Shannon and now Jess have helped me do a my space page and unless they are here I really won’t know what I am doing.  But hey I have one.  What is the purpose fof these things any way?

Here it is if I know how to link yet.  Otherwise here it is www.myspace.com/nikkihenson

Oh what a meal.  The dinner was as perfect as was the conversation.  We have plenty of leftovers!!  I sickened Carol and Shannon with my turkey deconstruction technique.  They eventually took the bird from me.  My mom would have been so disappointed with the amount of meat they made me leave on the bone.

We had such fun today, always silly when Jessica is around.  It’s gold when Gregg and Jess go at each other.  Everyone had a great sense of humor and lots of double intendres were flying.  At one point my side hurt.  The kids were a dream.  We didn’t have one single episode all day.  It is so nice when they ll get along and no one get hurts.

We are suppose to walk over to the outlet mall later tonight.  The Polo store is open at midnight.  We were thinking of taking our Baileys and hitting the Starbucks at the mall and ”pub crawling” for some deals.  Yeah, right now Jess and I are the only ones ready but we still have 2 1/2 hours to go.  Our party is dwindling, or is passing out the more PC thing to say? 

So far the deals I have seen in the circulars are not that great.  Please if anyone finds any great deals tomorrow please tell us.  I almost think this is an urban legend.  Now I can vouch for the day after Xmas sales.  Neimans and Saks are some places that you can get SERIOUS sales the day after xmas.  Of course I was always shopping for baby clothes.  I can’t remember the last time I bought something for myself that wasn’t for attending a wedding.  Can I get an Amen from the other new mothers!

I hope everyone had a GREAT thanksgiving.  We just want to say we are so thankful to be back in Texas and back with great friends(not that any friends in Detroit sucked but hey come visit us already!).

Hey here we are!  Shannon is cooking away LOL!  Carol is watching and I am trying to find my drink.  Jessica is along for moral support.  We are having a blast here talking and cooking.  I think the Lions are losing but we are really ready for the Cowboy game.

The kids have been a dream.  They are soo good and quiet ahhhh.  And the guys aren’t bad either.

It is nice and chilly.  Of course I say that tongue in cheek(hate the cold).  We had a cold front come in last night.  At 2 it was 84 degrees and at 5 it was 50 degrees.  BRRRRRR

I hope all is well in Detroit.  I miss the Wednesday night at Union Street and watching the parade set up.  I especially miss running around the parade course and climbing on the floats.  Amatuer night downtown was one of my most favorite memories.

That is the sound you will hear coming from my house today.  I am fortunate enough to have great friends coming for dinner tomorrow.  We will be enjoying the company of the Sippels(Steve, Carol, Justin, Nathan, and Colin), Mike and Shannon, and Miss Jessica.  I bought a 25 lb. turkey so hopefully we will have plenty of leftovers.  I have been very busy getting ready for company.  It has finally forced me to unpack!  Yeah we moved in at the end of August but it was a slow process.  This really made me step up and finally find a place for everything.  I’ve even hung up pictures!

I got a lot of comments about the Bachelor.  Sure he is marketing himself but I am sick of him.  If he is on the bachelor again they won’t even get 2 minutes out of my viewing pleasure.  I’m ready for Lost already and don’t even get me started on Heroes(I haven’t watched Monday’s episode yet so shhhhhhh).  We can write more on those shows later as I love to hear others takes on Lost.

I think it is official Drew Peterson is a bigger sociopath than Scott Peterson.  His latest media blitz is the topper.  He is blaming his wife’s disappearance on her PMS.  It appears her PMS is always HIS undoing.  She is depressed during that time.  She always tells him she wants a divorce around that time.  Then a week later she is fine and his life is fine.  WOW could this person twist it even more to look like he is the wronged man.  Classic sociopath move.  These crazies don’t even know that they are making themselves look guilty instead they think they are so smart and fooling the public.  Where in the hell is this guy’s attorney.  I would have shut him up a long time ago.  Mark Geragos was goodhe didn’t let Scott Scott talk to any press.  Looks like Drew will fry for the third wife especially with the autopsy that Michael Baden performed.  Only the SUPER RICH get not guilty for murder.

Lastly a great big congratulations to Brandon for passing his test!  This means big things for the Jones family!!  You guys deserve the best.  WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I watched the bachelor last night.  Had to check out the local guy and see how he scored.  Now I only watched a total of 90 minutes including the 60 minute finale.  That is time I will never get back.  The first time I watched I thought he was a really nice guy.  He seemed genuine.  Then another episode I caught he was all upset because he didn’t give a girl a rose and she cried hysterically so he followed her outside.  At that point I thought, oh y he has some issues.  Then I saw the fianle and noticed there was no father figure there to meet the girls just his bros and mom.  I’m sure there is a story there  and probably would give great insight into what he did last night.

Now if I were either of these girls I would be pissed.  That D girl said they had even talked about her moving to Austin and stuff.  Why would this loser even talk about that with the girl if he didn’t even plan on taking her with him.  That trip to the ring store was stupid as well.  I’m sure he didn’t just decide on the altar that he didn’t want either one.

At the end of taping I would have loved it if ABC would have said, “OK dude you wasted our time and you owe us for the expenses of bringing __# of girls to whereever they were and all the trips we paid for.”  Any of you men out there want to try out for this show.  You can sleep with all of them, have girls cry and fight over you, and get to go on fabulous trips.  And in the end you don’t even have to promise to think about marrying one.

If any of you are reading the comments you will see one reason that Detroit is the scariest city.  Tha would be a poster that affectionately calls himself d***head.  I left his post up so you can see how SOME, not all, people from Detroit can not let go of my husband.  Now this person has to come on to MY blog and spew his hatred.  I left his post so you can see the extent of his education.  For now on I will delete this special person’s post without even looking. 

I was hoping I didn’t have to moderate a family blog.  Thanks!

Here is one thing I will serve before the turkey.

This is a recipe from my favorite Mag….Rachel Ray.  If you don’t get this mag it is great!!!!!!!

3 ounces vodka

2 ounces apple schnapps

1/4 cup apple cider

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoond cinnamon

1)  Fill cocktail shaker halfway with ice cubes.  Add the vodka, schnapps, and cider.  Shake well

2)  In a shallow bowl mix the sugar and cinnamon.  Moisten the rims of 2 champagne flutes and coat with the cinnamon sugar.  Strain the cocktail into the flutes.

WellMy little man is off to the races this week.  I think he is trying to break a worlds record for how many times you can make pee come out.  Does anyone know the record because I am pretty sure Coop is almost there.  Now I am very proud of my little guy but he had me get him out of bed three times the other night to go pee.  He has also done something even his bigger brother has yet to do…..Poop in the potty.  Once he did it the first time he acted VERY strange.  OK well maybe it’s not normal for mom to bring the pot with poop into the livingroom to show grandma on the webcam, but he didn’t have to look at me like that.  As a matter of fact I caught him hiding in a corner.  He wanted to be no where near the little log.  I did finally flush it with an audience at a safe distance.

I guess this poop thing isn’t a fluke either because he did it again today.  Well sort of…..  I guess he started off on the pot down here but decided to take his show on the road and continued upstairs in front of his TV.  He was horrified at the mess he made and demanded I come up and clean it right away!

I hope he continues the good fight and gets Noah on his team.

Oh and why do dogs not eat their own poop but do ……..nevermind!

It seems all the buzz is that Detroit is the unsafest city to live.  Maybe I am prejudice or just familiar with Detroit but I found Camden, New Jersey far scarier.  I got on the Ben Franklin Bridge by accident one day and ended up in Camden since it was the first exit after crossing the river.  I was frantically trying to find my way back to the huge bridge that loomed overhead.  That area was SCARY.  I followed signs to the Rutgers campus and asked a student how to get back.  I hadn’t been scared to be in a city in a LONG time.  I think it is all the cramped row house living that makes it seem scary.  Some subdivisions in Detroit you could shoot a cannon down and not hit a person.  In the area of Camden I was in there were tons of people just hanging out on the stoop and in the streets.

I didn’t see the full list.  I would love to see where the suburbs rank since most in MI don’t live in Detroit.  I did see on the news that Round Rock, Texas came in as the 13th saftest city!!  Go Round Rock!

I had many people ask me about the Jungle Java(Junglejavaplay.com) and where we stand.  We have selected our site and should be signing a lease hopefully by Wednesday.  I have my designer/architect and contractor all ready to go.  They said they can have it up and running in 3 months.  They are fast here in Texas but I am allowing for extra time since we also have to have the gym people come in and install the playscape.  I will be back in Michigan probably in Feb. for a few weeks for some training in the Farmington store.  But in the mean time I have lots of busy work to do.  The boys start their new Stepping Stone School on Jan.7th.  We have been watching them build it in our sub for the last 3 months and I think they are getting excited.  I’ll give you more updates on the progress as we go along.

What I love about Texas…..

1)The weather is GREAT!  Some people think that it gets too hot here.  Yes it does get hot july-sept. but it still isn’t as bad as a hot humid day in MI.  The locals think there is some humidity here but there really isn’t compared to MI and PA.  I also don’t think there are that many people without AC.  However it is not unusual to see people with their windows down when it is 115 out.  I guess there blood has thinned WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY out.  And never underestimate the power of the swimming pool.  Every subdivivion has at least one community pool.  All that aside I realy like the 80 degree Novembers.

2)There is always something to do.  Nice weather means there is always something going on downtown.  My favorites are the bat fest and kite day.  I wish Detroit had had more going on.  I loved the winter blast we attended but they only really promoted that because of the Super Bowl the following year.  More than half my students in Farmington had never been downtown.

3)Affordability.  Everything is cheaper here and there is no income tax.  The last time I filled up gas was $2.85.  A pack of ciggarettes will cost you $4.  Not that I care anymore now that I have been smoke free for 3 weeks!  Our house is 3,000 sq. ft., built in 2005, backs the seventh hole(with beautiful water views), terrific kitchen and only costs $250,000.  Ya can’t beat those prices.

4)Friendly people.  Oh you know a texan when you meet one.  These are the people that will say yes maam or no maam to you no matter  how old they are.  It is too cute.  Such a polite group yet I felt old when a 22 year old boy was talking to me and kept answering my questions about the area(College Station) with yes maam, no maam.  The non natives are nice because I think they are just happy to be here.  Had that same sense when I lived in Colorado.

5)Guns.  Ok this may seem a bit shocking but I love a state that allows you to shoot a person trying to enter your home.  Heck  the cops can’t even do that.  I don’t even think any police officer can really say stop or I will shoot anymore.  In my happy little world if a cop yells stop or I shoot.  I stop.  Don’t worry mom I haven’t gone out and bought a gun.  But I’m sure this guy’s neighborhood won’t have as many break ins.  And yes I would be able to shoot another person.  Let’s just say that enough forensic files and having been in an armed robbery have given me new insight into my preservation instinct.

OK I am having a problem with my links.  Sorry.