What a week!

I can't believe that the past three weeks, I've only managed to eke out a post on Thursday -- and worse, that every time, it's been to say something similar to, "I know I owe some posts, I've been busy, I promise more soon."

Let me tell you.  This is not one of those posts!

I do, of course, have more to say than I can fit in this post.  But I'm going to show you a photographic taste of our week, and then hopefully take advantage of this three-day weekend to post some cooking club stuff and other rants, tirades, stories and fun stuff.  We've been busy, I assure you.  I've just not been posting about it all!

Side note:  I also got a new phone a few weeks ago.  Despite switching from one Android phone to another, there's still a learning curve.  I'm all thrown off with blog reading as well, since my reader app is not giving me alerts the way it used to on my old phone.  Oh, such first world problems, I know -- but they are my problems, however sad they may be!   So, if you have been wondering where I have been as far as commenting on your blog, I am catching up in that arena as well.  I apologize for my general slackerness!

So, let's go back to the beginning of the week.  Last Saturday, the kids and I woke up early and took Mick down to Portland, where he hopped on the Amtrak Noreaster to head into Boston, where he took the T to Logan Airport, and took a plane to Atlanta.  (I told him I was only sad that he didn't take a ferry anywhere.  Next time.  Ferries and helicopters.)

We got to watch a gorgeous sunrise and, although the kids were still in their jammies, we stopped at Dunkin Donuts and I ran in and got us some Munchkins.

We ate them at home in and watched Angelina Ballerina.  Then we hopped in the bath, got dressed in our Alabama game day gear, and headed out.

Cool fact:  CAM is wearing a t-shirt I designed for a summer enrichment program... in 1984.  I love that.

First, we stopped for our Home Depot craft.  This month it was napkin holders.  Pretty basic craft, but the kids loved it.

The first Saturday of every month, there's a free kids' craft at Home Depot.  We've been doing them since this summer.  I learned this week that they also do stuff at Lowe's.  We all love it!  And every month the kids get a new pin for their aprons.  It's fun, and they get to hammer and glue and paint ... what's not to love?!

Then we stopped at the treasure hunt store.  No pictures.  We bought piles of books, though.  And I mean it: piles.

Then we remembered there was a train show in town, so we went there.

Then we came home.  I did a ton of chores around the house, CAM played and WHM, little guy, fell asleep.

I didn't pose this whatsoever.  I think it's just about a perfect picture!

Around 4, we headed up to Augusta to run some errands (a girl's gotta hit her not-so-local ULTA, we needed stuff at Target, and when were were in Portland it was still too early in the morning to shop!)  We watched the sunset from the parking lot.  This picture doesn't do it justice; it was gorgeous.

We headed home and watched Alabama almost lose to LSU.  I graded papers like a madwoman, since the quarter closed Friday and grades were due Tuesday morning.

On Sunday, Gram came up from Mass. to help us because Mick was out of town.  She didn't get to town 'til evening, though, so the kids and I stayed in and did laundry and graded papers and played and cooked all day.  We left the house only to get the newspaper and run to Kinko's to copy some rubrics for me to finish my grading marathon. We all went to bed decently early.

CAM and I had our usual Munchkin Monday.

They have peppermint hot chocolate again!  All day I kept thinking how delicious it was and wondering why I wasn't feeling rosy-cheeked.  Then I remembered this was the Rumplemintz-free version.  Sigh.  Oh well.  It was still pretty darn good.

It was ferociously cold on Tuesday.

After school, CAM had baton, so I picked her up, "we" voted (easy-peasy), we ran an errand, and headed to baton.  We didn't get home until right around 6.  (If you're playing along at home, that's a 12-hour day for CAM from wake-up 'til home, and that doesn't include bathtime, dinnertime, or general unwinding.  Tuesdays are long days.)  In any event, Gram left when we got home, and then Mick got in around 9:30.  I'd had a headache all day.  I must have looked as awful as I felt, because one of my students left me this sweet note at the end of the day.

I had a meeting after school on Wednesday and nasty weather was starting to come in.   We stayed in as a family, cooked a nice dinner, and then after the kids went to bed, I decided to make some table signs for my classroom for a fun activity I plan to do.  I wasn't sure if I would get to do it this week, so I wanted to have these ready, just in case.  I got the table stands free, but they all had the brand of a liquor on the bottom.  Not quite appropriate for school, so I Mod-Podged!  Let me tell you, it felt so good to dig out some of my craft stuff and just sit at the table and play.  It was ferociously cold out and they were calling for bad weather -- a "wintery mix," as they call it.  Anyway, it was a perfect night for crafting, even if it was only Mod Podge.  I got a little carried away and also did some magnets and bookends.  More on this soon, because I want to tell you all about the activity with the table stands, but I won't get to actually DO it 'til Wednesday.  I'll take pictures and show you the full scoop after.

It snowed Wednesday night!

Thursday morning we woke up to the sounds of plow trucks.  (They were driving by approximately 30 minutes before my morning alarm went off.  Grrrrrrr.)  The kids were beside themselves.  It was a fun morning, even if there was no delayed start of school.  (Turned out we didn't need it anyway, and Thursday was such a great day at work I was glad to not have it cancelled.)

Oh, and the sweats?  That's just because it's gym day.  Otherwise she has a much cuter uniform/dress code.

See those short sleeves on CAM's jacket?  I'd been in denial all Fall so far, but Thursday after school we all headed -- in the cold miserable rain, I might add -- over to LL Bean to get the kids new jackets and snow boots.  In fairness, we kind-of knew we needed these last year, but it was so warm at Christmas (and we were living in Atlanta, after all) that we did not get new stuff because we didn't know what, if anything, we'd need this year -- where we'd be living, what sizes we'd need, and so on.  In any case, last night was the first real chance we had to go over to Freeport -- and the first night where we realized we really couldn't stall any longer.  We ended up getting both kids snow boots and CAM got a new jacket.  I forgot to take a picture of her, but I will ... she was very picky about needing a pink jacket with fur, and we did pretty well meeting her demands needs.  We also went to a nice family dinner at Wooby Toosday, as WHM calls it.  It was a fun, not-too-late night, but with it getting dark around here close to 4 pm, it felt a lot later than it was. 


Today's Friday.  Occasionally, my room is used after hours for events and classes.  I came in to work this morning to find this fabulous little note on my desk. 

Since I started today with my prep period, I tooked up "D Nadeau" on our email system and sent her a quick note to say thank you.  She wrote back with even more kind words about my room -- and it turns out she's an administrator at another school in the system.  What a great way to start a Friday, and what a wonderful way to start the last day of what had been a long week! It's always nice to feel like you're doing something right.

So -- are you exhausted yet?  I really could have gone to bed at 6:30 tonight.  (I didn't. I sat here and typed this out for you, dear readers, because I really do know what a slacker I have been!)

Up next: Now that Mick's officially done with the Georgia house and all our stuff is here, even if we don't quite know where, we are going to be unpacking and packing and sorting over the next few weekends.  We are desperately trying to figure out what's where, what's in storage, find the things we've been missing ... and generally start living instead of living out of boxes.

In the meantime, we also have been cooking and baking and I really do know that I have got to get this blog current! 

--Jen


p.s.  this post took me over an hour to write and WHM just grabbed a blanket and pillow and tucked himself in on the couch.  Time for bed, kiddos!

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