Theseus has left for class, the baby is at day care, and I'm alone in the house in complete. silence.

Does that ever feel refreshing to you? Too often I have something on for background noise, whether it is the television or some music. Right now it is quiet enough in the house to hear a cat yawn in the other room and a car move across the bridge down the road. I can hear the wind and all the creaks our house makes. It's lovely, actually. I don't get to enjoy the silence very often (a consequence of having a 7 month old) so I try to savor it when I do.
    

for a red velvet cupcake right now. Someone please get on this!

Really?! Not again...

Thankfully we have very vigilant cats. Two mice have already fallen to Sweet Thing's deadly claws - she has edged out Fi as best hunter in the house. She caught the first one in the basement last night and brought it upstairs before we realized what was happening. She was skulking around with it in her mouth, growling at the other (jealous) cats so we coaxed her back downstairs and eventually took it away from her. She wasn't pleased, but wasn't as angry as Fi was last year when I had to take away three of his treasures. She caught another tonight and gave it to us pretty easily. I followed up with some cat treats.

Gross. Hope that was the last one for this season.

But first, a photo: I took this one last week. The focus is a little soft, but I like it. :)

So NY was great. Mer fed me lots of tea and fancy cookies, apples with cinnamon, homemade guacamole and more tea. I could drink a whole gallon of tea every day, I think. Peppermint, Earl Grey, Lady Grey, Lemon Ginger. We sat at her little table with the elephant on it and chatted and chatted and chatted. We spotted some deer, and on the last night, three raccoons.

On Saturday we took Austin to a little outdoor reenactment village (very much like Old Sturbridge Village) and he met some surly chickens and a few uninterested goats. The ladies there cooed at him, and he enjoyed being outdoors in such fine weather. Later we went to a Goodwill and found some treasures - a scientific beaker I'm going to use as a bathroom drinking glass, some nice mismatched plates for holding jewelry (I'm going to keep one by the bed and one by the sink), a lion costume for the baby, some weird ugly silk flowers I'm going to spray paint black and turn into spooky Halloween decorations. Treasures! On Sunday we attempted to go to a flea market - we got there, but it turned out to be far too hot and sunny for fair baby skin. We pushed him around for awhile, bought some lemonade and went back. Monday I collected all his items and drove back home to NJ.

Like I said in my last post, it was nice to be away for a few days to recharge. Austin was a bit out of sorts, though. He's been fighting a head/chest cold for a little while now, and is on medication for the beginnings of an ear infection (poor thing - the medication smells wretched). And I think he really missed Theseus while we were away; he's normally a really great traveller, very adaptive and agreeable, but he was a bit of a beast in the evenings in NY. He tossed all night and slept fitfully. I barely slept, trying to console him and keep him from waking the entire house. It made the trip - you guessed it - stressful and tiring. Still, I'm glad we did it, the little guy and I. The look on Theseus' face when we pulled into the driveway on Monday made it worth it. :)

Ok, the husband is pestering me to go to bed. Taking the Earl with me.

I love this weather.

I have some photos to post for you, but not as many as I'd hoped, and I can't post them right now as I have too much to do and not enough time to do it and here I am procrastinating anyway. Hopefully tomorrow, while it's raining, I will have enough time to sit down and download my photo card. I also have to work on completing some Halloween projects, so we'll see how far I get.

I don't have a lot of time, but I just wanted to type a couple lines for you to let you all know I'm back in NJ and feeling warm and happy. The time in NY with Mer was wonderful but stressful at the same time. Austin travels very well and he loves people and isn't afraid of anything, but doing all the carrying and feeding and scheduling and changing and soothing by myself was tiring. Mer helped as much as she could (she is such an amazing friend to me, she and J both) but I missed the wordless communication I have with Theseus. He starts unsnapping an outfit while I get a diaper and wipes. He carries the baby while I get the diaper bag. I set the baby up in his high chair while Theseus gets a bib. Two cogs moving together.

I came home to a really cool Halloween display in our yard (with lights!) and rearranged furniture inside the house. Theseus had also begun decorating inside, cleaned up the living and dining rooms, taken the air conditioner out of the bedroom, changed the sheets and remade the bed, separated the laundry by color (!) and washed most of it, disassembled and boxed up the baby accessories we no longer use, and had lunch waiting for me when I got back to the house.

He separated. the laundry. by color. I nearly fell over.

So it ended up being a little more stressful and tiring than I'd anticipated, but I'm glad I went away for a few days. Three nights apart let us both recharge. Next time, though, he gets the baby. :)

I'll write more about my time in NY tomorrow. Now: time to study!

Even though we just got back from a mini-vacation (Concord, MA for our 5 year wedding anniversary), I'm taking another one! I'm leaving in a little while to visit Mer in NY for a couple days. Theseus was wonderful and packed up all the baby supplies for me while I slept in/procrastinated/took a 3-day shower. He has been so great throughout this trainwreck - he makes me tea when I don't even realize I need a cup, lets me eat fruit salad for dinner, decorated the outside of our house for Halloween while I was at school. Right now he is feeding the baby while I sit here not packing my own clothes for this trip. Somehow he was blessed with inhuman patience.

So you won't hear from me for the next few days, but I will try to post some photos when I get back. I know I always say that and then I get too lazy/end up forgetting, but I feel like I owe you guys some photos. Austin grows about 5 inches and 3 pounds every day*, so if I don't take frequent photos, before you know it he'll be in college.

Theseus just asked if I was going to put pants on before I leave. Oh yeah. Blogging without pants.

Enjoy your weekend!

---

*slight exaggeration

I've been away - you probably noticed. A number of trains were rushing toward me and after the resulting, continuous, obvious train wreck, I mentally walked away. I had no other choice. I'd never felt so overwhelmed, so completely drained, so physically tired, so naggingly sick.
    

and completely derailed my train of thought. :/

[This is the worst blog post in the history of blog posts. Sorry.]

We are not out of the woods yet, but we are getting there. Today I cleared another hurdle. Theseus has been clearing hurdles of his own as well. Continue to keep your fingers crossed for us, please.

Somewhat related: poison ivy is no longer itchy/terrible, now just a small group of discolored blotches on my forearm. Unless you are looking closely, you might not even notice them. Hopefully they will vanish completely in the coming week - we have a wedding to go to next weekend! (Which is also our 5 year anniversary.) I have nothing to wear. Jeans are probably out of the question, right?

Additional, somewhat related: vicious cold is going away, albiet s--l--o--w--l--y. I'm now weaning myself off the NyQuil addiction I developed. (kidding)
    

This is where I am. I can't sleep. My fingertips are chewed down to nothing. My hair is falling out. My head/chest cold won't go away. I think I can feel an ulcer developing.

Go see this one and that one - Is there a position? - gather the necessary paperwork - tie up loose ends, things I'd been neglecting - go see some more - talk and talk and talk, explain. Sit and wait and hope.

Search and apply, search some more, apply. Postings in MA, NJ, GA. Posting in Twin Falls, ID. Nationwide postings. Attach resume. Sit and wait and hope.

I'm trying to stay calm - like I said, I'm not quite at the panic stage yet. But I can see it on the horizon, and that worries me immensely. I'm no good at sitting, waiting, hoping.