Oct. 31: October in review

Time to sum up October at the Manullangs’ house.

Special days I celebrated this month and how:

• No big celebrations for us in October. Just the regular ones, y’know, like Tuesdays.
• Lucy’s first birthday was Oct. 22 and we forgot. Oops. She celebrated her big day like she does every day—tearing through the house, chewing on everything she shouldn’t, and generally being a loveable monster puppy.
• We celebrated Halloween, obvy. Katie was a nerd, Jack was a football player, and Victor and I were James Bond and a random Bond girl. All tremendous stretches, as you can imagine.

Books I read this month:

• I finished The Prisoner of Heaven, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. Compared to his other books in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books series, it seemed like only half a story; however, I enjoyed it and it kinda made The Angel’s Game make a little more sense. I eagerly await the next book.
• I started The Book Thief, by Marcus Zusak.
• My concentration is very short these days, and I haven’t been reading as much as usual. I hope to change that soon.

Movies and TV shows worth mentioning:

• I love having most of my favorite shows back on regular scheduling after a long summer of watching very little TV. ‘Round here there’s lots of Hulu watching of Grimm, Modern Family, The Middle, The Office, Parks & Rec, 30 Rock, Law & Order: SVU, Go On, Suburgatory…
• Katie and I saw Pitch Perfect. It was silly fun.
• Not a movie or TV show, but Victor and I saw a local production of the Broadway musical Avenue Q. Hilarious show.
• Very excited about Skyfall, the new James Bond movie (Nov. 9), and hoping Wreck-it Ralph (Nov. 2) will be a good family outing. Speaking of family outings, on Christmas Day, you’re going to find at least four Manullangs (and hopefully a Jenny-Saltmarsh) at Les Misérables!

Special or unusual purchases we made:

• I bought 50 mini pumpkins for the school’s Halloween party. Yes, that’s unusual.
• Mike’s Hard Pink Lemonade—it’s a special, October-only drink, and is very sweet and dangerously guzzle-able. Plus it helps fund cancer research—so it’s almost like you HAVE to drink it! If you don’t, I can only assume you like cancer.

This month’s disappointments:

• It was an incredibly stressful and busy month at school, and I found myself way over-committed. I plan to spend much of November catching up on sleep.
• I applied for a really cool part time job and didn’t make the cut. Bummer. All I want is a few (more) hours of fulfilling work each week with excessively high pay—is that so much to ask?
• Fall arrived. It’s my least favorite season, what with all the dead stuff and messy leaves and crappy weather and colds and flu. Pffft.
• I was very, very sad to hear that one of my cousins (actually, my cousin’s daughter) died unexpectedly. She was a few years younger than me. She went into a coma after having a bad reaction to medication and never woke up. We’ve also lost an uncle and aunt this year—not a good time to be a Saltmarsh.

My accomplishments

• It has nothing to do with me, but Katie’s cross-country team won their division championship, and Jack’s football team made the playoffs. I’m proud of my kids.

• I voted. Victor cancelled out one of my votes, but it was nothing important (to me). Better than most years. You’d think after 15 years of marriage that I’d have taught him better not to disagree with me.

• The incredibly stressful and busy month at school had some very good results—all events were well-attended, fundraisers are on track to meet our goal, and corporate donations are pouring in. Yay! As each big event ends, I remind myself that it’s my last year at the elementary school and IT DOESN’T EVEN MAKE ME SAD. Maybe next year at this time I’ll feel a big empty spot, but for now I look forward to a life NOT run by PTO.

Anything else noteworthy:

I can’t think of a single thing, mostly cuz I’m . Here are funnies:

 

And finally, this is my friend Val.
Is she the cutest thing ever?
I think she just might be.
And that’s her way-sweet grandma in the background,
adoring her granddaughter.
I love that family!

Go ahead, November. Give me all ya got. I can take it. (And by “it,” I mean “a nap,” which I’d like several of starting tomorrow, thankyouverymuch.)

Oct. 26: A totally legitimate post

On nights like these, I miss Sabbath. There’s not much I regret about leaving my SDA upbringing, but having an excuse to take a day off and relax was pretty handy. All of the naps, none of the guilt!

Last night was the school’s multicultural fair that Shannon and I created pretty much from scratch. We should have just stolen an idea from the Internet, but instead we re-invented the wheel. Not the brightest idea, we repeatedly realized, but OH EM GEE, it turned out to be such a fun event! About a million people showed up—approximately 999,994 more than we expected—and families really seemed to have a great time. It’s so nice to start something new and then hear good chatter about it.

But it all wore me plum out. I’m absolutely exhausted and OH! What I wouldn’t give to spend a few days in bed, ignoring emails and texts and phone calls. But nooo, tomorrow I have to go to Jack’s football game at 1pm. After that I have to go to a pumpkin patch to buy 100 mini pumpkins for Family Night at 6:30pm. And at some point, I have to figure out a costume I can wear to Family Night that won’t get melted by the popcorn machine.

Since I have nothing interesting to say, here are funny things I’ve been collecting:

Enjoy your weekend, friends! If you have time, please nap the hell out of an afternoon for me.

Aug. 31: IDCEAYWTPFriday

Yay! It’s Friday! I feel like this week has been nonstop go-go-go (as opposed to nonstop go-go, which would actually be kinda groovy), and I’m finally getting time to breathe. Breathing’s good.

• I’m sleeping again. This makes me and my family happier than you can imagine. In fact, I’ve been going to bed around 10pm all week, which is quite early for me, and sleeping eight or nine hours each night. It’s very nice. It’s amazing how much a good night’s rest helps us cope, y’know?
• This morning I watched the pilot episode of The Mindy Project and thought it was adorably charming. I’m not a huge fan of Kelly, Mindy Kaling’s character on The Office—she’s completely insane in a not adorably charming way—but I like her as a real person in interviews, and eagerly got Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) when it came out last year. I was disappointed in the book—seems there’s a lot more Kelly in Mindy than I thought. So… liking her new TV show was a surprise to me. Watch it.
• My email server is farked up and I don’t know why. I haven’t had time to investigate it thoroughly this week, but if you need to reach me, go through Facebook or email me at one of my other email addresses, like jennifermanullang-at-gmail-dot-com.
• I’m totally hooked on the logo quiz games on the iPhone. There are tons of them—lots online too. See how much you suck at identifying logos! Actually, it’s pathetic how many logos I do recognize—I can’t remember how math works, but I sure can identify the Chupa Chups logo. Gah.
• A few weeks ago I was interviewed by the editor of the West Linn Tidings—or as she’s known here at Stuff Jen Says, Fancy Lori™—for a special “Living with Cancer” feature in Portland’s community newspapers. It came out this week. I don’t know yet if it’ll be online, so I took pictures to show ya. Here’s the cover—that’s me and Victor in the upper right:

And here’s the article that Lori wrote so well.

• I can’t believe school starts next week—August went so quickly. Jack will be in fifth grade and Katie’s going into seventh. I love, love, LOVE that they are growing up—no wistful what-happened-to-my-babies? from this mom. Well, maybe when they start driving, but that’ll be from fear, not wistfulness.
• Jack took this picture of Lucy in front of her favorite hanging-out spot and snack area. I edited it to show where she likes to chew on the window frame. She is the biggest termite I have ever seen. Also the cutest.

Have a good holiday weekend. Happy September!

Aug. 22: Another post

I’m running on two hours’ sleep (ten for the week so far), with a meeting at 10am and another at 7pm. It’s either gonna be a long day or I’m going to the 7pm meeting with some really bad pillowhead (but alert!).

Here’s some misc stuff:

• My dreams—few though they’ve been, given the number of hours I’ve slept this week—have recently been all about the Manullang Geisha House. I’m reading Memoirs of a Geisha and it has completely invaded my unconscious and I’m not OK with this. I mean, I have nothing against geisha, but for the last four mornings I’ve awakened angry at Victor for starting this little family biz. Why would he do that? We don’t have enough going on already???
• Today is Mike Devitt’s birthday, according to Facebook. Happy birthday, Mike! Here’s a balloon.

• I’m kinda pissed because yesterday there was a shooting at the Clackamas Fred Meyer and my friend Stephanie was in there with her family at the time. She was neither the shooter nor the victim; in fact, her family got out unharmed, but STILL. Scariest thing EVER. People are assholes. Not Stephanie. I love Stephanie. And I’m glad she’s alive. Grocery shopping shouldn’t be this dangerous.
• Grimm is back! I think it might annoy me this season. Cliffhangers at the end of every episode? I usually hate shows like that. Also, for you locals—what hospital was that in Monday’s episode? My guess was Good Sam; Vic’s was something else but he was wrong.
• Have I told you lately how much I love football? I haven’t? Hm.
• Chuckles:

 

 

Let’s all take naps today. Seriously. We’re gonna need ‘em. Especially Mike, who is super-old now.

Jul. 24: Sleepy

It’s hot out today and Katie and I just got home from shopping and I’m doing my darndest to stay awake. Unfortunately, blogging is not helping, so I’m off to take a nap. Never fear! I’m leaving you with a boring meme (because I’m off to take a nap, duh).

Naps.

Good.

1. What’s the last movie you saw in a theater?
   Cars 2.
2. What book are you reading right now?
   I’m in the middle of three different books right now, and have hardly read any of them lately. Obviously they’re highly entertaining…
3. What’s your favorite board game?
   I love board games; it’s hard for me to choose just one. The ones I like to play most are Cranium, Monopoly, and Scrabble.
4. What’s your favorite magazine?
   I rarely read magazines anymore, but I’m always up for a good perusing of People.
5. What are some of your favorite smells?
   Lavender, brownies, The Body Shop…
6. Do you have a favorite sound?
   I’m not sure anything beats the sound of many, many coins falling out of a slot machine in Vegas.
7. What’s the worst feeling in the world?
   When you realize the last Oreo is gone. Also, despair.
8. What is the first thing you think of when you wake up?
   “What day is it?”
9. What’s your favorite fast food place?
   Burgerville
10. What’s under your bed?
    Storage boxes
11. Finish this sentence: “If I had lot of money, I’d...”
    …go on a vacation. A long one. And I’d invite you to join me.
12. Storms: cool or scary?
    If I’m somewhere safe, they’re cool.
13. What’s your favorite drink?
    Iced tea
14. If you had to dye your hair another color, what would it be?
    I loved being blonde.
15. Where’s your favorite place to relax?
    Sunriver or the Oregon Coast. The Disney Cruise Line’s verandahs aren’t so bad either.
16. Name all the different cities you’ve lived in.
    Oregon: Medford, Beaverton, Portland, Tigard, Hillsboro, Milwaukie, Clackamas
    Washington: College Place
17. What is your favorite spectator sport?
    Baseball

Feel free to play along in a comment or your own blog.

‘Night.

Jul. 19: Excitement!

 

Have a terrific Tuesday!

Feb. 7: Daybook

Today…

Outside my window... there is sky and clouds and trees and things going on. Pretty sure.

I am thinking... about how very, very tired I am, and that this week I’m probably not going to be as productive as I’d like to be. My mom is spending some time here this week, though, so it oughta be fun being unproductive with her.

I am thankful for... a successful school carnival on Saturday night. We did well $-wise, but most importantly, it seemed like the kids had a great time. We went through over 10,000 game tickets! That’s way up from previous years. We’re not sure how this year was any different than others, but we had a great turnout and we’ll take it.

I am creating... a vision in my head of what I want my office to look like. I’m picturing a variety of wall colors, trying to decide which one is best, and also picturing a different arrangement of furniture. And fewer papers. I’d looove to have fewer papers piled up in there.

I am going... to get busy planning some activities for Katie’s birthday slumber party on Friday. Why do I find all the cute ideas when it’s too late to actually use them? I curse my belated planning! More specifically, I curse that school carnival for taking all my attention these past few weeks. Katie’s chosen a cupcake theme for her party (cute!), and she wants to watch Beverly Hills Chihuahua II (god help us). Victor and Jack are being sent away.

I am hoping... to recuperate a little this week from the sheer exhaustion of all the work that went into making the carnival happen. Today I slept in until 8 (not nearly late enough) and fell asleep again at 11 and slept ‘til after 3pm. That was quite lovely. I hope for more and more naps this week, but I’d be happy for a short one every day. Yes.

I am hearing... Victor snore. (I’m writing this at 1am Monday morning because I can’t sleep.)

A few plans for the rest of the week: Work a little, spend time at the school a little, go to the bank a little, see my mom a little. Good stuff.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing. I stole it from Sherilee’s blog:

Want to blog your own Daybook? Here’s the info: The Simple Woman’s Daybook.

Dec. 3: IDCEAYWTPFriday

It’s Friday, and that means you get a post called I Don’t Care Enough About You to Write in Transitioning Paragraphs Friday.

• Are you like me? Are you tired of people who are famous for no reason whatsoever finding ways to continue being famous? Here’s a perfect example of how far this goes. “TMI,” indeed.
• (Not sure I’ll be eating—or doing anything else with—mayonnaise for a long, long time.)
• I slept from 1:00 a.m. on Wednesday night (Thursday morning) until 1:40 p.m. yesterday. No matter how much you say, “You must have needed it!” I still feel like a lazy ass. Imagine my relief when I went to the school for pick-up in the afternoon and saw that my kids had actually gotten there okay. I vaguely remember pushing them out the door yesterday morning before I went back to bed.
• The tree is decorated and we’re slowly getting the rest of the house all festive and holiday-ish. Last night Victor and I sat in the family room with Christmas music on and enjoyed the simplicity of a (brief) immersion in the spirit of the season. I do love this time of year, even if it stresses me more than it should.
• My friend Jay posted this video on FB the other day. This is still one of my favorite of the oh-so-silly Christmas songs, and now it feels all updated with new animation and makes me love it all over again. Enjoy!

• Tomorrow we’re going to a Civil War game party. Neither of us attended Oregon universities, so we don’t know who to cheer for, and I gotta say that I really don’t care if anyone wins (I suspect one of the teams will, though). I got a chuckle out of this Facebook status from one of Kim F’n’s sons yesterday: In honor of Civil War week, repost if you know someone who suffers from being an Oregon State fan. Being a Beaver Fan is a real disorder and should be taken seriously. There is still no known cure for BFD and sympathy does not help. We can raise awareness! 100% of Oregon fans will repost this simply because we know how to copy and paste, as well as tie our shoes, etc. YELL-OOOOOOOOOO!!!! (Sorry, dear Wendy—personally, I have no problem with Beaver fans.)
• Feeling grateful that Sherilee made it back from her Hawaiian anniversary vacation. Welcome home!
• When we chose Scout from her litter of beagle puppies, we chose the pup with the best “friendly” qualities. She happened to be a girl. Casey, another female, came to us as a stray. When we went to the pound a couple years ago to choose a kitten, we only looked at females because male cats can be territory-markers and aggressive-like, and we wanted a lover, not a fighter. Victor was surprised, then, when I chose a male as my favorite from Oliver’s litter, because he assumed I’d want yet another girl pet. There have been just a few times I’ve regretted choosing a male, and every one of those times has involved a view like this one:

• (I adore Oliver, but all I want for Christmas is to get rid of those things.)
• The Wii drums Jack ordered with his birthday money arrived this week. We are sooo the Partridge Family. I’m totally strapping tambourines to the dogs.
• Who knew this store existed? We all need Marty Moose cups and dickies, right?
• When we got our Christmas stuff out of the attic I asked Vic to grab my high school keepsakes box, which had not been opened since I packed it up in 1993. It was a little bit like opening a time capsule. Turns out it wasn’t just high school keepsakes; I’m a terrible labeler of packing boxes. It also contained research projects from college, grade school yearbooks, and report cards as far back as second grade. (If the report cards are stacked just right, you can turn them into a flip-book and watch me get dumber and dumber as the years go by—not exactly awesome, but, well, kind of awesome.) Katie’s favorite item was a Z100 bumper sticker from 1985—that makes it vintage, right?—and mine was my stack of Agapeland records. All of them were there—Music Machine, Bullfrogs & Butterflies, Sir Oliver’s Song, Nathaniel the Grublet, and The Birthday Party. Now I need to borrow that LP-to-MP3 converter we got for Wellington a few years ago and my kids will soon hear the terrible Jesus-y trash I loved so much at their age. Hey, at least there weren’t any of those creepy Little Marcy records in my time capsule. I am really, really, really hoping I burned them. If I ever run across Little Marcy albums, you can expect to find me rocking back and forth, sweating profusely and muttering about the apocalypse. Pretty sure. I think Sunshine will be right at my side—Little Marcy is a horrific memory of our childhoods we bonded over in the very beginning.
  

• Tonight is Manullang Family Movie Night™, and the kids chose a few of our favorite short holiday movies: Olive, the Other Reindeer and Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas. Maybe Elf after that?

Enjoy your weekend, friends.

Sep. 21: Daybook

Today…

Outside my window... the weather’s kinda sucky. Fall is here, for sure. Summer was awfully short in the Northwest this year.

I am thinking... about how much I’d love to go to bed right now. I’m not even a little bit tired, though. I had chemotherapy today, and the steroid always keeps me awake for a few days unless I do something about it. Tonight I’m going the Benadryl route. Anyway, I’ll be thankful for the energy tomorrow, when I’ve got a million things to do.

I am thankful for... commas. (That’s for you, Val.)

I am working on... lots of forms and flyers for upcoming meetings, etc. Getting the PTO budget up to date. Too much, really. If you know me, though, you know I thrive on this stuff. Gimme more!

I am going... to read Cosmo before I go to sleep tonight. Such trash!

I am reading... um… Cosmo. Don’t you pay attention?

I am hoping... Cosmo will help me fall asleep. Also that I can get back into the mode of regularly updating my blog again. The overwhelming-ness of everything lately has left me with little creativity or urge to write.

I am hearing... “showtunes radio” on Pandora. Love it. I’m thumbs down-ing all that Andrew Lloyd Webber junk though. Oh, how I hate everything that guy’s ever done. Ick.

Around the house... the puppy is showing some signs that maybe he isn’t so well potty-trained after all. Fortunately, he’s highly motivated by food, so we just need to treat him more often and he’ll remember the important things. Our next lesson: not licking my tongue.

One of my favorite things... is spending time with friends. I’ve been so lucky this week, and it’s only Tuesday! Here’s Val, me, Sunshine and Kim F’n at lunch yesterday:

We are very, very happy to be together. We are also very, very happy that our tummies are full of yummy cheese fondue and other German delights. One thing about which we’re dreadfully sad is Sherilee’s absence. She was unable to make it to Portland and we missed her very much. NEXT TIME, FOR SURE.

Plans for the rest of the week: the first PTO membership meeting of the year is tomorrow afternoon. That’s a biggie. There are tons of things I need to get done around the house too. I shall be as busy as a beeeeee.

Here’s a photo I want to share:

This is my dear friend, Kim F’n, and her fiancé, Eric. Yep, they’re getting married! I’m so happy for them! They’re doing the Brady Bunch thing and it’s going really well—such a blessing. Watch for lots of updates over the next several months. Maybe even a countdown clock to their big day. Happy friends make Jen happy too.

Congratulations!

What’s your celebrity couple name? Keric? Erm?

Also, Eric, that’s exactly like the shirt Jack wore for his school pictures today. I’m pretty sure he’ll think that’s way cooler news than you will.

Want to blog your own Daybook? Here’s the info: The Simple Woman’s Daybook.

For now, I leave you with my favorite quote from the Broadway musical Avenue Q: “We'll be fine, thank you! See ya! Hope you don't get gonorrhea!”