October

I'm headed to New England tomorrow! It's a quick weekend trip to help out some family, but I'll get to see the leaves and enjoy normal fall weather!

I'm doing Whole30 with Ryan, and it's been pretty eye opening. You cut all added sugars and sugar substitutes, grains, dairy (excluding eggs), and soy to give your intestinal track a month to reset. I'm losing close to a pound a day (you're not supposed to weight yourself, but I am for multiple reasons. 1. I always have to break a rule a little. 2. I have a habit of starting to lose weight and seeing it as a sign that I'm doing awesome and deserve cookies. I want to get out of that habit), I'm sleeping better than I ever have in my life, my mood has improved - I'm much less irritable, and my chronic knee pain is gone.

After 30 days there is a reintroduction process so you can figure out what foods screw with you. I have a feeling mine will be sugar. The first week was rough, but we're on day 17 and all of the cravings have leveled out. It's the habits that are tough - stopping in to sbux isn't worth it since their drip coffee is crap. Munching popcorn while we watch TV was a sad thing to say goodbye to. But a handful of cashews does the trick. And the gorgeous silk Alice + Olivia pants I adore now fit beautifully without spanx.

I am obsessed with Westworld on HBO. It's written by one of my favorite screen writers - Jonathan Nolan (Memento), and produced by he and his wife. I've watched the first 3 episodes for clues multiple times. I have theories. I am hooked.

I met with my advisor to start planning my Ph.D route. We are going to focus on research with the intent to be published for the next year and a half. Between that and teaching, I should be in good shape to apply for a program then, and start on my Ph.D in two years. My plan is to be eligible for tenure in ten years. This means I'm researching on top of all the other craziness (teaching, home schooling, managing the house build, parenting, taxing, budgeting, etc), so Ryan is picking up slack for me and planning the home school curriculum so I only have to teach it. It's the best thing ever, because I hate, hate, hate doing it.

Rory loves girl scouts and piano and drama and ballet. Her piano teacher adores her and tells me in every email how brilliant she is and how quickly she's progressing. Rory loves it, she practices and sings and improvises. Drama is lots of fun for her, and she's added her new skills to reading out loud to us and to Andrew. Girl Scouts is pretty good, there's occasional drama with other girls (Rory is Type A after all, and expects everyone to be as aware of the rules as she is). This weekend while I'm in New England, her grandmother is taking my spot at a lock in at the zoo with the troop. Ballet is fun for her, but I don't know that she takes it as seriously. It's expression for her (as most things are) so she tends to not pay attention to the technicals. Which is totally fine.

Andrew loves his gym class that he goes to with Ryan. He adores his school and his teacher, Mr. Owl (Mr. Raoul). He gets very excited to leave on school days, doesn't say goodbye to me when I drop him off, and tells me all the things they did. His class consists of him and three other boys, and he knows their names - Michael, Atticus, and Peyton. He tells me about breakfast and playing blocks and playing outside, and he absolutely loves it. He's stubborn and loud, and he likes to irritate. Where I could tell Rory to stop and she would, Andrew increases whatever it is in both volume and frequency while laughing. But he's very sensitive, and being reprimanded makes him very sad because obviously he's just trying to be funny.

Gracie seems to come out of a 10 year depression now that our last cat is dead. We always thought she was just calm for a weimaraner. Turns out she was miserable living with oppressive felines. She is positively exuberant these days.

He FINALLY took a nap today

Reading to mom at the library 

Hiking buddies (with Mercury)

He and Mercury are pretty cute. She's an only child and he and Rory get a break from each other.

Snuggly bed time reading

My shopping buddy (everyone needed winter clothes). I told her I'd treat her to hot chocolate and a cookie, but she insisted she buy the cookie (and smoothie) herself. 

She's got three loose teeth that need out badly. The one coming in doesn't have enough room and is sideways.

He jumps on the bed while I sew.

I gave Rory the answer key to the midterm and she graded them for me while I graded speeches. She also made me a hair bow. And I double checked her work.

He cheats.

The big jump into ballet class.

Ryan taught them how to make lasagna cups.

He was very proud of his building. He's a little particular about things. All doors must be shut. All toys must be lined up.

He climbed the table to give her a hat while she was building her circuit board.