this weekend: pumpkins and packing

Finding family time when a spouse is in school is tough.  It's probably been made more difficult for the simple reason that I didn't expect that his third year would be so intense.  Everyone told me that the third year would be a breeze, especially if he'd already been offered a job.  Well, even with job in hand, his work load has seemed almost equivalent to his first year and I've been struggling to make plans for us as a family because of the unpredictability of his schedule.  Not to mention the fact that we just miss him.

Waiting for his schedule to free up had only left us with this one last weekend to go pumpkin picking, donut eating, and cider drinking before Halloween.  And I finally realized that, between Saturday's gloomy weather and Ted's Sunday class (yes, I said SUNDAY CLASS), waiting around for him to have even an hour of time that aligned with Ella's schedule was a waste of everyone's time.  So, on Sunday, Ella and I braved the chilly weather and went to the pumpkin patch and cider mill on our own.  I tried to remain upbeat while we were there but it's difficult to see other families making memories together when one of yours is missing.  It hit me.  Hard.  And I've been cursing law school ever since.

I spent the rest of the weekend packing up the kitchen and rearranging our lives on the first floor of the house so that we can begin demolition.  The contractors will be here on Friday to disconnect the utilities (yay), and so Ted and I made a date night trip to IKEA on Saturday to get all of the cabinets, the sink, faucet and microwave vent hood.  What I thought would only take us an hour took us two!  We both left feeling a bit brain dead, but excited that this project is officially underway.  We're going to have a new kitchen next month!