Ahhhh..... I have off work this week and Paige has off school all week. My future at Readers Digest was resolved last Tuesday: I'll be working 3 days/week through December 22nd. I'm very happy with that schedule through the holidays.

Got together with my old high school buddy, Guy, last weekend. We had him over for dinner, then went downtown to the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre to see Lombardi. Wow! Was that good! Guy is a high school English teacher and is very interested in film as well and even he said the play was incredible. Glad to hear he's taking good care of himself after his heart surgery a couple years ago.

The Art Guild I belong to is painting wineglasses again and this month we all painted with a holiday theme in mind. I was quite pleased with mine and kind of hated to give them up (I did not paint all these pictured). Another member was able to get the glasses on the shelves of a local liquor store (Otto's). Proceeds from the sales go to our Guild's scholarship fund.

Celebrated my birthday Saturday with a very relaxing day at home, then dinner at PFChang's with Paige and Jeff. Had never been there before, but will surely go again! It was delicious! And affordable. Really glad Jeff had made a reservation, because the typical wait time for others coming in was 1 hour, 10 minutes!

Jeff got to use some of his company's season tickets and took Paige, Bryn and her friend Margo to the Packers game yesterday. The girls were so excited to go to their first Packers game! Too bad Abby couldn't partake—too far away. Even said it wasn't so cold there in the stands. The UW Band was there and paraded through the stands, and American Idol winner Kris Allen sang the national anthem. Paige commented on how many people were wearing blaze orange. After the game, Jeff took them to Kroll's for a burger. Traffic was heavy through Oshkosh, then let up after that.

We Skyped with Abby last night. They've got a couple dogs in the house for a few days and boy are they cute!

The annual Hunt in Waubeno was last weekend, so Jeff journeyed north with his college buddies for a weekend of male bonding. Living in a household full of women, Jeff definitely deserves his hunting weekend. Jeff retold the stories of his classmates and their families to Paige and I when he returned Sunday evening. A couple of the guys now bring their sons up to partake.

While Jeff was in Waubeno, Abby came in from La Crosse. Paige had been missing her sisters. Abby and Paige went out and picked up Bryn Saturday and they all went to see Footloose. I missed out because I was re-ordering the proper couch for our basement at the furniture store. I heard Footloose was really good though! We all reconnected at Kristin's for pizza afterward. Convenient because Kristin lives part-way between Carroll and our house.

The couch fiasco... Jeff had sent an email immediately after delivery that went unanswered. Probably because our salesperson works part-time. Mid-week I called and was able to talk to her. I brought up the discrepancy between what the fact sheet lists as the couch dimensions and what we are actually measuring. She went and measured the same piece on her salesfloor. She called us back later that same night saying that that discrepancy is the manufacturer's error and we'd be able to return and reorder our custom pieces without any penalty ($)! Thank goodness. So the reordered pieces should arrive early January. Long wait.

Received notice Wednesday that my contract here at Reader's Digest has been extended through December 22nd. What? I guess I wasn't anticipating that at all. So this weekend I'm taking time to evaluate what availability I can offer them, if any. In the past couple weeks, I've received various freelance offers and even another temporary gig, but what will pan out and what won't?

And here's Bryn and Paige showing off their newly pierced earlobes!

Poor Jeff had to work long hours the week of his birthday, so we didn't really get to celebrate. Paige and I really wanted to take him to The Cheesecake Factory for dessert! Guess we'll go another day.

I took off work last Friday and Monday just to have a break during my 3-month assignment of working full-time. And I thoroughly enjoyed it. Friday Paige had off school as well. My parents came down and I drove them through Greendale, where Readers Digest is located and showed them around. We used our 30% off coupons at Kohls buying Jeff birthday presents. Then we lunched at Ferch's and all enjoyed a malt shoppe treat! Paige got a lot of giggles trying to help Grandma figure out her new smart phone.

Friday night we met up with the Taorminas for a fish fry at the Schwabenhof. Haven't been there in a long time and it was delicious! We did have to wait a while because they were so busy, but it really was a great place to bring Kristin's little ones. Lucy kept us laughing at her sipping her "beer"!

Paige had a Halloween party Saturday night and her $2.50 mask from Bartzs was perfect to complete her cat costume. Jeff and I went to see The Ides of March. Very good movie.

We were so anticipating the arrival of our new sectional for the basement Sunday! It was supposed to come between 2-4pm, but it ended up being 6:00pm—in the pouring rain. The deliverymen tried and tried, but couldn't get the couch piece down our basement stairs. The tension was thick in our house that night. The couch remains wrapped in plastic in our living room until we resolve with our salesperson what our options are. It's really pretty though!

Both Paige and Bryn decided to get their ears pierced in the last week! Weird coincidence!

Lots of Halloween candy leftover that I don't like. Bummer. Not as many trick-or-treaters this year even though the weather was pretty decent. Jeff and Paige bought and carved their pumpkins Sunday.