Thanksgiving Review

Some years I go a little overboard on Thanksgiving, and cook way to many different dishes and get all stressed out and tired. Last year we ordered our dinner from Brothers Barbecue because Jack was only a week old and I still made some side dishes and desserts. I think my problem is that I feel the need to cook the traditional stuff, and also whatever I want. This year I decided to limit myself to one or the other. I read a delicious looking recipe for brussel sprouts, but the majority of eaters wouldn't have liked it, I didn't make it. But instead of making a pumpkin or pecan pie, I made a chocolate chip pie. Yum!

In Summary:

Turkey: Ordered from Brothers again. It was delicious. But it was supposed to be reheated for 1-1.5 hours and it wasn't done after 1.5 hours so that was annoying. Next year: start reheating earlier. The turkey was really moist and delicious.
Mashed Potatoes: I roasted two heads of garlic and added them with a spoon full of sour cream, a T of butter and some salt and pepper to a little less than 3 lbs of potatoes. Yum.
Green Bean Casserole: The old standard with the french fried onions. Luke said it made him feel like he was going to throw up. Otherwise, enjoyed by all.
Cranberries: From Domino Mag. A big hit. Really big.
Stuffing: From Domino Mag: This recipe called for cooked chestnuts, but didn't give any hint as to how to cook the chestnuts. Well, I roasted them. So once I added my cooked chestnuts, and then cooked the stuffing... Let's just say that it led to a really detailed discussion on dental mishaps. If you avoided the chestnuts, it was really good though. It may have been better suited to being cooked as real stuffing, inside the bird.
Chocolate Chip Pie: Yum.

Colorado Native

Growing up in Ohio, I do not recall a lot of people driving around with Ohio Native bumper stickers. There just wasn't that desire to distinguish yourself as someone whose parents chose to give birth to you in Ohio from people who parents gave birth to him/her in another state. I am not really sure what all the fuss is about, but I was thinking about it today as I took a picture of my own little Colorado native:

From Thanksgiving

Jack Reviews the Cranberry Recipe

OK, Mom. I'll try a bite of cranberry.

From Thanksgiving

What's that? What are you asking? Do I like the cranberries?

From Thanksgiving

Yes, I do. I do like the cranberries.

From Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

Last year on Thanksgiving, I was so overwhelmed with emotion during grace that I almost started to cry. I was so thankful that baby Jack had finally arrived. And so, so,so full of crazy new mom hormones. But I feel the same way this year. I am so thankful for my wonderful family, friends and neighbors. Thank you!

And I was looking for a wonderful picture of my family, and I decided on this one because of that joie de vivre!

Circle, Star, Star, Star

The Target toy catalog has been floating around the house lately, and I told Luke it would be a big help if he circled a few ideas for me, so I could share them with relatives. He pretty much circled everything in the book that wasn't pink. Then I said, "OK, how about this? Put a star next to the three things you want the most." Minutes later, in anguish, he turned to me and said, "I have already starred 10 things I just JUST got to the Star Wars Lego page!" So I said, "Put two stars next to the three things that you want the most." Long story short, everything in the book (that isn't pink) now has three stars next to it. Three stars and some initials. The initials (D, J, M) stand for things that Luke would like, but that aren't worth one of his precious three stars.

I started a conversation about picking a family charity by saying, "What are you concerned about? What do you want to fix in the world? Are you worried about animals? People not having enough food?" He said, "I am worried about kids not having enough toys." So he wants to donate some baby toys. I think we have a ways to go with this philanthropy thing.

529 Plan

Sadly, although it was caught on video, the video was not saved. So only Dave and Grandad and 20 cheering spectators witnessed Luke's stunts in the terrain park at Copper today.

I've been filing all the investment statements, including the college funds, without even looking lately. But I just decided not to worry because maybe Luke will go to college on a skiing scholarship!

Um, yeah. So Jack is walking. A little.

I had big plans to have a splashy, exciting title, and a video to match to announce the precious baby steps. But Jack and his walking can be very elusive. I have yet to capture one tiny little wobble. Two weeks ago Dave said, "Jack took a bunch of steps. He was holding on, but only to the hair on my legs." And since then, Jack has progressed from a half step to a step. Then two steps. At his birthday party, Jack tried to go from the chair to the ottoman with a quick break wrapped around my legs, but I stepped out of the way and he probably took four steps to show off for his guests.

At our house he seems to have the whole crawling thing down, but if I had taken my camera out with me on Saturday night, I would have videoed steps galore, because I think Jack felt the need to work on running in order to keep up with Luke, Scarlett and Stella.

Momtrepreneur

Jack has a booger situation. Just lots of boogers. And he doesn't like to have his nose wiped. If he sees you coming with any form of washcloth, tissue, or even napkin he hides his face and it's all over. The best method is usually to hold him in one arm, and sort of trap his hands and wrestle him to the ground with the other arm wielding a wet washcloth. But if I miss, which I do about 80% of the time, then I get a shoulder full of mucus. My latest invention idea (said as if I have ever before come up with an invention) is a terry cloth shoulder/arm band that could act as a secondary mucus receptacle. Or could at least protect my clothing.

In fact, the other day at work someone was talking about which of their kids had the highest fever, and how bad they felt, when I moved as far away as I could in a tiny conference room and then refused to use their pen. I tried to make light of my germaphobia by saying, "No seriously, I just decided I didn't really need a pen after all! I have a little Howard Hughes thing going on. And I probably even have boogers on my shirt, ha ha." Hair toss, non-crazy smile.

"Yeah, you do. I can see it from here."

Eww.

So today I put a warm wet washcloth over my shoulder and went after Jack with a kleenex. He nuzzled right into the washcloth, yanked his head back and then burrowed into another, unwashclothed covered part of my arm, spreading the wealth all over the place. And I had a wet shoulder. So now I just have to go for plan C: wear t-shirts and do a lot of laundry, and brace myself for a long winter.

Namoblopo

I don't think this whole posting everyday thing is for me, since I am just putting up a lot of pictures, and I rarely have time to write anything. But this is a really cute picture, right?

Attack of The Killer Babies

I found out on Thursday that my dear, sweet Jack has been attacking other babies at the daycare. Apparently he picks one out and makes a bee line for him/her, and, if he can make before anyone gets to him, he climbs on top of the other baby and bounces. The teachers have been encouraging him to climb on top of a teddy bear and bounce on it, which I guess isn't as fun because there is no screaming, crying, and general mayhem. I would be freaking out about having a bully instead of a baby, but we went through the exact same thing with Luke and he turned out to be a nice, little gentleman.

But we do need to tone down the horseplay at home, I guess. And no more hysterical laughter when he attacks his brother. But they do look so cute together when they wrestle.

Last Post About the Pumpkin Cake

The bake sale raised $980 which is extremely exciting. And I would say at least $100 of that came from the sale of my cake. Ok, maybe not.

It's Not That He is Jealous, It's Just That He Doesn't Want Luke on Your Lap

Today after dinner we were all playing with this cool shake-up car. Dave and Jack were at one end of the hallway and Luke and I were at the other. We took turns shaking up the car and watching it go, then sending it back to each other. New batteries really turned things up a notch with that car. At one point, it went careening down the stairs, shook itself up on the way, hit the landing and took off again. Hilarity ensued.

And then Luke sat on my lap. And from across the room there was this ungodly yell. A roar almost. It came out of a one year old that was crawling like the wind, at speeds never before clocked in our living room. And that one year old was coming straight at us. He climbed right up Luke's body, over his head and onto my lap where he started pushing Luke as far away has he could. Which wasn't far, because Jack has short arms, and Luke wasn't going anywhere, so there was lots of yelling, pushing, and laughing. Luke and I were shaking with laughter. When I got my breath I said, "Jack never struck me as the jealous type." And Dave said, "It's not that he's jealous. He just doesn't want Luke on your lap."

All this took place under wafts of pumpkin cake aroma. I took a picture, but why bother getting it off my camera, when it looks exactly like this?

The Crazy Cook

Fresh on the heels of my birthday party culinary successes, I am planning to participate in my first school bake sale. So far I am $15.00 in the hole, and I haven't even purchased any ingredients. But I love to bake, and I needed an excuse to buy a 9" spring form pan. My excuse? Oh, I was trying to take it up a notch, so at Andrea's advice I took myself to the cake supply store to get myself a cake box or five. (What else was I supposed to do? Put the cake on a paper plate and cover it with plastic wrap? No, I am seriously asking, what do I do with the cake?) The cake supply proprietress was sort of bossy as I was interrupting her soaps on the 13" rabbit ear set. I said, "I think I have a 9 pan." And before I knew it I was out the door with my 10" cake box. Alas, during the practice cake run, I determined that I have a 10" pan, thus rendering the cake box totally useless. Dave suggested I just bake the cake in the pan that I have and then trim the edges so it will fit in the box. Are you kidding me Dave? So today I bought a 9" pan, which increases the challenge because now my practice run means nothing. New pan, new size, new cooking time.

Wish me luck!

More Birthday Pictures

This car came with 25 balls. And we decided that wasn't enough. Dave wanted to get 7000, and fill up the whole basement, but I put my foot down at 200.

From Jack's birthday

At the party, there was some present opening pandemonium:

From Jack's birthday

This one is very fun, and tasty:

From Jack's birthday

Speaking of tasty, I had some problems with the snake calzone.

From Jack's birthday

But the rest of the pizzas turned out well:

From Jack's birthday

And then the big kids went downstairs and left the little ones to yell down the stairs at them:

From Jack's birthday

Birthday Bash

To quote one of the party guests, "Wow! The cakes look good. Last time you made these we couldn't even tell what they were!"

From Jack's birthday

Did the birthday boy enjoy his cake?

From Jack's birthday

Yes, he did.

From Jack's birthday

Right up until we had to hit the eye wash station:

From Jack's birthday

I think the rest of the guests enjoyed their cake too:

From Jack's birthday

And it certainly didn't make anyone go crazy from too much sugar:

From Jack's birthday

Coming tomorrow - present pictures!

One Year Ago Today (Continued)

One year ago today at 12:30 am I was propped up on the couch, cursing Dave’s cough, and my incessant heart burn, and watching Harold and Kumar go to White Castle. I fell asleep at some point and then I woke up at 5:00 am and went back to bed.

At 6:30 I woke up again and I thought maybe I’d be having a baby that day. It was in fact, pretty obvious that I would be having a baby that day but for a while it didn’t sink in. I thought, “Hmm. Maybe?” I decided it was the perfect situation because I could leisurely get ready for work/the hospital rather than rushing around in the middle of the night. I took a shower and finished packing my bags and looked forward to getting Luke off at school and finalizing the plans for where he’d be staying that night. Then Dave woke up and I told him my water had broken. His eyes sort of bugged out and he got up and read the child birth preparation pages that I had book marked for him.

I called the Dr. around 7:30 and she said I should meet her in the office at 9am. I said, "OK, sounds good, but I have a feeling that I might have a fast labor. Nothing is happening now, but if it changes, you need to be really close to the hospital." I don't think she really took me seriously.

So I did a little work, sent some e-mails, (including one that said if I didn’t dial into the 10:3o meeting it was because I was at the hospital) while Dave took Luke to school and then we left to get coffee on the way to the hospital. Unfortunately, while Dave was taking a picture outside the coffee shop the line had grown out the door. Dave wanted me to play the labor card but I didn't feel like announcing to everyone at the coffee shop that my water had broken so we just left.

The doctor gave me the option of going home for a while or just checking into the hospital because I was only 3 cm and not really contracting. We hate to waste gas, so we stayed.

The Dr. also said, "Since your water broke, we want to have this baby within 24 hours, so after 12 hours we'll want to start pitocin, so we'll do that this afternoon." I thought to myself, "Yeah right. I am not doing that, but no sense fighting with her now because the baby will probably be here by this afternoon."

So Dave went with me to labor and delivery and got me into a room and then he left to get coffee. I called Andrea while I waited for a nurse to come in and I said, "Hi – I am 3 centimeters can you pick up Luke from day care?" The answer was no because one of her kids had pneumonia and she was at the hospital too. Fortunately, Dave had already talked to our plan B at daycare that morning and they were prepared. I got off the phone with Andrea at 10:45 and then I started having contractions.

My nurse was a thousand years old and t a l k e d and m o v e d really s l o w l y which was really annoying. She made me get an IV right away, which if I should have declined if I was 100% serious about natural child birth. That took forever and a day and hurt! and I just wanted to be in the tub. (With Luke the Jacuzzi was the key to managing my labor.) Finally the nurse finished the IV and monitored me forever while she filled the tub with what I would consider to be cold water. I finally got to get in the tub and Dave sat there with his coffee and went to turn the heat up every five seconds when I asked him to. I kept letting water out and filling it up more with hot water, but it wasn't really working for me like it did last time. Finally, I said, "Listen, finish that coffee and get some gum because the coffee smell is killing me." That made us think things were getting serious so I got out and had the nurse check me. She said I was 4 cm. I was like, "That's it? What the?" That was at about 11:30. This may have been around the time that I said to myself, “What am I trying to prove? I’ve already had one natural childbirth, I know I am awesome.”

Then I sat in a rocking chair and breathed through my contractions for about 15 minutes before I said, "I want an epidural." Dave did absolutely everything right from the standpoint of the coach of someone who wants natural childbirth. He convinced me to get through 3 more contractions; he relaxed me by touching areas that were tense and saying, "relax your arms right here" etc. Halfway through a contraction he'd say. "30 more seconds." But after each contraction I would say, "I really want an epidural."

So he said, "If you want an epidural, you push the button for the nurse." So I did.

The nurse said she had to check me first, which she did and I was at 6cm. She paged the anesthesiologist, and then I guess she went to lunch because I didn't see her for about an hour.



Finally the anesthesiologist got there and I said, "How long is this going to take?" He said, "About 10 minutes for the procedure and 10 minutes for this to take affect." And I said, "That is 10 contractions, please hurry." Then he was telling me all the risks, asking me all the questions and I was like, "Yes no, yes yes, that's fine, where do I sign?" He said, "how far along are you? " And I said. "6" and he said, "That far? I'll give you a little bit of a spinal and you'll feel some relief right away." I was feeling a ton of pressure and really intense contractions but I decided to keep that to myself lest someone decide it was too late for an epi. I also noticed my toes were curling with each contraction, and I remember being 10 cm with Luke and waiting for the midwife to show up so I could push and hearing a nurse say, "I can tell when the contraction is at its peak because her toes curl."

Then just as the needle went in I thought, "I hope I didn't just make a big mistake." Then my legs started to feel tingly and I laid down and opened my eyes for the first time in half an hour and I took a deep breath and said, “Ah, I feel so much better.”

I got to relax for 30 seconds before the nurse said, "I can't get a pulse on the baby, roll on your side." And of course the exact thing happened with Luke but I was already 10 cm so they vacuumed him out. At this point I didn’t know how far along I was and I was thinking, "I am going to need an emergency c section." The nurse was now t a l k i n g in slow motion, "Hmm. No still no pulse. Try rolling to the other side. Hmmm. No." And I was thinking, "I made a huge mistake" And I felt like I was going to cry. And she said, "Try pushing, maybe he is so low I just can't get a reading." And then, "Quit pushing, he is crowning, and I don’t want to deliver the baby myself." So I laid there while she called the Dr. and when she arrived, the nurse said, "He's crowning." And the Dr. said, "Hold on I just need to put on gloves." And the nurse said, "He's coming out." And then I saw the Dr. throw a gown on and run across the room and the next thing I knew she was holding up a baby and he cried right away.

Then I started crying for real.

They put him right on my chest immediately and I didn't even notice anything else because I was holding my baby and I was totally in love.

Then the anesthesiologist came in and said, "Well, you should be feeling that epidural now. How are you feeling. I just stared at him, as did Dave and the Dr. and the three nurses. Then he said, "Wait, is that the? Did you have the baby already?" So that was funny.

And then Jack and I just snuggled for an hour and it was a very blissful beginning.

One Year Ago Today

One year ago, on November 14^th, I went into work feeling achy and sore. I decided to schedule a massage, and I made an appointment for the next day at 2:30. Then I ran into my friend Laura, who was stopping by to visit with her 6 week old and she said, "You look totally different, did the baby just drop?" I said that I thought so. Then she said that another co-worker who was standing right had said that she knew she was about to go into labor because she felt like she had a bowling ball between her knees. The other co-worker acted horrified and denied ever having said anything of the sort. To be fair, the other co-worker has an accent and I only understand about 25% of what she says, so I am sure all the embarrassment and misunderstanding wasn't Laura’s fault.

About an hour after I scheduled my massage, I had this thought: “I will be so mad if I go into labor and miss my massage and then have to pay the cancellation fee.” So I rescheduled for that afternoon, and I felt so much better afterwards that when I got home I ripped the cellophane off my pre-natal yoga CD and vowed to do it every night until the baby came.

Then, as we were doing our bimonthly frantic house pick up because the cleaners were due the next day, I really started thinking about the ideal day for the baby to arrive. I said, "I hope the baby is born on Dec 1 because then my time off will stretch out more because of the holidays." And then, "I hope the baby is born on the November 28^th because then all the boys will have birthdays on the 28th.” Then, "I hope the baby is born on November 29th since that is two weeks from tomorrow so the cleaners will come while I’m in the hospital and I'll come home to a clean house."

Then I went to bed, satisfied with my plan of having the baby on the 29th. Dave had a really annoying, dry cough, and I suggested that he sleep in the guest bedroom but he didn't take the hint. His hacking and coughing kept me awake and at midnight I stormed off to the basement in order to quell the urge I had to smother him with a pillow. On the way downstairs I was so uncomfortable that I thought, "there is no WAY I am lasting 2 more weeks. I feel like I have a bowling ball between my knees!”

To be continued...

Phone Call!

From halloween

361 Days Later

From halloween

361 days after Jack's birth, he slept from 7:30 pm until 7:00. Yea Jack! It was Jacktastic. And the best part is that I slept for 8.5 hours of the 11.5 that Jack was sleeping. I woke up all groggy and disoriented like I had slept for a week. I have found that Jack falls asleep without a problem and stays in bed longer if he has a minimum of 3 pacifiers. One for his mouth and one for each hand. He was even happy to pose for a photo before bedtime. (Note the novelty buck toothed pacifier. I only break that out when I can't find three others.)

In other news, Luke was reading to me this evening and he got stuck on the word "up". As in, "The sun is up."

L: What's this word?
M: Sound it out
L: Yup?
M: What is the phonics animal for U? Urkle Umbrellafish says what? (He likes me to not remember the animal name on the first two tries.)
L: No! Not Urkle! I don't remember the animal but U says "Yuh." So it's either Yup or Yoop. The sun is yup. The sun is yoop.

I know I am supposed to have him sound it out, then suggest he guess based on the picture, then only correct him if he asks for help, but instead I started laughing. I laughed until I was crying, and thankfully so did he. Then he blamed the whole thing on me, and said I told him the wrong sound.

Where in The World is Almost One Year Old Jack

Almost One Year Old Baby Jack almost took a step today. Sort of stumbled a little at The Southern Sun, but who hasn't?

So where has he been lately?

In the lazy susan:

From halloween

Stuck under a chair:

From halloween

Head stuck in the lion cage:

From halloween

Jackstastic!

It may sound like I am complaining about my little handful, but I know he is a blessing. We waited so long for his arrival, years actually. It was like an elephant gestation. Longer than an elephant's 22 months actually. Like being pregnant for a while, and then not being pregnant for a really long time, and then being pregnant again, but having the pregnancy be really precarious for a while, and then having everything seem fine, and then being really nervous about things for a while, and then having everything be fine again and then having a baby! And then all of a sudden after all that waiting and praying and worrying, it's a year later and Jack is a smiling little handful who gets into everything!

So, I have declared this week to be all about Jack, and how Jacktastic he is.

Jack likes to hide behind the curtain until we notice he is missing and then he plays peek-a-boo with us. He gives his hiding place away really quickly with his giggling though.

Bath Night

From halloween

I look like a psycho on this picture, and if you have been reading this blog, I am sure you know why. Long story short, I had just given Jack a bath. And he has Mr. Potato Head teeth in his mouth.

Then and Now: Pumpkin Patch

I don't know what it is about my photography skills. I have relatively photogenic children who love to smile for the camera - but I cannot get a good, smiling picture in a pumpkin patch to save my life.

Baby Luke:

From halloween

Baby Jack:

From misc

At least I got one smile here:

From misc

Car Cake Take Two

There are many potential reasons for the spectacular failure of the William Sonoma Vintage Car Cakes that I made for Luke's birthday. The most likely is that I followed the recipe that came with the cake tin without adjusting for altitude. Other reasons include the fact that I was waiting to hear how my Dad's quintuple bypass surgery was going, and combining that stress with a big bowl of butter, eggs, and sugar wad just asking karma to teach me a lesson. (Back in those days I couldn't eat any animal fat without imagining what it was doing to my arteries and it made me feel very nauseous. That doesn't happen any more.)

This is not what the cakes looked like:

They looked like this:

From Blog pix

Those are the ones that turned out well.

The reason I bring this up now, is that I have been thinking about attempting to make them for Jack's birthday. So the main question is... do I make a practice set this weekend to see if I can do it right this time? Or do I just attempt to make them next weekend and plan to buy a cake if I have another car cake disaster? Keep in mind that greasing the pan takes about half a day.

I guess we'll see how this weekend goes!

Technical Difficulties!

I was in a(nother) panic this evening when I got into my PJs and sat down in front of the Broncos/Browns game after putting the kids to bed and got ready for day 6 of my posting streak.

Dun dun dun! No internet!

Should I drive around the neighborhood in my pjs trying to borrow wireless? Go to the coffee shop? Give up on posting once a day? So tragic. I called comcast and they had me reboot everything, then stand on one foot, chant an incantation, reboot again, and then he said, "Oh, there's an outage in your area." Dave mentioned that he thought I would be more concernd about working tomorrow than blogging. But I figured I would solve that problem by just going in at 5am and working there until the comcast office opened and then exchanging my modem. Sure, sounds totally doable.

I made Dave hand over his fancy new phone and I started trying to write a post from there, but while I was getting a cramp in my finger from the tiny stylus, the internet came back up. Hoorah!

Now I can share this photo of a hotel that was recently trashed by a rockstar you all know and love. And by hotel, I mean crib/bedroom. And by rockstar, I mean baby.

Mobile: Ripped out of mobile holder
Picture One: Nearly knocked off wall
Picture Two: Knocked off wall, slipped out of mat, and stomped on
Pacifiers: Tossed randomly about

Needless to say, Jack's room has now been undecorated. The pictures are in the closet and the mobile is on the changing table.

Panic Attack Magazine: November

Welcome to my new monthly feature, in which I mock Parents magazine and the ways it increases (my) parental anxiety. I know it means well. But does it go too far? You be the judge. Well, actually I'll be the judge, and I already know that the magazine makes me crazy. Guilty! Last month I learned what to do if I drive off a road and my car becomes submerged under water, and I've already forgotten what I learned, not that I will ever need it. (I'm talking to you, Mom.)

This month in The OMG! Guide to Parenting Disasters: What to do when when your baby gets his/her head stuck in the lions cage at the zoo. Seriously. Sadly, with each day that passes, I realize that I do in fact have a child who will get their head stuck in the lions cage. In fact, days after reading this article, Jack get his arm stuck in the grate over the window well.

I thought, "AHH! OMG! Parenting Disaster! What do I do? Panic, panic, panic. No, don't panic. I read that article. And I think it said not to panic."

And Dave said, "You need to calm down."

And I said, "Actually I know what to do, because I read that article. I am not panicking."

And Dave said, "Pull his arm out."

And I did. So I think the article was, in fact, not helpful because all I could do was picture the approaching lion and realize I didn't remember anything from the article. (Confession - I may have just looked at the pictures.)

So, I was relating this story at work, and going on and on about Parents Magazine and how weird it is that I suddenly have a subscription, and my good friend and fellow lactator, Carolyn, said, "Yeah. Best five bucks I have ever spent." Thanks a lot Carolyn!

(Now if we could just figure out who subscribed Dave to Men's Health and Prevention...)

Photo Credit: Parents.com

Hope and Change

And now: Joy!

More Momification for MetaMegan

In addition to soccer mom, making school lunches, and babies playing with tupperware, we can now add one more thing to the list of things that make me feel like a mom: Sitting at a concert. I mean, I guess I've put on a sundress, and unrolled a blanket in the sun at Blossom, or that place in Athens that has the Bob Marley festival. But I think when the music started I got up and danced. I have now experienced the awkward sensation of hearing and seeing one of my favorite bands and just sort of dancing in my seat. It wasn't pretty.

Last week I was instant messaging my brother and I told him I was thinking of seeing G. Love that night because my friend had an excessive amount of free tickets. He said, "Oh! He's still around. Cool." I have to say that took a little bit of the fun out of it. On the other hand, if the free tickets hadn't clued me in that this G. Love experience would be different from all the others, then that comment should have.

The first song was "The Things That We Used To Do" and I settled back into my seat to remember the things that I used to do. I used to always be within eye contact of G, and he was always checking me out and ignoring Krista and Amy. And after the show, we once ran into him and invited him to stop by our house, but he politely declined. So instead of pushing my way through the crowd to get to the front, I was sneaking into the close seats with my balcony ticket. And then getting thrown out. It seems like once you get to officially be a mom, that you just take your balcony ticket and you sit up there by yourself because you are with two other people and the three of you have three sets of two tickets.

I am not making this sound like as much fun as it was, don't get me wrong, it was really fun. And once we traded our good seats for balcony seats adjacent to one of our other sets of tickets, it very comfortable. A little loud though...

Photo Credit: soboclassifieds

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

We were all sweating at the park today, but the trees at the base of the sledding hill were all wrapped in padding, so we are more than ready for snow here on this balmy November 2nd.

From misc

And look at this boy, he is ready too!

From misc

Happy Belated Halloween!

From halloween

We were running a little behind this year, just barely managing to get the pumpkins carved yesterday, but that is good because that means I have a backlog of blog (backblog?) material, which I will need if I am planning to partake in NaBloPoMo this month. (By making sure I have at least one post per day.) My original plan was to do NaNoWriMo but there is just no way. Maybe next year.

Quotes from Luke this morning:

After I asked my son who doesn't like to finger paint, refuses hand stamps, and never wants a temporary tattoo, if he would help me sort through the pumpkin guts to get the seeds out, "Eww! NO! I don't want to get pumpkin innards on my hands, that's gross."

Me: "I need to look up a recipe for baked pumpkin seeds."
Luke: "Just put the pumpkin seeds in a pan with some salt and olive oil!"
Me: "I know, but I don't know what temperature or for how long."
Luke: "Oh, well I can't tell you that."