Happy Birthday Isaac!

It's hard to believe that my sweet baby boy turns nine today!  It seems like I blinked and he is all grown up.

Isaac has always had a special relationship with his uncles and aunt.  My sister commented last time she was home how fun he has become.  He has a large vocabulary, an observant nature and a sharp wit which makes the time we spend together truly enjoyable.

Isaac is always up for playing or watching any sport.  His favorite sports to play are soccer and football, although he is trying Little League this spring.  He is eagerly awaiting spring when my dad can install the new basketball hoop.  He remains a 

devoted wrestling fan.

Isaac is a technology whiz.  I count on him to help me work the TV, make sense of all of our remotes and troubleshoot issues with my phone.

He is a math whiz but his favorite class is gym.  He has faithfully practiced his viola every day this year.  He was thrilled to earn his "cursive license".  His nose is often in a book. 

Isaac has a photographic memory.  I can always count on him to remember where I park the car.  He also loves commercials and easily memorizes and recites them. 

Isaac is such a good helper.  Everyone wants to know how Isaac has adjusted to being ousted from his position of "only child".  I am pleased to report he has done great.  He had become a lot more self reliant and responsible for his own things.  He has become a young man overnight.

He is the sweetest big brother.  He always wants to hold his sister and interact with her.  He tries (and often succeeds!) with calming Hannah when she is fussy.  Although she doesn't give him a whole lot in return, he never gives up thinking of ways to entertain her.  He set up an entire "Baby Olympics" for Hannah including events such as baby luge, baby bobsled, baby ice dancing and (my personal favorite) baby curling.

I couldn't be prouder of the young man he has become.  I love you Isaac Matthew!  Happy 9th birthday!

Family Blurbs

Isaac came home with this:

which I thought was adorable.  He was so excited and proud.  If I ever end up in third grade again I will be stealing that idea for sure.

Earlier this week Ryan was able to go with Isaac to his Fruit with Fathers breakfast.  It happened to fall on his day off and during American Education week when parents are invited to stay and observe classes.  I have always wanted to go, but obviously, have never been able to make that happen **insert crushing working mother guilt here**.   Isaac convinced Ryan to stay for Social Studies, gym class, and the book fair..   

 I had a nice lowkey birthday.  This was a present from Ryan:

I am still getting the hang of a Droid but I am loving having my own tablet.  We had a nice dinner at Bahama Breeze and then went to a concert.

Megan Tonjes is one of my favorite singers and she was coming through town at a little coffee shop in Ardmore.  We also had a really nice family dinner with my brothers at my mom's house and my Mom and Dad drove in one night and met us at Olive Garden.

I came back from the bathroom to find these two on their phones and talking NBA and Isaac on his iPad.  Definition of a modern family I guess.

 My parents gave me a gift certificate for People's Light and Theater to take the kids to their Christmas Panto.  So of course I pestered Ryan incessantly to figure out the schedule until we were able to book tickets for a Saturday in December.  My parents have always taken us to the theater growing up.  It is fun to keep the tradition alive with Isaac and Ryan's girls.  It does make me feel a bit better that even with me being grossly pregnant, I don't have to miss out on all of the Christmas traditions and I really am looking forward to taking Allison and Gabby.  We don't ever get much holiday time with them, and I am trying hard to think of traditions we can include them in. 

 

Isaac turns 8

It has been a while since I have logged into blogger and sat to type.  QUITE a bit has happened and hopefully I will get back on top of things soon.  One of the first things that has happened since I last logged in was Isaac has turned 8!!  This year his birthday fell on President's Day. 


modeling a Padres shirt from Aunt Kathy


We celebrated with our traditional trip to the Sixers where Isaac got a special greeting from the Sixers flight squad and also a Sixers lunch box, cup and baseball hat. 

Isaac also got a new iPad mini as a birthday present from his father and grandfather.  He has been loving messaging family members and playing around with the apps.  He also got three full uniforms from his favorite European Club soccer teams. 

He is still missing a front tooth and the other one is barely hanging on by a thread.  He has turned into quite a book worm this year, working his way through all of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid and is now working on the Lunch Lady and Big Nate series and he tears through Sports Illustrated for Kids every month.   He still thrives on being active and loves soccer, basketball, football and baseball. 

Sometimes I can't believe how big he has gotten!  Happy Birthday Little Man!



here we go...

I have been so busy spending time with family (Drew and Jenny are here-- hurray!), preparing for the holidays, trying to keep on top of a mountain of IEPs and other work stuff, and just feeling sad and depressed after the Sandy Hook thing. 

Sorry to neglect you little blog. I have posted like two times in December. 

Ryan, Isaac and I went to Washington D.C. with my parents and Jenny and Drew.  We went to the Smithsonian for a little bit (the Museum of American History).  We only saw a little bit of what there is to see there but we really enjoyed it. 

A highlight for Ryan was seeing Julia Child's kitchen which is everything from her home reassembled in the Smithsonian.  He was a little starstruck.

A highlight of the trip for me was when Isaac recognized the Washington Monument and then said to me "Mom, are we near the place where Martin Luther King gave his speech?" I welled up a little with mom pride.  There is so much to see and of course we only had time to do a little, so Ryan and I are already trying to schedule a return trip.  After dinner we went to the Washington D.C. Temple to see the Nativity Display and check out the lights.  As usual, the temple looked magical.

 The visitor's center was more crowded than I have ever seen it.  Hundreds and hundreds of people crammed in there.  We did manage to get tickets to hear a free Christmas concert that we all enjoyed.  This is the second year we have done a Christmas time trip to D.C.  It is becoming a nice little tradition. 

We made it through the end of the school year and now we can breathe a sigh of relief that we are on vacation.  Isaac has been rocking a lot of sports gear (including batting gloves to school, see evidence below).  His class had a secret santa gift exchange and he made out pretty well.  His new thing is that I "keep treating him like he is four".  I am trying to remember that he is growing up, but it's hard.  He will always be my baby.

I enjoyed my first Christmas at my new school.  This is what our principal gave us for Christmas:

 

So that was pretty cool.

Another Christmas tradition my family has is we all go to People's Light and Theater Company and see the Christmas Panto.  It is always hilarious with cross dressing, singing, candy, audience participation and local references.  My brother Joe wasn't able to make it, so my mom invited Ryan's daughter Gabby to come with us, since it happened to be her sixth birthday.  She did a great job and she really loved it (even declaring she wanted to it again for her birthday next year).  Check out her sequined Kelly Kitty shoes.  Pretty stylish.

Oh yeah, and my sister got me this super cute purse for my birthday.

 

I think that's the update.  Happy Christmas!

 

Biebs

Next weekend is my birthday. Since we will be tied up with our last soccer commitment of the season (insert Hallelujah chorus here) Ryan made plans to celebrate my birthday this past weekend. I had often spoke of how much I had loved my 30th birthday and I wasn't sure if it could ever be topped.  I guess Ryan took this as a challenge because he told me to pack an overnight bag with warm clothes but he wouldn't say anymore than that.

We dropped Isaac off with his dad and started heading north.  I had tried to do some snooping and I had assumed we were heading for Washington DC, so then I was really baffled and actually kind of freaking out.  I don't like not being in control and not knowing the plan.   We drove along forever and then I finally deduced we were going to New York City.  After it seemed like we had been in the car for an eternity, I noticed a huge billboard for Justin Bieber's concer that night at the Meadowlands and then when we got off at the exit for the Meadowlands I began seriously freaking out. Yes, I may be turning 31 but I am a huge Justin Bieber fan.  I had REALLY, REALLY wanted to see him when he was in Philly, but we couldn't get tickets and I tried to be okay with that.  I was thrilled when I put it all together and was more than happy to join the throngs of purple shirted Beliebers heading into the show.

Through a long series of events, we ended up with FREE tickets in the thirteenth row, right near Govenor Christie's daughters and some Victoria Secret models.  We also spotted Perez Hilton.

 

 

The arena was deafening.  If I would have known better, I would have seriously worn earplugs or some kind of protective earcoverings. Justin started the show strapped to a pair of silver wings and flying out over the audience.  

 

 

 

 

Best iphone shot of the night.

 

 

He played a few guitar songs for the audience from a crane.

 

 

He also wore hammer pants the entire time.  I guess they are making a comeback with teen pop sensations.  Who knew?  The show was excellent, our seats were amazing and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  The only thing that would have made it better was if Isaac was there.  He would have loved it, and I felt more than a little guilty that I was seeing the Biebs without him.

 

After the show we drove into Manhatten and crashed.   The hotel was very beautiful and swanky.  Here is the view from our window.  It has been a few years since I have been up to the city.

 

 

Since we did not have to pay for our tickets to see the Biebs, we decided to spend that money on a Broadway show.  One of the first conversations Ryan and I had was about how he wanted to see the shows Mary Poppins or Spiderman.  So we decided to hop in the TKTS line in times Square to get tickets.   There must have been a hidden camera because we noticed ourselves on a big billboard in Times Square.

 

 

We ended up at the matinee for Mary Poppins. The show was great.  We had great seats there as well.  (Thanks mom and dad for chipping into the birthday fun fund!)  We ended up getting a bit lost and wandering around the city for a while.  We did Rockefeller Center, some shopping and dinner in Times Square.  There was so much we wanted to do, but didn't get a chance to, that we are already planning our next trip back.

 

Thanks for making my 31st birthday so special Ryan!

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.

Well...

I survived... And it wasn't as bad as I anticipated.

Isaac had fun and so did his guests.

( This one turned out especially blurry but look how terrified Ilona is of Monkey Joe.)

I'm glad birthdays only come once a year. :)

Of all the cool presents Isaac got for his birthday...

It's been the fart putty that has had us in stiches all afternoon.

What can I say? We're easily amused.

Swirl, Tap, Buff -- random smatterings

So I'm a sucker for a good informercial. Have you ever seen the Bare Escentuals Mineral Makeup informercials? (I tried to embed the video, but every time I tried it made my browser crash. Like, seriously, five times.) I've been wanting to get a good foundation but I am scared of liquid ones. I feel like I can't apply them without looking ridiculous. Anyways, I had to go to King of Prussia to go the ATT head quarters to swap out my phone and since I was there I figured I may as well go to the mall and since I was at the mall I may as well go to a makeup counter and have someone help me find a decent foundation. Then I walked by the Bare Escentuals store and saw the huge counter with make up artists doing girls' faces and I couldn't help it. As PT Barnum said, "There's a sucker born every minute" and I am so often that sucker. Anyways, I walked out with their starter kit for 63 bucks, which I think is actually a pretty good deal. You get the foundation powder, the bronzing powder, and the setting powder, three brushes and a huge thing of brush cleaner for that price, which I thought was pretty decent. Three good brushes alone can cost you that much. I also spent a fair amount of time playing around with their blushes, but at 16 bucks a pop, I decided to pass. Which worked out: I had a covergirl coupon which I combined with a good sale and got Covergirl blush at the grocery store for about 1.50. Oh, and I also got a free sample of facial moisturizer and a cute black and pink reuseable fabric bag. And I have to say, I am satisfied so far. The coverage is good and yet the foundation doesn't feel heavy. The brushes are super soft. Anyways, my dad helped me get my taxes squared away tonight. As per our support agreement, Isaac's dad and I take turns claiming our offspring for tax purposes and this is his year. It's also my first year as head of household and not being in school, etc. I was pretty concerned for a while that I was going to owe tons of money. It looks like I will squeak by in the black with a very modest refund. Phew! Great blog post. It's a pretty concise summary of why our education system is in desperate need of reform. Teachers have been really taking the heat locally (the school district I work for, as well as several other local ones are in a gridlock of contract negotiations) and nationally with this mess in Wisconsin. It's easy to make teachers a scapegoat, but we are working within a hopelessly flawed system. I am really thinking I may head down to Washington in July for the march.

So Friday was Isaac's birthday. He ended up being extremely sick all last week. Barfed Saturday, and cough and high fever Sunday. I kept him home from school Monday and Tuesday. He made it through Wednesday but then Thursday he was sent home after throwing up in class. I ended up keeping him home Friday just to make sure we were in the clear. My mom kept Isaac most of the week (because she ROCKS!!!!!) but I decided to take a sick day Friday and we stayed home together, which was lovely. I didn't touch my sick time my first two years, so I have plenty of it piled up. This year I don't feel guilty about using it.

The exchange with Daddy went very well (hurray!). My parents had bought Isaac a ticket to the circus as a Christmas present and this was the weekend to use them. He and his Dad seemed to have a really wonderful time there. His dad also had a little party on Saturday. Next weekend the celebrations will continue when his dad is joining us and my brothers for a Sixers game (Isaac's big present). I'm definitely looking forward to that. The next day will be his party at Monkey Joe's for his school and church friends, which I am not looking forward to at all as much. I've managed to avoid a birthday party up until now by flatly refusing year after year. He brought out the big guns this year though and had my mother appeal to me on his behalf.

If you know me at all you know that I would pretty much rather rip out my own fingernails than go to a child's birthday party at a Chuck E Cheese-like establishment on a Saturday. When Isaac brings home invitations from other kids I put them straight in the trash.

However, since it is February and thus we can't do a cheap/free outdoor type venue, and since I am certainly NOT about to have a million five years olds over to the house and be responsible for amusing them for several hours, Monkey Joe's all inclusive party package began to look better and better. Anyways, I will be relieved when that part is over and done with.

Anyways, that's about it for now. I guess I should get to bed. Have a lovely week all!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

(yes, this video is ridiculously long. It was hard to whittle it any shorter though; so many pictures are favorites!)

Dear Isaac,

Happy birthday! This year your birthday falls on the Friday before President's Day, as it did the year you were born. You have your dad's brown eyes and your mom's stubborn grit. You have a sweet personality, a loving disposition and a wicked sense of humor.

Here are some things you love as you are turning six:

• Sweets of all kinds. Also, apples and applesauce.
• Reading and writing. You are always making lists, and writing things down. You can read so many words. I often find you reading books to Grandma.
• America's Funniest Home Videos or "Funny Bideos" as you call it.
• Scrabble Junior and checkers. I stopped letting you win a long time ago.
• Sports. You love to play football, baseball, basketball and soccer. I often find you playing soccer and football with the big boys when I pick you up from the Y program after school.

You are such a joy to me and I love you more and more each passing day.

Love, Mom

and now back to your regularly scheduled life

• Ugh back to work tomorrow. Part of me looks forward to the return to routine, but part of me knows that it will be a disaster since Isaac and I have been staying up and waking up way too late. I have enjoyed the long lazy days, but a lack of structure definitely takes its toll. Too much TV, too much wii, too much junk food, etc.
• I did get all of the Christmas decorations taken down, do some crafting, read some books, excercise a fair amount and finally catch up on laundry. Usually I just root through the laundry baskets and pull out socks, underwear, pajamas and workpants to wash. When we were briefly snowed in I did load after load of laundry. It got to the point where the drawers were totally full and there was still more to be put away. I counted, and I have 27 clean and ironed pairs of workpants in my closet! I was shocked. I mean, I only work five days a week and I frequently wear skirts or dresses too.
• This inspired me to go through and get rid of clothes that are worn, faded, stained, just don't fit right, etc. I also managed to get Isaac to sort through a bin box of toys that have been in the basement for over a year now. I was reluctant to let some of them go, but he didn't seem to mind as much as me. Now I have a huge bag to take over to Goodwill this week.
• I have quite a bit to look forward to this week though. I know some of my friends get annoyed by my insistence of planning ahead for social activities, but this is how I survive. I know that if I can hang in there x days, then I will get to do something fun. This week I am having dinner with a friend on Wednesday night, Friday I am hopping on a train to Philly to celebrate my girl Becca's birthday with some close girlfriends. We tend to celebrate our birthdays by dinners out and then going to dance clubs and/or piano bars in the Gayborhood. I believe that is the exact agenda for Friday, so I am looking forward to that.
• Saturday I will be getting my car inspected (the brakes are really squeeling which is not good) and then going back into the city to see Mary Fahl in concert at the Tin Angel. I saw her in concert when I was hugely pregnant and sort of fell in love with her. I listened to her cds over and over during that time in my life, and her music takes me right back.
• So looking forward to fun things should help me get through what will likely be a rough week back at school.
• I will report on last year's goals soon and identify some new ones. I haven't updated that tab in ages. I didn't get to everything, but I did get to quite a bit.
• Someone must have heard my rant because today they announced that our weekly FHE's are going to be replaced with monthly service projects. Now that I can handle. It might mean I can occasionally make it to Monday night yoga. I've sure missed it! They also asked me to speak in church next week, and asked me to sub for the Sunday School teacher. I will be very busy preparing for all of that.
• I managed to remember to register Isaac for spring soccer. Thank goodness after the fall season fiasco. He is old enough now that he will have a practice on a weekday in addition to a Saturday game.
• I think I'm getting the hang of Twitter. Although, I don't really need another social networking site to engage in heavy cyberstalking waste time. I decided I must become active on it though to prove that I am still young and relevant. It makes me feel so old to not understand it.
• I ended up actually having a very enjoyable New Year's Eve, despite my prediction that it would be another unmemorable one. A few of my friends got together for a small party. The girls who hosted had their nephew there who is a year older than Isaac, so it worked out well to bring him along. I figured we would just drop by briefly, but Isaac was so well behaved we ended up staying till after 12. I was honestly impressed he could stay up so late. It was low key but very enjoyable.
• Anyways, I should get off the computer and do lunches, lay out clothes, pack up bags for tomorrow. Have a lovely week!

Everything but the kitchen sink

Thanksgiving was lowkey and relaxing. Isaac and I went to my parents and my one brother joined us. I got two random "Happy Thanksgiving!" texts from phone numbers I didn't recognize. Wasn't sure what to do with that. Isaac had his heart set on playing football but it was very cold and rainy so we had to settle for indoor activities. Dinner was delicious. We played some gin rummy and then we sacked out on the couch for a while wasting away in front of the TV. My dad and I watched the Zumba infomercial for like 20 minutes. I think he secretly wants to do it. Which he totally should. It's so fun!We drove home around eight and Isaac was snoring within minutes of pulling away. He woke up when he got home long enough to ask for some dessert and to declare "I wish we could live at Grandma's forever!"

Black Friday I went out in the city with some girlfriends, which was supposed to be a late birthday celebration for me. (Oh yeah, my birthday was the 17th, but I have been celebrating for pretty much the whole month of November. 29 is great so far). We went to Tria and I had my favorite thing on their menu (after dinner, of course): Nutella Panini. If I had to only choose one food to eat for the rest of my life, it would be Nutella Panini. I was about halfway done with it when the waitress came over, and stuck a candle in the remnant of my sandwich, which was cute.

Most of the talk that evening centered around my one girlfriend who has recently gotten very serious with the guy she is dating. They are talking marriage and she is about to buy a house and officially move in with him (she's not LDS, fyi).... AND his twin ten year olds. Although she adores the two kids (a boy and a girl) she shared some of the issues they are encountering as she essentially takes on the role of step mom in a household where the kids are pretty much running the show. I mostly sided with her (ten year olds with ten thirty bedtimes? I don't think so). I found myself biting my lip on some topics though. There are some things about having kids that you just don't understand if you don't have kids yourself (example-- she was repulsed by the fact that he let his son sleep in his bed all day when he was home from school sick. It made total sense to me. Isaac often sleeps in my bed when he is not feeling well too. I think it's comfort thing).

It was interesting to imagine being in that situation though. I would certainly want my partner to feel comfortable dealing with (minor-type) discipline issues and I recognize how important that would be in a blended family or step parent situation. But if I had to be totally honest, I think I think a little part of me would balk a little bit. Even now I feel defensive if one of my brothers disciplines Isaac. It would be a hard thing. I am interested to see how it all plays out for her.

Anyways, before dinner we also oogled clothes and household items we can't really afford went shopping at Anthropologie. My friend briefly contemplated an 18 dollar hot pad. I told her I could make her one FOR FREE and she agreed. I went home and made these in about an hour with some scraps I had from other fall projects. If you remember, I have LOTS of heat resistant batting from another potholder project, so everything was ready to roll.

I also decided to make a matching hot mitt. I didn't take a picture of it, but it turned out pretty cute. The potholders I just sort of did myself but the oven mitt I followed this tutorial.

It was very clear and should have been easy to follow, but it my eagerness to finish, I would forge ahead after only skimming and then discover I had made a mistake and then would have to go back and start over. Totally reminded me of that saying "haste makes waste". I gave them to her today and she could not believe I made them myself. I think she really liked them. Maybe there is a hope for this undomestic goddess after all. Saturday my friends (a girl I work with and her husband) invited me over for dinner and a game night. Backstory: In October they had taken me and another friend to a Halloween party where I briefly met another one of their friends. I will refer to him as FOF (Friend of a Friend). Afterwards apparently FOF got in touch with my coworker and asked about me. So anyways, when she invited me over Saturday she said she was having some people over and that FOF would be there. Okay, whatever. Of course, I show up and it is just FOF. No other people. HELLO awkward setup. We drove to Chile's and there was this moment of hesitation as we approached the booth. She even joked about should I sit with her or with FOF? I ended up sitting with FOF. And he ordered the exact same thing as me: chicken club tacos without the bacon. He was a nice enough guy, he really was. And our evening was enjoyable. Dinner was good and we played all kinds of fun games. However, to my friends' dismay, FOF is not the guy for me. I hope this doesn't sound snotty, but I will explain why.

• Strike one: over dinner passionately talked about his love of black metal music for about 20 minutes and various experiences seeing bands with names like Dying Fetus in concert.
• Strike two: at some point it came out that although he is no longer collecting unemployment while working at Gamestop, he still lives in his grandmother's attic. Seriously? SERIOUSLY?! I don't want to sound like it's all about money or anything like that, but by mid thirties you had better be in your own place paying the bills.
• Strike three: Okay, this is the one that I feel really mean revealing. But here goes: We were playing Scattergories and he hardly ever came up with anything for any category, any round. I mean, "name something in the room that starts with c"? "name a four letter word that starts with a"? Nothing... It was a little alarming. I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, but then we moved onto Uno. He had no frame of reference for the game Uno, which I just found to be frankly, odd. After we explained the game and started playing he still couldn't get the concept and was just throwing out cards randomly. We would have to stop and explain it to him again. I mean, really, the premise of the game is just matching colors and numbers. I will let you draw your own conclusions to avoid spelling out what I feel is too mean to outright say.

So anyways, it was an enjoyable night, but I don't see much of a future with FOF. It has been quite a while since I was blindsided with an unexpected set up though, so I give them props for that.

We've started decorating the house for Christmas. I dug out the huge two tubs of Christmas stuff but I haven't unloaded them all the way yet. One is pretty much all Christmas ornaments and I'm still not sure what to do about a Christmas tree. Last year my brother loaned me a tiny fake one. It was supposed to be three feet tall but it was actually more like eighteen inches. The cats had a field day with it, knocking it over and batting the ornaments all over the house. I want a real one this year, but only if the cats can behave. Anyone have any tips for cat-proofing the tree? My brother is supposed to make an appearance this week to help us put some lights up outside, so I'm looking forward to that.

Tomorrow is back to school officially, although I was in for several hours today. I felt unprepared to start the week, and it was a good thing I went in. The more I started to do, the more I discovered needed to be done. (Hello IEP meeting after school tomorrow. Didn't remember you were there!) I have been feeling a ton of anxiety about the month of December. It's such a crazy time at school, with so many things that need to be crammed in before break. There is also so much going on outside of work: parties, get togethers, plays, family commitments, stores, crowds, things to be bought, wrapped, mailed and of course money stretched thin. All of it good stuff but it is a little overwhelming to coordinate it all.

Anyways, I should go. Feel free to leave comments and have a lovely week!

on to more important things

Things that make me happy (in no particular order):

All of the Stephenson Men

I could write a blog devoted to each person in this picture. The men in my family are so incredible to me and Isaac and I love them each so much. No matter what, they each go out of their way to make sure that Isaac and I are taken care of and have what we need.

My brother's girlfriend Hayley and the absolutely INCREDIBLE cake she brought for Isaac's bowling birthday.

She works in a bakery and brought this home from work. I've never seen anything like the detail in the Spiderman. The picture doesn't even do it justice. Amish Buggies

Whenever I'm at my mom's place I see at least three or four. This one is going right down their street. I love that buggy parking is just as common at banks, grocery stores, and Rita's Water as car parking. They live in such a cute sleepy little town.

Newly organized handbags.

My brother Joe came over on President's Day to paint Isaac's bedroom and he helped me with a lot of random projects around the house. I had the smaller set of hooks in my closet for a while, but it could only barely hold all my bags. Now that I have the larger row on top everything looks neat and tidy inside my closet. I love it.

This picture is finally hung up!

This proportions in this photo turned out a little wierd but I think you get the gist. I've had that propped up against the living room wall forever. First we needed to paint the living room (see-- it's not blindingly white anymore! Another room painted with salvaged paint, this time leftovers from Joe's hallways.) Then we didn't have the right anchors. Then we were missing a stud finder {INSERT OBVIOUS SINGLE GIRL JOKE HERE}. But it's up and it's fabulous. The living room is coming together slowly but surely and that makes me very happy.

My diploma is hung!

Along the same lines. My Master's Degree has been hung in the office for a while but my Pitt Diploma has been just sitting in the office closet, which is such a shame. So I put it up in the hallway over the weekend (and it is straight although you can't tell from the picture).