Happy Nu Day!

😍 12 today! 😍 

I've had this picture in my office for years and posted it to family chat yesterday so everyone could marvel and love on this deliciousness all over again.

Have to say, this picture is just quintessentially Nu: Comfy pants, fancy hair, serious gaze, and unlikely friends (here a rat). The dimples on her fingers are gone though as well as whatever it was that made the Korean aunties at Saya dote on her. (Saya is gone too, :/)

It's 3:33 am, and I've just finished the birthday decorations and presents... off to bed now!

#18Months #LivermoreStreetHouse #YellowSprings
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Suddenly...

...or so it seems, everyone is the same height in group pics.

Grandpa R and Grandma C are on their way to OH, and we made them road trip snacks and filled them in on our summers.









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Must Wake Up!

Dinner last night was to the breaking details of the El Paso shooting over the radio and today we're waking up to news of the Dayton shooting overnight. DAYTON. Dayton.

Checking on all my Yellow Springs people, but ten people have died, 26 are wounded--whether I personally knew them or not--there are grieving friends and family in a place I called home. Big A would have been taking care of them at Miami Valley Hospital if we still lived in YS.

Gun violence keeps getting closer. Every day feels like the beginning of a nightmare precipice...

#MSU #YesterdayThisSeemedFunny

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On a Road Trip for Two

Big A and At are both working tonight, and Nu and I didn't see the point of rushing home. 

So we took a few detours: First the Dayton Art Institute (DAI) with its impressive collection of contemporary work with Grandma S and Grandpa J, and then a stop at the Neil Armstrong Museum (NAM), to appreciate that giant leap for humankind. 

Nu loved the DAI, of course and my phone is full of pictures of artwork she means to revisit; but I suspect she was a bit underwhelmed with the NAM. I am such a sucker for soaring music and emotional biographical details, but I'll admit it was a bit dated despite its inclusion of the "Hidden Figures" mathematicians in the timeline. At one point, I was going to dig out my Aldi quarter so we could feed the machine that would tell us our weight on earth, the moon, and Saturn--when Nu stopped me--"Mama, it's ok, I'm sure we can google it" quoth she, and truer words were never spoken.

But look what a good sport my love is!

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Back to the Present

And here's Nu again, and all's right with my world.

And appositely given all my baby bird thoughts, their verse in the Eco-Camp song this year was "and in that nest, there was a bird..."






    

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Here We Go Again

I took this picture just after I dropped Nu off at "The Owl Logs" and turned around for one quick picture yesterday.

I had a ton of stuff planned for this week: writing dates, hangs outs, planning a party in our old house with S, and on and on.... But I haven't been in this town by myself ever. And everywhere there are reminders of the babies when they were babies--schools, childcare, parks... and aaaaarrrgghh. I can't stand it.



A ton of super-emo texts to Big A last night and I'm headed back to Lansing today where I can baby the puppies and At and Big A (whose Boss Day it is!).

I-75, here we go again...

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And Off We Go!

Nu's all checked in for Eco-Camp and reaaaallllly ready for me to leave :)


















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Baby Birds

These wild turkeys and turkey chicks have been wandering through the place every morning. Turkey parents seem way more relaxed than duckling parents, FWIW.

Out on the front porch, I was surprised that a hanging basket was faring so poorly until I saw a parent bird transfer a wiggly worm from its beak to its baby's, and their nest is right in that planter!  I've seen this scene on film so many time, but never from two feet away... I don't think?



And in other baby bird news, Nu and I will road-trip over to Yellow Springs all by ourselves, spend the night at MIL's. Then Nu's off to Eco-Camp for the rest of the week, and I will be doing all the YS things with old friends...

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Some Books

MIL's book (illustrations by her, words by SIL when she was six) is out in print. I love it and we ordered a bunch to give to friends with kids. LMK, if you'd like a copy!











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When you have two kids at college

It's Little Sibs Weekend, and Nu is off at college with At. I didn't get a picture, but as some of my students mentioned, she looked like a mini college girl: shorts, fuzzy boots, sweater. She declared that she'd borrow her brother's pants if her legs got cold... "they have pockets!!"

On my way home, I'm listening to 90s music on the radio because I cannot with Frat Kavanaugh anymore and I'm dreading MSU's homecoming game traffic, when J called and suggested we go watch A Star is Born to take our minds off stuff. So we did. Meanwhile, as Yellow Springs friends were FB posting, Dave Chappelle and Bradley Cooper were sweetly doing a pre-show talk at The Little Art .

Big A is working overnight again, so its just me and the puppies at home tonight--let's see if my horror movie consumption will come back to haunt me.

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In which we get the Nu!

EcoCamp Finale!

Reunited

...but not really.

By the time the "pet resort" opened for pickups,

Nu and Big A had already left for Ecocamp...

And At was at work at the Abdul office until late.

"Where's everyone?" They asked.

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Lovenotes

to secrete into Nu's backpack--

she'll be gone for a whole week.

And I know I'll miss her so; and

I know she'll have so much fun.

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What do you recognize?

S posted this picture yesterday, and I loved the doggo. 

Then I realized I knew the backdrop to the picture
intimately. 

It was three kitchens ago,
and kinda my favorite kitchen 

ever.

UPDATE: At got the connection right away. "It's because I spent so much time at that table trying to finish my food." 😂
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FB is killing me with memories

My babies are so beautiful* <3 span=""> <3 span=""> <3 span="">

* Beautiful = nostalgia for when they were so squishy, tiny, chubby-cheeked, and I saw both of them at breakfast every morning.

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The Prodigal Couple

It was good meeting so many old friends this week. We spent an evening with LV and NF and their families; had lunch with NM and his family today; and went to the M's NYE party where we saw EVERYONE.

Walking back from Stafford St. in the feathery snow and single-digit cold, Big A said that it's kind of fun, because people are so excited to see us even if we weren't that special when we actually lived here. It's true :) .

We got back 11-ish, so we could hang out with the kids and grandparents until midnight and chanted the countdown into 2018. I so want this year to be better than the last couple of years.

And I should take better pictures.

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Dinner

@The Winds

They're showing N's beauteous Persia collection on the walls.

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2017 Christmas #3

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Boss Day swag (is Princely)

My family knows me well...

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Grandparents are so brave

they'll even take naughty puppies to the bank

(Parents aren't doing so well:

Hurry home, Huck!)

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