Cookies and Santa

So we had a really great weekend.  We played Leon to a 1-1 tie at home on Friday night.  We trailed for most of the game and equalized 4 minutes from the end.  It was awesome.  LOVE it when we tie and beat them. Even funnier is that Florida High did the same thing to us on Tuesday.  I love not being on that end of it- giving up a late equalizer.

My friend LaVon was getting rid of an elliptical and we had plans for her to bring it over on Saturday morning, which meant we needed to get rid of stuff to make room for it.  Which is awesome.

Saturday afternoon, we had Nico's friend Ovid over to make Cookies.  It was pretty great.  Of course Nico is totally an only child.  So there were a couple of meltdowns over boots and firecoat and trucks.  Mostly on Nico's end.  you know, its funny, because they are best friends, but they totally start getting after each other when they get together.  I think its mostly because they are kinda different... Nico is into sports and trucks and firefighters.  Ovid is into dress-up play, role playing, and pretending.  

Sunday we went to see Santa.  We waited in line for about an hour.  But it was worth the wait. Yes, he is wearing the firecoat he had on the day before.  He basically wears it every day he can.  

Nico asked for a police officer costume and a real fire tuck.  

After, Nico got to ride some ride-on trucks.  It was pretty cool.  He loved it. While he was riding, Dave and I got chair massages.  They were awesome.  

Sunday night Dave and Nico made us pizza for dinner.  It was gluten-free.  Dave didn't think it was all that great- but it was okay.  Apparently, I am going to have to show him how we do things in the Bishop house.  

We are really starting to look forward to the trip to Michigan.  It looks like we might get a little snow while we are there, which would be awesome.  I am mostly looking forward to sleeping in, taking naps, and seeing family.    

Family trips with Nico and Emme and Maddox are great, because its fun to see them all playing together.  Even if Nico does act like a spoiled only child.  Sometimes. 

Firefighter Nico

I am barely hanging on... all I have to do is make it to December 21.  Soccer season is in full swing now- we are doing well, I think we're 11-3, not bad.  Although most of those wins arent against legitimate teams.

Its just been crazy- like last night we played in Madison- I didnt get back till midnight and Nico was asleep, back in the office at 6am, because I gotta boogie at 3pm to get down to the county for a game.  We're almost there... and Nico is almost old enough to come to games, which is awesome.  He is still hit or miss- when we were at Rickards, he wanted to run the track during the game.  When we were at home against East Gadsden, he was a peach and sat on the bench with me.  And snuggled.  When he can come to the games and entertain himself and run around and tear stuff up, we will be all the way there.  And that will be awesome.

Nico is really feeling his firefighter gear lately.  We havent been able to find his hat- so I guess its about time Santa take care of that.  I think Nico is probably going to ask for a mask too, when we go see Santa.  He asks pretty much everyday when we are going to see Santa... which is weird.  I am not sure what all that is about...I wonder if he is planning on actually speaking to him :)

The good news is that I got a request for a phone interview. It's a research associate job- helping people do research and conducting my own research.  Its a good school too.  Not tenure track, but I don't even care.  So that is good.

And then there is this:


This was at the park last week.  I am probably a bad mom for taking video instead of helping.  But seriously, the try before this?  He totally did it by himself when I was on the other side of the playground.

We got a christmas tree this weekend.  Yay!!  It is up, but not decorated yet.  :(  But hopefully, Nico and I can take care most of that on Wednesday.

Getting caught up

So, a rare blog post from Jessica Bishop-Royse?  I know.  Isn't that crazy?  Life has been pretty out of control during the last couple of weeks.  Soccer, travel, work, illness, etc.

I guess we should pick up with Thanksgiving.  We went down to Miami for Thanksgiving with Dave's parents.  This was pretty fun- if you dont mind being in the car all day.  Seriously, I wish Florida would get their act together and get a train.  That drive is LONG and BORING.  Nico had a really great time at the grand parents house.  They live pretty close to the ocean, so I walked or ran on the beach pretty much every day while I was there- which was nice.  

Dave got a pretty nasty stomach bug while we were there :(  He started getting it on Thanksgiving night and brought it home.  Here is Nico helping me whip cream for pecan pie.  

Also, for some reason, it seems to be okay to let Nico run around in just his underpants.  Here he is taking the garbage to the schute (Grandma and Grandpa live in a condo on Bay Harbor Island.)  Getting to put the garbage in the schute was pretty much Nico's favorite part of being there.  

Dave and I got to go see Lincoln- which was really good.  

When we got back, Dave caught some flu bug from someone at work.  Last weekend he tried pretty hard to kick it, loading up on Vitamin C and sleeps.  Meanwhile, I tried to keep Nico away from it as much as possible.  On Friday, we met Nico's friend Ovid at the Mall, to play on the indoor playground- which was pretty fun.

On Saturday, Nico and I went to the story to get the goods to make cookies.  For some (unknown) reason, I got nostalgic about the old crank cookie press that I used to make cookies with in Mom's kitchen.  So I, feeling a bit spry, thought, "I am going to get one of those- but instead of getting the old junky kind, I am going to get something new and sleek- maybe something from Williams and Sonoma."  15 bucks later, I was the proud new owner of a cookie press from Williams and Sonoma. Once I figured out how to work it- it was pretty cool, except for the fact that the canister held about enough dough for 5 cookies.  Not everything that is newer is better.  It seemed like mom's old crank cookie press held enough dough for 34982795872 cookies.  Oh well.  

These cookies werent that great either.  Maybe their only real purpose is to act as a frosting delivery device- in which case, these would be amazing.  But they just werent real sweet or appetizing.  Maybe I will have better luck next time.  

Saturday night, Nico and I had a date for the Nutcracker.  I got tickets on Groupon a while ago, and I was thinking this would be amazing.  Especially since it had been, literally 20 years since I had seen the nutcracker and I had mostly forgotten most of it- I do remember there is the dance of the sugar plum fairies, which was cool, but that was about it.  

The plan was that we would go to the nutcracker and if Nico was really good, we would go have dinner at Cracker Barrell (he loves the crap out of the store) and Dave was supposed to play Crazy 8s (coed soccer on Saturday night).  Well, Dave was sick and he didnt go to that.  And the hour wait that Nico and I had to partake in to get to the place to sit and watch the show wore Nico down.  With the show starting at 730 pm, Nico decided at about 728 pm that he was done and he did not want to see the nutcracker afterall.  And Mama dont play that, so we left.  I guess it will keep another year.  :( Up until 7:28 he was wonderful.  

This weekend, we also started our advent calendar.  I was particularly pleased with myself, because I have been buying Christmas books since September for this project.  Every week, I would buy 1-2 books on Amazon.  Friday night I stayed up late and wrapped all the books.  I didnt number them because I wanted Nico to be able to choose which one he wanted.  So every day, we have been unwrapping a "gift" and reading the book.  This has been a fail on two fronts- one is that Christmas books aren't really that great.  I mean, seriously, we have an emergency vehicles book that Nico has asked me to read roughly 234900 times.  He loves it.  Christmas books? Meh.  Also, we made the mistake of letting him watch the Caillou Christmas special- and they do an actual advent calendar.  Where you open the window and everything.  So that is Nico's refence point.  He thinks I should get a calendar with the windows on it so he can open one every day.  Seriously.  

Sunday night Dave was still Sicky McSick, so Nico and I went to the soccer field.  I had a coed game and rocked the face off of the first half.  I had two PK saves.  Do you know how rare it is to have one PK save? Yeah, I had two.  That game goes into my history book as one of my best games ever, second only to the time I scored while 3.5 months pregnant (the night I felt Nico move for the first time).  I was sort of incredulous that I made the first save.  I "guessed" right (I say "guessed" because I don't really guess, I try to play the ball) and got down and got a hand on it.  I popped the ball up into the air and it hit me in the head and stayed out of the goal.  On the second PK, I was even more incredulous (seriously, what kind of team gives up two PKs in one half?)  I made the first save against a REALLY good player- but it went back to him. He hit it back to me- and I couldnt get both hands on it, so I basically swatted it back to him.  Unable to get a good strike on it, he hit it back to me.  On the ground, I couldnt catch it, so I hit it back.  At this point,  some other player got it- who hit it back to me.  Finally, a defender came in and cleared it out.  BTW- four shots.  That is how many shots an attacker can take on you before your defense can get into the area (on a PK) and clear the ball out.  The best part of the whole exchange?  For the last 2 saves I was sitting on the ground on the goal line laughing.  Hysterically.  But then the first half gave way to the second half wherein I got megged (and gave up a goal) and tripped over my own feet to give up another goal.  We ended up losing 6-5.  Seriously. And we definitely blew a four goal lead.  I also made a save off my face- and got a good piece of the second PK shooter (that is just frosting).  But it was a great game.