Well, Grace, you pretty pleased me right out of the closet, so now the whole internet gets to see what I ate turkey in yesterday. 

Pictured while standing on the coffee table in front of the map-wall and looking at my toes.  

Outfit details:

Shirt: Anthro ages ago

Belt: Gifted thrift

Jeans: Ross last year

Jacket: Thrifted in college

Shoes: Iceland (the country)
 
Necklace: Gift from my dad and brothers a few years ago and and I've hardly taken it off since. Designed by a dear friend, and you can find it on sale here.

Now go eat your leftovers and click around to see the other Turkey Outfits.

Tuesdays

Tuesdays are the days where I play working mom. 

I wake up at a leisurely 7:30 or so, and lie in bed with Jacob while the JakeRamsay toddler destroys the living room.

We get up, drink tea lattes, and Jacob makes french toast. We try vainly to keep Mr. Mannerless from throwing food on the floor. Sit on the porch and talk about the bees and the squash in the garden. 

At 9:45, Jacob trips off to work because that's how offices in LA roll. It's about this time that I remember that I have to teach and I have exactly 1 hour and 45 minutes to get myself and the greasy little boy packed up and out the door. Then life looks like this:

Scramble together some lunch and (sometimes even) dinner for myself. 

Trick Jake into barricading himself in the pack'n'play.



Shower in peace. 

Wash. 
Dry. 
Coconut oil to the face. 
Coconut oil/Baking Soda/Cornstarch blend to the armpits. (You know it!)

Streak past toddler in pack'n'play

Stare at closet trying to find the magic overlap where shirt-without-holes overlaps with outfit-I-haven't-taught-in-this-semester.

Curse because I never go shopping.
Curse because imprisoned toddler is now - rightfully - throwing a fit. Extricate toddler.

Return to bedroom and land the perfect outfit where professional meets academic meets young enough meets old enough meets you-will-be-safe-when-you-sit-on-your-desk-in-front-of-your-students...meets quit dreaming and put your stupid clothes on so Jake will stop pulling off your underwear and we can all get on with our lives.

Shovel toddler into high chair - again - to force lunch down his throat before he goes to my friend's house.

Fumble through my primping ritual because I'm woefully untrained.
Eye-shadow.
Food in Jake's mouth.
Mascara.
Food in Jake's mouth.
Consider styling my hair.
Food in Jake's mouth. 
Forget about styling my hair. 

Pack the baby's bag and my bag and my lunch. Clothe and shoe the baby. Rapidly pick up the house so it won't look like a warzone when Papa gets home tonight. Sling three bags over my shoulder. Free Jake because he's climbed back into the pack'n'play. Secure him at my hip, and begin the 43 step trek up to the street.

Huff. Huff. Huff. Quads. Quads. Quads. Arrive at the street level. Hair clinging to neck. Toddler clinging to hair. Bag straps gouging into collar bones. Pray that none of the neighbors are out to watch me rock the beast of burden in heels look.

Leave 15 minutes late. Turn on Spanish talk radio and reach back to periodically pinch toddler to keep him awake.

Arrive at friend/babysitter's. Carefully place the note I've written to the Beverly Hills Parking Enforcement on the dashboard since I'm not permitted to park on the street (and tickets run a whopping 93$...hmm...how do I know this...) 

Take Jake up to my friend's apartment as he repeats "Hi Joe Joe." "Hi Joe Joe." over and over. Deposit him on my friend's floor - with Joe Joe. Get an aggressive hand-wave and a loud emphatic "BYE!" as he runs off to fresher and greener toys. (So much for healthy attachment...)

Arrive at school and luckily score a parking spot near the elevators. (This is one of my charisms.) 

Trot to my office and find students waiting at my door. Meet with students. 

Exhale.

Prep. Photocopy. Update Spreadsheets. Answer e-mails. Eat some food.

Walk to class with Wendy. Vent about students.  

Class starts at 4:30. Stupid questions. Bland discussion. Sleepy faces. Mediocre workshop groups.

Eat dinner in between classes at 7:00. Call home to here my child bid me goodnight: "Nynyma" - and then immediately ask to nurse - "Nu?"

Teach second class. Joke around with them because I like these kids more. Meet with student at the break. Meet with student after class. 

10pm begins the long eerie walk across campus in the dark. 

Come home to my lanky husband and some leftovers. Click around the internet. Check next week's grocery deals at Sprouts. 

Borrow Jacob's toothbrush because mine is still in Texas.

Sleep.

One Jakeboy and Three Uncles Texaning it Up

We returned late yesterday from our four day jaunt. Going back home is always such a whirlwind. The time zone change makes for late nights and groggy mornings. My mom always has some type of new coffee gadget - this time it was a milk-frother - which helps those groggy mornings. There are so many people to see and conversations to be had, and I always feel like I'm being cut in half when I leave.  

It was a great age to take Jake because he speaks "ball" and so do my brothers. So here at least is the uncle time of our trip.


Basketball is certainly the fave, but he's pretty indiscriminate. 

On the inside looking out at a pingpong game.

 

A little trip to my Alma Mater's football game found us under the Friday Night Lights. Jake stood at the sidelines and leaned so far forward with his mouth hanging open, he almost fell over. He got some action on the field after the game.
 

So let this be the jock portion of the trip updates, and I'll soon gleefully post the girlier one. Signing off with three pics of three different uncles and the same toddler three times.

 

 

I know. I know. Shamelessly photo-heavy. Perhaps I'll have more words for you when the semester is over in four weeks - but I'll probably have an equally lame excuse for lack of energy by then, so don't count on it.  

Off to the TX

 West LA was a chilly gray this morning which added some lovely spice to my chai. I sipped on it sporadically while running after a toddler and making breakfast and packing for our trip to Texas this evening.

Fall is a very reflective season as the cold begins to chill your bones, and since California only gives me winks of sub 75 I have to embrace those moments and wax poetical. So here I sit. Baby napping. House Cleaned. Packed for our Trip this Afternoon. Say what?!? That's right, girlies and Jake's uncles, this mama's got her shiznit in a row this morning. I've been a little inspired because I've got Texas on my horizon.

We're headed to see my folks in Fburg in a few hours. An old friend is getting married, and the fam's having a mini reunion that will have to substitute for the holidays. I'm so excited. I get to meet this man and this lady.

I get to go for a jog on my old road with my dad and maybe some of these fools.



All except for pink shirt who's still slummin it Italian style. But I'm trying not to think about that. Instead, I'm thinking about this.



The rustic beauty and big skies of the homeland.

Classroom and Baby's Room

 From The Classroom

I have been in a grading hole for the past two weeks. Which means I've been grading student work, sending frantic text messages to Jacob begging him to come home early, and Googling things like "unsupervised activities for toddlers." Productivity be mine.

I realize I only go to work once a week, and thus I should lemonade my lemons or something, but this semester is DOING. ME. IN.

I complain about teaching incessantly, but it has it's moments. And since I've finished my mountain of grading, I'm inclined to share some with you because they've afforded me some gems this semester. Though nothing quite as good as last semester.

One of my students recently asked me if I'd been to "teacher school."

One of them wrote about "conventions" but consistently misspelled it as "convections."

Still another went to a "recession" for her friend's quinceanera.

Then there was this classic: "My coach came over because he could tell that my well-being was bothered...but I kept optimistic thoughts filtering throughout my mind."

Perhaps one needs to have been steeped in grading for days upon days for the above to amusing, but I thought I'd share them just the same.

From the Baby's Room

In babyland we've been welcoming in the new season with a doozy of a cold and feeling mostly like this.

 
And mom is getting to RUIN JAKE'S LIFE!!!!!! every fifteen minutes when she tries to tackle snot river. He is living with a constant film of crusted boogers on his face because I can't stay on top of all the runniness, and once it's dried well...game over....because as far as he's concerned getting his mug cleaned is nothing short of being waterboarded...and I'm a softie.

Other than that I've been letting him have free reign of destruction so I have time for schoolwork.



And we still throw tantrums whenever mom attempts a photo shoot.



I bet you thought when I gave you a real update you'd get something, I don't know...interesting? unusual? Pumpkin patch? Halloween Costume? Sorry. 

But in other and VERY good news, my friend Jessie has finally crossed the bridge from stalker to blogger, and I couldn't be happier about it. So you should definitely click on over.

Don't forget to keep optimistic thoughts filtering throughout your minds! And Happy Hallow's to all of you!

Just For You

 Such is the man I married.

[And, yes...my Gmail is in Italian...I'm pretentious like that.]

7 Quick Takes

I'm gleefully ignoring the queue of student papers that need feedback in favor of generating some of my own words. So off to the quicks with Jen we go.

- 1 -

What oh what shall I acquaint you with? The Gparents Ramsay were in town last weekend and it was marvelous. It was lovely and relaxing and lovely and relaxing. 

My folks do a lot of traveling to visit their various and distant beloveds, so they made it very clear that they had no expectations of elaborate schedules and merely wanted to be with their grandson. So that is what we did. We ate and drank and watched toddler antics all weekend. Seeing my son through their eyes made me realize how quickly he's growing and how little time I spend just...watching him.

- 2 -

Now that they are gone I have returned to the land of list-making and doing everything I can to get Jake interested in some game/toy/project long enough for me to feel productive. Productivity is kind of like a plague.

- 3 -

Jacob hosted a poker night with his Hollywood boys last night. They drank port and smoked cigars and argued about big and little blinds and talked about "their" (i.e. their bosses') movies. "We've got the rights to that book." "Congrats on Looper, dude." "We just signed Jake Gylenhaal." - How glamorous it all sounds, right?

I'd trade it all for a real yard and some chickens.

- 4 -

On both of those notes, now that Season 2 of The Walking Dead is on Netflix, we've been watching ourselves some wonderful post-apocalyptic (my fav and a half!) TV recently. Revolution gets a big fat lame-o in my book, but I'm probably gonna give it a few more episodes. 

Jacob and I have determined that we would kinda rock it sans electricity. We'd make a stand here in So Cal for a little while before we felt brave enough to tackle the desert and hike to Texas. However, Jacob says he couldn't choose that lifestyle if it were a choice - he wouldn't find value in merely forgoing electricity in order to embrace a more back to the earth existence. I see his point even with all my off-the-grid proclivities. But he's the one who made me look away from the ultra-sound screen so we could be "surprised" just like in the olden days, so I think that makes him rather inconsistent, and he should probably make up for it by getting me some chickens.

- 5 -

I'm thinking about doing a sugar detox now that the lovely Mrs. Patton is rocking the 21 day challenge. Don't tell Jacob it was Grace's idea because I've almost sold him on it and I think he'll balk if I'm doing it to "be like Grace." He thinks my long time dependence on the old CP is unhealthy. But you know what I say to that? There are plenty of others just like me.

- 6 -

My dad and I ran the Catholic Exchange Virtual 5K last weekend - my first and last run of the month of September. We clocked in at a tepid 26:56. Perhaps it would've been more impressive if I weren't half dead and dry heaving for a solid five minutes afterwards. Dad was positively chipper throughout the whole ordeal.

It didn't quite have the fanfare of other 5Ks I've run: sorely lacking in the sponsored snacks department. But I was accosted by a naked toddler upon my return and that was most definitely a first.

- 7 -

Last but not least I suppose I shall tell you about...

...hmmm...

Oh yes!! Homemade soda!!! My kefir water is the awesomest of the awesome, and I feel like a crunchy diva. The flavor you are about to witness is Probiotic Peach Vanilla. See it to believe it.

(Be warned: If you follow the above link, know that you'll most certainly run into a video of Jake's newest trick: putting two words together while completely naked.) 

- 7.5 -

And just to clarify.

My toddler does - on occasion - wear clothes.