Dress Rehearsal

Tonight we put on the kids' Halloween costumes for the first time and I about never got them out of them. Can't wait until Saturday!

Veggie Tales

Greetings from warm and rainy Wilmington! Ironically the warmest day we've had in a while (75) and it poured all day. But that's okay because we hung out all day at home, doing a lot of nothing...but also a lot of laundry and cleaning out of junk. The major outcome of all that is I finally have a home office! And while its not the coolest space, it was crafted entirely out of stuff in storage so didn't cost me a dime. Yay for recession-era decorating!

Riley-Roo is quite the oinker lately. If you met her younger than 4 months you'll recall she was a scrawny little thing, and now that's she's eating 3 squares and about a gallon of milk (formula) a day not even crawling and jumping in the bouncer can burn off the calories. Welcome to my world, girlfriend.

Gabe, meanwhile, is OBSESSED with the game Uno. And we're encouraging it because if all else fails, knowing how to play cards can always put food on the table. He started out with Thomas the Train Uno (same concept, fewer cards) and has now graduated to the real thing. And when we're not playing, which is rarely, he is counting cards, sorting cards, reading his fortune - who the hell knows - but there are Uno cards everywhere. Its kind of like the dog hair in our house, but easier on my clothes.

Some recent pictures:

House Tour

Today our neighborhood was featured in the paper for a couple of reasons: first, a new park just opened here (on the site of a former eyesore reservoir) and today we hosted a home tour. Because I am glutton for punishment, I got suckered into participating which meant I spent the past 24 hours cleaning. And the results were just so amazing that I had to post them. If you have spent more than 5 minutes in my "real" house, these shots will amaze you. I mean, could you even have guessed our countertops were green? Or that there was hardwood buried beneath all those legos? What I really should be posting is what my kitchen looked like 15 minutes after the last guest left and I pulled out the boxes of crap I had been hiding and cooked dinner. Ah, home sweet home. Link to News Journal article: http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20091011/LIFE/910110304 Link to my house photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/43448244@N03/show/ In other news, on Friday night we went to Linvilla Orchards where we went on a hayride through the "smooky forest" to the witch's house. Upon arriving Gabe yells out to the witches "Are you nice witches or mean witches?", the answer to which was a pumpkin sugar cookie so they were promptly declared nice witches. Not only did he meet his first witches, but Gabe got to roast marshmallows for the first time and picked out pumpkins for the porch, so the evening was shaping up well until we tried an all you can eat Chinese buffet on the way home. Heed this warning: if its all you can eat for under $10 and handwritten signs on the buffet warn you not to pick up food with your fingers, run away. Far, far away!

Long Overdue Update

Apologies to all its been so long since my last post. Work drama, cold & flu season, a ton of travel, and computer issues have all conspired against me!

Last weekend I joined some of my S&M buddies for a weekend down in sunny Durham. Before you jump to any conclusions, remember that I went to high school at the NC School of Science and Math -- hence "S&M". In fact, this was our swim team cheer:

Ex, Dy, Dx

Ex, Dx

Secant Tangent Cosine Sine

3.14159

Physics, Bio, Polymer Chem

Give 'em Hell, Go S&M!

(Yep, I was as cool then as I am now).

Anway, its been FIFTEEN years since the S&M glory days if you can believe it. I mean, kids go there today who were Riley's age when I graduated. How depressing it that?

Okay, I have to move to another topic or I will start drinking heavily. Again.

Actually the topic of the reunion leads me to my latest revelation about Facebook. I had managed to avoid Facebook for most of 2009 but got sucked in toward the end of maternity leave. I have about 200 "friends", which is about 188 more than I have in real life. Going back to the reunion I realized I was "friends" with many people to whom, when face to face, I had absolutely nothing to say. If you saw the Simpsons Movie, imagine the scene where Lisa meets her online boyfriend. And when you can't have a 5 minute conversation with someone you chanted about pi with 15 years ago, they really shouldn't be considered your friend. Even online. So, my Facebook friend list is a little bitter shorted after that trip.

On to the kids! Gabe is really liking Big Boy School and his teacher reports that not only is he super-smart, but apparently the "hall monitor" as well. For those of you not schooled in teacher-speak, that means he's a tattle-tell. And little Riley is growing up way too fast! This week she ate several new fruits and veggies, started to crawl, and learned the alphabet. Ok, the alphabet is a stretch (does babbling a short "a" sound count?) but she is crawling around a bit which means we have entered a whole new era for kid #2. When she starts to walk, watch out for daily blog entries because I am never leaving the house!

And last but not least, here is our lovely first portrait of the two of them together. Bring on the kleenex!