2017: A Year in Review

It doesn't feel like the end of the year without the Review!

1. What did you do in 2017 that you’d never done before?

After many years of hemming and hawing, I got my first tattoo!  It's a heart on my right wrist, made up by the boys' fingerprints.  I love it!!  I THINK I may be a "one and done" when it comes to tattoos, though.  

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I'm not a "New Year's Resolution" type of person.  I'm more of a "Make Plans and Goals" kind of person.  That being said....i made a goal of being healthier.  In some ways I did well--started drinking protein smoothies for breakfast and cutting back on the ice cream.  Then my stress-eating tendencies came out late in the year and well, My Fitness Pal shows me to be the same weight as I was last year at this time.  Turns out I'm a fantastic maintainer.  Goals for 2018?  Wag more, bark less.  Maybe get some more sleep, who knows.  

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?  I covered maternity leave for one of my co-workers, she had a baby in June.  

4. Did anyone close to you die?  Not close anymore, but one of the residents at my first property management job died in September.  We kept in touch for ten years after my leaving that job.  She was a wonderful person who dispersed fantastic advice, I'll miss her.  Traveling to that site will be weird, not stopping in to say Hi.  


5. What countries/places did you visit?

We had an AWESOME trip to Disney World in June!!  Can't wait to go again in a few years.  

6. What would you like to have in 2018 that you lacked in 2017?
Honestly, 2017 was a shit show in a lot of ways.  I'd like for 2018 to be a kinder, gentler year for my family.

7. What dates from 2017 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?   On October 19th, my mother had a small stroke.  Things ended up being OK with time, but it was rough.  

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Instead of achievements, I'm going to call them lessons.  

A.  When it comes to your kids, it's amazing how strong you can be.  Especially when strength is all you've got, and what you really want to do is fold or crumble, but you stand strong.  

B.  I've always had a hard time asking for, and accepting, help.  I think it's because I'm usually doing to the offering and helping.  But when it hits the fan, you have to learn to let people help you.  And man, I had a lot of help this year.  I've had friends and family members flock out to help us get through stuff, and I'm forever grateful. 

9. What was your biggest failure?
I refuse to call anything a failure this year.


10. Did you suffer illness or injury?  Nothing major.  


11. What was the best thing you bought?
For Mother's Day, Brian got me a cleaning service!  At first it was weird, but I cannot tell you how wonderful it is for someone to come to your house once a month and clean your bathrooms, floors, etc.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

Skip.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

Donald Trump, and many of his supporters.  Actually, the supporters were more appalling.   (this answer is too good not to keep)

14. Where did most of your money go?

Living expenses.  Pretty boring, right?  

15.  What did you really get excited about?

Disney World....and Universal Studios to see Harry Potter's Wizarding World.

16. Compared to this time last year, are you:

a) happier or sadder? A big ol' mix of all of it.

b) thinner or fatter? Right about the same.  (BTW, I hate this question.)

c) richer or poorer? Both, rich in some ways and poor in others.  It all offsets in the end.

17. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Read.  Knit.  Socialize.  Maybe not in that order....

18. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Work.  I took on a second property in May, and I covered a maternity leave and a manager vacancy this summer as well.  At one point I was providing coverage for FIVE SITES, bringing work home often, working long hours, going back after dinner, etc.  I often wondered "just how in the hell are you doing this, Ginny?"  But I knew all along that it was just for the short-term, and the bonus at the end of the year was worth it!

19. How did you spend Christmas?

We had a big family celebration at my house a few days before, and then my parents came on Christmas Day.  

20. Did you fall in love in 2017?

I've been in love with the same man for 19 years.  NINETEEN YEARS, holy crap.  

21. What was your favorite TV program? 

Eh....nothing really grabbed me to be a "favorite."  Though I do love that Will and Grace came back with new episodes!  

22. What was the best book you read?

I read 26 books, which sounds kind of low for me.  I really enjoyed "The Nest" by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney.  


23. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Pass.  

24. What was your favorite film of this year? 

The four of us recently went to the movies to see the reboot of the 90's film "Jumanji" and loved it!

25. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

For the first time in 12 years, I worked!  The residents had a cake for me, which was really nice.  I took the following day off so Brian and I could spend it together.  We ended up watching Wonder Woman and going out to lunch.  

26. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Less stress and worry.  Getting my son the help that he needed sooner.  But hindsight IS 20/20, and not worth it to dwell.  


27. What kept you sane?
My friends, that checked up on us, fed us, offered help, listened, offered advice when appropriate.  My mom, for being there when my husband couldn't.  My husband, for his shoulder to cry on, and his jokes to keep us both sane. 


28. Who did you miss?
My far away friends and family.


29. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2017:
Never ask "Could this get any worse?"  And above all, be grateful.  



30. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

I don't know.

A House Divided

This weekend is the Superbowl, and it's New England Patriots vs. the Atlanta Falcons.

Now, I am not a huge football fan.  But I DID grow up in New England, and I do enjoy it when the Pats are in the playoffs.  But our friends know that Brian grew up in Philly, and is a fan of the Eagles.  And very much NOT a Pats fan, or admirer of any kind.  And his family.....well, his mom and one brother are pretty vocal about how much they don't like Tom Brady.

Anyway....I digress.  His mom bought us t-shirts a few years ago with the Pats and Eagles helmet logos that say "A House Divided."  Well, it's just gotten a bit more divisive.

On the way to the bus stop this morning, I was telling the boys that one of their schools had invited kids to wear Pats gear or Pats colors to school tomorrow in support of the Pats being in the Superbowl.  Now, neither kid is a football fan, any more so than me.  But Will perks up and said "It's probably my school."  He's probably right, I seem to get emails often about theme days and the like.  Naturally, he's no more interested in dressing in support of the Pats than he was interested in wearing a tie in support of the Great Kindness Challenge at the beginning of the week.  But then he surprises me, and his eyes brighten:

"Mom, what are the Eagles colors?"

I'm sure that his Dad, Uncle and Grandmom are all going to be super-proud tomorrow!

We Need CSI in Here

My older son suffers from headaches, and if he doesn't get medicine quickly and lets them linger, they will make him sick to his stomach.  He saw the doctor recently and the doctor upped his Tylenol dosage and wrote an order allowing him to have Tylenol at school.  One issue is also dehydration--the only thing he'll drink is milk and he hates drinking water.  So the doctor suggested getting a water flavor enhancer, stating that the pros outweigh the cons and it's about getting the fluids in.  So Brian bought a little bottle of Mio Water Enhancer in Fruit Punch flavor.

Will decided this morning to "experiment" with putting it in a little water at home to try before putting it in his water bottle to take to school.  I said that I would mix it for him because I could just see him making a huge mess with it, and nobody's got time for huge messes on weekday mornings.  Hell, most days I don't have time for BREAKFAST before it's time to take the kids out to the bus.

Hilarity ensues though, even with me at the helm of this experiment.  See my text messages below for proof.  Just another day in my life of luxury, folks.  It was pretty funny though, got all over his shirt and the nice, clean kitchen floor.  We did laugh, and luckily it wasn't too bad to clean up.  Just some damp paper towels while I ate an English muffin.  As for CSI....perhaps they're not necessary, because I CONFESSED.

That bus is later every day

Good news: will likes the water flavor enhancer and put some in his bottle today.

Bad news: it's not drops. It shoots off like a cannon and makes your kid and kitchen look like a grisly murder scene. We had a good laugh about it. And luckily will was wearing 5 shirts so we just took one off. (Not I'm not kidding....they took your layering advice very seriously, making the laundry epically awesome for the washerwoman.)

Well hopefully we get our regular bus driver back soon

I'm glad he likes it and we'll have CSI figure out who did it later.

Fantastic Beasts

Tomorrow.  The next trip to the Wizarding World.  Thank you, J.K. Rowling.  I can't wait!!

Rhinebeck!!

Mom and I made the trek out to the NY Sheep and Wool Festival in mid -October.  If you love fiber arts and yarn, it is THE place to be!  Alpacas and sheep, knitting notions, clothing, souvenirs, project bags and YARN!!!  So much to choose from.  And the people watching is pretty incredible too.  Everyone wears Hand-knit so there's a lot of oohing and ahhing, as people add more projects to their Ravelry queues.  Most of the time everyone is friendly and you meet lots of people.  The only dust-up was at the Miss Babs yarn booth.  Frantic, crazy knitters high on yarn fumes!!  I will have to check out Miss Babs online to find out what that was all about. 

And I finished The Joker and the Thief in time to wear it!  This was a beast... it ate yarn like nobody's business.  I ran out of yarn several times, and ended up spending a ridiculous amount of money to finish it.  It's gorgeous though, and I couldn't be happier with it. 

I came home with something that I've wanted for a while....a Harry Potter project bag.  Apparently they're a little difficult to find.  I spotted this and snatched it up quickly, MINE!  :)

The weekend was dual-purposed....to enjoy yarn obviously, but to distract from the upcoming kidney surgery.  Yep.....another boulder stuck between kidney and bladder.  I was shocked and bummed to get the news.  Mom and I had so much fun though, that I forgot several times!

WW: First Day of School!!

Well, Hello

Hello from Summer Living, where we're running around living life and not blogging about it!  It's late July already, and we've done so much stuff this summer already.

The boys spent a week with their grandparents in PA, enjoying the things that campground life has to offer.  Stuff like arcade games, swimming pools and riding in the golf cart.  Mom and Dad, having to work back at home for the week, did NOT enjoy going out to eat at non-kid-friendly restaurants, nor getting ice cream almost every night at a different place each time.  No, no they didn't.  :)

Then we took the kids for a week in Williamsburg, VA.  And man, we did it ALL.  If Williamsburg offered it, we took it up.  Busch Gardens (twice), Water Country, Colonial Williamsburg.....and had a lovely time.  It was a heavy-walking vacation, I logged 17,400 steps on my Fitbit one of the days.  We'd been four years ago so we knew the area and Will could relax quickly being somewhere familar.  Sean, our resident daredevil, went on every single wild ride that he was tall enough for, which this year was a lot!

After that, camp started.  And now we're in kind of a groove, routine-wise.  Enjoying the dog days of summer, doing day trips to things like the Maker's Fair in Boston, and heading to Six Flags this weekend.  School will be here again before we know it.

Just Jump

We took the kids to Maine this weekend.  It was to visit my college friends Lexi and Maureen, but ironically, we were going north and avoiding the snow.  That sounds so weird to say!

We had a good time, visiting, going out to eat, shopping, etc.  We went to the LL Bean store in Freeport, ME. I always forget just how big that place is, it's really a complex!

Another thing we did---we took the kids swimming in the hotel pool.  They LOVED it and it wore them out.  One of the things that they really like to do is jump off the side into the shallow end.  they coaxed me to do it from the deep(er) end and I told them that I was trying not to get my hair wet.

As soon as I said it, I paused:  "Did I really just say that?  REALLY?  Do I want to be that Mom?  No.  And so I jumped.

The cheers were worth it.  The awkward SLAP against the water, was not.  Nothing a little trip to the hot tub couldn't fix.

There.  I'm still a cool mom.  Thought we were slipping there a little bit.

The Day After

Christmas has come and gone for another year....and it was a pretty good one.  For one thing, it's got to be one of the warmest Christmases on record!  It felt weird but I'm not complaining for sure.   We were festive, we were prepared, and we had fun.  For once I had all of the wrapping done in plenty of time, and I was only sewing buttons and weaving in ends on TWO projects during the day on Christmas Eve.  Considering other years, that's pretty good.  Brian and I hosted this year, and all was well.  Dinner went off with only a slight hiccup and dessert was really lovely.  The house isn't even as trashed as it usually is the day after Christmas.  No gift returns this year, and the best surprise was Alton Brown tickets for Brian.  All FOUR of us are going to see his show in April.  It was a great family secret and I'm particularly proud of the boys for keeping it.

Today has been kind of a lazy day, and I feel really comfortable and happy.  We've let the boys run around and do whatever they like today.  That equals a huge blanket fort in their bedroom, breaking open geodes from the kit that was sent by Uncle Matt and Aunt Katie, eating copious amounts of treats and right now, building a robot from the kit that Will received from us for Christmas.  I spent part of it in new pajamas, reading "The Kids are All Right:  A Memoir" by Liz Welch and Diana Welch.  (It's a true story, and pretty riveting.  I had trouble putting it down.)  Later on I braved shopping and even that wasn't too terrible.  For the first time in 15 years, all of the wrapping paper and boxes/tissue paper have been purged and organized, and will be going back to the garage in better shape than they came upstairs.

Now tonight is a dinner of leftover pasta and meat sauce, and the movie Inside Out.  I'm loving this winter vacation.

Wordless Wednesday: EarlyHoliday Pics

39.....really??

Another birthday has come and gone.  And with it, I turned 39 years old.

I dreaded it all week.  I don't know why, but birthdays that end in "9" really are hard for me.  When I turned 29, I was sad because I didn't have any kids.  That changed by my 30th, as I had a three month old and just wanted a birthday gift of sleep and a shower.

So imagine my surprise when I woke up on Saturday morning a year older and in a fantastic mood!  I'm thirty-nine, and I'm happy.  I have my family, my friends, a stable life, wonderful children and a fantastic dog.  And many, many other things.  So why not celebrate?  I started with an ice cream sandwich at breakfast, followed by my parents and brother and family coming for cake and presents later on.  I finished the book that I was reading (Kitchen Chinese, by Ann Mah) and later on, Brian and I drove down to CT to celebrate with my Birthday Buddy.  Maureen and I have been friends for close to 20 years and had never celebrated "Our birthday" together.  Here we are!

So Happy 39th to me.  I hope that I can maintain this happy feeling about the big 4-0 next year.  We shall see.

A Big Mashup Holiday Post

Yep.  I haven't posted once in December so let me sum up.

1.  I have a love-hate relationship with the month of December.  I love the holidays, but I hate the chaos.  Plus it's difficult to keep any sort of routine, so the kids suffer a bit.  This is Sean's first year having Christmas at school (they didn't celebrate holidays at his preschool) so the crazies are strong there.  Lots of frustration, stomping of feet, slamming of doors and remarks like "this is the worst Tuesday of my life" and my personal favorite:  "It's not even time to go to the bus yet and I. Already. Have. A. Frown. on. my. FACE!!!"  It was tough not to laugh, let me tell you.  Lots of extra snuggles and patience.  I'm great at the snuggles, but patience is not a strong suit for me.

2.  Have I mentioned that I am the BIGGEST HYPOCRITE EVER??  Yes, I am.  Sean was so sad that there's no Elf on the Shelf at his house that I caved and bought one last week at the mall.  Will's been so sweet to his younger brother, helping him name the Elf (Chippy) and coming up with ideas.  So we have an Elf, but I said that Chippy is a trainee, having shown up the week before Christmas.  Brian and I don't believe in the whole "The elf is reporting back to Santa" thing so it's just a fun thing in our house.  As soon as the kids go to bed at night one of us moves him. Brian watched me set up a Connect Four game between Chippy and Will's favorite Pokemon, Oshawott last night.  He remarked that I seemed to be enjoying it, and honestly, I was.  I love whimsical things.  I also will NOT be putting up a daily photo on Facebook about what Chippy's up to.  If Chippy wants to be on FB he can get his own account.

3.  You saw that Will is helping with Chippy, huh....  Well, Will pulled me aside at Thanksgiving and said "I have a suspicion that Santa Claus is really you and Dad.  I really need you to tell me that's not true."  I can't lie, it breaks my heart a little bit that he no longer believes.  But now he's excited about the magic of it and is encouraging his brother's belief in Santa instead of telling him.  It's sweet to watch.

4.  We had two Holiday concerts this year, Will's was last week at night at the high school and Sean's was this morning.  Both boys were adorable!  Now we have karate graduation tonight and I think that's all the obligations.  Wait no.....both boys have holiday parties in class tomorrow and I need to buy donut holes for one of them, I just can't remember which kid.  Hopefully I figure that out by tomorrow morning!

5.  Two things that have gone WELL this year....the holiday knitting is DONE and I won't be spending all day Christmas Eve wrapping gifts for my extended family.  However, I need to learn my lesson and weave in ends and block finished items sooner.  And next year, I think that I'm going to do the same item for all knit gift recipients, like an infinity scarf for everyone.

Well, that's pretty much all that is going in our world.  Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Night!!

Literary Character Day

We got a notice from Sean's school that November 9th was "Dress Like Your Favorite Literary Character Day."  Sean was completely apathetic over the whole thing, stating that he wasn't interested and didn't want to dress up.  And I was on board with that, I wasn't going to make him put on a costume and be miserable for the day.

 Then we see a picture of his best friend on Facebook.  Best friend is dressed as Skippyjon Jones.  Suddenly, Sean is very interested.  Naturally, it's  5pm on Sunday (the day before the event) and after I had been at the New England Fiber Festival for the day, So, since he doesn't really have a "favorite" character and I have no time to shop and am too tired to be really creative, he went as MY favorite literary character....Harry Potter!  The one caveat--Sean doesn't really LIKE HP.  He's a little scared by it, which I can understand because of his age.

Dress-up was a snap, using Will's old Halloween costume.  The morning of the event, Sean's too scared of makeup application to let me draw a scar on his forehead with eyeliner, so I left him alone.  He boarded the bus in his Hogwarts Robe and the scarf that I had knit, and was surprisingly cool about the whole thing.

And for the kid that didn't want to participate?  He was still wearing the costume at the afterschool program, running around and playing in the gym.  He told me that him and his friends were coming up with their own spells that didn't need wands, since I didn't give him a wand to take to school.

The Harry Potter fangirl inside of me is smiling and jumping for joy.  Perhaps there's hope for Sean to be a fan after all!

And I Didn't Cry....Much

The big yellow bus came today and took my boys to school.  My younger one for the first time.  And I didn't cry.  He was a bit apprehensive and needed a "Go ahead!  You've got this."  for encouragement.   He was excited right up til that point.  The big kid, well....he was anxious to start a new school but was taking solace in the fact that it's a new school for EVERY kid there because last year it was a middle school and not elementary.

 Here they are, and yes, if Big Bro is wearing a Minecraft shirt then you can be sure the Little Bro is wearing one as well!

Right after the kids got on the bus and we walked home, Hubby grabbed his bags and headed for a work conference in Texas.  There may have been a couple of tears.  And they MAY have been that I don't have my own ticket on the plane, and am running the show this week.  Nah....I'll miss him.  That's the first reason.  The second is jealousy of his nice hotel room all on his own.  I had my turn in Vermont last May, though.

So it's "Friday Night Fun Club:  The Extended Edition" until (you guessed it) Friday.  There will be lots of pasta, school fundraiser, karate class, etc etc.  Oh, and that pesky thing called Work.

School Bell's Starting to Ring

School starts in less than two weeks.  Which is strange, because our town is going back almost two weeks later than the others around us, due to construction and restructuring.  Karate camp ends tomorrow....and I'm just as sad this year as I was last summer. It's been a good one and I know that the boys have loved going every day.  

We're hurriedly finishing the summer homework, and the emails and robo-calls have started rolling in with school announcements.  I got Will's back to school supplies the other night to the tune of $85!  Dry erase markers, 48 sharpened pencils, a slew of folders, a bunch of highlighters (chisel tip ONLY).....and that's not even all of it.  He still needs a pair of earbuds and I told the boys that I'd treat them to new lunchboxes this weekend.  I'm thankful that there's no supply list for kindergarten, but am SO LOOKING FORWARD to shopping for supplies for both kids next year.

It's great to have good friends.  Especially friends who offer to take your younger son to Kindergarten Orientation with their son!  I'm stuck working today while Sean's meeting his teacher and taking a ride on the bus.  Ah well, I'll get to meet the teacher next week at open house.

It's a bit of a whirlwind, with some longing and happiness mixed together.  We'll get through it.

A Show-Off Post

I finally finished the Cable Monster!  No, that's not the real name.  This is a cabled baby blanket that I made for my sister and brother-in-law, who are expecting their first child in August.  I always wanted to make them an Irish Cabled something....and I chose a blanket because kids grow out of sweaters.  This took about three months to make and was tedious at times, but worth it.

When Brian was on deployment to Italy, he saw a beautiful cabled white sweater in a shop.  Unfortunately the shop was closed and he's sad to this day that he didn't buy the sweater.  He's asked me to make it for him and I want to....someday.  Let's just say that this blanket was "good practice."

I like the sound that deadlines make....

Ever had a knitting project that feels like it's never going to end?  I've got one of those right now.  I'm working on a GORGEOUS cabled baby blanket for a new niece or nephew due in August.  It's bulky-weight cream-colored yarn and I'm loving how it's turning out.  (No pics yet.)  The only thing is....the shower is on June 20th and I just reached the halfway point!  I also am about to run out of yarn....I did find a website to order some more but seriously....not what I need on a deadline.  In the zone.....

Also, staying up late last night working on it while watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows #2 seemed like a good idea at the time.  For the most part, I don't sleep well on Sunday nights anyway.  Today, my brain is screaming at me while I'm processing the usual beginning-of-the-month stuff.  I'd like to say that I've learned my lesson, but I doubt it.  :)

Friday Fun

The boys and I are usually together on Friday nights, while their dad plays volleyball.  They have "Guys Night" on Wednesdays so on Fridays we have the "Friday Night Fun Club."  Corny I know, but they enjoy it.  Some nights we put on elaborate stuffed animal scenes.   Some nights we snuggle in my bed and read from The Hobbit or Pokémon or perhaps the "Field Guide of Marvel Superheroes."  Tonight was a movie and Mom's choice.   So we went with an old classic:  Home Alone.  Some observations:

-Sean had the cop (Joe Pesci) pegged as the villian right away.

-the boys wonder why the bandits don't give up on chasing little Kevin after all the traps.  Still, they think it's great fun, and laugh like hyenas every time someone falls down the stairs or gets hit in the head with a paint can. 

-having a different perspective now that I'm an adult, I wonder just how in the hell these guys aren't dead, much less chasing down the kid!

And lastly....how in the hell is this movie 25 years old????  I remember going with my friends and sniggering at every mishap like it was yesterday!

Wordless Wednesday: Sweet n Silly

I haven't had a Wordless Wednesday in ages!!

Fun Stuff!

Big things this week.

First--this guy went to kindergarten screening.  In his own words when I picked him up from preschool, "Mom, I'm half excited and half terrified."  Poor kid was worried they were going to ask him things that he didn't know.  It went well, and it still amazes me how two kids with the same parents can be so completely different.  No anxiety, just "OK, let's go!" when the teacher came to take him to the classroom.  This is really bittersweet, sending the "baby" to kindergarten.  Which is surprising as well, considering I dreaded sending the big kid.  This just feels natural.

And then last night was "date night with this handsome fella.  The school puts on a "Boys night" every year, this year was a dance and a comedy show.  We grabbed a quick dinner at the Golden Arches and headed over.  The dance was what one would expect with a bunch of boys ranging in age from kindergarten to fifth grade:  little kids dancing with their moms, middle kids hanging around with their friends, and the bigger kids causing a ruckus.  Still, we had a good night and I love this time with Will.