On a more mundane note, we turn back to the events of this last week. Monday night, Dan and I survived a double booking (he, marathon meeting; me, tutorials) with the generous help of our neighbor, who offered to sit in our living room and read while Andrew slept. Tuesday, Dan travelled to Huntington to celebrate "uno de Mayo," and he and his cohort of young men finished decorating the pinatas they had made on a previous occasion. While they failed to appreciate the culinary masterpiece (chicken tacos with lime and cabbage) Dan had made--they don't like onions, much to Dan's disgust--they did enjoy splitting the four bags of candy that filled the pinatas among the three of them.
Wednesday, Andrew and I went to one of the local parks as part of a ward "Day in the Park" that one of the Relief Society sisters organized for moms at home with young kids. The day was beautiful and bright--unfortunately, it had rained the night before so the ground was pretty muddy. That didn't daunt Andrew, who fearlessly climbed to the top of the slide tower (while his not so fearless mother followed after him to make sure he didn't slip down between platforms or fall off the slide--he still seems to think that you step off slides, rather than sitting down and sliding on them). From the top, I asked a couple of other women if it was muddy below--they said it was, a bit, but thinking that they meant the slide (and I couldn't see too much mud on it), we went ahead down the slide. It wasn't until we hit the bottom that I realized what they meant--the bottom of the slide opened onto a huge mud puddle, and we planted both feet solidly in the mud (Andrew, in fact, lost his shoe). Wednesday was also the day that Dan's advisor asked him if he was okay (!) moving his dissertation defense to August, rather than June. This is funny, because Dan didn't really think that he had a choice, as his equipment had broken and he didn't think he had time to complete his experiments, let alone defend his dissertation, before the June deadline. In hindsight, he wishes he would have said, "No. What are you going to do to fix it?"
Thursday neither of us can remember.
Friday morning I ventured out on one of the true delights of summer in State College: yard saleing. I ran into my friend Steph at the first yard sale (which started at seven a.m., but advertised lots of good kid stuff.) Dan says (with a curious inflection in his tone) that nothing gets me out of bed like the prospect of a deal. I was even out of the house before he was, which is somewhat unheard of (I took Andrew with me). Steph and I compared notes and, discovering that we were bound to the same places, opted to leave Steph's car at my house while we went on our merry way. We had fun, but the best deals were reserved for the next day, when we repeated our exploits. The only other thing of note on Friday was that, when Dan arrived home at 4:15, Andrew was still asleep, as part of a 2+ hour nap (marathon proportions for this child).
Saturday morning was spent in a blissful orgy of consumerism at yard sales. Since our generous husbands had agreed to watch our respective children, Steph and I were child-free. Between the two of us, we managed to fill Steph's car with our purchases. Needless to say, it was an exceptionally good weekend for yardsales. Some of my best purchases were a Little People zoo, for just a couple of dollars (Andrew loves hearing the lion roar and repeatedly hitting the button so the monkey jumps up), and the fabric truck/gas station you see below (which was the best deal of all: free. The woman just wanted to get rid of it. The whole contraption folds up flat--sort of like those fancy windshield shades for cars). Andrew likes climbing through the holes in the front and back, and laughing at us through the windows. We even put his spiderman chair in the tent, and he kicked back and watched part of Hundred and One Dalmations.
Saturday afternoon, Dan drove back to Huntington for an eagle scout court of honor for one of the young men in the branch, which was apparently a pretty big deal, as one of the state representatives showed up. That evening, back in State College, we went to our ward's Cinco de Mayo party, where we enjoyed the fine cooking of Brett Lunceford and Andrew spilled lemonade on one of our neighbors (luckily, he also has a baby, so he understands how it is!). We had to leave early because we'd already missed his bedtime, but we enjoyed seeing people we haven't seen much of recently.
Today has also been nice. Fast and Testimony meeting--aside from the 15 minute travelogue with which we concluded the meeting--was nice and sincere, and the classes we attended were also well-done (even if the Relief Society president ratted me out about my New Era articles--she had wanted me to share one of them as part of the lesson, on modesty and interior beauty). Afterwards, we had the monthly "Souper Sunday," only, in contrast to previous months' cornucopia of food offerings, we had a lone soup--ours--a lone salad, and a lone dessert. (Luckily, most of the families in the ward did not stay, so there was enough, but barely). After we got back, Dan and Andrew napped, and then Andrew ran around the house chirruping happily. He even engaged Dan in the "Great Burrito Race" (Dan was getting something out of the freezer and two burritos fell out. Andrew snatched them up and then gleefully evaded Dan as he tried to get them back). You see below the end of the Great Race--Andrew finally consented to being picked up by his mom. And this brings us not only to the end of our race, but this week's blog. This week is finals week, and the end of the semester, and I am greatly looking forward to a few days off from the Writing Center. (Although I do have some funny moments: one of my students, from Taiwan, has been trained that you bring people small gifts as tokens of appreciation, so she regularly brings me food treats, etc. One week she thoughtfully brought me a coffee, and I had to explain that I don't drink coffee for religious reasons. This last week, she brought me orange juice, Chinese pineapple cakes, and asked if she could take a picture with me! I'm not often surprised with writing center requests, but this one did surprise me).
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