Pumpkin Festival

Sunday, me and the boys and my neighbor and her son all piled into my car (well, my husband's SUV - there's no way we would all fit in my little Corolla) and drove 1 hour and 15 minutes south to the pumpkin festival. It was a lot of fun -- I think Spencer had the best time. I will say though - do you remember this post? Ha. ha ha ha. Ha. Voluntarily cooping oneself up with three small children in a car ride when the youngest hates the car and screams the whole time and the oldest is very sensitive to loud noises and screeches in painful wails every time the youngest cries ... Oh, it definitely cures that slight uterine twinge. Holy cripes.


Spencer's first pony ride.


Henry's face here cracks me up.


Henry was OBSESSED with the goats. He thought they were awesome. He might ask for a goat for the next holiday once he decides to start using words.


Henry ate that whole corn dog. Not a bite dropped to the ground, I think he sucked on it until it dissolved.

Spencer peed himself he was so excited to ride on the train. You wish I was being hyperbolic. I do too.

Fall Into Reading

I had a poor showing on my reading this week. I finished Simply From Scratch, which was still mopey but turned out pretty good. I also started (but didn't finish) my book club book, Untouchable by Scott O'Connor.

I had a hard time getting into this book at first. I think it was the style of not using the main character's name (everyone calls him "Kid" and the book refers to him more often than not as "The Kid" which is simply irritating to me). However, once I finally pushed myself to start reading, I really enjoyed it and now I'm looking forward to finishing. It makes me think a lot about bullying. The kid (The Kid) is heavily tormented, and this is one of my big worries for my kids. How do you watch for that? How do you prevent it? I was tormented by a couple girls that I had no excape from (my babysitter's daughter and her best friend) in my formative years, and I was strong enough to get past it but it still left marks. How do I keep my sons from having to endure such torment?

Anyhow, once I get through Untouchable, I have a few lighter reads to get my mind off such heavy ideas. I'm sure there's a vampire book or SOMETHING in there. Happy reading!

Just Magic

Nine months and 18 days ago, I decided to become a runner.

291 days.

I remember those first few runs. I huffed through a mile, walking more than I ran. I didn't think I could go it. I hated the run. I HATED the run.

At Day 29 I ran my first 5k, a trail run that was NOT for beginners. I fell over a root and bit the dirt halfway through, and finished in 45.02.

But I kept going. I remember seeing this post by Jennie at 54 days. I didn't feel like I was a runner. I decided to run as a means to lose weight. I was losing weight and I hated my running but I kept with it.

I planned on running a half marathon in February, but last month I thought maybe I wasn't up for it. I thought I would be bored running 13.1 miles. I thought I wasn't a runner. I ran to lose weight, not because I enjoyed it.

18 days ago I ran two 5ks in one day, one of them for my personal record. It was an accomplishment. I felt great afterward about the accomplishment. I still felt like I didn't care about running.

18 days ago I started finding other things to do: I had a trip to take with the family, books to read, episodes of Grey's Anatomy and DVR to catch up on. I stopped running.

Tonight there were so many reasons why I shouldn't run. There is a big scary rainstorm off the coast that keeps threatening. My family was late getting home so it was almost dark. My running partner didn't answer my text when I asked if she was coming. Then she didn't get the door when I knocked.

I went anyway. I ran because I wanted to. I ran on my own, at my own pace, with my own music, with my own thoughts and for the length of time I felt was right. And at the end I felt pure magic. I could have run another 2 miles. I could have just kept going, circles through the neighborhood.

3.7 miles later, 291 days later. I run because I want to. I am a runner.

Fall Into Reading - update

So two weeks ago I pledged to update myself on my reading every Wednesday for Fall Into Reading, and then it didn’t happen. To be fair (to myself), I was packing last Wednesday to leave before the buttcrack of dawn to head to the airport with little ones. To be fair to you, I feel I should also disclose that I was drinking beer and watching the season 6 ending of Grey’s Anatomy while I packed and then had a slight nervous breakdown when Derek! Got! Shot! and Meredith! Had! A miscarriage! Right before I didn’t have time to watch any more episodes so I had to wait nearly a week to see what happened (it’s okay now, I watched a few episodes last night and I’m much more serene about the whole thing).

But anyhow! I have been keeping up on my reading list, and I’ve even been reading! Too! Here is what I’ve read:

• Glass Houses - Rachel Caine


• Dead Girls Dance - Rachel Caine


• Midnight Alley - Rachel Caine

These are the Morganville vampire books. There are 10, and I could probably read all 10 in less than a week because they aren’t exactly meaty. But they’re fun books, and I enjoyed the first few. I might pick up the rest at the library so I can supplement my reading when I don’t feel like thinking too much.

• Julie and Julia - Julie Powell

I bought this at the library a few weeks ago, and I really didn’t expect to like it (I did love the movie) but I did enjoy it a lot. I passed it on to my manager, and I have a feeling that she won’t enjoy it as much as I did. Such is life.

• Simply from Scratch - Alicia Bessette

I started this before my trip and then couldn’t finish it and didn’t want to bring a library book on the plane, so I need to get back to finishing it. I haven’t decided if I like it – a little bland, a little sulky (the main character’s husband dies before the start of the book so it’s about her finding her way to move on … she’s very sulky) but the neighbor girl is fun and hopefully it will get more interesting, if not predictable.

• The Fallen - Liz Braswell


• The Stolen - Liz Braswell


• The Chosen - Liz Braswell

These are the Nine Lives of Chloe King books, which I had on my Nook. Look! I read something on my book list! I liked these. Obviously not brain food or anything, but fun reads.

So my goal was 19 books by the end of the year, and so far I’ve gotten 9 down (well, 8.5). NEXT (after Simply from Scratch) I really need to read my book club book (Untouchable by Scott O'Conner) . Since you know, I’m the one who picked it for book club this month.

TOT - all about pasta

1. Red sauce or white sauce? Between the two, white sauce. Not really alfredo, but garlic cream or something along those lines. Green is my favorite – give me a good pesto of any variety and I’m happy. A pesto cream sauce? Hallelujah!

2. Do you prefer pasta you can twirl or stab? Stab, please. Penne or the like.

3. Baked or boiled? Boiled, unless we’re talking spaghetti or ziti because that should be baked with a good amount of cheese on top – the only real way I’ll take my red sauce.

4. Do you like meat in your sauce or do you kick it vegetarian style? Meat good (caveman voice)

5. Where have you had your very best pasta ever? I had a clam pasta at Casa Ludovico five years ago or so – it was amazing. I think of it every time I’m over that way.

6. What is your favorite pasta dish? A good veggie pesto pasta is great. This is one of my very favorites, and it’s good hot and cold.

7. Do you serve meatballs when you make spaghetti or just do a meat sauce? Not usually, but the kids LOVE meatballs so I just bought a bag of Italian style turkey meatballs to start serving for them. If I remember, I’ll brown some beef or ground turkey to add to the sauce.

8. What type (rice, whole wheat, egg, etc) of noodles do you use? We try to use whole wheat or veggie pasta these days. I cut white pasta out of my diet at the beginning of the year, and for the most part we’ve stuck to that at home.

9. What types of meats or vegetables do you put in your sauce? I love sausage in my pasta. I love veggies in my pasta – mushrooms, green things, it’s all good.

10. Do you make a “Sunday gravy” to use throughout the week or do you just open a jar or whatever and heat it up? I never make something ahead of time, but I usually make my cream sauces from scratch when I make them: a little cream, a little garlic and veggies, some cream cheese for thickening. Red sauces I almost always just open a jar. We buy them BOGO so they just wait until I’m out of things to cook. I am not a fan of red sauce.

Didja miss me, Weasel? Didja?

I told you a million times, the name’s Wise-ell.

Ahh, I could quote that movie all day.

So. Vacation? Rocked it. The kids were so awesome, slept through the night every night in the hotel, great on the plane, great at every restaurant …

Okay, so there were slight hiccups everywhere. Spencer pouted through the wedding because “no one would play with him” because he wouldn’t go play with the other kids and wanted them to come to him (he finally sucked it up and had fun, my little prima donna). We planned POORLY on what we should do while we were up there and spent a ridiculous amount of time DRIVING doing nothing. Did you know that Delaware and Maryland have $4 tolls that randomly pop up on the interstate? That you can take a bridge to Maryland, and the same bridge will cost $5 on the return drive and there will be no warning sign so you can take another route? That there isn’t another route?

But the majority of the trip was fun just because it was good to get away. Thursday night was our date night and the newlyweds watched the kids while we went out on the University of Delaware town, and had dinner at a place called Home Grown. Except that we weren’t hungry so we had crab fondue and a couple beers and people watched which was also fun. I may have gotten talked into doing a 10-day juice cleanse by my husband who watches too many documentaries (so when this happens I will not be a happy person and you should steer clear). Friday was Philly day, and we went to the Please Touch Museum (So! Cool!) and Reading Terminal Market (DiNics! So! Good!), got stuck in the March on Wall Street protests (Spencer piped in with the chant since it was so catchy, but he kept getting it wrong: We! Are! The ninety-nine and six! And Henry clapped. A police officer pointed him out as the littlest protester, even though we weren’t actually in the march). Saturday we had the morning to spare so we drove around Maryland and ended up at a craft festival in Havre de Grace, and stuck on toll roads and note to the Northeast: you can shove your tolls. We got back in time for the wedding and had a great time there too. It was beautiful and the kids had a great time and the only difficult part of that day was when I got a text at 8:47pm the night before asking if I would do the toast for the wedding. Ha!

Turned in early Saturday night in preparation for leaving early Sunday morning, but we still didn’t get moving as fast as we should have so catching our flight was a little harrowing and Henry was bored the whole flight so he made it miserable for us (not for the other passengers, he wasn’t crying but he was being a bit of a pill). Got home to lots of rain (it was evidently raining most of the time we were out of town) and spent Sunday laying on the couch catching up on our DVR while the kids napped. A great ending to a nice holiday.

Tens

Pop over to see Chelsea for her 100th week of hosting Ten on Tuesday! I keep meaning to do a Friday-list sort of post, but I just haven't had the time. So Tens you get (you know you want them).

1. How do you take your coffee? Just cream, thanks!
2. Do you prefer soft or crispy chocolate chip cookies? Soft, all the way
3. Do you wear a belt everyday? Nope, I never ever wear a belt. I have two, and they're both from high school (think lots of grommets)
4. What is your favorite color combination? Purple and green. I think, it's the first thing that came to mind.
5. Do you like sour candy? I guess - it's not my favorite but I don't abhor it either.
6. How often do you do laundry? Umm ... as seldom as I can get away with, which is probably every 1 1/2 weeks or so.
7. Did you ever wear braces? No. I needed them for my bottom teeth, but I never had them.
8. Are you good at Roman Numerals? only in crosswords.
9. What is your favorite form of social media? Facebook. I suck, I know. Blogging is good too!
10. How do you feel about chin dimples? Love them on guys, sometimes weird on girls.