The One Where It's Time For Christmas Cards

I found this Etsy seller who makes custom Christmas cards, Holiday cards and baby announcements. I was thinking of doing Christmas cards through Snapfish but these are so much better. They are so cute, I just can't decide. If I had known about this seller 7 months ago I would have done baby announcements with them. (More designs here.)

The One Where It's Our Version Of Thanksgiving

I was all set out for a fun and relaxing Thanksgiving day. I had plans of hanging out watching movies and playing games with Zach and Eli.

Zach and I did make some cookies.

Reese's Pieces Oatmeal Cookies. They are so good. No pictures of the finished product but the dough is the best part.

We played this over and over, too. Zach loves to play games.

Well, the not so relaxing part was trying to help Jason get ready for his convention. First I had to finish those tablecloths. Oh ya, Jason says, I need some holes in them for the monitor cords to go through. What, I say? Ya, just cut out some holes, he says. Grrr, Ruff and Arrrggh. You just can't cut out holes in fabric, I say. Oh ya, he says, I need like, some kind of hook or string/ribbon thing to tie the banner to the front of the tablecloth.

I spent many a more hours on those things. I told him I get double time for working on a holiday, billable to the mPlexus boss. I made three of these, all different sizes. They are far from perfect but I was totally making it up as I went along.


And have you ever tried to fold those banquet style tablecloths? They aren't easy. I wanted them folded nicely to cut down on wrinkles. I think I'm as proud or prouder of my folding job than the sewing job.


Then we spent about 2 hours in the evening over at his office trying to pack him up. It's amazing what one needs to display at a convention. I counted at least 6 computers, 3 laptops, 4 monitors, 8 keyboards and maybe 50 different cables and cords. And that's just the beginning. Hopefully Jason will take some pictures while he's there and I can post them later. Finally at about 10:30pm he rolled out for Chicago in a very packed truck.

Now for the good part. First, thank you to those kind offers we received for real Turkey dinners. We would have liked to join you, but we really were busy today!

Second, I am so thankful for a wonderful husband. Jason is such the best. He works so hard at anything he does it's amazing. His company has had so many roadblocks and idoit-blocks it's not even funny. He takes great care of his family. I am so lucky!

I'm thankful for my kids. They are fantastic. Zach - who can sleep through anything. Even a very loud, screaming baby 2 feet away. And Eli - who still fits just right on my chest for a little nap and has decided that he likes his mama the best. I could go on but it's getting late.

I'm thankful for my friends who have made it easy to be away from the rest of my family. And not only easy, but preferable!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The One Where I'm Just Tired

I was sick for a couple days and Eli has been going through an "I'm not sleeping at night phase." I remember when Zach did that. He wants to get up in the early morning and play for a little bit. Since Jason has been working late-late this past week or so, I've been nice enough to not just let Eli sit in the crib and cry. Now Jason is sick. Yuck.

I moved Eli's crib into Zach's room yesterday and I realized something. It's so much easier to have two people put together a crib. Or easier yet, make your husband do it when you're in the hospital. Zach kept saying he'd sleep in his bed all night with Eli being in there. He said he wouldn't be scared anymore. Well, in all amazement, Zach woke up this morning in his own bed. He said he wasn't scared with a real person in his room (maybe there have been fake people in there up 'til now.) If I had known that all it would have taken to get Zach to sleep in his own bed was a sibling, I may have had Eli a few years ago...

Jason has been working non-stop on getting ready for RSNA. It starts on Sunday and he has to be there Friday morning to set-up. He's still not quite ready for it so he decided he'd better work on Thursday instead of us going to his sister's for Thanksgiving. I'm kind of glad to stay home. Don't feel sorry for me, people. (And don't be thinking what a bad guy Jason is. I couldn't care less if he works on T-Day. Go, work, whatever. He could go to work on Christmas day and I wouldn't care. He worked from the hospital room when I was in labor with Zach, too. Whatever.) I really wanted to just relax this holiday season and staying home eating left-over pizza and playing games with Zach is perfect. I just bought a new game for us to play.

I've been making tablecloths for his convention tables. I'm getting all fancy with them, too. They are fitted to the table and have a fantastic red border around the bottom. Pretty spiffy I think. Since a long post can get boring without some eye candy, here ya go.

The One Where I Am So Confused And Need Some Help

Can someone please help me? I am very confused. I just watched this week's Grey's Anatomy and the dead guy is still there. Why? I don't understand why the dead guy came back. Please, please help! Does anyone else have some insight into this? Am I the only person feeling confused about the freakin' dead guy?

The One Where I Have Random Thoughts And Confessions

I have OCD. When I go grocery shopping I organize the items in my cart. (Poor Zach is getting that, too. I put a bunch of baby food bottles in the cart and he started to turn them upright and place them all in a row in the cart.) When I go to check out I organize my items on the conveyor belt. Milk, water and juice first. Then boxes, cereal, granola bars, frozen waffles, etc. Frozen and cold items next, milk and eggs together, then produce. Non-food items go last. Duplicate items must be next to each other or on top of each other. I want everything bagged in the same way I organize them. I get very irked when the person does it wrong.

During the summer I really like to crank up the A/C. Then I like to open the back door for a warm breeze and sunshine. Very energy-efficient, I know. I should get a prize.

I went to Goodwill for the first time the other day. (First time in my life? Maybe. At least in the past ten years.) I found myself still looking at the clothing labels as I looked through the racks. Like I'm going to find a great bargain on Kenneth Cole or Michael Kors or something. Some habits can't be broken, even at the thrift store.

I have a lot of shoes. I don't wear a lot of them. But if I got rid of them, I'd have less. I love shoes but I don't like feet. Feet aren't cute. They are ugly and stinky. Even yours.

My OCD and ADHD fight a lot. My OCD tells me that I must de-junk, organize and clean. My ADHD tells me that it can wait, nobody cares or it doesn't bother me. This argument goes back and forth often. Unfortunately, my ADHD normally wins.

I have about 50 different colors of eye shadow. I wear the same 3 almost everyday. I hate lipstick. I don't like the word or the product. I also hate the word purse. I never used one until I had Zach. I used a diaper bag and could never go back to just putting my driver's license and credit card in my back pocket and roll out.

I have OCD about grammar. I will re-read emails and posts over and over until I'm satisfied that there aren't any grammatical errors. If I find one later I get upset about it and want to fix it. I fault my mom and grandma for this. They find grammatical errors in everything and I'm becoming that way too. My grammar was always corrected when I was younger and still is.

I don't generally brag about myself. There is a lot about myself that I would change. I have too much hair on my face and arms, I have short, fat fingers, small feet for my height, my nose is too big and my cheeks droop, etc. I could go on and on. But I have great hair (on my head.) It does just about anything and I can normally make it look good in minutes. I do have two cowlicks though which has caused some problems, but generally, it's great hair. And I have a great stylist, which helps.

Jason has been bugging me to lock the blog. So, if I have your email address I'll add you. If you aren't sure that I have it, leave it in the comments or email me (margotbjones@yahoo.com) and I'll add it so you can continue to keep up with the Joneses. Haha, I'm so funny.

I love the little individual size Betty Crocker brownies. They are so good and then I don't eat the whole pan of brownies.

The One Where We Remember Our Heros

Tomorrow is Veteren's Day. Zach had a project for school where we were to write names on a star for each member of our family who has served in the military. We found out our family has a nice little heritage of service members. We are grateful to those who have served and continue to serve our country and fight for our freedom.

Margot's side:

Monty Porter - Army, Active Duty-Iraq or Afghanistan
Michael Porter - Army, Active Duty-Iraq
Kevin Pratt - Army, Active Duty-Iraq
Ray Schilling - Army Special Forces, Paratrooper, and more (a really big pimp)
Lloyd Bishop - Air Force
Raymond Tozer - Army, WWI
Don Bigler - Army Air Corps
Also a couple others fought in the Revolutionary War. My parents were unsure of specifics.

Jason's side

Dave Jones - Army
Steve Jones - Navy, Desert Storm
Jeff Jones - Marines
Paul Jones - Army
Don Leckrone - National Guard, Died during duty
Both Grandpas and a couple more uncles. Jason was unsure of specifics.

The One Where I Was Tagged

Thanks Kathleen. I didn't know I was playing! What's Huit anyway?

Tag8

8 TV shows I watch:

1. Grey's Anatomy
2. Private Practice
3. 24
4. Spongebob/Dora/Diego/Wonderpets/anything Nickelodeon
5. O'Reilly Factor
6. Hannity & Colmes
7. CSI Miami (When I catch it on)
8. CSI New York (When I catch it on)
Ironically I don't watch CSI Las Vegas because I find it too trashy.

8 Things that happened yesterday:

1. Continued my deep dark depression from Tuesday night
2. Started to force myself out of the deep dark depression and decided to just laugh about it
3. Cleaned up some boxes of stuff
4. Eli took three naps
5. Actually went to bed before midnight (like 10pm. WOW!)
6. Ate more Halloween candy
7. Lifted weights and did Yoga
8. Worked

8 Favorite places to eat:

1. Texas Roadhouse
2. Logan's Roadhouse
3. O'Charley's
4. McCallister's (but why do they have to take so long?)
5. Applebee's
6. Scotty's
7. Pizza Hut
8. McDonald's with Zach (well, not a favorite place because of the food.)

8 Things I'm looking forward to:

1. Spring
2. Nap time
3. Going to the temple with a not-expired recommend (nice, right?)
4. Christmas at home
5. Loosing 8 more pounds (I guess I should stop eating that candy)
6. Jason's first paycheck from his new company
7. A really big house with a basement and a 3 car garage and lots of bedrooms and walk-in closets
8. When Zach and Eli can really play together.

8 people I tag: you, you, him, her, you, you, you and you.