So the fruits of our slightly-misplaced labors have slowly appeared...

especially in the last few days. We've always listened to lots of different music, mainly classic rock/psychedelia and 80's pop (and a little opera). He's always had his own taste in music - we've exposed him to different songs and he's had his favorites which he sticks to pretty faithfully. One time I had to listen to Video Killed the Radio Star on a loop from Bowling Green to Nashville just to keep him from screaming (he was about 18 months old). Lately he's been really into the Gorillaz, and he's been singing (a capella) the following songs at random times of the day:
Fat-bottomed Girls (Queen)
Dark Side of the Moon (Pink Floyd)
FeelGood, Inc. (Gorillaz)
Spanish Caravan (The Doors)
Baba O'Riley (The Who)
White Rabbit (Jefferson Airplane)
Beethoven's Ode to Joy

He was about three when I started telling him who sang the song we were listening to at that moment hoping it would lodge in his little brain. My mom really didn't ever expose me to particular music and tell me the artists - we listened to what was on the radio. Don't get me wrong, my family was musically oriented - just not guilty of listening to a large range of songs and talking about them. Last night at Toot's the song playing in the background was Roxanne, and Natha said in a very excited voice, "Hey - that's the Police!" I didn't hear him at first, so I asked him to repeat it - and Ed and I were both surprised. The Police was what I was listening to when we started paying attention to artists and their songs. Once I told him that the Police sang Roxanne, he asked me if it was the same police that drove in the white cars with the blue lights. We then had a short conversation about band names - that it was a group of people who called themselves a thing and that they weren't necesarily that thing. My example was the Beatles - that they sang songs and they weren't really little bugs. When you're listening to something without a visual when you're 3, you can get some interesting thoughts in your head. I think that Natha liked Bouncing Round the Room when he was 2 because he thought little fish were singing it. :)

Thus started my habit of informing Natha of an artist's name when we were listening to a song. He's slowly been catching on - one time he told me that a Beatles song on the Oldies station was by the Beatles and I hadn't ever listened to it with him before. Today I was wearing my White Rabbit shirt (more Alice in Wonderland themed) and Ed commented that he thought it was cute on me. Natha looked at it and said, "White Rabbit - like the song?" Then there was the time Natha told me that the sound of me taping lots of boxes (when we were moving) sounded like Money - the beginning part. It took me a while to understand what he was talking about, but I eventually figured out what he was saying.

We had an interesting discussion one day (Natha and I) about where the music comes from. I told him that the radio was playing recorded music and that the people weren't actually there at the radio station. I added that the radio station changed the music into radio waves and broadcast it and our car received the radio waves and converted it back to music. He had thought that the people were singing live at the radio station. We were listening to Piece of My Heart and he asked me who sang the song. I told him that it was Janis Joplin. He asked me if she was at the radio station, and I explained to him that she was dead, that this song was recorded, and that we were listening to the recording. He then wanted to know how she had died, and I came up with a tasteful answer (I don't remember exactly what it was.) For the next week, whenever I told him who was singing a song, he asked me if they were dead. Some of them were, and some weren't - and I had to think really hard about some of them. :)

I've also had to explain to him why some songs have words and others don't - and why some just have singing without words. At first he didn't understand why I liked Great Gig in the Sky - he said it was just this girl singing with no words. Now he doesn't ask me anymore and he'll even sing along sometimes.

Well, I've got to go get the guest room ready and rearrange some things. I'm almost done putting away the christmas decorations. It's not like we have that many, I just had started and then Ed called me to go to lunch so I left it there. Everything we have fits in the tree box and one other small box. We're not into much hubub, if you haven't noticed, and christmas is no exception. :)

So I got sick of laying around and got my butt in gear...

...cause being sick and pining for my honey didn't get me very far. I've pretty much finshed fixing up our bedroom and bathroom - I need to get two more stackable cube unit thingies to use temporarily until we create a bed from them with drawers underneath. My office is still a mess and will probably remain so until Natha goes back to school next wednesday. The christmas decorations need to be taken down (all 5 of them) and put away in the basement and the guest room needs putting together - those two will be tackled tomorrow. I'm striking a balance between spending time with Natha and getting things done around the house. If I spend too much time on the house, Natha turns into a heathen, and if I spend all my time with him, I sit around like a knot on a log. It's been quite warm here the last couple days so Natha's been playing outside, drawing Death Stars and Clone Trooper armies on the driveway.

Ed's still not home yet - this is his busiest time of the year, so he's working more than most humans could. We went to Toot's for dinner together, though - which was some quality eatin' time. The only problem with him being gone so long is getting in the habit of eating dinner at a restaurant instead of cooking at home. We'd gotten into a routine of home-cookin' that has since fallen by the wayside. When I've got a husband back I'll start cooking again - and I'll still cook things if we don't eat dinner together and leave him LO's in the fridge which always makes him happy. He'll also be happy that there are only two small boxes left in our bedroom - everything else is put away and I assembled nightstands for each of us today so it doesn't look like we're camping out anymore.

Thank goodness for the programmable thermostats - they make it possible for us to only heat the house in the parts we're using. We have two separate units - one for the ground floor and one for the bedrooms and my office - which are both set for different temperatures at different times of the day. Ed keeps looking for the gas bill, which hasn't arrived yet, to get an idea of the scope of what it costs to heat this behemoth house. The reason I mention that is because it's currently colder than a witch's tit in a brass bra in Ed's office where I'm typing - which it's supposed to be this time of night - so I'm cutting this post short(er) and going in the living room to snuggle under my huge foreign blanket and rotisserie in front of our gas fireplace...

So yes, I know, it's been a while...

but there's been a lot going on. Here's the laundry list:

In the past month, we've...
bought a log mansion,
started home improvements,
moved to said log mansion,
finished teaching lab for the semester,
finished my classes for the semester,
I've had a bad allergy attack,
I've had strep throat,
I've figured out I have Seasonal Affective Disorder,
we've all had the stomach flu (during finals!),
we've started evaluating Natha for possible issues,
we hopefully have solved all car issues (after replacing the MAF sensor *and* catalytic converter), among other things.

So Natha and I are now home for the holiday break - and he's driving me slightly mad. Now he's been doing this piecemeal for a while now - whenever we're home for longer than an afternoon he gets antsy and I get annoyed. I haven't quite figured out exactly what he does more than to say he's pestering me. One day last week Natha came up to me and said, "You'd better play with me or I'll start annoying you." No joke - and it was true!

He was wound up after lunch and was about to send him up to his room - then I remembered we now have a *backyard* that he can play in! So, I gave him his parameters and turned him loose. He came back in much more manageable, I must say. He then did two worksheets (school-like stuff) and then played Godzilla for a while. Now we're watching Episode I with Uncle Bob. Bob isn't really his name - Natha walked up to him one of the first times they had met and said 'Bob - hey bob" over and over again even though we introduced him as Sean before. So, the name stuck and now he's Uncle Bob, or sometimes Tio Bob. He's even got his own chair in our living room...

Ed bought me the prettiest earrings the other day - and he spent a lot of time trying to find them since what I want isn't exactly all over the place. They're emerald bezel-set round earrings. They're petite and very pretty. They're what I didn't even know I wanted. Yes, sometimes he doesn't get it right the first time - but this time he did and I've very happy with them. Thank you honey. :)

I got a new washer and dryer - a GE Profile Harmony series - and they're grey and absolutely wonderful. When you're finished with the washing it tells the dryer how to dry the clothes - so all you have to do is put the clothes in there and press start. I got them two weeks ago and I'm still all giddy about them.

I've got a bunch of unpacking still to do and some storage things to assemble that were recently purchased at Target. I've wanted to slow down the last couple of days, though, instead of working all day on stuff for the house. I've also been trying to approach our time off as time to do things with Natha instead of just occupy him until he can go back to school. So, we've been doing schoolwork-like things, craft things (like making models from clay), and watching Animal Planet together. He gets some attention and he behaves a bit better, so it makes like easier. I don't get as much done around the house, but life is slightly smoother during the day. Right on cue, Ed gets busy finishing a project right when I'm not as busy - but it's not so bad yet... but it's also not over yet...

I've been making Ed and Natha very happy lately since I've been cooking every meal that we've been home for - breakfast and dinner at least, and most lunches for Natha and I. When I've got the time, I don't mind doing it. The biggest hurdle for me is deciding what to cook and having all the ingredients to cook a given thing. So, we have a schedule to stick to - and I'm all about lists of things to do. Every day of the week has a different meal. When we get tired of that I'm sure we'll replace nights with different themes as needed... but it keeps me from having chef's block.

Ah, Jar-Jar. Everyone always found him to be annoying, but I've always kind of liked him. I'm going to go watch the pod race now...