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What a gut-wrenching story but at the same time so moving.

http://www.conmon.com/slideshow/rememberme/

It's Allen's birthday today.  Cliched as it may be - I can't believe it's been a year.  I had plans to make a nice dinner at home tonight, but somewhere about 6PM dinner plans took a sharp left turn and we ended up eating out at EZ's.  We did come home and have cake and presents afterward though.  Molly was about beside herself over the whole cake & presents thing.  Allen was a little nonplussed.  Not too surprisingly he preferred eating the plate to eating the cake.  But the whack-a-bedbug game was a hit.  Hopefully some of the pictures will turn out well.  

Alternately entitled things I wish I had realized BEFORE I finished school.

You know, you'd think eventually you'd start to learn a thing of two, but apparently I'm a little slow.  I do school....really well.  But this whole job thing - job hunting, making those decisions that might help you get said job, etc.  - sigh.  I'm not even actively looking at the moment, but I've been doing some reading and trying to get my house in order and I keep finding things that I really wish I had done sooner.  Like get involved in a professional organization or two.  Or looked harder for a volunteer/internship opportunity while I was still a student.  Remembered to backup big projects on to Webb's computer so that I don't have to try and rescue them 2 years after the fact from a laptop with a screwy power supply that I relegated to  Molly-plaything status.  Subscribed to some LIS feeds/worked on my current awareness habits.

Now I know that realistically I had my hands full just finishing the program in the first place with two little kids, but it would be nice to feel like I came out of my program slightly ahead of the game rather than with the bare minimum job requirement. 

Today was fall registration day at school, so I took the kids with me to go sign them both up for the full 5 days in the fall (eep).  I'm working on the theory that I might be needing full-time(ish) childcare by next fall, and I can always drop days if I don't need it all.  But even so - this is going to be an expensive proposition. 

Then we went to the zoo to hang out for awhile.  We'd been on Saturday and it was a madhouse.  Note to self - don't go to the zoo on Saturday afternoon on a pretty day.  It was very quiet this morning - overcast and pleasantly cool.  We were trying to make it over to see the new hippo exhibit, but they weren't out.  But the new exhibit area is very cool (with an underwater viewing area) and lots of acquariums.  Then Molly had lots of fun playing over in the kids area, which is pretty great at the SA Zoo. 

About the only downside is that Allen didn't get a morning nap and is now so over-tired that he's having trouble getting a good afternoon nap. 

I finally succeeded in finding chocolate that doesn't contain soy lecithin (Dagoba Chocodrops to be precise) and Molly and I made "cookies" this morning while Allen was sleeping.  The recipe is really more of a chocolate chip cookie pie or maybe a Hello Dolly sans condensed milk & coconut.  I was somewhat skeptical when I put it in the oven but it's disappeared very quickly.  It's best eaten warm with a spoon although it does hold together reasonably well when cool.  Next time I'm going to try doing it as a chocolate oat cluster since it doesn't spread much.

We're back!  I forgot to get Webb to set the trip meter before we left, but we've now logged another 2000 miles (approx) on our car.  We made it back in one piece and the kids traveled surprisingly well.  Trying to get out of town on Christmas afternoon - or rather trying to get ready to get out of town on Christmas day - was a bit insane and the whole enterprise would have gone a bit more smoothly if I'd remembered that practically nowhere is open on Christmas night and packed a bit more food for the car. 

I've just glanced at the calendar for January and it's filling up at an alarming rate already.  No rest for the wicked.  

Last night we went downtown to celebrate the in-laws 40th anniversary.  They were spending the night at a boutique hotel down on the river.  It's been ages since we were down there, and it was fun to see all the lights.  Plus, it's actually gotten chilly (for SA) so it even feels Christmas-like. 

Today we went to the afternoon family service at the church.  It was about the most perfect family/children's service I've ever been to - right length, interesting to the kids, but not childish.  Then we made a trip to B&N for a couple more last minute gifts.  The traffic around the mall was a bit slow but the store itself wasn't as bad as I might've thought.  This evening we're stopping in at a party but not staying for dinner. 

Tomorrow the ILs are coming over in the morning for presents and a light breakfast.  Then we'll stop in at Webb's aunt and uncle's Christmas open house for some venison sausage before hitting the road.  Hopefully we'll get some good nappage after all the excitement. 

Merry Christmas to all!

It's been a busy few days.  We've had events the last three nights - an open house and then Lessons and Carols service Sunday, Posada Monday night, and an other open house tonight.  The best was probably the Posada that our friends up the street organized for their church.  We were stop number 1 on the route.  Thankfully, they sent some folks in to help us Protestant Anglos out with the songs.  It's been fun, and the kids have held up remarkably well.  Molly really enjoys going to all these places where people leave cookies (lots and lots of cookies) lying around where she can reach them.  Allen hasn't been enjoying the cookies and neither has Mommy because I'm back on the non-dairy wagon again after another hideous eczema flare up.  Oh well, I will console myself with my new smaller pants size and come home resolved to bake those vegan sugar cookies with Molly tomorrow.

We did an angel tree gift this year, which I had to run out to Target this morning to pickup (at the last minute of course).  Target is just a dangerous place for me.  I went in aiming for the toy section to pick up something lego-like for an 8 year old.  I was waylaid almost immediately by that black pit - the $1 section.  I did restrain myself and only picked up $5 worth of items I never knew I wanted.  Then went past the children's clothing section, where I picked up some pants for Molly.  Now, she did actually kind of need some new pants.  Then I picked up a pair of soft soled shoes for Allen as a Christmas present.  Then I FINALLY made it to the toy section where I discovered that Legos now have all sorts of bizarre spin-offs (Bionicle anyone?).  Not really knowing what I was getting I got a small Lego car set and a Tetris game because really everyone loves Tetris.  Then I swung past the gift wrap section to pick up some seasonal gift bags for presents for Molly's teachers.  I eventually left Target $63 poorer than when I went in.  I knew there was a reason I try to avoid that place.

I was glancing back over some entries from a few months ago and noticed where I posted in August about being almost done with my version of the Sophie Bag.  Well, I finally got around to felting it last week and have been using it as my purse since.  I would totally post a picture except that I still haven't gotten our digital camera fixed.  It turned out pretty well, but not as shapely as I'd hoped.  I think it definitely needs a magnetic clasp or similar on the top to close it.  Maybe I should also invest in one of those removable purse organizer things that I've seen in the Container Store's catalog. 

I also finished making myself a hat from a pattern in my one skein wonders book.  It's in a really wonderful bulky organic merino from Lea of Woobie's Wool at Tiny Lady Cooperative.  Colorway:  MacIntosh Apple Tree

I'm working on my second Quill Lace sock in J Knits Tennessee colorway. 

I still have lots of holiday knitting I need to do as well.  Fortunately, the two main projects I want to do are both using bulky wool so they should go pretty quickly. 

In lieu of going to church (because the kids were still sick - hacking cough and lots of snot), we got our tree set up today.  We went to Home Depot yesterday with the intention of buying a real tree.  Their tree prices weren't bad (as far as I could tell), but since this is our first time getting one we also needed to acquire a tree stand, lights, etc. and the price was adding up.  So we ended up getting a fake one - built in stand, already strung with lights, and it's not going to deposit it's entire needle load on our floor while we're out of town.  They were 15% off so it ended up being the same if not less than the real option.  It doesn't smell as good, but oh well.  I broke out the box where I've been stashing all those Christmas ornaments people have been giving us since we got married, and we have quite a nice collection.  Enough to reasonably decorate the front and side of the tree.  It's not packed and that side facing the corner doesn't have anything on it, but not bad.  The kids are enchanted.  However, even better than the big tree is the little wooden Christmas tree/music box that their grandparents picked up in Germany a few years ago.  (It's quite cute with little ornaments that you can hang on it.)  Molly dances around to the music and Allen stares at it (and her) in fascination.  If only my digital camera was working.

I officially turned in my final grad school assignment about 30 minutes ago.  I'm done.  It's strangely anticlimactic, but I'm starting to feel slightly giddy.  I should have been prepared with something more celebratory than Fat Tire.  Now to start checking off all those other things that I've been putting off to finish this darn paper like the laundry.  

I noticed the other day that Molly was having some eye drainage, and I think....hmmm, pink eye?  Then Allen starts having it and I'm thinking, yep.  So I call the ped this morning to get them an appointment to see if its bacterial.  We go in this afternoon expecting a quick visit.  Molly's been excited about going to the doctor all day, so she hops up on the table and he checks her ears, nose, throat, the usual.  And not only does she definitely have pink eye, but she's also got another bad ear infection and a throat infection.  Sigh.  She hadn't had any fever which is her usual ear infection symptom.  All the doctor can says is, "well at least you know she's got a high pain threshold".  (She gets that from me ;))  Allen also has pink eye, and Dr. Garza's worried that some of his eczema spots are infected.  I feel guilty every time we go to the ped's office with him.  We've been meaning to get him in to see a dermatologist, so Webb decides to just drop in at his dermatologist's office which is just next door on the way home.  Dr. Garza has mentioned several times that it often takes months to get in to see a dermatologist.  Well, Webb decides he's going to break out the big guns and takes Allen in with him to ask for an appointment.  The nurses at the front desk take one look at the poor little itchy baby and find him an appointment for Friday and promise to put us at the head of the list for any cancellations (it's already 4PM on Wednesday).  All I can think is that this isn't even the worst he's had it.  Well, hopefully it'll be productive and we can finally get the upper hand on it, but from what I've read I'm not terribly hopeful. 

In more positive news, I got my Black Friday sale yarn from Zen String today.  2 skeins of Nirvana bulky - Splendor and Parfait colorways.  Now to just finish this final class project so I get cracking on my holiday knitting.

In the grand tradition of college procrastination, since I have a big project looming over me, I have been reconnecting with my inner domestic goddess. 

I cleaned up Molly's room yesterday.  She came home from school, went to her room, and told Webb - "Someone cleaned up my room.  Now I can play in here."  Nevermind who's fault it was that it was an absolute pit.  We're still learning about this whole cleaning up after ourselves thing. 

Then we made gingerbread men using this vegan recipe.  I need to work on my rolling out technique a bit - they poofed up quite a bit.  I also used blackstrap molasses (since that's what we had) in the suggest amount of 1/3 c, but realized after combining the wet and dry ingredients that I had forgotten to increase the other wet ingredients to make up for the smaller amount of molasses.  I had to add an extra 1/4 c applesauce and at least a 1/2 c water.  All in all though they weren't too bad except I think next time I will reduce the amount of clove by at least half and increase the sugar by a bit.   Molly's been obsessed with gingerbread men (or "man cookies" as she calls them), but I think she was a little disappointed.  Or as Webb says she likes the form factor more than the taste.  

I've been wasting time this morning trying to decide what STR colorways to buy with my gift certificate (thanks Webb!).  So many choices.  I have three other skeins of sock yarn waiting for me to finish up with my current project.  I've got Fishy Wishy in Dishy, Cowgirl Sock Options, and a pretty mauvey one who's name I don't remember from my LYS.  Maybe I'll wait a bit to buy....  In the meantime I've been searching people's blogs for pictures of things knit up and discovering lots of fun blogs in the process. 

Webb ordered us a sampler of coffees (5 lbs total) from Blacksaks Coffee Roasters.  Right now we're working on the Organic Bolivian.  Pretty yummy although I do feel slightly guilty because we haven't visited our local roaster lately.  Well, hey, what do you know....I didn't realize they did a mail order business too.  In that case, I'll pimp for them a bit and point out that my absolute favorite coffee of theirs is the Colombia Santa Marta.

Well, Allen's napping and Molly's off playing with her grandfather, so I really should be taking advantage of the relative peace and quiet to work on the gargantuan final project I have due Dec 5. 

I was just browsing back through my entries from this time last year.  Lots of things haven't changed so much.  For example, I am again bringing cookies to Molly's Thanksgiving party next Tuesday.  Maybe I'll branch out from oatmeal raisin.  I still suffer from mommy guilt about Molly's preference for chicken dinosaurs and hotdogs over broccoli.  We actually went to Wurstfest twice this year.  Once on Saturday afternoon with Bill and Ellen, and then again on Tuesday night.  The weekday evening is infinitely better than the weekend afternoon in my opinion.  The lines weren't nearly as insane.  The only real drawback is that Allen, unlike his sister, is actually pretty particular about having a regular and EARLY bedtime.  So he was a little out of sorts.  Molly had more fun riding the merry-go-round and polka-ing with her grandfather than eating meat on sticks this year.  She was very disappointed that she was still too small to ride on the "Bear Affair" (bears instead of teacups) Tuesday night.  She'd been talking about going to "see the bears" for days and I had no idea what she was talking about.  I hadn't realized they'd made such an impression on Saturday. 

Well, I've put to bed another pretty good year.  It's been a nice birthday.  Today the weather gods have even decided to be nice to me and water my plants (which I've been neglecting).

I spoke with Mom yesterday briefly.  She's obviously still very tired, but it seems like things are going well.  Everyone who's there seems pleased with her progress. 

I can't think of too much else to write about at the moment....coffee's still kicking in. 

keeping up with the blog thing.  Apparently, I'm also pants at picking a title, or at least very predictable.  I was about to type in "OK..." and then LJ handily pointed out to me that I've used "OK" to start more than a few entries already. 

It's been a busy few weeks here. 

In mid-October we spent a week at a timeshare up at Canyon Lake.  People initially thought it was a bit odd that we were vacationing only 45 minutes from our house, but it was rather brilliant actually.  We snuck into town mid-week to drop off dirty laundry, send Molly to school, collect mail, restock Webb's clothes (who apparently packed his suitcase the first time while his brain was out to lunch), and so on.  Then when it was time to come home, we were home before lunch.  Besides that we had a great time doing Hill Country stuff.  Probably the biggest hit was the Natural Bridge wildlife park/safari place.  It's a bit pricey since they no longer have a flat rate per car, but it was worth it for the experience of having close encounters with zebras, ostriches, longhorns, and the like who enjoy sticking their heads into your car in hopes of snagging some snacks.  Apparently, the "don't feed the animals from your hand rule" is widely disregarded, and these animals being clever creatures know where to go for the goods.  Molly's favorite part about the "vacation house" was its close proximity to the "beach" (aka the pool).  Allen didn't register much opinion about the whole thing except for the fact that his mother had been very bad about sticking to her elimination diet and he and his skin did not appreciate it. 

Halloween was quite the deal at school for Molly (pumpkin patch field trip, big school fundraiser/party & Halloween parade).  Then of course there was the actually trick-or-treating itself.  I've never been much of a Halloween person myself, but this year was quite fun since Molly was clearly have so much fun with it.  She was a pumpkin (same costume from last year) for most of the events, but went trick-or-treating in her fairy dress up costume at the last minute.  Webb and I even got into the spirit of things and raided our closets and emerged as a hippie cum gypsy and "save the rainforest dude" complete with guitar and tie as headband.  Allen got to ride on my back in the mei tai wearing his elf hat I knit him.  I initially figured he was just an accessory to my hippy-chick thing until our neighbor Diane (just back from a trip to China) pointed out that he looked just like a little Tibetan baby (or as much as a blond/blue-eyed Anglo can). 

I'm still slogging along through my final class.  It's not really that bad, but I'm having a terrible case of senioritis.  Oh well, less than a month to go for better or for worse.  Still no real ideas about my post-graduation plans.  Somehow I'm not feeling terribly hopeful that my dream job of a part-time entry level position in an academic library close to Molly's school is going to fall into my lap.  I suppose you never know.