Emotional Weekend

We spent the weekend up in Minnesota for my uncle's funeral.  We left early Friday morning.  The drive wasn't too bad.  Mr. Baby sleeps quite a bit in the car, but then is pretty grumpy when he wakes up and is still trapped in his car seat.  The trip took longer with him, so we got to the hotel just as my parents, sister, and nieces were leaving for the church.  We got checked in, and had a quick turnaround getting ourselves ready, and then headed to the church.  We had a little time with just family before the visitation and funeral.  I've probably mentioned before that I'm a crier.  Any extreme emotion (happiness, sadness, anger) makes me cry.  It's pretty inconvenient.  Well, I get it from my dad, and the rest of the family seems to have the same problem.  Friday evening was kind of a blur of hugging, crying, laughing, crying.  John and I left for a little bit to drive around and see if Mr. Baby would take a nap before the funeral.  He fell asleep about 4 minutes before we needed to be back in the church.  Somehow, he slept through most of the service, which was a blessing.

The burial was Saturday morning, just the family.  Many more tears.  It was pretty cold and rainy, so I put Mr. Baby in the carrier/wrap thing to keep him warm.  He wasn't really sure what to make of all the weepy grownups, and kept grinning at me.  He's a pretty good medicine for heartache.  Then we spent most of Saturday at my aunt's house catching up with family.

In the afternoon, I took my nieces out trick-or-treating in a small town nearby.  They didn't have costumes, but the small town folks still gave them candy.

It was really wonderful to see most of my extended family, and get to introduce them to my boy, but I wish it had been for a happier reason.  I'm sad Mr. Baby won't get to meet Uncle Wes.  I think they would have gotten along just fine.

We drove home yesterday, and it seemed to take way longer than the drive up on Friday.  Probably because we were so tired from the weekend.  We were grateful for the warm November 1st, because we could stop and let the boy get some fresh air every so often.

Anyway, October has been an eventful month.  Birthdays, a wedding, and a funeral.  I think/hope that November will be quieter.

Uncle Wes

Sometimes things happen that I don't really want to write about, but feel like I need to.  This is one of those times.  My uncle died a few days ago.  He had been diagnosed with cancer in September, and it just progressed faster than anyone expected.  I think I'm still in shock a little bit.  I'm sure I will fall apart when I see my dad.

I've been blessed so far in life to not lose many people who I was close to.  My grandpas both died when I was in high school.  That was sad, but they had both been very old and declining in health for so long.  This is different.  This is my dad's little brother.  When I last saw him, there was no thought in my mind that it would be the last time I'd see him.

As one does, I've been thinking about my Uncle a lot over the past few days.  So, here are a few of my favorite memories of this wonderful man.

Uncle Wes and me when I was probably 8, and shortly after that, I decided pictures should all be cropped into awkward shapes, removing the background .  

When I was a kid, Uncle Wes and I wrote letters back and forth.  I have no idea how this started, only that it meant the world to me.  I remember checking the mail and being SO EXCITED whenever I got a new letter, and then carefully crafting my reply.  A few years ago, he stopped by our house when he was driving through and had a binder of all my letters.  I looked through them and didn't understand half of what I was talking about.  We were obviously joking back and forth quite a bit.  I wished I still had his letters so we could line them up and follow the conversation.

I also remember a few times where we got to talk on the phone.  This was back when long distance calls were expensive, so a rare treat for a very chatty little girl.  He had gotten a new car, which I was pronouncing phonetically, Ply-mouth. This cracked him up, and I think of it whenever I see a Plymouth, which is rare since they haven't made any for 15 years!  

Around that same time, I renamed him Uncle Prickle Beard, because well, he had a prickly beard, and it tickled, and I thought it was hilarious.  Then I got older and was completely embarrassed that I had ever called him that, but he would still sign notes or emails as "UPB."

Wes was one of "the little boys," and we loved to commiserate about the injustices suffered by the younger children of the family.  Whenever people talk about the little ones being spoiled, I have stories to tell.  

He had a uniquely witty way of talking and writing.  My dad would pick up this tendency when they were together and it always made me smile.  For example, at the 2005 family reunion, he organized a Scrabble tournament.  After a close championship game, Wes accidentally won.  But he had a prize for the winner, which he didn't want to accept for himself.  He declared me the winner, "via a minimal deficit, but having attained a superior average score per move."  He was tricky like that.  

Most importantly, he loved Jesus and wanted everyone else to, too.  I'm happy that he is in heaven.  But I'm very sad that he isn't with us anymore.  

Book Review - Modern Romance

Since I didn't watch Parks and Rec, why am I reading books by the cast?  No one knows.  But Modern Romance is really interesting and has nothing to do with the show.  Aziz Ansari teams up with sociologists to look at how people date now, with all the technological and cultural changes.  Since I've been married for 8 years, online dating wasn't a big thing for me, but it has been for some of my friends and I think it is fascinating.  

He also talks about the abundance of choices that are available to us now (in all aspects of life, not just dating) and how that can be paralyzing as we aren't happy unless we find the BEST option, which may not even exist.  I absolutely relate to this.  Especially when trying to figure out what things to buy for a baby.  How many hours did we spend researching car seats or cribs?  When they all meet the same safety regulations and are pretty much the same.  

Back to dating, Ansari met with people in a few different cities and a few different countries to see how dating works and how technology is used.  One stop was Wichita, Kansas (my hometown is apparently one of the worst places to date) and now I'm curious if he talked to anyone I knew.  It's not likely, but not impossible.  And I can now blame location on the fact that I didn't have any boyfriends until I moved away.  It also may have had something to do with the fact that I was in high school and taller than almost every boy.  Or maybe that I'm kind of weird.  Impossible to know for sure.  Blame Wichita!

Reading this got me thinking about how much technology has changed just since I first had crushes on boys, and how my generation has navigated all the new ways to communicate.From email to chatrooms to AIM to MySpace and beyond.  I might just have to write another post spilling all my thoughts about that.  I'll be like "back in my day, we didn't have fancy emojis!  We had to use punctuation to make sideways faces and no one knew what any of them really meant! And we had to say I <3U while walking barefoot through the snow uphill both ways holding nothing but a baked potato to keep our hands warm!"

What are we even talking about anymore?  Right, this book was cool.  I think Ansari should do more books like this.    

Lady Who Lunches

One problem I have with LeTote  is that I want to wear cute things on days I really don't need to wear cute things.  So I end up wearing an outfit to meet John for lunch and he asks me why I'm all dressed up. Granted, this is just jeans and a top, but it feels fancy.  I love this lace tee from LeTote, and was excited to wear it.  I don't have much in this darker green color, so it was fun to wear for a day.  I paired it with white jeans because (a) my good blue jeans were both in the laundry pile (#momproblems) and (b) I thought a light bottom would be a nice contrast to the dark top.  The leopard flats were an obvious choice.  And if we are being completely honest, I just wore the jewelry for pictures, because it was pretty, but I knew Mr. Baby would try to destroy it.  My hair also went into a ponytail immediately.  And then I didn't feel quite so fancy.  And then I changed into workout clothes and went for a walk.  So I will never wear an outfit just to take blog pictures, but I will wear an outfit just to go to lunch for an hour.  Keeping it real.    

Top: LeTote (similar)
Necklace and Bracelet: LeTote
Jeans: Limited (similar)
Shoes: Target (similar, pointy toe)

Weekend Adventures

This is what I wore to church on Sunday.  My sister and nieces came out for a quick visit, so we had a wild weekend!  We used to be on the go nonstop when they visited, but we are now somewhat limited by Mr. Baby's schedule.  But we still managed to squeeze in quite a bit of fun.  It's so sweet to see how much the girls love their baby cousin!  He's not really sure about them yet, and probably confused about the whole twins thing, but he gives them lots of smiles, so I think he likes them.  

We went to a few of the girls' favorite restaurants that they don't have at home, had a picnic and walked around the lake, did a little shopping, walked to the park and let Mr. Baby try the swing and slide (he wasn't really impressed, even though I told him it was fun).  At home, we played a lot of games.  Sorry lasts forever sometimes.  They liked Scattergories more than I expected, and had some very clever answers.  And we laughed so hard playing Scribblish, which is way more fun with kids.  It's basically like telephone crossed with Pictionary.  My favorite was when "Playing piano with your toes" turned into "CAMEL ATTACK!"

My sister and I finally remembered to get a picture together.  We have failed on the last 2 visits.

The girls weren't interested in taking a nice picture, but I tricked them with Photobooth, and we got this winner.

Anyway, it was a fun weekend!  And I really liked this skirt from LeTote, too.
 
Cardigan: JCF (similar, similar)
Tee: Gap (similar, similar)
Skirt: LeTote
Shoes: Target (similar)

Winter Reading Challenge

Since I actually finished the Summer Reading Challenge, I'm even more excited for the winter one.  Reading is getting a little trickier since my boy is no longer sleeping all the time, but I can still try.  I like these challenges (even if I don't finish), because it helps me prioritize my ridiculously long to-read list.  So here's my preliminary list of books for each category:

• 5 points: Read a book that has between 100 and 200 pages. Hector and the Search for Happiness
• 10 points: Read a debut book by any author.  Everything Is Illuminated
• 10 points: Read a book that does not take place in your current country of residence. Euphoria or The President's Hat
• 10 points: Read a book that someone else has already used for the challenge.  Tbd 
• 15 points: Read a book published under a pseudonym  - The Cuckoo's Calling
• 15 points: Read a book with “boy,” “girl,” “man” or “woman” in the title (or the plural of these words). The Kommandant's Girl or A Man Called Ove or To All the Boys I've Loved Before
• 15 points: Read a book with a one-word title.  Euphoria or Pretties (Uglies, #2) 
• 20 points: Read a book with a person's first and last name in the title  The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks or The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks 
• 20 points: Read a food-themed book. Chocolat or The Cookbook Collector
• 20 points: Read a book with a verb in the title. The Summer I Turned Pretty(Summer, #1) or Go Set a Watchman (depending on if I ever make it to the top of the hold list!)
• 30 points: Read two books with the same title (by different authors). Life After Life and Life After Life
• 30 points: Read a nonfiction book and a fiction book about the same subject. Below Stairs and The Remains of the Day  - both about servants in England

The challenge starts on Nov 1, so I'm trying to finish up Why Not Me and then read Carry On before then!  

Third Friday Whatever

Sometimes you just have to put on a polka dot top, jeans, and colorful shoes and call it a day.  I actually wore this yesterday.  Mr. Baby was napping and I was on the phone with my sister and ironing clothes.  Then he woke up, and John texted me to see if we wanted to meet for lunch.  I'm almost always happy to do lunch, but it was 12:15, and we were both in our pajamas.  I asked if we could do a late lunch, we agreed on 1pm and I took a shower as fast as I can (which isn't very fast).  This was an easy outfit to throw on, and I felt pretty cute in it.  

Yesterday was the Third Thursday, but since no theme was announced, I never thought about it.  Bri announced the them yesterday of "any outfit," so I'll join in with this one.

Also, our backyard has finally gotten the memo that fall is here. Leaves everywhere!

Top: JCF (similar)
Jeans: Loft (exact)
Shoes: Target (similar)