Yes, you can sing about a fart having a birthday party.
Why is Minnesota in the kitchen?
Please don’t step on Darth Vader.
Oh, you caught that rabbit in the ocean, huh?
We can listen to more Justin Bieber songs tomorrow.
Nov 302011
Nov 292011
I feel like this whole NaBloPoMo exercise has been me posting every day about how I don’t have time to post and I’ll post more tomorrow. Which I’m kinda doing today, too, because you know that feeling of overwhelmed-ness when you get back home after almost six days away, and you have a crapload of stuff still to unpack, and now you have a crapload of Christmas stuff to put away after dragging all your decorations out, and your plans of starting to get caught up on email/Facebook/Twitter were thwarted by your internet being down for a chunk of the day, and you’re starting to mentally put together your to-list for December and Christmas which is making you freak out just a wee bit? Yeah, that one.
But those six days away, where we went to Carterville and Champaign to celebrate Thanksgiving, and which I’ve already mentioned a little bit here on the ol’ blog, were lots of fun. The gist of it: sleep in, eat, nap, eat, read, some fun activity, nap, hang out with family, eat, eat, sleep. I’ve already posted lots of iPhone photos from the trip (the fancypants camera was brought along but never made it out of the camera bag), but why don’t I show you some of the others that got snapped? Consider it the extra bonus DVD in your box set. Maybe I should put together a blooper reel, too.
Pre-travel preparations involved a lot of packing, and Millie was my packing supervisor. Man, she’s a tough boss.
When we were in Carterville, I continued my recent tradition of dragging out my old toys, and got out my Barbies after much begging by Eleanor. I was a little sad to discover that I am old enough now that my Barbie clothes are all back in style. There were dolman-esque sleeves galore, and one-shouldered dresses, wedge heels, and some rockin’ ’70s jumpsuits.
A treat for Andy and I was attending the SIU basketball game on Friday night.
The crowd was sparse due to the holiday, giving us plenty of room to enjoy the beautifully remodeled arena, and especially the large photos adorning the walls.
While in Champaign, Henry took some more photos.
Another treat for Andy and I was sneaking out to see The Muppets on Sunday night. We enjoyed both it and the lobby decorations.
We got home yesterday afternoon and immediately segued from Thanksgiving into Christmas. I don’t like decorating before December 1, but once again Henry and Eleanor won out.
And thus ends your Trip Through Jennifer’s iPhone. See you tomorrow for the last day of NaBloPoMo!
Nov 282011
It’s 11:53 pm and I have exactly seven minutes to slap something up on the internet to keep my NaBloPoMo streak alive. So after a day of
spend morning in Champaign
pack up van
head back to Indy
unload van
Cyber Monday shopping
“Mom, can we put up the Christmas tree?”
“When will we put up the tree?”
“How many minutes until we put up the tree?”
“Can we put up the tree now?”
“When will we put up the tree?”
“Is it time to put up the tree?”
put up the tree
prepare for twins club meeting
twins club meeting
stop by post office
late-night trip to Target
supper at 11:00
a few emails
a poorly written blog post
I’m going to pinky swear cross my heart promise to write more tomorrow.
Nov 272011
Nov 262011
holiday, part two
left one hometown, headed north
to other hometown
a three-hour drive
is two less than five hours,
feels even shorter
new car DVD
player makes the trip go by
so much more smoothly
I think I will dream
tonight about mother-in-
law’s pumpkin cheesecake
Eleanor can’t sleep,
tells Grandma she cannot stop
thinking ’bout Christmas
Nov 252011
Today was a monumental, historical day.
No, not just because today in 1867 Alfred Nobel patented dynamite. Or because in 1986 Reagan revealed the secret arms deal that uncovered the whole Iran-Contra affair thing.
But because my husband, voluntarily and of his own free will, SHOPPED ON BLACK FRIDAY.
Andy uttered the phrases, “I could go with you if you want,” and “if you’re going to regret not buying the electric griddle, just go ahead and buy it.” He went to Target. AND Wal-mart. AND Kohl’s where he stood in line for half an hour.
This event will probably happen only once in our lifetimes. Perhaps it should be recorded in something more important than this blog. The Congressional Record, maybe? Lugar’s still our senator, right? Who’s got his number? Today needs to be woven into the fabric of our country’s history.
(p.s. I did buy the griddle. $9.99! GO AMERICA!)
Nov 242011
Happy Thanksgiving.
Nov 232011
It’s really, really hard to type a blog post on an iPhone whose battery is almost out of juice. But I don’t feel too bad about not crafting a well written, thought out post, because seriously. It’s 11:14 pm on the night before Thanksgiving. Nobody’s online right now reading blogs, everyone’s either baking pie or resting up in preparation for eating themselves silly or perusing Black Friday ads while bitching about consumerism creeping into Thanksgiving day. I’m off to do the “resting up in preparation for eating myself silly” thing, much needed after a five-hour road trip earlier today that felt about seventeen hours too long. And that last sentence seems like it doesn’t even make sense, and the red bar in my battery indicator just became a red sliver, so goodnight!
Nov 222011
I know that eventually Henry and Eleanor will develop their own interests, and probably reject anything that heaven forbid their mom and dad think is cool. But that doesn’t stop me from wanting to share with them things that I liked in childhood (and beyond), and when it matches up with stuff they’re currently into? Even better.
Henry somehow caught wind of the fact that I had my Star Wars toys at our house, and has been begging every day to play with them. Today was a rainy, stay-in-our-jammies kind of day, so I caved and dug them out of the garage.
And yes, R2D2, Chewbacca and the gang had to share space with my Strawberry Shortcake dolls. Growing up, my girly side and my nerdy side lived in harmony. Don’t YOU want your wookiees to smell like fruit?
I opened up the cases and Henry and Eleanor’s eyes grew wide. Then I whipped out a Millennium Falcon I found at the Goodwill Outlet and immediately won the Best Mom Ever title for life.
Watching your kids’ excitement over your most cherished toys is such a wonderful perk of parenting. Henry and Eleanor played Star Wars all day until we finally had to shut the lid on the big strawberry and send them off to bed. Who knows, someday they’ll probably think I’m a big dork, but for now, the Force nerdiness is strong in these two.
Nov 212011
I always saw myself as a one-pet-at-a-time kind of gal. Almost ten years ago we got our dog, Bentley, and he’s awesome. That’s the only pet we’ll have, I thought.
Then we moved to Indy. And felt bad about leaving Bentley by himself while Andy and I worked all day. So we got Bentley a kitten, Simon.
Simon and Bentley make a great pair, and for the past almost-ten years I’ve been a one-pet-at-a-time kind of gal who makes a special exception for the two best pets ever. We added twins to the mix, and our house seemed very full of people and fur. Our family seemed complete. I even had surgery this summer to ensure we added no more creatures to this household, remember?
Well, meet Millie.
Millie showed up at our house this fall and decided we were her family. She appeared one afternoon while Henry and Eleanor were playing outside. They were in heaven and followed her around all day. The next day, she showed up again. And then the next. Andy and I did the whole “we do not need another pet we are NOT getting attached to this cat” routine while we attempted to track down her owner. Except then we started to worry about her at night, so we allowed her to sleep in the garage. And then we got tired of calling her “the cat” so we spent a morning texting each other name suggestions.
After a few days we determined that her original home was one block over from us. As the dad and son carried her back home, the kids kept it together, but then Eleanor sobbed her heart out for the rest of the night. Our animal-loving girl was heartbroken, and we were heartbroken for her.
The next day, we received an email from the neighbor’s wife. When they had brought Millie home the night before, she wriggled and squirmed until she broke free, and darted back in the direction of our house. No pressure, the neighbor said, you can choose what’s best for you. The cat obviously loves your family, so if you’d like to keep her, we’d let her join your family.
So, in a nutshell, it’s been over a month now, and we apparently have a second cat. I knew we were going to keep her when I heard Andy call her “sweetums” one night while trying to coax her upstairs. The kids adore her, she’s super friendly and likes to chat, and seems to be slowly getting used to Simon. She’s definitely made herself at home and has her rotation of good napping spots.
(photo by Henry)
Her name? We wanted something to play off her white fur. Betty (as in Betty White) was out because it sounded too much like Bentley. And she just didn’t seem like a Vanna. So she’s named after Milli Vanilli. Millicent Vanilla, we like to call her.
We weren’t planning on working our way towards a menagerie, but when the pet chooses you, how can you say no? I’ve somehow gone from a one-pet-at-a-time gal to a one-dog-and-okay-two-cats-but-seriously-that’s-it-we-are-NOT-adding-any-more-animals-to-this-family-I’m-serious kind of gal.