Cooked noodle

September was intense and I feel a bit wiped. 

I worked a lot of weekends, both Saturdays and Sundays, sometimes back to back. T was gone a lot during the week.  Ezra was finding his groove with school. Iris was/is finding her groove with eating more table food. I've had a cough for the entire month. 

As a result, I haven't had much energy to write here as I've felt like my family, my job and my daily survival skills have required much of my attention.

Nosey Nancy: Sleepytime edition

I haven't done a Nosey Nancy in awhile and as I was laying in bed the other night I started wondering how other people put themselves to sleep.

Commence the questions.

1. If you have one, what is your bathroom/face/teeth routine before going to bed?
2. What kind of sheets and covers do you like on your bed?
3. TV or book before sleeping?
4. What time do you fall asleep?

Blathering vlog

So I'm heading to Charleston in a few weeks to hang out with some old friends and some new ones and in order to become better acquainted, a round of questions for vlog answering is making the circuit.

I promise you I tried to keep the swearing to a minimum.

And yet again I look high in my screen capture. Thanks, YouTube. Damn.

September goals

Well, damn, the month is already half over but here is a shortie list of what I'd like to work on for the remainder of September:

• Finish the two books on my nightstand: Dark Places and Motherland.
• Polish those dern dining room scones
• Figure out the wonk of the special needs entryway ceiling and freaking order it already 
• (this to-do list is taking on a bit of a hostile tone...I apologize)
• Lights out at night earlier--9:45pm--to, in turn, make the morning easier
• Remove the train table from the playroom and donate it
• Keep all the trains and train tracks, but put them in a bin for playing on the floor
• Buy and put together these desks and chairs for the kids to use in the playroom + stash their art supplies 
• Procure a red toaster for the kitchen and reorganize our kitchen cart to hold it (rather than the current art supplies) and the bread goods 
• Book a location/decide on a date for Iris' birthday party

In the meantime, Iris is very clearly keeping her eyes on my progress.

Sheesh.

August goals revisited: measureable success debatable

Back in early August I posted a short list of goals I was hoping to attack and judo chop with completeness. 

• Finish the book I've started on my Kindle
• Finish the library book on my nightstand
• Achieved! I read What We Talk About When We Talk About God and Heads in Beds. I started Tiny Beautiful Things but ugly-cried not very far into it and had to put it away.
• Order the tin ceiling for our entryway
• Sigh. Still working on this one. There have been technical difficulties that require a call to the store for advice before placing the order.
• Take my lunch to work at least twice a week
• Achieved! I actually just went home and ate instead since I usually ran out of time in the morning to pack my lunch. Plus I rather like being at my home in the middle of the day and seeing what the neighbors are up to.
• Polish the dining room sconces
• Stain the windowsills
• Eat all of the farmer's market produce before it goes bad
• Achieved! This one actually made me feel quite good in accomplishing. 

Other things accomplished that were not listed: successfully keep my wits about me as we transition into a new school routine for Ezra; re-doing the upstairs hall closet and the downstairs hall closet; manage to keep my heat rage to a minimum as is it still hot and humid.

On to September!

Iris' goal of expanding her reading to
include even more books about cats was
achieved.

Surrounding yourself with quality

Loveball and I were g chatting (g-chatting? G chatting? Sigh.) the other day about our celebrity friends. It's a long running conversation that involves famous people we would make our close girlfriends. The lists sometimes evolves but mostly remains pretty steady, however, Loveball has decided to shake things up a bit (from our chat):


Her:

I"m thinking of getting a new group of celebrity friends

It's been Tori, Guiliana and Love for awhile now..and frankly

I want to breathe new life into my group

I'm starting with Nicole Richie and I"m going to let you know the others soon - once I decide Me:  please do! i'll have to mull it over myself   oh!  first one that comes to mind for me:  rashida jones  she's hilarious So I have been mulling it over and this is who is on my Celebrity Girlfriends to Hang-out With list: Rashida Jones Smart and funny and is willing to appear on Watch What Happens Live Kathy Griffin Wildly inappropriate and she doesn't take herself too seriously and I like that Victoria Beckham Do any of you remember the only-a-few-episodes special she did when she and her family moved to L.A. a few years ago? At any rate, she was funny and self-deprecating and generally awesome. Jennifer Love-Hewitt (or "Love" as mentioned above) I mean, what's not to like about her? Sandra Bullock Aside from wanting to eat her baby, I think she seems normal and a-okay. Lauren Conrad She seems very sweet and kind and like she has a good head on her shoulders. Plus there's always this:  Anyway, it's a smaller group, but I feel comfortable with it.  Also, I think it's important to have a group in mind should I, suddenly, become rather famous and have stars beating down my door for friendship. I'm nothing if not prepared.

Random useless tidbits

Yesterday I woke up 45 minutes late due to extra cozy covers and, well, that can't happen again. T was out of town so the ensuing madness of trying to get everyone crack a lackin' on my own and spackle my face with makeup with less minutes on the clock was not good.

I didn't get shouty at all, but turkey sausages might have been flung.

****

Over Labor Day weekend I took Ezra to his first movie.

Two years we gave it a go with Cars 2 and, well, it didn't work out. He'd just turned three and the sounds and sights of the screen were more than a little overwhelming. Plus they showed some trailer that had a monster-y hand grabbing an arm that freaked Ezra out and so for over a year I heard about Remember When That Scary Hand Grabbed That Arm?

But he's bigger now and somewhat less susceptible to thrilling themes and music or character facial expressions, so I thought "Planes" might be a good second attempt. He loved it.

We went on a Sunday afternoon on a holiday weekend when there were only three other families in the theater. We had the entire row to ourselves and so he walked up and down and sat in all the seats (he has a max time allotment of sitting for any show or movie of 30 minutes). He loved the story. He laughed. I laughed. It was great.

Iris can sit still like it's her job and pretty much jack squat freaks her out, so she'll be included on the next movie outing now that we know her brother is a sure-thing.

****

In even fluffier news, I've decided I need some skirts for fall time, but am finding few I am happy with.

Tres tragique.

****

I think I'm going to have a cheeseburger for lunch because why the hell not.

****

Next week is going to be a bit hairy and I'm prepping myself to just rollllll with it.

When your week is anticipated to be nutty, how do you get into a good headspace about it?

****

I got an iced mocha today with two pumps of chocolatey mocha goodness instead of the usual four and...no. Do not like.

I'm sorry, iced mocha. I'm sorry.