excitement

*thanks to shutterfly's blogger holiday card deal, i just saved $112 when i placed my order! that's awesome!

*i took avery to a trial gymnastics class this morning. she LOVED it! i maybe should have told her that the adult in the class is the "teacher" and she needs to follow directions just like at school-there were a few times where she tried to run off and do her own thing ;), but overall it was a success! (the only problem is what to do with nola during class. she was furious that avery was off having fun and she wasn't. it was difficult to try to keep her happy-which i couldn't even come close to doing-and watch avery through the gym windows and cheer her on. maybe we'll sign up for an afternoon class when z is home...)

*one more week of work for zane and then we get him home for over a week! i am dumbfounded that christmas is next weekend. we have the holiday, my birthday, a concert for zane's birthday, lots of fires and hopefully lots of down time to enjoy as a family.

*there's the potential for a snow storm this weekend. though, being where we are, there's also the potential for cloudy skies and not one flake. it seems in the past few years, they've REALLY been lacking in any skills predicting this stuff. we'll see. i wouldn't mind some snow to make it seem a little more festive around here.

*i have to laugh at avery's "routine" during her "nap". she lasts for a few minutes being quiet, then-no joke-repeats the same phrases over and over and over and over and over until i lost my mind. "mama, get in my room now, please": repeat 180 times or 60 minutes, whichever comes first. "mama? where are you? mama? where are you?": after i've gone into her room and told her i will come back in 20 minutes and not to call my name one more time. maybe this doesn't fall under the "excitement" category, but i'm trying. i laugh instead of pulling my hair out. (ps, the current phrase is: "mama, i do want my garfield book, mama!" repeated so far about 25 times.)

*we're (um, I) in the process of getting our upstairs spare room/office into decent shape. in hopes that, ONE DAY, all our paperwork/electronics/pens/photos/etc will be in ONE place, not 3 like they are now. hopefully soon i'll be able to show before/after pictures and you can ooh and ahh.

*i got an A in my first class. so excited that i started off on a good note! we'll see how well i keep up-especially with my next few classes that are all centered around teaching strategies and curriculum frameworks...at least i have a good in-home tutor ;)

*nola seems a LOT better after a few days of antibiotics. she has crossed over from whining and crying over absolutely "nothing" (ie, nothing we could see, but apparently some good pain in her ears...) to following us around demanding we respond to her every utterance (is that a word?). she'll say "melmo!" when she sees him (on tv, on a dvd cover, in a book, in the playroom) and we respond "yes! it's elmo!" and repeat. 18 times. there seems to be a theme of badgering around here...don't know how it started or how to make it stop! i now understand how moms begin to tune things out. or at least pretend to!

*zane's dizziness seems to be doing much better...he was free from it for a while and last week it randomly came back. over the weekend it gradually got better, and by tuesday he was feeling pretty good. maybe it had something to do with all the congestion and sinus stuff around here and that's how it manifested itself in his body? anyway, he's feeling better and that's good news for all of us :) he has a dr's appointment today and we'll see what they have to say...

unfortunately, i'm not joking when i say that in the 11 minutes it took to write these last few bulleted notes, avery is still yelling "mama, i want the garfield book, mama!" i should go. wish me luck :)