she's a tired girl

We woke up this morning and had warmed apple cinnamon muffins I'd baked the day before - then J took a shower and by the time he got out I'd fallen asleep for a sound 3.5 hour nap. I think maybe I've been using up more than my normal allotment of energy lately...

Yesterday J got home and said GooberBear and Munchkin were over and Mom2 & Dad2's house again so off we went to play! Three more beautiful hours of chasing kiddos in circles...well that's not exactly true since GooberBear and I spent a solid hour of that making up stories. Out of nowhere he says "Aunt B I'm going to put you in the garbage!" Of course I was outraged and told him I'd escape and this somehow morphed into an hour-long discussion of who would put who in the garbage and how we'd get away. Needless to say I was tired of coming up with ideas loooong before Goober was, but how can you not play along with that crazy 3-year-old imagination?

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I've almost finished reading A Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens) for, believe it or not, the first time. He's my favorite author, but somehow I've skipped the holiday classic until now...after all I've seen numerous versions on video every year (The Muppet Christmas Carol reigning supreme) and I guess that was good enough for me up until the present. I shall leave you this blurb, the reading of which made me love Dickens all the more, since I've often questioned this very thing:

"Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

Mind! I don't mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of iron-mongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country's done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail."

I shall write a more thorough and interesting entry on Monday, I hope...for now I'm ready for bed!

shopping and snow

I hate snow.

...that came out stronger than I anticipated. I was planning on saying something about how I went shopping at the outlet mall with Mom2 yesterday and then end with a ditty about how the white stuff is coming down outside but instead my inner feelings exploded onto the screen, blurbing the harsh reality of the moment. I really hate snow.

I know it's pretty and white and means Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming. I know it means snowmen and twinkle lights. I know it means sledding and hot cocoa. But I just don't want it. Not ready. Yuck.

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So...Mom2 and I went to the outlet mall yesterday. She and Dad2 are getting me fun clothes for Christmas and part of the fun is shopping for them (and then waiting 38 days to open them and be surprised - yay!!) - seven hours of

* foot numbing walking
* trying on (literally) 44 bras (and now, finally and at last I have ones that FIT! I seriously did not know how uncomfortable my girls were until yesterday when they were freed from the constraints of the too-small-bra-of-doom)
* putting on and taking off around 30 shirts
* admiring hideous clothing for the shock value (Mom2 has the best faces)
* window shopping and trying not to knock things off of displays

I came away richer by

* 1 awesomely wonderful vintage-y hat
* 2 shirts that are NOT brown and black like all my other shirts
* 4 bras of joy

I got home and collapsed on the couch, falling asleep on J's shoulder for a while before crawling into bed for the night.

one of Those days

So needless to say, yesterday was an exhausted, groggy affair. Our neighbors have been pleasingly quiet for a couple months now and I'd forgotten just how loud they could get. I didn't miss it. Neighbors can be stupid, inconsiderate things. Rawr!

But the day was great in spite of being half-asleep through most of it: GooberBear and Munchkin had come to play. This was because their mom thought Munchkin had a doctor appointment at 11 a.m. She didn't. It was scheduled for Friday at 9 a.m., so on Tuesday we had the kiddos to play with - oh happy surprise!

They found out about the mix up like this: Munchkin and her mom went to the doctor's while J, GooberBear, Mom2 and I played. Shortly after leaving Munchkin's mom calls and tells us she mixed up the appointment dates. She mixed up the appointment dates and decided that instead she and Munch would head to the Christmas Tree Shoppe for fun. Where one of her contacts popped out onto the floor and she couldn't find it anywhere. Being blind without her contacts or glasses, J drove Mom2 over to pick them up and GooberBear and I had some time alone (it was officially one of Those days).

We talked about fishing, and why the berries on the bushes were gross to eat, and he told me how oatmeal is his favorite food (oatmeal with honey), and we sat and ate an apple together.

By the time J and I got home I was delirious with lack of sleep and tried to take a nap...and sadly I failed. You know when you are so tired that you can't sleep? It's pretty darn annoying. So we watched a Marx brothers film and chilled on the couch and in general had a happy and relaxed evening.