Hello?

Hi there.  I know, I know.  I am the lamest of the lame.  But something has to give in the mix.  Here is what I gave up in my mix-  this blog, eating, and my appearance.  My husband is REALLY excited about that one...

But all in all the new school year is going well for all.

I picked up another research and assistant gig, and so far I love it.  I have already had two articles reviewed with the first research gig and so far both have gone well.  I will officially have my name mentioned and acknowledged in both of them! Pretty sweet-

I have not fallen behind in any of my classes, and I am feeling a pretty sweet GPA this semester (knock on wood- knock knock).

I am taking the GRE again next weekend, and the Literature subject test in October- so we will see how that goes.

Tomas is doing well also.  Anyone who knows what we have gone through with him the last two school years can fairly gauge how this school year is going.  But we as a family worked so hard all summer to help him succeed, and we are pulling every trick out of the bag this year. 

That is all I got on this end.  Oh yeah, except for a few things-

TOMAS IS TEN YEARS OLD!  How in the world am I old enough to have a ten year old?!  Oh thaaaattttts riiiiiiiiight- I'm NOT!  We celebrated his birthday over the weekend, with numerous other children, and a medieval evening amongst horses and poop, and eating with our hands while screaming and booing.  It was so cultured and high class- nothing is too good for our kids.

Meanwhile, Oliver experienced all that is Disneyland for his first time.  He is in love with Pluto, and keeps his ticket in his pocket so that he has access to his dear dear love at all times...

Good times, good times.

xoxo-

J.Danger

Did you do something to your hair?

I LOVE the new header that my dear husband made for me today.  But it is too big!  He will re size it for me- don't you worry about it my dearies!  But it was too good to let go...

Have I told you that Oliver has changed his name?  No?  Oh well he has- he now refers to himself as Owl.  No joke- you say what is your name and he says Owl. 

Hoot Hoot.

So he is on the phone with Nanny, walking down the stairs.  (I know, I know, a disastrous recipe from the get go!) Of course he stumbled, why wouldn't he?  He fell face forward, as he was trying to hand the phone to me.  But don't you worry- he was just fine.  And he told me so- he hopped up and proclaimed "I'm ok, Owl's ok, I'm ok".

Sooooo, not only does Oliver think he is hot enough to re-name himself, but he also refers to himself in the third person.

Stand back...

I've been TAGGED!

Tara, over at books and cooks tagged me for a meme.  This is my first time doing one of these- so here goes!

(p.s. Tara- I know, I know- it DID take me five days!)

Here are the rules:

I am going to list three categories of books.  Three "must reads", three "keep your eyes on these", and three "look for these soon".  Sticking with the three theme, I will tag three bloggers when I am finished.  They should put these same lists on their blog, but subtract one book from each category and add one of their own.

It should be fun to see how the lists change as they go.

Stars are my additions-

3 Must Read Books-

1.  Resistance, by Alice Humbert

2. The Book of Lost Things, by John Connolly

3.  All Over but The Shoutin', by Rick Bragg

3 Keep Your Eyes on These-

1.  The Guersney Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shffer

2.  The Likeness, by Tana French

3. ***Nervous Conditions, by Tsitsi Dangaremba

3 Look For These Soon-

1.  When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson

2.  Home, by Marilynne Robinson

3.  Water Keep, by J. Scott Savage

3 Tags to keep this meme going-

1.  Eva- at A Striped Armchair

2.  Booklogged- at A Reader's Journal

3.  Illiana- at Bookgirl'snightstand

xoxo,

J.Danger

P.s.- I know that I said that I would have a giveaway Friday...whoops!  Check back Monday.

3 guys?

So I used my good friend random.org to pick a number from 1 to 3 (ha! 1 to 3!) and it picked 1!  The shirt is yours Heather!

Tomas just left for his first day of fifth grade!  I cannot believe that he is already a fifth grader.  I cried, of course I cried!  What do you think I am ?!  A monster!

Don't answer that.

Another give away on Friday!

xoxo,

J.Danger

Free stuff on Fridays Fools!

Today, because it is Friday, and I need to find something to continually distract you all from the fact that I never really blog on weekends, I am hosting another give away!

This week I am giving away the cutest. shirt. EVER!

This is a shirt that was made by a local artist out here named Jamie Agius.  She is totally low key and super hip!  I kinda dig her.

In fact, she is so low key that she doesn't even have a website!  You can email her to get one of your own at rnroutlaw@gmail.com.

Even her email is cool!

Here is the shirt that I am giving away, hopefully to YOU, this weekend.  

It has a hand stitched patch on it, with this awesome print of a sugar skull.

It is so cute!

It is a size 4 American Apparel long sleeve black shirt.

So- now that you are drooling with delight, and chomping at the bit for this shirt, here's what you need to do to try to get it.

In my comment section, I want you to tell me what your favorite home cookin' style meal was, or still is for that matter.  What did your mom cook you that you still crave every once and a while?  What do you wish you knew how to make but never asked mom for the recipe for?

You tell me...and I dress your kids....

Deal?

My son fell in love with a man today.

A man with a guitar.  A folk singer with a guitar.  He is still swooning from it.

The day care that the boys attend threw a friends and family festival tonight and it was actually super cool.  They had hot dogs (turkey) and all kinds of food.  There was a bounce

house, and each room was responsible for their own game.  Tomas' room planned "bobbing for apples"-

Can you imagine the various combinations of child slobber in there?!

Whatever, Tom was stoked-

 

Oliver's room planned a ring toss of sorts-

He's like totally going pro-

It was fun, the boys had a lot of fun, and Oliver fell in love with the folk singer.

For a brief two hours, it made me forget that my husband is far far away from me....

Maybe the folk singer is free-

No, I couldn't do that to Oliver.  But I bet he hates Florida right now too. 

Back to school, back to school...

So I am back- kind of.  I am still soooo out of it.  I can't take my pain killers at school (who made THAT rule up?!) so I load up on them once I get home.

Today was my first official day back in school!  I am so excited.  Oh yea- here is my disclaimer- I am going to totally geek out here for a minute.  Sorry folks.

Yesterday I met with my department head at school.  During our meeting he suggested that I start an Honors Reading Group.  Me!  He wants me to do it!  Totally rad.  So I am going to do it and it is going to be the raddest reading group ever.  Better than yours at least!  I am going to base it on the female post colonial identity.  You can ask me about it someday.  You know you want to.

Also, I was given a lead for a research assistant gig through a top notch professor that is studying at Cambridge right now.  She is working on a project that deals with 19th century Brit Lit and Gender studies (a.k.a EXACTLY what I want to study in Grad school).  Well, guess who got the position?

That's right folks!

So yes, it is a ton of work and I will be the first to admit that it is absolutely insane of me to take on these two huge jobs on top of all the classes I am enrolled in.  Oh yeah, and the family and all...but what can you do?  And it makes me happy.  And it will get me paid in Grad school.  Hell, it will get me IN Grad school. Period. 

Side note- I looked like a moron all day today.  My jaw is still really swollen and bruised from the horrible root canal that caused this huge bout of TMJ.  Plus, I am pretty sure that no one could understand me and were just agreeing with me to humor me.

Oh well.  I got what I needed! 

Tomas goes back to school next week.  The fifth grade!  Holy Cow!  And in roughly two weeks he will be ten years old.  I can't believe it.

Here's what else I can't believe- how incredibly obnoxious pre-teens are!  

Here is another disclaimer- I LOVE my kids, and I LOVE Tomas.  That said- what the hell is wrong with pre-teens?!  No son, you can't have a cell phone.  No son, you can't have your own private unmonitored email address.  No, you can't say crap.  I don't care how many of your friends have one/use one/say it/ stole it/are hiding it from their parents.

And while we are at it- what is with all the questions?!  What I am doing you ask?  ADULT STUFF.

What's that?  What am I eating?  WHATEVER I WANT.  I'M AN ADULT.

What's that you say?  Oh you already knew that?  Oh that's right, you know everything.  Already.  By ten years old.  I totally forgot.

Geesh!

How do you survive this?  If this is any precursor to teens, I am so screwed.

Screwed.