what i read: november edition

It's time for November's book post with Steph and Jana.

I didn't get much reading done this month because pretty much all of our nights and weekends were filled up with kitchen work.  

Or, watching the Fall Harvest movies on the Hallmark Channel.

Either way, here's what we have.

First, Three Little Words by Ashley Rhodes Courter.

This is a memoir written by a young woman who spent nine years in the foster care system, in fourteen different placements, was ultimately adopted as a teenager and is now an author, speaker, and adoptive parent.  I should start by saying that I work in the foster care/adoption field, on the legal, government side.  For the last six and a half years I've spent five days a week working on cases like Ashley's, and seven days a week thinking about them.

Because I work on the state side, hearing about the foster care system from the perspective of the child really hit home.  It brought tears to my eyes several times, especially when Ashley said no one ever celebrated her birthday until she was seven years old.  

Ashley writes about advocates who worked tirelessly on her case, but also about caseworkers and foster parents who mistreated her terribly and didn't do their job.  The social workers that I work with have an incredibly difficult job, one that I couldn't do.  They get paid next to nothing and have to work within a system that is at times, admittedly broken, just like the families are.  But they work their hearts out for those kids on their caseloads and I feel fortunate that I've gotten to see that.    

I could write forever about my thoughts on foster care and adoption so I'll end this here.  I highly recommend this book.  Chances are you or someone you know has some sort of connection to the foster care system and this book will be an eye-opener.

Also, November is National Adoption Month so you can go here if you're interested in learning more.

The second book I read was The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.

A colleague recommended this to me and it was pretty short, but I read it really slowly and took it all in.  I don't always love books about abstract ideas and inspiration (exhibit A - my very unpopular opinion on Big Magic), but I liked this one.  It was direct and thought-provoking.  I got it from the library but I think if I owned it, it would be one that I would pick up again and again and read a little bit here and there.

Right now I'm in the middle of two books- The Dogs of Littlefield, and High Performance Habits.

Have you read anything great this month?

how am i going to cook my orville redenbacher

In a moment of brutal honesty, this is how our kitchen looks at this very minute.

I know, you're wishing that this picture had one of those fancy buttons you could click to pin it on your Pinterest boards under "HOUSE GOALS."

But Matt just looked around the room and said, "If you really think about, the kitchen is virtually finished."

I think we have different definitions of the word "finished."

What we also have is a brand new, operating, microwave, and tonight as I was re-heating some pizza (which I would normally do in the toaster oven, but that's currently upstairs in the guest bedroom because I had to bake chicken up there the other night when we were getting electrical work done downstairs and I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT), I took a look at the fancy presets.

What struck me was that the largest section is for "fit choices."

And on that fit choice list, a setting for prawns.

I don't know that I've ever had a prawn in my entire life, let alone frequently enough to necessitate a pre-set on my microwave.  Truth be told, I'm not even entirely sure I know a prawn is.  

Do you know what I could use a pre-set for, but don't have?

Popcorn.

Even though they are classified as kids meals, I think I'll be using the settings for hot dogs and nachos far more often than prawns and quinoa.

I also wonder if I could have used the butter softening section when I melted my peanut butter last night to drizzle on my bowl of ice cream.

How about a setting for that, Samsung.

lots of words about lots of things

Here we are a week into November.  It was dark by 5:00 tonight, and I'm sitting on the couch watching a holiday baking show, drinking a cup of pumpkin spice tea and and thanking the good Lord for heating pads, because my back is killing me.

I have scoliosis, and wore a back brace from freshmen year of high school through sophomore year of college.  I hated it, because what teenage girl wants to wear a hard, thick plastic brace from her shoulder blades to her hips with three giant velcro straps in front for 22 hours every day?  But man, what my 29 year old self wouldn't give to have that back brace right now.

I don't know for sure why my back hurts but I can only imagine it might have something to do with all the work we have been doing in the kitchen.  I use the term " we" loosely.  Matt has been doing the lion's share of the work and he is doing a great job.  It's not close to finished, but last night we turned on some good music and poured some wine and cooked a real dinner in there on our plywood counters and cardboard covered floors and I almost cried with happiness.

Matt took the entire week off last week and spent every day working on the kitchen.  Which means our text message conversations looked a lot like this.

I'm happy to report that he did eventually find his crow bar and I successfully turned on the water main.

One day he had to do a little work on the gas pipe which never fails to make me nervous.  He had the gas main off, and before he went outside to turn it back on, he said "You should probably wait outside when I turn this on" and then gave me a kiss and said, "Just in case things go south, I love ya."

He's a romantic.

On Friday morning I was making coffee and when I turned around I saw him shove slices of honey wheat bread down a water pipe and then fire up a blow torch.  I asked him what that particular method of plumbing was called and he said it was called "cross your fingers and hope this works."

It did work, and apparently it's a method Tom recommends.

And by Tom I mean Tom Silva, from This Old House, obviously.

We should invite Tom over for dinner when this is all said and done.  This is the kitchen that Tom and Youtube built.

Other things that have happened since I last posted:

- Michelle got married.  She now has her very own husband named Matt, and I have the text messages we exchanged the night after their first date which we have laughed and laughed about recently because they wouldn't exactly lead you to believe this day would come.  But, it did, and I couldn't be happier for them.  She was a beautiful bride and everyone should be so lucky to have a best friend like Michelle.

- Penn State lost to Ohio State by one tiny point two weeks ago and then last week lost to Michigan State by three points.  Heartbreakers.  WE ARE Penn State  very sad.

- Halloween came and went, but in a moment of early October brilliance I hid an extra bag of Reese's in our kitchen and then promptly forgot about it.  I found it the other night when I was emptying cabinets and it was a highlight of the month. 

- I had MORE car issues which I think are finally resolved, knock on wood or my brand new valve cover.  I did write a post about it but it was too fresh to be funny.  I've since found the humor so maybe I'll post it this week but let's just say I was literally not firing on all cylinders. 

- Due to the aforementioned car trouble, I had to drive Matt's F-150 for a few days, which is roughly three times the size of my tiny Ford Focus.  It was generally fine except for the time I accidentally turned into a dead end parking lot with many anxious pizza delivery drivers who wanted to get out of the lot and were being held up by Oh Laura Darling in the F-150 making a 476 point turn.  My sincerest apologies to any residents of Folcroft, Pennsylvania who have received cold pizza.  You're more than welcome to come and heat it up in our kitchen.  The gas stove is questionable, but you're more than welcome to use the blow torch.

i wonder if they had roadside assistance in bedrock

I was up early on Saturday to watch College Gameday and cut my coupons and drink my coffee and it was everything I dreamed it would be.  Matt was hunting and when he got home we did a little work in the kitchen.  I wore my favorite Penn State shirt, which is the softest one I own, probably because it's been washed hundreds of times over the last 11 (oh my word it's practically vintage) years.

I couldn't wear the shirt all day though, because after dinner we had to get into costume.  

And here we are, as Fred and Wilma Flintsone.

We had a lot of fun at the party and while we didn't win the contest, everyone loved our costumes.  I got to meet Matt's boss and coworkers and I'm happy that he works with such nice people.  They also must be sympathetic because they were all very concerned about his broken toe.

After his fall down the stairs last weekend, he went to the doctor and it turns out his toe really was fractured.  There's not much you can do for a broken toe but I was running to CVS for some first aid supplies later that night and I asked him if he needed anything else.  

"Could you ask the pharmacist if they sell something for the foot called a bunion splint?"

A bunion splint?  In the wise words of Meatloaf, I will do anything for love, but I won't do that.

Matt works in the city and has to walk to and from the train station each day, and wears a suit and tie and dress shoes that have absolutely zero comfort level at all.  I felt terrible for him and the poor guy was limping in pain, but he turned down my suggestion to wear sneakers with his business suit for the commute and God helps those who help themselves.

He did, however, request a gallon of whole milk for some extra calcium to speed along the healing process.

I mentioned in my last post but last week was not my favorite.  I woke up this morning optimistic for a fresh new week.  Unfortunately it didn't start off that great, and when I got to the third office/meeting of the day, I locked my keys in my car.

I've never done that before and I don't even know how it happened but I did tear up a little right there in the parking lot.  All I had with my was my phone and my lunch box, so I sat on the curb next to my car and ate my salad among the litter and cigarette butts and chuckled to myself because if you don't laugh you'll cry, and I was getting dangerously close to the latter.

(I keep scissors in my lunchbox because I don't like to rip things open!)

As I waited to the locksmith, I tried to think of the positives.  I had something to eat.  I had my phone to call roadside assistance.  I have a car that works, though lately it's been lurching forward a bit and when starting from a dead stop, feels sort of like a go-kart.  It's fine once I get going, but 0-25 mph is a rough stretch.  

All things considered, it could definitely be worse.

I mean, we could have a Flintmobile.

And with Matt's toe, we would get nowhere fast.

nothin' but blue skies

Well, this week was not my favorite.  Work was very lousy for many reasons, and I was so relieved when 4:00 came around this afternoon.  I was going to run a few errands after work, but Matt's train was canceled so I had to pick him up at another station and then drive him to his regular station to pick up his car. 

Instead of going right home after that, I decided to cash in a free drink reward I've been saving at Dunkin' Donuts and go to Payless, because sometimes a girl needs a little retail therapy but happens to be on a tight budget.  I also ran into the mall for something and felt like I was walking through the junior's department of JCPenney, circa 2001.  Hello again platform sneakers, ribbed striped sweaters, and all manner of velour apparel.  I've never stopped loving you.

We ditched our cooking plans and I picked up pizza on my way home, and now I'm sitting on the couch with a new candle, a glass of wine, watching We Are Marshall.  College football was a big deal in our house growing up and I remember my dad telling us stories about the Thundering Herd.  My parents bought the movie when it came out and my dad even has a Marshall sweatshirt.  I cry every time I watch it, but I love it.

I was going to cut coupons while I watched but I decided to save that for tomorrow morning during College Gameday because I wouldn't want to get too wild on a Friday night.  Plus, tomorrow Gameday is at Penn State, my alma mater, so I will be spending three hours on the couch watching TV and drinking coffee.

And cutting coupons.

I won't be able to watch the whole game because we are going to a Halloween party.

At Matt's boss' house. 

As Fred and Wilma Flintstone. 

We tried on our wigs tonight and I laughed so hard that I lost a contact lens.

And now that I write all of that out, I guess this week isn't so terrible after all. 

Plus, we had an entire cloudless day.  It was a big deal on the news because it hasn't happened here since February.  There was legitimately not one cloud in the entire sky for the entire day.

Cloudless skies. Dunkin' Donuts.  New shoes from Payless.  A great football weekend.  Pizza for dinner.  A hilarious Halloween costume.


I've got nothing to complain about.

i hate to say i toe-ld him so

Well, it was a good weekend.  We had dinner at Matt's mom's on Friday and I'm happy for any night that doesn't require me to cook in a construction zone.  Matt went hunting with his brother on Saturday and they both got ducks.  While they were hunting I went to a writing group at our local library.  I was so nervous that I got there early and then sat in my car for 15 minutes.  When I finally worked up the courage to go inside,  I walked past the community room door and peeked in so I could get a sense of what kind of people attended the writing group and if I would be too intimidated to go in the room.

I don't know who I was expecting to be intimidated by.  J. K. Rowling?

The people who attend the Saturday morning library writing group, as it turns out, are not the intimidating sort.  I had a great time.  There were six people there and everyone went around the table and introduced themselves to me, and told me a little about their writing.  One woman, Marie, said, "I joined this group two years ago, when I was finishing up my first novel, which is called....oh shoot, I always forget the title.  Does anyone remember what it's called?"

Marie, I'm sold.  When you remember what the title is, I will buy a copy.

On Saturday afternoon we did some work on the kitchen, and did even more on Sunday.  Sunday's tasks included sanding the entire ceiling.  We put away or covered as much as we could, but anything that was out was covered in a layer of dust.  We put a fan in the window to suck out some of the dust, and when I took the fan out of the window last night, this is what the screen looked like.

At least it worked.

We primed the walls and then celebrated the anniversary of Matt's diabetes diagnosis in the most (in)appropriate way, with ice cream.

He was diagnosed 16 years ago with type 1 diabetes.  I've known him for 12 of those years and I cannot think of a single time I've heard him complain about any of it.  Last night I asked him how many times a day he thinks about diabetes and he couldn't even come up with an answer because he can't really ever NOT think about it.  So we celebrate his anniversary and the medical miracle that is insulin every year and this year called for Dairy Queen.

Speaking of diabetes, Matt's blood sugar sometimes goes low in the middle of the night and he has to eat a bowl of cereal or drink some apple juice.  He also has a less than stellar habit of just stepping out of his slippers somewhere between the kitchen and the bedroom.  You may, like me, recognize that as a tripping hazard for someone who wakes up the middle of the night and traverses downstairs to the kitchen in the dark with low blood sugar.

Exhibit A:

(New carpet for those stairs is on my endless wish list.)

Well, yesterday, on his 16th anniversary, he tripped on his middle of the night kitchen trek and sustained a toe injury.  He claims it wasn't because of the slippers but I have my doubts.

I've been getting texts throughout the day with updates.

(I appreciate that in the midst of a crisis of the hallux, he still adds a "z" to the end for a little flair.  Also, you'd think a girl who went to a writing group two days ago could come up with more verbose, varied responses.  Geez.)

Anyway, Matt is going to the doctor after work and let's hope it's just a minor injury, because we've got a hot date on Saturday and speaking of toes, Matt is wearing these.

let them eat cake. and a pork roast,

Matt's dad turned the big 6-0 last week and there was a party at their house on Saturday for the occasion.  Matt's stepmom had texted him early last week to let him know the menu was going to be meatball sandwiches and hoagies.

Two of my personal faves.

The following day, she sent another text to Matt, and to all of his siblings, that said, "I decided to do a roast/toast for your dad's party.  Please tell your spouses so you can be prepared."

Matt proceeded to tell me absolutely nothing.  Coming soon: our book on how to excel in communication.

We got to my in-laws' house early on Saturday to help set everything up.  My mother-in-law told us how she planned to arrange the food table.  "I'm going to put the meatballs here, and the hoagie trays down here."

"Where is the pork going to go?" Matt asked.

"Pork?" said my mother-in-law, "We're not having pork."

"Oh," Matt replied.  "I thought you said you decided to do pulled pork."

In the hustle and bustle of getting ready we moved on quickly from the pork confusion and set to work putting the champagne in the fridge.

Champagne for the toast.

Do you see where this is going?

We ate dinner and then my mother-in-law went inside to get the champagne.  My sister-in-law, Liz, came over to Matt and said, "So, I assume as the oldest son you're going first, what are you going to say?"

I've never seen Matt look more bewildered.  Because as it turns out, my mother-in-law meant a ROAST, as in, making jokes about my father-in-law.  Matt thought she'd meant A PORK ROAST.

The funniest part is that Matt responded to my mother-in-law's initial text about the roast, saying "Great idea! I love those!"  So she thought he was all in.  No.  He was all in for some pulled pork.  He said he wondered why she put "/toast" in the text, but knows his dad likes pulled pork and toast, and since her last text had been about food, he didn't think the topic had changed.

Luckily we both thought quickly on our feet, since Matt did indeed have to go first.  Everyone got a good laugh out of Matt's confusion, and someone came up to me afterwards and told me I had the best line of the night, so we will call it a success.

My father-in-law had such a wonderful time that he declared a party should be hosted in his honor every single year.  

Next year we can have it at our house.  Maybe our kitchen will even be finished.

And we will definitely serve a pork roast.

what i read: october edition

It's time for a book post again with Steph and Jana.  I read three this month, and first up was Amy Poehler's Yes, Please.

Do you want to get to know the woman we first came to love on Comedy Central's Upright Citizens Brigade? Do you want to spend some time with the lady who made you howl with laughter on Saturday Night Live, and in movies like Baby Mama, Blades of Glory, and They Came Together? Do you find yourself daydreaming about hanging out with the actor behind the brilliant Leslie Knope on Parks and Recreation? Did you wish you were in the audience at the last two Golden Globes ceremonies, so you could bask in the hilarity of Amy's one-liners?

If your answer to these questions is "Yes Please!" then you are in luck. In her first book, one of our most beloved funny folk delivers a smart, pointed, and ultimately inspirational read. Full of the comedic skill that makes us all love Amy, Yes Please is a rich and varied collection of stories, lists, poetry (Plastic Surgery Haiku, to be specific), photographs, mantras and advice. With chapters like "Treat Your Career Like a Bad Boyfriend," "Plain Girl Versus the Demon" and "The Robots Will Kill Us All" Yes Please will make you think as much as it will make you laugh. Honest, personal, real, and righteous, Yes Please is full of words to live by.

I've read a lot of mixed reviews on this book.  I'd been on the waiting list for the audio version for several months, so I was so excited when it became available.

(Sidenote, do you use the app Overdrive?  It's free, and you plug in your library card information, and have access to thousands of audio books and e-books.  I love it.  I spend a lot of time driving and love having access to free audio books.)

The book was good, but I didn't love it.  Like a lot of people, I think I expected it to be a lot like Tina Fey's book, and it wasn't.  I loved hearing the behind the scenes info about SNL and the other shows Amy has been involved with.  I really enjoyed when she wrote about her friendship with Tina.  Michelle and I often compare ourselves to Amy and Tina so I felt like I could relate to what she was talking about.  There were certainly funny parts, but I didn't laugh out loud.  One thing I did take away from this is that Amy is one hard worker.

Next was My Not So Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella. 

Everywhere Katie Brenner looks, someone else is living the life she longs for, particularly her boss, Demeter Farlowe. Demeter is brilliant and creative, lives with her perfect family in a posh townhouse, and wears the coolest clothes. Katie’s life, meanwhile, is a daily struggle—from her dismal rental to her oddball flatmates to the tense office politics she’s trying to negotiate. No wonder Katie takes refuge in not-quite-true Instagram posts, especially as she's desperate to make her dad proud.

Then, just as she’s finding her feet—not to mention a possible new romance—the worst happens. Demeter fires Katie. Shattered but determined to stay positive, Katie retreats to her family’s farm in Somerset to help them set up a vacation business. London has never seemed so far away—until Demeter unexpectedly turns up as a guest. Secrets are spilled and relationships rejiggered, and as the stakes for Katie’s future get higher, she must question her own assumptions about what makes for a truly meaningful life.

 I absolutely loved this book.  Five stars.  It was sweet, but there were some parts where I was laughing so hard Matt said, "What is going on in that book?!"  By the end I wished I lived in England, and that the characters were real, because I wanted to meet them in real life.

The last book I read was Church of the Small Things, by Melanie Shankle.  

Is my ordinary, everyday life actually significant? Is it okay to be fulfilled by the simple acts of raising kids, working in an office, and cooking chicken for dinner?  

Melanie Shankle, New York Times bestselling author and writer at The Big Mama Blog tackles these questions head on in her fourth book, Church of the Small Things. Easygoing and relatable, she speaks directly to the heart of women of all ages who are longing to find significance and meaning in the normal, sometimes mundane world of driving carpool to soccer practice, attending class on their college campus, cooking meals for their family, or taking care of a sick loved one.

Through humorous stories told in her signature style, full of Frito pie, best friends, the love of her Me-Ma and Pa-Pa, the unexpected grace that comes when we quit trying to measure up, and a little of the best TV has to offer, Melanie helps women embrace what it means to live a simple, yet incredibly meaningful life and how to find all the beauty and laughter that lies right beneath the surface of every moment.

I've read Melanie's blog and listened to her podcast for years, and I love all of her other books.  I was so excited to read this one and it did not disappoint.  Melanie's writing never fails to make me laugh out loud.  She has a way with words that can make you laugh and make you think and make you cry, all in one chapter.  

I just went to the library today and re-stocked, so I am all set for the next few weeks!  Did you read anything great this month?

our house is unspeakable but at least our lawn is in tip-top shape

Matt and I are going to a Halloween party in a few weeks.  The party is at his boss' house.  Costumes are required and there are prizes for the best ones.  Apparently people go all out.  His boss spent $500 on his costume last year.  That's about five hundred times our Halloween costume budget.  We have a few possibilities, but if anyone has an award winning costume idea, I'm all ears.

Last night I took a little walk down memory lane in search of some inspiration, and discovered this photo from the year my brother was a dinosaur and I was an elephant.

And then this year, where Em was Cinderella, and I was Pippi Longstocking, complete with a wire clothes hanger in my hair.  Phil was a table.  Our high school allowed seniors to wear their costumes to school, and my brother is about 6'5''.  His table top sailed above the heads of the other kids and was a hit.

------
The other day I had an appointment to get my eyes dilated.  Before I left, the doctor asked if I needed a pair of the little plastic lenses to put inside my glasses.  I told him I should be fine without them, that I had a pair of sunglasses in my car.

"Prescription?" he asked.  I told him they were just my normal sunglasses  and he said, " He said, "I think you're going to need these."  I took them even though I drove to and from work like this just fine.

I'll admit the little lenses helped.  Though I did take them off when I went through the Dunkin' Donuts drive-thru because even I have some standards when it comes to what my coffee friends think about me.

---------

80% of our house is in shambles.  The kitchen is torn apart, and the cabinets were delivered this week.  Our dining room is packed full, there are stacks of boxes in the family room, there is an open cabinet in the middle of the living room floor because the box was too big to fit inside the house the pantry, which is legitimately the size of my Ford Focus, is in the kitchen, AND there are 24 boxes of hardwood floors in the living room.

There is about 4 square feet of space in the dining room where Matt and I were able to wedge two chairs in next to the dining room table so we can continue to eat dinner like civilized adults.  Unfortunately I put my chair directly beneath the chandelier.  I stood up tonight and I don't know where I was looking but it certainly wasn't in front of me, because I marched full speed into the chandelier.

Luckily nothing was wounded but my pride, although the chandelier is a little worse for the wear.  All of the glass globes were knocked out of place and the impact burned out a light bulb.

Thursday night I got home after Matt and he called from the kitchen, "Hey, I'm in here!  I'm building something!"  I wound my way through the boxes and expected to see him building a cabinet.

Do you know what he was building, in the midst of the chaos?

This, a lawn thatcher.

Because of course.

Jesus, take the wheel.

Or the screwdriver.

if pumpkin products cure tetanus, matt is going to be just fine

Well, I blinked and it is October.

We've been working on the kitchen almost every night.  

So far we've gotten electrical work done, removed all of the old paneling and woodwork, ripped down old drywall and put up new walls and insulation, spackled the walls, spent HOURS repairing the ceiling, removed some cabinets, an old oven, a built-in desk, and installed a new AC unit.  I know this prep work is important but it's also tedious and I am excited to see the new things going in.  There are 24 boxes of flooring in my living room and the cabinets are coming on Wednesday morning, so let's hope we can get to that quickly.

Every night I ask Matt what's on the docket for the next day because I like to be prepared in life.  Always have.  Growing up, and let's be honest, even when I lived at home at the ripe old age of 23, I would ask my mom at dinner what we were having the next night for dinner.  She always answered patiently even though someone, especially a 23 year old someone, asking me that every night would drive me nuts.  But I enjoy knowing what's to come.

Anyway, usually Matt gives me the basic rundown.  But tonight he said, "Tomorrow?  Tomorrow, you are going to see your wonderful husband create his own, unique, spackle masterpiece."  So, that should be interesting.

The worst part so far has been sanding the ceiling to remove the adhesive the old owners applied QUITE LIBERALLY to the styrofoam beams they attached to the 11 foot ceilings.  I am a girl who sometimes struggles to lift a full gallon of milk onto the top shelf of the fridge, so holding a sander over my head all day made my shoulders feel like they were a raging inferno.  I could barely life my arms to shampoo my hair on Monday morning.

This weekend we had our first actual injury, when Matt was trying to break down a piece of wood paneling.  He held one end up and stepped on the middle to break it in half, but a nail went right into his calf.  

After he pulled it out he said, "Well, that was dumb.  I knew that was going to happen."

Cue all the googling about puncture wounds and just how quickly tetanus sets in (3 to 21 days).

A trip to urgent care, a tetanus shot, and an antibiotic later he is back in business.  He is supposed to ice it and when I suggested he do that he said, "I can't.  It will make my leg cold."

You can lead a horse to water.  Or a man to the freezer for a bag of frozen corn.

Last week I spent a few days at my brother and sister-in-law's to watch my baby nephew.  He is the cutest thing in all the land.

I checked in with my boss the afternoon before I left and she asked if I had anything fun planned for my days off.  I told her I was babysitting, and that I had such high hopes to get lots of reading done that I stopped at the library to pick up three books I'd reserved.

She laughed and said, "You know what mothers who stay home with newborns always say?  You won't BELIEVE how many books I've read."

I am here to report she was right and I read exactly half of one chapter.  I didn't even have to worry about normal day to day activities like laundry and food shopping and cleaning the toilets but a baby has a lot of requirements and who wants to read when you can spend hours upon hours trying to make a baby smile?

I came home on Thursday night and pulled up to see my father-in-law standing on our front steps with a beer and Matt's pick-up truck on the middle of the front lawn.

Things sure get crazy when I'm away.

Turns out they'd gone to pick up the floors, and Matt backed the truck right on up to the front door for maximum unloading ease.

I thought the idea was brilliant so I did the same thing on Friday afternoon when I made a big Trader Joe's trip.

Just kidding.

But I did buy so many pumpkin products that it probably would have been easier to unload that way.  I'll have to remember that next week when I go to replenish my stock of pumpkin waffles, pumpkin ravioli, pumpkin coffee creamer, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin cookies, and pumpkin biscuits.

I might even need to bring the pick-up.