updates

We really don't have much to say this week (or any pictures to post), but I want to keep good habits alive while they last.

Of note from this week: Bubby and Poppy have deserted all of us to play (er, work) in San Diego while Poppy is at a conference. This meant, of course, that we had to find a new babysitter for Andrew and Evelyn while I taught on Thursday. I asked my visiting teacher, who has frequently offered to watch my kids, and she and Andrew got along great. (By "great," I mean that Andrew had her drawing up a storm of robots while he colored and cut them out. It's funny to me how well Andrew manages to arrange things for his satisfaction). The only downside of all this was that, as "Jo Jo" (that's what she asked Andrew to call her) was preparing to leave, Andrew invited her to a party. Neither of us took much notice of this, since I knew we weren't really having a party. What I didn't know, was that Andrew was serious in his invitation--so much so that the next afternoon he spent part of his quiet time making party hats and, when two o'clock rolled around and Jo Jo hadn't shown up, he cried disconsolately. Poor kid.

On Wednesday Dan and I went to parent-teacher conferences at Andrew's pre-school. (I wonder if any of the other parents showed up together, like we did?). I suppose I was secretly hoping that the teacher would gush about how smart and wonderful Andrew is, but she (wisely, I think) didn't. Instead, she just explained how he's doing in their testing. Since much of the testing is designed for special needs children (which is the main focus of the preschool, although they do have several "normal" tuition paying children, like Andrew, in each class), some of the questions were pretty funny (at least, in connection with Andrew), like, "does he use sentences of at least four words," which Andrew has been doing for the past two years. But, he does need to work on fine motor skills, like holding a pencil correctly, coloring inside the lines, and tracing shapes. He knows how to do it, he just refuses to take his time on anything that doesn't really interest him. (Hmm. I don't know anyone else like that!)

Tuesday after class, I gave a short presentation on rhetoric and argument for the other English department faculty. I had volunteered to do this in--apparently--a fit of insanity and then stressed about whether or not I'd actually be able to introduce them to anything new. Apparently, I could, and did. It actually went pretty well, so I had the pleasure of knowing that at least the department doesn't think that I'm too stupid.

What else can I say? (If you're bored out of your mind at this point, I can only say that it's your own fault. You didn't have to read this. And you should know that the main purpose for this blog is to act as a kind of family journal. Of course, a large secondary purpose is to keep friends and family connected with our lives, but we never promised that everything had to be interesting.)

In other news, we drove down to SG yesterday for the sole purpose of picking up the pictures that had come in (I don't know that we'll be doing this often). Andrew fell asleep in the car, so he slept while Dan graded exams and Evelyn and I went shopping at the outlet mall (but didn't buy anything). Exciting, no? And then we drove home in a rainstorm.

I'm looking forward to the last installment of Emma tonight on PBS. If you've missed it so far, it's not too late to check it out (after all, there isn't anything really surprising in the story line, especially if you've seen any of the other movie adaptations, or, of course, read the book . . .)

*****
Afterthought: This week, Dan and I participated for the second time in a local produce coop. We were pretty impressed the first time, so this time we added an extra item (a "party pack") to our order. For the price of $23 (including tax), we came home yesterday with a large laundry basket full of corn on the cob (6 ears), lettuce, mandarin oranges (about eight), four Asian pears, asparagus, six heads of garlic, apples, a pineapple, bananas, winter squash, cauliflower, and a jicama (I'm still trying to figure out what to do with that). In the "party pack," we got celery, some key limes, cilantro, a bunch of avocados, baby carrots and grape tomatoes. Pretty good haul, I think. The trick, of course, is that you don't get to choose what produce you get--everyone who contributes in a given week gets the same things. But so far it has been considerably less than we would pay in the grocery store, and the produce has all been high quality. (Because so many people commit to buy from the coop in a given week, it can get the stuff directly from the distributor, thus the reduced prices). In addition, having all this produce on hand has really encouraged us to eat more vegetables, and to try new things. If any of you are interested, the company is called Bountiful Baskets Food Co-op and they have distribution sites in Utah, Idaho, Arizona, and Washington. You can access their site here.