We’re back from our last-minute trip to San Jose.  It was actually a rather pleasant trip, despite our reason for going being such a downer.  It was nice to see my BFF and her daughter (who I had not met yet, if you can believe it).   It was a nice visit with my parents, even though the chaos that the kids (and by kids, I mean LIAM) created.  And the kids did have a great time there.  Harry was constantly out back, either swimming in the non-heated pool (brr!) or riding his scooter around and around and around.  Liam slept in a big boy bed, just as he had on our Disney trip and did just fine (though having a hard time being put down at night, but that was mostly because of being in a strange place and wanting to stay up and par-tay).  Evie had a great time cruising around, trying to get in kitchen cabinets and banging her head on various unforgiving surfaces (she has the bruise on her forehead to prove it).

It was nice to come back home too, though.  It usually is, though our fondness was strictly limited to it being our home and our things and our routines and had NOTHING to do with being happy to see Reno.  Which we weren’t.  Our state of disgruntlement is growing.  I can only hope this means our time here is short.   I mean, Reno doesn’t even have an IKEA and that is just not right on so many levels.

But at least we have an In n’ Out.  So it’s not like we’re totally living in the dark ages or anything.

In other news…

Over the weekend I noticed my stomach would start to hurt every time I ate something.  I have no idea why this is, but I’m not happy about it either way.  Lets hope this is something that a) resolves itself quickly and b) doesn’t get worse.  Amen and thank you.

Noggin changed their name to Nick Jr. today and officially freaked me way out.  They can’t just make a change like that!  I need to be consulted!  My mind was officially blown when TWO WHOLE HOURS LATER I finally noticed.   Cough.

My fifteen year high school reunion was on Saturday.  I didn’t go because of a confluence of issues, not at all limited to the fact that I didn’t remember until the last minute and had no information on where it actually was being held and all that.  But that doesn’t mean I can’t look at myself in the mirror in utter disbelief that it has been fifteen whole years.  Where have I been?

Also: Evie is cute.  I just thought I should put that out there.

Okay, Monday is coming to a close so I should probably go ahead and post this before it becomes TUESDAY and my own blog post outdates itself.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I need a beer.

Okay, so I have been a really, really, REALLY bad blogger.  Apparently once you miss one day of posting, it becomes insanely easy to miss MANY days of posting.  Of course, I did have the sorta excuse of being out of town all weekend. But… Still.  I should be better.

The good thing about being lazy blogger for a few days is that I have some stuff to talk about. So let’s see… where to start…

That there yarn I dyed looks almost professional.  Go me! I plan to do some more. This was achieved via Kool Aid, and no, it doesn’t make it sticky.  I’m going to try some Wilton’s food dye next, as I’ve heard that can come out pretty neat too.

The Britax has landed!  It arrived just in time, on Thursday night, for our trip to San Jose on Friday.  The last I mentioned the Great Car Seat Decision of 2009, there was some expressions of incredulity at the price of a Britax carseat.  I know they’re expensive.  But I also know that expense is very much worth it to us.  With Harry, we had to save money and get a more inexpensive carseat.  I’ve had both kinds, and believe me, the Britax is WORTH IT.  Part of it is because it is soooooo much easier to install these properly and therefore more safely.  And the kids are a lot more comfortable in them.  And this particular seat we got will allow us to leave Liam harnessed until he’s 80lbs and used as a booster until 100lbs.  After all the videos I’ve seen on YouTube about toddlers in accidents where they aren’t harnessed?  YEAH.  No-brainer.  And?  We know they’ll last until we don’t need carseats anymore, which counts for a lot, because they’re quality made. Don’t knock them till you try them!  (Which isn’t to say that some less expensive seats aren’t safe, but you can never convince me that they’re as easy or as comfortable.  Trust me.  I’ve tried them ALL.)

A diaper that, can you believe it, I don’t want.  I ended up selling this.  Ah well.  It paved the way for a diaper that I wanted more so in the end, it was all for the best.

Look at all that yarn!  It was sent to me so I could knit some lovely things for some lovely people.  So sadly, it’s not MY yarn, but I do get to play with it.  I think I want to marry it.  LOL.  And even MORE came yesterday.  I’m a busy, busy girl!

Yeah, there was snow on the summit when we drove over the mountain.  It was pretty!  And thankfully, not on the road!  It’s snowing here on and off today but nothing much is sticking.  C’est la vie.  So much for winter, eh?

Liam and Evie had a good time at my parents’ house.  Evie enjoyed having another set of people to fawn over and her and to flirt with.  And Liam enjoyed the attention and the new surroundings to explore.  This was a rare moment where they both stopped their adventuring to watch a cartoon together.  It lasted approximately .15 seconds.

This was also taken at my parents’ house.  It’s not that the brotherly love exhibited in this photo is that rare, but the PEACE is.  Notice: Harry is not climbing over the back of the couch and bellowing like a hellfiend and Liam is not screaming and running out of the frame.  I’ll take it.

This is being knit from some of that yarn in the picture before.  I did most of this in the car to and from San Jose.  I tell you what, knitting is the PERFECT car activity because it makes the time just FLY by.  Anyhow, these are being knit for a wonderful gal who contacted me on Etsy.  And the yarn was doing a thing called “pooling” up near the top but I tried what I could to minimize it’s effects.  I hope to have these done in another day or so.

Harry with two of his favorite things.  Pup and Rock Band.  And, oh yeah, he’s going to need braces.  GREAT.

Liam got this hard hat with a construction truck set my parents got him as a gift.  He comes over to me about 10 times a day to ask me to put it on his head.

I love when he does this.  He always carries that nasty dolphin around by the tail and when he’s feeling tender or mellow, he’ll rub the dolphin’s tale against his cheek.  It makes my heart swell when I see him do it and for a small moment in time, I can forget that the rest of the time he’s a tornado on legs.

And I’m finisheing with ME!  I’ve taken in the last day or so to putting my hair in pigtails.  It’s not quite long enough yet on the sides for a ponytail and the pig tails are both adorable (if I do say so myself) and keep my hair out of my face.  Bonus!  And no, I don’t have any idea why I have a pair of toddler socks in my front pocket.  I didn’t notice that until I was developing the picture in Lightroom.  D’oh!

It just figures that the FIRST time we try to leave town and go anywhere, it snows. And rains. We’ve had nothing but mild, temperate weather for WEEKS now. I’ve wanted snow fir AGES. And now we’ve got some. You know, when we want to drive over Donner Summit.

That sounds about right.

So we’re gonna be down in The Ho for a few days. I’ll try to post but I may be too busy. Plus, I have a LOT of knitting to do. Did you know that’s an excellent car trip activity?

Time is ticking down until I have to stuff our family (again) into a minivan and drive for a good 4+ hours.  This means that I should probably have things prepared and ready to go for when that moment arrives (as it stands, we’re planning to leave early on Thursday).  Because having to throw everything together Thursday morning would, in a word, suck.  So in an effort to be at least somewhat organized, here is what I should be doing today:

• Make up a few packing lists so we can cut down on the number of “Oh man, you know what we forgot?” moments.
• Laundry.  Lots and lots of laundry.  And after that?  More laundry.
• Pick up the kitchen, including washing dishes and mopping the floor so neighbor won’t be horrified when coming over to care for dogs.
• Ask said neighbor if he can even watch the dogs.  For all we know, he’ll be out of town this weekend!
• Figure out, once and for all, what shirt i will wear with my jeans on Saturday.  I have an idea, but I think that shirt is a bit tight and probably not conducive to breastfeeding easily.
• Make sure my business cards are packed.
• List out-grown prefolds (cloth diapers) for sale on Diaper Swappers and hope that brings in a little extra $.
• Did I mention laundry?  Because I gotta do some of that.

Now, how much of this will actually get done?  (By this I mean: how much time will I instead hang out on Twitter watching the updates scroll by?  Because I feel like that’s all I’ve done so far.)

Gratuitous Chubby Baby Shot (because I can) (do you just not LOVE the heart-shaped cherries onesie??)

In one week, the fun begins.  We’ll be packing up the van (gulp) and getting the heck out of dodge.  We’ll be enduring the trip over the mountain and down into the central valley, burning precious, precious petroleum as we burn towards San Jose and my parents’ house.  And, in the eyes of my 8 year old son, my parents’ pool.

Thursday will be relatively low pressure.  It’s FRIDAY that I’m worried about.  Friday we’ll have to get up before the crack of dawn sometime and pack up the van AGAIN (minus one 8 year old child who will be staying with the pool my parents).  And this time we’ll have to battle traffic as we trek up the peninsula towards the City on the Bay.  This is probably about the time that my stomach will lose it’s lining and I’ll be developing some awful nervous tick that will drive my husband to want to murder me at the nearest opportunity.

GOOD TIMES.

This is probably also the time I’ll stop and realize that, “Hey!  I’m SPEAKING at this thing! Like, IN AN HOUR (or whatever).  I should probably be ready for that, huh?”

In case you haven’t heard me blather on about it before, I’m speaking on the topic of Introversion.  Specifically, what it has to do with blogging (why are so many bloggers hopeless introverts? which came first, the blogging or the introversion?).  And how to overcome introversion in order to have a rockin’ good time at BlogHer.  I have some good ideas on this subject (otherwise I wouldn’t have suggested the topic in the first place!), but I’d like to also see what you guys think.

So… uh… what do you think?

What are your best tips for putting aside fears and not only surviving BlogHer, but enjoying yourself there?  I promise I won’t steal your ideas without at least trying to give you credit. _{(I’m probably lying, but who can prove it?)}