Reunion!

La and I (and a whole bunch of our buddies) spent this past weekend in glorious Oxford, Ohio — Home of my alma mater, Miami University. Dr P flew into Chicago on Friday to join us for the trip. The three of us woke up bright and early Friday morning, hopped in the car with Aunt M and Ted, and drove five hours to Oxford to meet up with our old college buddies.

We grabbed some lunch at our favorite sandwich spot (Bagel & Deli, SO DELICIOUS) and then we walked around campus together. It felt so much smaller than it seemed when I went to school there.

All the girls pictured below went to Miami, sharing dorm rooms our freshman and sophomore years and living in the same house (with just two bathrooms!) our junior and senior years. La even lived with us in that house for a couple months.

Those were good (and chaotic, hectic) times.


Front Row L to R: Aunt M, Poonam, Renee, Meagan, Kristin, Amy, Ellyn, me
Back Row L to R: La, Teddy, Phil, Mark, Dan, Nick, Dr P

Here's the dorm that a bunch of us lived in our sophomore year. Isn't it pretty? It's not quite as stunning on the inside, I assure you.



And this house is where the real fun was had.



Ellyn, the one on the far left (not to be confused with La who is on the waaaaay far left, hiding from the big scary Redhawk ... She took one look at that big red head and bolted. The same thing happens when she sees Santa at the mall) orchestrated this entire weekend, planning every little detail right down to stalking the current residents of "Kokomo," asking them if we can store a case of Natural Light in their fridge for when we show up later to shotgun some beers in their front yard. Oh, and renting the school mascot to surprise us when we got there.

Is she amazing or what? (She's available for hire, by the way ...)

It was an incredible weekend, and I'm so glad we decided to do this, because I don't know when, if ever, we'll be able to do it again.

Thanks everyone for making it a fantastic weekend!

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

Lately life has been a little bit chaotic. The stresses of schoolwork, my job, trying to sell my condo, and a bunch of other things (Like moving! to Alabama! ... more on that soon) are starting to pile up and make me a little ... testy.

When I start to feel overwhelmed, I take a deep breath and think about the things that make me calm. Like the beautiful Christmas tree that we put up this past weekend. (Thanks for the help Aunt M and Kate!)



The topmost strand of lights has already burned out. Normally I would pick all the ornaments off the top half of my tree, remove the garland, and carefully extract the bum strand — and replace it with a new set.

This year? SCREW IT.

These have been helping with the work chaos ...



... They're from Dr P, just because he's sweet and knows I'm a complete stress case. They smell divine.

And, of course, there's my dear sweet baby girl ...



... who was ever so delightful from the minute she woke up this morning — wrapping her arms around me and whispering, "I love you really much mama."... Reminding me of how lucky I am to have her.

A note from the goober

La says have a great weekend everybody!

Turning into my mother, one closet at a time.

Last weekend I had the sudden urge to organize.

My urges to clean are on a cycle similar to the Hale-Bopp comet. So when they do occur, I must act PROMPTLY.

This particular notion to clean overtook me while I was out running errands with La. And just so that I would have a witness and not be able to talk myself out of actually doing the deed by the time I got home, I called Dr P and announced, "I will go home and I will organize La's closet! Mark my words."

I got home. I pulled my hair into a bun. I put on my sweats. And then I marched my little hiney into La's room and yanked every single thing out of that godforsaken closet.



I got a little sweaty.

Did I mention that the closet in her room is the only closet in our entire house? Well it's true, save for the itty-bitty linen closet in the bathroom. And linen closets don't count, if you ask me.

Here's what it looked like when everything was removed (except for that weird window thingy. Where did it come from?) and the centuries-old dust bunnies were swept.



I gazed at this sight for what, 10 minutes? 20 minutes? I couldn't help it. A heavenly host of angels were singing sweet choruses in my head. It was WONDERFUL.

And then I turned around.



Suddenly I wasn't feeling so happy.

I called Dr P and poured out my woes. He told me that I couldn't do it alone. Heeding his advice, instead of attacking the pile full-on, I remedied the problem by taking La for a little walk. Two whole blocks. To World Market. To buy a bottle of wine. And then we came back home.

I cracked that sucker open, poured a tall glass, and dove right into the pile.

And look what I did!



The closet has now been clean for five whole days. FIVE DAYS!

Sometimes I find myself wandering into La's room, opening the closet door, and staring peacefully into it with a smile on my face. Kind of like when my mom got her new ruby-red Kenmore washer and dryer set, and would open the laundry closet periodically throughout the day just to stare at her beloved babies. Back then, I was thiiiiis close to having her committed.

Mom, I don't think you're that weird anymore.

I just added baby oil to my grocery list.

Tonight, over dinner:

La: Ooooh Mom! I have to show you something I made at school today! (Runs to retrieve backpack)

Me: Great!

La: (pulling a piece of paper from her backpack) Look! It's FRANKENSTEIN.

Me: Frankenstein is a girl?

La: I'm just kidding. It's not Frankenstein.

Me: Then who is it?

La: It's YOU when you wake up in the morning!!!

Me: ............... Really.

La: Yeah! And I even drew the mascara underneath your eyes! See?



At least she had the decency to put a bow in my hair.

An Alabama Halloween

Looks like I'm a week behind on my blog posting.

Imagine that!

The Friday before Halloween, La dressed as Pocahontas for school. Aunt M and Teddy bought the adorable ensemble for her at the Disney Store one weekend when I was in Alabama. She looked smashing in it.

That evening we headed to the airport to catch a flight to Birmingham. La kept her costume on. It was a hit with the TSA workers.



It looks like she's wearing eyeliner in that photo. Weird.

We got to spend three glorious days in the Alabama sunshine with Dr P and his family. We did a lot of relaxing at Dr P's house. We watched some movies, cooked a little, La climbed a tree in her skeleton pajamas ...



... And the kiddos even got to swim. OUTDOORS. It was really that warm there.



You guys. Alabama is looking better and better each time I go. When it's snowing up here, people in the south are still barreling down outdoor water slides. What the heck!?

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Sunday was the big day, and La got all gussied up in her Rapunzel ensemble.



We met some wonderful people (friends of Dr. P's brother and sister-in-law) and went trick-or-treating with them and their adorable kids.

Check out Batman below (Dr P's nephew). Homeboy has the exact same expression on his sweet face in every single photo I took that night.



And it wouldn't be Halloween in Alabama if we didn't all pile in the back of a pickup truck. Check out Batman again. That face. Makes me melt.



And I don't even know what to say about this guy:

He's two years old and about one foot tall. His favorite question to ask that night was, "Is I shcarry?" 

It was all I could do not to squeeze him every four seconds.

Rapunzel was on a mission the entire night. She was totally anti-social. The look in her eye said, "Leave me the hell alone and let me collect my goods. Mmmkay?"



So much candy! So little time! What's a long-haired maiden to do?

Did I mention the golf cart? We had one of those too.



Don't worry dad! The guy driving was just as big a safety nerd as you. Those kids could have walked faster than that golf cart drove. The point was they didn't have to. (After all, La was wearing heels.)

The entire weekend was an unbelievably fun time. I'm so, so, so glad we went.

Thursday, 7:05 pm: Our Living Room

Poor child.

Poor, sweet, miserable child.



She's been sick since 5:15 pm yesterday, when I picked her up at her after-school program. She had just returned from the drinking fountain down the hallway, and had a funny look on her face.

I asked her why she looked so guilty, and she crept up to me slowly and whispered in my ear, "I just puked in the hallway." She was so embarrassed.

The hallway incident was the first of many that would continue into the wee hours of the morning. She moaned and heaved and cried out mid-hurl, "this is the WORST day of my life!" She's only been sick like this one or two times before, and every time it happens, it breaks my heart. I would do anything to take her place.

This is what she looked like most of the day today.



When she's sick like this, she turns into the cuddliest, snuggliest, sweetest human being on earth. She scooches up next to me and strokes my hair and tells me that I'm the best mom ever. She snoozes on the couch with those rosy cheeks and that peaceful, cherubic look on her face. When she's sick like this, it makes me want to cuddle under the blanket with her, nuzzle my nose against hers, and cover her with kisses. The last thing on my mind is keeping myself from being exposed to whatever bug she has.

I'm doomed.

Oh, and I had a big bowl of spaghetti and meatballs for dinner tonight.

Was that a bad idea?