Drum set...

Not much going on around here. Our game against Lincoln last night got postponed due to water on the field... which is a shame, because we were on the verge of administering a world class beatdown to.... Lincoln?

Nico has been pretty cool. Sunday night after we got him to bed, Dave and I sat down to watch the River Murders. It has Ray Liotta, Ving Rhames and Christian Slater, so I am thinking... alright this has got to be pretty good. It wasnt. Not at all. I am kinda annoyed that I paid cash money to watch it.

Anyways, afterwards, we were hanging out reading and surfing the tube when Nico came running out of his room. The house was pretty dark, so I didnt see him till he was running across the living room and scared the dickens out of me.

Last night when Dave and I got home from the movie we went to see (because we already had our sitter arranged and lets be real, we dont get to see movies very often... we saw the Ides of March, BTW) Nico hung out with us eating chex mix and drinking juice... he was sharing the chex mix with Drake and both were tickled. Nico has the best silent laugh/smile when he is really pleased with himself.

When he was here, Uncle Cody made a tool bench for Nico... it originally started as a project I wanted him to help me with... but let's be real here, it would have looked pretty jacked up if I had anything to do with it... and also, I am not real good at taking direction. So its probaby for the better. In any case, its amazing. I love it. I cant wait to start staining it this weekend. Its going to be a Christmas gift for Nico... speaking of which, I am pretty sure that Nico is probably going to get a real drum set this Christmas... between Nicody and Granny You I think its a done deal. I kinda wish that he were a little older and had a brother so they could re-enact this scene for me:



Maybe with fewer F-Bombs!!

Holiday!!

What is this, you say? A blog post from Jessi? Unreal!! Weird!

Well, I am back on the grind... dealing with soccer games being rescheduled and moved and work. Bleh.
The thanksgiving holiday turned out pretty awesome. Nicole and Cody and the kids drove in last weekend and rented a house. Mom and Dad came to town and JJ too, and they stayed there, which beats the hell out of the LaQuinta, which is Spanish apparently for Bleh hotel.

They came to our games last week (versus Rickards and versus Florida High). The Florida High game was a hell of a game- we played our asses off!! And won... whoot!! Nico's cousin Max got to be a ball boy for both games, which while fun for him was a little bit of a beat down for his dad.

The kids all got along pretty well... Nico was mostly interested in playing with Max and Emme was mostly interested in playing with Nico... but there werent many fights... except when Nico colored in one of Max's books. To be fair, it looked like a coloring book :)

I made four pies for dinner... pumpkin, apple, lemon meringue and pecan. I dont know why I was convinced that we needed an pumpkin pie (maybe I thought Gay liked it). But the only piece that anyone ate out of it was Emme. The pecan and lemon meringue pies were gone on Saturday (which is what happens when you eat pie for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks). Here is a picture of the kids helping me make the apple pie:

Dinner was pretty good, I think, although I made ALOT of food. We ended up having a ton of leftovers, which I cant decide is good or bad. I guess its good because we dont have to cook this week... maybe bad that I have no idea how to judge how much food is needed? Or maybe I didnt account for people filing up on snacks throughout the day? I don't know. In any case, I layed down to take a little power nap at 7pm on Thursday and didnt wake up till 8am on Friday morning (yikes!!). I was worn out!!

Friday evening, we tried to get some photos for christmas cards done (plus Nicole and Cody need a new family adoption photo). Of about 400 pictures that were taken of us, JJ and Max ruined a majority of the pictures. Can't say I am surprised really... JJ has been ruining family photos for 28 years, dont know why he'd stop now :)

Overall, it was a pretty good holiday. I read two books. I know. How crazy is that? I read the hunger games and the second book (Catching Fire). Both were pretty good. Am looking forward to getting the last one.

All for now. Have a great monday!!

Do you know Borund?

Nico is really saying some funny things lately... some are things he comes up with on his own... some are things that just surprise me...

So, its no surprise that Nico loves drums... most kinds. In fact, he was at something a little while ago and got introduced to the Bodhran (pronounced like Borund). Its pretty cool because its a hand-held drum and you play with only one stick. As seen here:


Well... one of the really funny things he is saying lately is, "Do you know Borund?" Its pretty great.

He is also saying stock phrases whenever we play ball. So he will say, "Good pass, mom" or "Almost!" (even if he is not even anywhere even close to the basket). Which is pretty hilarious.

And the boy LOVES biscuits. Biscuits. He actually asked for them last night. I was coming back from practice and Dave texted me to say that Nico wanted biscuits. It's not very often that he makes a request for something, so if its not too terribly inconvienent, I will try to get it for him. So we had KFC last night. For dinner. Uggh. Luckily they have a grilled recipe now... but I sorta feel like going to KFC for grilled chicken is kinda like going to a whorehouse for a hug... know what I am sayin?

Also, he says "I'm just happy," whenever I catch him cracking himself up. Sometimes we will be eating dinner and he will be eating something he likes (like biscuits or oranges or grapes) and he is doing the big smile/silent laugh thing. I ask him what is going on and he says, "I'm just happy." Its pretty much amazing.

Imma let you finish, but this drum is the best!!

So the weekend was pretty fun. We had Friday off (Thanks DAD and Mike!!) But I went down to the county for a team bonding session that consisted of a short run and some stretching and yoga. After, we went to one of our players’ houses for breakfast. Mama Williams threw down… egg casserole, pancakes, biscuits and gravy, the works. It was pretty good. Nico and Dave joined us for breakfast. After breakfast, we ran Nico home and hung out for a little while, till our sitter came. Then we had to run back down to the county for a game against Pensacola. It ended up being a pretty good game, despite the fact that we were missing several players due to injuries and cross country (who were running at Regionals. Damn them- they made it to state… so now we’re without them for another week).

Saturday we hung around the house for most of the morning… I rearranged the kitchen cabinets and did some cleans. In the afternoon we headed to a birthday party where Nico made like Kanye West (remember when he jumped on stage during Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the VMAs?) The gift we got for the birthday boy was a little drum/musical instrument set. But Nico kept trying to play with it… it was like, “Yo! Dillion, Ima let you finish unwrapping all dese gifts… but this drum is the best!” It was pretty great.

Saturday night I ran a couple of errands that included cracker barrel corn muffin mix (for Thanksgiving) and a serious conversation with the meat guys at Earth Fare… I reserved our Thanksgiving Bird from the hippie store. I know.. . Could I be more of a yuppie?
Sunday we hit up the fare. We happened to get there during a special time that was super cheap. We made our way to the petting zoo part of it, where by Nico fed sheep, goats, cows, lamas and such. He had a pretty good time! He kissed several of the animals on the nose… it was pretty much adorbs!! He also kept grabbing all the hay and throwing it on the animals. I don’t know why he kept doing this. But he did.

Other than that, it was a pretty chill weekend. Nico is really getting interested in sports lately. He has taken to throwing balls in the house… which I know I should stop… like its all funny and cute and everything, but if he ever develops a fastball, we are in trouble. He catches a lot now, which is cool. He is also “throwing a soccer ball in” proper now… which is hilarious, because his throw in is better than half the girls that play for Rickards. Just sayin…

He is also starting to incorporate the high front leg throw (like baseball pitchers, which is funny). Even better is he is starting to argue now. Last night he argued with Dave that horses don’t sleep, they just eat hay. I have no idea where he gets this from…

WHS Soccer Blog

Also, if anyone is interested in keeping up with the Wakulla High School War Eagles... check out our blog:
http://whsgirlssoccer2011-2012season.blogspot.com/

Wherein, I begin to braggity brag...

So… I officially started my new job yesterday. I am working on a project that is federally funded by the AHRQ (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality) at the FSU College of Medicine. The University and the State have dumped a lot of money into the College of Medicine, so its pretty swank… no tile floors… lots of offices… not nail holes in the walls… lots of the nice heavy furniture. I park in a lot that is between the soccer field and the Med School. And its amazing.

There have been two studies to date that examine post-discharge adverse events. So when someone goes to the hospital and they are discharged, some have negative events. Like they might go home and have an infection, or a heart attack or whatever. This study is going to follow individuals who are discharged to determine if they have a negative event and what factors are associated with them. It’s pretty much amazing. Its only the second study of this kind to be performed in the United States. Plus we have some big timers on the grant, so its possible this might get in some of the bigger journals (like American Journal of Public Health or Journal of the American Medical Association). Frankly, I am going to have a kitten if I am co-author on a paper that gets accepted to JAMA. Because then I will just have to tell all those sociology snobs that think the only place to publish is ARS to kiss my ass. Just sayin…

In any case, I have my own office. I have dual monitors. In reality, that is all I need in life. And you think I am being a nerd, because you have never rocked the dual monitor situation. Once you go to two, you never go back… you can have your email on one side, and your web browser on the other. You can have your email on one side a Word document with the blog post you are writing to your family on the other. Boo yah!! Know what is also awesome? My computer, the network, the internetz are blazing… and, I have the browser I want (google chrome), not IE7, which sucks. I also have new office. Which is also cool… I swear everytime I wanted to do something in MS Office that wasn’t straight typing, I always had to google how to do it because, really? Who still uses Office 1997-2003?

Of course, I am in the honey moon phase of pimping out my office. I have a 7 foot tall bookshelf and lots of space for my files… which means that I can take all the books/binders/articles, etc that I have from when I was evicted from my office in the pop center, which are currently residing in haphazard stacks all over our back porch. I am sure Dave is going to be happy about this.

Nico, Soccer, Polo, and Puppies in the pool

Am I really down to one post a week? Man, I suck at life!

The weekend was pretty great!! We started out with a game at the Meadows against Maclay. Typically, Maclay beats us when we play. We started closing the gap last year when we lost 2-1 and defended a good bit of the time. This year we went at them pretty tough... and while they were missing their goal scoring machine, we were missing our Iron Lady, Norma Rae, who usually puts the muscle on their goal scoring machine, rendering her useless for the night. We went up pretty early and hung on to the lead for most the game until a handball by our GK outside the box. This resulted in a free kick and a goal and a reassessment of how terrible we are on defending set pieces.

Here is Nico... our sitter had to go home to see her doctor, so guess who came to the game and was annoyed he had to be there? Hint: his name rhymes with Rico.

Why does he have a tennis racket? That is a great question. I have no idea why!! Here is an earlier video, I took of Nico last week at the Taylor tournament. This is usually what it is like whenever he is at the field with us:



Saturday morning, Nico and I went to the gym (he went to the kids room). When we came home we really quick got ready to go to the Polo game. John Paul II a catholic high school here had a fundraiser at a horse farm out in Monticello. So we went and watched. It was pretty fun. Nico was relatively good- but was bored pretty quickly. He did get to sit on one of the referee's horses... named Holiday. That was pretty sweet. Will try to get the picture I took of him up later.

True story: I want to own a small farm. Something big enough to have chickens, sheep and maybe a cow. And a HUGE vegetable garden, some fruit trees. I had relegated this as a project for after Nico went off to college, thinking that this would only be possible if we could live way out in the country, which Dave does not want to do. However, after visiting the farm for the polo match, we had a good conversation about it... turns out we weren't communicating very well. Which is cool... because it means the next place we live might work for us living on a farm. Maybe.

We chilled out easy on Saturday night. Sunday morning, I woke up and went for a run. After, we prepared to take the dogs to the annual Puppies in the Pool... where we take the dogs to Truesdale pool, which they open up to dogs the last weekend of the year (before they clean it).



It was pretty fun. Nico was getting ready to throw the ball when Drake lunged forward and snatched it out of his hand. It scared Nico pretty bad, so he wanted to cuddle for the rest of the time there. We won a raffle drawing, which was cool because we never win anything. We won a leash, which would be really cool if we walked our dogs... but they are pretty much beasts whenever we walk, so we dont walk them very much.

Nico's overly cuddliness on Sunday ended up being the first signs of sickness... and he commenced ralphing at about 430. It was really random. But he had a pretty high fever, so I just hung out with him at the house. We layed on the couch and watched TV till he fell asleep. I stayed home with him on Monday and he was pretty much better by the evening.

That is all... except for this video of Nico feeding the guess, which I forgot to embed. Enjoy!!

Trick or Treating and Soccer...

Halloween was pretty fun last night. I burned up some more AL by staying home from work. I made a pot of corn chowder (delish). I went with the standard $20.00 Halloween costume from Target. I have come to the conclusion that I am plenty of things: dedicated, hard working, committed, etc. But I am not very clever nor particularly smart. It's okay... I am perfectly on board with this characterization. While I may never come up with a clever solution to a problem, I am your girl if you need the problem worked to death. I can do that. This translates to Nico not having particularly creative or clever halloween costume ideas. That's okay.

Behold: the cute monkey. Without his monkey head on. Oh well.

At the Halloween party at his school, Nico ran around with his little friends Avery and Alice. Avery was in an adorable peacock costume- they basically ran and ran and ran. It was hilarious. I will try to post some pictures tomorrow.

We drove over to Lafayette park and did trick or treating over there. We saw several people that Dave knew. One of them let us in their house and showed Nico a REAL guitar. The boy is in LOVE. The friend held the guitar up to Nico so he could strum... he thought it was *VERY* cool. So while I was kinda okay about Nico wanting to be a drummer, I am not sure I am as on board with him wanting to be a guitar player... I have met very few guitar players that weren't tool-bags in real life. Just sayin...

We did well in our preseason tournament over the weekend. We ended up finishing 2nd overall. We won two games beating Santa Fe and Bucholtz (both Gainesville teams) to do it. Santa Fe ended up being much easier than we expected.... and Bucholtz, well we played them hard.  We held them to a 0-0 tie for 65 minutes... in the last 5 minutes our little transfer from Fl High last year scored on a corner kick that seemed controversial. We held on to win and had a shoot out with Ft. White after the game to settle a tie in points for second... Out GK came up with a save and forced one to the cross bar to clinch the shootout and 2nd place... so that was pretty cool. I can't wait to see the AD on Thursday and be all like, "here, please take this trophy- I dont have room for this..."

There were two really interesting things from this weekend... Thig, Amy and Taylor all played *VERY* well. Thig is a junior who has been hurt the last two years... she is healthy now and looks to have put some muscle on... and is doing great. Taylor and Amy seem to have figured out the high school game, because they are just dominating... Its awesome. We are at a place now where all three are contributing. Which is awesome.

Another interesting result is that we beat Santa Fe 6-2. Madi (our little big gun) scored 5 (2 unassisted). Lincoln beat Santa Fe 4-0, which is admirable. But we beat them 6-2, with Madi scoring more goals against Santa Fe than all of Lincoln scored against them. This is interesting. Our game against them in a month will be very interesting indeed.

In any case, we open our regular season tonight against Madison County. Looking forward to it.