Link Love:)

I've got a few tabs open in Chrome that I thought I would share!


I want to make one of these! I've always thought an emergency container would be a good idea so I've started collecting water and food for it. I'll add a jump bag to my list too (or instead?).

A few different ways to have a nice lawn without using chemicals.

Until we save enough moola for granite countertops, I wonder if we could make these?

Whole wheat chocolate chip cookies with peanut butter and oatmeal? And they taste so yummmm too:)

Check out what these parents are doing. I understand the concept but ~wow~.....


That's all for now. Watching Panyo with the nephews, husband, and brother in law after working all day. Relaxing tomorrow!!

CSA Food for May 26

Just a quick post about our current local food sources. Taking a hint from the SIL that I seemingly spend all my time visiting and reading.

Here's the list of our CSA food coming tomorrow. Apparently they switched their delivery date from Tuesdays to Thursdays. Okay. I will move my weekly grocery trip from Wednesday to Friday maybe? I plan a week's worth of meals and grocery shop after I know what we will be getting from the CSA. Oh, here's the CSA list:


Lettuce mix for salads and sandwiches
Snow peas- either in salads or cooked
Pea shoots to put on sandwiches and in salads
Tatsoi cooked with green garlic
Asparagus drizzled with olive oil, salt, pepper then grilled


Also, I'm buying today's Groupon for meat from Engleking Country Beef Shop for grilling burgers sometime soon. I'll get $40 worth of local happy meat for only $20. Nice!! This shop delivers to my town and is at my local farmer's market.

Speaking of that, Saturday is farmer's market and maybe I can find some strawberries to make strawberry rhubarb crisp? Sure hope so!!

Oh Twinkie

Hot and crisp Twinkies with warm homemade chocolate syrup. My brother and sister in law have opened my eyes:)


Well tonight I had my very first deep fried Twinkie. And I have to say, it was the most amazing thing I've eaten in a while. Why have I been so stuck up about deep fried food?? How could I have been so ignorant all these years? It's a good thing I've got about 50 years left to enjoy catching up on Twinkies. And that's something I NEVER thought I would say:)

Well, tomorrow we head back home. And back to normal food that I have to cook. Sad.

In closing: here's a fuzzy picture of my boy being happyish and sweet on a walk:) C seems to have a little fever which could be caused by: his first tooth? (Acceptable) Or the beginning of a sickness? (NO!!!!) C has NEVER had a fever in his 9 month life so far.... It resulted in a fussy afternoon helping me realize I have had an easy 9 months. TOMORROW MY BABY WILL BE BACK TO NORMAL.

And yes, C is wearing the same clothes as yesterday. At least his marvelous dad and mum changed his diaper and bib, right?

Ps- J has a sore throat. :( The males in my family caught a bug:( THE FEMALE TRIUMPHS AND RULES THE WORLD. Please don't let pride come before a fall.

Longer Out Than In and DINNER

Well, C has now been living in the World of Air and Sounds longer than he lived in the World of Fluid and Mumbles. Yep. Wow:) During his 38.5 weeks inside he grew from a speck to 7 pounds 14 ounces. And so far during his 38.5 weeks outside he's grown from 7 pounds 14 ounces to 21 pounds. AMAZING!!!

Moving on.

Here's how we spent yesterday evening.

GRILLING!!! AND EATING!!!!

I scored this free for us: local, grass fed, happy filet mignon!! And we grilled it last night, along with asparagus from our CSA and sweet potatoes from Green B.E.A.N. Delivery. We also had a yummy salad from our CSA. I can't tell you how much I've been looking forward to REAL food again. Real as in: fresh produce that has been grown responsibly and picked just days before I eat it. Free of chemicals, delicious and delightful! Plus we're supporting farmers we know personally!!
Oh so nice:)

Lucky for us our grill is next to one of the kitchen window. How nice is that for handing things in and out? :)


It was raining! But the trees (and my rain boots) protected me while I grilled.


C enjoys his first steak. Prior to steak he had eaten an appetizer of asparagus, followed by a side dish of sweet potato.


Gnawing on his chunk of filet mingon. When it got soft, we cut it into smaller bites for him to pick up and enjoy. For about 1-2 months now, C has pretty much fed himself at mealtime. Very easy for us!


Star of the show: THE GREENS!!!


And my plate: happy foods happy to be eaten by my happy stomach. And yup, when I eat at home with my tiny family, I grab that asparagus with my fingers and ignore the fork. I feel that is what the asparagus prefers:)

PS- C was on my sister's blog. Check out his chubby feet and hands!! Love to cover them in kisses:)

C Update

Well, since I have WAY more pictures of my kid than I do the upstairs rooms of my house, this will have to do for today. If you hate babies, look away!!! If you love my house, come back another day!! Otherwise stay and check out my cute kid.

I was going through photos last night and sort of lost track of time looking at C's newborn pics (taken by Leah Profancik Photography). I think babies are like a black hole to their parents: all sense of time is lost playing with them and looking at them. Isn't that what happens in a black hole? I know normal time at least slows there.... My brilliant seester Jo would know since she is IU's Physics Club PRESIDENTE!!!

So tiny!! He was 3 weeks old here only about 9 pounds:)


And now he is nearly 8 months older and 21 pounds!! This is C trying hard to get to me and the big black camera.


C loves to eat food. ANY food. ALL the time. And he's NEVER gotten full. We have to stop him from eating as much as we do because surely he doesn't REALLY want that much, right? We'll work on getting him to notice that "I'm full!" cue his stomach sends him. Right now I think he ignores it... PS- This picture is one my mother in law took over Easter weekend.


C also loves chewing on non-food items such as: the coffee table (minus the glass top! gone for a few months!), small pieces of trash, sticks, bark, toys, dandelions, faces, adult fingers, grass, chair arms, diaper covers, dirt, plates, knees, laundry baskets, any baskets, and muchmuchmuch more.


C has a variety of faces: happy, tip-head-to-the-side when he's happy/shy, surprised, scrunchy pig face, and drool-leaking-from-a-vacant-stare face are my favorites.


C has turned in to a very content and happy baby since he started crawling and standing about 3 weeks ago. He'll spend 10-30 minutes just exploring a room while talking to himself. Of course this exploration involves me dashing to him and telling him curtains are not for climbing, adult books are not for sucking, plugs are not for fingers, fireplace shovels are not for mouths, Sadie's toys are not for ingestion, etc.... We're going with the "Keep small things put away but leave the house basically the same" approach to babyproofing. Although we do need more plug covers for that HIDDEN outlet C discovered behind the curtains...


C will tear apart the orderly playroom in 20 minutes. I'm patiently awaiting the "putting things in containers" phase that I hear often accompanies the "pulling things out of containers" phase. Also, he likes sitting on his knees like this!


Whenever we go to get togethers or meetings, C enjoys watching the group speaker. He'll play with all the other babies or kids but occasionally stop to study whoever is talking at the moment. Tipping his head and smiling follows, then a little confusion as to why Speaker didn't drop everything and coo at his adorable-ness. Poor eldest child.

Sleeping is getting better thanks to asked for advice from my Attachment Parenting and La Leche League groups:) C goes to bed in his crib around 8:00 PM, wakes every 30 minutes for about an hour (patting, walking, or more nursing get him back to sleep), then is conked out until midnight-ish. He'll wake then, nurse, get a diaper change (mainly to wake him up again!), nurse more, then sleep in our bed until 5:00ish. That's when he would love to wake up but it's still too early for him (AND ME) so I nurse-sleep for another (hopefully!) hour or two. Then he is a HAPPYMOMMYILOVETHEWORLD boy.

EC is also going well! During that crawling/standing beginning 3 weeks ago, he wanted NOTHING to do with the toilet, so we backed off. Sitting still for even 1 minute was way too much for his superdeveloping body and mind. Now he's back to letting me hold him over the toilet to poop and pee in the morning. Yay for not scraping/spraying off poopy cloth diapers! Noticing when he pees during wake time is more hit and miss bu catching after nap pees are easy.

So that's C's life lately. He's such a sweetie!!!

My Day

Yesterday was a busy day. Want to see? If not, go read something else a tad more interesting than my mundane life:)

Not in this order, but I did this yesterday:

1. Packed and shipped my laptop away. Bye bye! Hello soon to a new one!!
2. Washed 3 loads of laundry. Didn't fold them....
3. Did a few loads of dishes. Sink and counters are covered in more waiting to be done right now...
4. Ate a yummy lunch and finished this delightful book (finished it last night while Munchkin was sleeping).

1. Made and baked 2 loaves of bread. Slow cooker-ed black beans for recipes and freezing.
2. Froze beans, pasta sauce, and one pasta casserole. Ate the other pasta casserole for dinner;)
3. Made the pasta sauce. Pretty!!!
4. Cleaned the house. Obviously it needs cleaned again today because HEAVEN FORBID it stay clean more than one day;)
5. Visited my grandmother.
6. Most of this was done with C strapped to my back in the Ergo. Love the Ergo for my curious boy :D

This is what C did:

1. Tiny napped. Played. Whined.
2. Spit up everywhere except his bib. Mommy changed him. He still smelled icky but OH WELL.
3. Looked cute.
4. Fell over and bonked his head on the wood floor. Nursing made it better.
5. Fell over and bonked his head on the wood floor. Nursing made it better.
6. Bonked his head on Mommy's head (mean Mommy's fault!!!). Nursing and a nap made it better. Napped medium.
7. Dug in his toys.
8. Entertained LOTS of people at great-grandmother's nursing home. Had SOOO much fun being the center of attention.
9. BONKED HIS HEAD AGAIN. Mommy needs to remember to set him on BLANKETS.
10. Went to bed. Sad sad boy:(

Here's what Sadie did:

1. Slept. All day.
2. Ate C's food scraps.
3. Probably ate her own poop while outside.

COUPONS

I read a few money saving websites/blogs like My Frugal Adventures, Slick Deals, Money Saving Mom, and Baby Cheapskate (I think I found most of these from my SIL Christine!). I do find some good deals, free stuff, and cheap things I wanted to order anyway. 

A lot of the sites help you save money with coupons, which I don't often use. Coupons aren't a part of my cheap life for a few reasons:

1. First of all, we don't get a newspaper or go out and buy a Sunday paper (Sunday has all the coupons). Sadly, I canceled our newspaper subscription a year or two ago because I hated recycling that much paper every week. Plus, I often didn't have time to read the paper for my money's worth. I hate that I am helping print news die, but it's really not practical in my life. We do donate to NPR though!! Every year!!! That's where we get most of our news and we'll help them out if we can!
2. Since I don't get a newspaper, I could still hunt for coupons online. But here's why I don't: I'm lazy. And busy. That's all.
3. And what it really boils down to: we don't buy products that you generally use coupons on. The majority of our food is fresh produce, bulk grains, store brands, or bought at local stores. No one offers coupons for a bag of organic potatoes. Or 1.5 pounds of lentils. Or those eggs we get from my mom's friend. I don't use makeup, our toiletries are the 365 brand at Whole Foods, I make my hair gel, buy store brand toilet paper, ect. 

Things I often buy name brand that I suppose I could use coupons on: ice cream, pasta, razors, toothpaste,  tomato sauce, and flour. I think that's all. See, it's not enough to go through the trouble!!

So that's why I don't use coupons. Just thought I'd let you know about this EXTREMELY important area of my life. Commence with your normal, more interesting lives.

I WON!!

Look, Baby does tricks!!!

And Smiles!!

And gets Daddy to play goofy hand games!

 Then feels very stunned as he realizes he's not in the womb anymore.

Today I went to J's work for a big lunch they had and my bread pudding (Leah's recipe) won FIRST PLACE in the food competition!!!! I'm a pretty competitive person so this was a big score for me. Unfortunately 1st prize was a giftcard to Cheeseburger in Paradise but I guess we can go there sometime for a date night. Would have liked it better had it been a Target giftcard!!!

Have you ever noticed people are ridiculously nice to pregnant women and people with small babies? I think it is our species way of preserving itself. Even grouchy old men like babies and pregnant ladies. 

Tonight I am going to get my hair cut .WITHOUT. the Amazing Child present!!! Without my baby!!! I hope he doesn't scream himself silly while I'm gone. I'm a little nervous about it.

Will update you on the haircut and baby howling later!!

Tuesday News

C likes to stretch and hold his feet up and out. He did this inside me too!!!

This is C's classic "I'm Pooping" face

This is his "I'm Full For 2 Seconds" face

I would like to apologize to my reader. The subject matter of this blog is probably going to change from my random thoughts to those about The Most Perfect Being In the World: My Son. Feel free to stop reading if this is annoying to you. However, He Who Is The Center of My Universe at the moment is highly amusing and my focus right now. Oops to those of you who are annoyed by people who drone ON and ON and ON about their kids. Unsubscribe me!! 

Yesterday was J's birthday!!! Yay 29 years!!!! We went to a lovely little Asian restaurant, ate good food in surprisingly reasonable portions (no leftovers!! What, did we leave America???), and had iced Vietnamese coffee. The restaurant owner remarked on how we were holding C and didn't have him in a baby carrier/pumpkin seat. I tried to explain to him that we had a convertible carseat that stays in the car but I think he was still a bit confused. Should whipped out the baby sling to blow his mind even more but I had forgotten it:( Or even pulled out a cloth diaper. OR TOLD HIM WE HAD OUR BABY AT HOME!!!

Hippies.

Anyway: after eating, we changed C's diaper in the car but what do you know, the kid wasn't quite finished pooping. Oh the joys of watching non-stop goop squirt out your child's rear end while trying to keep your skirt from blowing up in the wind, hunched next to your car's backseat.  

Back to the birthday man: J is such a good daddy:) He keeps C warm with socks, hats, and blankets, plays with him (as much as you can play with a 10 day old kid), changes lots of diapers, holds fussy C, and asks C's doctor smart questions. Also, he gets me food and stuff when The Brilliant and Advanced For His Age Child has me tied down, chops up a whole watermelon so I won't have to later, and listens to me ramble about baby stuff and random thoughts. 

I love my hubby lots but after C's birth day, when J stayed with me the WHOLE DAY, even held his breath and pushed when I pushed, endured me scratching up his hands with my nails, and took such wonderful care of me that week, I love him even more. Sure makes you appreciate your significant other when they make you such a priority just because they love you!

So: HAPPY (yesterday) BIRTHDAY J!!!!!

Whew.

Today I ate homemade ice-cream on a field trip. And homemade butter. There were 6 different stations the kids visited on this field trip but I bet you can guess which station I hung around the most. Plus all the cool people were teaching that station, people that like to rant about trash and plastic and oil in the Gulf. Yep, I fit right in:)

Plus I bought more cloth diapers for Ze Bebe after work. Then took a nap, during which I dreamed about cloth diapers a lot. 

Now I shall go to bed because I am oh so worn out. 

PS- Bebe is kicking me right now for talking about his future private toilet business and is making the computer jiggle.

Molasses

Does anyone know what molasses is made of, before I go and check? I know it has a good amount of magnesium and iron in it. Go figure. But what does it come from? A tree, like syrup (excuse me, like REAL syrup)? Sugar and corn syrup blended together? WHAT?

Drum roll....

Oh, it's a byproduct of turning sugar cane into sugar. Oh.

Sorry for not knowing that.

SMRT, I Am So Smrt

One of my friends is in grad school for Library and Information Science, and Archive Management. Now I don't know about you but I'm pretty jealous of her career. Not that I could ever do it because I couldn't sit still that long all day, but WOW. Books all day. WOW.

ANYWAY. Here's an article she found about choosing how to preserve books simply by smelling them. Smell the VOCs in a book and know how to save it. It is very thrilling to me to read terms like "material degradomics". WOWOW. On a side note, as a freakish environmentalist, I tend to avoid VOCs. NOT ANYMORE. Not anymore. As Neko Case sings, never turn your back on Mother Earth.

Sigh. I love the smell of old books.

On another side note, I love smart speak. When J talks programing/computer speak, I like it (hehe). When he gets together with my bros, it's hard to understand anything they say. When my sis and bros talk photography, I am in awe. Yesterday I had coffee with my other sis and her guy/boy/friend/datee and they talked physics and astronomy. SO COOL. I think my education lingo is a bit sad and pathetic. Perhaps that's because I know it all. DIBELs, IEPS, 504s, and NWEA are everyday to me. I WISH I COULD SMART SPEAK. My goal in life. Say things no one else can understand.

And: TODAY I BOUGHT EGGNOG. From Trader's Point Creamery. From my meat shop. Moody's Meats.

Oh SIGH....

TONIGHT:
J and I just chopped veggies for stir fry, chopped and baked 3 pumpkins, made stir fry, dug out pumpkin flesh from 3 pumpkins, made pi crust, made 2 pumpkin pies, made pumpkin bread, chopped stuff for and made brocolli casserole, ect. Ect. stands for all the TRILLIONS OF DISHES WE HAD TO CLEAN AFTERWARDS. I'd post pics cause J made me take some but I'm far too tired. I do declare, I could just swoon!

Yes I'm tired. You should have seen the dishes. Yes. The pumpkin bread is still rising, waiting to be baked. Have to wait till tomorrow. I'm tired. And I really wanted to finish reading my book tonight. I'M AT THE END!!

Tomorrow I'll pick up the lovely, free range, happy turkey after work. Then I'll haul its 25 pound carcass to my house, load up my bags, the foods, the animals, and whatever else wants to tag along to mamma mia's. Oh, and the bread dough too. Gotta bake that sometime...

Oh My Pretties

Look at it! Wouldn't that cake be fun to eat? On one hand, I'd be in happy color heaven. On the other, I'd be thinking of what chemicals were in the cake to make it such happy color heaven. Sigh.

Today we rearranged the house and decorated for Christmas. New house feel in an old house. Love it when life is happy:)

Christmas, Music, Food

I think doing a Christmas with no gifts (or at least no gifts for adults) would be fine:) My family has been trading adult names for a while but everyone still buys for the kids. Btw, I lOVE Christmas shopping so I'd guess I'd really be a bit sad to see it go. And since we save money each month the whole year for gifts, it's not a big financial hassle.

But a gift free Christmas. It just sounds nice. Stress free. Christmas Day with food and talking all around!!!

I like a new singer: Erin Mckeown. She's delightful and her lyrics sometimes sound like a beautiful classic book! She sings "inane" and "a train only follows its rails" and “there’s a risk, there’s a twist, in anything worth doing” and "would that you loved me (or something like that)"!

I'm recently infatuated with a few different artists. CURSE AMAZON AND ITS DAILY SALE ALBUM!!!

Gotta go cook dinner:)

Wouldn't It Be Nice......

SOOOOOO. Last night I went dinnering and dancing w/ friends. Let me just say, I look GORGEOUS after 6 hours of sleep, too much drinking, and too much dancing. My knees feel funny too. My throat is hoarse also, a sad side effect of starting to cough yesterday AND having shouting conversations in 1,2000 decibel music.

The good news is, I ate some yummy pasta before dancing. AND THERE ARE LEFTOVERS!!!!

The bad news is, after about midnight, I was seriously dancing to stay awake. If I paused for a SECOND, I would start yawning and fall asleep. So it was dance, dance, dance. Punctuated by thoughts of: wouldn't it be more fun to curl up on my couch with a good book, J, movie, computer, or ANYTHING INTELLIGENT? I love dancing when I'm tipsy but a couple hours is enough for me.

It was fun though:)

And I found a friend from college I haven't seen in 7 years!! JUST LIKE THAT, BAM, he yelled my name and when I turned around, he looked the same as in college. Funny. Reminded me of studying biology in the library. And eating in the bottom of Decker (if memory serves me well, which often it does not).

Anyway, I went to dinner and dancing. I'm tired. I got my exercise. I drank a Bud Lite cause it was on sale. YUCK.

Oh Lawrence!!

So I found this lovely website somehow and I want this tea. It's actually been a tab in my Camino browser for a week or so. Once we get new grocery budget money this Friday, I'M ALL OVER IT.

Also, I'd like to add 6 hours to this week, one for each day.

And I'd like to see what happens in Lawrence of Arabia. J and I have been watching the movie for a few night now and last night, LAWRENCE WENT CRAZY!! Poor guy. It kinda ruined my day. I haven't seen the movie since I was a kid and only remember the most horrible parts (boy exploding, boy getting sucked into quicksand, torturous journeys across desserts). Sometimes I watch these old movies my parents let me watch when I was TINY and I think I WAS ALLOWED TO WATCH THIS?!?! This is like R in 1950's speak!!!

Really, I have 12,000 things to do tonight so I gotta go.

Yeah, That.

Oooo, MUSHROOMS!

Delightful Abby and Summer

Ze Kitty

I'm surrounded by boys! They love me!!

Bella and Me. She's cuter:)

Sometimes I'm the world's biggest slacker. Sometimes I'm the most productive person that ever lived. I guess that's just how life goes.

So lately I've been craving new music. These are on my must get list: The Decemberists, Wilco, Neko Case, Bon Iver, Nick Drake, and The Shins. Some I have their old albums, some I don't have at all. But I NEED NEW MUSIC, LIFE IS BECOMING DULL AND MEANINGLESS.

So I asked J is we could set aside some money in next month's budget for us to "invest" in new music. I never got a straight answer so I'll wait a few more days before asking again. I'm gung ho YES but the thing about marriage is I have to get his stamp of approval also. DANG IT.

J is good at waiting a LIFETIME for anything to happen while I FREAK OUT AND DO EVERYTHING ASAP. Seriously, that's how it is.

ME: We need to get this done? I CANNOT REST UNTIL IT IS COMPLETE. STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING, STOP THE WORLD, OBSESS, DO IT NOW.
J: We need to get this done? Let's think about it, ponder it, meditate on it, research it, wonder about it, and then talk about it again before we decide anything.

The longer we are married, the easier it is to find common ground. In fact these days I am less frantic and obsessed and he is.... well, I am less frantic and obsessed now. He makes me better:) Aww:)

And since I've got nothing better to talk about and pics of mushrooms won't entertain you for long, I should got start dinner. Corn on the cob, baked beans, happy, healthy hotdogs, and watermelon. SUMMER!!!!

P.S. Any music suggestions? One can only listen to so much Belle and Sebastian, Killers, and David Grey w/o going mad. MAD.

Here's a Blog Post You Can't Refuse

Last night J and I watched The Godfather. Surprisingly, I've never watched it before! J said I had to watch it since it was about my family. Silly boy, not all Italians are in the mafia! All I have to say is: THOSE POOR MAFIA PEOPLE. Even though it was fiction. Power is hard to maintain.

Also, yesterday afternoon, J and I had a delightful fight for 1.5 hours. Then we got over ourselves and went to the IMA. We walked in the gardens and beside the river and made bets on who would cross the bridge and who wouldn't. I lost $0.35 to my husband. It was a pretty afternoon! The museum was closed but J got them to let me in to employ and observe the restrooms. The faucets there don't add air to the water like most do (bubbly water is what I usually see). I must admit, though it uses more water, an uninterrupted stream from the faucet is so interesting that I decided to write about it on my blog.

Then we went to Euphoria for dinner! Locally grown, in season, freshly prepared food from a chef named Brad. Though I'm mostly a vegetarian, I eat meat when it is "happy" (raised well, butchered well, and its upbringing not wreaking environmental havoc), last night I ate chicken in a restaurant! I rarely eat meat other than what I buy and cook so this was exciting!
Pretty yum too:)

That's all, gotta get ready for church!

Alas, I Ate Your Beloved Dessert

I must think happy thoughts right now because J is a bit miffed at me for having eaten his last-Friday-dessert. I seriously somehow thought he didn't want it. I don't know how I came to that conclusion because I realized this evening HE VERY MUCH WANTED IT!! My best guess as to why I consumed it is: it was TIRAMISU (coffee!!). AND yesterday, while attempting not to fall asleep while tutoring, it was the only coffee available to me in 5 minutes between kids. Plus, it being almost a week old, I didn't even stop to think about it....

Enough airing of The Jarvis Marital Problems. We seem to fight over desserts a lot. Hehehe:)

Here are a few things that make me happy this week:

1. Lizzy and I eat a piece of zucchini carrot bread each evening.
2. I played my violin very well today while practicing and only slightly less well at my lesson.
3. My fingertips are getting calloused!!!
4. I have exercised 5 times in the past 7 days.
5. My house is clean!!!
6. Coming home tonight are: my mom. my sister. my brother. I get to see them all tomorrow afternoon, after work! Sadly, leaving on Saturday are: my sister. my sister. my brother-in-law. my nephew. my nephew. my delightful niece. Alas, I will not be able to borrow any children for 2 weeks:(
7. Lizzy goes home tonight! We will have the house to ourselves. Oh. My. Gosh. I am just about jumping with excitement!!!! J and I have remarked "This is how it will be when we have kids? We'll only be able to have face to face conversation after 10:00? We'll be exhausted and only want to clean the house and then sleep? AND SHE'S A GROWN KID. AND ONLY ONE KID." I'm a little disappointed in us already.
8. I went to the library on Monday. I got a ton of new books, 2 of which I've already read 4 days later. It had been 3 weeks since my last book and all the magazines I've been catching up on aren't as good as a book. What made me sad was my $5 fine for late books. Sigh.
9. J is wonderful:)
10. Spock hasn't gone to the bathroom on our carpet in weeks! J's idea of aluminum foil on places Spock especially loves seems to be working. Also, my efforts at cleaning carpet helped too. I have to think this because if they didn't, what was all that effort for?!?! 20 pounds of baking soda and a gallon of vinegar!!!!

That's all the happiness I can give you this week!!