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.

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!

Wearing Many Hats

 

 

 
 

Maker's Faire

My friend Danielle had told me about this thing called a Maker's Faire in Boston a couple of months ago.  Upon finding out that it would have robots, a tiny house, opportunities to build stuff, etc, we decided that the family MUST go.  Tickets were $10.00 apiece and the event was held under several tents in front of the Boston Children's Museum.

First of all, the boys' favorite part was taking the train from Newton to Boston.  Their first train ride was practically met with applause.  :)  And then, the idea that everyone could eat something different for lunch at South Station was also popular.

The fair itself was very hot, but not too terribly crowded.  We met robots from Battlebots, and Will got to experience driving a robot.  (It was kind of like a Roomba)  After watching so many TV shows about tiny house living, we got to tour one.  (It's not for me, for sure.)  We built mazes, and "hacked the dollar store."  There was a Japanese weaver, and I would've like to try it, but there wasn't enough time.  And Sean got to build a decorative doodad, using saws and hammers, etc.  We were all exhausted and ready for ice cream upon getting back to South Station.  The train ride was crowded on the way home, and Sean practically fell asleep in my lap.  All in all, a great summer day.

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.

Portland!

I went up to Maine to visit Maureen, Sky and this time Alexi!  It was a fun trip by myself where we went to dinner and a couple of bars in the "Old Port" of Portland, took selfies (because we took selfies before they were cool) and just had fun together.  We had delicious Thai-inspired flatbread and Maine rootbeer, and on Sunday morning, the best donuts in the world.  We observed hipsters in bars (Portland is apparently "Hipster Country, they're up there in droves)  Maureen and I knit like the wind, as she's trying to finish a gift for her aunt in San Diego before her trip, and I had boot cuffs for Lexi.  Neither of us finished our projects.  :(  Mine might be due to having a new project that I'm obsessed with, a Harry Potter cross-stitch sampler.  I can't wait to see it up in my hallway!

  I came home relaxed and to a totally clean house and happy kids. Hubby was happy that I was home too.  Now it's back to the grind for a totally crappy Monday.  But that's what Mondays are for, right?

Harry Potter Happiness

In the weeks before our trip, Universal Studios started running ads for their new Harry Potter attraction.  We hadn't made plans to go to Universal, because it was expensive and having been there nine years ago, didn't think they had much to offer then.

But then, there was an hour-long TV special on Diagon Alley, at Universal Studios.  Will and I watched together, amazed.  I said to Brian, "Now I'm dying to go!"  Because he's so wonderful, he said "Not like we're going to Orlando all the time.  Since Sean and I won't get anything out of it, why don't I drop the two of you off one day?"  :)

And so we went!

Hogsmeade, the Magical Village.  We got to try butterbeer here!  It's delicious and tastes like butterscotch.

Trying to pull off a selfie in front of Hogsmeade.  

Look!  It's one of Hagrid's "Monster books."  This was creepy-looking up close and actually growled.

Hogwarts!  The ride "Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey" is inside, and you walk all through Hogwarts to get to it.  We went through some passages that had talking portraits just like in the books.  In one area, the portraits of the four founders of Hogwarts argue with each other...it was incredible.  I had to beg/convince Will to go on the ride with me, it wasn't easy.  Afterwards when I asked what he thought of it, he said "Uh....it had it's ups and downs.  I liked the quidditch flying but was scared of the dementors."

Bought him his very own wand.  One of the COOLEST features of the Harry Potter Wizarding World is that there were wand prompts everywhere, and they were interactive with the wands.  Standing in front of Honeydukes, if you made a particular movement with your wand arm and repeated the spell written on the ground, a big box of chocolate frogs would open in the window and start ribbitting.

Bertie Botts every flavour beans!  We brought some home and are afraid to try them.....you would be too with flavours like earthworm, earwax and ugh....VOMIT.

This is where we picked up the new Hogwarts Express Train and took it to the other side of the park, to Diagon Alley.  Diagon Alley was simply incredible.  You step out onto what looks like the streets of London, and have to go looking for Diagon Alley because obviously there's no signs.  And then suddenly, there you are!  It was absolutely crowded, but you couldn't hear the people in Diagon Alley from the street.  I don't know how they do that!

Weasley's Wizardly Wheezes.

I can't say enough good things about this experience.  I love how Universal Employees really get into it.  We were in a shop and looking at hats and gloves with "Gryffindor" markings and an employee said "Professor Trelawney warned me to expect this....need to restock the gloves!"  I was paying for a Christmas ornament in the same shop and when it came time to sign the receipt the cashier said "Your signature for the Ministry, please."  They did such a great job bringing the pages of the book alive!

p.s.  the only thing I feel that we missed out on was not getting to ride "Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts."  Brian dropped us off really early, soon after the park opened.  We went to the Hogsmeade Side first and by the time we made it to the Diagon Alley side the ride had a 300 minute wait.  Yeah.....that's five hours.  FIVE HOURS.  There's no way a seven year old can stand in a hot line for 5 hours....and I promised no more wild rides after the last one!  There's always next time.  :)

Hello, Disney!

We just got back on Saturday from Orlando.  Whew!  I cannot put it all in one post, but in a word, I can tell you that the trip was FANTASTIC.  And after that....I can tell you most of it in pictures.  Day One:  Magic Kingdom

 The boys' first flight was great.  They loved it, especially Sean. 

 Mom and I arriving at the Magic Kingdom.

 My parents and Will on Main Street USA, with a glipse of the Castle in the back.  Sean is currently going through a phase where he doesn't like his picture being taken.

 Everyone told me that it would be hot in July in Orlando, but it wasn't unbearable.  The parks had lots of cooling stations and splash features for kids.  Here's the boys, cooling off.  

Oh, and those great tie-dye shirts that we did?  Yeah......I didn't "cure" them so they stained all over everything.  Bummer!

 Happy Seanie....take him to Disney World and he's happiest playing in a puddle.

More pictures, more posts, COMING UP!

Fourth of July Weekend!

These are all the things that made for a special Fourth weekend.  We tie-dyed shirts (and I'm still washing dye off my fingers, and oddly, two left toes.)  The next picture is of my mom at my SIL's annual family picnic in RI, showing off her homemade pie skills.  (It was just as delicious as it looks here)  The last one is of my boys playing with the BALL that comes out at the picnic each year!  It was the first time that the picnic was held on the fifth of July, due to rain/thunderstorms/Hurricane Arthur.  It was a gorgeous day for it, though.

But the biggest part was finally letting the cat out of the bag to the kids....We're not going to the Cape for vacation as promised....we're going to ORLANDO!!!  At first they were a little skeptical, now they're totally excited!  And making lists and schedules of what we're going to see, Will watching the TV special of "The Making of Diagon Alley" the newest Harry Potter attraction at Universal Studios....etc etc.  We're all so excited!

Home is Where the Yarn Is

I'm back, and so glad that I went to this  conference!  I was a little nervous at first, going away for a few days.  But I got to know people that work for the same company better, and had a lot of fun along the way.  There were workshops, keynotes, dinners, and a lot of activities in-between.  First:  the location.

The Omni Mount Washington Hotel and Resort., Bretton Woods, NH

This place was INCREDIBLE.  It was built in 1902, complete with a ballroom and a former speakeasy.  How COOL is that???   Sadly, I didn't get to stay here because the place was booked faster than fast, lickety-split.  I stayed at another even older hotel about thirty minutes away.  It was a bit inconvenient, but I worked it out so that I only drove up to the OMW once per day and one of  my co-workers were gracious enough to let me store my dress for the Roaring 20's Dance Party in her room.  This means that I got up super-early each day and drove before breakfast and coffee, which was nuts.  It also meant that I knit in between workshop sessions which was of course wonderful.  

Here was my view after the afternoon workshop on Thursday:

Got home Friday afternoon and picked up the boys at school. They were so happy to see me and I them!  I think there was a bone-crushing hug or two in there.  :)  Traveling is always great, but coming home is the best part, to these two kids (and of course my husband, who held down the fort fantastically.  And looked really happy to be getting out of the house to play volleyball alone on Friday!)

Next year's conference is in Stowe, Vermont.  And I will definitely be going!

Here are my babes, "destroying stormtroopers" at the local mall.  

p.s.  Yes.  I did sneak in not one but two local New Hampshire yarn stores.  One in Derry on the way up and another in Concord on the way down.  Thirteen days and counting to the Webs Tent Sale!!