The meaning of Thanksgiving 2009

This year Thanksgiving truely was a celebration of being thankful for the things closest to my heart - my family, specifically my mom. As most of you know by now, my mom was admitted into the hospital via the emergency room the Thursday night before Thanksgiving. She had gone in for routine blood work for an upcoming eye surgery and she ended up being diagnosed with Stage 5 Kidney failure w/ a 5% kidney function. For those of you who know my mom's medical history, she has had her share of issues, but this time was different because we came close to losing her. She has started dialysis and is learning how to cope with her kidney loss. Since I always try and look for the positive in any situation, it naturally lead me to think about what I was THANKful for.

I am THANK ful that she decided to have cataract surgery when she did.

I am THANKful that we now have an understanding of what was making her feel bad for the last few years.

I am THANKful that Matt works for Southwest and Natalie and I were able to fly into New Orleans the very next morning.

I am THANKful to have wonderful family that will stop what they are doing to help out.

I am THANKful that I have a sweet little daughter that knows how to roll with the punches and gives me hugs when I need them the most.

I am THANKful that Matt loves us so much that he drove thru back pain and sleep to be with us.

I am THANKful that God has given my more time with my mom.

On a lighter note, Natalie and I got to spend an entire week together with Grammy which is always great. We also got to visit with alot of family (Uncle Aaron, Aunt Ginger & their cats, Uncle Roger, Aunt Peggy, Valerie and Hannah, and daddy). We also got to spend time with our church family in Houma and talked with a lot of relatives over the phone.

We made a special Thanksgiving meal with all types of foods my mom could eat (no salt added - just Mrs.Dash) Here was our menu:

turkey & dressing

sweet potato casserole (cooked special to remove potassium)

steamed squash

corn casserole

cranberry jello

rolls

bread pudding w/ rum sauce

Big "D" Zoo

It was a beautiful day on Saturday and Erica had a great idea for how the Zooks could spend it together. Before I knew it we were packing up the Toy-oter for a trip to the Dallas Zoo!


Natalie's safari adventure to Africa included giraffes and elephants. (She committed no poaching crimes FYI).

In the frozen Arctic, the penguins made Nat laugh. She wanted to swim with them and thought the glass was bogus.

In the Bayou, Dad heroically rescued Natalie from a marauding alligator [statue].

Not coincidentally, in the Rainforest, Mom fearlessly rescued Nat from a marauding gorilla [statue].

But the big highlight was when Natalie got as close as possible to a real gorilla. Kinda freaked her out (to her this thing must have seemed like King Kong) but she really liked it too. The Zoo was a good idea Mommy - what a great day!

Chill-axing

If you are chillin' because your baby is relaxing, then you are chill-axing. These diagrams illustrate proper chillaxing:

Halloween!!

Since Grandma Zook was visiting and could watch Nat, Mommy and Daddy actually got a chance to go out to a costume party!!!

Instead of buying new costumes, we had a "green" halloween (that's where you RECYCLE old costumes from the attic baby!). This resulted in the pairing of a very good Bad Witch with a very cheesey B-Movie Kung Fu Master.

Meanwhile, Grandma gave Natalie some kitchen knives and let her carve the pumpkin. Seriously, y'all know I'm kidding right?

It was Momma who did the carving, but Natalie did manage to run off with handfuls of pumpkin guts (a new favorite toy).

Natalie helped Daddy hand out candy. She'll get to do her own trick-or-treating next year when she's a little bigger (and it's not quite as obvious that Mommy and Daddy are just using her to get candy for ourselves).

Lady Bug Princess at the JCP Pumpkin Parade

Every year at JC Penney's, the employees march their costumed munchkins through the headquarters in a Pumpkin Parade. All the employees are unchained from their cubes for an hour to watch and/or take part (munchkin required). This time (Oct 30th) was Nat's first year! Grandma Zook was in town to help out, so we loaded up the wagon (thanks Aunt Maggie!), the costume, and the kid and headed out to JCP for the big event!



Did Nat enjoy the event? Oh yes! Did Nat enjoy her costume? Well, at first, Natalie tugged at the ruffles and scolded them harshly for daring to be on her garment. Fortunately, they made peace just in time for Natalie to declare war on:
A. Her wings
B. Her shoes
C. Her antennae
D. All of the above
Did you guess "D"? Nat's rule was that the entire costume could not be on her body at the same time. See below:

The only known photo of Nat in full costume may be the one to follow, but since we can neither confirm nor deny the presence of shoes, it could be a hoax (may as well file it with all your photos of Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster).

The Natty Bug then took a quick "flight" with Daddy before changing back into civilian attire (got to guard the secret identity, ya know).

The Raymond's farewell party

On Oct 27th, our friends from Garden Ridge Church of Christ had a going away party for Joby, Shae and little Dakota Raymond (they are moving to Abilene because of work). Natalie was not happy about them leaving!

All the parents decided to cluster the toddlers on the sofa to get a few last group pics with Dakota Raymond (little blonde dude in the brown shirt). I wish I knew what kind of sedatives the pros use to get good group shots of kids! Anyway, here's the results:

(Of course it's my kid that thinks all the adults want to take pictures of her belly.)

(Kickin' it old school with the homies?)

(Trying to get all eight kids in one shot......)

(...but Natalie makes a run for it first).