Answers to questions

Let's not let me kid myself, I totally stole today's meme from Kristabella. But I liked the questions, and I like Kristabella.

1. What did you do 10 years ago

It saddens me that 10 years ago was a drop in the bucket. I’m feeling so very old. 10 years ago was 2004, which means I was working middle management in retail and coming home to my now-husband (then still boyfriend) to cry almost every night. It was bad. Otherwise I don’t think anything noteworthy was happening 10 years ago. It seems to me that that was around the same time I met my best friend (via the internets and a dire need for a pair of shoes!) and she’s one of the best things to ever happen to me, so there’s that.

2. Five items on my to-do list today

Nearly the exact same things on yesterday’s to-do list, because I left it at work and didn’t do jack (that’s a lie, I made milkshakes, dinner, went to Target and got Lego storage, helped Spencer sort his Legos and gave the kids baths. But the only thing I did from my to-do list was go to Target.)

1)    go through the kindergarten stuff (I have this enormous box of kindergarten stuff because every piece of paper that ever came home went in the box. I need to pick a couple things to save for Spencer and chuck the rest – this task will need wine.

2)    Get mail done: I have a couple packages and cards that have been in my car waiting patiently to be mailed and I really need to get that taken care of.
3)    Make dinner. Tonight is shrimp and grits.
4)    Clean my dresser. Guys, I cannot for the life of me put my own clothes away. I pile them on my dresser until I can’t see over the top of them, and then I buck up and clean up the mess. I need to break the cycle but I just can’t seem to do it.

5)    Do any work that I bring home. Because I didn’t yesterday and I’m hopelessly behind. I need to catch myself up by Friday. Friday! It can be done.

3. Snacks I enjoy

I am not really a snacker. I like sweet treats, so I’ll often take something to bed with me like a mini candy bar or a cookie, but during the day I just don’t snack very often. I’d rather have real food. I did find those mozzarella Cheez-its – those are marvelous crunchy pats of butter, basically.

4. What would I do if I were a billionaire?

I’d move, and I’d have a pool and a housekeeper. I’d probably still work, but probably in a less-paying, less-stressful job. I’d spend more time with my kids (ideally, not sure in practice). I’d travel and take my kids fun and interesting places.

5. Places I would live

Probably still here, as all our family is here and I can’t take my kids from their grandparents. If I could uproot the entire extended family? South Carolina, Pacific Northwest, San Diego. What I’d really like is to live in one of those communities where you can walk to the grocery or to Starbucks or the playground or bookstore or bar. I want to live in a walking community with lower humidity and moderate temperatures (or at least pool). That. Is what I want.

Looking forward to breakfast

Ever since we’ve had children, we’ve had a tradition of having Christmas breakfast at our house with all the grandparents and immediate family – my in-laws, my mom, my dad and his girlfriend, my brother (and his girlfriend), and my sister when she deigns to come. It’s lovely to have all the family over for a nice sit-down breakfast and then opening of the presents all together. What we usually do is let the kids open their stockings before everyone gets there, and we open all the rest of the presents after breakfast (yes, they “allow this”. They’ve never known anything different)

So for the past couple years, I’ve been wanting a full 12-place set of dishes specifically for special occasions such as this. I didn’t want them “Christmassy” because I’d like to use them other times as well, but we don’t have any nice dishes. We didn’t register for anything when we were getting married because seriously – who uses their wedding china? Besides my MIL, anyhow. It turns out some china would have been nice.

I have finally picked out a set, and it’s on clearance so hopefully I can get it (I’m trying not to get my hopes up until it’s actually ordered. It’s simple and pretty, and I think with Christmas chargers and linens it can dress up very pretty.

(crate & barrel)

Okay, I’m excited.

Time change issues and Halloween documentation

My only problem with the time change, really, is how it messes up my internal food clock. I’m trying to get back on the healthy eating/maybe some random exercise wagon, which I know if somewhat of a lost cause when we’re hitting the home stretch of holidays that require stretchy pants. I got to work this morning and realized someone had eaten my breakfast yogurt (a coworker owned up to it, we have a dorm fridge in our department and there are three of us who bring in the same kinds of yogurt, it was an honest mistake). However since I was out a yogurt, I had no choice but to eat a cookie that I brought in, right?

I made Halloween candy cookies this weekend and brought some in for coworkers – they are just oatmeal cookies, and where you would add nuts or chocolate chips or raisins I added two cups of chopped chocolate bars. It worked out marvelously and I’ll have to make a second batch before I rid the house of Halloween candy. I promised my husband when I whisked half the cookies out of the house to bring to work.

But back to the internal clock – I ate my cookie, and it’s 9:48am and I’m starving for lunch. Or more breakfast, or something. I wasn’t that hungry this weekend and didn’t eat much at mealtimes, but now I feel like I could eat everything I had this weekend in one sitting. Probably not looking good for lunchtime, right? I’m thinking of digging into my lunch for a few bites of something to tide me over.

And because I didn’t share it on here previously, here are the boys at Halloween:

I made most of Henry’s costume (except the front part of his mask) and Spencer borrowed the Gryffindor robe and tie from a friend so it was a pretty easy (and cheap) Halloween. I worked out the school theme Halloween (nursery rhymes, if you remember) and S went as Yankee Doodle. I ordered him a tricorn hat and added a feather that we glued macaroni to. He wore it with a plain white polo and jeans, and was happy enough with the outcome.

I’m glad I didn’t say screw it and send him with his regular costume – last year for “book character” theme everyone was allowed to wear whatever, but this year the one boy who brought his Ironman costume wasn’t allowed to wear it. Poor kiddo.

Books I read: October

Holy crap, I read a lot this month. It was wonderful too - I didn't really feel like I was not doing things because I was reading, but there was just a lot of great things to read and I tore through them. I did get annoyed that I can only have 15 items out at a time on Overdrive and yet there is no way to return them when you're done. I maxed out, it was sad.

reread:
49. Into the Woods - Tana French
50. Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
The Likeness - Tana French (I didn't put a number to this because it's on September's list; I got halfway through before the ebook timed out and I had to wait to get it again.)
51. Faithful Place - Tana French
52. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer - Michelle Hodkin

New:
65. Magic Burns - Ilona Andrews I really got into this series and read all of it - I'm not going to comment on my thoughts for each book/novella in the series, but I really liked it. Very kick-ass female lead/supernatural romance without all the orgies and crazy sex of Laurell K Hamilton.
66. Silver Shadows - Richelle Mead LOVED this new book.
67. The Girl with All the Gifts - M. R. Carey This was twisted and I really didn't see the ending coming and the character development was top notch. Quite excellent
68. Blood Charged - Lindsay Buroker I'm liking this series better as it keeps going.
69. Destiny Unchosen - Lindsay Buroker (novella) Eh, I'm still not sold on this series. But I love LB, so I'm in.
70. To All the Boys I've Loved Before - Jenny Han This was a sweet teen romance, good stuff.
71. The Sky is Everywhere - Jandy Nelson Oh my, I think this was my favorite of the month. It was so wonderful, and even though I rarely cry I actually did for this one. So perfect.
72. If I Stay - Gayle Forman Meh, it was okay - overrated? melodramatic, but sweet.
73. Thorn Fall - Lindsay Buroker
74. Anatomy of a Misfit - Andrea Portes I read this because it was being PUSHED on Overdrive. It was okay. Dragomir should not have been used - it's not common enough a last name for me to ever not associate it with Vampire Academy.
75. Magic Strikes - Ilona Andrews
76. Magic Bleeds - Ilona Andrews
77. Magic Slays - Ilona Andrews
78. Magic Mourns - Ilona Andrews (novella)
79. Gunmetal Magic - Ilona Andrews
80. Magic Gifts - Ilona Andrews (novella)
80. Magic Rises - Ilona Andrews
81. Magic Breaks - Ilona Andrews
82. A Monster Calls - Patrick Ness This. Save this for when you need a cathartic ugly cry. I knew where it was going, I thought I was not going to get involved with the characters, but even though I knew where it was going, I was seriously choked up in the "don't wake your sleeping husband with your sobs" sort of way.

Starting late seems to be a thing for me

I forgot about NaNoBloMo, or whatever it is, until tonight when I thought about reading my blog feed before it backs up again and Lo! People are blogging! Every. Day. :)

Last year I didn't commit to blogging every day, but I did commit to commenting on all those blogs. It was exhausting but I felt like hey, I love comments - these people like comments too! I might try again this month, if I can.

Today we found out that Spencer was not telling us crazy stories. What story, you may ask? A couple times a week he told us that his friend from school/aftercare was moving to our neighborhood. Then he said that friend was moving next door. Mind you, he actually told me this before I even knew my neighbors were leaving.

So you can imagine our surprise when the boys were playing out back and Spencer said "It's so-and-so!" and C said "no it's not, you just think so because they're speaking Spanish" and I stuck my head out the back door and wouldn't you know it, SO-AND-SO WAS IN THE NEXT DOOR BACKYARD. THEY BOUGHT THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR.

So. On one hand, it's very exciting for my six year old to have one of his best friends is now going to be living next door. We don't know many people on our block so he's never had a lot of friends to play with, and now he'll basically have a built-in friend. On the other, having an extra child over is EXHAUSTING, and now it will happen so much more! After F left (they are in the process of moving, over this month), a new neighbor girl came over to play (or mostly to yap at me for an hour about her entire slightly-scary life story and holy crap that girl talks) and we invited the girl from down the street out, so I basically had five kids today and how do you guys with more than two children do it?

Catching Up a Little

So like, woah. I have been horribly behind on my blog reading, and I can only attribute that to the fact that I have a new work computer, and when that computer is hooked to the work network, I am unable to access most blogs. It now appears that when I take that computer and use it on wifi somewhere different (I now have a laptop), I am able to get on those blogs. I didn’t know that previously though, and most of my blog reading was done on breaks during the day so there was just no possibility. So! Today I read through several weeks and now I feel semi up-to-date with your lives. Semi. I also haven’t been on twitter a lot these days. I don’t know why, I just haven’t. When I do log on, I get overwhelmed by all that I have missed so I usually send a few tweets and then log back off.

But I have a few minutes, so I thought I would update you on me. Because that’s why you’re here, right? A burning desire to know exactly what I’ve been doing with my life. (I kid, I kid)

I’ve been good. I may even venture to say I am VERY good. I haven’t had much anxiety at all in a bit (two weeks maybe?) I did change my medication; I did it myself, sort of. I added a homeopathic drug (SAM-e) on top of my prescription anxiety meds, and I realized that I need to take them in the morning so they don’t keep me awake at night. I’ve been on this combo for a solid 3-ish weeks and I really think things are coming together. I’m using my pill holder to make sure I have all week’s pills in my purse and properly doled out so I’m less likely to forget them. Solid.

Henry is still peeing the bed, but he’s resigned to the pull-ups (although he still hates them with the fire of a thousand dragons) until he gets through this. He’s also eating constantly, so I think perhaps his body is going through something that is making it hard for his bladder to keep up. I’m giving him time. When he can go two weeks without peeing in the pull-up, we’ll try again. No worries anymore.

He cannot, however, apparently sleep in his own bed. He often wakes up and goes out to the couch to sleep, or gets up several times when it’s time to sleep because he just can’t fall asleep (although he rarely gives himself time to fall asleep). I know this – I have this same issue. I understand, but it’s still frustrating that he’s always getting back up after bedtime and there’s always several tuck-ins before he falls asleep, and still he often ends up on the couch. He tells me the couch is cozy, but he can’t seem to explain what’s wrong with his own bed that I could fix. Please, tell me what I can do to fix this.

I’m out of town right now, for work. I don’t necessarily mind work travel, but it is lonely and I miss my family. I’m in a beautiful city right now but I really don’t want to enjoy it; I want to go to my hotel room and get into my pjs and watch Gilmore Girls. I’m getting myself out for decent dinners, because as long as I’m stuck in a different city I should enjoy food/restaurants I can’t have at home, right? Otherwise, yeah, I’m in my hotel room in my pjs watching Gilmore Girls.

Last weekend, though, C and I had an overnight date night wherein we saw Sir! Paul! McCartney! It was a great weekend and a great concert (he played for a solid 2hours 50 minutes). We also saw Gone Girl and I watched for artful side wang (it was too brief). The movie was excellent, but my favorite part of it was when it ended and all the people in the theater who hadn’t read the book were verbally outraged. OUTRAGED. I chuckled.

Spencer’s school called me yesterday to tell me that he was feeling sick and needed to go home. Of course, I’m stuck out of town so I called my husband to go get him. He threw up in the school parking lot before getting home and I felt so bad for not being there for him. I know, realistically, that I couldn’t do anything more for him than my husband could, but still. I wanted to be there. Thankfully, it appears that once he threw up he started feeling much better and there wasn’t a repeat of that, and he was perfectly fine (and angry he wasn’t allowed to eat properly) by dinnertime. I believe he went to school today. So what is that? Not food poisoning, but maybe something didn’t agree with him? I don’t know.

Fresh Air

I wrote this post on Tuesday, 10/14 - more than a week ago. I'd change the writing so it reflects now, but I like how I felt that morning so I'm keeping it. I had to add photos, and beware - I added a crap ton of photos (and I don't have photo editing software on this computer so they look exactly like they did when I took them, sorry). I still feel the last wisps of that recharging, despite being slightly underwater with all my obligations. San Antonio, man. It was amazing.

I'm sitting at the airport before dawn to catch a flight for work on this, my first day back to work from vacation. It was one of those nights where I was so worried about missing my flight that I woke up a dozen times and even dreamt I had missed my flight. And you know what? I don't even care. I mind, but only a slight bit. Mostly I'm still on that post-vacation high.

This weekend, man, it was exactly what I needed. As this month filled up with a crazy amount of work travel and numerous other craziness I thought, if I hadn't put so much money into this trip, I would definitely cancel. I was nervous, I had been having anxiety issues and man, so much work. But I cannot justify canceling a trip unless it's dire after I've spent the money, so I was in. Thank god.

This weekend was the most relaxing, most fun I've had in I don't know how long. I spent time with friends, relaxed, hung out, ate my weight in tex-mex, and just completely recharged. I saw great old friends for the first time and made lifelong friends with people I knew but didn't really feel like I "knew". So many inside jokes and ongoing laughs. So. Much. Fun.

Fabulous Mexican Martini and Molly with her gross Paloma (ha)

All the sweets. I want all the sweets.

Breakfast tacos!

All the tortillas, all the time (Alamos Cafe)

Goodness, I added a lot of photos of the Alamo. I will never forget the Alamo!

It appears all the pictures of Dawn I have are with that same expression. Certainly no shrinking violet.

I'm still irritated I can't get this at home. I bought the whole 12-pk seasonal collection for the two bottles.

I ate all this food for breakfast. All of it (Magnolia Pancake Haus)

Goodbye, shoes.

Goodbye, Texas.

And when I returned, I had pizza with my family and still had another day off to spend mildly cleaning, going out to lunch with an old friend, and going on a day date with myself to see Judge. I'm so recharged, and I know it won't last and I'm okay with that. I'm going to ride it out until I can't anymore.