Saturday started slowly. I woke up around 7 with Nathaniel peeking into my room. “Can I watch Garfield?” he said as soon as he cuddled in with me. I said yes and off he went.

When I came down, my nephew Aksel was calling me on Skype. While we were talking David woke up and he showed David these Turkish airlines planes that have Batman and Superman.

We all took a photo before we hung up. I got to talk to my sister too but by then she was gone to the movies.

We then drove to the movies to celebrate David’s friend Luca’s birthday. Nathaniel got to come along too and enjoyed the fun theatre. 

The Angry Birds movie. Silly but also a bit sweet. Nothing I would have seen on my own 🙂

We got to have pizza, chat with the others, cake and then headed home so the kids could get ready for Maker Faire. 

Love my boys.

He insisted I take this shot. Love love love him.

All three of them with their nerdy gear, all ready for the Faire.

After they left I spent 3 hours listening to my book and doing something I’d put off for 5 months. I created templates for all the room parents for 2016-2017 school year. Very time consuming but not hard.

The resulting ones are consistent, hopefully clear, and easy to use.

I then did all this posting, some photo processing and a bunch of TV while there was no one else here.

The boys spent 6 hours at Maker Faire! Playing video games.

Apparently it was really fun.

They ran into both friends from our school (our college) and from David’s class. Everyone goes to Maker Faire here!

After working for a while, I decided I needed to go out a bit so took a little stroll in the neighborhood.

Looked at the beautiful flowers. 

When I got back home they were all back. Nathaniel made faces about going to bed (even though it was 2 hours past his bedtime.) And David read his book with his graduation sunglasses. (Everyone was pretty much ready for bed.)

I tucked the little boy in while Jake went shopping for groceries and made me some yummy food. He’s so nice to me. And then I tucked David in, too. Read for a bit more and am now watching a movie while I post these last bits.

It’s almost Sunday.

Today started with a 5:30 meeting. I woke up just a few minutes before the meeting and quickly got breakfast ready and got right to work.

Little boy came down right before 6am and snuggled under the covers.

Then Daddy got up and there was much much excitement.

Time for breakfast and a bit of computer time as they wait for the oatmeal to cool off.

Jake took them to the shuttle today so I walked them to the door to give them hugs.

Love these boys so much.

I quickly showered and headed to work. More Fellside, and my favorite companion: google maps.

Not the best angle. but here we are. all serious looking.

The best part of going to work is the wonderful coffee.

and the food!

It was supposed to be overcast today but it was very sunny when i got to work.

I found a room that was free for a few hours and settled in.

Ate breakfast and got ready for my 8:30am.

Right before the meeting my mom called so we got to say a quick hi. Love my mom so much.

This is my work-mate Ernesta. She’s awesome. All the way in Zurich.

I meant to take more photos but the rest of the day is a blur. I had more meetings and then gave a presentation on Mentoring and was on a panel and then drove back home to change and head to school for pickup. Here’s the only shot I have. Not the best.

Little boy was ready for me when I got there.

He played a bit and I went to go get David.

Another shot on the way home. Kids really love it.

I wanted to take a photo of my desk for posterity. So you can see how not organized I am lately. Yes, it’s driving me mad.

Shower and dinner. Boys started doing homework while I did work.

David had to design his own money tonight.Pick important historical figures.

The kids played a game while I worked some more. They got so into it that Nathaniel ended up having to take another shower.

Then it was time for the little one to head to bed. I tucked him in and went back to doing work. I had 132 emails in my inbox and I was determined to make my way through all of them for once and all.

One more shot of the little boy.

Jake came home right then, hugged the boys, and kindly went out to get gas for my car and a quick dinner for us so I could keep working.

I finally managed to finish all my emails, my work, and gave one more hug to David. Typing this up as Jake falls asleep next to me (hello, jetlag!) and will then head to bed for another early start tomorrow.

I needed to make sure I was sleeping before 10:30 last night so I decided it was ok if this came a day late 🙂

Today was a super-early start because I had a 5:30am meeting.

Nathaniel slept with me again but when I woke up, he was clearly still too tired so I asked him if he wanted to go back to sleep and that I’d wake him up at 6 when my first meeting was over. He said ok. I went downstairs and did a quick lunch prep to make it easier on Nathaniel, also prepped the oatmeal and then sat down with my tea.

I spend most of my days like this. On videoconference with my team mates. Since I work with a team in Zurich, a lot of my meetings and work is early AM. Right before this meeting, I snuck upstairs and woke up Nathaniel as I’d promised.

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While I was in my meeting, Nathaniel prepared lunch for both him and David. He’s been doing this all year. He’s a total gem.

We took one more shot on the way to the shuttle. David didn’t forget his glasses this time.

Since I was meeting my mentee for lunch, I decided to eat a small breakfast. Small yogurt with a few berries.

Then it was time to get organized again and figure out what I had to do today.

On the way to the cafe where I met my mentee (she’s out on maternity but we still try to check in with each other) I listened to my book. I’m currently reading Imagine Me Gone by Adam Hasslett and listening to Fellside by M.R. Carey. I love listening to my books when I am in the car.

I had a lovely lunch with my mentee and then drove back home for more work and then it was time to pick up the boys. Nathaniel gets out earlier and he’s always waiting for me in this corner.

We drove straight home today and I asked David if I could get a shot, this is what he let me have. He wasn’t super thrilled.

Nathaniel watered all the plants in the front and backyard while David showered.

David did this math homework while Nathaniel showered and I prepared their dinner. We are super early today because David has a music class and then we had plans to leave right after.

While they ate I turned on CNN to see how the primaries had gone. Nothing super surprising.

Nathaniel has to read 20 minutes a day for his homework. He loves reading series and is currently reading Ellery Jake series.

David started tuning his guitar in preparation for his teacher. He usually plays the acoustic guitar but he’s preparing for a Talent Show in two weeks so he’s practicing the electric guitar these weeks. 

His teacher is here and they are practicing Superheroes by The Script.

While he is with his teacher, Nathaniel and I continue our math class from yesterday. Today’s topic is Order of Operations.

As soon as the teacher leaves, we drive to our local bookstore. Today’s the release day for my friend Evelyn’s book and several of us volunteered to help her setup.

Here she is with her awesome daughter Reese!

A wonderful pastry chef did the amazing food and she made Russian desserts (the book takes place in Imperial Russia) and look at these swans!!

More Russian desserts 🙂

Here’s Angela who organizes the events at Kepler’s bookstore and Evelyn’s good friend.

And then Evelyn and Sabaa whose book was also awesome.

I had preordered my copy so David started reading it right away.

Sabaa then interviewed Evelyn and the crowd had a lot of questions and it was a really lovely evening. I am so incredibly happy for my friend. Her book is really really awesome. Our first grade teacher and 7 of Reese’s classmates were also there to support them and it was really nice. By the time we were done it was almost 9 and well past bedtime so we drove back home and Nathaniel went right to bed. David decided he wanted to as well. I spent a few hours doing some more work and then headed to bed myself.

And here we are. Day 2.