I have an interview today at an elementary school on the other side of town, so round about 2:00 today get those fingers crossed. It is for a halftime position, so the money will really suck, but it will get my foot in the door in the district and it will be perfecr for when I start school. I have another interview at a different school next Tuesday morning.

Unfortunately, even in my unemployed status, I have not managed to keep this house remotely clean. I have dishes and laundry to do and 'clean out the fridge' has been on my to do list for weeks now. I just don't wanna. Since I have been so busy with knitting I have been able to put house cleaning off, but it is starting to bother me now. And I am even busier than before. Oops. Luckily, the impending parental visit will be a good eventual impetus for me to get this place into shape, even though I know they couldn't really care what house my state is in as long as we're in it. They're good like that.

Henry has his first pep rally today. That should be exciting. This morning was a little bit rough since Kyle has been taking him to school all week. He didn't want to let me leave. I had finally gotten him settled and was heading out when they had a fire drill. Sheesh. So I had to take him outside for that and stand with him and then get him back inside and settled down all over again. I didn't get out of there until almost 9. I can't believe it is already afternoon.

Crazy.

I have an interview today at an elementary school on the other side of town, so round about 2:00 today get those fingers crossed. It is for a halftime position, so the money will really suck, but it will get my foot in the door in the district and it will be perfecr for when I start school. I have another interview at a different school next Tuesday morning.

Unfortunately, even in my unemployed status, I have not managed to keep this house remotely clean. I have dishes and laundry to do and 'clean out the fridge' has been on my to do list for weeks now. I just don't wanna. Since I have been so busy with knitting I have been able to put house cleaning off, but it is starting to bother me now. And I am even busier than before. Oops. Luckily, the impending parental visit will be a good eventual impetus for me to get this place into shape, even though I know they couldn't really care what house my state is in as long as we're in it. They're good like that.

Henry has his first pep rally today. That should be exciting. This morning was a little bit rough since Kyle has been taking him to school all week. He didn't want to let me leave. I had finally gotten him settled and was heading out when they had a fire drill. Sheesh. So I had to take him outside for that and stand with him and then get him back inside and settled down all over again. I didn't get out of there until almost 9. I can't believe it is already afternoon.

Crazy.

Well, after a busy 36 hours, Jess has a new baby boy! Ethan Asher came into this world at a little after 2pm yesterday weighing in at 7lbs. 4oz.

I got a call at about 12:30am on Monday night/Tuesday morning saying that Jess was ready to go to the hospital. In my sleep induced state, I agreed to let them drop Noah off instead of insisting that they stay right there and wait for me to just come and crash with Noah at their place. I feel badly that they had to drive over here before they went to the hospital, I should have gone over there. Anyway, they dropped Noah off a little after 1am and Noah settled right down and went back to sleep.

We were up at about 6:30 and I got Henry ready to go and sent him off to school with Kyle. I wet my hair really quick (I had an interview at 9am so I needed to get rid of bedhead) and got dressed for my interview. At a little before 8, I woke Noah up and got him some breakfast and got him dressed. We ran over to Liz's house, who took Noah to co-op so I could go to my interview at 9.

The interview sucked. I don't think that temping is for me. I don't have enough computer skills to qualify for any of the better jobs, so I'd be stuck punching numbers into a spreadsheet for 8 hours a day. No thanks. I am going to wait it out a little while longer for something that won't make me poke my own eyeballs out.

I got out of the interview at 11 and went to grab a huge cup of coffee and meet Liz and Noah at co-op at April's house, which is so big and beautiful that I think I might have actually turned a little green. At about 11:30, Anthony called and said they were prepping Jess for a c-section. I hung out at co-op until noon and then Noah and I headed over to the bookstore to play wtih the big train table. I wanted a bagel from Starbucks, so I chanced it and went to Barnes and Noble. The train table was void of trains. Oops. Noah was happy to sit at the table and eat lunch and play with all of the Cars books that make obnoxious noises, so we did that for a while. When that got boring, we decided to go trade cars with Kyle and pick up Henry from school. When we got there, Henry was still napping, so we went outside and poked around in the garden and looked for ladybugs until he woke up.

I loaded both of the boys into the van and took them back to our house, where they ran around like maniacs for the next hour or so. Anthony called at a little before 4 saying that Ethan had been born and everyone was happy and well and doing great in recovery. Yay! We gave Noah some dinner and Anthony picked him at about 6:30 to go home and sleep in his own bed. And I think I am going to get to go see the happy mama and babe at the hospital sometime this morning. They were supposed to get her up to walk early this morning, so I am going to call up in an hour or so and see if I can bring her some coffee and non-hospital food.

Welcome to this wide and wonderful world, Ethan!!!

Hey there!

Well, it seems like a lot of things and nothing has been happening around here at the same time.

After months and months of jumping through hoops, we ended up making $900/year too much to qualify for the house. Yup, if Julie had done what she told me she was going to do, we'd be in. But she didn't. So we're not. I wallowed and moped for a while and now I'm kind of over it. I am still looking forward to the dy when we can move the hell out of this teensy little place, but I'm trying not to fixate on it too much. Something will come up. Right? RIGHT?

Now that we don't ahve to worry about income qualifications, I am feeling the pressure to get off my booty and get a job. Tomorrow morning I have an appointment to register with a temping agency. They said it would take about 3 hours. I know ther is atyping test and whatnot but 3 hours??? I am wondering what kind of a ringer I am going to be put through. Since I haven't had to do any real typing or computer work in the past...oh...4 years or so, I am a little worried. I have some serious rust to shake off. And dust, too, since I'll have to break out the old office attire that has been sitting in the back of the closet since I got pregnant and try to find something that still fits me. Wish me luck on that one!

Yesterday Henry and I spent the afternoon baking cookies. He wanted "robot cookies". I think we missed 'robot' and landed firmly on 'very scary monster'.



He didn't seem to mind, though.

Speaking of robots, it is just about time for me to start working on Henry's Halloween costume. He has declared that he needs to be a 'chicken robot' this year. I am going back and forth between using a box wrapped in tin foil and some dryer vent to make a really sparkly but awkward robot costume, or going the ghetto but comfy route and ironing on some pictures of dials and control panels onto a grey t shirt and calling it a day. I just can't see him going through a whole day at school wearing a box. It might be tricky on the slide.

My Hyena Cart stocked this morning. It was a slow start but it is picking up a little bit. To the point where I'm not embarrassed, at least.

Last night I managed to get sucked into a fight on my big mama posting board about public vs. homeschooling. What a waste of time. I managed to hold my tongue until someone said that mothers who like sending their kids off to school so they can have time without the kids are selfish and that most great thinkers weren't public schooled. My well documented lack of ability to follow that old 'if you have nothing nice to say...' rule came into play after that. At least now she knows that those of us who were subjected to the 'factory education' public school provides are still capable of using big words.

And now to prove my vast intelligence...Fall premiere season is upon us! Finally! We have been awash in a sea of television! I think that my favorite new show so far is "Shark" with James Woods. I love me some James Woods. I'm kind of a sucker for law shows, too, so that works out nicely. I gave 'Justice' a chance because I love Victor Garber, but I'm not sure it will make it into my regular viewing schedule. Jack from Dawson's Creek as a high powered attorney is not altogether believable. 'The Wire' has not let me down in this new season, and I just heard the good news that they have decided to go ahead with Season 5 as well. I won't talk about actual plot points because I'm not sure if my mama is all caught up and I wouldn't want to be responsible for any spoilage.

We've seen some good movies lately, too. If you have the chance to see 'Little Miss Sunshine' anytime soon, go. Actually, run. It was the funniest movie I have seen in a very long time. I also went to see "Jackass 2' with Kyle and Danny on Friday. Parts were funny, parts were awful. I really dont need to see grown men pooping.

Oh, I almost forgot, I don't think I updated about this here... The website Mahar Dry Goods has decided to carry 4 of my designs in standard sizes! I loooove that website. The downside? When I expressed absolute joy at my things being on the same site as some of the other amazing things he has on there, he offered to pay me partially in trade. Yikes! Must have self control... must have self control...

We didn't get the house.

Pth.

Today was a fun day with Nana and Papa. We went to the nature center this morning and looked at all of the animals. Henry ran in the front door yelling that he wanted to see the yak. Yeah, your guess is as good as mine. I have no idea why the yak has suddenly usurped the monkey as "most favorite animal ever" (unless "chicken robot" counts as an animal) and I can't imagine a situation in which Henry will ever get to see one up close and personal. Surely not at the WNC Nature Center, which is more of a bobcat and brown bear type of and establishment. He had fun anyway. We came home and henry tried to take a nap, but was woken up by a stuffy nose that he couldn't shake. I immediately decided that he was super sick and began to resign myself to putting off my day's worth of errands and sweet, sweet alone time I'd ahve tomorrow. As soon as he was upright, he was fine. He even bounced around in the bounce house with McKai this afternoon. Yes, I told Kyle that it might be wise to cancel the bouncing playdate jus in case Henry spread some germies to McKai, but he immediately shot me that "you are such an overprotective mother who worries too much about every little thing" look, so I deferred to his obviously superior knowledge of communicable diseases. But I gave Henry some cough medicine with codeine in it befor bedtime anyway. If he is getting sick, it will help him to stay asleep and get some good rest. Hopefully a good night's rest will make him well enough to go to school tomorrow. We'll have to wait and see. Since the only evidence of sickness has been a 15 minute runny nose keeping him from napping, I guess maybe I should just lighten up.

I'm sleeeeepy.

We just got back from an awesome morning spent with Liz and Adella. We did some arts and crafts and it was super much fun.




Henry fell asleep in the car on the way home (thankfully) and this is what I found when I opened up the back van door.


I know it is a choking hazard, but I thought it was funny anyway (since he had clearly not been harmed in any way by the pretzel). It actually took me a minute to pry it out from between his little jaws.

We have had a fun week with Papa this week and Nana is coming in tonight. We are supposed to go have a picnic tonight since it is the first nice day in quite a while. The granparents are staying the weekend and then they continue their journey down to FL.

They are leaving behind the Astrovan, though! Yay! We will once again be a 2 car family! The thought of having 2 cars boggles the mind. We have become so accustomed to sharing. It will be nice to not have to drive Kyle to work some days, though. Some days I am sure I will miss dropping Henry off and picking him up from school. I might do it once in a while anyway, just so I can touch base with his teachers and whatnot. I wonder how he'll react to having Kyle drop him off instead of me. *sniff sniff* I am going to see him less and less!

In other news, I ahve a meeting with the MHO guy on Tuesday morning and it seems to be that everything is in line for us moving into a house in November. Woot! I need to bring some paperwork with me, but I think everything will be okay. Knock on wood.

Okay. I should get some work done before the beast awakens.

Pth. I've been SO bad about updating lately. I just don't feel like it. But I had to post this picture of the boys fixing Stig's truck.

Well, I just got off the phone with the new (and very nice) guy I am working with at MHO, since I vowed to call him every day until I actually got to talk to him. He seems a little lost in the whole process, but after talking with him for a while he said that we are high up on the list that he has and that he was pretty sure he could still get us into that house. I was still friendly, but I made it clear that we DID have our heart set on that house and that we expected to get into it. There was no reason to put my bitch face on, because there isn't really anything he can do at this point. I think it went well. Now, we'll see what happens. He said he would set up an appointment with us in the next 30 days and that he really couldn't do too much else until then. He seems like he is just laying on the floor under a pile of paperwork wondering how the hell he got into this position, but I am hopeful that he'll make it work. He said nothing would happen as far as actually getting the house until November, so we have a ways to go. At this point we just have to cross our fingers and hope for the best. If I have to be a big fat meanie later, I'll deal with it then.

And now some pictures of our berry picking adventure.






Yes, he is still pretty much the cutest thing ever.