Taking a short break from writing, decided to look through the pictures from my new camera and sort out which ones I should post.

Then I found these two pictures.

If my husband ever tries to say that Megababy isn’t his, I’m just whipping this out as evidence. :-P

That’s what I kept saying to myself today as we drove to the funeral home. 

But it is real. I’ve never had anyone really close to me die before, and my uncle was more like a grandpa to me. From the first face I saw (my cousin’s) to my final glance at his coffin, I cried. 

All week long I had distanced myself. I had focused on Christmas, avoided thinking about it, pushed it out of my head, only crying when my brain stopped long enough to picture his face.

Today, I kept coming back to two things:

1. An image of him sitting in his favorite recliner in a white t-shirt, his pants, and his slippers. When I lived with my aunt and uncle in college, this is how I saw him at least once a day, and it’s burned into my mind.

2. His laugh. He had this almost hissing chuckle that just swam with mischief, and I can hear it every time I think about him.

My uncle had the kindest face and he was both an amazingly strong and amazingly caring man. My mom said when I was little I had him wrapped around my little finger, and when my dad said “no,” I’d go running to Uncle Melvin.

When I was a teenager and we’d visit, I’d sleep on the couch. I was greeted every morning by the smell of the coffee he put on when he got up early. He and my aunt used to watch soap operas after dinner. He did this Donald Duck type noise anytime he played with kids; I’ll never forget it.

He served in the military for the first half of his adult life, and worked as maintenance in a high school for the other half. He loved and was loved by many people. I am only one of them.

Tonight I remember Uncle Melvin. He was someone worth stopping for.

GPOY today is brought to you by the number 19 and the letter P (for Pro, which is what my husband has been calling me all week!).

I’ve been in a really great mood the past few days. I’ve gotten so many things done, I’m even surprised at myself. I’ve been getting my water in every day, eating less than 1500 calories every day (except yesterday. Yesterday I required some chocolate therapy that pushed me to 1700), and this morning I went for a beautiful fall walk. Stars melting into a pink and blue sky, the perfect breeze—it was lovely.

As long as my little man is feeling all right today (I believe he’s sprouting some late molars, and he’s been in an awful state. I hate when my babies are in pain, I feel so bad for him. :-(), my husband and are I going out to lunch thanks to a Groupon from a friend of ours.

Hope you all are having equally happy, productive days! <3

Today is one of those days where I have a bajillion (only a slight exaggeration) things I need/want to do, and my mind is spinning with how to do it all. I’m determined to hit all of them, though. Here are ALL THE THINGS:

• Housework. House is in a dreadful state after everyone was home and sick all weekend. 
• Uh, work work. I have two projects due by Friday, I’d honestly like to get them both done by tomorrow if I can swing it, but that might be pushing it. 
• Blogging. It’s Patch Day in World of Warcraft, and I can’t just not blog on patch day. Talk about breaking tradition.
• Picture Perfect Azeroth. My side project related to my blog. The queue emptied over the weekend and I need to fill it back up.
• Guild Wars 2. I didn’t play much while my husband was home because it’s his game. But I do want to play some more!
• Patch Day! World of Warcraft launches 5.0 today, and I want to be in on that the minute it goes live, which basically means all of this other stuff has to be done before then.

Not to mention that I have babies to cuddle and talk to and help with homework and a husband who I want to cuddle and talk to and… :-P

So yes. Yes yes. All the things. And I feel like I’m missing something important, which is going to bug me a lot.

Since I probably won’t Tumblr again today, here’s a bunch of pictures for no good reason at all.

My Husband & Daughter did a project together yesterday:

Patch 5.0 prep sent me back to Theramore:

Hope you all have a wonderful day! <3

Little Megatron has been right as rain since he went ahead and threw up yesterday. I am so glad, I hate when one of my kids is feeling bad and I can’t fix it.

So that’s good news number 1.

Good news number 2 is that, from what I saw of his teacher today, we’re going to get along quite well. 

This was the exchange I witnessed before we left his classroom today.

Aide leaning forward in her seat, right next to my son’s ear.

My son: ”Back up? Want back up?”

Aide doesn’t move.

Teacher: “He wants you to back up.” gestures for her to scoot back.

Aide complies. 

Yes ma’am. You keep going like that and we’ll have a good year.

I took this picture at 6 a.m. with my husband’s iPhone after clearing a piece of shredded cheese off the lens. I promise not to take anymore pictures without a cup of coffee.

When I showed the lovely Twitterverse this pic this morning, they said she looked “Like a Boss” and “ready to take on 2nd grade.” I think they were right!

Here is the highlight reel of her first day, as spoken by the 2nd grader herself:

• It was good. Yeah, she’s nice.
• No, all the kids are new, except H— from kindergarten.
• Yes, I found my class. It’s not on the first grade hall. Dramatic pause. It’s on the second grade hall. And that’s the Jack & Annie hall!
• You know that castle we couldn’t go on in first grade? Now we can!
• I had chicken strips and a cinnamon roll for lunch. And they made a new rule! We have to get a vegetable. I didn’t eat it. No, I won’t eat it, I don’t like vegetables, Mama!
• We read a book. It was—a flower? Yes! Chrysanthemum, that was it.
• We also read Teacher from the Black Lagoon and this kid dreamed his teacher was a dragon and when a kid asked about fractions she chomped him in two pieces and said ‘This is a boy. Chomp. This is half a boy.’
• Yes, we did math. We did name graphs. We had the most 5-letter names.
• No, no coloring or writing or gluing or crafts. Sigh.
• Can we play Wizards 101 now?

The most exciting parts as related by her were the new vegetable rule (she’s flabbergasted) and the Teacher from the Black Lagoon. All in all, sounds like a pretty good first day of school.

And, for the first time since she started at this school, the bully girl is not in her class. I’m sure there will be another, but I’m going to hope for the best!

Now she’s in her room relaxing so I can start on this pile of projects…

I’ve been busy the past couple of days, so here’s a quick recap (in categories because it makes me happy):

Random

• Bought yarn today to make some custom bracelets! Very excited to do that today and mail them out. 
• Gotten back into running the past couple of weeks, and I’m already closing back in on my times from before. Excited about that; I’d forgotten how good it feels.

Kids

• My daughter’s Class Assignment day was today. $33 in fees, but she should be all set to go on the first day of school.
• We let one of MT’s therapists go this week. He didn’t like her, and if he doesn’t like her, it just won’t work. I was an anxious mess over the whole thing, so I’m glad it’s taken care of.

• My husband’s back to playing WoW with me for a little while, and I’m REALLY REALLY happy. I missed playing with him. 
• I quit SWTOR. And, of course, wrote a big stinking blog post about why: http://battlechicken.wordpress.com/2012/08/06/thoughts-on-star-wars-the-old-republic-and-why-we-quit/

Things are good. My head hurts a little today and I’m tired, but I’m in a good mood now that I’m home and relaxing. 

Hope you all are having a wonderful day! <3

P.S.: If you’re in the US or Canada and would like to support the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network by buying a friendship bracelet, check out my site, here!

talesfromthetoadelf replied to your photo: My little cutie at the beach. She has quite the…

I LUUURRRVE collecting sea shells! jealous! :) cute pic xx

She came back with a plastic grocery bag half full, and some really good ones, too!

I’m sort of awake. Getting up at 5 a.m. was NOT part of the plan, but it was pretty cool. Mini-Megatron’s sleeplessness got me out for sunrise on the beach, and I can’t complain about that—it was gorgeous.

I’m going to have to drink several gallons of water today…lol.

But yay, I’m still on vacation, and today will be a good day! :-D 

I meant to take a picture this morning of our family doing something really cool.

But then we went out and did some really cool stuff, and I was too busy enjoying to take pics. 

We went to a local park situated around a pond. We walked the half-mile nature trail (my husband even convinced my daughter to run a little), my daughter got to swing some, and my son and I went down next to the water.

We were sitting on a bench there when two geese came swimming up, seven feet away from us. They bathed and preened. Pretty soon they were joined by five more, then seven more, then three more, until there was a whole flock five feet away from us fluffing their feathers in the sun.

Halfway through, my husband and daughter joined us, and we sat there and watched the geese. It was really neat! I used my Mean Mom Voice to make the boys who were trying to scare the geese go away, and we sat there like that for a long time.

My son can do a PERFECT goose honk impression. I mean, I think he was practically calling them. My daughter thought the fluffy feathers were cool. I just liked the fact that we were all doing something peaceful and nice together as a family.

Then we walked around the old mill and had Subway for lunch. It was a fantastic morning. :-D