October 2013 – Page 2 – Just regular folks.

In love.

Someone is excited about getting a cell phone. Don’t worry – he’ll call you soon.

Jeremy got back from Chicago last night. He mentioned just before he left that he was planning on taking Friday off when he got back. As the kids were out of school as well (teacher professional day?), I decided to take some time off as well and take us all of us out back to my favorite corn maze in Fredrick, MD. I’ve been there before with Vince and Edda a few years ago, but this time, I managed to drag Jeremy, Nat, and five of Vince’s closest friends – so that’s two carloads of kids. It was a little bit more like a field trip than I had originally anticipated. I think it was more than Jeremy bargained for when he agreed to chaperone.

I don’t think I’ll be able to indulge myself in these childish things for very much longer using my own children as an excuse. I can tell that Vince loved being with his friends, but did he really want to be at the corn maze? Perhaps not. Oh, everyone had fun, but I can tell that perhaps this was my last year going with my kids. I’ll just have to do it on my own from now on. Or else borrow someone else’s toddler.

There was one panic-y moment during the trip. I don’t know if you can tell, but the photo of Edda with Nat above is taken in kind of a silo filled with corn kernels that the kids just tumble around in it. Sam realized at some point that his cell phone had fallen out of his pocket into the huge pile of corn. I looked at it all – so much corn, so full of screaming children – and decided at that point that we were never going to be able to find the phone. But I decided to call Sam’s phone and I got lucky – the phone started vibrating right under my foot. This was a trip dominated by small children with cell phones. All of them had cell phones (except Vince, poor deprived child) and they all wanted to split up in the corn maze saying they could text each other. I was a little confused because what more can you say inside a corn maze besides, yes, I’m right next to some corn?

Finally, it’s mid-term time. I’m spending the weekend with psychiatric disorders, blood coagulation disorders, carcinomas, immune response, and the thyroid.

Boba!

Boba is here this week. His mom (lucky her!) is in Paris this week. I told Boba’s mom that all I wanted from Paris are the delicious raw cheeses that are impossible to buy here in the US. Unfortunately, I don’t think I convinced her to do any cheese smuggling past customs. I’m lucky that Boba is here because Jeremy is not – he’s in Chicago all week. So Boba is very proudly occupying Jeremy’s spot in the bed at night.

Gate @ Our Backyard

The gate at our back yard has been completed. Now, it is the drawing time for our building permit.

My turn as waitstaff.

My friend Lauren owns a catering company and had a huge wedding on Saturday. I really wanted to work for her – I’ve never done food service before and I think it’s an important for a person to experience. Lauren makes such delicious food and she everything is served so beautifully. I worked a long day – almost 10 hours – mainly setting up the tables, then serving food and then busing all the dirty plates. It’s hard work!

Still raining!

Still raining today. Look at this mess at middle school pickup today. I usually don’t pick anyone up because Vince can find his way home by foot or by bus, but today I felt sorry for him. But, of course, with Vince being Vince, he came along with two other friends who wanted rides home so pickup today lasted an hour from when I left my desk to when I got back to my desk.

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And then I promptly sent Vince out to camp in the rain for two nights. I hope he doesn’t get too wet, but it just can’t be helped. I practically individually wrapped each piece of clothing in a plastic bag hoping that he’ll put on some dry piece of clothing when he needs it. But I won’t be surprised if he comes home in the same clothes he left in.

Rainy day.

Yesterday, I spent 13.5 miles of the day outside. I walked the dogs, I ran, I biked back and forth to class and finally a ran a little bit with Vince. I would have never believed that I could pack 13.5 miles of outside time on a day that I both worked and went to school – but there you have it. I’m not sure when it will happen again, but I love being outside in the fall.

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Today it just poured all day. So I spent almost no time outside. I actually spent the morning at the DMV straightening out car stuff. And then the rest of the day in my office.

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Poor Vince. Sixth grade can be hard. It’s time to learn how to actually study. Not just to get by on what you hear in class, but actually to sit down and figure out how to get it into your head. I don’t think it’s going to be very pretty – teaching him study skills, it does not play to his natural strengths. Also, apparently middle school kids get in trouble by possessing such things as e-cigarettes. Umm, this is certainly a different phase of parenting.

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So the half-marathon last weekend was cancelled because of the government shutdown and then rescheduled for November 10th. So I’m basically going to do the last month of training all over again. I told Jeremy tonight that I was going to be really mad if I do all this running again and if come November 10th, the government is still shut down I would have prepared to run 13.1 miles twice for nothing. Jeremy reminded me that by then, I probably will be more mad that I’m not getting paid. He’s totally right.

Preparation Work on Addition Completed, except City Building Permits

The preparation work on the addition has been completed except the building permits. Now, we are working on the City Building Permits – studying city building codes and a lot of drawings to do.

Picture one shows part of the retention wall and the gate as well. Picture 2 shows the other part. Picture three shows the fence moving out about a foot with the temporary three-posts tall screen on the side. And picture four is Mom’s flowers bed beyond the retention wall.

Sleeping.

Sleepless nights.

Vince has decided that he wants to join in on working out. Last night, right before dinner, I laced up my running shoes and Vince put on a pair of my old running shoes (we have almost the same sized feet) and we ran a mile around the neighborhood. And this morning, he and Jeremy did one round of the 7-minute workout just before he left for school. Jeremy’s heels have prevented him from running for a long time now, but maybe he’ll start running slowly with Vince. Jeremy even mentioned that maybe we should go to the track on the weekend – what kind of crazy are we? I told Jeremy that if we all end up the track on the weekend to workout, that I get to push Edda in her stroller.

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I’ve not been sleeping well for a few months now. Generally the clock hits 4 am and I’m up and awake, but I do try and go back to sleep for a couple of hours. Last two nights, I wake up and before I open my eyes, I hope that the clock reads 3 or 4 am, but when I turn around, it reads 11:30 pm. I can’t believe I’m having my first bout of insomnia of the night before many people I know even go to bed. Where is the Lee sleeping gene? We are famous for being able to sleep anywhere, anytime. Yet, somehow I have misplaced it.