If The Blog Doesn't Post, It's Me

Hmmm, wasn't there a Jimmy Buffet song that went something like "If the phone doesn't ring, it's me?"  I seem to recall an underground bar in Chapel Hill (Trolls?), cheap beer and singing that verse.  Or not.  There's a lot that's a bit foggy about nights in Chapel Hill, and that was, ahem, a few years ago.

In any case, even though I haven't been here in a few months, that doesn't mean I haven't thought about you daily or that I haven't written dozens of brilliant posts in my mind.  (Both meanings of that sentence--there were written in my head and they were brilliant and only in my head were they actually brilliant)

In any case, my sabbatical is coming to an end.  3 more weeks and the spring semester starts up.  It's been a great leave.  I worked and I fell in love with my life and my research again.  (I've been wondering which blog I should put this on--my personal or professional one)  But since there will be family updates, we are here instead of there.

I shall also continue on the theme of how much FREAKING easier our life is now that it was 2 years ago, 1 year ago or even 6 months ago (although 6 to 9 months ago are when things starting really easing up).  Friends even comment to us how obvious it is that things are easier. I think one telling factor is that when they something cheery like "Happy Easter" I don't respond with "Fudge you!", only I didn't say Fudge.  (True story from Spring of 2010).

Anyhoo, the twins have moved into big kid beds and they Want To Stay There All Night.  And when they don't, we have taught them to just Just Get Up and Walk Into Our Room (lesson learned from the firstborn).  So far, Christopher has taken us up on that offer and it is a joyous thing.

The twins have also become very verbal, telling us about their day and their friends and have quickly learned to tell Santa what they want for Christmas.  This includes Bridget shouting her requests to our new Elf on the Shelf (Elfie) and taking the Santa potholder off the cabinet and telling him, too.  It's obviously important to cover all your bases before Christmas.

Conor, either inspired by the twins or from other kids in our carpool, has become more verbal, too, and is actually revealing facts and stories from his day at school.  You cannot imagine my relief at this.  Forever, Conor has not told me anything about his day.  Bridget, at age 2, was more revealing about what happened during her day than Conor ever was.  But now, I am hearing stories!  With kids' names!

And who knew our introverted son was such a ham?  The life cycle of piano lessons has been:

• Love it
• Hate It
• RECITAL: Love, Love Love it!  

He was begging to stop lessons before the recital and now he's back to enjoying it and doing really well.  I'm really proud of him for that.

OK.  We are in the midst of Holiday Frenzy 2011.  We have had a 10 day stretch where only 2 nights have been free and some days we've had 2 and 3 events to attend.  Tonight, we're hosting a reception for our graduate program to honor our newest doctoral student and my first student to get her PhD.  There's a real sense of ownership over the grad students and I'm so excited for her.  It's also nice to see how our relationship is changing from mentor/mentee to more of colleagues.  Saturday is graduation and I get to help "hood her".  It's something like this and a pretty big deal.

So, yes.  Busy.  Fun.  Life. Work.  Better.  Much, much better.  That pretty much sums up my life right now.