That Old Year

The year started off with the birth of one of my best friend's children, Lindley. Lindley's birth is significant because we spend a lot of time with Jennifer's family, and with her on maternity leave I had nothing to do at work except work.

The next big event was the tearing out of our kitchen and floors. We had just moved a couple of months earlier so it was with much heartache that my big pregnant ass packed the house up for a second time to either move all the furniture to add the wood floors or to totally demolish the kitchen.

Since things were going pretty smoothly, lets throw in a tornado and 5 days of no power. I was 7 month pregnant when the tornado hit. I was hunkered in the basement while Mr. T. was trying to put his computer together. It was pretty scary for him and a big shock to us to see the damage it caused in our neighborhood. We were luckily that only one tree fell in our backyard. We were also lucky there were no injuries or deaths.

The kitchen continued to be put in at a snails pace. A week after the cabinets were in the guy came out to measure our counters. When it had been 2 weeks and the counters were not in I said "I am one week away from having a baby. I really really need to have a sink."

In April my Father moved in with us to start his new job at the airport. My parents moved down completely in May. Guess what else happened in May? I welcomed my beautiful son into the world. A couple of days later we were visited by my Aunt Genie and Uncle Jared. Later that month Mr T. made a trip to NYC with his brother. His brother, Uncle Gunk, eventually found his way to Arkansas where he stayed for a short time buying up half of Dillards and Belk.

In the summer, I had maternity leave which means I had the summer off! I continued to work on contractors for the house having trees taken down and more floors put in. We took a trip to Portland. I had finished my Master's paper by the time work rolled around again in August.

August and September Aunty A and Grannie were here. We had a hurricane and more days without power. We also took a trip in our new MINIVAN.

In October we went to Colorado so I could do my exit interview. November was a blur and well... we all know about December. We had new windows put in and more trees taken out. I also did my first post baby half marathon.

We had other visitors this year, but I can't place the dates. My friends Vanessa and Keren both moved. They had children very close to peanut's age. It is harder to see the children move because you know you won't be there as they grow older. I know Peanut misses Fish and Fasu.

On the bright side, I made a whole lot of new friends and got to know some other people I already knew better. We started a new school that peanut likes, and Mr. T. and I are both happy and comfortable in our jobs.

I felt like this year was spent trying to get my footing. I don't think that is bad because I knew it would be like that. I had a lot of things starting and ending this year which is why I am so optimistic (and relaxed) about next year.

I don't foresee the giant upheaval in my life that I knew was going to happen this year. If it all works out, I will be writing this same post next year from Australia telling you guys how great everything is going to be in 2010.

The Floater - and other short stories

Baby P has poo'd twice in the bathtub in three days. I don't think my bathtub has ever been this clean (or at least cleaned this frequently).

Baby P has also learned to clap. That can be chalked up to another milestone that I find incredibly adorable.

I just received another batch of 3 month clothes back from my friend. They are so cute. I really want to store them away in a box and never let them see the light of day. I also had an idea that I might make a quilt out of them like Sweet Juniper. In actuality, I will probably just pass them on again to a friend of mine. I crave a small baby to hold. This one is killing my back.

Peanut is obsessed with her birthday. She was insistent that I needed to bring something to school for her birthday. She was actually pretty angry when I told her that I would do it next week. She told everyone today at her friend's party that it was her birthday too. She even blew out the candles with the other little girl.

Two people today told me that Peanut was a girl who knew what she wanted. Two different people in two completely different situations. They were both right.

Christmas Video

Here is a little Christmas Video. It is probably boring to those who aren't family.

Opening the stocking




Opening presents from the Australians.



Peanut opening a present from Aunt Genie and Uncle Jared.

A List for the New Year.

Generally my resolutions are along the lines of give up cheetos or don't say F word in front of Peanut. This year the list in lengthy because it has been 10 years since I graduated college and most of what I had set out in my 10 year plan is done.

husband - check
two kids - check
masters - check
nice house - check
lots of initials after my name - check

I am not in school any more and I don't have any giant career goal that I am working towards. We have no major projects planned for the house this year. This year is going to be all about me and all about the things I want to do. When I first graduated college, I took 4 semesters of Spanish because I wanted to learn Spanish. After that, I started graduate school, racing, and having kids. I ran out of time to do things that are different because I was so busy doing the things I was doing.

But this year, this year is going to be different.

So here it goes. Resolutions for 2009.

1. Get Fine in '09. This resolution has a couple of parts. The first is to lose that last 5 pounds (or more) of baby weight. These last 5 pounds get me to the TOP of my desired weight range and I think they will be the hardest to lose. It will require eating less crap as snacks and lighter food during my meals. I, like most Americans, know what I need to do, I just need to do it. I hope that my training for the Little Rock half will do the trick, but right now, I am trying to avoid an reoccurring injury, so we will see.
The second part to "Get Fine in '09" is to try to care more about how I look when I go to work. I am going to take 10 minutes 3 times a week to put makeup on. I am also going to buy and USE eye cream.

2. Take Classes. I am going to take a digital camera class. I have already signed up for a Zumba class. I also hope to find a nice glass or clay class. There is also a class that you can take with your 3 year old on Saturday mornings at the Art Center. Something like that would be fun too. I also think I might start one of those Rosetta Stone courses and learn to speak some form of Chinese.

3. Do one BIG project by myself. I think this project is going to be building some cabinetry down in the basement for the playroom.

4. Autocross. So I am not really going to start autocrossing, but I am going to ask for a day on the weekend to myself every once in a while. I might use this day to go to Memphis and shop or maybe go on a nice hike with Meghan.

5. Project 365. I am going to take a picture a day. I have a website but haven't set it up yet.

6. Finish in February. Finish the sweater I started. Finish the kitchen and the baseboards. Finish all the little things around the house that I need to "get to".

7. Finances. This last year wrecked havoc on our finances. I took off work for 3 months with minimal salary and went part time after that. Mr. T. took off work for about 6 weeks. We bought a "new" vehicle. We added another kid to daycare. We threw a lot of money into the house. Luckily prior to this year, we had saved money for the house and for my maternity leave, but we still feel a little tight. Once we get our ends tied up on the house, we can refinance and save ourselves some money each month. I am also going to start working an hour more a day to increase our income. We need to get ourselves back on track financially. We need to start saving again and get back on budget.

I am really looking forward to the next year. Last year, although good, was pretty busy and very scheduled. Next year, I have only two things on my schedule, the rest is pretty open ended. I like that. I have some other things that I want to do like go camping with my family and those sorts of things. I wouldn't necessarily call them resolutions, but they are scribbled in at the bottom of the list.

The good thing about putting it all out on the internet is that I have to do them now. I even created my own label for this post so I can check it off. I expect my friends to hold me accountable and tease me mercilessly if I don't get these things done. I think the hardest to do is going to be Number 4 and 6.

What about you guys? Anything new and different as a resolution?

A Perfect Day

Today was a great day. It was my thirty third birthday. At my house, Christmas is in the morning, and my birthday is in the afternoon. Well, kinda. We have Christmas, then I tear into my birthday presents and let people do my work the rest of the day.

It sure is nice. I tried to be off of diaper duty, but poor Baby P was hurting for some diaper changing by the end of the day so I ended up doing it anyway. I did have my birthday dinner while not sitting next to any kids. BUT, I did end up helping with both of them anyway. You can shurk what you love I guess. I complain about them, but in the end, I really like being a mom.

Mr. T. cleaned the house. Mom did all the cooking and a good sum of the cleaning. I took a short nap in the morning and a better one in the afternoon. I went for a bike ride with my husband. I played with my kids. I put a ban on children's programming. I watched what I wanted to watch which did not include anything Disney or on PBS. My friend Jen and her family came over for pie. It was relaxing and nice. I feel very tired but very happy.

The funny thing about turning 33 is that I can no longer fake being in my twenties. I am way past that. I am pretty much in mid thirties. It is weird to think about. I am pretty excited about the coming year. I have in mind some classes that I want to take. I received a lot of good books on architecture, so I plan on studying that a little too. The future is definitely bright, even if my age is showing up around my eyes.

Merry Christmas Internets

She doesn't sound really into making her brother laugh, does she.

Well, it is getting that time where Santa drags the presents out of the closet and places them under the tree.

Have I raged on about how ginger bread man shape is really hard to handle. ugh... Who thought of that? Peanut was insistent that Santa wanted ginger bread men. They taste really good, but they look really weird. After this picture, she told me 'Santa needs milk'. There was a long discussion on what type of glass Santa might like. He wanted one that was like mine.

It is a tradition for us to open one gift on Christmas eve. Baby P did better than I expected.

He is so cute. Even in pictures, I just want to eat him up.

And our little lady happily opening her book.

Santa threats haven't really been working too well on Peanut. No kind of threat really works on her. The best arsenal we have is telling her she is going to lose a story. Time outs... ugh... don't even get me started on them.

Tomorrow the indulgence increases. Then come the new year, well... that is another post.

Merry Christmas. Thank you so much for joining us this last year. I hope you are warm and safe tonight.

Drama on the Streets

It is icy here. YUCK. I got the van sideways but avoided an accident. I also avoided hitting the person in front of me. HURRAY.

My mom, she wasn't so lucky. She was rear ended this morning, so it has been exciting trying to get her worked out.

In other news, Peanut's breathing and coughing is starting to sound funny again. These funny sounds are the ones that ended up with us in the emergency room last summer. I started her on the albuteral. Even if it clears it up, I am still going to talk about asthma at her 3 year appointment.

The Christmas packages are wrapped, and the stocking stuffers are bought. I unwrapped all of Santa's gifts because I wanted to rewrap them in "SCIENCE LADIES" wrapping paper. The young master's presents are wrapped in pooh. (appropriate considering what we just went through).