Cool Mom

I am currently enjoying the title of Cool Mom. And, because Wm is a nerd, I have become cool by organizing a tour of the Biomedical Engineering labs for Wm's Medical Detectives class. Wm got to lead to the troupes across the parking lot and show them how to get to my office (he felt like a Major Big Deal). Then, the kids got a presentation from my favorite professor, Dr. Tanya, about what Biomedical Engineering is, an ultrasound demo, an ECG demo, and a tour of our senior design labs (where my students build medical devices for a disabled client as part of their capstone experience). The kids were super polite and thanked me a thousand times. AND, Wm's teacher was so excited, she even hugged me on the way out! So, basically, it pays to know other nerds if you birth one.  My place of employment is pretty well stocked with nerds, so it works out swimmingly. Wm was VERY impressed and has been being extra nice to me now that he thinks I do cool things (spoiler: I do not.)

Here is how the tour went down (Wm pointed out by yellow arrow in each photo!):

Presentation by Ben, Lab Supervisor, in our crappy basement

ECG demo by our newest professor, who seemed overwhelmed by children

And, Tanya's - bestest professor ever - super cool ultrasound demo (she is doing her arm muscles in this short video, but she also did her carotid artery and then one of the kids in fancy "color mode"!):

The teacher then tried to get the kids to gather for a group photo outside our building. It didn't go as well as one would hope:

Herding cats

I am going to ride the Cool Mom wave for as long as it takes me. I'll be lucky to make it until tomorrow.

And, now, unrelated to anything, but for your viewing pleasure, is Flip's very intense dream. Turn up your volume and listen to him go! He does this every time he falls into a deep sleep. Sometimes, he REALLY gets going!!

Penultimate Vacation Day

This is our penultimate holiday vacation day. Wm has been off all week, so he's really dreading the return to normalcy! But, we made the most of it! Steve woke up and went to play soccer. Because, UH,  it was like 55 degrees and SO SUNNY. Most gorgeous November day ever! One person was not happy about it, though. I got up to go to the bathroom and saw Flip sitting by the window watching Steve pull out of the driveway. Then he turned around and gave me this look:

Daddy's Boy

I called him in to snuggle with me and he had all of Steve's spot to spread out in. So, he got over it quickly.

Steve who?

While Steve was off playing, Wm and I took Flip for a super long walk to enjoy the weather. Then, after lunch, Steve and I redid the pantry. We had those wire shelves that allowed for only jars...and A LOT of jars. Wire also wasn't the most attractive. While Wm and I were at IKEA, I got these babies for under $10/each! They match with our house so much better, allow for more flexibility, and just look way snazzier. (Although, Wm says they are "ugly and weird.")

I'd been telling Steve forever we should do this and he thought I was insane. When it was done, he goes, "Wow...that DOES look so much better! I love it!" And I was like, "I wonder whose idea it was?" Steve's response? "The sun even shines on a dog's ass some days." So...yeah.

Speaking of a dog's ass: Flip believes himself to be a lapdog. He is NOT a lapdog. He is 55 lbs of muscle and farts.

NOT a lapdog

Then, because it's late November and I had no idea it was going to be so warm we could even open some windows, I made soup for dinner. So I had stock simmering on the stove all day. The soup was good, even if it would have been better on a cold day! And, after dinner, we finished our holiday decorating! We drank hot chocolate, listened to Christmas music, decorated the house and put up the Christmas tree. 

Holiday cheer accomplished!

Tomorrow, we are going to see Wonder with Mimi (who, we hope, is germ-free and feeling good!)

Thanksgiving

Here are the famous coat hooks! I was also a bit brave and set out some baskets for gloves and hats...here's hoping they do not get eaten!

Then, we had a great Thanksgiving! It was a gorgeous (if chilly!) day for a trip to NEO. Flip was SO GOOD in the car!! He stayed in his hammock and either watched the road or snoozed on and off for the entire way. On the way home, it was 99% snoozing!

I'm not sure why Flip looks so suspicious. Wm looks very pleasant! 

Snooze time!

We had a great time visiting with everyone. Although, Mimi was sick, so she and Guy weren't there. They were missed! Wm and Andrew had a bunch of fun! Here are all the boys hanging on the couch:

We ate a ton of great food and made great time getting home - we didn't stop once! We all slept in late and had a lazy morning. Then ate pie for breakfast!

Mimi gave me a super nice chair pillow and it is life-changing. I now want to spend the majority of my life here, reading or watching Netflix. I usually have at least one animal snuggler. It's The Best.

Today was GORGEOUS. So sunny, blue skies, and 50's. Wm and I took Flip for a long walk while Steve spent forever untangling Christmas lights. Then, he took advantage of the nice day to get all the outside lights hung (with a little help from Wm!) Here he is, painstakingly changing every burned out light:

Then, Steve and Wm put together a bunch of wooden crates I snagged. It was super cute. Steve showed Wm how to use the electric drill! After the 4th box, though, Wm got bored and abandoned Steve. 

After it was dark, I went outside and got a picture of the house, all lit up. I noticed later that the wreath was not on. But..you get the idea!

Ho ho ho!

Pre-Thanksgiving

Yesterday, Flip went to the groomer for his Full Spa Treatment. The guy said he was "awesome." Which is super suspicious. Because Flip is definitely not awesome about baths or nail clippings. I can only imagine how he is about his anal glands. But, in any case, they gave him a jaunty bandana!

For some reason, Steve is incapable of taking a clear picture. Here is his picture of Flip post-grooming:

And here is mine:

I'm going to go ahead and say mine is just a BIT crisper. I can't figure out what he's doing!!

Then, Steve and I undertook a large project we really didn't have time to complete, so our house is a mess. We decided to move the very large wardrobe up to the bedroom and make it Steve's "closet" and then just use coat hooks downstairs. It was a whole mess (coats are everywhere!)  and both Steve and I are exhausted today!

But, Steve went to work while Wm and I partied. Today has been awesome. Wm and I woke up and went to IKEA (yes, again) to get said coat hooks. Since they have good, and cheap, breakfasts, we went early and ate there. Wm said it was "amazing." He got a cinnamon roll, chicken sausage, and breakfast potatoes (which were glorified tots). He said it was the best trip to IKEA ever. And, coat hooks were accomplished.

Then I made a pie, took Flip for a long (and cold!) walk, and made one last trip to the grocery store (and gassed up the car for tomorrow). After all my adventures, I decided it was time to lounge in bed (with my new chair pillow from Mimi!) and read. I had a snuggle friend (Luna eventually showed up and I had 2 snuggle friends). I was living the dream!!!

Soon, Steve will arrive home and we will have shepherd's pie and he will hang the coat racks. Good day!!

I was talking to a friend and she asked if I had hung the coat racks yet. I was like, "I was proud of myself for driving to and navigating IKEA by myself. You think I've actually gotten out tools and hung anything?? I didn't even bother to take them out of the car." Even if I had tried, Steve would have been grumpy. I'm sure he will make them perfectly level and drilled into studs and all the things that you do. We are a good team!! I create projects for him and he accomplishes the projects. 

Attraction

Wm: [tells ANOTHER story about his student teacher, Ms. Isabel]
Me: You really like Ms. Isabel.
Wm: Yeah, she's awesome.
Me: Is she cuuuuute?
Wm: EW!! SHE'S LIKE 18!
Me: Omg. So old. Gross.
Wm: I am not attracted to teachers.

Cleaning Wm

We had to spend a bunch of our weekend cleaning the house because I fired the cleaning lady. Perhaps I was too hasty...

Wm actually did a GREAT job. His room has never looked better. He picked it up (which is all he usually has to do because then the cleaning lady shows up and does everything else!) But then, I showed him how to dust and organize his things. He did a super job!! After that, Steve showed him how to sweep it properly. When he was done, his room looked even better than when the cleaning ladies came!! He really did a bang up job in there!! We have had the cleaning lady for so many years, he was not expected to do these chores when he was a little bit. So it was about time for him to learn, anyway! Steve is crabbier about having to clean the bathroom.

In addition to some trips to IKEA and Costco and random other chores, we got take out from one of Steve's favorite places and vegged for a while. He, however, put KETCHUP on his MAC AND CHEESE. Wm and I were disgusted. Here is the abomination (and those are devil horns, not cat ears):

Grossest human alive

Flip also had a good weekend. Here he is at the park with his BFF, Iggy. For reference, Flip is over 50 lbs and is by no means a small dog. Check out how Iggy dwarfs him. I swear, Wm could easily saddle and ride Iggy!! During tug o' war, Flip was ALL in, giving it everything he had. And Iggy was like, "you're adorable."

Tug o' war

Also, I busted Steve big time. He was sitting on the couch, Flip was draped across him, snoozing and doing his contented lip smacking. Steve was petting him and he looked down and sighed and goes, "Oh, Flip, I love you more than life." BOOM!!!! I mean, I hate to say I told you so...buuuuuut...I KNEW Steve would end up loving that dog more than anything.

When I went to get Wm up this morning, the entire menagerie was in his bed. I told Wm to check out his pillow partner. He and Luna are besties. Here is Wm softly petting her cutely at 6am. She slept next to his head all night. (And this is why I cannot make a Luna skin cap out of her. I think she knows. So she sucks up to Wm. Evil genius.)

New Phone

Last weekend, we took Wm to the Verizon store and told him if we could get him a new phone/plan for roughly the same thing we were paying, we'd do it. His old phone was unreliable and the battery would go from 100% to below 50% in an hour. Well, it was not roughly the same cost. It was A LOT more. But guess who still walked out with a new phone and Verizon plan? You guessed it. This spoiled guy:

Also happiest guy

Wm opted for an Android phone, so he's in a whole new world. It's very fancy and he loves it. I also downloaded an app that tracks him stalker-like. I get a ping to my phone when he leaves school. I also added Steve, so now I can stalk him too. It's pretty fun. Steve is stalking me back, and, apparently, now gets a ping whenever I get home. I went home for lunch at a weird time the other day because of a meeting. About 2 minutes later, I got a text from Steve asking why I'm home and if I was sick. Ha! At least this phone phone holds a charge and has a reliable network. The stalking is just a bonus.

Wm is off school all next week. Which is crazy. What happened to a regular 4 day weekend? He is very excited. He texted me this morning to tell me that his pre-Algebra teacher brought in donuts and M&M's and they just played poker and then played on their computers. He was thrilled with life.

Wm has a guard now. I went in to wake him up and he grumped around and refused to get out of bed. I said, "I'm going to brush my teeth. If you're not up when I get back, I'm tickling you until you can't breathe and you will be very sorry!" When I returned, this is what I found:

look at Wm's smug little smile

Luckily, Flip's guarding also involved a lot of face licking, so that got Wm up anyway!

Speaking of the Hell Hound, he goes to the groomer next week to get a pre-Thanksgiving blow out. He's getting the works: bath, blow dry, nail trim, tooth brushing, ear cleaning, and anal gland "expressing." He should be coiffed and lovely for the holiday! He will also be SUPER pissed about it. I'm making Steve take him this time because he was majorly displeased with me last time. But he needs it. His nightly trip to the park has left him a little worse for wear.

Random

This is a weekend of random things. We just have a bunch of errands to run and random things to do. We started it all off with a great breakfast!! Steve is feeling it since he got the "pancake sampler" which consisted of a bananas foster pancake, a lemon ricotta and blueberry pancake, and a sweet potato pancake with toasted marshmallows. Next on the agenda is heading to Verizon to see if we can just add Wm to our plan - his phone only seems to work half the time!  Then, we are hoping it warms up so we can test out Flip's new car hammock and take him to Antrim for a cold hike.

To go with the random weekend happenings, here are random things I have on my phone...

Flip was VERY mad that his crate was removed. He spiraled into a doggie depression until we brought it back. He's so happy with it's return, he just hangs out in there, chewing on his bones and balls contentedly. Flip loves his "den!" Farewell, bench.

Steve looks like a corpse when he sleeps. He didn't even stir when the flash went off.

Here is how Wm plays his lame-o video games. He is thrilled with life because his YouTube channel has 50 subscribers! 

Nerds!

I also have some fun videos on my phone too! We are teaching Flip to speak. He just does his annoyed growl when we say "speak," he doesn't bark. So now, when we eat dinner, he sits there and growls at us, thinking he's doing "speak" and we will reward him with food. It's both disturbing and hilarious. But, of course, he stopped immediately when I got the camera out. But, it's still gold because of the sad little sound he makes when Steve kicks him off:


This is Wm doing a duet with his violin teacher. I LOVE this song. I incorrectly labelled the video, but it's the Swallow Tail Jig:


And, lastly, this how Flip tries to get Schroeder to come out and play with him. Surprisingly, he has been successful 0 times. He sounds like Chewbacca!

Tone

I am off tomorrow for Veteran's Day. And I am on the only one. EXCITED. A friend and I are going to a very girlie restaurant to eat baked goods and gab for hours. Best day ever!! Wm is sad that he's not off -- mostly because I thought he was and told him for days that he was - only to discover that he is not. But, it's a "dress down" day and he can wear jeans and a sweatshirt, so he's slightly appeased.

Wm looked very cute snuggled in bed this morning, so I said, "don't move, I have to go get my camera!" When I got back into his room, he was standing in the corner, bleary-eyed, and was like, "NO PICTURES." Because he is no fun. So, instead, I took a picture of Luna being cute under a blanket. I have to admit, she is adorable. And very sweet. But, STILL, she annoys me all night, refuses to cover her cat poos like a normal feline, and keep trying to eat all our food if we leave the table. So she's more trouble than she's worth!! But...cute:

Speaking of cute, here is Flip in his new Christmas sweater!! Can you stand it?

Wm is also now The King of Tones. The words he says are innocuous. But, he says them with such an evil tween-y tone that they are mean. When you say, "I don't like your tone, sir." He goes, "I AM NOT USING A TONE." So, to show him how it works, I have taken to saying random things in a Wm tone. For instance, as he got out of the car this morning,  I said, "HAVE A GOOD DAY!" in Classic William Tone. That got a laugh!! Hopefully I can break of him of his nasty tone habit. He is, however, in a grand mood because his YouTube channel now has over 50 subscribers. He has violin today, but was very concerned this morning about also having time to do a live stream to celebrate his "50 subs." I don't even know where this kid came from. I blame Steve.

Tricks

Steve works all weekend, so Wm and I are left to do whatever we want. Which usually involves slugging around! We both slept in (meanwhile, poor Steve was up at 5:30!) He's happy, though, because this is his last tournament until the spring.

Wm went on a field trip yesterday to visit more old people. He said they were "boring." I guess it was no visit from Mimi!! They were gone pretty much all day to a senior living place, so he was tired when he got home!! I think this Medical Detectives class was a big mistake. They are talking about food borne illness now and they have to identify what someone has based on symptoms and what they ate. This kid is never going to eat again.

And now, to show my off my two favorite guys...

Here is Wm playing (and rocking out!) a duet of Simple Gifts:


And there is Flip showing off his newest trick (speak) - see if you can hear the little toot he does the second time I tell him to speak...that wasn't the kind of "speak" I meant! Also, the weirdo NEVER barks unless someone is coming to the house, so his "speak" is a little annoyed growl:

Halloween '17

It was a chilly Halloween, but Wm had a great time and got a record-setting haul! As every year, Steve hands out candy while I take Wm around - he eventually runs into a horde of his amigos and ditches me. This year, however, all his friends called it quits too early for Wm and he came back home and fetched me so he could continue to the bitter end. This year, Wm was a gangster. (He was a somewhat bulky gangster because I made him layer thick, warm clothes under his costume.)

That tommy gun makes the wooooorst noise. I am trying to find a way to make it sleep with the fishes. But Wm loves it. He built the whole costume around it just so he could have it. And the hat. He loves the hat. Weirdo.

Wm: I cannot wait to eat all this candy!!!
Me: Are you going to share?
Wm: You can have the stuff I don't like.
Steve: Do I get some?
Wm: Yeah, you can have whatever you want.
Me: HEY! How come I have to eat the crappy stuff and Pop gets whatever he wants??
Wm: Because Pop likes gross things. But you like the good stuff.
That's because I am a candy connoisseur.

Flip was NOT a fan of Halloween. He thought costumed evil-doers were trying to invade his home all night. So he pretty much spent the entire evening parked in front of the window, barking like a psychotic lunatic. He was probably thinking, "THEY JUST KEEP COMING! No matter how many I scare away...more just show up! And no one even appreciates how hard I am working!" By the time trick or treat was over, he had exhausted himself:

Post Halloween coma. The rogue leg is my favorite.

Steve and I had a vacation day today. It was rainy and cold, so it was the perfect day to snuggle!! And snuggle we did:

We also went out to lunch and got to look at exciting things at Target like window treatments and kitchenware. Next up: Stranger Things.