So how was your Thanksgiving weekend?

Ours was wonderful.  Thanksgiving day was quiet and relaxing…spent at my parents’ house with family and friends.  And Doug there ALL DAY with us…no gigs.  Very nice.

We survived our non-stop gig week intact.  It ends today with Doug singing with the Dapper Dans at the Magic Kingdom.  No more bookings until Saturday when he sings a half day at Sea World and goes straight to Epcot to do Candlelight in the evening.  Woo-hoo for a break from the madness.

Here’s a little list of what’s been going on…

I went on my first ever Black Friday shopping trip and it was a BLAST.  I woke up at 4:30am and was in line at Target at 4:50 for their 5:00am opening.  I grabbed everything on my list and was back in the car at 5:30.  Drove to Staples where I waited in line for their 6am opening.  Again…managed to get everything that I came for and was out the door by 6:30.  I also hit Lowe’s, CVS and Walgreens.  I was home by 9am.  All told, I saved about $350 and got a bunch of free goodies.  The best part of it all is that here I sit, on November 30, all finished with my Christmas shopping.  This feeling is da bomb and I plan to do the Black Friday thing every year from here on out.

Our house is still off the market.  I’m managing to keep it fairly clean and “show ready”.  I don’t know when we’ll put it back on the market, but for now, we’re just relaxing and waiting for direction.  The realtors have stopped calling and bugging us (except for one dude named Trevor who can’t seem to take a hint…I’ve hung up on him twice…) so it’s nice and quiet.

I watched some football this weekend. (Of course.)  I couldn’t bring myself to watch the entire Florida/Florida State game…it was just too sad.  I’m hoping that Coach Bowden does the right thing and steps aside tomorrow.  I will be very sad to see him go (as will all the Gator fans in this state), but it’s time.  I don’t think that Jimbo Fisher is the answer for the team either.  It’s time to clean house and start over.  I’m not sure about who I want for head coach, but my immediate vote to replace Mickey Andrews as D-Coordinator is Ron Zook.  not. kidding.  The guy recruits like a mad-man (see the national championship team that Urban Meyer largely inherited) and knows defense.  But nobody at FSU asked me, so there ya go.

(I apologize to all of you who have no idea what the former paragraph was about.  I’m just a little bit obsessed with college football.)

Well, I’m all done babbling for now.

Ya’ll have a great evening…

Here’s a random bit of babbling about what’s been going on in the Teel house…

Doug is in the middle of a gig crazy week.  He was at dress rehearsals at Epcot for Candlelight from 10 last night til 2 this morning.  He’ll do it all over again tonight and get home around 2 tomorrow morning…sleep (a little)…get up and go sub with the Dapper Dans in the Magic Kingdom and drive straight to Sea World to sing there tomorrow evening.  yowza.  He has Thanksgiving day off though…woo-hoo for that.  He’ll be back at Epcot to start Candlelight performances Friday night and do that all weekend.  Crazy, yes…but we’re thankful for all of the extra work.

The boys and I managed to get the tree up and decorated, but it ended up being a three day project.   When I plugged in our three year old pre-lit tree, about 50% of the lights were burned out.  Of course they were.  Since I was bound and determined that I was not going to buy a new tree this year, I got the brilliant idea to cut off all the old light strands and go buy some of those energy efficient LED thingys.  So on Thursday, I took my G.E. coupons to Lowes and purchased six boxes of shiny new lights that would use 80% less electricity, don’t cha know?  Later that day, I grabbed a pair of Cutco shears and set about the process of removing the old lights.  I quickly realized that the things were most firmly attached.  Whoever designed the tree made sure that it would be ready to withstand Category 5 Hurricane force winds blowing through the middle of someone’s living room.  What the what?!  I worked for a total of 6 hours over a period of two days hacking those things off.  All the while, Isaac patiently waited under the tree, holding the very shiny and very, very bright LED lights, which he now refers to as “freaky lights”.  We finally hung all the lights and ornaments and placed the train under the tree and now it’s complete.  whew.

In the “boy’s are gross” category of today’s ramblings…

Last night, we went out for dinner.  Before our food arrived, Isaac spilled some of his soda on the table.  I started to hand him a paper towel from the roll that was sitting on our table (wing restaurant) but he said, “that’s okay Mom…I’ve got it”.  Thinking that he was going to be all responsible and get his own paper towel to clean up with, my delight turned to horror as he bent down and proceeded to lick every last drop of the Sprite puddle right off of the table.  just. great.

I’m making my Black Friday morning shopping list.  Anybody else?  I’ve never done this before and I’m strangely excited about it. I don’t have a whole lot to buy, so I think that I will be finished well before 10.  My plan is Target at 5, Staples at 6 and Lowes afterward (Gas grill for $79 and I have a $10 off coupon).  There are a few coupon deals at CVS and Walgreens that I’ll grab while I’m out too. My goal is to kill it Friday morning and Christmas shopping will be OVER for me.

That’s all that I have time to ramble about right now.  I hope that ya’ll are having a wonderful Thanksgiving week…

So I’ve got a five year old who is off the chain excited about Christmas this year.  We’ve been counting the days until the tree goes up for over two months now.

Yesterday, after asking me for the 85th time since breakfast…”Mom…when are we going to put the tree up?”, I decided that it is time.  I mean, why not?  Isaac will be thrilled and we’ll have a little longer to enjoy it.

So we’ll be decking the halls around here today.

In other random, “catch up” news…

We’re still thrilled beyond measure over Noah’s time with Soma last weekend.  I’m a bit overwhelmed over it all…it’s hard to explain.  I’m excited…thankful…hopeful…and scared to death that I won’t be able to learn to “do” Soma-RPM well enough to get Noah where I know he is able to go.  In the middle of all of the excitement, Noah has had another behavioral regression thanks to PANDAS.  (In a nutshell, exposure to strep that triggers OCD and wiggy-woo behaviors in some children.)  I’m treating with Zithromax and Oil of Oregano.  Hopefully he’ll come out of it quickly.  We’ve got work to do and we’ve got no time for all of that nonsense.

On Monday, Lori, Kris and I loaded up the kids and hauled them over to Titusville to watch the launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis.  Loved it.  I’ve got a few pictures and a little video posted here.

The listing on our house expired at midnight Sunday.  The sign is down and we’re off of the MLS.  We have no idea what’s next…we’re just waiting and praying for direction.  In the meantime, our phone is ringing and our mailbox is clogged with letters from all of the realtors in town that are quite certain that they are “the one” that will sell our house.  We’ve not had nearly the amount of calls that I feared we would…only about 5 per day…but they are a bit annoying.  The pick up lines are amusing though.  One even told me to “check out” his blog.  Really?  The same guy was entirely too groovy…everything was all “sweet” and “cool”.  As if using teenage hip talk will entice me to sign on the dotted line of his realtor agreement.  Just. icky.

Well, Isaac is all over me and is ready to go pull our Christmas tree out of its’ storage bag.  I’d better get to it.

Ya’ll have a great day…

I don’t have time to write much this morning…gotta head out for church…but I wanted to throw a quick post up about our time with Soma on Friday.

Noah had two sessions with Soma…an unexpected blessing that fell into our lap.  (Isn’t that how God does things?)  We were only scheduled to have one, but when the camcorder failed to record our first session, Soma and her staff invited us back for a second session.  Amazing.

Noah used stencil boards to spell out answers to Soma’s questions…using complete sentences for the first time.  I just about fell out of my chair.

It was thrilling and amazing and hilarious and I can’t even really begin to describe here all of the things that I was feeling and am still processing.

All I know is what I saw.  (And what I will watch over and over again when we receive our DVD recording of the session.)  I saw a child that has the ability to spell out what he is thinking.  A child that has limitless potential.

I saw a miracle.

I know that we have a long road ahead.  I’m nowhere NEAR able to do what Soma was able to do.  The teaching method that is SomaRPM takes a long time to master.  We’ll have mountains and valleys along the way.  But this is the road that we are on now, and we’re fully committed.  We were before…but now, are more so than ever.

I’m going to the Halo Clinic in April for an intense week of training with Soma and Erika.  Noah will go back this spring for another camp as well.

Thank you all for praying.  The prayers were answered above and beyond all that we could ask or think.

So I totally planned on posting yesterday, but I got busy, so there ya go.

We had a BLAST at my cousin Amy’s wedding this weekend.

It was truly one of the best weddings that I’ve ever attended.  FUN…beautiful…joyful…and did I mention FUN?!

I posted a few pictures here.

We really had a great time.  Noah enjoyed all of the festivities and even did some dancing at the reception.  Isaac enjoyed it all as well and cried when it was time to go home.

My Dad did a great job with the ceremony.  I didn’t see many dry eyes around me during the recessional.  It was really, really lovely.

So that was our wonderful wedding weekend.

Next up…Noah with Soma this Friday.

I can’t wait…