"I'm AJ. Nice to meet you. I'm 30."

^That's how I feel I need to introduce myself to people these days. Weird, right? And not that I actually have, but I feel like everyone's wondering, "Is she in her 20s or her 30s?" Eh, c'est la vie. We all turn 30 sometime.

We celebrated by going to Brady's Brewhouse. It's in town, but when you walk in, you feel like you're somewhere in the Twin Cities. The atmosphere is awesome. The food? Not so much. I ordered a cheeseburger stuffed with Ellsworth cheese curds, which I expected to be ooey gooey goodness. Instead, the bun was pretty crispy and the burger didn't have much taste. Kev had a hamburger with peanut butter inside it, and Colin noshed on some Goldfish-encrusted chicken fingers. I also had a glass of wine. Moscato d'Asti, of course :)

On Thursday, my co-worker teammates treated me to a lunch which was pretty tasty. They gave me this book (notice the dog's name is Rocket and the guy's name is Jake):
Which reminded me that(in regards to my first graders, half of whom are checked out at any given time, but are perfectly capable of what I ask them to do)

On Friday, I got to hang out with some of my co-workers and drink some fuzzy navels and down a few jello shots. I called it an "early" night at 11:30. The rest of them stayed out much later. My excuse for leaving was that if I left right then, I'd be able to get 7 hrs of sleep. That didn't happen! Colin's not sleeping well again, and that night I probably got about 4 hours of interrupted sleep.

On Saturday we had a busy house! My friend Stephie came up and we got pedicures, which was so nice in the cold weather. In case you're curious, my nail polish color is "No Spain, No Gain." (dark plummy purple). Then we ate lunch. Thanks for the girl time, Stephie!!

My parents, bro, and his girlfriend came up as well. We had dinner (grilled chicken veggie tortellini of course!), chatted, and did the present thing. I got some cash to buy some much-needed work clothes with. One of these days I'll take a picture of my sad closet to show you all why my clothes are on a week-long rotation. I also got this:
Yes, it's a baby carrier. But it's best for bigger babies and toddlers. Colin likes to be carried.
Annoying? Yes. But it's just the way he is. He likes to see what's going on. If I have to have him up high, I'd rather wear him and be hands-free than hold him and not get anything done.

Does he like it? I think so. He was being a crab.ster. tonight and just wanted to be carried around the house, so I put him in it and after he realized he'd be okay in it, he succumbed to the coziness of it and calmed down.

1 more day left and I am a free woman for 11 days! Christmas break is here! Just in time, too, because while I really do adore my class this year, a few of the boys are starting to wear on each others nerves. Let's hope a good, long break from their classmates will do some good!