Happy Turkey Day!

Hello, friends.

I know it's been awhile, but the holiday just had me beyond busy. I've been off for five days, and holy cow, I already can't wait for next weekend.

We had a grand old time at The Lakehouse. The weather was beautiful, and it was nice to wake up somewhere where someone else makes the coffee. The only downside was that B and I had to sleep in twin beds. And, I'll be honest, we both enjoy snuggling with Baby B between us and we do this frequently (often with all of us falling asleep). One morning, when I got up at 5:30am to nurse the little man, a jealous B croaked from across the pack-n-play between our beds, "I wish I had the Manmary boob that was on Meet the Fockers." He he he.

Anyway, our three days in Cumberland were spent eating, watching True Life on MTV, playing Tribond, hottubbing, watching True Life, sleeping in, and watching True Life. I don't know if we watched it because we're cable-deprived at home, uber-interested in the crazy lives of strangers, or because my mom accidentally DVRed 27 episodes of it. Either way, I am so glad I'm not in debt, a yo-yo dieter, or a single mom.

We also shot our family Christmas pic. Unfortunately, I cannot preview it here because many of you will receive it in your Christmas card from my parents. The Babbling family will shoot their own Christmas pic, but to tide you over, here's a pic of my little Grinch - who is probably the most non-Grinchy Grinch there ever was. Love him.

Oh, and there are MANY MORE pictures. I shot 197 pics over the past 5 days, so I'll upload some more eventually - like of the boys deep frying the turkey, Mom cooking, Soph resembling Ellen DeGeneres, me and the boys hottubbing, and Aubz snuggling with Baby B. They don't call me the Abb-aratzi for nothing ;)

A Non-Nap

Here's how the story goes...

I decide that in the hour window between the time I get home from school and the time Baby B needs to be put down for his afternoon nap, I am going to make a quick run to Walmart for some last minute Thanksgiving day staples. So I snuggle the little man into his seat, zip over to the giant food mecca, strap the little man into the man pouch, grab a cart, and I'm off and running coupon binder in hand. (Yes, I'm now one of those women.)

I love the man pouch for multiple reasons. A) Baby B loves it. B) We both stay snuggly warm when I wear it. C) It's great for your back muscles.

However, it does tend to put the little man to sleep. And despite my best efforts to talk and bounce him awake, he wasn't having any of it. His eyes were fading just as we hit the dairy department, so I sped to the check-out hoping that I'd be able to keep him awake until we made it home. No. Such. Luck.

He slept in the car on the way home and then I ever-so-carefully placed him in his bed, still asleep. Score one for me.

And then, not 10 minutes later, he's awake. Jabbering away about how he wants to get out of bed and come downstairs and prevent me from accomplishing anything on my to-do list. And several trips up the stairs later to re-insert his paci in his mouth, I think I'm going to surrender. He's awake.

Probably because he keeps thinking about how much fun it is to sit in his new high chair.

Picture Montage Numero Dos

I'm not in the mood to post anything clever or witty today. So, just take a moment to enjoy our weekend in pictures.... We just know that those choppers are going to pop in any day.

Walker's Mommy, Al, Hobbers (now Howard!), Me, & Dr. Allen

These two are going to conspire against me in the near future. I can just see the practical joking and scare tactics formulating in their brains now...

My cute lil boy.

Precious, just precious.

This is what happens when I actually do the laundry. I find babies underneath!

Me and my BFF, Allison.

210 looooooong minutes

Twenty-one ten-minute conversations later, and I'm officially a parent-teacher conference professional. Or so I'd like to think. I survived one of the longest days of a teacher's life. Most days are long for teachers, but this one was especially long. And I like to talk, but 210 minutes straight of talking and talking and then some more talking was pretty excruciating.

{Sidenote: B and I are watching Grey's and it's just getting weirder and weirder and weirder. What the heck is going on with Izzy and Denny? Is he alive or what? I'm so confused. Then there's the crazy new interns who like to remove each other's body parts. CREEPY. Just thought I would throw that in.}

The 30 Days of Nothing has gone, well, let's be honest - we're totally ordering pizza tonight. In fact, if Donatos isn't here in about 5 minutes I know a crazy hungry kindergarten teacher who might go postal on an unassuming delivery person. I. AM. STARVING. All that talking has left me famished. Doorbell just rang. Big. Fat. Garlic breadstick. In my mouth. Mmmmmm.

Well, just know that conferences are over and went well. No complaints, some nice compliments, and I can finally sleep easy. I'm throwing a P-p-p-party tomorrow in celebration of the letter P. We will meet the principals, read The Paper Bag Princess and watch the movie, make paper bag costumes, eat popcorn and drink purple kool-aid. Dontcha want to come to school tomorrow?

PS. If that picture doesn't make you happy, then I don't know what will.

Three chocolate chip cookies and a Diet Coke later...

...is all it takes to take the edge off of my Wednesday. And the coke was warm and the cookies were made from a bag. But, oh how that combo of chocolate and caffeine can totally settle one's brain. And since the coke was calorie-free, I figure that cancels out at least one of the cookies I ate. Right?

Anywho, I'm coming down off of one of those crazy days where you have 497 things to do, but can only accomplish 14 of them, so you feel a bit scatterbrained, or discombobulated if you rather. (I should probably spell check discombobulated for fear that my spell-checker-of-a-friend, Allison, will call me out again. I wouldn't want to disappoint her ;) If you know me in real life, then you know how I can be a little mental at times. Like hyper-mental. Like talking 99mph, running around like a crazy chick mental. Sometimes I just have to take a deep, cleansing breath and realize that life will go on even if I can't use the fine-tip Sharpie to sign my report cards with. Yes, I'm a bit of a writing utensil connoisseur. Any college roommate of mine will tell you to STAY AWAY FROM HER MARKER COLLECTION. Seriously, I think I almost lost friends due to my stingy obsession with Bics, Pentels, and Crayolas. But that, my dear, is a whole other post.

Moving on...

The Little Bear is snoozling upstairs, so I've got a houseful of chores to attack, not to mention parent-teacher conferences to prepare for. I already spent an hour writing down four things I love about each child so that I could give it to their parents along with a cute pic of them. And we made the most DARLING turkeys today to hang in the hallway, so that their parents can be amazed by their creative genius. And the activity correlated with core content, so I'll just pat myself on the back for that one.

Okay, au revoir. And stay warm. It's ch-ch-chilly out there today!

Insert your own title here...

Sorry for the lag in posts. I'm a bit busy prepping for Cycle 2 internship observations, parent-teacher conferences, and the holiday next week. It's only quarter til 10pm and I can barely hold my eyes open. I am looking forward to being able to sleep in for five days straight starting next Wednesday - even if that means only until 7am. I'll take what I can get these days.

I remember being pregnant, coming home from school, and crashing until B got home from work. Nevermind that dinner wasn't ready when he came home, I needed my sleep! I was busy growing a human being! Now, I come home from school, and my second job starts: taking care of and entertaining that human being. It's hard work being a momma. Especially a workin'-outiside-of-the-home momma, even if I'm only parttime. Baby B has decided that he rather spend the entire afternoon AWAKE, so I'm getting very little done. And that warm dinner that's supposed to be waiting for my dear husband when he gets home? Yeah, that's not even getting into the oven until 7pm when he's home to occupy Baby B. Thank goodness he wouldn't care if dinner wasn't ready until 9:30pm or if he's dishing up a bowl of Lucky Charms.

And by the looks of Baby B, at least someone is eating well around here ;)

Here's a cute pic of my niece and mom. Soph will be a big sis in about 2 months!

Nana K & Soph Having Tea

E.x.h.a.u.s.t.e.d.

Ay, ay, ay.

I can barely keep my eyes open. And I really want to keep them open for about 30 more minutes so I can watch Ba-ba-wa Walters grill the "pregnant" man on 20/20. Can you believe (s)he is having ANOTHER kid? Not because (s)he's really a woman or anything, just because I personally cannot fathom being pregnant AGAIN so soon after giving birth. I'm pretty sure (s)he just gave birth around the same time I had Baby B, and I definitely do not want to be pregnant again any time soon.

Anyway.

After making chicken fried rice for dinner, we headed to the neighbors to watch the Cats lose to VMI. Sad face. It was a dissapointment, but it was fun to catch up with Josh and Beth (who we tend to lose touch with during the colder months, despite the fact their front door is literally ten feet from our own). I came home to put Baby B to bed and B is still hanging out with Josh. Actually, he just walked in the door, empty Tanquerey and Tonic in hand.

The weekend will be uneventful as we gear up for the holiday travelling we'll be doing starting next weekend. We'll be in Pikeville for Sarah's wedding...Cumberland for Thanksgiving...and then Christmas the second week of December in Michigan. December 25th will be here in NO TIME.

Hopefully Baby B will sleep through the night. I could use a good night's sleep.