Book 30

I finished book 30 for the year yesterday:

This is the third book in this world. It's not really a series, but there is some character overlap among the books. All of the books are sweet love stories in a really interesting world, and this one absolutely did not disappoint. I didn't see the end coming at all, but it was absolutely perfect. These have a space on my forever bookshelf. 
 

Cancelled Plans

Brad and I were supposed to go to a UNC game yesterday. One of his friends got some comp tickets, and we were both really excited...until yesterday. We would have had to use a park and ride, and we were looking at a six hour minimum adventure. It's been a long week, and I just didn't want to deal with big crowds and navigating all of the things. So we cancelled.

We went to the grocery, ordered pizza, and decorated the tree:

The naked tree was making me sad, and unpacked all of the ornaments is always my favorite part. This year, we bought fake popcorn and cranberries from Williamsburg and only put non-breakable ornaments on the tree. We just didn't want to tempt fate with Bella.

Today, we have a snow day, so I'm grading by tree light and snuggling the pup. Sometimes cancelled plans really are the best.

 

I Finally Did It

I have had a morning date with this home gym for almost a year now:

I've had a couple of short breaks when I was sick, but four days on, one day off, I've been lifting.

When I started, there was so much I couldn't do. It took me months just to get the reps with zero weight, but I've been slowing adding weight, and this morning I finally added five pounds to the last exercise: barbell rows. It took me forever to just be able to row the bar, and it feels huge to now be adding more weight.

It feels good to feel strong.
 

Happy Thanksgiving!

 We had a lovely Thanksgiving long weekend. I started cooking Monday, and Issa came home Tuesday. By Thursday, we were able to just settle in and enjoy the holiday. My Thanksgiving table is always my favorite:

Silverware and glassware from grandparents, dishes from a friend's antique store, pottery napkin rings and gravy boat I made, and the new addition this year:

A Lego centerpiece assembled by the kids.

My turkey finished an hour early, but I really think it was our best yet:

The whole meal was actually perfect, and the beautiful weather let us venture out for a walk before settling in to watch Wicked and graze on leftovers:

Friday morning, we started with breakfast at our new favorite little spot before heading back to the fire station to get our trees:

It was a bit chilly for Issa's liking:

But we did get beautiful trees:

And we got all of Nana's outside decorations up:

Before we set our tree up:

We made balls from the Thanksgiving leftovers for Friday dinner, which we delicious, and Saturday we went to see the second installment of Wicked before trying a new taco place that is stellar!

Sunday, we all just rested, decorated, and generally enjoyed being. Even Bella slowed down a bit:

I also finished book 29:

This book club read is a Hallmark movie in book form. It was just fun and a great way to kick off the season.

A Fun Weekend and Book 28

Evan has a little but of a bigger cheering section this weekend:

Aunt Carol and Uncle Todd flew in Thursday to see Shannon, but they all came to part of Evan's tournament this weekend:

The meet didn't quite go as we would have liked, but he was happy with how he wrestled, and he was even happier that Aunt Carol brought a whole suitcase of chips for us:

We managed to sneak in some family dinner between matches, and we had yesterday to recover. I also finished book 28 yesterday:

This was a book club book about a tennis player who comes out of retirement to try to hold on to her records. I ended up loving it far more than I thought I would. In addition to all of the tennis, the relationships were really interesting, and the style of the book was engaging. 

 

The Great Catch Up!

It has been a full month since I've been in this space. It has been an absolute blur, and I kept meaning to write separate posts for each event. Since that doesn't seem to be in the cards, I am going to do one big catch up post!

On October 24, Issa got her onyx:

The onyx is a very special class ring, and she was so excited to finally have her own. They do a big dinner and ceremony, and she had a blast with her friends!

October 29 Evan started the wrestling season:

He wrestled in his first varsity tournament Saturday and went 2-2. He won on points, got teched, teched his third opponent, and ended with a pin, but he looked really good and Coach was very happy:

The two people he lost to went on to place first and second, so you can't really be mad at that.

It was just Brad and I for Halloween this year:

The fire bowl was a lovely addition to our Nightmare Before Christmas theme. Evan was with friends at the football game, and Issa and Kai went as Simon and Theresa to the Campbell Bonfire:

November 5 was Corn! My department had too much fun in the parade:

Issa's class had a solid showing and came in second overall:

We forgot to get a family picture, but one of my colleagues grabbed this one:

And this pretty much describes work right now:

I'm swamped, but I'm loving doing more with students. 


Monica came for a weekend visit, which was lovely:

I also finished book 27:

It was the last book in Farseer trilogy, and I loved it.

I keep thinking every week will slow down, but that does not seem to be the case. I'm just trying to enjoy the moments as they come.

Book 26 and Other Fall Fun

We are in full Halloween mode around here! Book 26 was the next book club book, chosen just for the season:

It is a delightfully quirky book with a main character who is a monster in pile of goo form. No amount of explanation can do it justice, but it is so fun.

We also went back to Springhaven for the our annual pumpkin carving with goats:

Brad had to get fancy this year and truly carve rather than cut:
 

I was just beyond excited to snuggle baby goats:

My children thought I might have finally lost my mind:

But all the pumpkins came out well:

And we had so much fun petting the other animals and enjoying a little bit of fall fun!

Book 25

I finished Book 25 this weekend:

This one was another book club read, and it tells the story of Jim from Huck Finn from his perspective. It goes well beyond Twain, and it has an interesting take of slavery. It wasn't an easy read, but it was a really good read. 

This also marks my reading goal for the year! I was going for 25, and now I'm excited to see how many I read this year!

 

A Weekend of Happy

This was a weekend of lots of little happies.

The boys spent Saturday and Sunday at Lake Quest with the Raleigh dojo:

They had a ton of fun training, and they got to use their black belt swords, which is always exciting.

I spent the weekend recharging my batteries a bit. Work has been a lot a lot lately, and I was pretty burnt out. I finished books 23 and 24. Book 23 was the second of a trilogy we started in book club:

I liked book two far more than book one, and I'm anxious to see how the saga ends in book three!

Book 24 was another of Kaitlin's manuscripts;

I can't wait until this girl is published. I will be at the launch party.

Saturday night, I went to see the Downton movie with Mom and Shannon which was fun. I spent a chunk of time working in the yard, and another playing with Bella. And I finally made it back to the pottery studio:

I plan to put little flowers in the opening. I didn't make time for pottery this summer, and I realized this weekend how much being there and working with clay fills my soul. I am scheduled for time through November, so I am very, very happy.

 

Happy Birthday, Issa!

It has taken me a week to have enough breathing room to actually write the post, but we had a great time celebrating Issa's 19th birthday last weekend:

Her big present from Brad and I was her second tattoo, which she managed to actually get on her birthday:

The flowers were each drawn by one of us, and she drew Inks:

I honestly think Evan's pitcher plant on the far left may be one of my favorites. Friday night she cooked her own favorite meal and we had a quiet night.

Saturday we went to Antonia's for lunch, where she opened her new camera from Nana and Aunt Shannon:

We spent Saturday afternoon shopping for her first black cocktail dress for ring dinner this fall. We finally found the perfect dress but didn't take a single picture. We did have some good laughs about some less than perfect dresses.
 

18 was a great year for Issa, and I have a feeling 19 is going to be even better.