We’re home safe and sound, thank you Jesus!!! We stayed two nights on the road instead of one, but very worth it! We missed the worst of the blizzard and are so thankful. Colorado was clear, so the last three hours of the trip were great.

My new adventure is prying the bottle away from Anna. Pray for both of us to survive this!!! She is in pretty good shape so far this morning—so pitiful though carrying around an empty bottle! Sleepy-time will tell the tale.

Love you all, Mary

Born in 1955!

We had a great Thanksgiving—hope you all did too. Family, friends, food—you just can’t beat that. It was cold—WE didn’t make it to any beach, but so GLAD for those who did!! Hope there will be pictures to view soon. I’ll try to get mine posted in the near future.

Jeanie and I enjoyed the Thanksgiving Feast like this…the turkey comes out, eat as much as you want while no one is watching. And the dinner rolls are no good unless they are steaming hot, dripping with butter—eat two or three while they’re at their best. By now, the appetite is waning—try the stuffing OR for me, have some scalloped oysters. A cup of coffee fits in nicely also. If there are any sweets sitting around, have a bite or two. Take your time getting the rest of the meal ready—no hurry at this point. Give yourself time to be ready to eat a decent helping with everyone else.

At some point before the natives are too restless, get the stuff on the counter and call everyone around to enjoy. It’s great food, safe for everyone to partake. Afterall, we made the supreme sacrifice by trying it all out when it was steaming hot.

After the feast, a rousing football game between Denver and Dallas gave us a boost. You could immediately tell who the intelligent ones are as we began cheering for our favorite—the great Broncos. Krystyne was brave and actually cheered a bit for the Cowboys when it looked like they might have a chance against our team. But, Denver came through like we knew they would, well we were pretty sure they would!! Anyway, it was a great finish and we could hold our heads high once again.

The icing on the cake had to have been when the doorbell rang and in popped a twin! I felt pretty proud of myself when I recognized him as Jonny! Of course, Kristin wasn’t there, so I had a good hint as to which one it was—I think I actually knew though without that hint.

It was great seeing him. He made my day when he included Denver in one of the two teams he wasn’t so sure about against those BEARS this year. I can’t remember if Denver has ever beaten the Bears, but this would be a nice season for it to happen! He and I did agree that it was just unforgivable of Ditkas to have denied the greatest—my all time favorite player, Walter Payton—-a touchdown in that great super bowl game. Whatever happened to the Fridge anyway????

Thanks, Jonny, for bringing more joy to our already incredible day. The girls and I, Donna, Doris, all of Jeanie’s family and Jonny—-what a group and what a special Thanksgiving!

We’re on our way back to Colorado. Always a bitter-sweet experience. Nice to be in our own setting again, but SO hard to say goodbye to that Iowa/Illinois bunch.

God Bless you all. We love you and appreciate you!

I got so excited about Christmas, I forgot about Thanksgiving. But here it is anyway. It’s too bad I can’t get a coupon for a free Thanksgiving later since I basically forgot about this one. I’d like to take my free Thanksgiving coupon in April. There aren’t enough good holidays in April.

Joe and I are about to pack up our two dogs, my featherbed, my comforter, two down pillows, my quilting stuff (including sewing machine and cords, fabrics, threads, scissors, batting… gotta get those Christmas quilts done), two bottles of wine, my computer, my bag ‘o fun work to do (this is no small bag), my computer cord, cell phone charger, blackberry charger, camera charger, dog food, two dog beds, my toothbrush, a pair of jeans and some PJs, so we can head up to his family’s ranch for the next four days. I don’t know what we’ll do when we have kids. I guess they’ll have to ride in the back of the truck.

Before we embark on this Internet-free Thanksgiving adventure, I want to make sure everyone has checked out our Thanksgiving Menu 2004. For those who don’t know, this Menu is exactly what we had for Thanksgiving dinner last year. And save for the Cheesecake, Prime Rib, and Buttermilk pie, is exactly what we have had for Thanksgiving dinner every year for the last 30 years.

The story behind The Menu is thus: Last year, for the first time ever, My Mother agreed to let me host Thanksgiving at my house. However, in May, she started to regret this choice and became very afraid that we would not get it quite right. For starters, I decided I would serve Prime Rib instead of turkey. A big 6 bone aged prime rib. Yum. Of course, this is because nobody in my family eats poultry… except Mom. Mom grew up on a farm, which, among other things, was a Turkey Farm. When I told the family over the phone about the prime rib… there were cheers of delight… and my Mother started to cry. Well, we couldn’t have that. And she wasn’t going to let us. So the calls began. Every Saturday morning. Beginning in the Spring. Have you written the menu yet? You will have Oyster Dressing for your dad? You know it’s awful, but he loves it. The twins will not live unless the green bean casserole is there. Do you have the recipe? Isn’t it on the can? Apparently not. And the calls continued, until I promised to write it all down. Which I did. And lost. Many times. And this continued for months. Until I typed it up and sent it to her for approval. She then called every day beginning in late October to ensure that I had ordered the ingredients (yes, I am super lazy and have my groceries delivered to my house. So what. My mom thought it was cool.) But, nevertheless, she showed up with all of the non-perishable ingredients (and some perishable ones as well) in their car — three days before Thanksgiving. That’s when she wanted to start cooking. And she did. But Mom, I have to woooork. Work can wait. Alrighty then. So, one by one, the siblings and spouses arrived. All 12 of us cozy in my three bedroom Victorian in the heights. That was exciting. And we cooked and cooked and laughed and laughed. And we had so. much. fun. And that was the last time we were all together before my mom went to dance with the angels. And she made sure we had The Perfect Thanksgiving Menu when she went.

So, have a great, safe, blessed, and Very Happy Thanksgiving Everyone. And eat your Turkey. It’s good for you.

Greetings from Muscatine, and to be more specific, JEANIE’S KITCHEN! Just couldn’t stay away too long.

Krys, Amanda, Anna, Angie Dog, and I arrived a few days early to celebrate Thanksgiving with our family here. We have already shared wonderful moments with our loved ones. Along with the locals, we have spent time with Jim, Matt, and Jamie–a special treat for me to be here at the same time they are.

Jeanie’s Kitchen is always buzzing and rich with great aromas. Every meal is an event. Joshua tells me a different story about this kitchen when there are no visitors. He makes it sound so pitiful. I’m thinking someone should drift through here on a regular basis to make sure he is getting enough good food to keep him healthy (I’m actually not seeing any evidence that he’s suffered, but it sounds dangerous to his health by the way he tells it).

We are having a great time—as usual—and plan to stay till after Thanksgiving. Plans are to head out of here on Saturday after the event—we should be able to move by then. The girls MUST be back to school by Monday, so it will be critical to get out of here in time to make it. Yes, we are driving—well, not really WE, truth is I’M driving so it takes an overnighter at a motel for me to make it safely.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all (in case I don’t get back on here before then). We love you and are very thankful for every moment we get to spend with you—in person OR through the blog.

Love to all, Mary–Krys–Amanda–Anna–Angie

Born in 1980!

I’ll have to do the quick update a day early. Tomorrow morning Joe & I are catching the early bird to Chicago to a good friend’s wedding (which is tomorrow night). Note to self: buy coat and gloves today… and flannel lined dress for wedding.) Everybody in our clan seems to be doing well. I did Not have to travel this week… yea! so the cold weather came to me. It is 43 degrees in Houston this morning. And that seems pretty cold to me. We roasted a couple chemical logs in the fireplace last night for good measure. Yes, I said fireplace. No, I don’ t know why we have one. But, may as well use it. Michelle, Joe & I have been slammed at work this week… in fact, I need to get to work in the next 30 seconds or so… Dad reports that he has been to “New York, L.A., Denver and Chicago. SanFrancisco, Tampa and Orlando….and a lot of points in between” this week… sounds fun! The other kids are doing well… making Thanksgiving plans… etc. We are trying to organize a little Frieden 7 event at my house in December to celebrate the birth of Michelle. We’re starting to get comfortable with the fact that she really is our sister. Michelle claims: (a) that any talk of Christmas before December 8th is just rude to birthday; but (b) she does NOT want a party. Hello, Rock. Hello, Hard place. So, party it is!! Have a great weekend everyone. p.s. Check out the friedenfarm website in the next day or so. Special holiday edition coming soon.

Born in 1979!

click here– to see our at home diaper changing/babysitting practice session. Yes thats a baby monitor on his belt loop!

The link to shutterfly is complicated. At least the only way I know how to do it. Ready? O.K. This is what I do. (you are going to want to print this page before you try it).

Go to Shutterfly.
Log in as you.
Click the “Share OnLine” Tab at the top.
Find the Picture you want to share.
Click “share this picture” on the top right side.
1. How would you like to share these pictures? Click “as a single album”
2. Invite friends and family to view these albums? Type in your email address here.
In the “subject” line — type in the subject … e.g. “Wine Spill!!”
Click “Share Now” on the top right.
Then STOP!!!
You will be taken to a page that says (helpfully): PICTURES SHARED SUCCESSFULLY!!!
Then right under that message it will say (very important):
Your message has been sent with the following link to access your shared pictures:

share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AZN2bVq3cNGZ_ (or some sort of address like this)

Then you must highlight that address that appears. E.g.: share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AZN2bVq3cNGZ_

Once highlighted, you must hit CONTROL + C (this will copy the address)

Then, go to the Blog. And type in your message. Then on the part of your message you want to link to the picture — highlight it.

Then, while the text is highlighted… click “Link” in the “Quicktags” part right under the title of the post.

A little “explorer user prompt” box will appear with a box that says: http://

Click right after the // and hit CONTROL + v. This will paste the address in the prompt box.

Then Click OK. Your “Write Post” message will now include a bunch of strange code around the words you had highlighted. That’s good!!

Then continue typing your message and hit “Publish” — and you should be all set.

Now wasn’t that easy. I’ve tried it here by highlighting “click here” and then clicking on “link” and posting the address to the WINE SPILL…. CLICK HERE