updated pictures

Bah- ha- HA! Her snout is so long it got cut off in the picture!
She is such a sweet dog. She is really missing all of our Thanksgiving guests though! She has literally been moping around the house, moaning.
No Shave November ends Monday and I guess we'll see Caleb's face again! I actually like the beard. He looks like a Lumberjack. And behind us is proof that I have attempted Christmas Decor this year. I'm pretty proud of my mantle. This is our first year to have a mantle! No more scotch taping our stockings to the TV case, haha!

Midnight Madness at the Outlet Mall. Awesome.

I think we are in a shoe store here at about 3:30 in the morning, Black Friday. Ever since becoming a part of the Butts Family, we have conquered Black Friday shopping. This year was no different. We left our house in Mobile at about 11pm Thanksgiving Day and arrived in Foley around Midnight, joining about 125,000 other shoppers (according to Channel 3 the next day). We shopped like crazy, and I crawled into bed at about 6am.
This pic shows my true colors. I am starting to hit the wall here. Please note the perfection of Amanda's hair. Not fair.

All in all, we got some really great deals and DUM DUM DUM!: I am finished with all my Christmas shopping! It is wrapped and under our tree. By the way, our tree is in the guest bedroom this year. We realized that PJ Joey would probably eat all the ornaments, gifts, etc. Hopefully our Christmas spirit will shine through the guest bedroom.

Not to brag, but the Thanksgiving Dinner I cooked was spectacular.

Caleb cooked this ham. Delish! Every bite is gone now.

This is an attempt at a magazine cover for Martha Stewart. I'll be submitting it for next November's issue.

Mmmmmmmm....

This is our friend Gib. I told him to pose like he's in amazement at the awesomeness before him. Good job Gib.

First use of china from the wedding! Hooray!

All the witty joking aside, we had such a great Thanksgiving. I just realized I took zero pictures of family, just the food I cooked. Geez, Trish. Caleb's family came down and we truly had a wonderful time. We are so extremely blessed.

Class Plays.... Check!

So the Drama Department at my new school is a little more legit than the one at West Point. Every Drama Class at Baker puts on a class play as part of the course. I teach two drama classes and I had to triple cast in order for every student to get some stage action, thus I actually put on six plays. To say that it was sheer chaos is not over exaggerating.

But they are over now. We had our final performances today and I am so thankful to have "birthed" these plays. Not a one was perfect- far from it. The very first performance was so terrifyingly horrible that I looked around the audience to make sure no administrators were in the crowd b/c I felt like surely it would be grounds for FIRING me- it was that bad. The actors got so confused onstage that the lead actress faked a death scene to end the play early.

The realy sad part is that I forgot to take pictures, otherwise, you would laugh your little tails off. Good performances or bad, I just keep telling myself that it is good experience for those kids to conquer their fear of performing onstage. So that is what I have been up to lately- directing 65 teenagers in six productions of "Kiss of Death" and a bizarre version of "Cinderella" (which had a choreographed dance scene I might add).

In other news, the Butts are coming to Thanksgiving tomorrow! Caleb and I just went to the grocery store to get all the ingredients for my first attempt at cooking Thanksgiving Dinner!

I WILL have pictures of the spread, so stay tuned!

Dog People don't do this:

Click here to see more. It is sick.

Lots of new pics!

Check out the blog for new pictures! Click here. Your clicks keep me higher on the Google Business Listing!

Family portraits in a cotton field. So southern and lovely.

And a wedding. Congrats to Mr. and Mrs. Girrard!

New Photography Website!

First of all, THANK YOU IDA for making my request come true! You basically did NOTHING, but twe still got the day off! HIP HIP! (Plus, we get Veteran's Day off tomorrow, so this is turning into a nice little break!)

Since I unexpectedly got the day out of school, I made a new photography website and I want to share the link with everyone!

It is a weird url address, but you should just be able to click here. THANKS for checking it out! I am so pleased with how it looks!

This is what our dog does when her ball rolls under the couch:

Sorry the quality is bad. This is my first go with publishing video on the blog.

Dear Ida

Dear Ida,

Please be serious enough to cancel school for Monday and Tuesday, but not bad enough to cause any major damage.

With Respect,
Tricia

Good Visit.

Mom and Dad came to visit this weekend. I miss them already!

One fun thing we accomplished is we have now tried every seafood restaurant on the Causeway. We ate at Ed's last night, and it may be our favorite!
But for a real accomplishment, Mom and Dad helped me prepare two Thanksgiving Dinner casseroles which are now in the freezer, ready to be heated up on Turkey Day 2009. Due to Caleb's bizarre test schedule this year, there was no way we could travel, so his family is coming to us for Thanksgiving. I am hosting my first Thanksgiving Dinner and very excited about it!

Mom and I planned out the menu, then went and got the ingredients for dressing and sweet potato casserole, two dishes I have never made. It was really fun, the three of us working on everything- my parent's are always so thoughtful. They really are the best. So alas, I hated to see them go this afternoon. sigh.

Caleb returned today from an AMA Conference in Houston, TX. Glad to have him back! PJ Joey was an excellent watch dog I must say.