Life Lately

 

So we had three snow storms in the past week so I guess winter is officially here.  I ended up with a two hour delay AND a snow day, so that was an exciting bonus.  It bought me a lot of much needed time to finally get the tree in order, some Christmas shopping done, the house cleaned up a bit, and of course, it finally afforded Ryan the time to assemble a million things for the baby which have taken over the house.  The pack and play is assembled.  The car seat is installed.  The fancy vibrating baby swing that a coworker gave us is set up even though we had to relocate the armchair in the living room to the garage.  We are just out of room with the Christmas tree and the swing and the bouncy chairs, etc. etc. etc!  It is a bit overwhelming.  Every time I think this townhouse can't feel smaller, we manage to squeeze more things into it. 

 

I debated even doing Christmas on any kind of large scale this year.  Getting the decorations out and up was exhausting. We didn't end up doing outdoor lights.  I was even willing to skip the tree but Ryan wasn't.  Isaac wasn't that interested in getting the tree this year, so Ryan and I ended up going during the day on the Monday after Thanksgiving.  We both had off from work but Isaac had school.  It doesn't look like Christmas cards are happening (perhaps a holiday themed birth announcement?).  Sadly, I am even debating taking the tree and everything down on Christmas evening since we leave for the hospital early in the morning the 26th.  I feel like if I don't take it all down that night that it will stay up till February.

 

The other night Ryan got to finish with work early (a rarity for a December Friday night when you work retail) and we were able to meet him at Red Robin and then we did a little grocery shopping.  (Sidenote: I remember when my siblings and I would tease my parents that their date night was always Panera and the grocery store, and now I have BECOME THEM). This was probably our last restaurant meal before baby.  It feels like everything is a milestone like that anymore.  The last date night before the baby comes.   The last day trip before the baby comes, and on and on.

 

We also managed to squeeze in a trip to the Christmas Panto, trying to keep the tradition alive.  The girls were so excited (Isaac, not so much, since he felt the show was "princess themed").  Gabby had told Ryan she had bought a new dress for the occasion.  She is ever the fashionista so we were tickled but not surprised when she showed up in this fully sequined animal print dress complimented with holographic bow.    A week out from her seventh birthday she looks so grown up all of a sudden.

The weather was not cooperative and it was looking sketchy if we would be able to make the show.  

We were able to exchange our tickets for the seven o'clock show for tickets to the two o'clock show and we had great seats in the center of the third row.  It made for a treacherous ride home but at least we still got to go. Gabby even got to go up on stage and be a part of the show, although she became a little shy once she got up on the stage.  It was a lot of fun.

So that's what's new around here...  

 

More Christmas!

These pictures are courtesy of my sister Jennifer! She and Drew have been in town for several weeks and it has been so fun.

Isaac has an obsession with sports and fitness. Everyone enjoyed coming up with crazy excercises for Isaac to do. Here he is laughing his way through some wall sits.

 

 

He also got out the shovel and helped clear the driveway of snow on Christmas Eve.

As a Christmas present they took Isaac out for a day.  They started out with breakfast at the Waffle House.

 

 

Then they took him to a rock gym!

He is rocking his new Christmas clothes and hat.

 

 

They said he got a little nervous when he looked down and saw how far up the wall he had climbed, but overall, he did great.

 

 

Thanks Drew and Jen for a great Christmas present!

 

Favorite Holiday

We had a wonderful Christmas and I hope you did too.  Ryan, Isaac and I spent Christmas Eve with my family.  Jenny and Drew have been here for several weeks and Joe slept over.  Tom and Kelly Ann joined us later during the day on Christmas.

My mom has so many fun Christmas decorations.  She collects Nativities and has tons of them.  It is always comforting to go home and see all of the familiar holiday decorations.  Here are a small sampling of her collection.

Christmas Eve was a low key night.  We were going to do the light show at Hershey, but there was actually too much snow falling.  We set off but turned around after a few miles, since the roads were quite slippery.

Isaac did a great job waiting until 7:00 until her got up (despite a false alarm when he misread the clock at 1:00 in the morning). Isaac got me so many thoughtful presents and it was adorable because he could barely wait to give them to me.  I had to beg him to wait until Christmas.  This stamped coaster was my favorite gift from him:

 

Isaac made himself photographer for a while and here are the blurry results:

Ryan liked all of his gifts, but especially his tortilla pan set:

My parents got us a zoo membership and Ryan got me the Up fitness band, a beautiful pearl necklace and a bunch of Lush products.  Isaac was spoiled with helmets, jerseys, sports posters, and books. 

I also forgot to take pictures, but a few days after Christmas we had Ryan's kids over to open their presents from us.  His kids surprised me and Isaac with really sweet, thoughtful presents.  Ryan's parents and sister Katherine ended up dropping by and then later on his brother and his wife Patrick stopped by.  Patrick's present to Ryan was converting some hilarious home movies from VHS to DVD.  Ryan's siblings and cousins put together some hilarious "mystery" movies complete with soundtracks and previews.  We watched the movies together and it was HILARIOUS.  It was a really fun night with his family.

We are so lucky and so blessed!  Merry Christmas!!

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!

 

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!

Life is like a box of chocolates...

So I finally ventured out of my house today and checked the mail for the first time since Thursday. (EDITED to clarify I have ventured out of my house since Thursday. But I haven't checked the mail). And found a key in my mailbox. Which means.............. I have a package. A cute little package. Shipped priority. From Maryland. And when I opened it, look what I saw: (Sorry if it is huge. I have resized like 4 times in photobucket but it still comes up humungo in blogger)

It was filled with Flake Bars a yummy candy bar I fell in love with when I was in London. They are really hard to find in the USA. Remember summer dating guy? ("I'm not ready for a relationship with anyone, oh wait, now I'm dating an undergrad" -- that guy). A specialty grocery store by his house has a spot for them in the international aisle but more often than not they are out of stock. He would look for me when he would go grocery shopping and if they happened to be in stock he has picked them up for me before.

Well anyways, he sent me a whole pile of them for Christmas. Not from the specialty grocery store. But from a website.

I was so thrilled.

That's a whole lot of Flake bars. A whole lot of crumbly, flaky chocolatey goodness.

And I was pretty surprised.

I mean, I didn't even send him a Christmas card.

Yummmm....

Christmas, Christmas Time is Here

Isaac woke us up at 7:30. We managed to get Joe out of bed and we started in on our stockings and then the presents. Isaac's big present was a bright red Wii from Joe. He recieved a lot of complimentary gifts relating to that (extra controller and nunchucks, several games) and we had fun trying some out. Jenny and Drew had me in the sibling gift exchange and they sent me Dance Dance Revolution and an extra controller. I'm extremely excited about this. Mom and Dad gave me a much needed food processor. I've been making lots of soups lately and I've been relying on a small food processor that only holds one cup. I can't wait to try it out. The kids all got my mom an accuquilt die cutter and she was really excited about it which was great. I wasn't entirely sure if she would like it or not.

Playing with the new Wii Tom showed up later in the morning.

Everyone got a kick out of reading Joe's new book "Here's the Situation: A Guide to Creeping on Chicks, Avoiding Grenades and Getting in Your GTL at the Jersey Shore".

Reading some new books from Jenny and Drew.

Isaac gave my dad a football for Christmas and he was so excited to get all the guys out and play. You can see Joe's new puppy Bailey who joined us this year running along too.

After much debate, they settled on playing touch instead of tackle football.

Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas." ~ Peg Bracken. Christmas! The very word brings joy to our hearts. No matter how we may dread the rush, the long Christmas lists for gifts and cards to be bought and given--when Christmas Day comes there is still the same warm feeling we had as children, the same warmth that enfolds our hearts and our homes." ~ Joan Winmill Brown, American author and editor.

Good food was eaten. Naps were taken. My german chocolate cheesecake turned out amazingly. We talked to Drew and Jenny, Aunt Kathy and other loved ones who are far away on the phone. And I decided to crash at my parent's one more night. =)

In the words of my mom "Merry Christmas one and all!"

Easy Christmas Craft

I meant to blog about this a while ago. I went to a Stamping Up demonstration a while back and made these candles. They are so cute and so easy! To make them you need:

• Tea lights
• Tissue paper
• A circle punch
• A small hole punch (like on the cropadile)
• Small stamps/markers. The ones I used of course were from Stampin Up.
• Embossing heat gun.

Cut your tissue paper into strips. Fold your strip over so it is four layers thick. This is important, otherwise you won't be able to punch anything out, the paper will be too thin.

Use your circle punch to punch out as many circles as you have for candles.

Use the cropadile to punch a hole in the center of each circle.

Stamp the design on each circle. You will see the tissue paper has a dull side and a shiny side. Stamp on the dull side.

Slide the wick through the hole of each circle.

Use the heat tool to melt the wax of the candle. The circles will look like they are disappearing into the candle leaving behind only the design.

You can burn these candles. They are supercute and easy! At the demonstration we made little paper boxes to put them in (you can see mine got a little crushed on the car ride home. I gave mine to my Secret Santa at work.

This has been a super productive weekend. My brother Joe asked me if he could pick Isaac up from school which was fine with me. When I came home he was doing my dishes and entertaining Isaac. What a welcome! We ended up getting in my car to head to Lowe's to pick up a few more strands of lights. When we were there we saw they had decent sized Christmas trees for only 19 bucks so we decided to get one too. We had taken my car instead of Joe's truck, but we managed to cram it in the trunk and then just drive along really slowly with the trunk door bouncing up and down. Fortunately, I live pretty close to Lowe's and we made it with no trouble. Joe put up the Isaac lights along my garage and above the front door. It looks great. He also helped me get the tree on the stand and put the lights on it. I will try to post some pictures soon. Isaac and I decorated it today and so far so good with the cats. They like to sleep underneath it on the soft velvety tree skirt but no attempts to climb it or take the ornaments off so far this year. I just have to figure out how to set timers on everything and then I'm set. Today we slept in (sort of, Isaac is never one for staying in bed for long) and lazed around for a while. We ran some errands, I met up with my mom for a bit and went to a Party-Lite party hosted by a coworker while I dropped Isaac to be babysat by my fabulous single mom pal. When I came to pick him up she had made me my very own pie pan full of fruit crisp. It is amazing and I have already eaten quite a bit of it. Once we were home we settled in and watched movies all day long while trimming the tree, cleaning, organizing, catching up on laundry, addressing Christmas cards, etc. I also finished about ten of these: My mom and I working on them together as an easy Christmas gift for all of the teachers, day care people, etc. who we want to remember for the holidays. I'm still debating putting Christmas fabric on the tops, but I feel like it might push it too far into the holly hobby relief society craft day look that I try to avoid. My house is still not entirely in order but it is getting there and I did cross off some household chores/projects that I have been putting off for a while. It feels good! On the dating front, I didn't blog about it much, but I dated a guy this summer. I wasn't sure where it would go, but it didn't end up lasting past the back-to-school/wedding fiasco that was late August. He said he just wasn't ready for a relationship with anyone (You know how it goes. Say it with me now : "it's not you, it's me, for real", [except he would never say for real]). Anyways, I confirmed, via internet stalking of course, that he is now "in a relationship" with a 20 year old undergrad of a local college. I'm not going to lie, it stung a little, but I supposed it's for the best. He never came out and said it ever, but I'm a girl with a bit of intimidating baggage who is looking to settle down, which I get is a lot to handle. If he isn't ready for that, then perhaps an adoring college coed in a completely opposite point in her life would be a better fit. At 29, I can't imagine dating someone who was still in middle school when I was graduating college who couldn't even go to a 21 and up concert with me, but hey, whatever floats your boat. In other news, we are having interesting discussions about Santa around here. I am fully preparing to be flamed but.....

I never told Isaac there was a real Santa or encouraged him to believe.

I still remember how betrayed I felt when I found out as a kid. When I thought about pushing Santa on Isaac, it just felt like lying. Sorry if that makes me the grinch but I can't tell my kid with a straight face that a man in a flying sleigh somehow made his way into our chimney-less house and filled his stocking. Anyways, we have talked about how Santa is a Christmas tradition and how some kids believe and other kids don't and that's okay. He has always been fine with that. Until this year, when he has taken it upon himself to adamantly believe despite what I say. When we were hanging up our stockings he wanted his to be closer to the door so Santa would fill it first. I reminded him that it is isn't Santa who fills the stockings, but he said "just in case.". Okay, I also reminded him that we would not even be home on Christmas Eve, that we took our stocking with us when we sleep over at grandma's. He has informed me several times since then that there is a Santa because all of the kids at school say there is and since I don't believe I will get no presents. I'm just leaving it alone for now. It is innocent and sweet and I don't want to entirely deprive him of suddenly wants to believe in so badly, even if it is a bit off putting to me.

Anyways, that's all for now. Enjoy your weekend.

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!