Life Updated: Late Fall

I don't usually start off a blog post with so many photos, but these called to me.  Here's what I've been up to (although it is probably obvious from these photos and my Instagram feed)....

• We snuck over to the beach for Thanksgiving and stayed at a friend's empty beach house.  When we bought our place in Colorado, we knew we'd hardly vacation anywhere else.  Five years later, it's so true.  We hardly vacation elsewhere and I miss the beach dearly.  So, we went. Totally loved it even in the cold.  Jedi celebrated his 3rd birthday on the beach, too.  How happy and strong does he look?  And Lil O squishing her eyes shut slays me.
• Mr. UpCyclist and I went on a date on a Sunday night.  Yep.  You heard me.  On a school night. That night, I wore this simple, yet adorable sweater my teen niece gave me.  Now, tell me if this is odd.  My teen niece cleaned out her closet and gave me a bag of her hand-me-downs.  I loved all of the hand-me-downs.  Am I strange? Or does my niece have the best taste ever?  It also looks like I've been to every Imagine Dragon and Mumford & Sons concert since they began touring thanks to my four hand-me-down concert tees.  Thanks, J!
• My first jobs in education were all on ropes courses.  You can imagine how psyched I was when Lil O, Mr. U and I hit the adventure park in Sandy Spring, Maryland.  We were there for three hours and I think we would have stayed longer if our three-hour ticket wasn't about to expire and they served lunch.   Lunch, by the way, tasted so yummy.  Do you like Cafe Rio?  I could bathe in their barbacoa.
• My book.  Notice there are no photos of me writing.  That's because when I write, I am either completely in the zone or totally procrastinating.  Here's the good news.  My goal is to have the book proposal complete to pitch to several different agents and publishing houses in early 2015.  I am on target for that goal as the book proposal is written; it just needs to be edited.  My second goal is to have four of the eight chapters written (at least in draft form) before I return from my sabbatical in mid-January.  I have three chapters written and just one more to go to accomplish that goal.  The bad news?  There is none.  Yahooo!
• Are you in the winter nesting mode like me?  I am not kidding when I say as soon as the sun goes down, I want to be inside our house, in my pajamas, and not leave until the next morning. I think my family agrees, especially Jedi.  Almost every night, we put him to bed around 7-7:30pm.  He is so darn cute sleeping there (on our bed), we just have to snuggle him.  Look at his face?  He's either thinking, please leave me alone or I won the lottery with this family.

I think we won the lottery with him.

What have you been up to?  Comment below or email me.  I miss catching up in this blog space.

xo,

Jen