Merry Monday

Bonjour mes amis! It's been almost two weeks now, and I am happy to be back and ready to post again. I had a bit of a cold that I contracted from the plane ride home that had me out of commission for a few days. While I have not fully recovered, I finally have enough energy to write again, so here goes.

The weekend was brief, as usual, but much needed rest was had and that's all I could ask for. A trip to the apple orchard to pick pumpkins, Home Run Derby in le boyfran's brother's gigantic yard, a dinner honoring the passing of my grandpa, a night out with good friends (and polka music!), a Dora-themed birthday party, shopping, a stop at a friend's house, and finally pumpkin carving, burgers, and haunted tv shows filled my weekend up. Doesn't sound like I got any rest, eh? Well I did!

Here's what I'm grateful for:

1. Rest! On Friday night, despite the temptations of meeting friends for drinks or playing Yahtzee with another group of friends, I finally decided to stay in. This meant tv shows, unpacking my suitcase (long overdue), and an 11pm bedtime.

2. Family. My grandpa passed away 11 years ago and every year we honor him by coming together as a family for a meal, burning incense, and giving offerings at the shrine in my grandma's house. I also went to my cousin's fourth birthday party, and spent time with boyfran's family on both Saturday and Sunday. 

3. Pumpkins. I picked out a 27-lb. pumpkin while boyfran found a 35er. We, of course, picked them from the furthest patch and had to haul them around a bit. We gutted them. We carved them. We're going to bake those seeds to perfection! I didn't think I really liked the whole pumpkin-carving-mess, but it was fun and gooey. Also, I'm allergic to them (go figure) so I had to wear gloves, but my arms still got itchy. Blech. Anyway, the smell of pumpkin wafting around in the air was a nice touch to Sunday night.

And here is a tiny glimpse of my Paris trip, which I'll post about soonish.