The Christmas things we DON'T do

I've read many posts on Christmas traditions (and don't you worry, I intend to write one myself) but I thought it might be interesting to post a little list of Christmas traditions we don't participate in and why.

1) We don't look at lights on Christmas eve.  I love to drive around looking at all the twinkly lights, and we definitely will do that at least once (probably multiple times) this December.  However.  My parents' neighborhood has long been one of THE PLACES to go light-looking.  Like, it's made the newspaper's list of places to go more than once.  So on Christmas eve?  This neighborhood is a crazy mess.  We've gone to other things on Christmas eve a time or two and come home and had it take a good 20 minutes to get from the only neighborhood entrance to our house.  (It should take about 2.)  It's not fun, so we try to stay home Christmas eve.

2)  We don't open any gifts on Christmas eve.  I know some people do stockings, some people open all the gifts, some people do grandparent gifts or whatever.  We wait until Christmas morning for all of it.

3)  We don't do Christmas pajamas.  I have purchased Christmasy pajamas for the kids once or twice, but it's not a *thing* we do.

4)  We don't leave treats for the reindeer.  We always did the cookies for Santa, but that was it.  My kids are a little young for this yet, but I will not be doing anything for the reindeer even when they are older.  If reindeer come to our house they're just going to have to go hungry.

5)  We don't read "The Night Before Christmas" on Christmas eve.  I'm sure we'll read it at some point in December, but on Christmas eve I prefer to read the Christmas story in Luke chapter 2.

So, what traditions do you skip out on?

What the kids are getting for Christmas

Probably you don't care, but if you're interested, here's what the kids are getting for Christmas this year.

For Kalena from Brian and I:

A Disney princess dress up set.  (Photo credit: biglots.com)  That's not the exact one, but it's the closest picture I could find.

Dinosaur flash cards.  The girl is obsessed with dinosaurs.

From my parents:

Melissa and Doug shopping cart and food.  She loves her play kitchen (last year's gift) and at one point she had a shopping cart.  They played with it until the wheels fell off.  Literally.  So we figured this would be an excellent choice.  (Photo credit: amazon.com)

For both kids from Brian and I:

A Mega Bloks table.  The kids love their set of mega bloks, but they always want something to build their towers on.  Here it is.  (Photo credit: amazon.com)

For Will from Brian and I:

The Little People Zoo.  I'm actually not positive this is the one I bought, apparently there are two.  I got one a couple months ago on clearance and I'm too lazy to go look at which one it is.  (Photo credit: target.com)

What can I say?  Both my kids are obsessed with dinosaurs.  (Photo credit: amazon.com)

From my parents:

A Vtech Alphabet Train.  The kids played with one of these in the waiting room at the dentist's office and both loved it.  So now we'll have one of our own for them to fight over.  Good times.  (Photo credit: amazon.com)

So.  What are your kids getting for Christmas?

So close

I really want to start writing about Christmas.  Christmas traditions, thoughts on Santa, how much I love hot chocolate, etc.  But I feel like I shouldn't be doing that until December.  Seeing as December is only days away, I feel like I should be able to hold out until then.  Unfortunately that leaves me topic-less until then.  And NaBloPoMo isn't over yet, so now you just get to listen to my rambling!

On to other topics.  (Okay, so maybe I'm not completely topic-less.)  Baby clothes.  When I found out we are having another boy I felt a little bad that my sisters weren't going to get to unload all the baby girl clothes to me.  And a little sad that I wasn't going to have boxes and boxes of darling baby clothes to go through.  But then my parents went to Kirsta's house for Thanksgiving (if you don't know, Kirsta has 2 boys and a girl) and came home with two giant tubs of baby boy clothes!  It's like the maternity clothes all over again!  So once again, WOOHOO for having sisters and all these babies being close in age.

This kid

I'm pretty sure this kid is in for a rude awakening when the new baby gets here.  Kalena is excited.  Will has told me things like, "No baby.  Ucky."  And, "Baby? No baby!"  

Too late now kid!

Well that's a first

We put Kalena to bed every night at 7.  She usually plays in her room for an hour or two, which I suppose means 7 is a touch early for bedtime.  However, she gets up at 6:45 no matter what time we put her to bed, and she's perfectly happy to play in her room by herself starting at 7, so that's what we're sticking to.

Anyway, that's not the point.  The point is, well, okay there are two points.  The first is that the lamp we put in there?  Has made a HUGE difference.  She doesn't leave her door open anymore, nor does she come out in the middle of the night and turn the hall light back on (usually.)  However, the lamp has 3 settings and Kalena goes to sleep with it on the brightest setting (of course) which means someone has to go in and turn it down to the lowest setting before we go to bed.  That's not a problem, but it does lead me to my second point which is this: when I go in Kalena is always in her bed.  (That's another reason I don't worry about putting her to bed at 7- she is obviously very good about getting in bed once she actually gets tired.)

But last night she wasn't!  She was asleep on the floor, next to her bed.  And I'm not sure what to think about that.
 

23 weeks

I'm a little surprised to find myself at 23 weeks already, but here I am.

The holidays are the best time to be pregnant.  Stretchy pants all the time!  Of course, by Christmas I'm going to look like I'm about 8 1/2 months along, but OH WELL.

Thankful

Even in the midst of everything going on here, there are always things that I'm thankful for.  Actually, I feel  extra thankful this year, to the point of being cheesy even.  I blame the pregnancy hormones.  So I'll keep my list brief.

1) I'm thankful for my parents who happily took us in, AGAIN, when we needed it.
2) I'm thankful this pregnancy happened before everything else went south, so that we don't have to wait for "better timing" to have a third.
3) I'm thankful for kids who are healthy and happy, for the most part.
4) I'm thankful that all of our family is being supportive of Brian going back to school.
5) And, of course, I'm thankful for Brian, who is a wonderful husband and father.  And that's something I probably don't say enough.

Alright, cheesiness over.  Back to our regularly scheduled programming tomorrow.

A Thanksgiving related question

Here's what I want to know: how many of you make your own pie crust?  (I also wrote about this at Food Lush today, but I am very curious.)  I grew up in a house that made pie.  A LOT.  I mean, when you have cherry, apple, and peach trees in your back yard pie is sort of a necessity.  And we always made the crust.  So I grew up thinking that's what people did.

I've always sort of equated it with buying prepared cookie dough.  I was aware that you could do it, but not sure why people would since 1) making it isn't hard and 2) the homemade product is FAR superior.  But the subject of pie is big right now (what with Thanksgiving being tomorrow and all)  and I keep hearing about how nobody wants to make pie crust.  So do you make pie crust?  And if not, why not?

Ultrasound says...

We're having another boy!

I was surprised since the symptoms have been so similar to my pregnancy with Kalena.  Kalena has insisted every time I've asked that it was a boy, so she was unsurprised when I informed her.  Will repeated "baby boy" when I told him, but I'm pretty sure he has no idea what's going on.

Time to think about names!

Big changes y'all

So, Brian got laid off today.

Maybe I should back up.  See, pretty shortly after I found out we were expecting again, things were not great in the industry Brian works (well, worked) in.  I won't go into details, but we decided that we probably ought to come up with a plan B.  After much thought and deliberation we decided that this would be a good time for Brian to finish school.  He's halfway through a computer science degree but had to quit school back when I got laid off in 2009 so we could move back to Colorado.  He's wanted to finish school since we've been back, and we've talked about it several times but it's never felt right.  This time it did.

Anyway, for him to go to school full time, he wasn't going to be able to work full time.  And if he couldn't work full time, we needed to cut WAY back on expenses.  So we went to my parents and proposed that we move back in with them while Brian finishes school.  They were pretty excited about this plan (no sarcasm here, my parents really like having us around.  Okay, maybe it's my darling children they like having around but whatever.)  We started the process of moving back in with them and selling our house.  (Which is another post for another time.)  Brian got registered for school, financial aid in order, then went to his boss and suggested that he switch to working part time.  And his boss said sure.  This was a couple weeks ago.  We figured he'd work full time until January when the semester starts, then go to part time.  And then today happened.

To summarize:
I'm pregnant
We're living with my parents
We have no income
AND THIS IS NOT THE FIRST TIME.  (Unfamiliar with our history of this?  Check out this post.)

We'll have to seriously consider these patterns next time we want another baby.

22 weeks

And here's what I look like now.

Note to self for future pictures- backlighting plus flash = weird looking picture.  Also, I think I may have mislead you all, but not on purpose!  I'm pretty sure I said my ultrasound was scheduled for tomorrow, but I think it's actually scheduled for Tuesday.  Since I can't actually find my appointment card and apparently I didn't write the time and date down ANYWHERE, this thought is based on two things: 1) No reminder call on Friday (and my OB's office is VERY good about reminder calls) and 2) My mom was pretty sure I told her it was on Tuesday.  Pregnant Elsha does not have a particularly good memory, so I believe my mom is more reliable in this situation.  

Also, my mom should be coming with me to the ultrasound because despite this being her ninth (!!!) grandchild, she hasn't been to one, so she hasn't seen all the cool new stuff they do.  Brian is indifferent about coming (which I get, if you've seen one, you've seen 'em all, and he went to 4 when I was pregnant with Kalena) so he'll be watching the kids.

And one last thing I forgot to mention on the predictions post- this baby will be a tie breaker.  Obviously for us, since we have one of each, but for my parents as well.  Right now they have 4 grandsons and 4 granddaughters.  If this is a girl it will be the first time the girls outnumber the boys.  And the poll is over tomorrow, so if you haven't voted yet it's over there in the upper right.

Hopefully it's over

Well, we've made it 24 hours without any more vomiting, so I'm REALLY hoping that's the end of it.  Brian and I both felt pretty icky today (and slept a lot) and Will also seemed fussy, but that was all.

Now it's bedtime for the kids which means some mindless movie for me.  Wish us luck that we'll all wake up tomorrow back at 100%!

Hating the germs

Did I mention that on Wednesday Brian left to go to Denver with the kids?  He had to go to a funeral (his grandmother's husband) and offered to take the kids so they could see his family.  So this morning he got up and got the kids loaded in the car ready to come home.  They stopped at a gas station on the way out of Denver to get gas and something to drink.  And that's where the vomiting started.

Kalena spent the 4 hour drive home throwing up.  And I was here, so poor Brian had to deal with it all without any help.  Fortunately Will was fine, but still NO FUN.  They did make it home eventually, so now we get to deal with the plague here.  There's a small part of me that's hoping Kalena will be the only one who get sick, but the realistic me says- HA HA HA.  Like we would get that lucky.

Well, at least I can hope it's only a 24 hour thing, right?

Avoiding cooking for Thanksgiving

Y'all, we've been married for over 5 years and I have yet to cook Thanksgiving dinner.  Here's how our Thanksgivings have gone down.

2006: We got married in June and honeymooned over Thanksgiving.  So for our first Thanksgiving we ate duck in Bora Bora.  (I really think this should be a yearly thing.)
2007: I was pregnant with Kalena so Brian's family came to Texas for Thanksgiving.  His mom cooked.  She even made a ham because I had a ridiculous aversion to all poultry.
2008: We drove to Pueblo and had Thanksgiving at my sister's house.  (Long drive from Texas.)  And we ended up having to stay an extra day because of snow.
2009: Back living in Colorado, we went to Alamosa to see Brian's family over Thanksgiving.  One last trip before Will was born.
2010: Thanksgiving at my parents' house.

And now this year.  I figured it would be Thanksgiving at my parents' house again.  BUT.  Then my parents decided to ditch out on us for no reason!  (Actual reason: Kari and Jonathan are blessing the baby over that weekend so my parents are going to that.)  Fortunately I am a genius, so I suggested to Brian that we invite his family here.  And they accepted which means, once again, no cooking for me!  So.  How long do you think I can keep this up?  Do you cook for Thanksgiving or weasel out of it like me?

Too late for more Halloween pictures?

Sometimes we like to joke that Will's finger must taste like chocolate, because it is ALWAYS in his mouth.  Well, this time it actually did:

And I suspect if I'd kissed him his whole face also would have tasted like chocolate.  He sure enjoyed that candy though.

How to ask without asking

I'm pretty sure we all know that it's a big no-no to ask a woman if she's pregnant, right?  Well, I discovered the other day that you can ask without really asking and therefore without sticking your foot in your mouth.  Here's what happened.

I was at the grocery store with my mom when we ran into a woman we hadn't seen in a long time.  I don't know how long it's been since my mom has seen her, but I'd guess I was in high school the last time I did.  Anyway, she and my mom chat for a minute-- how are things, how are all the (now grown up) kids, etc.  Then she looks at me and says, "And look at you!"  She could have been referring to a million things.  I'm taller.  My hair is shorter.  I'm (obviously) older.  If I hadn't said anything she could have easily continued with something like, "You look great!"  Instead (because I am nice) I answered the question she didn't ask and said, "I know, this is my third!"  So we chatted about that for a minute and then we all went back to our shopping.

And there you have it.  A tactful way to find out if someone who looks pregnant actually is pregnant without asking her.

*Disclaimer: I'm sure people say "Look at you!" for many reasons other than thinking you might be pregnant.  So you know, don't be offended if someone says that to you and you aren't.  That's also the beauty of it- it works for so many things.

Prediction time!

Are you all ready with your best guesses as to whether this baby is a boy or a girl?  Here's how symptoms compare (if you're into that kind of thing):

Symptoms similar to my pregnancy with Kalena:
Heartburn starting in the first trimester and as a result of pretty much anything.
Weight gain all over.  I don't actually know how much weight I've gained, but it's definitely not just belly.  (Brian helpfully pointed out that this may be a result of how often I eat, not the sex of this baby, but I'm throwing it in there anyway.)
Chicken aversion.  Not as serious as it was with Kalena, but still there.

Symptoms similar to my pregnancy with Will:
No sweets craving (no more than usual- with Kalena I wanted cake like every 5 minutes.)
PB&J cravings.

Symptoms I had with both Kalena and Will:
Juice cravings.  I can go months without having juice.  Unless I'm pregnant, then I want it every day.
Lunchmeat sandwich cravings.  They're just SO GOOD.
Allergies are worse than usual.

Symptoms that are new with this pregnancy:
Continuation of The Tired.  Normally this lets up at 14 weeks.  Not this time.
Horrible, lay on the couch wanting to die nausea.  Other pregnancies required nothing more than crackers to calm my stomach.
Aspartame aversion.  I couldn't stand diet soda for the whole first trimester.  I now totally get what people mean when they say they can't stand artificial sweetener.  It's alright now, but it still has a very obvious taste so I mostly avoid it.  (I can even taste it in yogurt.)
Craving regular potato chips.  Normally I'm a cheddar and sour cream girl.
The constant headaches.

And there you have it.  Brian and I are both leaning toward girl, but I would have sworn Will was a girl until the ultrasound.  In fact, I believe my response to my OB saying, "Looks like it's a boy!" was "Really? Are you sure?"  So there's that.  Anyway, vote on the poll, (upper right) and give me your reasoning in the comments if you want!

Kalena when she's sad

Kalena makes me laugh when she's sad.  Not that I'm laughing at her sadness (although some of the things she gets sad about are pretty laughable) but she says funny things when she's sad.  For instance.

If she gets sad over something and you tell her it's okay she'll say, "No, I feeling a little sad."
If she's crying and you tell her she needs to be happy before she can [fill in the blank with whatever we're doing next] she'll tell you, "No, I still crying."
The other day she got put in time out for pitching a fit over something and after a few minutes I told her she could get down (off the time out chair) whenever she was ready to be happy.  She told me, "No, I not done, there's still water coming out in my eyes!"  (By the way, she says "out in" instead of "out of" and I don't ever intend to correct her.)

It's not as funny as Will and the awesomely pouty face he used to make, but it still makes me laugh.

21 week photo time

Here's what I look like at 21 weeks.

For the record, I feel a lot more pregnant than 21 weeks.  Which I don't think bodes well for the rest of this pregnancy.  I feel like I'm waddling already.  I get winded walking up the stairs (which, in a 2 story house with a basement happens A LOT.)  I have braxton hicks on a daily basis.  I'm REALLY hoping these things are specific to this pregnancy, and not just a result of this being a third pregnancy.  (Guess we'll find that out next time.)  Anyway.  On the one hand, 21 weeks already, woohoo!  On the other hand, 19 left to go.

Also, for those of you who are wondering, yes we intend to find out the sex of this baby.  I have an ultrasound scheduled for the 21st, so we'll find out then provided the baby cooperates.  And obviously I'll be polling you all before then to see what you think!  Because it's fun to guess when you've got a 50/50 shot at being right.

Out of it

Once upon a time (this morning even) I had an idea for a blog post today.  And then I spent all day doing actual, physical work.  And now I'm totally worthless.  Plus I don't know where my computer charger is and I'm getting low on battery, so I don't even have time to sit here and come up with something entertaining for your amusement.  Because that's what I'm here for you guys- your amusement.

In other news, I'm 21 weeks pregnant today!  So now everything give me heartburn!  I should invest in Tums.

Ummmm, that's really all.  Early bedtime tonight.

Lucky

I've always felt lucky to have sisters so close to my age.  Growing up it meant built in friends, people to share clothes with, and (since I have Kari for a sister) someone to say, "Are you *really* leaving the house like that?"  And now that we're all in the baby-having phase of our lives, there is a whole new list of reasons I'm lucky to have sisters.

First off, as Nik-Nak commented on my maternity clothes post, I'm lucky to have someone to share maternity clothes with.  It's expensive to buy clothes, and it seems wasteful to buy them knowing you'll only wear them for a few months.  Even though I plan on several pregnancies, it's still expensive.  But now?  Three times the clothes!  And while Kari was pregnant she had three times the clothes.  And they'll continue to get passed around until we're all done having babies.

But it's not just maternity clothes.  Check out Kari's post today on the obscene amount of baby girl clothes we've accumulated.  So many that it stresses her out.  Those of you who know Kari know that only a ridiculous amount of clothing would stress her out.  And if I have a girl?  I'll get those clothes.  Or if I have a boy?  I'll get baby boy clothes from Kirsta.  Like the maternity clothes, the baby clothes just get rotated to whoever needs them at the moment.

The newborn stuff gets passed around too.  Kari is currently in possession of a swing and exersaucer originally purchased by us.  Also a bouncer given to Kirsta when Patrick was born.  Because we're not using those things.  Why should she buy her own while we store ours?  Addilyn is the third baby to get good use out of the swing we bought for Will.  Does it make me feel better about the $50 I spent on it?  Definitely.  And it'll come back to us when this next baby is born.

So anyway. Sisters.  Just one of the many reasons I feel lucky.

The best games

My kids (and most kids, I assume) do some really obnoxious things.  But lately they also play a couple "games" that I'm a big fan of.

The first involves me sitting on the couch saying "ready, set, go" while the kids run around in a big circle.  Let's see: this game wears them out- good.  This game involves me sitting on the couch- good.  They will play this game for up to 30 minutes at a time and involves no fighting- GOOD!  I actually wish they'd do this more.

The other "game" they play?  Nap time.

Now, this game does often involve fighting.  You know, four identical pillows- definitely something to fight over.  But it's so cute to watch!  And Will has totally started fake sleeping every time I go to get him out of his crib.  As soon as I open the door he'll lay back down and pretend to snore.  With his eyes wide open.  Kills me every time.

I guess he was feeling fancy!

I got Will dressed this morning in some nice little boy clothes.  Long sleeved t-shirt and camo pants (we're always classy around here.)  And then Will insisted on adding a tie.  He held it out to me and said, "Help! Tie!" over and over until I put it on him.

Really completes the look, don't you think?

Family photos!

Yay!  They're done!  So here are some of the ones I love, but probably won't be going on the cards.

This is a hug, not wrestling.  Looks like it could be either one.

Feeling a little sad that she couldn't go jump on the trampoline next door.

I think it's cute that she'll "give the new baby" a kiss, but I feel like it's a little too cutesy for Christmas cards.  By the way Sally told me I was "lucky to have a belly so early" because it was good for the pictures.  I think that's the nicest way I've ever been told I look really pregnant for how far along I am.

Being thrown in the air, a favorite pastime for both our children.

Sometimes toddler smiles get a little out of hand.

Or a lot out of hand.  Even Will is wondering what she's doing.

Now to go pick my actual favorite card to go with the pictures...

You'll just have to wait some more.

We did end up getting pictures done this afternoon.  And I was hoping to post some of them (in fact, I put off writing this post to see if she'd send me the link to the pictures) but I don't have them yet.  The session went well, the kids were happy and we did a variety of poses so I'm hoping there are lots of good ones!  Anyway.  SOON.

And now a question: what do you do if your kids get up super early in the morning?

Here's the situation at our house.  Kalena still has her good nite lite, so hypothetically she should be staying in her room until 6:45.  But she's developed a couple of habits that are screwing with this.  For one thing, she is in a phase of wanting her door open and the hall light on.  All night.  I close her door and turn the light off before I go to bed only to wake up at 2 am and discover that she's turned the light back on and opened her door.  (Apparently she's inherited my light sleeping.)  Side note here, we've added a lamp to her room in the hopes that being able to turn a lamp on will keep her from needing the hall light.  And it's a touch lamp so she doesn't have to mess with switches or anything.  Anyway, the other thing she does is wake up at like 5 am and take herself to the bathroom.  And then instead of going back to bed she sits in her open doorway, usually playing with noisy toys.

So, any great suggestions from anyone out there?  Because I'm a BIG FAN of 6:45.  It's way better than 5 am.

Foiled!

I had big plans for today's blog.  Well, big plans for today actually.  See, my friend Sally was going to take family pictures for us.  For our Christmas cards.  For free even, because she's awesome.  And then it was 40 degrees and it poured down rain for most of the day, which really interfered with our "pictures in the yard" plan.  I'm hoping we can do them tomorrow, because I'd really like to get these things ordered.  (Am a giant procrastinator, so the sooner I get them the better.)

ANYWAY.  Then I was going to come home and post them on the blog and tell you how fun or stressful or crazy it was.  And how it's impossible to get two small children to look at the camera and smile at the same time.  (That's just a fact of life.)  But all day rain and no pictures instead.

I do have this picture though:

Bedtime stories with grandpa in front of the fire.  Does it get any better?

20 weeks

Halfway there!  

And in other, cuter pictures, Will was dressed like a lumberjack today.

And that is the face he makes when you tell him "say cheese!"

Maternity clothes galore

Remember when I mentioned in my 13 things that my sister was borrowing most of my maternity clothes?  Well.  I have them back.  AND THEN SOME.  My parents came home from seeing the new baby on Sunday evening.  My mom handed me a couple dresses and then told me there was another box in the laundry room.  I glanced in and there was a diaper box, filled past the top and I thought, "Well good, more pants I can wear."  And that was about it.

Monday I talked to Kari who asked if I was excited to see all those clothes and I told her I hadn't really sorted it.  Then she mentioned that there was also a box of stuff from Kirsta.  Good deal right?  So yesterday I started putting away the diaper box stuff and I realized that this box?  Was the box from Kirsta.  The box Kari referred to as the "small box."  I asked my mom about the other box and she told me it was still in the car.  And that she'd need help getting it out, but that I shouldn't be helping because it was too heavy.  Okaaaay.  Yeah, so here's the box Kari meant (with the diaper box on top for reference.)

This picture doesn't do it justice.  (How 'bout that awesome linoleum though??)  There's got to be like a gazillion things in there.  Ballpark.  So that, plus the stuff from the diaper box, plus the stuff Kari gave me last time I was in Denver, plus the stuff she never borrowed to begin with.  Pretty sure my maternity wardrobe is now bigger than my actual wardrobe.

And now some things you didn't really care about.  (Because I KNOW you all cared about everything up till now.)  I can't actually share non-maternity clothes with my sisters.  They're both taller and skinnier than I am.  Luckily maternity stuff is much more forgiving!  (Still, there's already a pair of Kari's maternity pants that are too small for me.  Sad.)  Also, we accumulated so many maternity clothes because our other pregnancies have overlapped so much that we each had to have our own stash.  Now that I'm the only pregnant one I have ALL the clothes.

A little more Halloween

So I was handing out candy at my parent's house on Halloween when, once again, the doorbell rang.  (Little side note here- my parent's neighborhood is SO popular for trick-or-treating that people drive their kids in, park at the neighborhood entrance and trick-or-treat there.)  Anyway, I was about to give some candy to the little ghost at the door when I looked up and realized that guy with the ghost?  Was my brother!  (And the ghost was my nephew so don't think this is totally bizarre.  Obviously I didn't recognize my nephew since he was under a sheet and all.)  Why did this startle me?  Well, here's what he normally looks like:

But on Halloween he looked like this:

Anyway.  Fun times.

It's November!

And around this blog that means NaBloPoMo! This is the 4th year I've done this, and I've managed to post every day the other 3 years, so hopefully I can keep up my streak.

I was planning to write about something (other than Hey! More blogging!) but I am currently trying (and failing) to get rid of an awful headache and I'm pretty sure not looking at my computer screen anymore will help some.  Anyway.  Anybody going to join me in all this November blogging?