Adios Octobre!

As a teacher, there are two months that I tend to not enjoy--October and March. It's not that they are necessarily BAD months; they're just loooong. No holidays. Lots of work. Kids start to see the results of their actions...or non actions.

When we moved to Elk Grove, I was happy to discover that our Spring vacation moved according to Easter. In Milpitas, our Spring vacation was always the third week of April. It was nice that it was predictable, but it made for a very long March.

Now this year, I don't need to be as concerned about March, as I will be giving birth then. Babies are wonderful distractions. :) And there's the added benefit of me not being at work. Good deal.

I had concerns about October. It is with considerable surprise that I have discovered that October is over. Where did it go?

First, our nephew Samuel was born and we spent a weekend in Redding. Then we enjoyed the pleasant weather with a trip to the zoo with my father and Em. The next weekend we had our friend Jerome over. He's from France, but somehow we are able to see him every six months or so.

Last weekend my mom came over for dinner and we went out for Sunday breakfast. This weekend, which is sadly almost over, we headed to the Bay Area on Friday. That night we stayed with my mom. Saturday we headed over to my sister's for some baby Owen time. After a couple hours of catching up, we caravanned to my dad's in Hayward for dinner.

Yesterday, we watched some World Series (I swear I will never see a game in which the Giants win...), and we had a diabetes-friendly and low-sodium dinner (low sugar for me; low salt for my grandma.) It was a really nice time to catch up, and I especially enjoyed dressing up Em and Owen in their Halloween costumes (Em is Ariel and Owen is a hamburger.) We have cute kids.

Now, I know that it sounds like we did a lot, but it was all at a very relaxed pace. I'm actually ending this month feeling pretty good. Work has had its lows (check out my last post), but I've ended the month feeling more competent than I did at the beginning. That's something.

Also, we are about to head into November, which has both Veteran's Day and Thanksgiving week. Now, Veteran's Day is on a Thursday, which is weird, but a day off is a day off. Plus, both Justin and I get a week off for Thanksgiving.

We do have some traveling in our near future. Next weekend is our niece Elizabeth's birthday, and we will be heading for my mom's for Thanksgiving.

I'm not sure how energetic and enthusiastic I will feel as we head into the winter holidays. And I'm sure I will tire soon of my diabetic diet. (Though I did just make an apple sauce cake with Splenda and it's not horrible.)

I'm trying to not adopt an attitude of just making it through these holidays. I do want to enjoy myself, and my time off. But it is weird that food is not a major focus for me. My goal is to turn my attention to working on crafts and projects with Em. She has become such a big girl recently, and she loves baking and decorating.

Well, I think Justin and Em have finished their pumpkin carving. It's about time to change Em into her costume and take my little mermaid out for her first trick-or-treating.