Downtime.

This week was exhausting!!  A five day week after a four day week always seems longer anyway but after being away last weekend, by this Friday we were whipped.  On Monday I had my first observation at Liberty.  Luckily, it went very well!!  Wednesday I sat in a three hour conference on "The Legally Defensive IEP."  The observation, conference, and all the medicaid work I did these week led to my brain turning to mush.  John was also busy in meetings preparing for basketball and getting grades in for progress reports.  We were so happy to arrive at the weekend with only minimal plans :)  I spent most of the weekend doing laundry, medicaid paperwork, & getting in some exercise with the pup.

On our walks this week, Roxy & I have discovered that the geese have returned to the little pond on Michigan Street.  I think the hassidic children who come & play by the pond in the summer sent the geese away on a summer hiatus.  But, alas, they have returned.  This always makes the end part of our walk so interesting.  Roxy is a freak for geese.  She smells them & then starts a little shimmy I like to call the "Goose Shit Dance."  It involves heavy breathing, snuffing, hip swaying, and a b-line towards the nearest goose.  Not always the most fun being dragged into the goose shit dance at the end of a long walk when I'm exhausted but hey, she's coo-coo for goose turds!  Roxy & I have had a weekly guest for our walks, my friend Dana.  Dana has been a good sport putting up with Roxy's frequent poop stops & exploratory tangents off the beaten path.  For someone who doesn't really like dogs, she's been surprisingly sweet with Rox.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate and give us several more weeks before it's too cold to head out.

My parents went down to the city Saturday...they got tickets for the Navy-Notre Dame football game at the meadowlands!!  They took my Uncle Marvie & Aunt Peggy and had a great time.  Here's Aunt Peggy & Uncle Marvie all decked out in their Navy gear at the game:

While my parents were down in the city cheering on Navy, we did a whole lot of...NOTHING :)  It was a stressful, crazed week and some quiet time snuggling with my pets/family was exactly what the doctor ordered.
Here are some photos from the general laziness of Saturday afternoon:

Riley loves nuts

John & I did venture out in the evening for some football.  Sullivan West hosted Tri-Valley so we went cheer on Greg, Joey, & Conor....we also got to see John's mom.  It was probably the last football game we'll get to attend this season.  It was a long and hard game but the boys won & it was a great way to end their regular season.  What was not so fun was having to listen to some of the crazy people in the stands.  We had a few quotes that were noteworthy last night:  "That's the wrong call ever" was one for the grammar police; as well as "These ref's are barest."  She was looking for the word biased.  Gotta love sullivan county.  I will miss going to football games, but football ending means basketball is just around the corner!

Halloween is coming up and it's been a full moon on top of that.  We'll see how my middle schoolers are this week.