sometimes I feel

that the week just needs to come to an end.  I need to close the door and start anew and move on holding on to faith and hope that the next week will be better with less ick and more goodness.

source

It's been one of those weeks full of thanks, disappointment, anger, sadness, surprise, fun, happiness, frustration, irritation, joy, blessings and hope.

Our new double oven/stove decided to stop working Thursday night but thankfully after we had dinner.  We're now without a way to bake anything for approximately a week.  So much for having two ovens - now we have none.  At least the stovetop works.  Good news is that it is still under warranty so it's just an irritating minor inconvenience and how ironic that the reason we got this new oven/stove was because my original one had issues with the control panel but it was too old and they were unable to find a replacement.

Due to the minor inconvenience having no oven has caused, this afternoon Tanner and I decided we needed to head to the market to try and find creative meals for the next few days.  We had to just laugh when we arrived at the big Kroger and found they were having store samplings while being serenaded by a traveling violinist on one side of the store and a grand piano having its ivories played on the other side of the store.  We got full plates of Thanksgiving dinner and salads and drinks and dessert and ham and chicken wings, coffee and sushi.  We hadn't had lunch so we made the best of it and sampled whatever they were willing to dish up.  Tanner made the comment of how he thought that the ambiance of the market was like that of the Titanic right before it started sinking.  The music even actually sounded eerily like it as that traveling violinist made his way around.  I guess he was thinking about the movie the Titanic that he watched on TV a few weeks back.  I remember standing in line at Best Buy at midnight back in 1998 when that movie came out and he was just 4.  There's that issue of time flying again.

I was pleasantly surprised today when I found out I had won this.  I was at the mall reading my e-mail on my phone when I saw that Rebecca had posted a comment on my blog so I went to her blog and saw this.  Having my name "in lights" is the coolest thing ev*ah and I thanked her for that as well.  I ♥ it.  You totally have to go check out Creairtive over on Etsy....she has some adorable stuff and I totally adore these and especially these.

I received my much anticipated Holiday with Matthew Mead magazine in my mail yesterday but didn't get my hot little hands on it until right before hubby and I walked out the door to have dinner with friends.  It's still waiting for me to devour it in its entirety and believe me when I tell you I have been waiting a long, long time for it.  If you want to know more about it check it out here.  Mathew Mead is a genius!  And a little birdy told me an article with NieNie is nestled inside the covers as well.

Today was a good day although still a bit more crazy than I wanted it to be.  I attended my weekly techniques class at Williams-Sonoma this morning.  I believe very strongly that attending is making me a better cook.

I actually remembered and spent 45 minutes in line to get my free $10 mall gift card after cooking class.  I'm a bit behind on my metalsmithing class but I'm confident I'll find some time yet this weekend to play.

It's pretty chilly tonight and we are expecting 31 degrees over night so since my house is clean, the candles are burning and the laundry is basically caught up (honestly, is laundry ever caught up?) I think it's time to curl up with a mug of hot tea and a cozy blanklet (Tanner always called blanket, blanklet and now it's just what we call it around here) with my Holiday magazine.  Need a little me time.  Tomorrow is another busy day.

P.S.  It's day 9 of the {21} challenge.  I've slipped and fell a time or two but I'm picking myself back up and moving forward.  I am worth it.