the ups and downs and life changes of a decade

A New Year always makes me look back at the previous year and see how life has changed, to figure out whether it is better or worse then the following
A New DECADE, makes me realize how much life has changed.

I remember New Year's Eve 10 years ago with Y2K, we waited in anticipation to see if the computer world really was going to crash and the world as we know it ending- it didn't, a tiny bit disappointing, though a similar change was going to happen a year and half later.

2000

it was an exciting year of changes
I graduated from college with a B.S. in Biology
I worked as a counselor at K-West (Kanakuk Kamps), one of the best places on Earth
I got married, the wedding was extremely special, my grandfather, Pop, walked me down the aisle which had been my dream since I was little, Jeff's best man Rob, was able to be there before him and his family left for China where they have been missionaries for the last 10 years, my dad's parents were able to attend and August 5th was the only day it didn't rain that summer!

2001

was good and bad
we opened Scene 3 Boardshop, our business in 2001 which was quite exciting

(our small group at the grand opening)

we celebrated my grandfather's 90th birthday, which was the last time my mom's side of the family was all together for a happy occasion

(the older woman on the left is my Great Aunt Clara, isn't she cute? my grandmother, Gram is center, and Pop is in the front to the right, he always had a smile)

in the spring, Jeff and I planned to go visit my dad's parents on a trip to Florida, unfortunately, my grandmother passed away a few weeks before our trip
then there was September 11th, I remember watching that second plane crash into the tower live on tv and how they didn't know what was happening, it was quite a scary day, the world as we knew it ended that day
2001 wasn't a bad year, but it ended badly, Pop who was visiting for Christmas fell and broke his hip, this was the beginning of the end

2002
I don't remember much, only that after a month in the hospital and a second surgery, Pop passed away
I was devastated, my dad died when I was eight and Pop was my father figure, he loved life, loved people, was generous, loving, and just a wonderful person
Losing him was extremely difficult, I was blessed with a month of seeing him everyday after his first hip surgery and before his second, but the loss still hurts
after Pop died, my Great Aunt Clara came and spent a month or two with Gram, helping her adjust to life alone,  Clara then passed away six months after Pop, my family seemed to be shrinking before my eyes
In the fall of 2002, I left my nanny job and started teaching high school biology, which was stressful, but I made some wonderful friends
Christy, Erica, Angela and I were the 4 Muskateers, who did almost everything together and had a blast, I am so thankful for their friendship and the good times we had

2003
still had the business, still taught, don't remember much, which isn't a bad thing, i think

2004
we bought our first house!  a little cape cod in a nice neighborhood that I still love 90% of the time

2005
got pregnant with Lance
began my 4th and final year of teaching high school biology
we also moved the store to a new location and saw the business grow
I coached the high school swim team with a friend, but unfortunately due to drama of one student resigned at the beginning of the season, which was probably a good thing since I was preggo

2006
Lance!  he changed our lives completely, it was a rough delivery and adjustment for me, but I can't imagine life without him

we also switched churches in the fall, it was a hard decision to make, but we know we made the best decision and love our one community

2007
life was getting a little tougher financially and it wasn't a good year for us in marriage happiness, but we survived
my sister got married and I got to be her matron of honor, it was fun to be in someone's wedding
I also got pregnant with Lily in the late fall

2008
one of the toughest years financially and for our marriage, but once again we survived
Lily arrived on the scene and though she is quite a handful and very opinionated, I love having a girl

Lance was diagnosed with a speech delay and despite weekly therapy did not make much progress, it was hard having two non-verbal children in the house
When Lily was 5 weeks old, I started a part-time assistant coaching position for a small college's swim team, it was stressful, but also a lot of fun and helped make those first couple of months fly by, despite the stress, I really enjoyed doing something outside of the home
Charles, my stepdad, kind of, moved to a nursing home due to his IBM disease decreasing his muscles in his arms and legs, this move has put a lot of stress on my mother and has been hard to see someone I care about fading away
also, Gram is healthy, but mentally she is gone and doesn't know who I am, it is hard to lose those you love

2009
the toughest year ever

I finished up the coaching position and unfortunately due to drama, things did not end as well as I would have liked, I did spend my last pay check on a DYSON vacuum, that months and months later I still LOVE, I also bought some FLOR, it was nice to blow my last paycheck on something fun and not bills
financially it has been extremely difficult, we had a hard time treading water and then the FIRE that destroyed the business put us on the bottom of the ocean

we re-opened in a new location, but people aren't spending money and times are extremely tough
on a positive, Lance started preschool and loves it, his vocabulary has increased tremendously  and I am so thankful for his teacher and the positive experience school has been so far
I also was accepted to graduate school and took my first class, I hope to get my masters and teach at the community college one day
2009 has been another tough year for our marriage, Jeff's coping mechanism is to hide or pretend there aren't problems and with lots of problems this year things have been rocky
Overall I am ready for 2009 to be over with

So this decade has had its ups and downs, I have changed dramatically as a person and I look forward to the future because I figure we can only go up from here

best christmas gifts

so after pink eye in both kids and an ear infection, Lily woke up Christmas Eve morning with a fever that was accompanied by a nasty cold, ick, i can't wait for the germs to go away!
so i have been busy attending to sick children, but i have to say this christmas I got some pretty cool stuff
My top ten favorites:
10- money from my aunt and uncle to help with favorite gift #1
9- a new diaper/purse bag that should be indestructible, now Jeff and I have his and hers timbuk2 bags, i first didn't like it, but it is growing on me
8- the memory foam mattress topper I got for Jeff for Christmas, it is like have a new mattress without the huge price tag
7- the target gift card my in-laws gave me so i could get a windstopper fleece, I hate being cold and have nothing for in between weather and i didn't want to pay an arm and leg for a outdoor brand ( i.e. mountain hardware)
6- gift card to olive garden and grocery store- to keep us well fed, we already went out to dinner, just jeff and i, it was a fun date night out and can't wait to go again
5- Mary Kay timewise cleanser in the bar- I love it, it lathers up so much nicer than I could have imagined
4- a gift card to IKEA from my sister- she loves me! now I can't wait for a road trip to go shopping
3- Sham WOW!  you know the infomercial product- i clean up a lot of spills
2- a new camera since my children broke mine, not having a camera for the last month and half has been TORTURE
and my #1 favorite gift
A gift card to Lowes to get a replacement window!!!!  who would have thought I would be so excited over a window, I have been wanting replacement windows for years and even though it is only 1, it is a start and maybe with the money we can save in heating costs we can buy more

so despite the germy germs, Christmas was nice and relaxing, the kids got a lot of toys and my family blessed me with so many wonderful things that I am so thankful for

unbelievable

where to begin.  .
we got 12.5 inches of snow Friday night and Saturday, that is the most we have had in like 10 years.
It was fun and now I want the snow to go away and spring to come.
Saturday we noticed Lance's eyes were watery and swollen.
Sunday they didn't look much better and I concluded he had pink eye.
Monday, took him to the doctor, sure enough, pink eye.
Tuesday morning, Lily woke up and one of her eyes looked goopy.
Wednesday afternoon Lance would no take a nap and started screaming and crying and was inconsolable, took him the to doctor, ear infection.
This morning, got Lily out of her bed and she was burning up, she has a fever.  She doesn't seem to be in any pain, but she has a cold.
It has been just one thing after another and I am ready for spring.

sometimes they drive me crazy

especially when they don't get along,
and there are other times when they melt my heart,

when they play together,
just don't look too closely at the mess they have made

the phantom fever

Friday afternoon Lance woke from nap and felt warm, I didn't think too much of it.  He didn't eat much dinner and after Jeff tried to get him to eat it all came back up.  I decided then to take his temperature and sure enough he had a fever.  With the vomit incident at dinner I was expecting the worse, but it never came.  Jeff may have been right and the vomit was just the result of Lance's really good gag reflex.  So Friday night we gave him some Motrin and put him to bed.  Next morning still had a fever and was quite pathetic so more Motrin.  A couple of hours later he was back to his old self and fever was gone.  Strange.
Yesterday Lily woke up from nap and felt warm, took her temperature and sure enough she had a fever.  Gave her some Motrin and didn't think much of it.  Some time in the wee hours of the morning she woke up and she was burning up, I thought for sure her temperature was going to be 104 or 5, but it was only 102.  Gave her more Motrin and got her back to sleep.  This morning, though I didn't take her temperature she felt fine and acted fine, assuming she is better.
So both kids came down with some random virus which has resulted in us having a pajama party day today, the kids are still in their pjs and me in my sweats and we are just taking it easy, no reason to go out on this cold day, we are relaxing and hopefully get healthy until the next round of illness hits us, since it is the season for sharing all kinds of things. 

rainy/snowy blah saturday

It is easy to get a case of the blahs on a rainy/snowy saturday afternoon.
It is days like this when I wish Jeff had a real job and had Saturdays off so we could just hang out at home together.
It is lonely here while the kids are napping and it is the perfect weather for hanging out  inside, watchign a movie and relaxing, not inside alone waiting for five o'clock.
Lance and I did have fun playing a few levels of Batman before he fell asleep and this morning we went over to my mom's house to help her bring down Christmas decorations from the attic and put up her artificial tree, which helped time pass.
Speaking of Lance, I don't know what is up with him, yesterday he was running a fever, first thing this morning he was too, I gave him some motrin, he perked up and acted like his normal self.  Right before he conked out I took his temp and it was normal though he felt a little warm.  Not sure what is going on with him, I hate phantom fevers with no other symptoms.
Since I am not sure what is going on with Lance, if he is still ill or not leads to my evening plans.
This evening is the Christmas parade downtown, I want to go, but with Lance possibly under the weather and with rain mixed with snow, it is seems like it will be just miserable and not a good idea.  If it just just snowing I would definitely go, but then again, I don't know want Lance to get worse or take him out if he isn't better.  What to do, what to do.  I should take a nap, I wish I was that kind of person who can, I just don't nap well, I like to go, go, go. 
Enough complaining for one blah day, right?

an adult meal

There are some meals that I prepare that are quick and easy.
Some that are comfort foods.
Some that are kid friendly.
Some we joke are fake, since all that is requiring is reheating, like frozen pizza or soup from a mix.
And then there are the adult meals, the ones that make me feel grown up when I making them and feel quite domesticated when consuming them.
Not necessarily because they are complicated or have sophisticated ingredients, but because they remind me of a meal that a 1950's housewife might prepare.
Tonight's adult meal:
Over roasted chicken with cream cheese and rosemary with roasted red skin potatoes.
Something about roasted chicken and red potatoes seems so domesticated, so stereotypical of a meal for a complete, American family.
And it was good!

another rainy blah day

but I got a whole lot done.
I can't believe it, but the kids and I did not leave the house today and the house is cleaner and more organized then it was this morning even without Lance napping,
So overall it was a good day, a blah day, but good.
It didn't start out promising, this morning both kids were cranky, and it seemed like someone was always crying and someone was always pulling the shower curtain aside and wanting to climb in while I tried to get clean.
There was one highlight to my day, Lance pulled out a puzzle after lunch and when I went to make dinner I noticed it was still out, I asked Lance to put it away and he did.  I was floored, he put something away when I asked the first time without standing over him and doing it when overtired.  I tried my luck for a second time after he got out the legos and he put them away and even put them back on the shelf, I love my new little helper and hope he stays.
So my research proposal is complete and turned in, now the next stress is preparing for a class presentation on it and the final exam, two more weeks and I will be home free, can't wait.
So the weather outside was frightful, but inside was quite productive, my kind of day!

i'm done

i'm over it
it is finished
or at least i am finished working on it
19 pages and who knows how many hours work of work is done, with a little over 24 hours before it is due, not too bad
now i can clean up the mess that is my house since i have let the kids go wild for extra seconds typing away on the computer
19 pages, wow, and i was struggling with 6 a couple of days ago, though at least 3 pages are title page and references, but 19 sounds so much nicer and harder doesn't it
so i e-mailed the research proposal to a friend in the class who will hopefully find any problems I have so i won't lose points for not having APA guidelines and then tomorrow hopefully another friend can read over it and i am good to go
AHHHHHHH.
December first and I off to a good start.