I say “fun fall” because I like the alliteration, but I actually prefer the term autumn if anyone is keeping track. This is a quick post because I’m a busy girl. Here’s a sneak peek of the blanket at this exact moment:

It’s nearly done, and the crochet edging is going very quickly. I will soon be able to use the all powerful f-word…

Now for the good stuff. Pumpkin hunting at the cider mill:

Buster as Batman, Oscar as Friendly Dragon:

Buster hates dressing up, and it only lasts a few minutes, but we just can’t resist. Luckily, Oscar doesn’t mind.

Here is our little dragon running to the neighbor’s house to begin the tricks and treating:

I dare you to find a cuter kid.

Family, Knitting | No Comments »

Here it is, the last day of summer. I’ve gone back to work, Oscar has started “baby school,” and Matt has finished the outline of his next script. It’s been a rough few weeks, quite frankly, but I think we’re settling back into the routine. I thought it would be nice to reflect on the summer as we define it–those glorious 11 weeks between mid-June and early September–with a photo review.

I’ll skip June since I did some blogging and picture posting back then. We spent many days playing at the park and, of course, with Buster:

We also spent a lot of time with “the kids,” my nieces and nephews. My parents, sister, Matt and I took them to the Detroit Zoo on rare family outing. The other kids really enjoyed it, and Oscar had fun with them, but the animals were generally too far away and too slow for him to get very excited about it. Anyhow, here’s the crew at the zoo:

At some point Oscar had his first [real] haircut (i.e. not from grandma). We took him to a place that is especially for kids and overpriced, but fun. It went well because they had a computer mouse for him to hold and animal crackers to eat:

We decided to take a vacation close to home in hopes of saving some money. First we spent a few days in Chicago. We could have done a better job of planning/budgeting, but it wasn’t too bad. We definitely had fun. Here we are in Chicago walking to Shedd Aquarium:

It was ungodly hot and humid the whole time we were there. We also went to the Children’s Museum at Navy Pier, and hit some of the renowned food places. Then we drove about two hours back east/north into Michigan and stayed in South Haven for a few days. South Haven is the blueberry capital of…the world? Michigan? I can’t remember. Anyhow, we spent some time at the beach and I can honestly say it is one of the best beaches I have ever been to in terms of convenience, cleanliness, water swimmability, etc. The weather was perfect for beach going, too. Matt and Oscar flew kites.

We came home with five pounds of delicious blueberries, so in addition to having lots of snackable fruit, I made us homemade blueberry spread, blueberry jam, and a blueberry crumble pie.

Both were even more delicious than they look. I ended up buying more blueberries from a local farmer’s market a few weeks later to make more jam, but it wasn’t nearly as tasty.

I also worked on the house throughout the summer. I painted this image on Oscar’s wall, which finally put the finishing touch in his room:

I also worked on making the office more organized and functional. Here are the before images from March:

In that second image I’m not sure you get the full effect of how bad it was, but the closet doors were permanently open because there was an exercise machine in the room and double stroller that were a pain in the ass to move when the doors were closed. Here’s the after:

It was a process, but it’s as done now as it’s going to get and it’s much more comfortable around here now. The living had some work as well, but I haven’t taken the after photos of that room yet.

I am also very close to finishing the blanket, even though I forgot to bring enough parts to work on it while we were on vacation. I’ve got two more rows left to sew on, then just the crochet border. I haven’t had much energy or time to work on it lately, unfortunately.

I also spent some time driving myself crazy over a job interview and offer. Ultimately I’m still where I was, and for now, I think that’s a good thing.

All in all, it was a pretty great summer. I’m sad to see it go, but time marches on.

Home, Family, Knitting, Work, Travel, Reflection/Observation | No Comments »

This is just a placeholder so people don’t think I’m dead.  I’m not.  I’ve just been busy enjoying myself.  I will have a summary and beautiful photos soon.  I’ll try to spread it out over the week so it’s not a giant post.  Consider your appetite whetted.

Uncategorized | No Comments »

I think I am officially too snobby about music.  Since I got my awesome Sirius service (currently using Starmate, which I love), I haven’t listened much to my iPod or the radio unless it was WDET, the local NPR station.  I used to say I hated the radio, and I still sort of do.  However, something inspired me to listen to the radio today, and I found myself singing along and thoroughly enjoying it.  It’s partly thanks to the rebirth of The River, which was playing one of my favorite songs by Old 97’s “Jagged.”  It just so happens that I was listening last week to Fight Songs, the album that the track is on.  I realized that as much as I love listening to the variety of music on Sirius, it is relatively rare that I know any of the songs well enough to sing along.  So, for a while, I’m going to try to wean from the Sirius and go back to the iPod.  I’m not ready for full time radio, but maybe I’ll get a sprinkle here and there.  Which means I need to update my iPod.

I’m also snobby because I ditched my baby today.  My father-in-law was over to babysit while I took my car in to the dealer for service.  It was finished earlier than expected, so I went and had lunch by myself.  I feel bad for sneaking–I probably should have called–but it has been sooooo long since I had any time to myself.  I couldn’t resist.  I tried, but I just couldn’t.  It was really nice.  I felt like a grown up sitting by myself in Panera, eating and reading (Alternadad by Neal Pollack–so far, so good).

Music/Books/Movies/TV | No Comments »

Matt and I saw Built to Spill last night at St. Andrews. It was a good show. The last time they were in town we missed it for some reason I can’t remember and we ended up going to see them in Cleveland on a weeknight. I think I was at the beginning of my second trimester of pregnancy because I thought I wouldn’t be too tired–I was wrong. We drove three hours each way and had to leave before the encore. I was tired this time around too, but we shared a Red Bull and that helped to pep us up.

Yesterday I went to Ikea (again–it’s been a regular destination of mine lately) and bought a french press and milk frother. I was so excited about my coffee this morning, I took a picture to post:

Most of the frothiness had dissipated by the time I put new batteries in the camera, but it was still tasty. About 10 minutes after the photo, Oscar spilled it all over the end table. I was quite annoyed and he had his first time out. The good news is I had another opportunity to use the milk frother and a clever blog post title.

Family, Music/Books/Movies/TV | No Comments »

I just got done watching the USARPS championship on ESPN2.  The winner got $50,000.  I didn’t see the whole thing, but there was a definite lack of female representation.  I think this will give me an edge in competition, especially since I’m a psychologist too.  PLUS I am on a crazy winning streak in my competitions with Matt, so I think I’m a natural.  If you make the semifinals, they fly you to Vegas!  What do I have to lose?

Music/Books/Movies/TV, Reflection/Observation | No Comments »

I want a new tag line for my blog. I am not creative in this department. My husband–you know, the writer–can’t seem to come up with any ideas either. Help if you can.

If it helps and you don’t already know, “She’s a Jar” is a Wilco song on the Summerteeth album.

Uncategorized | No Comments »

Matt and I have been trying to come up with a good family vacation spot, and we are still struggling.  Oscar is a good traveller, in general, but he’s at a difficult age for travelling right now.  When he was a baby we could get him to sleep more often and more easily than now, and he was content sitting on our laps or in a car seat.  Now, he is so curious he doesn’t like being contained in the car seat (this can vary depending on his mood, so there’s no telling how long he can take) and he isn’t at a stage in his cognitive development that we can play car games or something to occupy him in the seat.  He wants to be out touching things and meeting people.  One of Matt’s cousins suggested getting a portable DVD player for the car, but we aren’t keen on that idea.  We’d much rather wait to rely on the TV babysitter until we’re really desperate.  Flying somewhere is possible, but not desirable as we are trying to be modest with the budget.  We’ve talked about a cruise, a neighborhood getaway (hotel with indoor waterpark), a drive to a national park, an east coast beach, and a Michigan road trip.  Oh, and Chicago for Shedd’s Aquarium.  We welcome any thoughts.

Travel | No Comments »

I have been very busy since my last post (nearly a month ago!), so I will take time to catch you up on some of the happs.

Memorial Day weekend Krista helped me get Oscar’s blanket back on track (many thanks, Krista). Apparently I missed the last stitch when casting off, or ran the tail end back through the stitch directly thereby undoing the last stitch. I have made some progress, but it’s still slow going. I will post a new photo soon, but I’m not ready yet.

Oscar turned 1! The party went well, and I think this photo speaks for itself:

I have never experienced such a mix of emotions. I was sad the night before his birthday because it just went by so fast, I wanted to relive it all. Yet, I’m happy he’s healthy and growing, and excited for the little person he is so quickly becoming.

We made a road trip to Ludington and Freesoil, Michigan for Matt’s family reunion. It was kind of tough because we had been so busy for almost two weeks straight, but we were glad we went. Matt was challenged/dared/bet to eat a concoction, as is reunion tradition with the cousins (now). Consider: how much would your loved ones have to pay you to eat a large slice of a berry streudal cake topped with onions and ketchup on a full tummy? Yum (I wish you had smellivision):

Ultimately he got halfway through and on the second gag gave up.  He ate half and didn’t even get the money, but the main conspirator still paid a price:

And a new challenger rose from their ashes, at the ripe age of 2 years and 11 months:

For the record, he was snacking on that onion in his hand before he ate the concoction,  and he popped it all in his mouth without thinking twice or batting an eye.  It was impressive.

The school year ended with a flurry of activity. I even managed to bring a small project home for summer. Ugh! It shouldn’t take much time, and I’m going to get to it right away so that I don’t have to think about it. I must reiterate: ugh! This first week off I have managed to get more done than I normally do in two weeks, plus several leisure activities. So far, so good. Although, we’ve had something to do every day, so next week I’m going to keep it light and try to relax. I’d like to have a more steady routine that includes some exercise for me, and plenty of bonding and fun with Little O. Maybe I’ll finally get some knitting done too. And sleep. Sleep would be good.

Family, Knitting, Work, Travel | No Comments »

This ruling from the Supreme Court is great news for employers.  We (being workers, women, minorities-everyone but “the man”) have 180 days from being hired or from being given a raise to sniff out how much our coworkers make, the relative difference, and file a complaint.  Nevermind that most companies don’t allow coworkers to discuss salaries (and use that as grounds for termination for anyone who isn’t a “team player”), and nevermind that the aforementioned ‘we’ are already looked at as whiny and bitchy.  I’m sure we’ll be perceived much more positively when we sneakily obtain the information we need to file a complaint within 180 days of getting a new job or a much needed raise and assert our rights for equal pay from employers who usually are motivated by the bottom line and not by the warm fuzzies they’ll get for fully disclosing the needed information, or better yet, just paying equally in the first place.

On the bright side, I’m sure this will help the economy by saving companies money so they can pass the savings on to consumers.  Like this company does.

Uncategorized | No Comments »