The Saturday 7

1. You guys. A celebrity commented on my blog last week!! Remember I wrote about the Pepper Basham book I read and didn't like as much as some of her others so I didn't leave a Goodreads review? She commented on my blog! Pepper, if you're reading this, I love you. Not only because you're an incredible writer, but also because you have an awesome name. I've been a Dr Pepper devotee for over 20 years and have an affinity for all things Pepper-related.

My local library is part of a collective with 19 branches. If you can't find a book in their system, you can request they buy it. You can thank me for all of these being added to the collection:

2. We had a nice Thanksgiving with Justin's side of the family. I made a delicious sweet potato casserole full of sugar and marshmallows. We had all the traditional Thanksgiving favorites. But I think my favorite thing was a cheesy Brussels sprouts gratin. I heart Brussels sprouts. We had an intense Wizard tournament, in which I emerged the champion (and won $10!). Levi adored Jordan and Karla's dog. The girls had a blast playing with their cousin. Justin got to watch the Lions game in peace. And then his mom made us dinner, too! #fatandhappy

Training them young

Both the dog and the boy moved too much for my camera to handle. Haha.

3. For the second year in a row I didn't go Black Friday shopping! My sisters and I always used to brave the masses, but now we can get everything online, so we don't even bother with the cold and the crowds. Part of me misses it, but most of me likes sleeping and having my packages shipped to my door. The good news is that I'm almost done with my shopping! I need a couple more things for the girls and a couple things for our parents, but other than that, I think I'm done! With one month to spare!

4. Today was the one day a year that I work outside the home. For the past many years my sisters and I have worked at our cousin's store the Saturday after Thanskgiving so they can have a family day. We all worked there legitimately at some point in our lives, but now we only work this one day. So we don't know where anything is and only know the bare necessities of running the register. It's always an adventure! Lol. But we always have a blast together. I love that we can be together for 6 hours and never run out of things to talk about (and laugh about!).

I'm so jealous of Niki's blue eyes!

5. Last night the girls went to my brother and sister-in-law's house for a sleepover and Justin went to a basketball game with his dad. So after I put Levi to bed, I climbed into bed and read in glorious peace and quiet. Levi is an amazing sleeper, and goes to sleep 30 seconds after I lay him down. The girls . . . not so much . . . And you know that Justin is always trying to talk my ear off. ;-) Like I said last week, I wouldn't want that kind of peace and quiet every day, but it sure is nice once in a while!! (And I may have stayed up until 2 a.m. to finish the book I started. #noselfcontrol)

6. My computer's about to die, so I'm going to throw up some pictures and call it good. We had an impromptu photo session on Wednesday:

Somehow Levi's initials made their way onto my steering wheel. Surprising since he can't write . . .