that I failed to snap some shots of Lamiaa in a pink jumpsuit and black wig and Gabriel as a zombie.

I did send them out to go trick-o-treating with a big group of kids and an adult.  They came back after a few houses as they felt that it was begging.  They changed into Pakistani outfits and enjoyed the rest of the evening together eating candy, soup & breadsticks.  BTW the girls made my famous breadsticks and it seems they are on the menu for the November movie night!!

If there are more photos that surface - I will post them...in the mean time, I will try harder to keep the camera at hand.

Halloween Dinner with the Quinns!!!!

We were lucky enough to be invited to the Quinn family Halloween dinner that is complete with cookie decorating, bubbling root beer, pumpkin carving, yummy food, halloween baskets and so much fun!!!

Seema's plate of her cookies she decorated!

 Seema and her Hallowween basket AND the ribbons Alex put in her hair!!!

 Alex and Seema with the Pumpkin head guy...

Joe Joe after eating way to much yummy food!

Seema carving her first pumpkin - this was taken before the real mess started.

Alex wielding a knife - a tiny bit scary!

Dr. Quinn taking matters into his own hands to carve the pumpkin.  Sharon isn't so certain about all this happening in her kitchen!!!!

Michelle and Emily enjoying some cookie decorating.

More pumpkins on the carving block!

Alex I believe is trying to match the face of his pumpkin... he is silly!

Joe helping Seema with her pumpkin carving skills.

I am still not certain of those knife skills - yikes!!!

 Seema with her masterpiece - the star and moon from the Pakistani flag!!

Thanks to the Quinn's for making Halloween Eve so great and amazing for Seema's first celebration.  BOO!!!