jennanddave.com

Another NaBloPoMo has come and gone. Unlike last year, I actually managed to post every day this month, so, pats on the back for that. The other day I noticed that at the beginning of the November I was extra motivated and would post in the morning, but as the month wore on, my posts were hitting the blog later and later in the day. Sounds about right.

Dave did a pretty great job of posting as well. The last two days he's been strung out at work, coming home to have dinner, hang up some outdoor Christmas lights with Henry, and help out with bedtime, only to return to work and not come home again until sometime between 3 and 4 AM. Can you imagine? He's trying to get out a paper and a grant that are both due today. I imagine he's going to crash pretty hard this evening, or he's going to take a quick nap then start preparing for tomorrow's class, because that's how he rolls.

Henry's Thanksgiving break ended today. Technically, Thanksgiving break ended Sunday, but the kids got yesterday off because it was the first day of hunting season. I'll let that sink in for a bit before I continue... Are you back with me? Henry was not happy about having to go back to school, although he didn't openly complain about it. Yesterday was the first day he seemed to have been completely over his stomach bug. What timing, getting sick on your first day of a long vacation and staying that way for the duration. Fingers crossed that Christmas break goes a little better for him.

I feel like I've talked about everyone in this post but Holly, and that doesn't seem quite right. She's currently napping and having dreams fueled by her lunch of yogurt, bagel, and pumpkin pie. Aren't you jealous?

Also, my friend Mel did NaBloPoMo *and* NaNoWriMo, which means she wrote a book. A BOOK! Isn't that amazing? I'm amazed.

Posted by Jenn at 12:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We've been working our way through the vast amounts of Thanksgiving leftovers. Yesterday we officially finished all of the side dishes, so all that's left is about a half ton of turkey. While rummaging around in the cabinets at 11:30 this morning, looking for a snack, I remembered this awesome sandwich spread that my parents make with turkey leftovers. It's really easy if you have a meat grinder, which was procured for me a few years ago with this specific recipe in mind because I do love it so. You grind up a couple of big handfuls of turkey, two onions, about five pickles (or more if you're me and you love them), add a spoonful of mayonnaise, stir and voila! The perfect sandwich spread. Or cracker spread. Or straight-from-the-spoon spread.

Also on the stovetop today was turkey noodle soup. Henry and I made a batch of cornbread muffins to go with it, and I have brownies in the oven right now. I don't know what's going on with me. I seem to just need to cook. And eat. Tis the season.

Posted by Jenn at 08:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...we're completely wrecked. Yesterday afternoon, Dave went to bed and didn't emerge until two hours had gone by. I think he just passed right out. He's been valiantly fighting off a cold that, based on past experience, wasn't supposed to come until the semester was over, and yesterday it finally caught up to him. He took some Nyquil last night and didn't get up until around 9:30 this morning. I feel pretty badly for him. He took off running today, getting some grading done while I cleaned up the house. Of course, progress on both fronts was slow because in the midst of all of that, we were also playing with Henry and Holly.

Dave's got a week and a half of classes left before finals, so the end is in sight, and although he's seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, he's a bit grumbly that it's not coming faster. The man deserves a nice, long break.

Posted by Jenn at 08:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The weather has been weird today. I check the forecast last night and it was unambiguous in its assertions of blue skies and sun. Naturally when Holly and I woke up, it was snowing out. Then it stopped for a while, the sun peeked out, then it started snowing again. The whole day has been a repeat of that cycle. It makes me wish we could build an actual fire in our fireplace, maybe have some hot chocolate, get all cozy under a blanket. Alas.

Posted by Jenn at 02:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was just crawling under the covers with my Kindle when I remembered I hadn't posted yet today, so here I am. Wouldn't want to be like Dave, making all of these promises and then not following through. At least not until tomorrow, anyway.

Thanksgiving was nice. It was quiet. Henry and I watched the parade. He had his usual Thanksgiving breakfast in honor of the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special, a meal which consists of jelly beans, pretzels, toast, and popcorn, this year with the added twist of lemonade. Dave made popovers for the rest of us, which were amazing. One of Dave's grad students joined us for the Big Meal, and afterwards we retired to the couch and watched "Home For the Holidays", one of my favorite movies which I hadn't seen in a few years.

The only thing that would have made it an even better day would have been if Henry hadn't been sick. He caught a similar stomach bug to the one I had a few weeks ago so yesterday was kind of icky. After an epic episode around 11:30PM, he thankfully slept the rest of the night. Even so, by the time this morning rolled around I mentioned to Dave that I couldn't decide if I was feeling queasy because I was also getting sick or if I was just generally grossed out. Dave was apparently feeling similarly. Today Henry was clearly doing much better what with all of the bouncing off of the walls he did. Oh, to still have that youthful resilience. Although, I have in my old age perfected the art of wallowing, so there's that. Until tomorrow...

Posted by Jenn at 11:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I love Thanksgiving. Food, family, love, the delicious smells, the frantic coming-together-at-the-last minute feel of the meal despite all the preparation. Sitting down around the table, ignoring the gigantic mess in the kitchen, talking, wondering how many hours it'll be after dinner before you finally have room for pie, and then having it sooner than you should anyway. We woke up to snow falling this morning. It felt perfect.

Hope you are having your perfect Thanksgiving wherever you happen to be!

Posted by Jenn at 04:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...started off at the chiropractor's, followed by a quick stop at the grocery store for last-minute necessities (bananas and toilet paper), then, since I was there anyway, a quick stop into Starbucks for some decaf Via and a gingerbread latte (which was good initially but had a bad aftertaste). Upon returning home, I joined in on some fun and games, then baked a pumpkin pie, followed by pumpkin muffins. Dave made dough for his apple pies, then we settled around the table for lunch. After lunch, more playing, which moved outside briefly, and now Henry and his Grandma are settled on the couch under a blanket with "The Princess and the Frog" showing on the small screen, Holly's napping, I'm about to read until I fall asleep, Dave's working on a grant, and his dad is relaxing in the back room. Later on, Thai for dinner, finish up the apple pies, make the stuffing for tomorrow. Life is good.

Posted by Jenn at 03:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I looked back in my archives and saw that I wrote one of these four years ago, almost to the day. Odd.

It's important for her to keep busy. If she doesn't, her thoughts turn inward to herself too much and she starts to feel like she's losing her mind. Although sometimes she gets motivated to do something, mostly she's uninspired. So she sits on the couch, her hot pad keeping her warm, and she watches her life pass her by, day after day, assuming that everyone else in the world is better adjusted than she is.

Posted by Jenn at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

20 minutes ago Dave came home with the Thanksgiving turkey. It was looking a little grim there for a while. In typical Jenn fashion, I decided this year we'd plunk down a nice chunk of change for an organic and, *bonus*, local turkey. Going that route would require that I pick up a phone, talk to someone about reserving a bird, maybe plan a little. So instead I randomly thought "I need to do something about that." over the course of the last four weeks which brings us up to yesterday when I thought "Too late, better head to the grocery store." So I went last night and before having a mild panic attack that had nothing to do whatsoever with the state of the turkey selection (I wish I was kidding), I discovered that of the nine turkeys they had, only one was even close to twenty pounds and it was injected with a who-knows-what's-in-it flavoring solution. I left the store with only half of my list crossed off, partly because I thought perhaps there'd be some shelf-stocking going on while everyone else was asleep, and partly because I just needed to get out of there.

This morning Holly and I headed back and what do you know, there were the same nine turkeys. I got the rest of the stuff that I could. (From what I could tell, they were completely sold out of butternut squash. And jelly beans. Wow.) I sent Dave an email half in a panic because not only did they not have a suitably sized turkey but they were out of the Jimmy Dean sausage I need to make my Mom and Dad's stuffing recipe, which is an all important, can't live without it, part of the meal as far as I'm concerned. So while I put the kids to bed this evening because by this point I'd be good gosh-darned if I was going to set foot in another grocery store (Did I mention how I knocked over a cookie display with my cart and unwittingly crashed the 15 items or less line with a lot more than 15 items? Granted it was a temporary express lane without the usual signage, but still. I'm now one of *those* people.), Dave headed out to the wilds of nine miles south of here and saved the day. He had to go to two places, but eventually he succeeded. Whew. Catastrophe avoided. The parade may go on as planned. Bring on the Rockettes.

Posted by Jenn at 08:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's day 21. Henry and I spent part of the morning coming up with our Thanksgiving grocery list. We're heading to the store when Holly gets up from her nap. About fifteen minutes ago I realized why I was having such a relaxing Sunday. I forgot to do the laundry, like I normally do. Apparently I'm already in holiday mode.

Henry has two days of school this week. As if life couldn't get any better, his grandparents are arriving Tuesday evening, which will be the perfect way to start his vacation.

Meanwhile, I'm tuckered and dying to finish the third installment of the Millennium trilogy so I think I'll adjourn to my bedroom and spend the next hour or so reading instead of napping, all of which will surely be followed by minor regret for not having had the discipline to catch a little shuteye after all.

Posted by Jenn at 02:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Upon seeing this cookie:

Dave declares: "Wow! That's an amazing cookie! It's got Pi on it!"

So, is it a scarf, or is Starbucks sneaking a little math into everyone's lives? Or is Dave completely irrational?

Posted by Jenn at 03:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

We were about ten minutes into "The Girl Who Played With Fire" when I mentioned that neither of us had posted yet. We both shrugged our shoulders, dug into our Subway sandwiches, then turned our attention back to the movie. Then five minutes later we paused the movie and mopped up all of the beer Dave spilled.

The movie was good. It's amazing how you can spend a significant portion of your week obsessively reading a highly involved book with tons of characters and lots of action where every little detail is important, only to have someone come along, edit the heck out of it, and what do you know? you still end up with pretty much the same story, only a lot shorter and sweeter. I enjoyed the book, but short and sweet has its merits. It was hard for me to let go of all of the information I knew was being left out, but after the first half hour I stopped feeling scandalized and really enjoyed the movie. I like the actors who play Blomkvist and Salander, but I feel like they missed the boat on Berger. She doesn't come across as strong in the movie as she does in the book, and although in the first two books she's not a major player, I did like her presence.

Anyway, because he's the Southern Gentleman, as soon as the movie was over, Dave handed me the laptop and told me I could post first. It would have been a more gallant gesture had he not pointed out how gallant a gesture it was, but I'll take what I can get.

Posted by Jenn at 10:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's that point in the semester where I don't see Dave very much. The last two days he went to work, came home to meet Henry at the bus, went back to work, came home for dinner and to help put the kids to bed, then went back to work until 1:30ish. How crazy is that? So, I'm very much looking forward to the Thanksgiving break, not just because of family and good food, but also because it means we'll get to have Dave for a few days.

Posted by Jenn at 08:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

After Henry got home from school this afternoon we pulled out the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving DVD. He really likes the episode on it called "The Mayflower Voyagers" which features the characters traveling on the Mayflower (which Henry calls the Mainflower) and then follows them through their first winter and dealings with the Native Americans. He watched it over and over again last year, but didn't have much to say about it. This afternoon he was obviously paying close attention because he had many questions, mostly pertaining to the boat. Toward the end he suddenly popped up from the couch and asked "Are they in Indiana?" I told him "No, they're in Massachusetts, why?" "Because there are Indians there. I thought that meant they were in Indiana." The deductive reasoning is strong in that boy.

Posted by Jenn at 04:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

About three weeks ago, Henry started going through a hitting stage. Sometimes he has trouble finding the words to express his anger or his sadness, so he would ball up his fist and give us a thump on the arm or on our side instead. He didn't do it hard, and we understood where it was coming from, but we wanted to make sure that he got the point that this was not acceptable behavior. So, instead of time-outs, we told him we would take his drum set away for one whole day every time he hit one of us. The next we put the rule into effect and naturally, he didn't see that drum set for three days. He's a quick study though, and he got the point.

About a week later, Henry, Holly, and I were playing in the living room and something happened that resulted in me breaking one of our rules. Henry told me with great glee that I had been naughty and that I wasn't allowed to play my ukulele for one whole day. Then he looked at me expectantly, waiting for my reaction, but I told him he was right. He shot off the couch grabbed my case and while I was distracted by playing with Holly, he hid my ukulele.

Yet another week later I realized he had never given my uke back to me. I went searching high and low all over the house, on two separate occasions, and couldn't find it. I mentioned it to him when he came home from school and he informed me I could have it the next day. It once again slipped our minds until this evening when the three of us were in his room having "music lessons"*. I asked him where it was and he told me to wait there, that he would get it for me. Once again I was distracted by Holly, playing, dinner, bathtime, life in general, and it slipped my mind until I just sat down on the couch and noticed that it was back in its rightful position in the living room.

We live in a small house. There are only so many places he could have put it. Where was he hiding it? It's driving me a little nuts.

* "music lessons" consist of listening to the Monster Mash, Ghostbusters, Somebody's Watching Me, and This Is Halloween. I've now heard these four songs more times than I care to think about.

Posted by Jenn at 08:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

- I meant to google "cake pops" but instead typed in "cake poop". Hee!

- Finished The Girl Who Played With Fire this afternoon. Thinking about jumping right into the third installment.

- Looked into when Henry's spring break is and realized that although technically he has five days off, two of them are weekend days. What's up with that? What happened to a week off for spring break?

- Tomorrow is my Dad's birthday. Happy birthday Dad!

- Henry thinks it's "Donkin' Donuts". It never fails to make me laugh.

- My cold has turned into a mild-yet-annoying sinus infection. My tonsils are officially the size of golf balls. I think I need to have them removed. They're nothing but trouble anymore.

- Today is the halfway point for NaBloPoMo. I almost forgot to post on Saturday, hence the totally lame post. I have no excuse for the other totally lame posts.

Posted by Jenn at 08:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Sometime over the summer I read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. It's a pretty heavy story. It took me about a month to get past the first twenty or thirty pages. They set up the plot for everything that came after, but they were a bit dull. Once I got past them, I couldn't put the book down. It's not particularly an uplifting, light read and when I finished it I immediately set it aside and picked up some Archie comics and other light-hearted fare.

In the meantime, Dave and I rented the movie and it was good. So good that Dave is anxiously awaiting seeing the second in the series, which is already out on DVD. Unfortunately for him, I have a strict rule that states that I can't see a movie based on a book until I've read the book, no exceptions. Well, except for Gone With the Wind, but only because I didn't know it was a book until just after I finished watching the movie. So Dave's been putting on the pressure for me to read The Girl Who Played With Fire so he can pop some popcorn and enjoy a good thriller. Except I've been refusing to because the first one was so relentless and gloomy that I haven't been quite ready to cross that bridge.

Until Thursday when I finally started it. And it is relentless and gloomy. There was one part with a tornado/hurricane where I swear I didn't breathe until it was over. It's also got some plot devices that are a bit silly and don't really make any sense. But it's still a good read that I've enjoyed.

Looking forward to seeing the movie when I'm done.

Posted by Jenn at 08:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Today we: slept in, had pancakes, watched TV, raked tons of leaves, replaced a doorknob, played in the backyard, collapsed on the couch, napped, read, went to the park, drove by some awesome Christmas lights at one of the frats, and ordered in pizza for dinner. It was a glorious day.

Hope yours was just as great.

Posted by Jenn at 06:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This morning Holly had her 15-month checkup. Whereas before she was usually happy as a clam to be at the doctors, today, not so much. The clothes came off, I put her on the scale to be weighed, and she immediately burst into tears. She didn't stop crying until the nurse left the room. They started back up when the doctor came in and I put her on the exam table. After the physical came three shots. Poor baby. By that time she didn't believe she was safe from being poked and prodded, even when the appointment was over and she had layers of winter clothes on to offer her protection. When we were checking out, the nurse walked by us to call another kid into an exam room and Holly's face crumpled. She wasn't happy until we left the building. Then, to rub salt into her wounds, I bumped her head on the car while putting her into her carseat. Nowhere is safe when you're a baby. She didn't forgive me until I read "Put Me In the Zoo", complete with silly voices, approximately 30 minutes later. The end result of all of that fuss was that her stats are normal, she's healthy, and she's now inoculated against some scary diseases. If you ask the young lady, she would insist it wasn't worth it.

Posted by Jenn at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You guys. I made the best dinner last night: poached eggs in tomato sauce. I love poached eggs and had never thought about poaching them in tomato sauce. Not just tomato sauce, but tomato sauce spiced with, among other things, cayenne pepper. Delicious. There is a cafe downtown that, a few incarnations ago, used to have a spicy tomato bisque that would pop up on the menu every once in a while. I miss that soup. That's what the sauce reminded me of. Anyway, Dave and I sat down to dinner last night and with the first bite I was giggling away because it was just that good. Dave was amused until he also took a bite, and then he completely understood. I told my mom about it later and when I described the recipe she said "That sounds terrible". Ha!

Earlier in the day I was watching a rerun of Rachel Ray's $40 a Day or whatever that show was called. She was in Savannah having high tea, wrestling with the nerve-wracking decision of which pastries to sample. Her descriptive hemming and hawing combined with the extreme closeups of the shortbreads gave me quite the sweets craving, but we had run out of butter a few days earlier, so that severely limited what proactive steps I could take in the kitchen. Then I came across another Smitten Kitchen recipe for Pumpkin Muffins. No butter required, plus it allowed me to use the pumpkin that we had left over from Sunday's pumpkin pancake extravaganza. They were easy to make and incredibly delicious. Plus they'll leave your house smelling like heaven. At least what I imagine heaven smells like.

Posted by Jenn at 09:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I'm not a person who is comfortable in social situations. Even worse, I tend to over-think everything, to the point where sometimes I convince myself I need professional help just to get myself out my own head. Certain social circumstances utterly confuse me. In particular, when Henry was born, I noticed that when he was a baby, obviously too young to talk, random people would ask him questions, such as what he was going to be doing for the rest of the day, how was he feeling, is that your favorite toy, etc. etc. Clearly they were directing these questions to him, but just as clearly he was incapable of answering them, and then they would pause as if waiting for an answer. I was always left in a quandary over figuring out if I was supposed to answer for him or if I should just let whoever it was finish whatever conversation they thought they were having and be on our way. This problem happily went away once Henry was able to answer for himself. However, once Holly was born it started happening all over again, much to my great consternation. So my question is, am I supposed to answer?

Posted by Jenn at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Things are looking up over here. On top of the cold I came down with over the weekend, yesterday a stomach bug reared its ugly head. Since I am nothing if not dramatic, by about 9AM I assumed I was going to die. Holly was either also not feeling particularly spectacular herself, or she's a highly compassionate savant who knew I was in dire straits because she not only took a three hour morning nap, but later in the day she slept for another two hours. Meanwhile as soon as Dave came home at 5:30 I completely checked out, which would indicate I was checked in at some point during the day, which I wasn't, but Dave's arrival made it truly official. He made dinner for the kids, put them to bed, took the dog for a walk, then went back to lab. I sat on the couch, watched some AFV with Henry, took a shower, and went to bed. Dave's a pretty good guy, wouldn't you say? I'm also grateful this all went down yesterday instead of today, because Tuesday's are rough enough as it is.

Today Holly and I are both feeling better, although we seem to once again have a shared desire to take to our respective beds. However, instead of filling yet another day with crummy homemade chicken noodle soup (Which, for best results, needs to be made before one is actually sick. Just sayin'.) and lots of Sesame Street, we've been playing and cleaning and trying to feel like contributing members of the household again. It's sort of working. I'd still rather take a nap.

Posted by Jenn at 02:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The dawning of a new day, the spreading of old cold germs. Holly is sick. Henry is coughing, although he seemed to be well enough to go to school; tomorrow, who knows. Dave is quaking with fear that he's next in line. Hopefully it'll pass him by altogether because right now, he's the glue that's keeping this family from spiraling into the abyss of gloom and doom.

Posted by Jenn at 09:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

1. I'm sick. Frak.

2. I can't believe Dave is still hanging in there with NaBloPoMo. It's awesome. I love reading what he writes.

3. I got stuck on this song and video earlier this week. And maybe on the singer, just a little bit.

The boy's swell. I'm buying Dave a three piece suit, and that's flat.

Posted by Jenn at 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A few days ago my friend captured this classic shot of Henry:

The first time I saw it, I thought that it vaguely reminded me of something, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Later while I was uploading it to Flickr, it hit me:

Our firstborn is a Wes Anderson character. Except without the slow motion shots.

Posted by Jenn at 02:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The parent/teacher meeting went well yesterday. We were on the fence last Spring about whether or not to send him to Kindergarten this year because of his age. Actually, let me clarify. We weren't on the fence about it until we talked to his preschool teachers, all of whom hoisted us right up onto that fence which is where we sat haphazardly until Kindergarten registration last April. There's a group of people in our town (probably in every town) who strongly believes in holding their kids back from Kindergarten until they're six. For some it's a decision that's based on their kid's readiness, for others, it's a sports decision, for still others, it's a boy versus girl question (boys being behind emotionally as compared to girls). We thought this group was a majority until we were set straight at the registration last spring. Although Henry was probably going to be the youngest in his class, he would be one of a handful of kids who would also be turning five over the summer. After hearing that, we felt much better about sending him because we thought that he was ready academically, despite being very much four-and-then-five emotionally, and that if he was in pre-school one more year, we'd be dealing with behavior problems stemming from boredom. His teacher yesterday said he's meeting the expectations they have for Kindergartners which really hammered home once again that we made the right decision. Henry thrives on the structure. When he knows what's coming, day in and day out, and what the expectations are and that he has no choice, it allows him to really come out of his shell. Being stuffed in the proverbial box seems to set him free. Oh, the irony. He also really loves all of the new things they're showing him. He thinks everything is awesome and amazing, including his teacher, which is a sentiment I can now fully appreciate having chatted with her yesterday. He really lucked out in the teacher department. Hopefully he'll maintain that excitement for many years to come.

On a side note, I wore my heels. I towered. Then I folded myself down into a little Kindergartener-sized chair for the meeting and spent the whole twenty minutes whacking my chin on my kneecaps. Lesson learned. I think I need to stick to glowering.

Posted by Jenn at 01:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Today we have our first official parent/teacher meeting with Henry's kindergarten teacher. I'm looking forward to hearing what she has to say, but feeling anxious at the same time, mostly because I find teacher's unnerving. Even kindergarten teachers. Actually, even preschool teachers. There, I said it. Unfortunately Dave feels the same way, so I'm sure we both look like deer in headlights. Or we look very, very guilty, like we just got caught putting tacks on the teachers seat. I deal with the whole thing by dressing up and putting on heels so that I tower over everybody. At the open house at Henry's school a couple of weeks ago a friend of mine pulled me aside and told me to knock it off with heels, it's makes people feel shorter than they are. That just illustrated to me that it's working. Intellectual intimidation, probably not so much, physical intimidation, can do.

Posted by Jenn at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Holly spent the last thirty minutes howling at me over: milk, wanting to go play outside, reading a book, the general misery of her life. So this morning, her nap time got moved up by about an hour. They have a way of letting you know when they need sleep, as unpleasant as their chosen mode of communication can sometimes be. Meanwhile, we've been waking up to temperatures in the 20's, which following on the heels of a week in the mid-60's to 70's has been a bit of a slap in the butt. I feel a bit like howling myself.

A few weeks ago Chasing Cheerios wrote a post about hotprints.com, an online photo printing service that allows you to order four free photo books every month. All you have to pay for is shipping. The company is able to do this by putting a few pages of adverts in the middle of the book; they are their own pages and can be easily removed. Last month I ordered three books with photos from our trip to Florida, one for us, one for my parents, and one for my Aunt and Uncle. They came out great. Our copy is well-loved by a certain Miss Holly who pulls it out from her bookshelf at least once a day. I'll be ordering a few more and thought I would put the word out for anyone who might be interested.

On a side note, Dave has unofficially taken up the NaBloPoMo challenge and is posting on his Cool Science page. Put the pressure on him to keep it up by checking it out!

Posted by Jenn at 08:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Today came, it saw, it kicked my butt. I'm wiped. Tuesdays are our rough days. Dave teaches at 8 and has lab at 1, and in the hours in between he barely has a chance to catch his breath. He usually picks the young man up at the bus stop in the afternoon because Henry gets home right in the middle of Holly's second nap, but on Tuesdays, Holly and I are on our own. The stretch after Holly's morning nap is the worst, because she's cranky after a few hours and by that point I feel like I've hit the bottom of my bag of tricks. To add insult to injury there's usually at least an hour and a half to go before we can leave for the bus stop.

Starting in middle school and continuing through the time when I worked a full-time job, about twice a year I'd be so overwhelmed by exhaustion I'd come home and go straight to bed. Sometimes I'd wake up and have a little dinner, but usually I slept through until morning. It cured what ailed me and freshened me right up. I'm feeling the need to do that today, but don't have the luxury of being able to do it. Fortunately Holly's still napping and Henry's indulging in his latest TV obsession, The Electric Company (He loves the guy who beat boxes. Of course.) so I'm sneaking in a little rest. Soon Dave'll be home, we'll go vote, then figure out what to do about dinner, walk the dog, and finally, blissfully, go to bed.

Posted by Jenn at 04:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

More like the entire weekend redux, soon to be reduced to dashes. I just took down our Halloween decorations and it took a ridiculous amount of time. We've also managed to accumulate enough spooky flotsam that a second storage box is now required. Dave'll be thrilled.

On to happier topics! Halloween! The weekend! Was great! To note:

- Saturday morning, the town had its annual costume contest and Halloween parade. Last year Holly slept through it, this year she was in attendance. Henry was Batman again (Which was a relief, because after he told me he wanted to be a "one-man band with real instruments", my first question to Dave was "Can you solder?" Best to leave that whole scene to our imaginations.) and Holly was a witch. A really, really cute witch. Lots of candy was received.

- Saturday morning/afternoon we went up to the University's alumni weekend luncheon. One of Dave's colleagues showed up in drag. It was brilliant.

- Saturday afternoon, Dave and Henry went to the football game while Holly and I came home to take either take a nap or watch "Sleepy Hollow", depending on which one of us we were. Did that make sense?

- Saturday evening, dinner with friends. Great food, great conversation, great kids, cute babies, what else does a person need in life?

Yesterday we started the day off with pancakes, then a quick trip to Walmart for some last minute trick-or-treating supplies (candles for our pathway). We spent the rest of the day napping, raking leaves, doing the crossword, getting treat bags ready for trick-or-treaters, skyping with Grammy and Grandpa. We carved pumpkins while having dinner, then the first group of kids came around and we were off! Henry loved handing out candy. I convinced him to put on his costume and at least go to our neighbors houses which he happily did, but after the fourth house he was anxious to head back home. We spent the rest of the evening eating candy, watching "The Great Pumpkin", and answering the door. It was so relaxing and pleasant. I hope next year is just as good.

Posted by Jenn at 01:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)