Hodge podge

J sentence for the week, said while "helping" the husband put together a bookshelf while having a snack: "Come on, banana, let's go do some work."

And now, for some random tidbits....

J is obsessed with Easter, specifically Easter eggs. He was going on and on about making a blue egg today so I finally told him that during his nap I would call the Easter bunny and see if we could get some eggs out of season because J really doesn't like to wait for the eggs to boil and gets all traumatized during the process. So I just popped three eggs in water to hard boil them. I may have chosen to do three because that's all we had and I may have then added eggs to our shopping list, or I might have decided there was some numerical significance to the number three...nah, we all know the truth, right?

E is starting to resist being swaddled, which is all well and good for him, except that he wakes himself up when he is put down on his back unswaddled and can't stay on his stomach at night because, well, it's illegal, and so we are beginning to have swaddle wars when I put him to sleep at night. Love that! In other news, he's finding his thumb, which means we might get to retire the binks for everyone in the house, which would be fabulous!

J has been talking a lot about ladybugs lately, saying he's been seeing them in the house, and the husband mentioned that he thought J might be scared of them, so I spent a little while explaining how much we like ladybugs, how cute they are, etc., etc., etc. Then, this morning, he called me into the kitchen to see a ladybug, and I found him lying on the floor...a foot away from a two inch cockroach! "That is NOT a ladybug," I screamed as I grabbed our industrial strength flyswatter and demolished the roach. Then we had another talk about how cockroaches are not cute or cuddly or our friends and how we don't EVER touch them, particularly not the BIG ones. And then I went off to accept my parenting award!

And we've finally conquered our technical difficulties so we have new pictures of E (and J) in the web gallery. He smiles! He laughs! He giggles! He's cheeky! Go, look, enjoy mah baby!

H is for Hades

This past weekend, the end of the world officially happened: it snowed in Charleston. And it stuck, several inches. On Friday night, rain turned into sleet which eventually turned into snow, which accumulated quickly, some 2-4 inches, and then stayed all through Saturday when the temperature cooperated and didn't get much above freezing. The novelty of it all was offset by the fact that power outages hit our area. We were out for only a few hours in the middle of the night, as far as we can tell, but the hospital was hit long enough for the servers to go down, necessitating all kinds of emergency procedures to keep the patients safe and medicated correctly. In other words, the husband had a busy Saturday starting when he was paged about developments at 6am. Fun, fun, fun!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, J got up around 7am, and we took him to see the snow from the window. He was suitably impressed, but then this is the same child who gets inordinately excited over rediscovering his own toys a day or two after he has played with him last. I'm pretty sure we could get him to act excited about, I don't know, pavement if we presented it with enough enthusiasm for him to mimic. Then we all had pancakes (apparently we like pancakes for birthdays and snow days) and set to work taking advantage of the husband's time at home since it seemed a given that he would have to go into the hospital and troubleshoot at some point soon.

We spent a few hours organizing J's room such that we could bring home Baby #2 at any point and actually have some clothes accessible for him. Which meant we went through the bins in the closet, took out the newborn to three months clothes, donated more stored items to Goodwill, consolidated bins after the donations, organized and put away all the 12-18 months clothes we are no longer using, found all the infant bottles and diapers we had stored away, located the Baby Biorn and the nursing pillow, and organized everything else that was left so we would be able to get to what we might need easily. I felt much better about going into labor once we were through, which is mainly the point of all this nesting, right??

And still the snow lingered. Really, this has been a wacky weather year on the East Coast, and I won't be sad to see it behind us. Hopefully, all this weather craziness will be behind us by the time Baby #2 appears on the scene!

A is for Attachment

Today there are 26 days left until my due date, according to my handy dandy ticker. So I am going to share the ABCs of our lives every day between now and then, hoping against hope that I will get to G or something and then have to say "H is for HAD THE BABY!" No, not going to happen, you think? Me either! Sigh....

Anywho, A is for Attachment.

Lately around here, some of us have become very obviously attached to various items. It all started around Christmastime. Somehow during our trip west, Toddler J became obsessively attached to his pacifiers, binks as we call them, "deets" as he calls them. Always before, he used one gladly, always at nap time and to go to sleep at night, but during the day you could take it away and he would never miss it. Until we started traveling. Then, suddenly, all at once, he not only needed to have one in his mouth at all times, he really preferred to be carrying at least one other bink as well. If you wanted him to be really happy, pray that you had one for each hand. The upshots of this change are many: one, we lose/have lost a LOT of binks, because when he gets interested in something else, he doesn't hesitate to drop those in his hand or mouth and move on, but WOE BETIDE you if you haven't found them again by the time he feels their lack. Two, we have gotten a LOT more new binks, to prevent all this from happening. Three, we are shelving our previous plan to wean him from the pacifiers before the new baby arrives, with our pediatrician's blessing, by the way. She feels, as do we, that given the current state of affairs, it's just not worth the battle and the potential risk of him stealing from the new child, so we are just going to wait until summer.
In the grand scheme of things, I think pacifiers are not that horrible of a comfort item. They are easily replaced, washable, cheap, and available in most stores, after all. The same cannot be said for particular blankets or certain stuffed animals or toys, most of which he has shown little interest in latching onto. So there we are, the bink brigade for the time being.

The husband's latest attachment is some new tech, of course. Mine is, or should I say continues to be blogs and blogging. We both get very put out when we can exercise our rights to these comfort items, much like Toddler J. It's a family affair, people!

Singing, singing all the day

Oy and vey! I am exhausted. After weeks of getting the husband and J back in fighting shape, I finally succumbed to feeling really crummy yesterday. Luckily, the husband could come home a little early and whip on his pharmacist hat and trundle out to get me an appropriate medicine and take J off my hands for the rest of the evening. I am feeling much better today, though my to do list is longer than I want after taking a day off. So, to compensate, I got up early to make pasta salad for the husband's Christmas party, which went off without a hitch. Then, I was planning to get the containers to package the assortment of fudge I made for his officemates yesterday (rocky road, peanut butter chip, and chocolate mint--Martha, watch out!), but I couldn't find my car keys anywhere. That major hitch slowed us down even more! I'm thinking I may have locked them in the trunk (the second time in a month!) but will have to wait until the husband comes home to find out.

Instead, I decided to work on the final Jeopardy game for Seminary, which is now typed but not printed. We are also having a final breakfast on Friday to celebrate one student's birthday and the end of the year, so I need to plan that menu and purchase the missing supplies.

Tonight is also a Relief Society presidency meeting for me, meeting with the youth for the husband, song practice for the Christmas party for both of us, and tithing settlement for the whole family. The business of life continues!

Thankfully, Christmas preparations are NOT on my to do list, beyond gifts and traveling. We are opting to have J experience our parents' decorations in lieu of setting some up here when we're just going to leave them. So our house is decidedly unfestive at the moment, but not decorating makes things much easier on me. In addition, the wonder of Amazon's Super Saver shipping has allowed me to send most of our gifts on ahead to my parents' house, which makes packing that much easier, not to mention that much lighter. Huzzah!

Take me out

It's been a rough week, topped off by a difficult Sunday, punctuated with Toddler J saying (and signing) "Daddy!" loudly throughout church while the husband sat on the stand, within eyesight but out of reach. Then J refused to stay in nursery, calling first for Daddy, who sat with him for about an hour and then for Mommy, who took him with her to her next meeting and pawned him off on her long-suffering friend on whom he has a toddler crush and for whom he sat quietly for the next hour, helped by a well timed cookie from the teacher. (Thanks, Becca!)

But the week had already been sort of a farce by that point, with the husband returning sick as a dog from Las Vegas and J continuing his sinus and ear infection, though untimely antibiotics for J on Monday and for the husband on Wednesday helped to salvage their health, eventually. In the meantime, our annual progressive dinner for the women's organization, which seemed to me to have been going fine, was apparently pissing people off right and left, and I somehow got blamed, though for what, exactly, I'm still not sure. Along with all this, Baby #2 has been fighting me all week and winning, pummeling my insides as he tries to carve out more space for himself, so all week long I have felt like a washed up boxer forced to return as a publicity stunt despite being wildly out of shape. And Saturday was the husband's annual men's chorus Christmas concert, at which we proved definitively that J is not concert going material yet, though he LOVES running around and up and down stairs in concert hall lobbies!

In short, I'm looking forward to a better week. It honestly can't be worse, so there's that.

And today's our 7th anniversary, though we're opting to celebrate on Saturday once what promises to be yet another crazy week is mostly behind us (Mary and Joseph at the church Christmas party, office Christmas shenanigans for the husband, office Christmas gifts to make, packing, etc etc etc). 7th anniversary gifts have been a challenge, what with the options being wool, copper, or desk sets....really? Desk sets?

A candle lights his head

We interrupt our regularly schedule blogging for this important announcement: we have been released as Seminary teachers! As of their Christmas break, December 18th, we will no longer have the boys (and the one girl) over any more, nor will we have to get up at 5:30am every week day and be, you know, all spiritual...or something like that. My hope is that now my first child will learn how to sleep past 6:00am on a good day, and my second child will never know that such awful times in the morning actually exist! All we'll have left to do are the innumerable end of the quarter reports for our officious supervisor (that I will NOT miss! Huzzah!!) and the obligatory mourning that we won't see the kids as regularly or on such an up close and personal basis. They drive me crazy sometimes, but they really are fun to have around.

BUT, before you send congratulatory or conciliatory thoughts our way, know that this release was quickly followed by the husband getting a different assignment, one that came out of the blue and entails even more responsibility, much to our collective chagrin. By the time I post this on Sunday, it will all be official, so I can tell you that now he is 1st counselor in the bishopric. ACK! For my uninitiated readers, this means he is now part of the group who take care of all the administrative details (both temporal and secular) of our congregation. It means he's gone more to meetings, which will through a crimp in our very satisfactory bedtime routine with J. It means he will sit on the stand during our Sacrament meeting, which will be a new challenge for us to face with Toddler J, who is very possessive of his parents right now, and with Baby #2 on the way, since I'm pretty sure he'll want to be fed and have diapers changed during that meeting and Toddler J will be just as accommodating about that as he will be about being separated from daddy, whom he'll already be seeing less of. It means the husband will have more to do all around but also that we will have more blessings for his service, so I'm counting on some of those blessings to help ease my Terrible Two Year Old through the transition. For now, I'm still in the presidency of the women's organization, but we'll have to play that by ear and see if we as a family can handle doing both at the same time. I know, I know, people do this all the time, people like my parents, for instance, but I'm a big wuss, okay??

In the meantime, the husband is out of town in Las Vegas at pharmacy's annual convention where he is, among other things, sussing out some potential job prospects in places not here. So our tenure could be shorter than everyone thinks. Plus, we've all gotten yucky colds after all our travels, colds that keep getting worse and worse. J's is the worst, of course, and he's miserable, as is his mommy and, apparently, so is the husband. So just a little bit of stress around here!

Rainy days and Mondays

Oh my, a week with no posts! I'd like to say this situation occurred because we were just too busy living fabulously interesting lives to blog...but that would be a lie. Indeed, there are weeks like this one in which I can't tell one day from the next because they are all wrapped up in a cloth of sameness.

Which is not to say things didn't happen this week, because of course they did, but these things weren't all that noteworthy. But let's just pretend they were, shall we, and spend some time talking about J's latest developments.



J has become a climbing fiend! Here he is (blurrily) climbing on the kitchen he has turned into a jungle gym. He has also mastered climbing up onto all our couches and is working his way up our shelves. He powers up and down stairs now at breakneck speeds. Today at church, his little friend who is two months older came down some stairs they had climbed backwards in an army crawl, and J just stood at the top and stared at him, wondering what the heck he was doing, then calmly descended the stairs facing front, using the handrail. Of course! In fact, J is quite advanced in terms of physical development. Sadly, however, his verbal development still lags behind. Besides the perpetual "daddy" and the occasional "nana" for banana, we've had no other distinguishable words. Lots of chatter, lots of animated "discussions," but nothing else we can definitively declare words. He's a social, communicative little boy who feels no compulsion whatsoever to talk when grunting and babbling and pointing seem to be doing the trick just fine!

He has, however, increased his vocabulary. All on his own, with zero coaching from us, he's begun to identify body parts when asked, shocking me, his totally unhelpful mother. He gets hung up on his nose if you ask about that one too early, so you have to be strategic to get any kind of results. And he is showing an amazing aptitude for distinguishing between various types of construction vehicles, his favorite being the crane they are using to repair a bridge near our house. One of these when he's ready, he will launch into a discussion of the relative merits of painting cranes orange versus red, but for now he's happy just to squeal and point.

Who came to class today?

This weekend was a quiet one, for once. The husband went with a bunch of guys to see Wolverine late Friday night while I went mercifully to bed early (J had had a bad night the night before, waking up at 11:30, sobbing til 12, and then being awake with me until after 1 am). Saturday we had some (mostly free--hooray for coupons!) Mexican food and did a little grocery shopping in between J's naps. The husband spent some time in the garden (new yellow cherry tomato plants, very exciting!) and playing with J's new golf set (part of the husband's birthday present). J only sort of understands how to hit the ball but is very excited to play caddy with his rolling bag just his size. Both were very cute while practicing!

Sunday was a usual Sunday: long, with non-existent naps, an angry, tired toddler, and lots to do at church. Baby J is attending nursery with one of us as supervisor for about half the time now. He's not actually old enough to attend on his own, but they don't have a lot of kids in there and we decided to start acclimatizing him early. He's actually doing quite well with the playing and snack time, though the lessons sort of boggle his mind and cleaning up seems completely foreign to him. Music time is also touch and go. But he's making great strides in learning to share and interact, so we're going to keep this up for now. Plus, it's MUCH easier to corral him in a place with toys than chase him through the halls!

And there you have it! I know, our activities are the stuff of killer screen plays. Wait! What's that, Hollywood's calling? Gotta go!

That much is true

Have you heard? The CIA is looking for a few good men...actually, women would be good, too. Foreign language experience a plus. Minorities encouraged to apply (particularly those who speak Arabic languages, natch). Are you interested? Or, as the ad campaign puts it, "are you a person of curiosity and integrity" and "are you ready for a world of challenge...a world of ambiguity and adventure?" I don't know about you, but to me these ads seem to be sending a somewhat mixed message. Or maybe not so much a mixed message as a confused one. Do people seeking a "world of ambiguity" strike you as the same people who would describe themselves as persons of integrity?

The husband and I have a running joke that he should never quit his day job and try to be a spy, because he is the least stealthy person I know. I, on the other hand, once seriously considered applying for a writing instruction job at the CIA because it paid so well (starting salary for someone with my qualifications was over a hundred thousand, unheard of in my business). I didn't apply, largely because we had just moved South at the time, and moving back to DC wasn't really an option, unless we wanted to follow the pattern set by a lot of his pharmacy school friends and live apart but married, which always struck me as absolutely beyond the pale. So anyway, I gave up my career in intelligence, but only temporarily, I like to think. To stay in a heightened state of readiness, I am practicing sneaking up on my son, blending inconspicuously into new locations (my most effective disguise? harried mother), and describing random passersby to imaginary sketch artists. Clearly, the CIA wants me!

Only you

Things have been a little hectic lately. We've discovered that we'd inadvertently forgotten to plan a service project as part of a national day of community service our church is co-sponsoring. Whoops! So now we're rushing to come up with something that won't seem last minute and will, in fact, be meaningful. Luckily, members of our congregation turn out to be quite connected in the community, linked to many worthy causes with needs we can meet. My partner-in-arms in the women's organization was just as dismayed to find out about our lapse as I was, so she has sprung into action and figured out some potential projects for us. Now we just have to get everyone excited about them and make it all happen....Ta da!!

In the meantime, J had a rocky week. He's apparently decided he only wants to take one nap a day, but he clearly needs more than one, so we've been having skirmishes all week. He won on most days, meaning our afternoons were, well, fun is not the word I'd use. Arduous? Whine-filled? Long? Yes, those will do nicely!

In addition, though I forgot to mention it in all the hubbub, because that's just the kind of mom I am, J learned how to walk for good in February. His tentative January stepping turned into mini-galloping while we were in England. The long hallway in my parents' flat helped, as did having lots of people to chase him, his favorite activity. Now the stroller is a cage, the front steps sing a siren song, and the ditches in the front and back yards wait to swallow him whole. It's a touching time. Consequently, the floors in the bathroom and kitchen used to be our top home improvement priorities, but now we're hurriedly investigating our fencing options, mingling the joys of home ownership with parenthood.

Blame it on the stars

We, meaning Blogger et al, appear to be having some technical difficulties. If you visit this page, you may see nothing. If you refresh, you should see something, at least briefly. If you have this problem, please let me know in a comment or an email, so I can keep harassing them into fixing the problem.

Darn technology!

I wanna take ya

PS there will be pictures forthcoming to accompany all the past and future vacation posts. We have had downloading issues while in England, so all our photos are still in our cameras and will make it out and into the posts soon, I promise (okay, Becky?!). So don't worry; you will be able to read back and see the shots of the vacation up until now and to infinity and beyond!

So restless nights

Lists, lists, lists! I feel like I have been living lists the last few weeks or so. First, there were the "luau prep," "luau menu", and "house cleaning for the party" lists (the husband particularly enjoyed this last one). Then came multiple "trip shopping" lists. Then, the "do before we leave" lists. And now the "London master packing" list. The husband asked me last night if I had a to pack at the last minute list and I said, umm, no, I have a master packing list. When everything is checked off and packed, we can leave. Clearly, you do not understand the concept of MASTER lists. They are the ur lists that encapsulate all others. Duh!

So the packing, aided by the list, continues apace. So far, so good: all our clothes, J's diapers, and various other accouterments are in one large bag that currently weighs under 50 pounds. There is, in fact, very little left to put in this bag. However, should we be too close to the limit or (heaven forbid!) over it, I am also packing a small, collapsible duffle in the large bag's top pocket, into which I will transfer two packing cubes in about 30 seconds when we check our luggage. Then, when we get to London, I will transfer everything back in another 30 seconds at customs or baggage claim, and we will still be imminently mobile. I cannot sing enough praises for packing cubes, by the way. We got ours here on the recommendation of a traveling with kids blog I read, and they are fabulous. We each have one medium and one large cube filled with our clothes and, in J's case, some diapers and sundries. Each cube holds two layers of clothes and keeps the larger bag totally organized. They make me so happy, I can hardly stand it!

The rest of our equipment will come in our carry-ons, two backpacks (for sure) and a diaper bag (perhaps--this stuff may get parceled into the two backpacks instead). Our house is full of stacks right now: a stack of the clothes we're wearing on the plane, a stack of J's carry on essentials, a stack of toiletries ready to go into the big bag when we finalize the collection (we're in some negotiations over hair products), a stack of snacks both adult and child, a stack of unmated socks (discovered while doing mountains of laundry), a stack of important papers, stacks upon stacks upon stacks. It's lovely, trust me!

Stay tuned....

A good time together

I've got all these posts half done, waiting to download photos, but I'm being hamstrung by how long it takes to download. So more pics to come, but I need to update this blog in the meantime, dang it!

We're in the throes of getting ready to go to London to see my parents, another reason for the lax blogging. I'm bound and determined to minimize our load as much as possible so it's been edit, edit, and edit some more for several days. We're getting excited, though I can hardly believe we're actually leaving as soon as we are. There is so much to do! Along the way, we're going to see some friends from college and the husband's mission in Canada (they're from other parts of England). It's going to be a fun-filled trip, and I'll tell you all about it later, though there may be a bit of a blogging hiatus while we're away.

In addition, the husband's parents are coming for a quick visit before we leave and they head to a conference in DC. So we've got a lot going on in the Southland at the moment. Got to get right back to it!

Hail to the Chief

A little late, I thought I'd post my inaugural reflections for, umm, posterity? Or something.

Anywho, (less and less of a) Baby J and I watched the inauguration together. I was unexpectedly most moved when Obama walked out onto the dais, I think because I somehow didn't actually believe that moment would come, but I only realized that fact right then, in the moment itself. J was eating lunch for the first part of the festivities, but he used his newfound clapping skills successfully throughout the introductions:

Then we watched the speech together. I did wish for a bit less doom and gloom and a bit more hopeful rhetoric, but overall I was pleased. Baby J stayed on message at first...
then got a little distracted...
then abandoned paying attention altogether in favor of eating off the floor.

My reactions were similar. Unlike most people I've talked to, I was thoroughly charmed by the little old man's rhyming benediction. It so clearly came out of his pastoral (or, more precisely, preacherly) tradition I thought it was fitting. The poem reading underwhelmed me, and I was too worried that the performers were going to freeze to death to do more than be anxious during the quartet, though I especially liked the clarinet. Aretha's bow was just too much, but you gotta love her unapologetic wearing of it. I don't know what the man giving the invocation saw it necessary to say Sasha and Malia's names with such verve, as if he were trying out for A Chorus Line or Chicago. And the snafu with the text of the oath of office was just unfortunate, not least because many people here (in our red state) thought Obama had messed everything up, when clearly, it was Justice Roberts' mistake that Obama tried gamely to follow. (I also thought the do-over swearing in wasn't necessary but was a nice gesture nonetheless.) I didn't particularly love the color of Michelle's dress, but thought the cut was just right, and I really liked the youngest daughter's hot pink and fluorescent orange.

Summer in the city

Here are a few of my favorite things, all of which today are brought to you by the letter H.

Hulu.com: I've sung the praises of this website again and again, but my latest declaration of love comes because I just discovered that, in the wasteland that is December television, Hulu has all the episodes of Firefly available. What, haven't seen Firefly yet? Well then, get yourself to Hulu right quick and enjoy the wild wild west meets China meets sci fi shoot 'em up with clever dialogue, quirky plots, and wonky special effects. Love it!

Hydrocodone: The headache I alluded to on Saturday turned into a full-blown migraine Sunday night that nothing was touching. Finally, the husband offered me some of his hydrocodone left over from his nose surgery. Now, don't get me wrong, the husband NEVER does this. He is against sharing medications, like a good pharmacist should be. But he is also against my writing in pain, like a good husband should be. So he helped me. First one made me tired but didn't touch the pain. Second one made me loopy and wrapped the pain in a big fluffy blanket. Aaaahhh....

Hot water: And the next morning, hot water brought me back to life after the drugs did their work and then some. (And I know hot is an adjective, but this isn't a game of scattergories so I get to make the rules.)

Hugs: J has learned how to give hugs and (less biting) kisses spontaneously. He will hug me regularly when I pick him up after naps but then also randomly every once in a while when he feels moved to do so. It's ADORABLE!

What do you dream about?

Yawn. I'm tired. Something in the air today is wearing me out. It could be that Baby J isn't sleeping particularly well these days or it could be this migraine I am willing to go away or it could be the dreary weather or it could be that there's nothing on TV or it could be that my house is a wreck or it could be any number of stressors I'm too tired to enumerate. Instead...yawn.

Today was a typical Saturday. When we have days like these, I am always reminded of a scene from Old School (no one who has not yet seen this movie needs to see it, by the way, Luke Wilson and Vince Vaughn notwithstanding) in which Will Ferrell tells the young college bucks who ask him why he can't drink that night, "I got a big day tomorrow. You guys have a great time." College Student: "A big day? Doing what?" Will: "Well, um, actually a pretty nice little Saturday, we're going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time" with this silly grin on his face. I understand the derision the college students feel, but I also totally get Ferrell's character, a product of his age, much as I am now.

We ran similar errands: grocery shopping, returns to Old Navy, search for shoes for Baby J at the children's consignment store (we came away with shoes, a coat, and a jogging stroller, which was not on the list but was cheap and in great condition, so what can you do?), and deposits at Goodwill. We also rearranged our food storage and were home for both of Baby J's naps. In short, just your average Saturday, not much to sing about, but necessary all the same. And it's the small victories that count: a coat for $5.50? Excellent!!

But for now, sleep. Ahhhhh.......

Day after day

My latest challenge: this year, the husband informed me that last year, everyone in his office gave office gifts, and, since he is now an actual full-time employee (as opposed to an indentured servant, ahem, resident), he wants to reciprocate this year. Which means 10 gifts of some sort of impressive quality without breaking the bank. Last year, it appears that he mostly got semi-gourmet food items (which explains why I never saw these gifts), but food alone seems so passe to me and not all that cheap, when you get right down to it, even if you make it yourself. Also, I don't really have any holiday goodies to share specialties, since most involve more than 5 ingredients, you see.

So, to solve my dilemma, I turned to the web. Actually, I was thinking of turning to the web, and, before I had even begun searching, I ran into a "Recession-Proof Holiday Gifts" guide and thought I might as well start there. And voila, before I had hardly begun to worry about all this, my problems were solved. This guide led me back to my new favorite site, Etsy.com, and a stationer there who sells downloadable templates for all sorts of gifts, including tasteful and cheerful calendars, perfect for holiday giving. The beauty of this particular e-tailer is that you pay once for the templates and then can print as many copies of the work as you want, for as many different contexts as you can imagine. Like, for instance, office gifts! And he was having a sale to boot!


So, I am combining these lovely calendars printed on the recommended cardstock with festive (and leftover) ribbon I already have, candy canes and perhaps peppermint bark, and calling the gifts done. Grand total per gift (minus the peppermint bark, which is a bit of a splurge)? $0.75. I know! Even with the peppermint bark (bought, by the way, at my peppermint bark secret store, T.J. Maxx), we're still only out about $1.50 each. And they're useful and cute and contemporary and handmade (I will make them by hand, even though I didn't design them) and include a bit of sweet because it is the holidays after all, and they are the gift that keeps on giving because I get to feel good about them for the entire holiday season AND the calendars are useful for the whole year to come. Huzzah!

We've only just begun

So it's over and it's just beginning. Barack Obama won (that's President Elect Barack Obama, if you please), and all is right with the world. Well, actually, all is most decidedly not right with the world, but that's why I'm happy Obama won.

Geographically and ideologically, I'm a lone Democrat in a Republican wilderness most of the time, so it's nice to feel like I'm siding with the majority once in a while.

Philosophically, I'm a Democrat for many reasons, most having to do with social justice and care for the less fortunate and a deep belief in the importance of government as an agent for change and equity in the face of our basic human selfishness, and it's nice to have those beliefs valued overtly by others from time to time.

Politically, I'm a Democrat who is happy this election is finally over so we can all put our energies back into the much bigger problems at hand, though I'm also afraid the enormity of those problems might sink my newly elected candidate, which would be very, very sad.

Enthusiastically, I'm a Democrat on today of all days.

Huzzah!

Looking for the warmth of the sun

Happy Blogoversary to me! Happy Blogoversary to me! Happy Blogoversary to me-eeeeee! Happy Blogoversary to me!

Yes, it's true, today I have been writing a blog for two years. I cannot believe it, truly. The date snuck up on me and I would have forgotten entirely, had not Teena from Toronto, a random woman I do not know, wished me a happy blogoversary. The wonders of cyberspace, my friends!

I could use this time to wax poetic or meta and comment on blogging generally and this blog in particular....but it's been a long day. We've had company, friends in from Alabama, and we started the day with Souper Saturday, a craft day at church for which I made an ENORMOUS batch of pumpkin soup (first time, made it up, FABULOUS, recipe to follow later) and at which I made a crayon caddy and a "clippy frame." Explanations and pics on both to come. Our female friend went with me while our husbands watched our two babies (both of whom resisted napping heroically and largely successfully). That lasted all morning.

Then we came home and tried some more napping (them, not us) to little avail, after which we went to a local eatery to watch the Florida/Georgia game with some Pharmacy phamily phriends (ooh, hilarious!) on the patio. Or that was the plan, until Baby J fell asleep on the way there (finally), so I dropped the husband off and went to get gas and scour some recycling bins (triple coupons next weekend!) in an effort to preserve a longer nap for the baby. An hour later, we joined the rest of the crew and stayed until half-time, by which point both babies were tired and/or hungry.

After that, we went downtown to the Battery and Rainbow Row to enjoy the twilight and some Ben and Jerry's (I had free hot praline samples instead) and then got home just in time to put cranky babes to bath and bed.

In short, I'm bushed! So more details and more celebrating later. For now, I hear my cranky baby protesting sleep mightily, and that is just not an option. He's thrown up twice today and appears to be running a low-grade fever, so we hope sleep will stave off whatever appears to be lurking just beneath his less than happy surface.