so...

Not so secret confession: I'm really tired of being alone.

I really want to find someone that I can date seriously.

It's hard to even admit it, because I really love my life and overall, I'm quite happy. I don't want to dismiss all of the great things that are in my life, because I am so focused on the one thing I don't have. I'm not depressed. I'm not desperate. But I'm lonely.

Old college boyfriend (WJM) and I occasionally frequently probably way more often than is healthy, find ourselves commiserating on a Saturday night over the bleak reality of the dating scene in your 30s. Anyways, he has suggested over and over that I need to have a hobby that is not related to work to meet more people organically (as opposed to something totally contrived, like an online dating site). WJM has tons of hobbies and is involved in so many different things. I know in his eyes I am a super boring homebody with nothing exciting in my life at all, which isn't a totally fair assessment. However, I've considered his advice a bit. I think I do have hobbies but the problem is they are all solitary ones, or girly ones. I like crafting, cardmaking and sewing.

I do social things: I like to go out dancing (with my married girlfriends to dance clubs in the Gayborhood... hmmm..), I'm in a book club (with coworkers), I spend a lot of time with friends (who are literally all married and engaged except for 2... seriously... I have *2* single girlfriends). I have friends in the city I see once or twice a month and local friends that I see frequently too, but I don't really have many opportunities to meet people beyond my existing circle of friends. I'm not the kind of person that can just approach a stranger in public. And don't suggest church activities. There is no one to meet at church. No exaggeration. For over a year I was in charge of the activities for local single people. There were only 3 guys that came regularly: one was 9 years younger than me and the other two had intellectual disabilities. The LDS social scene for a woman over 25 in the western Philadelphia suburbs is a barren wasteland.

Plus, when you are a mom, you're kids become your hobby. I love soccer, swim lessons, and spending time in the park, but those activities are hardly ideal for mixing and mingling with single men. And I don't even want to come off like I am complaining about that. For a mom, I think I get a considerable amount of "me time", especially compared to married moms with multiple kids. Isaac spends at least every other weekend with his dad. My mom comes in frequently to spend time with Isaac. If there is something I am desperate to do, I can usually arrange for a sitter without too much trouble. I make it to my book club most months, I can usually stop into after work happy hours/get togethers at least for a little to socialize with coworkers, I'm doing grad classes. Although Isaac isn't crazy about the kid's room at the gym, I can more often than not I can persuade him to go so I can squeeze in Zumba or a quick workout.

I am not going to pretend to be something I'm not. I'm not going to join some motorcycle club or something just to try to meet people. I don't know. I guess the bottom line is, I am willing to push out of my comfort zone and try new things, but I don't think that should have to reinvent myself to find someone that I have things in common with. Is that asking too much? The past few guys I have gone on dates with have all concluded that I'm a great girl who deserves someone nice.... so where is he?! I'm not getting any younger

Anyways, I'm not trying to whine or complain. I'm not desperate, but I don't know what else to do. Anyone with serious suggestions, I am open to them.

11 in 11

11. Favorite movie you watched: I've seen some good ones. Recently I've enjoyed The Station Agent. Exit Through the Gift Shop. I like Bridesmaids too. And Black Swan. Did that one come out this year? I think so.

10. Favorite TV series: I've been watching The Biggest Loser (via Netflix) non-stop lately. It's so inspirational! Isaac and I love The Big Bang Theory too.

9. Favorite restaurant: I recently tried the Sunflower Cafe in Pottsgroveish area. Loved that. And I continue to love Tria and anything Stephen Starr.

8. Favorite new thing you tried: Twitter. I like it! Also Spotify which is also two thumbs up.

7. Favorite gift you got: I had a fabulous 30th birthday party with friends in the city. That was the perfect night.

6. Favorite thing you pinned: I don't pin. I know, I can't be a TBM.

5. Favorite blog post: I like Advice for New Teachers.

4. Best accomplishment: Finally getting on track to get my second certification.

3. Favorite picture: Oh I don't know. All of my got deleted in the Great Google Plus picture fiasco of 2011. This one makes me smile:

2. Favorite memory: 2011 had a lot of great memories. Running around the city with my sister was a great memory. You can read about that here.

1. Goal for 2012: Not go crazy. Seriously.

quick Christmas update

Our Christmas was lovely. It started out like this: and ended up like this:

Isaac got lots of great presents. This racecar track was a big hit with kids of all ages.

We had lots of fun with the dogs this year too. Especially Tom's puppy Giselle.

Better size comparision:

I look like a creeper in pictures I am in by myself, but I love that this puppy likes to be held like a baby.

Isaac's dad and grandfather drove out to join us for a few hours. We haven't taken a picture of the three of us in several years.

So... which side of the family do you think Isaac resembles?

Isaac with his two grandfathers:

Hope your day was Merry and Bright!

December business, blah blah

I've been working out a lot lately, in an effort to somewhat counteract some of the delicious holiday goodies that are tempting me at every turn. I feel myself getting a little blue, so I have been pushing myself to get out to the gym more. Working out makes me feel happier and better about myself. I have some time off of work this week and I'm going to change it up by throwing in some extra yoga and Zumba classes.

So I mentioned that I went on a few dates lately. He was a very nice guy, and actually perfect on paper. He had almost every quality that I would potentially want but there was just something about him that didn't click well with me. So I guess I don't know what I actually want. I've actually had a few good phone conversations with old college boyfriend about that. We both seem to be turning to each other (as friends) as we try to navigate dating in our 30s. It's rough out there.

I picked up this little candle at Target and it smells so yummy. It's also only like 6 bucks, so way cheaper than a Yankee Candle.

Seriously. I want to eat it.

Isaac's dad approached me about Christmas. Historically, Isaac wakes up with my family at my parent's house and then usually at some point in the early afternoon he goes with his dad for the evening. This year Isaac's dad and his grandfather asked to join us for Christmas day. I've never met Isaac's grandfather on that side. He is from Sierra Leone but he is spending the next year or so here in the states living with Isaac's dad. He is Muslim and I don't think really observes Christmas, but wants to spend the day with Isaac. Isaac really loves him though and talks about him a lot. It will be a little bit awkward to share the holiday with them, but I think it will be really nice for Isaac to have all of his family together for the holiday. (Sorry mom if you are reading this before I had a chance to tell you-- I've tried to reach you all weekend!)

As far as Christmas stuff, I feel like I'm a day late and a dollar short on Christmas this year. I'm not done my shopping yet, which is unprecedented for me. I've still got to pick up my parents' presents and get a few more things for Isaac. I didn't get my Christmas card together in time to do a photocard. I did make quite a few holiday cards though, so they are together at least. Most of them are even mailed. I have a few more addresses to get together for cards, I need to organize gifts for my coworkers, and for Isaac's teacher and daycare workers.

I picked up a copy of The Poisenwood Bible with a gift card I got for my birthdat. Hopefully once I'm done school I'll have a chance to read it before the new semester starts. I'm taking two classes in the spring unfortuneatly because of the way some things worked out. I will be taking a math methods class and a class for teaching ELL students. So at least they are interesting classes. I'm nervous about doubling the amount of time I have to spend away from home on campus as well as increasing my grad school workload. Fortunately the bulk of my IEPs and other work stuff should be over, so hopefully it will balance out in the end. We'll see.

Anyways, I'm off. Happy Sunday!

...

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so... what's been going on lately?

Just a quick update....

I had a nice weekend. I went on a blind date Friday. I wasn't 100% sold, but he was a very nice guy and I will probably see him again. I'll leave it at that for now. My mom and I did some Christmas shopping on Saturday and then I hung out with my girlfriends Saturday night. I had about an hour drive home and I ended up talking to old college boyfriend for the whole time to pass the time. It was a nice conversation and the whole day just made me feel so happy and grateful at all of the good friends I have in my life now. I remember after Isaac was born and genuinely feeling like I had no friends at all. I'm so glad to have such great people around to support me.

Sunday I picked up Isaac and then went to visit this adorable doggy:

a miniature daschund Giselle that my brother just adopted. She is SO SWEET and adorable. She absolutely melted my dog hating heart. I wanted to smuggle her out in my purse.

Work has been CRAZY lately. The forecast has a chance of snow later in the week and NOTHING would make me happier than a 2 hour delay. =P

I finally got in with my advisor at Albright and it has sent me into a big panic. I have quite a bit of work in front of me and the matter of the student teaching requirement from the state still has not been settled. I also have to take another Praxis exam. It's quite overwhelming and it's hard to not be discouraged.

I know I am so late to the party, but I just discovered the Biggest Loser (watch instantly on Netflix will be the death of me). I kind of love it, although I may or may not have watched two episodes tonight while eating a pint of Ben and Jerry's frozen yogurt.

boring

So I haven't been a great blogger lately.

Everything is fine; nothing is out of the ordinary but nothing is exciting or note-worthy. Being the token single friend in basically all of my social circles, I feel like people expect me to provide them with exciting tales of the bad dates and random escapades of my life as a exciting girl out on the town. Maybe it's the fact that I'm 30 now but I've got nothing.

Nothing at all.

Eating a fistfuls of chocolate chips while refreshing Twitter and watching episodes of Psych on Netflix on a Friday night doesn't make for very entertaining stories.

The fact of the matter is I'm lonely. I'm tired of being by myself. And I don't have any more ideas on how to fix that.

Anyways.

Thanksgiving was lovely. Just like last year I essentially slept the day away. I slept late. Got up, ate breakfast, and then went back to bed, pretty much up until we ate dinner. I don't know why. I had no business being so exhausted. But I guess I needed the rest. Isaac spent the day playing NBA Jam with my brother. We had a lovely dinner and then I went to bed early.

The night before Thanksgiving I met up with my good friend from college, Nicole and some of her family at an Irish pub. She is from Lancaster and now that is where my parents live, so it's been a nice way to catch up with her when we are both visiting family. I always feel a tiny bit of anxiety when I see her now, just because she (and all of her family and friends) are so successful and gorgeous and thin. The most ironic part-- she works for Weight Watchers (corporate office). The pub we met at had approximately 449045840958340985 people in it. I wore cords and a long sleeved cotton shirt and was disgustingly sweaty within 3 minutes of walking in. Like my hair plastered to the back of my neck, sweat rolling down my spine, armpits straight up soaked, which just made me feel even more self conscious and gross. Aside from that, it was fun to catch up with Nicole. Even though we don't see each other often, she really has been a great friend to me over the years.

Latest obsession: Spotify. I've been on a Broadway kick (probably from my latest visit to the piano bar and catching up on Glee)-- the soundtrack to Les Mis is blasting right now. I've also been listening to the Indigo Girls a lot lately (Staring Down the Brilliant Dream has been playing constantly in the car since I went to their concert). The other day I overheard Isaac singing "Get Out the Map" and when I started cracking up he was like "What?! Some of their songs are really catchy!"

I only have one more class/project and then I am done with grad school for the semester. It's been a good class and I've learned a lot about how to use different software (even though I doubt my district will be able to afford a lot of that software for another ten years or so). I'm glad I was able to work things out so I am only taking one class at a time though. Even one class can be a lot to juggle. I have an advising appointment coming up and then I can register for next semester's class: The English Language Learner. Should be interesting.

In a quest to save some money I called the cable company to have them cut the cable. I seriously never watch TV (Netflix all the way!) and it seemed like such a waste to keep paying for it so that I can let the occasional guest flip on ESPN. Turns out that I get a good deal by bundling my internet and cable, and if I cut out the cable, I will only be paying 10 dollars less for internet. So I figured I may as well just keep it. Seriously, this is how boring my life is. I've resorted to blogging about my cable bill.

Anyways, I should wrap this up and head to church. Have a great day everyone!

only comes once a year...

For all of the drama, 30 has been nothing short of awesome so far. This will be a little recap of the birthday funness I've had so far. I will be my traditional birthday year in review post at another time.

I started the celebrations the weekend before my birthday with a nice family dinner at the Hibachi. I wanted to do it on a weekend when Isaac would be with me. Our chef wasn't quite an animated as some I've seen, but it was delicious and yummy. They brought me out a little dish of icecream with a candle in it and everyone sang. We all started cracking up because as soon as we finished the last night Isaac promptly yanked the dish over to himself and started eating. In true Stephenson tradition, we didn't take any pictures. Afterwards we came back to my place for cheesecake and Dad helped me fix my vacuum cleaner.

I had a long day/night of parent-teacher conferences on my actual birthday. I did have a nice birthday dinner at Applebees with a group of my coworkers. My fabulous classroom assistant Sheree bought this cake (which was delicious!):

When I got home my mom surprised me with super cute placemats. They match the kooky chefs in frames on my wall.

This weekend I had the best birthday ever with my girlfriends. We went to Becca's in Fishtown and had a Stampin' Up rep come and help us make this adorable card:

The party decor was so fun. Becca made me this great banner:

The plates somehow managed to combine my favorite things, pink and animal print:

One of my favorite parts of the party was when Becca's husband Steve brought over a homemade Nutella panini. I order one of these at this great place in the city Tria every year for my birthday. We didn't go there this year, but they still brought me one, complete with a tea light on top.

They gave me some really thoughtful presents, including an awesome Wii game, one of those karaoke ones with the microphone.

(It should also be noted, that I received some *ahem* less thoughtful presents... anyone who knows me knows how I feel about bananas...) The evening ended with a trip to the piano bar where I sang "Part of Your World" from the Little Mermaid. =) So, so far 30 has been pretty great.

ugh...

I'm freakin' 30.

as much as I hate Glee...

This is so clever!!

I'm an awkward and uncomfortable thing

I can't seem to embed this video (maybe cause it's unlisted) but here is a link to a little bit of Isaac playing soccer. After we were done with soccer he took off with his dad and I headed into the city to meet up with Becca and Jamie. We did the following:

• Rode the El into the city
• Caught up with the Occupy Philly people who were marching around for bank transfer day
• Went to a whole bunch of stores but niether of us bought anything
• Finally decided what I want to do to celebrate my 30th with friends
• Went to Sephora and tried on a bunch of outrageously expensive makeup. (Seriously, who would buy a 30 dollar single eyeshadow?!)
• Ate dinner at El Camino Real (SO YUMMY)
• went to a Barcade that featured tons of video games from the 80s like Ms. Pacman, Tron, Double Dragon, Tetris, etc.
• Ran into someone I knew from Pitt there.
• Made plans for Thanksgiving Eve to see my old friend Nicole.

I finally decided to sign Isaac up for the winter Saturday soccer clinic. If you've talked to me at all this weekend, chances are I probably hashed this to death with you, but it's been weighing heavily on my mind. Isaac was invited to this winter Saturday soccer clinic that runs from the end of fall soccer to the beginning of spring soccer.

• Pros
• it will help him improve as a player
• it is recommended for kids who will probably play travel soccer, which Isaac probably will
• It will give us something to do on Saturday mornings when he is with me
• He loves, loves, loves soccer.

• Cons
• we have to buy him indoor soccer shoes
• it will mean a Saturday commitment for 75% of the year
• it means that our visitation schedule is reduced to only Saturdays for 75% of the year instead of whole weekends.
• It makes me miss having occasional Friday nights to myself.
• And then it makes me feel terribly guilty and selfish for missing Friday nights so much.

I had made the decision to NOT have him do it after I recieved the inital e-mail invitation. There are plenty of other years for soccer clinics. But of course the coach came over and mentioned it in front of M (Isaac's dad) and of course he thought I should for sure do it. This of course made me insist that he shouldn't, just to be contrary and disagreeable. Anyways, his dad agreed that he would take him some extra Saturdays to make up for missed Friday nights. So I think that's a good compromise. And I swear I won't talk about it anymore.

ANYWAYS.

Back to my birthday. The big 30. I will be blogging more extensively about that sooner or later I'm sure. In the mean time I stumbled across this vlog about it that I loved and thought I would share. I thought I found a grey hair the other day, just in time for the big birthday and that freaked me out way more than the age bracket change does. I called Isaac into the bathroom and demanded to know if the hair was white or blond. He declared it to be white and then helped me rip it out of my head. Hopefully ten more don't grow in it's place. I'm not ready for that. Anyhow, I will begin celebrations this Friday with a family dinner at a local Hibachi. We went last year and had so much fun, but Isaac was at his dad's. This year I wanted to choose a time when he could come too, cause I think he will love it. More birthday plans to come.

I guess I better wrap this up and go to work. Happy Tuesday all!

gpoy

via

one

I picked up this book from Target. I'm looking forward to starting it. I haven't read a book in a while, and now that it is chilly curling up in bed with a good book sounds so lovely. Plus, I'm a sucker for self help books.

two

I've picked up this little palette at Ulta a few months ago and I have been using it for my makeup everyday. The colors are nuetral and pretty and have great payoff. I'm such a creature of habit, I'm sure it will be quite some time before use other make-up again.

three

While I'm on the topic of beauty products, I think it's safe to report that I am OBSESSED with these lip balms. I picked up the melon one at Ulta but I got the strawberry one at Target, right in the checkout line. Try them! They are adorable and soooooooooo YUMMY.

four

I need this mug. Have a great day!!!

tick, tick, tick

This morning I was at a Relief Society thing taking in a few classes in an effort to become more domestic. The cupcake decorating class was very unstructured, just people frosting cupcakes and chitchatting. Which of course, at church tends to make me feel like this:

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But anyways, there is a new young pregnant girl who just moved into my ward. Her husband is here for (...wait for it...) dental school. Someone asked her if she has found a good Ob-Gyn yet and she mentioned that she is going to the practice where I went when I was pregnant with Isaac.

For some reason (I'm blaming PMS), just hearing her say that really hit a chord with me and I found myself welling up with tears. I think it was one part wistful nostaglia and one part brazen envy. I wonder if I will ever get a chance to excitedly tell someone that I am seeing Dr. Segal and my baby is due in a few weeks.

I turn 30 in a few weeks and it just feels like time is passing by at a breakneck speed. I'm worried that I will never have that opportunity, or if I do that my ovaries will be totally stalled out.

Blah..

ombre?

source

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See? They're not untouched roots. I'm just being fashion forward....

keeping pace

Hey, happy fall y'all!

My parents came down yesterday to watch Isaac's soccer game and then we had a nice lunch at Friendly's. It was a perfect crisp, cool, autumn day to watch some clueless little kids kick a soccer ball around. Isaac ended up delaying the whole game because he decided to swing on the goalpost and then his cleat got all tangled up in the net. He has turned into a little bit of a showboat too, trash talking a little bit and excessively celebrating after he scores a goal. I'm trying to nip that in the bud. Two of our games at the beginning of the season got rained out and they added them back on to the end of the season, which makes it feel like soccer will never end. Don't get me wrong-- I love soccer but I'm ready to not have a commitment every Saturday and Wednesday night and to get Isaac back on his regular weekend schedule with his dad.

We had debated trying to make it into the city the for the Freedom March yesterday but we just didn't have enough time. In the evening we went to a cornmaze with some people from church. Isaac has a great time. Tromping around miles and miles of corn is not exactly my favorite way to pass time, but the kids had a lot of fun. We got home around 9 and by 10 I was nodding off. I guess my body really is slowing down now that I'm older. I feel like I can barely hang after 11, which is so disappointing. Pretty lame. Oh well.

Maybe I am still recovering from Tuesday night when my friend Jami and I went to see the Indigo Girls. When we went to Hershey Park a few weeks ago, we listened to their live album the whole time. We talked about how we would both like to see them in concert, if they were even still touring. When I got home I got online and discovered not only were they still touring, but they would be in Philly in just two weeks. My parents bought my ticket as an early birthday present. We had a great time mixing and mingling with a crowd of mostly butchy middle aged lesbians (let's just say, there was a TON of flannel being worn that night). I think going out on a weeknight just through me all off though, and I feel like I still can't recover. #lame

Today we did church. Last week the Bishop came into our YSA Sunday School class and read a letter that said at Stake Conference in a few weeks they will be officially organizing a YSA branch in our stake. Therefore, our YSA activities and Sunday School will be discontinued. I had mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I am about to age out of the YSA program anyways, and even though I could technically attend for another year or so, I had planned to officially call it quits when I turn 30 in a few weeks. I'm ready for that phase of my life to be through. On the other hand, this means I won't have a calling any more teaching the Sunday School class and coordinating activities, leaving me open for a dreaded primary calling (I'm telling you, with as many kids in our ward as we have on the spectrum, I still don't understand how I've escaped being put in there for as long as I have).

Anyways, after this whole thing went down, I filled in as a RS teacher. My lesson went okay (I mean, you can't make family history that relevant or interesting) but they must have been happy with it, because then they asked me be a substitute teacher next week for a teaching for our times lesson (on this talk, which I'm actually pretty excited about).

Apparently someone has an insane level of confidence in me, because today they pulled me out and asked if I would officially accept a calling as a RS teacher. The bishopric counselor acknowledged that lessons in RS lately have been "controversial" (I may or may not have audibly snorted at that one) and encouraged me to remember that there are sisters from our ward from all walks of life: recent converts, people who have grown up in Utah, people who have not grown up in Utah, people in our ward who were very liberal politically and people who are extremely conservative and it's important to be sensitive if a lesson topic could be controversial. Of course, I agreed to that. (I guess my violent rant to our RS president following a comment that Michele Bachmann was a great political candidate for LDS people to vote for must have been passed along. Two weeks later she announced that there was to be NO political discussion in RS, which is A-OK with me). So anyways, I guess that's what I get for complaining about the lessons and discussion. Now I'm in charge of them once a month.

What else? Work... has been exhausting. Another year with two students with really challenging behaviors that monopolize all of my time and stress out the whole team. It's been the same story every year since I started, just insert a different kid. I don't know how much more I can do it, honestly. The other day I found myself fantasizing about starting a whole new career, which is pretty terrifying. It's insane to think that I am so disgruntled with public ed, when I haven't even made a dent in paying off all of the loans I took out to become qualified to do it. I'm just trying to take it a day at a time and I'm reminding myself that I am taking the steps I need to become more qualified and eventually relocate to a district with more resources but it still sucks. I've always said that if I had to work 40 hours a week (or whatever) that I at least wanted to be doing something that makes a difference. Right now I just feel like I'm spinning my wheels...

My place is finally decorated for Halloween. I found this great subway art (I print her stuff out for almost every holiday and season for supereasy decor). Usually I print it out in 8 by 10 but I happened to have a 16 by 20 inch frame in the closet that I wasn't using. I think it looks great. I had it printed out at Costco for about 6 bucks.

Anyways, I should get up off the coach and get ready for the week. Have a great one guys!

true

So...

Do you ever find yourself about to start a conversation with someone and then you remember that the thing you were going to discuss with them wasn't something you know because they told you, but, rather, something you learned from stalking them on various social networks? So then you can't talk to them about it, or you will out yourself as a stalker?

No?

Just me?

Ok....

So I really wanted to check out Occupy Philly and I finally got a chance to today (google it if you don't know about it, or it's predecessor Occupy Wall Street). My friend Becca was up for checking it out and we managed to make it down in time for their big march across town to the Liberty Bell. I was surprised by the crowd. Yes, there were dirty hippies. But there were also a ton of families marching with their kids. There were white people and black people and middle aged people and young people and really old people. It was a fun way to spend the afternoon.

Me and my marching buddy Becca. They had a big sign making area so we decided to make signs.

(yes, I'm wearing my teachers union shirt)

Bonus points if you recognize the movie Becca's sign is quoting. I recognized it right away, but only a few people on the march seemed to get it, including a random bicycle cop. As we were leaving the march at the end of the day and heading towards the subway, one of those open top tour buses passed us. The tour guide read Becca's sign to the group in a confused voice and we ended up having a ton of tourists peering down at us, gawking.

Lots of different causes were represented:

We marched across town to the Liberty Bell, where they had a brief rally and then we marched back.

I loved these two little toddlers waving their fists in the air, so I had to snap a picture.

This sign says "You know things are bad when toddlers start marching".

Snapshot of some of the march.

I liked this one. It was above a big pile of snacks. I don't know how clearly you can read the writing, but it informs you that snacks are a human right.

This sign was one of my favorites, and we didn't even see it at the protest. It was on a wall directly across the street from a Bank of America in Fishtown. How angry do you have to be to do this? (I don't know how clear it is, but the yellow sign says "I hate Bank of America".)

There was tons of press there. I got approached by one reporter, who wanted to talk to me about student debt. He wouldn't talk to him, but he said something to the effect of "I'm sure many of these protesters here are recent college graduates like yourself." I was flattered, but I had to assure him that I can no longer really be considered a recent college graduate. Here is a video from the local news:

Occupy Philly Marches To Liberty Bell: MyFoxPHILLY.com

And one of my friends posted this on Facebook, so I had to share.

Random updates

Long time, no blog.

Things have been crazy. September has been an incredibly pressured work month. My grad class is interesting but time consuming, and my parents have been traveling which always leaves me with a bit more to juggle. We've been trying to squeeze in soccer in between almost unrelenting rain. Things are well though in the household of the Undomestic Goddess.

We've been reading quite a bit together. His reading material is all boy.

Grandma and Grandpa have been in Hawaii (that's my mom in a hammock eating a banana). Isaac has been writing and drawing a lot and I am so enjoying it.

We found this cute 3 dollar candy dish at Target.

Made some potholders using this tutorial.

We pulled out our Halloween decorations. I had forgotten about this table runner that we got after the holiday last year on super clearance. Love it!

We are loving pumpkin flavored/scented EVERYTHING!

We tried a self frosting Nutella cupcake. We had high hopes but we both agreed that they were not that good. The Nutella part was yummy of course, but the cupcake part was kind of flavorless and had the texture of a kitchen sponge.

Isaac pointed these out to me when we were shopping. We decided to get them for his dad for Christmas. I'm terribly predictable. I get him Bob Marley something for every gift giving occasion.

Lots of lounging in front of the computer during Conference weekend.

His Michael Jackson obsession continues. The writing prompt at school was "I can...". In case you can't read it, he wrote "I can dance like Michael Jackson".

A coworker loaned me this for Isaac. He was unimpressed (they are songs from the 80s and 70s) but I found myself singing along long after he got out of the car.

Have a great week!