In Which Grant Eats Garbage and Brian Hits 100

Monday I took the boys to the Superior Dome for a play group. They had bikes, balls, and hula hoops in a corner of the indoor football field. Grant kept trying to run away. One time I saw him at about the 50 yard line watching some college guys play soccer. Another time he was climbing on the metal bleachers eating whatever garbage had been swept into a pile.

Thursday I got to go on a Mom’s night out. Downtown Marquette hosts Ladies’ Night. The stores stay open late (meaning past 6 p.m.), and they have sales and refreshments. It was great being able to go to fun stores without worrying what my boys would break. It was pretty cold outside, but well worth it.

Friday morning I hosted a breakfast club at our house. A bunch of moms and kids came over and everyone brought something to share. Afterward, I got another mommy break and went to a friend’s house where she taught me some tricks about digital scrapbooking. I’m excited to have a little change of pace from paper and to be able to share the pages more easily.

Friday evening we dropped the boys off with our babysitting swap friend, and Brian and I went Christmas shopping. We are pretty much done. We ended early and got to go to dinner, too.

Saturday the little boys and I went to a birthday party. It was a princess theme, with a few knights thrown in. The boys got to decorate foam crowns with foam stickers (the girls had foam wands). Jackson decorated both sides of his and was there twice as long as anyone else. Grant figured out how to place the stickers and made a very cool crown.

Brian hit the 100-page mark on his book/thesis about the homeless man, and he figures he’ll hit 300 by the time it’s done. He also has sent out a lot of other writing to magazines for possible publication. He sent a group of four poems to 35 magazines; unfortunately, he is 0-for-4 so far. He also has a nonfiction essay out to 19 magazines, and a short story out to six. We should hear back from most of them over the next few months.