It has been a gorgeous fall. We had a wicked hot dry summer so no one knew what to expect with the fall and yet it’s been gorgeous. That is all quickly coming to a close though as we’ve had a few days of windy weather followed by rain and now snow. Most of the pretty leaves are gone and now we are left to clean them up.
Good news though. Pumpkin is still very much in vogue and I can make fallish things to my hearts’ content. Like …
The vague future always seems like a good time to travel. The reality is that we’re always busy and no matter when I schedule a trip, I’m likely going to be manically trying to get everything done right up until we head out. I/We need to:
decorate the house for Halloween (Tabby is dying to do this)
register Tabby for another session of rock climbing
register Ben for something where he can run around a lot and burn off energy
make and package 20 bags of orange, pumpkin pie scented playdough
make and package 20 ghost-shaped rice krispie treats
load an MP3 player with Halloween music for “musical chairs”
return several books to the library
take a few phones to visit the Geniuses at the Apple Store
pack us up for our trip
pack up baby clothes to take to Nashville
take Loki to our friends’ house
figure out who/what to vote for
vote!
attend a few Halloween parties (4)
myriad work-related things such as taking a phone to the Apple Store, spending a whole day with our new web designers and before that getting all of my thoughts on the site into some coherent tangible form, turning in various reports on this and that, selling my soul to get a few extra iPhone 5 cables, etc.
pay bills, update budget and all that crap
clean up our house
buy Ben some new shoes
figure out an appropriately awesome b’day gift for my niece
get haircuts
make sure we have appropriate clothes for the family photo we’ll be taking on our trip
stop the mail
check in with the kids’ schools about absences
check in with our neighbors about minding the house
make a car rental reservation
Then we’ll need to buckle down and enjoy our vacation!
I have joined the ranks of iPhone users. Well really, it’s just an i because it hasn’t been activated to mobile phone service. See last week, my company upgraded all of our blackberry users to iPhones. It was a great move for us because our employees (many of whom are away from the office regularly on jobsites) can now use handy things like maps (or maybe not) and open attachments and web browse. We’re also hoping it will allow us to purchase fewer jobsite cameras since they pretty much replace point-and-shoot cameras for most people. One of my primary functions is to support our mobile devices and it was decided therefore that I should carry one … but I am very happy with my Android. For me, it’s the best. I know that may not be a popular statement, but it just works better for me. I have many reasons, but Swype is probably the biggest since it allows me to really type on the phone in a way the iPhone’s virtual keyboard just can’t.
So we reached a compromise. I will continue to carry my Android, but I will also have an iPhone, but only for use with wi-fi. It doesn’t duplicate mobile plan fees and I get the vast majority of the user experience so I can troubleshoot and provide support for our users. On the plus side, it gives me the one thing I care about on an iPhone … the apps that I can’t yet get on Android.
So I present to you, my iOS only favorites:
Artkive – This app archives your children’s artwork using your camera phone including data on artist, date, grade and description. You can share pics digitally with friends and family and have books printed as well.
Red Stamp – Nice app for sending out pretty e-cards from your phone. You can also have them send paper ones for $2.
Simpsons Tapped Out – a fun social game from your favorite Springfield family. Game is free, premium content costs.
Thursday, midday, we were surprised to learn that Ben’s 24 hr strep test had come back POSITIVE. So he had to come home and stay home for 24 hours until antibiotics took effect. So Friday I got to spend the day with my baby boy while he recuperated. We ran some errands, had lunch with Daddy and Grammy, had a nap and a run and went to pick up Tabby. Friday evening, I had Bunco and Matt took the kids to get Ben a haircut.
Saturday morning, I took off to the mountains for an abbreviated Girls’ Weekend with some of my besties. We relaxed, had lunch, had a walk, relaxed some more, had some cocktails, and went to dinner. That’s when the fun started. At dinner, the fire alarm went off and the Vail fire fighters showed up … the very same fire department that one Ryan Sutter is a part of. One of my girlfriends is a huge Ryan Sutter fan and she was lucky enough to have an encounter with him in the lobby of the restaurant.
After the heart-palpitation inducing event and dinner, we went out on the town for some drinks and dancing. We always have a great time burning off steam and gettin jiggy with it (am I showing my age??). We got in super late and slept really well. In the morning, we had a leisurely morning and headed home, for once avoiding I-70 traffic.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, Matt took the kids birthday shopping, had an evening out with the other husbands and spent Sunday morning at a birthday party. By the time I got home, the kids had to go down for naps and we had a nap too. By the time we got up, we had just enough time to start Tabby’s school project (she gets to tell all about herself on the All About Me board this week). Then we had dinner with my parents and came back home to finish up Tabby’s project and head to bed.
Or nothing worth expanding into its own post anyhow. Here’s what’s going on:
Ben has been sick for like 2 weeks … we finally took him to the pediatrician and she thinks he’s just unlucky and caught back to back illnesses. Matt isn’t feeling too well either.
I’ve been working a lot. No real complaints, but I’m not quite as much fun when I’ve got work on the brain 24/7.
I forgot to buy onions last week. There are a lot of things that are pretty hard to cook without onions. Just saying.
I’m really really tired. Ben keeps waking up in the middle of the night and I don’t think any of us has gotten more than about 3 hours of sleep at a time in 2 weeks. It’s a bit like having a newborn again. But at least he can use the toilet!
It’s getting cold and I can’t find one of my favorite jackets.
I’m seriously sick of politics. And I’m sick of how it invades EVERYTHING. Like Facebook, and my answering machine and my mailbox!!
Been reading such good books lately. Joshilyn Jackson is awesome. Check her stuff out – you’ll thank me later
OMG seriously with the tired. I am starting to wonder if I have mono or chronic wasting disease or something.
One of the best things about being married to my husband is what we call the “cockamamie scheme.” One of his go-to lines is “I’ve done crazier.” That should give you an idea of what life with him is like. Anyhow, when we were at Whole Foods last weekend, we noticed they had mussels on sale and when Matt chatted up the fishmonger, he learned that they were having a sale all week and would be flying in fresh PEI Mussels daily. Since our kids have decided they LOVE mussels, Matt decided we had to have a mussel night. Thus, I found myself on Wednesday at lunch hour at Whole Foods, buying them out of mussels. Continue reading “Mussel Night”
It’s FALL! In addition to the fall colors and cool running weather, we have of course been chowing down on our share of “fall” foods. Pumpkin pasta, butternut squash, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin oatmeal, pork ragu, tea and plenty of apples. With soups, in salads, for snacks. And on Sunday, we came home from Sunflower Market with an entire tote bag full of apples because both Jonathan and Granny Smith apples were on sale! 49c/lb! We paid under $6 for a whole tote bag FULL of apples. Continue reading “Crockpot Apples”
This morning was the Golden Gallop, a race in a nearby burb that supports local schools. The course (and cause) have bumped around a lot over the past few years. The first time we ran the Gallop, it was a 10K and you did two loops of the same course (never my favorite). But now it’s changed and it’s 5.28 miles (a mile is 5280 ft) and it’s a loop course going from downtown and back.
Matt and I signed up for it a while ago. You always know that the weather in Denver in October is unpredictable at best, but you always hope for the best and really this wasn’t too bad – just COLD – but at least it wasn’t rainy like yesterday. Matt unfortunately, woke up with an upset stomach (really upset) and it didn’t calm down by the time we met up with friends at their house.
So after hmming and hawing, I decided to go ahead without him. I’m never much for hilly courses (I run a lot of treadmill and suburban streets), but this was nice for a hilly course in that it started up and finished down. A couple miles into the course, with the sun shining on me, I had to pull my sweatshirt off and carry it. Luckily my friend and his boys rode up on their bikes a mile or so before the end and took it off my hands. I could have made it but I was glad to be rid of it too. I was also glad I’d packed my inhaler in the little pack I carry my phone in – for whatever reason, I had to puff on it twice during the race. On Friday, I ran 4+ miles without a puff.
Today, my race outfit was pink. I frequently wear pink without a specific reason, but today, I wore pink in honor of my friend who was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year. Race for the Cure was today and I would have loved to have joined her team, but this had come up first, so I wore pink in her honor instead.
Story #1 – Tabby: So I lay out an outfit for Tabby almost every night. Last night it was her red Harajuku Mini top and a pair of yoga-style capris. I also laid out socks and underwear, but not shoes. So she got dressed this AM and I encouraged her to wear some tennis shoes since Thursday is running club day. But she, of course, wanted to wear the sparkly shoes that my mom got her. They’re pretty good school shoes with rubbery bottoms and all, but they’re not great for running. But if Tabby makes a stand anywhere, it’s on footwear. She loves shoes and tennies aren’t really her idea of high fashion. Suddenly, I remembered the red sparkle cons I’d bought her when she was around 2 yrs old. I loved them, but the only size they had them in was 13 (she was probably a 7 or 8 at the time). They were on sale, so I bought them anyhow and kept them until her foot hit the magic number. Unfortunately, that was late last spring. Not a lot of call for red sparkle cons in the summer months (4th of July primarily). But luckily her feet do not grow like they once did and so she donned the shoes this AM and couldn’t have looked cuter. She informed me that they are her new favorites since they are sparkly AND red (her favorite color).
Story #2 – Ben: Last night, everyone went to bed without much incident. They kids were tired and we got home way late. Ben has had a little cold and he has been waking up occasionally when he coughs a bunch. Usually he either goes back to sleep on his own or he just needs a pat on his back. But last night all hell broke loose over a red blanky. Ben has quite a few beloved blankies. None of them is red. Yet last night, after I stumbled half awake into his room, he repeatedly requested his “red blanky.” I offered up every blanky at hand (quite a few: brown, blue, Buzz, little Buzz, Buzz sheet) and after the Buzz sheet was offered, he seemed happy enough. So I started back to bed. I’d just gotten comfortable when he started screaming again. I went back in and he made the same red blanky request. I wondered if he meant the large blanket we keep in the popup. It’s never on his bed, but it is on ours and he comes to snuggle with us sometimes, so I suggested this and he vehemently insisted that it was HIS red blanky, not some other popup blanky. Finally, I turned on the light and asked him to point to something red. He pointed to the nearest GREEN thing and my mystery was solved. He has a very much beloved GREEN blanky which I quickly found for him and derailed BenCON 5. The whole thing is puzzling though because he definitely knows his colors. I can only assume he was in as much of a stupor as I was.
I’m kind of on overwhelm right now. It’s been a huge week for me at work. And even when the huge things weren’t happening, lots of teeny things were happening all at once. Plop that on a background where my darling hubby is traveling for work and I’m one hot mess. So I am phoning it in this week.
I served the kids frozen meatballs (I did nuke them first) topped with marinara (from the jar – there is no other kind at my house). They liked it so much they’re having it again for lunch today.
I am having the kids do every little thing I can think for them to do … putting Loki in his box in the morning and taking him back out, getting the mail from the mailbox, unloading the silverware basket, ferrying objects upstairs and downstairs, feeding the dog various leftovers from our fridge which are not technically spoiled yet, just a bit past their prime, etc. Dang they’re useful.
I was pretty peeved when I noticed that they moved pizza and applesauce day from Friday to TUESDAY (i.e. yesterday, i.e. we already missed it) at Ben’s school, but Tabby will be more than happy when she learns that I am allowing her to purchase hot lunch on Friday.
Tabby has climbing class tonight and while she is there and Ben is at child-mind, I am going to swim with some girlfriends. I honestly don’t care if we swim or sit in the hot tub, but it will be relaxing and nice. Afterwards, it will be late and we will be totally off our schedule so we’re either going thru the drivethru or we’re eating the meatballs and marinara again.
The house looks like someone tossed it looking for drug money.
I’ve had some pretty good victories this week though, plenty at work, but some on the homefront too. I haven’t missed a workout yet, even if my run this AM was a paltry 25 minutes. The kids are happy and arguably healthier than when they were turned over to me (Ben is almost over his cold). I have remembered everything the kids have needed for school, including random things like picture day forms and an apple.
I would never want to do this on my own, but it’s nice to know I can handle it.
It has been a gorgeous fall. We had a wicked hot dry summer so no one knew what to expect with the fall and yet it’s been gorgeous. That is all quickly coming to a close though as we’ve had a few days of windy weather followed by rain and now snow. Most of the pretty leaves are gone and now we are left to clean them up.
