I don’t think I could have shoved the boys out the door with less ceremony than I did this morning. Oh, I love them, they know that, but after nine solid days together, it was time for them to be out of my sight (and audible detection range) for an entire day. Have a good day mama loves you here’s your snack don’t forget your backpack muah SLAM! Aaaaand exhale now…

It’s so beautifully quiet here with just me and Abby. She’s coloring quietly at the table, bringing me drawings (that frankly amaze me- girls got some skills- I’ll show you soon) and singing to herself. She’s got a countdown calender to her birthday, which is precisely two weeks from precisely right now. Five years. Can you believe it?

What IS IT about kids wanting to be naked? I’m so tired of trying to make people keep their clothes on. I’m about to give up.

My weekend with Mo was awesome. I could make her all squirmy and talk about how awesome our friendship is, and how most people only get one or two friends like this in their lives, and how we both lucked out. I could tell you how she painted my nails again, and how we stayed up until after 2 a.m. talking and watching Dr Horrible while the fire popped in the background. I could. But if you follow my twitter feed, you know that all already.

Who knew you could buy a whole bag of just black jelly beans?? Not me, but it makes my world happy. Also, Bean likes them- because while he claimed not to know who opened the bag, his black dye-stained evil-zombie lips and gums betrayed his ridiculous lies.

Mo and I are absurdly boisterous and goofy every time we get in Trader Joes. I have no idea why, but we have entirely too much fun marauding the aisles of that market, and always leave with a bad case of the giggles and an overflowing cart. Bawdy jokes may or may not have been mumbled in the produce section, and laughing until crying is pretty much gonna be the rule of the day.

Taking six kids, two of whom have ASD, to a crowded Pacific Science Center, is a bad idea. Just in case you were keeping track.

I’m speaking at a conference in Independence, Missouri this coming weekend. Any midwesterners who wanna come say hi, please do. Here’s some information. I already know I’m going to get to finally meet Michelle AM and her husband Ray- couldn’t be more excited about that!

I have three days to catch up on my homework and fine-tune (and my fine-tune, I mean actually pull it out of my brain and commit it to an outline and written form) my presentation. It’s how I roll.

I’m loving my classes this quarter. Really interesting stuff as you get up into the higher classes- much less busy-work, and a lot more real thinking and writing. Sure, it’s harder, but isn’t that why I’m doing this? Well… I guess that depends on when you ask me- for today, yeah, we can roll with that. I really can’t wait to wrap this undergrad and dive into my grad program full time.

I love Seattle.

Getting my hair cut today. Going for some long layers and sideswept bangs. I’m scared- I usually hate bangs on me, but I want some texture around my face. It’s just plain… long… right now. Need some shape and fun for spring. Oh, it’ll still be long- I look like a gremlin with short hair and would never do that, but I could stand to lose a few inches- it’s brushing the small of my back. Also, gonna throw in a few bold platinum swaths just for fun. Haircolor never scares me… scissors, on the other hand, make me hyperventilate. Wish me luck!