Hey, I may be late but I’m here; it counts.

• Leon County schools were closed yesterday for Teacher Planning (which I must accept now as a mother of a school-age child) and I spent ALL day with Elliot. So today feels an awful lot like Monday, though it so totally is not.
• In fact, I’m so off that I forgot – yes, FORGOT – to make coffee this morning.
• My brilliant idea for keeping Ell entertained yesterday actually worked. We took Isaac to daycare, got some breakfast, then went to the zoo to try their new Tree to Tree adventures, which was awesome. He got to do all kinds of cool bridges, etc… in the trees of the habitat and a zip line. We got there right at 9 when they opened so he was the first one to go. We walked around and saw the animals after and he played on the playground too.
• After all that, he and I ate Chik-Fil-A, because he loves it but never gets it, then we watched Nightmare Before Christmas and went to Old Navy for jeans. All in all, a great day for he and I; I didn’t have to get mad at him once!
• That is, until around 5-6 PM when getting all the fun stuff he could ever imagine made him suddenly spoiled so not getting one tiny thing prompted his inner uber brat to appear.
• I was really proud of him yesterday though; he didn’t whine or do that little whimper he does when he’s nervous. He even caught on very quickly to the procedure of clipping and unclipped the two carabiners for each new area. I mean, he really stepped up to that without asking me to walk him through it. It was really nice to see him be so brave.
• I did kick myself, though, for not bringing my good camera. The way I understood the website was that I had to be on there with him so I just brought my four year old Canon point and shoot, whose quality is pretty cruddy.
• In actuality, parents sort of walk below them – which is great because they are forced to do it on their own – so I could have been taking high quality photos instead. Oh well. We’ll go back.
• The one thing I did not do yesterday was any cleaning. My folks come into town Friday evening and I have A LOT to do to get my house somewhat presentable. I don’t clean it like I used to – because I know my mom isn’t the cleanliness inspector – but I do need to vacuum and straighten things up. I mean, my house is by no means a show room but it looks lived in. Yeah, lived in.
• Speaking of, we bought a new couch! I am beyond thrilled about this because though our couches still look OK in general, they’re over 20 years old and the cushions are ripped to shreds, which is why I have been covering them with sheets. This is fine for our everyday living but I don’t like having people over; it’s kind of embarrassing. So Ash and I went Friday and decided on this one:
• It’s larger than our old one so the plan is to get rid of both our sofa and loveseat and move the recliner out of the play room and into the living room. They aren’t the same color but very close. I cannot wait to make this change, especially because it’s the start of revamping that whole room, other parts of which include a new rug and TV that will be mounted on the wall.
• Sadly, the bulk pick-up from the city comes every other Friday and it is NOT this coming week. Ugh. Looks like Ash will just have to park outside the garage for an extra week while out old couched reside there.
• Well, I’d better get started today. Elliot told me this morning there’s a book in “self-read center” that he doesn’t like and it’s boring. So we talked about having to do things you don’t want to do, because it’s your job. Guess I’d better take my own advice!

In Man Candy today, I am choosing this photo, simply because a.) I’d like to be there and b.) I’ve come to the conclusion that I like when guys wear Sperrys.

And in case that wasn’t good enough for you: