Laura

I hope that everyone who celebrates Thanksgiving had a good one. I did. We hung out at home until time to go up to our aunt and uncle's for Thanksgiving dinner - ran a little later than I intended, but still made it in time. As always, good company and good food. I love these visits!

There are rather more small children among the group than before - they were very loud and excited and happy - but in good ways. It was awesome.

The drive isn't short, but it isn't super-long or hard either, and I'm glad we can make it each time that we do.

As for Black Friday, I got half-price socks, so I'm good. (I also had to go into Costco that day, because Ian wanted my homemade clam chowder and I needed clams. Fortunately, while Costco was semi-mobbed, the grocery section was mostly empty. No BF deals there, but they had the clams I wanted, so it works well.)

Me: ...okay, we need to buy more milk also.... *types in 'skim milk'*

Website: 8 products and 1 coupon found

Me: Oo, a coupon! For what size I wonder? *click*

Website: Breast milk bags!

Me: Ummm. Right, products....

The weather is too hot for me at the moment. But I am still getting things done.

I kind of LOVE the City Pickers planters I'm using for growing our veggies. Because we were in Wisconsin for the Fourth of July weekend - we left midday July 3 and came back the evening of July 7, and the water reservoirs were empty but the plants were fine - they'd had enough water to carry them through (as planned). Awesome. Ian's planter has the most amazingly happy tomato in it, this thing would be almost as tall as he was if it was starting from ground level. (As it is, it's taller.)

The boys have swim lessons on Saturdays at Children of the Sea, and we usually go back for open swim in the evening. It used to be that I found both quite pleasant. Now I am not as fond of the swim lessons even though I am very proud of Ian!

Reason being: he started out in parent-tot, where a parent must be in the water with him. Also, he started out super-clingy to me, so I was that parent. And when the pool - and the room it's in - is heated to 90 degrees (they teach all the way down to infants).... Well, being in the water is nice than sitting on the bench watching. LOL.

Anyway, he's now in advanced parent-tot, where one of the goals is to get the parent out of the water and the kiddo still content and fine. And today was my first session out of the water. He did NOT want to get in, but a bribe of a toy got him in, and once he was in he was fine. Sniffle. I'm so proud of him, and it's awesome that he's getting so confident in the water. But...I kind of want him to regress so I don't broil. LOL.

In unrelated news, I bought two pounds of blueberries at Costco today. Those who know my kids - especially my "little fruit bat" (Ian) - will probably not be surprised to learn that I expect us to actually eat them all this weekend. You might be surprised to know that in less than 2 hours, about 3/4 of a pound (judging by volume now missing) have been eaten. Goodness.

Dinner tonight is going to be what the kids call "toothpick snacks" - little cut up bits of cold food and a toothpick to stab them with. It's a win-win-win: healthy foods (when chosen well), the kids consider it a treat, no one eats something hot when they're already hot, and I don't have to heat the kitchen up by cooking. Assuming we still have any left by then, the blueberries are part of that. (Also grapes, ham, chicken, cheese, and possibly some marshmallows just to keep it from being purely healthy. And bread cubes if anyone wants them, but history says I shouldn't cut any bread up before asking. Heh.)

They now make Vanilla Coke Zero. I miss Vanilla Coke! So, we'll see.

I loved Conflikt. It was hard at times, because the boys - especially Drew - had a hard time with it. Drew wanted to be at the concerts! Except he didn't want to be quiet or sit still. I was trying to balance letting him hear with not disrupting for others, and I hope I managed to keep him from disrupting for others. Compounded by the fact that if he hadn't been disruptive to others before, he sure was when I removed him from the room. Kid can howl.

But the con itself was wonderful. I got to see people! And say hi to and hug friends I get to see far too rarely. Some of them I saw only briefly in passing, and some I ran into repeatedly all weekend, and both were good, though of course a weekend in which we all magically get all the music *and* all the time we want with all our various friends (and they with theirs and so on) would be lovely...sadly, still short on the magic wand for that.

Loving the new hotel. NOT liking the prices - the restaurant there is to be avoided vigorously. I am pretty sure it would be cheaper to walk to the airport and eat in a sit-down restaurant at airport prices. The hotel rooms aren't cheap either. They're nice. They're just not cheap. Very happy with the space we had, the comfort level, etc. (Not thrilled with the view of the pool, but that's because it was out of order as they waited on a part and Drew kept seeing it and wanting to swim. Which reminds me: I owe him a trip to a pool here in the next couple weekends, since I told him we'd do that instead.)

The convention space is glorious, especially as it's not near hotel rooms at all and not subject to the "keep it down, darnit!" rules that apply there. The rooms seem to be really well soundproofed overall, and they were *all together on one floor*. Yay! And comfy.

Small niceties: I never tried to get water at any point without *getting water*. I so dislike when water services run dry, and if these ever did, it wasn't when I was there.

Okay, this is where my friends who have been in filk longer get reminded that I haven't, since I am clueless so often. That's okay, I have new music.

Had not heard Heather Dale perform. Or Jeff and Maya Bohnhoff. Or in fact pretty much anyone who was the "main act" - although certainly many of those performing with them I had heard previously, at other Conflikts mostly. Let me put it this way: shiny shiny SHINY concerts.

I was lucky. I had backlogged "treat money" (work bonuses), so I pretty much bought whatever struck my fancy, music-wise. This probably made several performers I hadn't previously heard quite happy; it certainly made ME quite happy as now I have lots of lovely music.

I deeply wish Scott had not been back in the room with the boys for the Bohnhoff's concert in particular, as I believe he would have LOVED it. But I can't wish we had traded places, because I also loved it. I just wish Drew had been in a concert mood! (Ian was asleep, but he could probably have slept even through that concert. Ian can sleep through just about anything if he must. Except being set down when he wants to be held. Baby who can sleep through loud noises or parental dancing nonetheless wakes as soon as gravity shifts as though one is leaning to set him down. I swear it's a superpower.)

Bid on various things in the Interfilk auction, but idly. Got outbid, as you might expect, for idle-interest bids. Would not have been sad to win any of them. Was not sad to not-win them either. WAS sad I forgot to bring anything to donate to the auction, but the idea I had this year will still be nifty next year, so.

I really miss the streaming for members that was done last year, and hope it will be possible again in the future. (One or the other of us watched so many concerts from the room last year. It made a huge difference in how doable the con was with kids in tow!)

Pre-registered for next year. Home. Mostly unpacked. Laundry partially done. Routine house stuff I'd normally do on the weekend mostly done. Grocery shopping done.

And I should now stop writing this and go get more laundry done. :P I *swear* there was something else I meant to talk about in this post, but it's eluding me now like an elusive thing.

Gratitudes and a few cute kid moments. All have previously appeared on my Twitter and Facebook.

( I like having friends, therefore I cut-tag )

We are doing well. It is so different, novel, and pleasant: instead of averaging a medical appointment a day for Ian's first two weeks (for him, me, or both) as I did with Drew, we have a whopping two - the standard first two well-baby checks. Technically only one, as his two-week appointment is tomorrow, at two weeks two days.

It's amazing how much easier things are when you already basically know the baby-care tasks (and just have to learn this baby's quirks), and both of you are basically healthy (yes, I'm recovering from birth, but it's a normal/healthy recovery). Also, life is easier when the first week is not spent on oxycodone in any dose (not that I am objecting to its use when I had Drew as I sorely needed it then, if you'll pardon the horrid pun - but so nice not to need it now).

I am tired, but not usually exhausted.

Today was highly productive. This is NOT my usual Christmas, and a lot of gifts I might otherwise have wanted to work out simply have not been worked out, because I was rather busy with gestating, delivering, and now caring for a baby. But the Christmas cards went out (...today, so the international ones will be late, but they went out...), immediate family is getting at least some gifts, and the Christmas ornaments and pajamas have been acquired.

(Every Christmas Eve, we gift new pajamas - already washed - to each member of the household. Thus, there is a Christmas Eve gift to open, and that gift is new, clean jammies for the holiday, which we then go to bed in - well, in theory, you could wear another set if you wanted and if the kids want to some years that's fine - and can greet Christmas morning in. And every Christmas, everyone gets a new ornament from someone else. Right now Scott and I are handling those but I think next year Drew will get to help pick one of ours and in a couple years Ian will get to help pick one. Or make them at school if that's how it works that year.)

There are also a few other gifts for Drew, but not for Ian, who is unlikely to notice that all he got was jammies and an ornament. I doubt he'll care about those two this year...but we will, and Drew will.

Also, thanks to Scott, bills are paid, dishes have been done, and the kitchen nook table was clean (until I had him deposit groceries on it a bit later, heh; oh yeah, also got some grocery shopping done!).

Now to find out how many of the cards "bounce" due to bad addresses. There's always a certain amount of that, and I SWEAR I should have updated addresses for one branch of the family but couldn't find the email. Argh. Oh, well. They went out...some will come back...that's the way of Christmas cards, in my life. :P

Going to the Woodburn Company Stores this afternoon/evening should've invoked you and started labor, right?

On the other hand, I win either way - I was hoping for twice (if it'd started things, you know, after the shopping). But even so - I got Royal Riviera pears (the visually blemished but tastes fine ones) from Harry & David which is what I really wanted. Five pounds of them, mixed ripeness so we'll have time to eat our way through the box. (Er, through the pears in the box. I'm pretty sure cardboard is not the kind of fiber I need.)

YUM.

In semi-related reality, I added the fruit of the month club to my wish list post, vaguely. It's not cheap, so I imagine it'll stay there, and no big deal if it does. But it is cool.

This might be related to going through the mail and finding the latest Harry & David catalog. Heh.

And Drew got to have McDonald's for dinner. While he ate all of his happy meal, he amused me at the order in which he did so - fries, apple slices, and milk were all (in about that order) more important than his cheeseburger. Cool!

Made some little crescent-roll sausage things for quick breakfasts. They are now freezing down. The one I ate tasted quite good: win. Lazy - nothing from scratch - but they will do the job. I need more cookie sheets. I only have two, which used to be plenty, except one of them is too big for the oven at the new house, and we now have a double oven. I won't use more than two at a time most of the time (why run the second oven?), but it'd be nice to have the option and anyway with four I can prep two while the other two are in...which would've sped this evening up a fair bit.

Used up some extra crescent-roll dough on hotdogs. Not quite right, but I know what I want to do next time and Drew was happy, so it worked well enough.

Drew likes the blended tea we got at Teavana. No surprise. So do I. Also no surprise.

I finally gave in and got a good tea maker for loose-leaf tea, a 16-ounce one of the variety that pours down into a cup through a filter when it's ready. Several co-workers use them and one too many friends recently raved about them (and, more importantly, told me they really DO clean as easily as they claim). So I got one. They do clean easily. Yay! Also work, which I basically knew. Yay! I don't have loose tea that often, I mostly get the bagged stuff, as tea balls are a pain and a bit of a mess besides. That, and mostly, I can't taste the difference. But some of the blends I have liked don't come in a bag, so. :P

Tired now. Pity, as I promised Drew he could stay up a half hour late if he cooperated with his bath (in part because it will get him so hyper, whether he fights or cooperates, that bedtime ritual a half hour after would be a lost cause ANYWAY). So we'll all get to bed a little later, except Scott. I usually go to bed when Drew does these days, and sometimes before he does (probably best I not do that tonight, since staying up late was my brilliant idea inna first place...).

I won't say I'm well-rested after this weekend, 'cause I am not. But I am in a good mood and well-recovered and that's pretty good. And the laundry got done. And the dishes didn't. I'm hoping if I spend time playing with Drew after his bath, I can sucker Scott into doing the dishes, as I don't enjoy loading the dishwasher as much these days. :P

Today was a day of running around, largely. Flu shot. Dental appointment (for a cleaning! I am hopefully Done With The Dentist for the year!). Errands. My feet hurt.

On the other hand, I got everything done and I rewarded myself with some tea I wanted. And got home to find that the first (non-custom) of my Shinies I ordered, had arrived. They are, indeed, Shiny, and I am happy.

Pretty sure the lemon-berry slushie I got myself at Sonic is not low-sugar. Pretty sure I don't care, as it was very tasty and very cool, and today is rather warm.

Life is good.

Our friend from college (who can say hi if she wishes, in comments) arrived Friday and spent the weekend with us. She was here to go through some things she'd left in storage with us, but also to hang out and spend time.

It was a BLAST. I'm not sure the sorting through things was a blast for her, but it went decently, and the rest of the visit at least by my lights was wonderful.

She'd not met Drew before and got to see him at his charming cutest. (Also his sleepless worst, alas, but such is life. Friday night we had the gaming group AND a houseguest and he WOULD not sleep until the gaming group had gone, and then had trouble sleeping. And so on. Last night wasn't TOO bad, but the whole weekend was a bit disrupted. Sorry for your lost sleep!)

She gave him a stuffed tiger and a mountain pass for his train set, the latter of which was opened today (for various reasons) amid much cuteness. He was very happy to assemble and reassemble it, turning it into (his proclamations) a gate and a chair as well as a train track. Okay....

He showed her the playhouse (I promised him Friday morning that if she got here before he was home from day care, I would not show her the playhouse, so that he could) and I showed the house in general. We played Dominion, which she had not played before and which I quite enjoyed (in spite of being the only one to neither win nor tie for winning a game - I'm not the best Dominion player - but I DID cause a lot of the card destruction in the infamous game of card destruction...).

We took her to the biggest of our local parks, letting Drew run and play off some energy and showing off the truly awesome park that we have. Seriously, the playground areas rock, just being thoughtfully planned and FUN, and there's a gorgeous water-feature area for summer use. Only hands were placed in it, since that was Sunday and it was chilly and grey (Drew would have gone in fully dressed with his shoes on had we let him, but we said not today and he accepted it).

We took her for dinner at our favorite Moroccan restaurant (and Scott and I both thanked her for being a good excuse). We watched as our cats slowly decided she was safe, and then Ray decided she was an appropriate person to demand attention from.

We took her to our favorite farmer's market, in Lake Oswego (the double whammy of being fairly conveniently located, and nicely sized and diverse). Alas, our favorite cheese place wasn't there, but most of the other regulars were, including the company that sells frozen containers of EXCELLENT soup, and gives out samples. (Those samples are wicked. I keep buying soup. Yum.)

Scott also suggested the zoo, but I begged off of doing that, since I lacked the energy. It probably would have been fun, but we'd have had to trade it for 1-2 of the other activities, so I'm glad they were willing to tolerate me in that.

And we "helpfully" loaned her Deadline. I put "helpfully" in quotes because it's one of those very hard to put down books.... *wicked grin*

It was a WONDERFUL weekend. I wish it could have been longer, of course, but other than that it was excellent.