Category: Misc

Well our 2010 has gotten off to a good start. We had a very low key New Year's celebration at my parents' house. Tabby had her first sleepover guest (our best friends' oldest boy). And we celebrated my grandma's 87th birthday!! Today we head for the hills for a week of skiing and CHILLING. I am most looking forward to the chilling.

The past buncha weeks (months?) have been almost a blur with the holidays and the basement remodel and the sickies. I needs me a break, big time! I've got a couple of new games and a couple of books from the library and like a dozen DVDs and I want to veg and play with the kids and ski and I'm sooo looking forward to this!!

As for 2009 … awesome year! I wouldn't say everything went perfect, but we added Ben to our family and that itself makes it a bold-typeface year. Things aside from that fact have honestly been pretty awesome too. I feel so blessed … seems so many had a really rough year and we just haven't. I don't want to apologize, but I am sincerely, honestly, truly grateful.

And as for 2010, I'm looking forward to it. Tabby turns 3 in March and we hope to put her into preschool in June or so (I also assume she'll finally potty train sometime this year). And Ben, of course, will be a year old and walking and talking and such.

Matt and I turn (gulp!) 30 this year! And to celebrate we are running at least one half marathon in April and would really like to run a second (the Disney World one) in September. I like resolutions, even if I do break them. This year I'm resolving to:

• Get rid of my baby weight. I've got way more left than I feel like I should and I want it gone. Like now. But I'll settle for soon.
• Get back into our routine of cooking at home for almost all meals. This has been obliterated in the craziness of the past few months.
• Care a bit less about how my house looks and how things are running and spend more time with my kiddos. They're only young for so long!!

There are about 100 other things I'd like to improve upon, but I've got plenty on my plate with those. The rest will (or not) come in due time.

Welcome 2010!

A post about nothing:

So I was coming home from work yesterday and my eyes were driving me mad! They were so itchy and irritated. I thought I was having an allergy attack. But as soon as I looked in a mirror, I knew the truth … it is the dreaded pink eye. Very infectious, but very treatable. That is if the nurses line will ever call you back. Grrrrrr. Also that cold I was trying to stave off? It's hanging around. But at least it doesn't seem too bad. And I hope it's getting better.

Ben went to bed at like 6PM last night. Woke up just once for a bottle @ 2 AM and slept 'til after 6:30 this morning. Good boy! His night feeding keeps getting drawn out farther and we're hoping it will soon be eliminated (didn't I say that a couple of months ago?).

Tabby was sweetness personified last night. She came home in a great mood and completely turned around my grey mood with her songs and snuggles and chatter. After her brother was asleep, she was ever so content to watch Elmo's Christmas countdown while I cleaned the kitchen and folded laundry in my zombie like state (owing to little sleep and a snotty head). She melted down when she had to go to bed because she wanted to go back to the garage and chat with her Papa more (he was over, yet again, helping us stain trim – the man's a saint!!). Can hardly blame her.

Friday we had planned a shopping day. Both Matt and I off, and a friend of mine willing to watch Tabby for at least a few hours. We have very little shopping to do now though and I'm not sure how we'll spend our time. We do have a *very* messy house. We do have a lot of wrapping to do. But I always hate to spend an illicit(ish) free day with Matt doing chores. Seems like we should do something more fun! Meh.

Here's what we did this weekend:

• Christmas shopping at the craziest mall in the city (me and Mom)
• tried to stave off a cold by going to bed on Friday at 8:30 (me)
• took Tabby to her dance class (Matt)
• painted ornaments at Into the Fire (me)
• stained all the trimwork and doors (Matt and Dad)
• basically finished all of the Christmas shopping (me and Kelly)
• took our family Christmas card photo (the whole family, plus Kelly manning the camera) – incidentally, it is impossible to get a photo of ALL of us that I love and we even cut Loki from it this year in the spirit of simplification … so sorry, dogger
• made the photo into a Christmas Card and directed Premium Postcard to send them out (me)
• got very little in the way of naps (the kids)
• cleaned out the refrigerator (me)
• spent about 2 hours cleaning the house with no real noticeable progress (me)
• got all dressed up like adults and went to the company Christmas party (Matt and me)
• had too much wine (me)
• spent over $200 at Target (me)
• made 4 trips to Home Depot (Matt)
• stayed up 'til 2 AM on Monday morning working on Christmas cards and letting my brain come to rest (me)

It's going to be a loooong Monday.

A few of the goings on in my house:

• Laundry in literal piles all over the house. Most of it is clean, some of it is not. It is mixed up and unfolded and generally driving me mad. My awesome, sweet mommy fixed this for me last night. She also watched my kids and got my Benj back to sleep after his teething-induced crying jag.
• Cleaning lady turned her education into a bonafide job after 6 months of searching. Yay for her, but boo for us because we have drywall dust and dog hair everywhere and no one to clean it up. Well I guess we could, but it's crazy around here, no joke.
• We were supposed to take a Christmas photo of the whole fam this weekend in scenic Vail. Never happened. Need to do it and then get the cards mailed. Like soon. Luckily thanks to snow and freezing temps, it is scenic here too if bloody cold.
• The basement needs painted like now so our contractor can finish. We (and my dad and sister, mom watching kids) made a good start on it the last two nights. All of the ceilings, except the stairs and both big rooms have their first coats. But of course, there is a ways to go still.
• Christmas shopping is about 50% done … maybe. And that is all thanks to the beauty of the internets. I have bought about 4 things from actual stores and I thought I'd go insane every time I had to do so. So yea, kinda behind.
• Tile for bathroom is on a ship making its way from Italy to Florida, supposed to arrive today. Receiving company only ships on Thursday (?!) … will they ship today or the following Thursday?? Who knows?! No one, apparently.
• We finally have a working home computer again. Cuz I really wanted to spend $700 right now. At least Matt is very happy with it and I can get him back to scanning paperwork and earning his keep (ha!).
• Garage door is still broken because I don't really want to spend another $500 right now. Negative temps make closing manually even more fun than usual.
• Ben is cutting teeth and cranky as hell about it. He usually barely wakes up at night to have his bottle but two nights ago, he replaced that with an hour-long screaming fit. Had another, shorter one last night. I even tried Jack. Not sure if it helped or not.
• I have not been to the gym since LAST Thursday and have not run since Friday. This is not good at all.
• Have had a couple more terrible headaches, likely stress-related. Do NOT enjoy these.
• Have holiday festivities and other miscellaneous events pretty much every single Friday and Saturday from here 'til New Years. Also need to figure out how to fit in a visit to Zoo Lights.

I will love the basement when it's done. I will love the basement when it's done. I will love the basement when it's done. Thank God we have such great help around here. No clue how we'd do it otherwise.