What I did on my Summer Vacation

So, I have been very absent from my blog this summer. I imagine y'all would like to know where I dsappeared to and why. The easiest answer, I wanted a summer break. A lot happened, a few things changed, and we did get a new family member.

At the end of Spring, we had a roommate who had moved in, got a girlfriend, and then moved out. This threw a lot of plans into disarray and confusion since we had begun planning for the future with him in mind. One thing it did do, however, is solidify the desire that Big Guy and I have towards getting out. We hate where we're living, and we need to change. We know we're not signing another lease there and no matter what, we are done. While we won't be moving with the roommate, we will be moving with our Little Guy.

Speaking of Little Guy, we ended up cutting off the wonderful curls he had. I cried. I was trying to trim his hair so he didn't look quite so emo. I told him to hold still while I trimmed, and he did not. The resulting cut made the child look like a mini-Hitler, minus the moustache. We couldn't have that, so Big Guy took him into the bathroom and we shaved his head. He was bald. He cried and I cried and it was a horrible situation altogether. I tried to tell him he looked like Aang from Avatar: The Last Airbender. He wanted none of that. "I don't want to look like Aang," he wailed. "I want to look like (Little Guy)!" It was heartbreaking.

He's also developed a dramatic streak a mile wide. I don't know where he gets it from but, holy christ, is he good at it. I've been keeping a record of some of the more amusing turns of phrase and incidents from him on his own Facebook Fan Page. Join up and follow along as the kid drives us all insane.

And, not too long ago, we had a new family member make his appearance. My sister had her baby, Baby G. This adorable infant has already surpassed Little Guy's record in weight and length. My son is freaking tiny but his cousin will apparently be built like a tank. Hopefully, this means an automatic bodyguard for the evil genius when they are older.

I've also been doing some writing for Demand Studios. It's not that I don't love you guys, but they pay more for writing than I've been earning from here. My goal is to actually earn som scratch for the fams! You can follow some of my writing at eHow. I do intend to get back into blogging now that summer is winding to a close. We didn't really do any of the activities I wanted to do this summer, which is rather depressing, but hopefully we can arrange things and do fun stuff this fall!
 
 

If a picture is worth a thousand words...

Some days I am entirely enthralled with the intelligence and creativity my child possesses... 


And then there are other days...  And on those days, I am blessed to get a picture of it for posterity's sake...

I am totally saving this for the future girlfriend.  I may even blow it up to poster size for his future wedding. 

Ten Minutes

10 Minutes. I can't even imagine having 10 minutes all to myself.
What would I do? Where would I go? What insanity could I get up to?
Realistically, I'm aware that 10 minutes isn't that big an expanse of
time. But the idea of having 10 minutes of peace is almost enough to
make me giddy.

Right now, I feel like everything is scheduled to a minute, even my
free time. During the day, my time is taken up with Little Guy and
prepping for the evening. If it's a class night, I am getting things
arranged and making sure I have everything I need. If it's not a
class night, I am either preparing for the next class or getting the
stuff done that can't get done on nights that I teach.

I enjoy teaching and I definitely enjoy being a parent, but it really
leaves you little in the way of downtime. I acheive much by
multi-tasking. The more I can get done at once, the bigger the
potential for free time. Though, Free time is a misnomer. There's
always something that needs to be done. Though, if I had 10 minutes
of free time, I would sit. Just sit and enjoy the peace and quiet.

There's very little in the way of peace and quiet, especially with our
Little Guy. Currently, he's all over me trying to read what I'm
writing as I write it. My typing time is filled with: "What word is
that mommy? What are you writing?" Once we finally get him to settle
down, it's time for Big Guy and I to go to bed as well. Then, I take
advantage of his sleep time the next day to cram in writing that I
need to get done.

I really can't imagine my life any other way. I love the busyness our
Little Guy brings to our lives because, for the most part, he is a
delightful and cheerful child. He's remarkably smart and remarkably
quick and also remarkably busy. With the weather the way it is, I've
been trying to take him outside in between rainy bouts. He needs the
outdoor time to release some of that energy.

I wish there was some way to harness and bottle that energy. We might
actually turn a profit off his seemingly limitless amount!

Finding peace in upheaval

I wouldn't even know where to begin in discussing the insanity of the past couple weeks. We had a roommate, but now we don't. We were going to move, but now we aren't. Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose! We're back to the three of us living in the house and still planning on moving. The commune idea is, unfortunately, dormant for now. I'm still trying to figure out what happened and why and kind of relieved I don't have to deal with anyone else's flakiness any more.  Flakiness is good in biscuits, not friendships!

I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about the situation, but that's mostly due to things happening so fast that I'm still not sure what happened. As far as I know, it wasn't a big blow-out, which is good. There are things that concern me, but, as Big Guy told me when this happened, there's nothing I can do and it's not really my place to say anything.

We had also found a perfect place that would have worked wonderfully, but then things shifted right in the middle of trying to get it which led to lots of acrobatics on Big Guy's and my parts trying to get things all sorted out. In the middle of doing that, the place got rented out from under us. I'm irked about the acrobatics it required (which should have been completely unnecessary) but not horribly upset. It's back to the drawing board in terms of houses but we know what we want and we know what we can do. We've also decided that if we do try the commune idea again, we're going to start it on our own and let other people join. That way it doesn't matter if it takes off or not, we're still settled.

So, I've been practicing centering myself and finding silver linings along with looking for a new place to live. And I'll add to that, trying not to be concerned for our former roommate. Big Guy and I have already discussed how to handle this and we're in complete agreement. I just hope that our plans for the worst case scenario don't come to fruition. Someday, I may be able to talk to him about all of this, but I don't think that day has arrived and, hopefully, it will be a long way in the future. I'd rather be wrong in this case than right.

I finished the Song of Ice and Fire books and loved them... Right up to the end of A Feast For Crows. A Dance With Dragons has been in the works for 5+ years and GRRM shows no signs of finishing it. Little Guy has been reading up a storm and making up stories about everything. His latest stories have involved people and things from a couple animes we watched, The Last Exile and Avatar: The Last Airbender. Combined with Fat Princess, his stories involve swordfighting, flying and firebending. Between that and begging me to watch Monty Python, I love this kid.