New Job!

Well, our landlord had been talking about turning our backyard into a parking lot for quite some time but all the bids he got from professional contractors were really high. So I figured, "hey, I got free time - the nanny is only 6 hours a day..." So I started my own construction company, specializing in concrete and paving. It was a bit time consuming getting started but our first job is going well and I foresee a strong future for my company, aptly named "Jolin Paving and Excavating".
No, no, fear not...I of course am not anywhere near being qualified to excavate or concrete anything. I just think it's a fabulous coincidence that the company our landlord hired is named Jolin, expecially since I've never before met anyone outside my family with my last name and now I see it all over trucks!

Anyway, we've had fun watching the paving happen but are also totally saddened to see our lovely privacy-giving trees being taken down. Oh, well that's city life I guess. And now we dont 'have to fight for street parking during the winter. Our neighbors promise we'll be glad come December. We'll see.

Dakota update

Dakota is getting big! We've had some requests for new pictures, so here are a couple!

This picture is Dakota demolishing the insides of a baseball.

Possum? Wha?

So we came home tonight to find a possum in our garbage can! It had been raining, so it was just sitting there surrounded by garbage and water. Here is a picture:

We decided that we had better let it out, so we picked up the garbage can and dumped it out in the corner of the yard. It was pretty gross looking, and moving slow, but as you can see it still climbed the fence:

IHOP Food Share

This morning Matt and I headed off for a lovely little date: a morning round of frisbee golf followed by pancakes at IHOP. Frisbee golf was good but pretty challenging. And a bit intimidating considering that the other players were taking the game quite seriously and were very much shaming us with their excellent throws and extremely professional disc bags. :)

Anyway we were starving after the 18 holes so we took off for IHOP. Matt ordered 3 pancakes because he was very hungry but when they arrived they were called a "short stack" and were pretty small pancakes indeed. Matt was confused. He didn't want a short stack, he wanted three big pancakes. Well, after some explaining we realized that IHOP doesn't have BIG pancakes, just the small ones and you can get a short stack (three pancakes) or a tall stack (5 pancakes). The waitress offered to bring out two more pancakes for Matt but we decided I had plenty of food for both of us to share.

So the waitress was leaving our table when the people sitting in the booth behind me popped around the corner asking if we were trying to get more pancakes. We said yeah, sort of and they proceeded to offer us their extra pancakes! How hilarious is that? They said they ended up with three on a side plate they hadn't touched and weren't going to eat and offered them to us. It was so bizarre but so sweet and so we took them and Matt ate them and it was great.

I tell you what...Worcester so far has shown itself to be a place with very generous people - at least when it comes to IHOP and Taco Bell! :)

Graduate classes

So, classes have gone pretty well this week for me (Matt). It definitely has a different feel than Undergrad classes. For starters, I only have one class per day, from 5-6:20 M-Th. Of course I'm also a Research Assistant, so I actually have to work pretty much from after lunch until my evening class... BUT no morning activities at all!
We still haven't really delved into the material for either class, so I don't really know how well I will perform. I feel like I have a pretty strong background, so I'll probably do ok. As long as everything comes back to me from 2 or 3 years ago!

Mary Poppins' first day

So Mary Poppins is what the guys who live on the floor below us have dubbed me since my first day as a nanny. They're fun guys and it's great to have "friends" in the building. They had us over for dinner the other night and we promised to return the favor. Funny thing is that of the three guys, one is from Seattle (and graduated from Western Washington University Tim and Meg!) one is from Montana and only one is actually from the east coast! So that's fun.

But getting back to the nannying...I'll have to update after my first real day tomorrow. But for today I drove all around town with Addie (the mom) and saw all the places I'll be driving to everyday. One odd part of the day that kind of solidified the hugeness of this job is when Addie turned to me during a drive and said, "Starting tomorrow, you're going to see my kids more than I do." Wow. Weird, eh? It makes me feel funny but also really good about how much I'm going to be able to be involved in these kids lives. I can't wait to have these "little sisters" in my life. I hope I'll be able to connect and bond with them and make a positive impact on them.

Oh, and the family is seriously thinking about getting a dog - so I'll be with Dakota at home and then I'll deal with another dog at work! I don't mind, though. I love dogs and I think it will be great to see the girls learn to take care of a dog.

Matt starts classes tomorrow which he is really excited about too. We'll let you know how that goes.

Welp...guess that's all for now. Take care...