Randomly on a rainy Tuesday

1. I'm wearing new eyeshadow today and can't decide if I like it or it makes me look like I have a sickness.

2. It's different shades of pink.

3. So if you see me today, don't assume I'm contagious.  I'm just experimenting.

4. In other news I was awoken this morning to the beautiful sounds of my children bickering.

5. Or rather, I wasn't awoken, but was interrupted from my attempt to return to the fitful sleep of the night.

6. There was actual groaning.

7. And everything only got better from there with all the complaining about their breakfast (oatmeal), complaining about the need to brush their hair and teeth, complaining about the need for socks and shoes, complaining about the need to ever do anything at all.

8. Okay, that last one was me.

9. And then I got soaked through on account of the torrential downpour that started right after I dropped Adele off at her classroom.

10. Some days the need to crawl back under the covers and hide is a physical ache.

11. No matter, though.

12. I have coffee and tea and tons of stuff to keep me busy.

13. Speaking of coffee - I made my own creamer yesterday.

14. It's freaking delicious.

15. 2 cups of cream, a bunch of honey, 1/4 teaspoon of almond extract and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, then shake it until it's mixed.

16. I can't wait to make more coffee.

17. In knitting news, I have a lot of projects thrown about my living room.

18. I'm knitting a Harry Potter scarf for my son.  All that's left on it is the fringe.

19. I'm making a hulk hat for a friend's little boy.  This one is trickier than I thought and I've already had to start over two times.  Hopefully this is the last time ...

20.  I'm making Starbrook Pullover for myself in a dark blue green color.  All that's left of it is to finish a sleeve, knit a pocket, then sew everything together and put on a neckband.

21. It would be short work if I had time to do it.

22, Then there's a sweater I started last spring for Chris.

23.  It's called 'Fort.'

24. I haven't looked at it since it got warmer and I started sewing anything I could.

25. Also I have vest planned, socks going, I'd like a shawl, Adele needs a hat ...

26. I need more time.

27. I started a facebook page for jewelry and handknits:  Handmade by Jaimalaya

28. It makes me happy.

29. Let me know if you want anything!

30. And tell me really - is pink eyeshadow ever a good idea?

Random Wednesday: In which I discuss candy bars, sewing and temperamental daughters

1. I bought a candy bar because my credit card wouldn't work at the gas pump.

2. Makes total sense.

3. I mean, since my card wouldn't work I had to go inside to pay for the gas.

4. And the candy bar was just sitting there.

5. Also I really wanted it.

6. Also I also really want a nap.

7. Also I also want to see how may times I can type 'also' in one post.

8. That might be enough.

9. I've been doing really well with Me Made May and it's actually pretty thrilling, but only because I'm a dork.

10. I'm excited for Friday when I'll be home alone and can sew myself a tank top.  

11. And maybe some shorts? And a skirt?

12. I probably won't get all of that done.

13. I am in fact not a wizard, sewing or otherwise.

14. I also (damn it!) don't really want to buy more fabric as I've got a lot already.

15. And I'm not sure I have the right type of fabric for what I want to sew.

16. We'll see.

17. Adele threw my kindle at my head this morning because she had something in her eye.

18. Then she was mad at me because I wouldn't give it back to her.  

19. First of all, she threw it at my head.  

20. Second of all we were at her school/daycare and didn't have time for her to play on it.

21. I drug her into school, screaming.  (Dragged?)

22. Everyone thought she just didn't want to leave me and was so sad about it.

23. In reality she was just pissed at me.

24. I was not sad about dropping her off this morning.

25. God bless daycare, is what I'm saying.

Random Thursday: I'm thinking the space needs a Doctor Who poster. Or something.

1. Do you know how weird it is to be out of the house?  By myself?  In nice clothes?  Talking with really awesome adults?

2. Guys, I'm working now.  Real live working.  The kind of working that brings in a decent paycheck and makes me feel all adult and stuff.

3. (Obviously.)

4. And it doesn't even matter that I haven't had much to do since my supervisor has been out all week. I'm pretty caught up on the news, so there's that.

5. I did get some editing to do today, so I felt super important.

6. I did not realize how much I missed it.

7. Words are cool.

8. It also doesn't even matter that my office is literally a storage closet, complete with a Christmas tree and decorations that I offered to set up.

9. I thought it would jazz up the space.

10. They said not now.

11. No really - it's a storage closet.  See:

12. I have no desire to change it.  It's all mine.

13. My own space, my own time, my own job.  My own desk.  My own laptop.  My own phone.

14. I taped up pictures of my children this morning to decorate the whiteness.

15. And then I was promptly kicked out because very important people needed to use the lab and I would disturb them on one of my many trips to get coffee.

16. Coffee is important, you know.  And I'd hate to be kept from partaking.

17. I've been assured that no one ever uses that room, but this is just a special week.

18. No matter.

19. Now I get to use the supervisor's fancy office since he's still out sick.

20. I'm pretending that it's mine.

21. That's totally normal, right?

22, I can't wait to get started.

23. Like really, full-on started.

24. (Can you tell I'm almost squeeing?)

25. Because I am.

(My random posts are totally not random.)

Random Monday: In which I discuss soccer and lack of sleep and knitting.

1. We're coming off a very busy weekend.

2. Like three soccer games, a birthday party and friend get-together weekend.

3. It was glorious.

4. Not to brag or anything, but my son is turning into quite the little soccer player.

5. Last year he didn't really get that much of a chance to play because his coaches strategy was to put in all the best players so they could score as many goals against the other team as possible.

6. I was not on board with this strategy, and not just because it meant my kid didn't get to play that much.  I don't think it was teaching the kids a very good lesson.

7. This year Sebastian's coach is a woman, and she's sweet and encouraging.

8. Plus my kid plays more, which means that he's improved tremendously.  It's neat to watch them learn and grow, you know?

9. Adele is also pretty good at soccer.

10. She's just having trouble learning that you're supposed to stop at the white line when you're out of bounds.

11. She just keeps going.  And going.  And going.

12.  No matter who tries to tell her to stop.  All the way onto other fields.

13.  I don't think her coach was too happy with her.  But I just laughed.  She's 3.  I think he might be expecting a bit much from someone who's that young and never played before.

14.  And she just really likes to run and kick the ball.

15.  She's much more coordinated than I ever was.

16.  Guys.  I'm totally loving being a soccer mom.

17.  I think today is going to be rough because I have a lot of real newspaper writing work that I need to do.

18.  And not much sleep happened last night. 

19.  A certain young girl was up for hours last night.

20. There was screaming and whining and finally just talking to her animals.

21.  After Chris checked on her I just turned the monitor off. 

22.  SLEEP IS IMPORTANT.

23.  I don't understand why children don't get that.

24.  Plus I have a lot of knitting to do because I'm trying to finish a black cardigan for myself before I make anything else for my etsy shop.  (Peruse! Buy! Share! Please!)

25.  Because in my mind I have to finish it before I work on anything else because otherwise I'd be cheating on my black cardigan.

26.  And cheating is bad.

27.  Here are some blurry pictures that don't have anything to do with this post:

Random Tuesday: More random than usual

1. Someone in the Ukraine really, really likes this post. 

2. I mean, I get it.  It's absolutely one of the best things ever written ever in the history of ever.  However maybe it's not quite as deserving of all the fuss.

3. But whatever.  You just enjoy that sort of anniversary post, you in the Ukraine.

4. I've been trying to come up with things to make and sell for some extra income, lately.

5. It's actually harder than I thought.

6. I mean, I make tons of stuff.  But I'm not sure my wrist could handle a whole bunch of knitting.

7. Also I don't know the laws on selling homemade kefir.

8. I've also recently made feta.  But it's still aging.

9. There's always sewing, but I'm not sure what I could sew.

10.  Of course, I also make jewelry sometimes.  So maybe that.

11.  I will probably open an Etsy shop.  Or something.  I don't know.  Any ideas?

12. It's always been my dream - to make things and sell them.

13. But now I can't figure out what to do.

14. I should probably use barn wood.

15. Everyone loves barn wood.

16. Subject change: I've been really enjoying my mornings at home with Adele while Sebastian is in school.

17. She's actually much calmer and insane one-on-one.

18. Of course, now that I've blogged that we'll have to call in an exorcist.

19. Again.

20. My feisty girl is almost 3, which means I've been at home with my kids for three years.

21. I'd like to think I'm better at it than I used to be.

22. But I'm probably just better medicated.

I'm boycotting blog post titles, and totally not just because I can't think of one

I learned an important lesson last night.

When you listen to your child whimper for you over and over throughout the night, only to hear her go back to sleep before you can fully wake up, you may want to check on her. Otherwise when you go to get said child up you will find her naked and standing in the middle of a bed and blankets covered in pee because for some reason she thought it was a good idea to take all of her clothes off before falling asleep, including the diaper she still requires overnight because of all the peeing.

At some point this morning, though, in between all of the wake-ups that I should have paid better attention to, I dreamed that someone told me I was lazy and needed to go back to work.  It wasn't someone I knew, but he sure had an opinion about me and my productivity.

I think it was because yesterday was a relatively easy day in the parenting department, a first in a very, very long time.  Adele didn't misbehave too much, she took an actual nap, not just a 'Let's make her stay in her room for a couple of hours in the hopes that she'll fall asleep but we really know she won't' nap.  Sebastian didn't lash out at me because he was exhausted from school and the stress of it all.  And they didn't fight too much when they were together.

Obviously this meant I felt guilty and that I didn't deserve to be at home with my children all day because it wasn't NON-STOP DRAMA AND ARGUING.  Apparently you have to earn being a stay-at-home mom with lots of conflict and irrational behavior, both from yourself and your children.

And after that I dreamed that I was hired back at the newspaper where I used to work, but they didn't have any writing or editing positions available so I was hired to clean the newsroom.  This included dusting off everyone's desks, which was not something that ever happened when I worked there except that one time they had people coming in who were thinking about buying part of the company.

And so I dusted on second shift.  And then I had a dinner break and Chris brought the kids to see me.  After I woke up I immediately searched to see if there were any openings at the newspaper, just in case.  I didn't see any, cleaning or otherwise.

So since this is already kind of random anyway, let me ask your opinion on something totally not related to anything I've said so far.

Should I cut my bangs or let them grow?

Here's where they stand now:

Kind of grown out but not really.  Too long to be bangs but not long enough to be layers.  So cut?  Or let grow?

(I probably should have used a fancy filter on those photos to make me look less exhausted, but I just spent many paragraphs rambling about how I didn't sleep that well so you wouldn't believe me anyway.  Of course, I took these after the daycare worker at the gym told me I looked super nice and also after I took a sleep-deprived child to the grocery.  So.)

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a date with my knitting needles and Torchwood, which I just discovered and can't decide whether I like it or not.  It's a spinoff of Doctor Who, if you didn't know.  And they're sort of similar, except Torchwood has lots more sex stuff and no time travel (so far) and pretty bad acting.

So win?

Let's catch up, shall we?

I seem to be neglecting this space.  And it's not like I don't have things to say.  I always have things to say.  And I've got lots I've wanted to share with you.  But this summer has been pretty full of Doing Things, which is marvelous, but doesn't leave much time for blogging.

I've been wanting to share lots of things with you, like how Adele has napped by herself, without me rocking her, for the past couple of weeks, which now that I've written it down will be the end of that, of course.

Or like how we've gone again to Huber's Orchard, and had a good time despite the exhausted kids who stayed up late backyard camping with their dad.

Or how we have been spending at least two nights a week swimming and we're all brown and waterlogged but are having a blast and how I decided to say screw it, I want a tan stomach so I'm wearing a bikini no matter what people think of how I look in it.

Or the fact that my diet is about 75 percent Paleo now, in the hopes of feeling better and having more energy.  I don't worry about the diet when I eat at someone else's house because at this point it's too much trouble.

But I think it's working out well.  After the first initial days of feeling like crap as I dealt with carb and sugar withdrawal, I'm doing well.  But I woke up last night for a couple of hours and am feeling it today.  But it's not as bad as usual when I don't sleep.  I'm grouchy and short tempered, but I do seem to be handling it with a bit more grace than usual.  The only real, noticable effect is my need to bake.  It's what happens to me when I'm exhausted.  Baking as therapy, you know?  So I've made a Paleo breakfast bake with eggs and cinnamon and almond flour and honey that the kids loved; and a loaf of Paleo Bread that my kids weren't all that fond of.  But I ate it and it was delicious.  Weirdos.

This new way of eating has required a lot of research, which I happily do, and it's also required a lot of from-scratch cooking, which I do anyway.  But I'm at the point where I can't stop looking up new recipes, or buying new cookbooks.  It's fascinating to me.

Let's see.  What else?

I got a sunburn on my back.  It hurts and itches at the same time.

Our garden is growing really well in spite of the fact that we bought a pack of cucumbers that turned out to be squash and if you know anything about squash plants, you know that they take over everything and are huge and don't leave room for much else.  But we've still gotten blueberries and tomatoes and cucumbers and squash (obviously) and radishes and any type of herb you can think of; and we've got some onions and green peppers growing.

It's a fantastic sight.

I think that's all for now.  I'm going to try to rest while Adele is napping and Sebastian is distracted with the 1966 version of Batman.

(Don't make fun of me for being a part of the Paleo Lifestyle.  And I promise not to say anything else like 'the Paleo Lifestyle.')

Random Monday: Except not really random. Mostly it's about puke.

1. Adele puked all down my side on Friday night.

2. I guess this was my punishment for taking time for myself during the day to go to the gym.

3. What I mean is, she probably got sick because she has spent time away from her own, personal familial bubble.

Sicko.

4. Ergo - puke.

5. On my arm, in my hair, on my relatively new brown boots.

6. In my napkin as we were at the dinner table and I was holding her when it happened.

7. In a trail on the floor as I rushed to the bathroom.

8. And all over poor Adele, who didn't know what the hell was happening.

9. I was worried she had the flu since that's what everybody seems to be hysterical over at the moment.

10. She was pretty weak Saturday morning, just laying around.

11. Have you met my daughter?  That is completely unnatural.

12. I first started to really worry when she lay still to let me change her diaper.

13. But then she took a nap and woke up with energy, running around and laughing.

14. That's not to say that she wasn't still sick, because while she hasn't thrown up again she has had other digestive problems.

15. Digestive problems that meant we had to changer her clothes every time we changed her diaper.

16. It was an awesome weekend.

17. Last night she woke up twice before 1:30 in the morning.

18. We didn't get much sleep.

19. She seems much better today.  I haven't had to change her clothes yet.

20. Sebastian spent yesterday on the couch complaining of an upset stomach and a headache.

21. I think it might have been sympathy sickness.

22. As in, his sister got a lot of attention and was able to lay on the couch and watch TV so if he was sick he'd get to do that too.

23. I let him. 

24. There have been no digestive issues with him.

25. Thank God.  Because I feel kind of queasy myself, now.

Random Monday: Basically just me complaining. Again.

1. I still have my headache, which was not a hangover, as some have suggested.

2. However, my sinus infection seems to have exceptional drug-resistanceness and so I'm left wishing someone would take a drill to the back of my skull to relieve some of the pressure that is making my ears hurt.

3. So far there have been no takers.

4. My house is a wreck.

5. Before Christmas I made it a point to have the house, while not spotless, at least de-cluttered every single day.

6. And then the holidays and the wedding and stupid sickness happened and I'm lucky if I feel well enough to wash the dishes in the evening. 

7. And yet I still have to fetch food for children and build Lego houses and work puzzles and dodge random sippy cups that are flung at my head by an angry 2 year old.

8. Also cook dinner.

9. I have plans to go work out today but I'm debating if it will make me feel better or make me pass out.

10. At this point it's anybody's guess.

11. This weekend we met my in-laws and some visiting German friends of theirs at a restaurant. 

12. I had hoped that my angel would be a little older now and a little better behaved than the last time we took her to eat at a restaurant in public.

13. I was wrong.

14. So, so very wrong.

15. There was screaming and food throwing and toy tossing and spitting and hitting and biting and Hey - I don't think we're doing this again for at least another year.

16. I swear I try to control her.

17. It just has no affect. 

18. But she did go to sleep by herself today for a nap, so I'm just going to be grateful for small mercies and all that BS.

19. Seriously - someone drill my skull. 

20. (Not really.)

What I am happy about right now ...

1. That I haven't wanted to throttle my children once today, even after Adele spit in my face. After smacking me in the face.

2. That in spite of it being Monday and Sebastian's new school opened all the way on the other side of town, I still managed to take him there in time.  Although I forgot to brush his teeth.

3. That the drive back home allowed me a little bit of quiet and peace and time to drink my commuter cup of coffee.

4. That the ridiculously long two-week fall break is over and we can get back into our routine.

5. That I survived the ridiculously long two-week fall break even though I had a rotten sinus infection and generally felt like you-know-what the entire time and so couldn't do all the fun things I had planned for us to do while Sebastian was home all day.

6. That he is no longer home all day and so gets some interaction besides me telling him to go play in his room with all his legos.

7. That my foot feels better after I twisted it walking up the back stairs to the kitchen on Saturday.

8. That my twisted foot is not broken.

9. That somehow in my injuring-myself-expertise I managed to twist the top of my foot and so I don't think it is as bad as if I'd twisted my ankle.

10. That I feel more like a human being and less like a giant, non-social slug.

11. That the return of 'The Walking Dead' did not give me nightmares last night.

12. That my husband was nice enough to lock all the doors before the show started so I wouldn't be wondering if a walker would stumble into our living room any minute.

13. That my husband did not make fun of me before or after he locked the doors or make that zombie noise he likes to do to freak me out.

14. Coffee.

15. Babies wearing cardboard mustaches.

Random Monday: In which I discuss nothing of importance

1. Hey.  Remember me?

2. I don't know why I feel the need to apologize for not writing here very often anymore.  I realize that not very many of you are waiting around for me to post something.

3. And yet, I'm still sorry.  Mostly to myself.

4. I miss writing my daily post.

5. I've been working on a post for Adele's birthday, which was the 16th.  I'm a little late.

6. Part of the reason is exhaustion.

7. The other part is I've been writing real live work that I may one day get paid for.

8. I mean, they've said they were going to pay me. 

9. Two months ago.

10. I've been writing for the Kentucky At Home magazine for The News-Enterprise.  Here's the link if you feel like looking at it.

11. Although I can't promise it's Pulitzer-worthy stories or anything.

12. But I like doing it, though the only time to do it is the couple of hours Adele is sleeping during the day and when I can distract Sebastian with TV.

13. He's pretty neglected.  But hopefully it won't scar him too bad.

14.  He does get a little zombie-fied, though.

15. But we'll just add a little torn clothes and make-up and he'll be ready for Halloween.

16. Hey, speaking of Halloween, I'm pretty stoked about the cooler weather.

17. Though it was directly responsible for me not wanting to get out from under my feather blanket this morning.

18. That and the fact that it was Monday.

19. And Adele woke up in the middle of the night.

20. Again.

21. This time was easier because all I had to do was give her pacifier back that had fallen out of her crib.  And cover her back up.

22. (Don't judge the paci use.  It's in the plan to get rid of it.  It's just that I like sleeping and it has been in short supply lately.)

23. Saturday night she was up for two hours.

24. Wednesday night Sebastian was up puking every two hours until 4 in the morning.

25. It's been a rough week.

26. Or month.

27. Here's a picture of my kid eating a meatball on a fork while watching TV. 

28. I thought it was funny.  It made me giggle.

29. Back to work.

30. The end.

Random Monday: In which I discuss clingy children and drunken debauchery. Except not together cause that'd be bad.

1. I haven’t really felt like myself lately.  Lots of dramatic conversations in my head with myself and not nearly enough funny.

2. Wait.  If it was in my head then naturally it was with myself.  Yet I still felt the need to clarify.  And also to clarify my clarification.

3. Maybe I should start over.

4. I’ve felt weird. 

5. The end.

6. Okay, not really.

7. Last week kicked my ass, what with all the sickness and whining. 

8. And that was just from me.  The kids were on a whole new level of sick suffering.

9. But thankfully everyone seems to be feeling better. 

10. I was actually able to get Sebastian outside to play.

11. The summer has been weird because he’s usually such an outside boy, but it’s been a struggle to get him to do anything but lay around and complain about not being allowed to watch tv.

12. Honestly I was a little worried.  He had spent so much time in the past playing outside, and was perfectly content to dig in the dirt by himself.

13. But all the sudden he’s attached to my hip and won’t let me out of his sight unless there’s a tv show on, and still he wants me to sit and watch it with him.

14. I was about to lose my mind.

15. But today seemed to be better so I’m hoping maybe we’ve turned a corner.

16. FINGERS CROSSED BECAUSE I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE SOME TIME TO MYSELF DURING THE DAY PLEASE AND THANK YOU.

17. So I’ve got some friends coming to visit next weekend.

18. I am beyond thrilled as my children will not be here.

19. I’m planning a night of drunken debauchery. 

20. Or maybe just drunken talking about all the stuff Chris doesn’t want me talking about with other people.

21. (Sex.  I’m talking about sex.  Just don’t tell him I’m talking about it.)

22. And lots of chips and cookies and maybe a movie or two that Chris won’t watch with me.

23. It’s gonna be awesome.

24. I’m almost guaranteed to embarrass myself at least twice.

25. So basically it’s like every other day of my life, except with more alcohol and girl movies.

Random Tuesday: Really, really random

1. I missed a family reunion this past weekend in order to keep my children in a bubble.

2. Actually I wanted to keep other people from getting whatever funk my kids had.  The bubble was just an added bonus.

3. I was kind of sad to miss it as there’s always good food and family that I don’t see often enough.  Also homemade 'wine.'

4. I did not miss the intense heat, though.

5. The kids are better, but their temperaments haven’t improved with their health.

6. There’s been mucho whining, is what I’m saying.

7. The youngest randomly smacks her brother and me in the face and the oldest rolls around on the floor whining about whatever is irritating him at the moment.

8. Do you know what it’s like to be smacked in the face by a toddler all day?

9. Do you know how hard it is to remain a nice person throughout all of that?

10. I have not succeeded as much as I’d like to.

11. We went to Target to give us all a change of scenery today. 

12. I came home with random crap I put in the cart to keep the kids from screaming or talking really loudly about poop.

13. I’m not sure that leaving the house was a good idea, but it ended with me getting a giant iced mocha so at least there’s that.

14. It’s not working as well as I’d like it to.  I was hoping to actually have energy this afternoon.

15. We took the kids to the pool last night and they swam with Chris while I worked out at the gym that’s connected to it.

16. Sebastian is learning how to swim with a snorkel and he can’t get enough of it.

17. He’s a water bug, just like his dad.

18. I, on the other hand, can convince myself a shark is swimming after me in a clear public pool.

19. There are almost never any sharks in public pools so I don’t really have to worry about it.  But that doesn’t stop my mind from going there.

20. I am taking the kids swimming without Chris this afternoon.  I’m meeting a friend who has a bunch of kids herself.

22. I’m a bit terrified as the two times I’ve taken them swimming with Christopher Sebastian has had epic meltdowns whenever it’s time to leave.

23. Also Adele tries to jump in the big pools.

24. She’s a water bug, too.  She snuck out yesterday and got in our kiddie pool with her clothes on.   

25. I’m going to need more coffee.  

Random Tuesday: In which I discuss magic bubbles, asshole cars, and The Hunger Games

Sebastian wanted a picnic in the living room last week with
strawberries and blueberries. They took turns eating out
of the bowls like dogs.  Cause why not?

1. I got a full night’s sleep last night for the first time in what feels like weeks and I think it’s killing me.

2. Also killing me: the fact that my children probably have strep again. 

3. I don’t know for sure yet.  We’ve got a doctor’s appointment this afternoon, but judging by the raging whining that’s been going on in my house for the last two days, it’s gonna happen.

4. Or is happening.  Or whatever.

5. Magic bubble time, ya’ll.

6. I actually don’t say ‘ya’ll’ that often.  Or I don’t think I do. 

7. Sometimes my country accent takes me by surprise.

8. Something else that takes me by surprise: Mondays.  I never expect them to suck as bad as they do.

9. Yes, I know today is Tuesday.  I’m just feeling residual Monday fatigue.

10. Or maybe it’s the endless bouts of strep fatigue. 

11. I honestly don’t know how this is happening. 

12. Thus, my only option is the magic bubble and complete lockdown.

13. Speaking of lockdown, I’m finally somewhat relevant, what with my reading of The Hunger Games books.

14. Of course, by relevant I mean only a year or so behind as opposed to 5-10 years behind.

15. I like them.  They are easy to read and addictive and there have only been a few poorly written, melodramatic moments that make me cringe. 

16. Which was better than I expected.  So now I have to see the movie.  But since we never go to the movies I have no idea when that will be.

17. I told Chris that for Mother’s Day I wanted to go to the movies and not have him complain when I got popcorn and a drink and candy.

18. Instead I got a broken down car.

19. Water pumps are assholes.

20. Not assholes: the myriad of family and friends who came to our aid when we were stuck at the Dew Drop Inn at 7 at night with two tired and cranky children.

21. That’s a bar.  It was closed.

22. Hopefully Chris will be able to fix the car today.  You know, in between studying and writing a paper and spending time with children and working. 

23. Guys.  He’s pretty overworked.

24. Even if our car is fixed I’m not ready to give back my in-laws car, which we’ve been driving.  It’s bigger than ours and the kids are far enough away in the back seat so that the noise from their general rowdiness is somewhat muted.

25.Wonder if they’d trade?  

Random Monday: In which I discuss time change, wild children, and The Walking Dead

1. It’s the Monday after the time changed, in case you didn’t know.

2. I feel as awful as you’d imagine, and probably as awful as everyone else has already told you they feel.

3. But I also wanted to share that I think Sebastian is growing up a little too quickly and I would like all of you to make him stop.

4. First it was that I could put his clothes out and he would put them on.

5. But just recently he’s started changing his clothes periodically throughout the day, getting them out of his closet himself and coming up with remarkable outfits.

6. Like this one:

7. And I love it.  I do. 

8. Now his sister hasn’t mastered that art, obviously, and while he was looking particularly stylish in a shirt that used to be mine, this is what Adele looked like:

9. In my defense, it was a wicked rushed morning and all of us wanted to go back to bed at about 7:45 a.m.

10 Who am I kidding, her hair always looks like that.  Unless I go somewhere.

11 Like this weekend.  I took the kids to visit some friends of mine that I don’t get to see as often as I like.

12.  Adele had pigtails.

13. Which while adorable totally didn’t make up for the fact that she ran up and down the wooden-floored hallway for a good 30 minutes to an hour, yelling at the top of her lungs.

14. Sebastian also decided that that would be fun.

15. My kids are wild.  But I kept reassuring everyone that they weren’t like that ALL THE TIME.

15. No one believed me.

16. I also said that somehow the combination of Christopher and myself created super crazy children.

17. But also pretty awesome.

18. Sebastian also takes it upon himself to close the bathroom door upstairs whenever Adele goes up there, because she likes to unroll all the toilet paper and throw it into the toilet and take all the shampoo bottles and hid them in random places.

19. He just does it, without me asking him to.

20. He also will fetch things for me or give toys to Adele when she’s fussing, to try to make her feel better.

21. And earlier he stole two cookies from the counter without me knowing.

22. At least he told me about it when he was done.

23. But my point is that he has his own mind, and is getting big enough to execute thoughts he has, like sneaking cookies or changing into pajamas whenever he gets sent to his room for acting out.

24. Sometimes he changes into pajamas six times a day.

25. Hey, did anybody see The Walking Dead last night and were you as disturbed as I was? 

26. I couldn’t sleep.  The end got me, and kind of won’t let go.

27. I know that wasn’t really what I was talking about, but my mind won’t shut it off.

28. I blame the time change.