Cream of Potato Soup

I was away for the weekend and I'm finding it hard to get back in the swing of things. A bunch of us girlfriends from high school met for a weekend in Cleveland--we stayed in a hotel and drank fancy cocktails and went out to dinner and stayed up too late looking at old pictures and talking about everything under the sun. We've been out of school for almost 14 years, but when our gang gets together it's like we haven't missed a day. It was a perfectly lovely weekend, and it was exactly what I've been needing. We all left our children and dogs and husbands and jobs behind for a few days and were just girls again, and there's nothing quite as special as that.

We had trick or treating here on Thursday night, which I will never understand. I have no idea why Meadville does it that way, as it makes no sense to me. We were in the grocery store tonight and they didn't even have Halloween candy out anymore. Seriously. I heard it was because they give the kids off the Friday then, and Saturday is the big Halloween parade. But if that's the case, just keep the parade on Saturday and give the kids November 1st off. I mean, I have my pumpkins on the porch still, and I feel like a neighborhood outcast.

But anyway, Mike took Evan out around our neighborhood, and he had a fabulous time. He got more than enough candy from that and his school party, and he was very pleased with himself and his king costume. Grady was happy to give out candy and chase the neighbor's cat around the yard. Unfortunately, we had to close up shop halfway through the trick or treating time because I had grossly underestimated the amount of candy we would need. Oops. Well, we know for next year that every kid in the greater Meadville area comes to our neighborhood. Especially the older kids with facial hair who don't even bother to dress up.

I'm really bummed about the cider mill burning down. My dad likes to tell stories of how it was when he was a kid--just the owner and a barrel with a hose in it, and you brought your own glass jug for him to fill. When I was little, we'd save a plastic gallon milk jug to take to Fuhrman's and the ladies behind the counter would fill it from a tap on the wall. Now you have to buy their jugs and the cider is pasteurized, but it was still nice to go there in the fall for some fresh cider. I hope the owners decide to rebuild, because it truly is an Erie landmark.

Posted by jenny at 10:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Am I bummed about the Indians? Yes. I get too emotionally invested in these high stakes games--I could barely watch the last two in this series because I felt like I wanted to puke every time the Sox scored a run. But it was still an awesome season, and there's always next year. Now on to hockey--let's go Pens!

Evan wants to be a king for Halloween. I'm finding this to be a challenging costume. I got some velvety fabric for a cloak, but I'm trying to find the right kind of fur trim for it. And I haven't had much luck with a crown, unless you count a paper one from Burger King. I'm feeling the pressure because his "fall festival" (God forbid we call it Halloween) party and trick-or-treating are this Thursday. I need to get my crafty ass in gear.

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I think all the leaves changed color while I was sleeping last night. Driving through campus this morning was just beautiful--every year I'm delighted to remember how gorgeous autumn is. I think we may have to take a Sunday drive on the lake this weekend before all this loveliness fades.

Yesterday Evan had his reauthorization meeting for TSS services. The psychologist talked to Evan alone first, then he brought the rest of us in to chat. At the end of the meeting, he determined that Ev doesn't really need a TSS anymore. He's getting everything he needs at school now, and he's doing so well that he doesn't need the extra help. I was so pleased to hear this--I had gone into the meeting prepared to do battle with them to keep his hours reduced, and it was nice not to have to deal with that.

Ev will finish out with services in November, and then he'll have loads more free time after school. I think the TSS has been great in helping with social skills and things like that, but he's improved so much that he should be fine on his own now. It's just so wonderful to see this progress and know that it's getting better, that we're getting to a place where we don't have to worry so much any more.

Posted by jenny at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We got tickets to game two of the World Series, should Cleveland win two more games against Boston. Which of course they will, because they are the team of destiny. Pretty exciting, huh?

The boys are better now. My house is free of liquid poop. And there is much rejoicing.

Evan had homework tonight, and it was like pulling teeth to get him to do it. It was a simple math worksheet, but he didn't feel like completing it and he whined through the whole thing. If this is a taste of what the next 13 years are going to be like, I'm not looking forward to it.

I guess I'm getting paid back for the tantrums I used to throw for my parents over my second grade homework. I remember slamming my head down on the desk in my bedroom and just sobbing about how life was so unfair and second grade was so much harder than first grade and nobody understands. Maybe I should try throwing a tantrum like that now, about how no matter how often I clean the house it always ends up dirty again, and I don't even like cooking, and being a parent is so much harder than I thought and nobody understands. Somehow I don't think it will get the results I'm hoping for.

Ev is also afraid of monsters suddenly. He won't go upstairs by himself anymore, and he hates to be alone in his room. We have long conversations about what he'll do in case he opens his eyes at night and sees a monster standing there. He gets very emotional when he has to talk about it, so I'm hoping we never have to implement our monster escape plan.

I think the kids are asleep, so it's time for me to enjoy my daily hour of silence. Tonight that means baseball and a chat with the hubby, and maybe some microwave popcorn. Can't beat that.

Posted by jenny at 9:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

What a game for the Indians last night! Mike woke me up so I could catch the 11th inning, and I'm so glad he did. They really needed a win. Now here's hoping for two good wins in front of the hometown crowd Monday and Tuesday. We had to give up our tickets for Tuesday's game, but I'll still be pulling for them from my spot on the couch.

Things are better than in my last post. The majority of crappy stuff has passed us by, and hopefully things will continue to improve. Grady's butt is less red, and if he doesn't shoot poop everywhere or barf all over the crib tonight, I'll consider him cured. Of course, this will be the first night in five he hasn't done one of those two things, so I'm not feeling too optimistic on that front. Watch, Evan will start up next.

Evan went to his first birthday party for a classmate over the weekend, and he had a great time. The party was at a bowling alley, and Ev wanted me to just drop him off at the front door instead of coming in. I can't believe he's trying to ditch me already. But I did leave once I made sure he was settled with the party group, as I didn't want to cramp his style. When I returned at the end of the afternoon, he was squeezed into a booth at the snack bar with 7 other little kindergarten sized guys, eating cake and making disgusting jokes. It was beyond cute.

I'd write more, but I'm tired. The long nights with Grady have done a number on me--I feel all out of sorts. If I get to bed now, maybe I can get a good few hours in without interruption. Wish me luck.

Posted by jenny at 9:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm not one for cursing (unless I'm doing home repair), but this last week has been shit. Mike's been dealing with some pretty tough stuff over the past few days, and this stuff has meant that he's needed to be out of town. It's been hard, wanting to be with him to support him, but being unable to help. And at the same time, he feels like he wants to be home with us--he misses the boys and I think he feels bad leaving me to deal with everything on the home front.

There's no easy solution here, and no answer as to when things will be better. It just sucks. And I don't mean to be vague and weird about what's going on, but I want to respect everyone involved and that means I just need to keep my fat trap shut. But I think I would have felt even weirder if I didn't mention it at all. So for now we'll just say things are crappy. The icing on the cake for me was waking up at 1 am to Grady puking all over his crib. Nice. He's fine this morning, so I'm hoping it was just an isolated incident and not some virus that's going to get us all. That's really the last thing we need right now.

About the only good thing that has happened lately is that Mike got picked in the lottery to buy ALCS tickets. We got two nosebleeds for game four next Tuesday, and I'm very excited. It's been great having the Tribe in the postseason again, and it was even better seeing them eliminate the Yankees. Unfortunately, the current situation doesn't lend itself to us attending baseball games together (at least, not weeknight ones). So maybe Mike will find someone to take, and that will be good. He needs a break.

Posted by jenny at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

What is up with it being 80 degrees every day? I'm not complaining, it's beautiful, but it just feels wrong somehow. Like we're in this weird end of summer holding pattern, and time doesn't want to continue. It can keep holding until I get my front door and trim painted, that would be fine with me.

Yesterday we had our first morning of everyone sleeping through the alarm. I woke up with a start at 7:34 when Evan's bus comes at 7:40. Ugh. I threw some clothes at him and shoved some stuff in his lunch box as he ran for the door, it was crazy. Luckily, Ev kept his sense of humor about it while Mommy ran around in a panic, and he got out the door on time. I'm going to have to be more careful about that in the future.

Grady's waking up from his nap now, so I'll have to write more later. I can't bear to hear him cry.

Posted by jenny at 1:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)