hi there...

Whoops! Forgot about ditl til i'd been up an hour, showered and packed for going to grandma's. 

( warning for a lot of collages, some cooked turkey bits other than just the meat, a giant bottle of wine, and much Jewish terminology )

( a fun day of putting together ikea furniture and partying. warning for very inappropriate cupcakes and other fun stuff like that :-D )

I haven't posted a real post--not a ditl--in so long, and when poppleshatesyou did a meme i thought it would be a good opportunity! if you comment, you'll get your own set of seven questions to post about.

1. What is your current favorite song?
I...don't really have favorite songs. I don't listen to much "new" music--my car stereo is always on oldies stations. picking between awesome songs would be akin to picking a favorite book, or a favorite child--completely impossible.

2. What are you going to do once your nanny family doesn't need you anymore?
I'm planning to take a month or two off and then hopefully start right up again with another family with another tiny baby. In my month(s) off I plan to spend a lot of time by the pool at my boyfriend's house with his mother (she's a teacher so she has summer off, and i adore her). I have a few trips i want to take. Basically I just want to enjoy what could be the last long vacation of my life...because who knows when i'll be able to take a month or two off again?

3. What part of the country do you live in?
I live in the Northeast. I have a love/hate relationship with it...i love the people, the towns, the cities...but i hate hate HATE the weather. 

4. Are you going to school? If so, what's your long term school goal?
Nope. Alllll done with that. Someday, SOMEDAY, i might go to grad school, but not until i absolutely need it. I love learning and would love to audit some classes, but I really really really don't want to have to do papers and grading and TAing and presentations and shit again. I'm so done with that. 

5. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
I've always dreamed of taking a Grand Tour of Europe like they used to do in the olden days. I want to see all the sights, meet new people, hear new languages. I also really want to see Australia/New Zealand, parts of Africa, some part of middle/south America, and of course Israel again. I love traveling.

6. Latest book you read and throughly enjoyed?
I thoroughly enjoy every book I read, or else I don't finish reading it! This morning I finished Hidden Summit by Robyn Carr. It is the latest in a series of romances set in a town in northern CA called Virgin River. I adore them.

7. Favorite part of being a nanny? Least favorite part?
My favorite part has to be the fact that I am an *integral* part of this child's life. He *knows* me. I have been with him almost 45 hours a week almost every week since he was 4 months old--aka as long as he can remember. I'm his third parent. He lights up when I come in the door in the morning, and lately has been sad to see me go. He comes to me for comfort, and for giggles.

My least favorite part...other than the hours and the commute and the general annoyances of life with a crazy toddler who can't talk yet...has to be leaving. Both leaving every day and not knowing what he's doing overnight, and the fact that in just a few short months I'll be leaving him for real. I'll still be a part of his life--his mother told me that she definitely wanted that. But I'll be relegated to friend or aunt status, not third parent status. He'll forget me soon enough. It kills me. 

My awesome boyfriend has an equally awesome family who generously included me in all of their Christmas plans. I did a two day ditl, but forgot to take pictures a lot, so it's not TOO bad.
( Quite a few collages, no warnings though! )

Friday night was fillllled with cleaning and stressing and more cleaning and stressing...For my birthday/halloween party Saturday night! (Bday is Tuesday!)

I took two Tylenol PMs at like 10pm, read in bed for a while, and finally turned off my light at a little after midnight.

( Warnings for legal booze and a middle finger, but other than that, you're safe. )

This past week I was visiting my friend superduckie in North Carolina! We decided that Friday we would go to...
 Come along to see an awesome day!

( LOTS OF PICTURES. No warnings unless you don't like zoos! )

I moved on Saturday! Finally out of my parents' house :-) However, a lot of the day was just so busy I forgot to take pictures...here's what I got!

Really, body, really? I *wanted* to sleep in!
( possibly a minor swear or two. and lots of messes! )

 My bosses gave me Thurs and Fri off so they could go to Bike Week in NH. I managed to keep busy! Come see my thursday...

Oops! Almost forgot that it was ditl day...thanks LJ :-) It's so late! 
( warnings for mild language, mention of alternative menstrual product, and LOTS OF PICTURES--what else do you expect from me??? )

On Saturday morning, we celebrated my brother's upcoming wedding with a ceremony called an Aufruf. It's normally done the week before the wedding, but we did it a month before for some reason. For info on Aufrufs, go here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aufruf or just go googling!


While this is almost two hours after I normally get up, it's still FRIKKIN' EARLY!
( No warnings unless you don't like family times! )</div>

hi y'all! i just decided to start a new blog about my life as a nanny. it's at http://nannyshaina.blogspot.com, although i might consider changing it to tumblr because apparently tumblr is teh awesomez. i dunno. go check it out!

LJ will still be here, for my f-locked rants about my love-life and my open posts that are memes. but hopefully i'll be posting regularly over there about nannying and life and such.

leave me a comment there if you like it!

<3 S