We went to Buca de Bepo for dinner tonight and I haven’t eaten so much in one sitting in quite some time.  I paid for it later…

I love small children who wear glasses.  Overhearing or being part of funny conversations is something else I love about my job.  Here are some samples:

7th grade girl commenting about herself: My family calls me Pyro….beacuse I like to set stuff on fire.

Trying to get a group of 5th graders to guess our what Halloween costumes had been:

Liz: Where do bees live?

Girl: Chicago

During an exercise in which we asked 2nd graders to draw a picture of what they want to be when they grow up:

Girl: (raises her hand): But what if we draw something on our papers and we grow up and we’re not what we drew?

Another Girl: I want to be a time traveler when I grow up!

One of those orange glowy dots is the moon.  It looked way cooler and bigger than this in person.

Why is it that I am super motivated to craft when I know I can’t – like when I’m at work?  And when I have a whole day set aside for it I’m not in the mood and become crippled with performance anxiety?  I did manage to get a little work done, but not nearly as much as I had hoped. 

Happy 14th birthday to my amazing sister-in-law, Sara!  Randy and I were 16 when she was born.  We watched her run around our school gym without a care as a toddler, we took her to see Monsters Inc. as a 5-year-old and soothed her as she cried at the scary parts, we were delighted to have her as a flower girl at our wedding when she was six, we took her ice-skating for the first time, and we have enjoyed hosting her for slumber parties at our place.  I can’t believe she is now the age Randy and I were when we met each other.  I’m glad I have had the privilege to know her for her entire life.

 We hosted a family birthday party where I debuted the fruits of my new cupcake cake pan.  Sara requested a white cake with white icing and rainbow sprinkles – and I was hoping this would fit the bill (it did).  The cake came out perfectly and I think that with some more practice I’ll be able to get the icing job to look a little less wonky.  Note to family members with upcoming birthdays: you may see this cake reincarnated at your birthday celebration. 

Yesterday’s glory from being the top-shelf-reacher at the grocery store was short-lived.  This is what it looked like when I needed a cake mix from the back of the top shelf.  So we’re back to this.

I went to the grocery store today and experienced many firsts:

1.  First time utilizing sales and coupons to walk away with 4 entirely free items (thanks to cincysavers.com for doing all the research for me).  Free items included: Betty Crocker Instant Mashed Potatoes, Chex Mix, Sunny D Orange Smoothie Juice, and Land-O-Lakes Spreadable Butter.  I wouldn’t have bought any of it but the potatoes, but give it to me for free and I’m there!  Its addicting.

2.  First time buying an eggplant.  I love eating dishes that contain eggplant at restaurants but had never actually purchased or cooked with one.  It worked great in my recipe.

3.  First time an adult at the grocery store asked ME to get them something off the top shelf!  This one is a milestone and potentially a once-in-a-lifetime occurance.

Then:

Now:

Always:

Randy cleaned out a rarely-used pocket in his work bag and the results were downright spooky.  It took us a while to identify the bodies, but we realized that those used to be carrots.  We set them next to a fresh bag to gain greater perspective on the transformation.

This is what I had to walk through to get to the feminine hygiene products at the grocery store (items I was super-excited about buying in the first place).  Then I waited in the check-line staring at three separate magazine covers featuring  the beaming smiles and protruding bellies of three separate pregnant celebrity idiots (I’m talking about YOU, Kendra from The Girls Next Door, and random Kardashian sister.)

I think back to last year at this time when all I had under my belt was a failed IVF - a pregnancy that never was – and compare that me to the me who has gone through two more IVFs and two early miscarriages.  I feel like a different person in many ways.  I cycle between sadness and anger and suppression.  I wish I was the old me.