Time Flies!

Wow, November 11.  Go figure.  I got a little note from Merry Mom asking how I’d been and realized I hadn’t posted in TWO MONTHS.  YIKES.  I guess I’m due for an update!

All is well here.  BUSY.  Like, crazy busy.  As usual.

So, the big news is I survived my organization of information class.  I really had a VERY hard time with it.  I felt stupid the whole semester and was so glad it was my only class.  I somehow managed to get an A, and when I tell you it was a miracle and in no small part due to my partners in the small group project, I am not lying.  Not even a little bit.  I had a lot of help from our local friends too, who attempted to teach me XML and database building, and thanks to my husband who took lots of time off so I could get caught up and get homework done and whatnot.

I am registered for 2 classes this semester:  Ethics for Library and Information Professionals and Introduction to Archives.  I’m excited about it, neither class seems too hard core and both seem interesting, more importantly.  Classes start Wednesday.  I’ve gotten a volunteer job at a local archives, so I should get some hands on learning, which should help with a paper I have to write for the archives class!  I hope the archives class and volunteer experience helps me decide once and for all if that’s the direction I want to go in.

AFS kept me busy.  There were some problems with Kristin and her new family and their other student, so I wound up doing an intervention, which is not really what I think I’m good at, but I did it and got the family to stay together for a little so I was proud of that accomplishment.

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun.  We did the Turkey Trot in the morning—my goal was to do it in less than an hour and I accomplished that goal, which made me happy.  My dad was here and made the turkey, but we were all tired from walking and running so I can’t say as we did very much.  We had a little birthday party for my niece that weekend, and I really can’t believe she turned 3.  The time is just flying by!

December was a whirlwind!  Emily and I went to see Diane Keaton in November and decided to go back and see Michael Ian Black on December 1.  He was HILARIOUS—we were at 6th and I Synagogue and he started a joke that mentioned Anne Frank (it wasn’t a joke about Anne Frank) and he looked up at the stained glass window waiting for lightning to strike and said, “Well, if it’s gonna happen, it’s gonna happen now!” and everyone was just laughing hysterically.  It’s the second time I’ve seen him, the first time doing a solo act, and he was really great.

We took Kristin and fellow student Ilaria to Wolf Trap for the annual holiday sing-a-long and for pizza afterwards.  They had a lot of fun and I enjoyed having them along for the tradition.  The following weekend we spent some time at my sister’s and then went to our friends Paul and Kris’s house and church for their annual Christmas pageant and dinner.  It was really lovely, and wouldn’t seem like Christmas if we didn’t go.

Unfortunately, I was in a minor car accident the following week, and my car was in the shop until after Christmas.  I was driving to meet some friends for dinner and a kitten ran in the road.  I stopped and the person coming towards me stopped, but the guy behind me didn’t stop and hit me.  At first glance, it didn’t look so bad, but ultimately cost Allstate somewhere in the neighborhood of $6000 when all was said and done.  They did give me a rental, and I was pleased about that since I put almost 800 miles on it in just over a week’s time.

The following weekend was my Christmas concert.  This is my second year with the Stafford Regional Choral Society and in November I was elected to the board of directors.  I really thought that this Christmas concert would be the best concert I’d ever sung in, and I dare say I was correct.  I did a lot of rehearsing at home with the on line tracks, and managed to sing without my music, which made me happy since I didn’t have to lug a bunch of books around!  The choir chairman was nice enough to give me rides to rehearsals and the concert since my car was out of commission and I hadn’t gotten my rental yet.

The following day, Monday, my dad and his girlfriend decided to make a big turkey pre-Christmas dinner, and since I was still eating turkey from Thanksgiving, I decided to go ahead and invite some people over.  We had about 15 people who came to eat turkey and still had plenty of leftovers!  Leah had a ball.  Our neighbors came and brought her gifts and some other friends came and brought us fresh eggs from their chickens.  It was great!

Tuesday, for their first Christmas present, I took Dad and Linda to see ICE! at the Gaylord National Resort.  Mike’s and my theme for Christmas this year was cherishing old memories and making new ones.  To that end, we made a conscious decision not to buy “stuff” that people wouldn’t want or wear, and instead to either make things or make memories.  A few years ago, we bought tickets for the whole family to go see ICE! but couldn’t afford it this year, so I just took Dad and Linda (Leah got in free).  We had lunch with my sister beforehand and then went to the show, which was really lovely—it had a Madagascar theme, which didn’t mean much to the rest of us, but I enjoyed it anyway.  It was a really nice afternoon.  Midway through, I got a text from my mom that she was coming up early, so I prepared myself for her arrival as well!

Wednesday, Mom came and Mike and I went down to Richmond to pick up Penny’s brother Mickey at the airport.  He is in boarding school out in Kentucky (Or Cuh-cucky as Leah calls it) and needed a place to go when the school closed for 2 weeks for Christmas.  He took one look at us when he saw us at the gate and kept on walking and when I stopped him to ask if he was Mickey, he said he had to get his bags and took off to the baggage claim.  That was essentially the high point of his visit.  He was a rude little bugger. 

Thursday, Mom came back to our house to stay for a week plus.  She and my sister started arguing and at this point I can’t say who’s wrong or who’s right, I just really wish it hadn’t happened.  My goal for this Christmas was for everyone to get along, no fighting, and to have a peaceful and calm time.  It didn’t happen.  By Christmas Day, I had a nervous breakdown.  There were SO MANY people and SO MUCH was going on, it was crazy!!!  Friday, my buddy Joe arrived and Saturday we went to my sister’s for Christmas Eve. 

Christmas Day was here, my sister brought a stray with her, so if you’re keeping count, there were 13 people here.  Judy’s stray wanted to make wassail for everyone and the crockpot wouldn’t hold it all, so we had to do it on the stove, which he fretted over literally all day.  The present situation, even though we all scaled back, was again totally crazy out of control—even if you only buy each person 1 thing, that’s 13 presents for 13 people (for a total of 169), and you know that no one bought ONLY one thing for each of the kids.  So it was pandemonium.

For our part, Mike and I made each family member (Mom, Dad, Judy, Lucas, and Joe) a scrapbook of memories of our times together.  It was a special moment for everyone and there were a lot of tears flowing as everyone looked through their pictures and swapped books and traded stories.  We also made a photo collage of all of us making funny faces (mostly unintentionally).

And framed them. Everyone got one of those.  So it helped lighten the mood a bit from all the other crying.

Dinner was the traditional roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.  Mickey announced the first night he was here that he wasn’t eating a thing I cooked, all he wanted to eat was beef ramen noodles, despite the fact that he doesn’t eat beef.  He informed me that the noodles are only beef flavored.  I asked him where the beef flavoring came from and he couldn’t tell me.  I read the package and sure enough they contain beef, but I didn’t give a damn and didn’t tell him.  And I also let him eat Yorkshire pudding, despite it having beef “flavoring” in it. :-)

Dad and I did our traditional trip to Richmond to see the Ginter Gardens Festival of Lights, which was beautiful, as was the weather!  It wasn’t warm, but it was far warmer than usual when I had to stand by the bonfire for an hour mid-way through.  They expanded their repertoire slightly so we got to see some new lights and of course, we got crapped on at our favorite awful Burger King, where we ALWAYS get lousy service.  It was a fun night!

Post-Christmas was similarly busy.  Our “memory” present to Mom was a trip to the Melting Pot, so I took her out one night for that.  Joe decided I needed to start watching Ghost Adventures and Ancient Aliens, and we invented a drinking game to correspond with those (every time someone yelled “DUDE!” in Ghost Adventures or said “Aliens” or “extra terrestrials” or some variant there of in Ancient Aliens, we took a drink).  By the time we were done, (and let me be clear here, we were drinking Mike’s Hard Lemonades, this was not serious alcohol!  But I haven’t had a drink in probably 5 or 6 years and Joe is a real lightweight when it comes to alcohol so this was never going to end well), I was sitting on the floor convinced I could understand every word some German guy was saying, and Joe was moaning about a headache, which took him most of the next day to get rid of. 

We spent one day with Andy and Melissa bowling and taking Mickey to Coldstone Creamery, since he wanted ice cream.  Mike took the whole week off, which was nice for me to have a break! 

I took Mickey on my famous nighttime tour of DC in an effort to get him to spend some portion of the day either not watching TV or playing around on the computer and to interact with some member of our family.  I think he enjoyed it once we left, although he put up a bit of a fight about going.  I was excited to see the new Martin Luther King Jr Memorial, which I hadn’t seen yet and somehow almost drove past.  You can’t believe how big that thing is.  The pictures I’ve seen of it do it no justice at all.  It is literally massive.

We essentially did nothing to celebrate New Year’s Eve.  We forced Mickey away from the computer 10 seconds before the ball dropped on Times Square so at least he could say he saw it, although he wasn’t much impressed.  Mike went back to work on the 3rd, so I tried to come up with things to do with Mickey every day.  We went and saw a 3D movie—my first one ever, The Adventures of TinTin, which was OK, went to the mall, and had lots of Thai food, which is in short supply in rural KY.  Friday we started getting ready for our 3 Kings party, which was seriously scaled back this year—half what it was last year.  I didn’t want to have a huge crowd and be exhausted, so I decided just to have a few people and call it a night.  Mickey announced the beef stroganoff smelled terrible and that he was going to sit in the kitchen so he could leave, and then after watching me cook, clean, and set up for 2 days, just as we were ready to sit down, he asked if he could make ramen noodles.  I should have told him what he could do with his ramen noodles, but held my temper and told him no as politely as I could.  When I sat down to dinner on the other end of the table, my friend asked me what was wrong, that I looked like I was ready to commit murder.  Haha.

We dropped him at the airport yesterday and spent the rest of the day tidying up.  I had a nice evening last night, preparing English tea and watching the Downton Abbey premiere on PBS.

So that brings us to January.  Leah is in dance lessons—has been doing it for over a month now and LOVES it.  She is particularly fond of tap dancing and although she is the tiniest and youngest girl in her class, she is doing just great and learning a lot.  We have started back to Toddlin’ Time on Tuesdays and now are on the hunt for pre-school.  I am touring one place tomorrow which is probably the one that is farthest from my house and at the far end of where I am willing to go.  I start school on Wednesday.  We are going to my dad’s for a week next week, but Mike is staying home again to have some peace and quiet. 

Otherwise, I am watching lots of Quantum Leap on NetFlix, trying to keep up with housework (a losing battle), and trying to make good on my New Year’s resolution of cutting back and doing less while making it mean more.  I would like to get back into Weight Watchers, but every time I say that, I go for 3 weeks and quit again.  I need to find the motivation I had in 2008.

So I’ll probably write again in another 2 months when Merry says “WAKE UP!” :) 

Bloggety, Blog, Blog, Blog

The last time I blogged was on 9/11 and little did I know that all hell would continue to break loose around here.  We got our basement fixed up beautifully—I’m happy to say you would never know anything happened.  There is one less couch and there is a lot of extra lighting now, which is awesome, but other than that, life is back to normal downstairs!

In the meantime, the car needed new brakes and I needed glasses, which added up to a lot of money!!!!!  Thankfully we were able to get both done and finish paying off the credit card bills, because things just kept getting crazier!

Unfortunately, just as we were preparing to go to NY for my dad’s 60th, my mom called to say her long time companion Jim had collapsed after having suffered a massive heart attack.  He passed away on September 28th.  Having been a big part of our lives for a number of our years, this was a really sad loss for the family.  I was thus in Florida for almost 3 weeks.  During this time, Kristin from Iceland moved out.  I was disappointed in a way, but I think it was probably for the best and since I am still working with her new family’s other student, I will see her here and there.  I very much doubt we will host next year although I said that this year, so who knows, but I’m excited to say that Penny’s brother Mickey is coming to spend Christmas with us this year, so it’ll be kind of like celebrating with an exchange student anyway and we’ll get 2 weeks of fun before sending him on his way.

Florida was a good time, despite the circumstances.  I found things for Leah to do in and around Vero Beach and we went to the Brevard Zoo, SeaWorld, and Lion Country Safari.  I do believe the kid knows more about animals than any other 2 year old around!  Her particular favorites were the sharks and penguins at SeaWorld.  I also took her to see the movie A Dolphin Tale, which she loved and went around telling everyone she could find that the dolphin broke its tail.  We came home from SeaWorld with a 3 foot long Shamu, and just recently Leah ripped all the stuffing from ‘Mu’s tail and has informed me that Mu has a broken tail like the dolphin.  When I re-stuff Mu, we shall remedy his broken tail with a band-aid!  We also paid some extra money to go pet a rhinoceros, which was a pretty awesome experience that I won’t soon forget!  Leah liked taking a scrub brush to him and tickling him.  Whenever I ask her about the rhino, she says, “BRUSH!” (you can kind of see the rhino behind my mom in the picture above)  So we did a lot of things we might not otherwise have gotten to do and I got to go to the beach (even if it wasn’t Myrtle Beach) and just chill out and help out my mom as needed.  We kind of tossed around the idea of Disney World, I think more because Mom and I wanted to go than we really wanted to take Leah, but cooler heads prevailed—she really is still too young and we want her to remember that first time forever.  Another couple of years!

This class I am taking is really kicking my butt.  For 3 weeks, I basically did nothing, as the professor told me not to worry about it, so I’ve been playing catch up ever since.  We have group projects to do, and I’m happy to say I have great group members who really picked up the slack for me, and so I am now going to work doubly hard to make up for the work I didn’t do on Assignment 2.  Only 36 days till the class is over, THANK GOD, and let us hope I never take a class about organizing data and information EVER AGAIN!  Next semester I hope to take Introduction to Archiving so I can see if I really want to pursue that as a career option like I’ve been thinking I might.

I had fun in October going to the Kennedy Center to see Les Mis with some members of my choir, and then spending that evening answering phones for WAMU at their annual member drive.  We had a recordbreaking night, getting $35,000 in 3 hours, which is pretty incredible.  I love volunteering during The Big Broadcast—the most interesting mix of people volunteer and we had  fun table.  It was nice to unwind and let my hair down after the stress of Jim’s death and the classwork piling up.  The production of Les Mis was spellbinding—literally I wept many times and it was just a great performance. 

Leah and I have been having a lot of fun getting ready for Halloween.  We’ve been doing little projects now, like baking bread and making pumpkin-shaped jello and pumpkin-shaped crayons from all the crayons she broke to bits.  I went over to the local teacher supply store and bought a few charts for the walls so we are learning our colors and taking little scavenger hunts.  We talk about the weather and count the days on the calendar.  We went to the pumpkin patch and carved pumpkins today.  It’s fun and keeps her engaged.  I am looking forward to getting her into preschool, but am not in any rush.  We are keeping busy with a music class and MOPS and various and sundry other activities and are looking into gymnastics.  She’s a fun kid and able to do so much more.  Even though I miss snuggling with a newborn, I do enjoy these toddler days!  I like being crafty and even little things turn into a lot of fun for her, so I try to come up with something to keep her interested and teach her something new, while allowing me to stretch my creative muscles and keep from getting cranky!

Hopefully our bathroom project will get underway soon.  We finally got our loan approved and got the money to pay the contractor, so we’re ready to go.  We picked a design and that’s that!  It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly 3 months since the Great Flood, and while it had unintended consequences, it’s fun to think of the positives of the situation and how we’re going to come out of it.  We also paid off our car this month, ahead of schedule, which loosens up our budget some to do some other things.  It’s the first time in 6 years we don’t have a car payment.  We nearly got hit today by the local ne’er-do-well on our way out to get pumpkins to carve, and I thought, “Wouldn’t that just be my luck!?” but thankfully he got back on his side of the road with about 6 inches to spare before he hit us.

Joe and I went and saw the MST3K live show, Cinematic Titanic, again on Thursday night.  It’s a fun way for him and I to celebrate our frienshipversary—this year being #17.  It won’t be long now before I’ve known him more than half my life, which I find mindboggling.  We had our traditional Bertucci’s dinner and then walked around DC for a couple of hours before the show started.  Afterwards, we got on line for the signing and I got myself a poster to have signed.  We also discovered Joel was allowing people to take pictures, so of course, we took full advantage.  I like that all of us are modeling sexy eyewear! :-D  My next big celebrity trip will be in November to see Diane Keaton at 6th and I Synagogue, which should be quite interesting.  I enjoy watching her, and she seems like she’d just be a really nice and down to earth person, so I’m looking forward to meeting her!  I wonder if she’s going to wear something crazy or just dress casually.

In general, I’m just feeling quite content with life.  I seem to have made friends with some exceptionally kind and low key people—just last week I was able to go out to dinner with 3 new girlfriends and we all sat around and laughed and chattered until before we knew it, 2+ hours had gone by.  I’ve joined a new book club here in town, which is fun, and my NoVa book club seems to have gotten back on track, surviving the 7 year itch.  I’ve become very friendly with a wonderful couple down the street and their daughter, all of whom think Leah is the best kid in the universe (and of course, I quite agree!). 

I’m keeping busy, busy, busy and keep telling Mike, “I promise, I’m going to calm down…after this week”.  Fortunately he’s been patient with what has been a ridiculous autumn!

There have been a lot of fun little things going on and I always think, “Oh, I should blog about that!” but usually I am too tired!  It’s a shame—Leah says some damned cute stuff that I’d like to remember and we have a lot of fun and do a lot of things, but time just keeps on slipping away…  I really can’t believe tomorrow is Halloween!  Then it’s November, and I do debate doing NaNoWriMo just so I can get this damned whiteboard down from my bulletin board and finish my book!  And then in a few short weeks, it will be Thanksgiving.  Mike and I have been debating what to do in April for our 10th wedding anniversary, and yet it seems like just yesterday we were getting married.  I feel too young to be this old and too old at the same time. 

I’ll close here and who knows when I’ll blog again!  The new Facebook sucks, but it doesn’t seem to keep me from using it, so of course, you can get my updates there if I don’t update here :)  Ta ta!

GAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

When I say this summer has been the craziest summer ever, I mean that quite literally.  Not one thing has happened that we planned on, and everything is just going crazy all at once.

Mid-July I was trolling the “Hosting with AFS” Facebook board and feeling all nostalgic when a post popped up from a mom in New Zealand who was looking for a host family for her daughter.  I spoke with AFS about the possibility of being a welcome family for that girl, and was told she had a placement in the works but that if we wanted to be a welcome family, we should contact our area team.  So we did and were immediately fast tracked to be a welcome family.  It took a couple of weeks and we were initially matched with a girl from Finland but they found her a permanent home, so then it was a whirlwind of who we would choose to take.  It finally came down to Hong Kong and Iceland as the two countries we’d host from and, deciding to take a break from Asia, we chose the girl from Iceland.  We were told she’d be a late arrival since we started everything so late in the summer, but surprise, surprise, it was all approved and we had roughly one week between when we were allowed to contact Kristin and when we had to pick her up.  She arrived on August 12 and starts school on September 6th.  More on her time here to follow.  But first…

In the middle of the matching, interviewing, and applications process for that, I flew to Tucson for 10 days to start my library degree.  It was the most stressful 10 days of school I’ve ever endured, not to mention the two weeks leading up to it, which was a “reading period” that involved reading a couple thousand pages of information and attempting to synthesize it before 8 straight days of classes, group projects, paper research and writing, library tours, and computer projects.  By day 2, I ran from the classroom and hid in the bathroom and cried.  It was hot, I had jetlag, I missed my baby, I was stressed, and I was staying in a dorm I dubbed “The Pit”.  As a bit of a reward for my survival, Mike let me book my last night in a swanky hotel near the airport and a friend gave me a ride so I didn’t have to pay a cab.  The morning I was due to leave, the flight was oversold, and so I offered to give up my seat, which got me a $300 travel voucher for future travel.  Since the AFS host moms from last year are planning on a trip to Las Vegas this fall, I can probably travel basically free, which is a good thing, since…

The day after Kristin arrived, I went to brunch with friends.  I got home to find Mike and our neighbor frantically running up and down the stairs.  The toilet upstairs had overflowed, and Mike and Kristin had been unable to shut it off.  The resulting flood swept into our basement and I called the fire department, not really knowing what else to do, which resulted in giant holes being knocked in the ceiling to drain out the water.  Two days later, the cleaning company and insurance company arrived, and we’ve been ceiling-less ever since.  Our carpet looks practically brand new however!  Work begins tomorrow—an electrician is coming to install some new lights downstairs so it won’t be so dark, and then the contractor will come and do the dry wall, mud, paint, etc. 

Unfortunately, when the cleaning company ripped up the bathroom floor, they discovered black mold!  OF COURSE THEY DID!  So, now we have to get that cleaned up.  They talked about the clean up process and how basically we will need to take out the vanity and get that replaced, as well as the floor.  In looking over our options, we’ve decided to have the bathroom replaced.  Everything in there is kind of basic grade, not very nice stuff, so if we’re going to do it, we’re going to do it right and not half-ass it. 

So then came the crazy weather phenomena, like the earthquake and then a crazy thunderstorm from hell that knocked over Mike’s radio antenna.  That now has to be either repaired and re-installed or replaced.  Then came Hurricane Irene, which caused our power to go out for about 12 hours.  When it came back on, the air conditioning no longer worked.  Believing it to be an a/c problem, we called the emergency service line of our heating and air contractor, but when they came out, they discovered that a blower inside the furnace had burned out, and in putting in a new one, the entire system was off balance and making all kinds of crazy noise.  The air conditioner itself is just fine and dandy, but because the furnace controls the movement of the air, it has to be dealt with as part of the air conditioning system. 

They came out this morning to quote us the price for repairing and for replacing the furnace, and we are going to go ahead and replace the damned thing.  It’s 11 years old and we would probably be piece-mealing it for the next few years till it reached the end of its natural life cycle, so we might as well just take care of it and be done with it.  They are coming to work on Thursday. 

Just as a reminder, in case you’ve forgotten, we’ve had a 17 year old from Iceland here through this entire venture.

So upon discovering all this, I had myself a 30 minute nervous breakdown, walked around the block, called my dad, tossed a couple of rocks, and now I’m ready to roll.  We’ve been wanting to a lot of these repairs for a while now, and this is kind of the impetus we need and the opportunity to do things that we would have liked to do for some time.  I have decided to turn into an eternal optimist as a result of all this.  My opinion now is “Better the furnace died in August than in December and we freeze half to death!”

I will call the insurance company again tonight and see what’s what.  Hopefully they’ll cover some of it, but I have my doubts.  I was talking with my neighbor yesterday and suggested that he sprinkle holy water between our two plots of land.  He thought I was kidding till he heard about the furnace, but now I’m sure he’s thinking about it. :) 

Hello, Old Friend

It’s been a while!  I think I say that every time I update the blog, as I should, since my best intentions to regularly update don’t seem to happen.  Well…  Here we are.  It’s July.  July.  JULY!?  Jeez!  I can’t hardly believe it ;0D

So much has changed since the last post.  Penny is gone.  She has returned to Thailand.  She misses us, doubtless, and we miss her too.  It was an extremely challenging year for all of us, and I’m glad it’s over, but also quite proud of our family and how we pushed through.  The last month was a whirlwind—we did a lot of sightseeing and traveling.  She got to go to Luray to see the caverns, we took her up to Baltimore, and of course the big NYC trip.  It was a blast.  We had a good-bye party for her the last weekend she was here and at least she got to see everyone one last time and know that so many people cared about her, whether she accepted their love and care or not.

I’ve busily put my grad school career back on track.  I did everything on the checklist pre-departure, and the class went live last week, so I’ve been busting my @ss, doing readings and homework and tons of writing.  The message board is all abuzz with travelers and locals swapping tips, and last night I sat down and printed out maps and bus schedules and watched a video about the dorm I’ll be staying in.  It has free laundry facilities, and is right next door to a student union with a convenience store, so at least I can run over and get about 5000000000000 gallons of water every day.  I also participated in an on-line advisement session and “met” my advisor, Tom, who seems like a nice guy.  I hope he’s a nice grader.  Haha  I’m learning new words like crazy, and am committed to doing as much as I can in terms of getting the readings done and being prepared.  With this type of kamikaze class, 2 weeks reading, 1 week in Tucson, and 1 week post-class busting my @ss to finish projects and whatnot, I’m so glad that I’ll be on a semester schedule afterwards.  Mike and I splurged and got a new laptop to take with me, although he isn’t yet done perfecting it, so I’ve only touched it to take it out of the box and not been able to use it since.  Supposedly tonight he and Andy will finish it up, and hopefully I’ll be able to use it!  I stole the desk from Penny’s room and have set up what I call the LIS Command Center in the empty corner of our bedroom, and would like to have the laptop up there, since there are far fewer distractions.

But I’m basically very excited about going and learning and meeting all these new people.  My dad will be here minding Leah and taking orders from Mike, so while I’m not sure exactly how this battle of wills is going to turn out, I’m pleased I won’t be here to witness it!  The three of them are so stubborn and they all like to have things their own way immediately, so it should be interesting.

On the Leah front, things are going very well.  She is in and out of potty training, does it when she feels like and not when she doesn’t.  She knows WHAT to do, but doesn’t always feel like it, and often says, “Potty!” just because she enjoys watching us jump around and get her on the toilet, only to find out she doesn’t actually have to go.  She seems especially fond of this little trick when she either doesn’t want to do something (sit at the dinner table) or is bored of her current endeavor (going to the grocery store) and wants to mix it up a bit.  Her favorite movies at the moment are Tangled and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the Johnny Depp version) and she is obsessed with her cousin Dot Dot.

On the horizon is meeting up with a fellow AFS family and trans-racial adoptive family (weird I met someone on Facebook who hosted a girl from Thailand AND adopted an AA baby too!  Go figure!) from this past year in early August, AFS host moms camp out in Las Vegas in the fall (Hooray!  Can’t wait to go back to Vegas and to meet these awesome ladies!), my dad’s 60th birthday coming up in September, starting my work as an AFS liaison this fall (I will be sponsoring girls from Italy and Turkey), and continuing my many writing projects.  I recently wrote a guest mini-series for my friend Elizabeth’s adoption blog Adoptivity, I’ve been hired by my choir to write a regular column in the newsletter, and I am still busily busting out articles for Yahoo News as the occasion permits.  I am really enjoying all of the writing—it’s given me a focus for my brain that doesn’t involve Oompah-Loompahs or giant purple dinosaurs.  I’ve got a book club that I’ve been going to here in Fredericksburg and of course the NoVa one, so that keeps me busy.  I took the summer off for the chorus, but will go back to it in October—I’m happy to say 3 choir members have let me know they miss me.  Hooray!  I’m loved and missed. :)

Mike and I have been busily tightening up our budgets some.  The last couple months from March to June were a total drain on our finances, and so we’ve been taking little opportunities as they come to make some changes.  We dropped a big chunk of our cable, saving us $300 per year.  The young lady who cut our grass decided not to do it this year, so we spent $15 on parts, got our lawn mower repaired, and I am now mowing, saving us roughly $200 per year.  I no longer have a cell phone, saving us $600 per year.  We switched to a different trash service, saving us $120 per year.  We bought an electric clipper so I can buzz Mike’s hair, saving us $150 per year.  On their own, these things might not seem like a big deal, but add it up and it comes to a total savings per year of over $1300.  We’ve also totally quit going out for meals unless there’s a really, really, really good reason (laziness is not a good reason), which is a huge savings.

I’ve also instituted “Not going anywhere one day a week” in which I am totally car-free.  It’s been Sundays, although that will have to change because I will have choir practice on Sundays this fall, but one day per week, I flatly refuse to get in the car for any reason.  It has been a success.  We spend a good bit more family time together, I am forced to make good decisions about how to schedule my time during the week to accomplish our goal, and I really do feel my blood pressure going down as I stop running around so much.  This past Saturday, I was at Giant and the car’s battery died.  Getting stranded SUCKED, getting stranded without a phone SUCKED HARD, but we survived, fortunately we had a friend visiting who came and jumped the car for us, got a new battery, and all’s well.  As a bonus:  if that had happened a month ago, I’d have been raiding the savings account and panicking.  Now I can afford to take it in stride a bit!

Well, ok, I’ll probably see you in a couple of months. I would like to think I’ll be able to blog from Arizona, but our professor said we should get some sleep before we come, which does not bode well!  So if not, I’ll update with how it was.  Wish me luck!  TTFN!

Yard Sailing…

Yesterday was our big yard sale.  I’ve been watching a lot of “clean up your house” shows on TV since I’ve been home, and it has really inspired me to clean out the clutter myself.  I had so much junk that I was able to hold a yard sale and invited several others to participate with me.  Yesterday was the big day.

I always feel a bit sad when I put things out for sale, and yesterday was no exception, really.  Looking at Leah’s baby things out there got me all misty-eyed and wistful.  I usually feel quite confident that I’ve put the right things out, but there is always one or two things that I think, “Well, maybe I shouldn’t have done that.”  Nothing has struck me yet, but I’m sure it will.

I took a chance and asked one lady who came over about her hair.  She was African-American and had the most beautiful head of hair, I just loved it.  Leah’s hair continues to be a mystery to me.  It turns out, the woman I spoke to was an adoption social worker at Fairfax County Department of Family Services.  We had the most amazing chat about adoption and hair and it was really life affirming…  She gave me her card and asked me to keep in touch.  I certainly shall!

After we took most of the valuable stuff back in the house, I posted our left overs on Craig’s List and Freecycle and waited for people to come grab it.  However, after all the heat yesterday, there was a terrible thunderstorm in the late afternoon.  Fortunately, our neighbor’s son came over and helped me get everything up on the porch just as quick as you please, and a gentleman who stopped over to pick up a few things also helped us work to get things under cover.  I grabbed some blankets and trash bags and got most everything covered before the rains came. 

Last night, 6 Freecyclers rolled and took probably 60% of what was out there.  The main things I have left to deal with are some furniture (dining room chairs, coffee table), books, VHS tapes, and odds and ends.  I’ve reposted to Freecycle this morning and we’ll see what happens.  By noon, everything is going.  To the dump, to Goodwill, to wherever, I’m loading it up and taking it out of here.

It feels good.  I like knowing that I have made my home a lot nicer, that I’ve helped people who need it, that I’ve cleared out the clutter in more ways than one.  Today, I have a metric ton of cleaning to do, getting clothes boxed up so I can consign them this fall, picking up the toys and stuff that got strewn around while a pile of babies and toddlers were running through the house while their parents were losing probably 8 pounds each in sweat alone outside, our normal dump run, and getting ready for the week ahead.  It will be busy, but short, as I’m heading up to my dad’s for his retirement party this coming weekend.

But I’m proud of what I accomplished, grateful to my friends who stood by me and helped out (Thanks mucho Cindy and Jason and Manda!) and ready to tackle our next project: preparing the house for a teenager!  *Cue scary music*

Resolutions and Revolutions

So here we are, 2010, a new decade and a new year. A lot of people were happy to see 2009 go, but as I thought about it, I really couldn't count myself among their number. Apart from my dad's heart attack and all the subsequent craziness stemming from that, 2009 was a great year for me. Of course, first and foremost, my daughter was born. She is my favorite person in the world, the true love and light of my life. I am blessed beyond measure to be able to spend every day with her, even the days I don't feel like being a mom she brightens with her brilliant smile.

I've also taken some serious steps in getting my mental house in order, getting my head screwed on tight. With the help of a truly great counselor, I spent the last 3 months of 2009 talking, hashing through a lot of issues, and ultimately triumphing over a lot of things that previously held me back. Notably, interpersonal communication and anxiety. I will always be on the quiet side, but I'm not going to be a doormat any more. I am still struggling a bit with how I will take better care of myself versus everyone else, but at least I'm more in touch with my personal needs even if I ignore them half the time. I've been more or less discharged from the sessions, will be going about once a month now instead of weekly, and I'm excited about that. It's been a really interesting process, I did a lot better than I would have expected, but it turns out I was a lot more motivated than I thought I was.

To that end, I'll be working on 2 day planner/journal type things. I bought a day planner called Listopia that gives you a list per week to make, some serious (this week's was *duh* what I want to accomplish this year; there is one week you list every movie you could watch over and over again), and I intend to keep a gratitude list on each day in addition to jotting down events as they arise. (How exciting is it to look less than 2 weeks ahead and see "Leave for Atlanta" written down?) I've also picked up The Happy Book, as one of the themes from my counselor is a need for me to figure out exactly what makes me happy and increase the happiness in my life. Not that I'm not happy, but couldn't we all be happier? This sweet little book has prompts, activities, journaling space, etc. I'll be working on that.

I also have a lot of "What's next?" questions floating around in my mind, so part of my goals for this year will be to think about a personal 5 year plan and a family 5 year plan. I know that Leah will not need me in this capacity forever, and the first year of her life is already almost behind us, so I need to think forward. What do I want to do? Do I want to go back to school? Re-enter the workforce? Switch careers? It's exciting, confusing, and a bit frightening all at once. I'm mostly excited to think about it, however.

Michael and I have also discussed adding to the family down the line, and we've both agreed we'd like to give foster care a shot in the future. To that end, we decided we needed to get some experience with teenagers and we have applied to host an exchange student this fall. We have our eye on a 15 year old from Germany named Caroline, and we have applied to host her for a year. What appeals to me most about her is that she is an avid reader and says she will read anything. Providing we are matched, I'll be bringing her to book club :-)

Of course the big elephant in the room, will I get back to my fitness and weight loss goals? The short answer is YES I WILL! My goal is to return to Weight Watchers on January 23rd, which will allow me to have a final fling in Atlanta without worrying about counting points, etc. while on vacation (although Mike and Lesley have turned into such fitness gurus, maybe I won't have to count so much as just eat what they eat!) and then get back to it. I would like to try and lose 50 pounds this year. I know have gained some back since becoming a SAHM, it's very easy to just sort of graze through the days, but I really would like to get back on track and get going again. I will be returning to the Saturday morning meetings, as that worked very well for me, but I won't go back at 6:30am, I'll probably go to the 8:30 meetings. Michael is back on board too, so we'll both be working out together after Leah's bedtime, which is good, because it's much easier to have a partner to support you locally in addition to all the wonderful support I've received from friends far and wide!

Of course I've already outlined my reading goals for the year. In terms of a number, well, I read 69 books last year, I would like to hit 75 this year. It could be tricky because Leah is already TONS more active than she used to be, and I know it will only get crazier as she is really close to being mobile and I'll be plucking her off the stairs and chasing her down the driveway in no time flat, I'm sure. But I've taken up watching a lot more TV, which I really don't like--I've never considered myself a TV watcher--so I'm going to limit my viewing to 4 shows (LOST, Project Runway, Clean House, and Hoarders) and the TV will be off the rest of the time. Adding in exercise time and more reading time will take up most of my free time in the evenings anyway.

Travel for the year? Atlanta in January, North Carolina in February, New York in March (reuniting with my best friends from high school! That should be interesting!), hopefully Myrtle Beach in May, probably back to NY for a quick trip in June for my dad's retirement, Rhode Island in August, Florida in October (my mom's turning 60!). With Caroline in tow, hopefully we will make it so she can see most of the east coast during her year here, and maybe we'll get somewhere a little more exciting as well (maybe for her spring break in 2011). We hope to see Russell and Amy and Annette someday somewhere in 2010, and lots of visits with Mike and Lesley again.

And finally, I will be re-instating the FLY Lady system into our lives. I want to be able to walk into a clean house all the time, and the system really worked when we lived in Centreville. The idea of not going into a total panic when company is due really appeals to me. Just keeping on top of everything is what I need to do. And I will do it!

So that's how 2010 is shaping up! Today we will drop off Joe at home and then I will start getting the house cleaned up from the holidays--I am really looking forward to getting my house back! I can't believe the amount of cleaning I did pre-Christmas and it looks like I did NOTHING. UGH. But in 15 minute increments, we'll get it done for sure. :-) Michael's hard at work with the laundry, Leah is napping, and I'm going to go get dressed!

Happy New Year Everyone!

Fredericksburg

March 13, 2009

Article & Video Link

To read the article about our Christmas party, please visit THIS LINK. :-)

You can also see a great video HERE.

Par-Tay!

So last night was our fifth annual Epiphany dinner. Each year the event has gotten slightly larger and last night was our largest gathering yet with a total of 26 friends in attendance. I think we are probably going to have to cap it about there--besides begging for people to bring chairs, I wound up sitting at a card table that was in the kitchen.

However, I must say that I think last night was our most successful night yet. I took off Friday. In part this was because this year's dinner was being covered by a reporter from our local newspaper (the story will be in tomorrow's paper, so I'll post a link then!), so I wanted to have time to chat with them and they wanted to get some pictures (and video it turns out!) of me cooking and preparing for the event. But I also just wanted to get everything together and be on top of things with such a crowd expected.

Lucas was a good brother-in-law and did my bidding in Judy's absence--she had to go back to work on Wednesday, so pressed her husband into service in her stead. Last year after the dinner, we made a list of what exactly we should cook for everyone. I got the list out Thursday night and Lucas and I went shopping Thursday night when the stores were empty. When we were done, the little old Polish lady in me broke free and started to get nervous that we hadn't gotten enough food. But I decided to put my faith in the list.

Friday morning, Lucas, Dottie, and I all slept in till 10:30ish. I got up and ran to the Giant to get the few last food items we hadn't been able to procure at Super Walmart. I got back and we had lunch and then Cathy and Pete from the paper showed up and we got going on making ham and pierogi. They were over for more than 2 hours and I really liked both of them so much. They were easy to talk to and very interested in the details of the party. Pete the photographer also commented on my photography, so I really was glad to hear good things about it from a professional.

Judy and Michael got back from their respective job sites and we did the baking Friday night--18 mini lemon bundt cakes were prepared. By the time Friday was over, the hors d'oeuvres were ready to go, the cakes were done, the first main entree was complete, and the pierogi were finished.

Saturday morning I got up to go to Weight Watchers. When I got back, I grabbed the General and we made our first run to the dump. As we got back, Judy was swinging into high gear baking bread. We put the General in charge of Dot and Lucas and I started moving furniture. Pete called to say he was going to have to come earlier than expected since he had a work thing pop up and asked if he could come at 1:00. He was most keenly interested in catching us put the tables together, so Lucas, Judy and I hauled the monster table out from the shed and wound up putting our couch out on the front porch. (With us parking our cars in the backyard later to free up much needed driveway space, our house looked like the redneck house!) We got the tables put where they needed to be and happily took note of the fact that we didn't have to take down the Christmas tree, a very big bonus for us, as we really wanted to keep it up for the party.

Pete came for a couple of hours to take pictures and captured our famous glaze gulp (Judy and I drink whatever's left of the lemon glaze we make for the cakes--trust me, those cakes get frosted VERY generously!) and shot pictures of us setting tables, cutting up kielbasa, etc. He made it really easy not to feel self-conscious and to just go about our business, which I liked. Plus he's of Czech descent so he had a LOT of interest in the party and food.

Pre-party dining scene

Somehow, however, all our planning had really panned out. I was able to take a shower and get in a little bit of reading time. Judy managed to get a little bit of time on the Wii. Dottie was cooperative in being a good baby till party time when she started to get fussy, but most of the time was content to sleep on Uncle Mike. Lucas only made 3 runs to the grocery store for forgotten or replacement items.

So the little Alberta Clipper they predicted started up and brought lots of rain. They had predicted snow and ice, which thankfully didn't happen, but one person in Maryland cancelled due to the weather. Melissa arrived early, which I don't blame her for. God only knows what could happen on I-95 when the weather turns lousy. Other guests started arriving at 6:00 and by the time Cathy the reporter was in at 6:30, it was a rollicking time already. As the last few folks arrived bearing chairs (hooray for chairs!), we dished up the food and got everyone upstairs for some food.


Everyone gathering to eat dinner

Dinner was great. We had lots of delicious food and I got to sit with Lucas and Joe and Joe's new honey, which was fun and interesting. A 'spirited' debate about the U.S. tax code broke out amongst several guests, followed by a 'rousing' discussion of the Israel-Palestine question over dessert. As the men argued politics, the ladies hid in a corner and discussed literature. We distributed the presents that the Three Kings had brought as well, and made a big splash with the kids--giving Jacalyn's boys lightsabers and Little Anne's son Nicolas a Mr. Potato Head that's dressed up like Santa--he loved the hell out of that thing! The grown ups got tower treats and Cathy and Pete were touched that we had thought of them too--Cathy gave me a big hug.

The party broke up around 11:15ish. We worked at cleaning up until nearly 1am, when we were all too exhausted to continue. This is what I woke up to this morning:










And actually, I really didn't think that was too bad for a dinner for 30 people. I emptied out the dishwasher and loaded it up with only glasses, which really cut down on the amount of visible clutter--plates are stackable, so it makes it seem like there's less to do! What made the dishwashing interesting is that, like clockwork, on the chime of 6:00, our garbage disposal broke. So I wound up having to rinse everything into a strainer in the sink and them empty that into the trash instead of happily grinding everything up into the disposal. But oh well, in the scope of other things that have gone wrong, that really was no big deal.

While the dishwasher was running, the General came downstairs to see if he could help, so he and I decided to make a run for the dump. By the time we got done, I was able to do another load of dishes in the dishwasher and then I handwashed all the platters and oversized goodies and got them all stacked. By the time Judy and Lucas surfaced around 10:30, the main things left to do were move furniture and haul things to the shed, and I happily let them do it as my legs and back were KILLING me. I wound up taking a 2 hour nap, which they diligently worked through and by 4:00, the house was in good enough shape that I could sit and work on reading my book.

The party was fun and we really got a lot out of it. It was our historic fifth year, so it was kind of nice that this was the year we'll be in the paper. There wasn't anyone who was there that I would think I wouldn't want back and we are all trying to figure out how to accommodate the people we'd like to add for next year.

I've ultimately decided not to add this event to my "Around the World in 80 Plates" goal because I didn't make anything I didn't already know how to make, so keep your eyes peeled for something new and fun from Eastern Europe in the hopefully not too distant future (maybe around Easter). This will be made even easier by the kind generosity of Elizabeth, who thoughtfully provided me with a brand new Wusthof paring knife so I can no longer claim that my knives all suck. When I opened her gift, I sat on the half of the couch we had put in the kitchen and just stared at it adoringly. So THANK YOU, Elizabeth and Groom! It was so, so thoughtful of you and I look forward to using it soon to create something fabulous!

So with that, Christmas is officially over in the Kosior household. Everything is packed up and put away for another year. It feels good to get back to a simpler existence with all the furniture back where it belongs, but also I enjoy knowing I'll get to do it all again in only 9 more months and in the meantime have some fun things planned. 2009 is off to a great start!

Christmas Come and Gone

Well, Christmas is over and I can hardly believe it! Never have I ever been so busy. My usual favored Christmas activities didn't get done as I barely managed to keep my head above water, and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about that!

We were not expecting guests until the 22nd, so imagine our surprise when people started arriving on the 19th! Judy, Lucas, and Dottie arrived on Friday evening and this somewhat spurred us to action that perhaps we should get a Christmas tree. Saturday morning, the General and I got up and went down to the Roxbury Garden Center in Old Town F'burg and bought a tree there. It was/is much fresher than our usual Home Depot trees, but not as big. Still, I loved it and the people who work there were so, so nice to us and helped us bag it and mount it to the roof of the car.

Saturday evening my mom arrived, and by Monday my dad was here. Tuesday, the General and I had medical appointments--I went to the doctor at 8:45am and then we both went to the dentist at 2:45pm. You all know how much I hate going to the dentist anyway, so I decided I would just go ahead and get all the work done at once. And we decided to get the General's crown done as well, since they were having a special $200 off and we couldn't pass that off for his teeth!

Ok, so lo and behold with one thing and another--and some possibly worrisome news on my end (my x-rays show that I have an "abnormality" growing on my jaw and I have to go and consult with an oral surgeon)--we didn't get out of the dentist's office till nearly 6pm. Tuesday was the last day most people were working before Christmas, and traffic was akin to one of Dante's 7 levels of hell. My father didn't beleive me about sticking it out and waiting for the HOV lanes and thought he could do better in the main lines, which was a HUGE mistake. Finally when we hit Woodbridge, he decided to try Route 1, which I also knew was a mistake--traffic PLUS traffic lights! However, his blood sugars were dropping and making him dangerously unpleasant to be around and so at least on Route 1 we could stop at Thomas's and pick up pizzas for the crew when we got home. I called my mom to let her know we'd be home as soon as we could, and that was that. We stopped in at Thomas's, picked up some pies and calzones, and hit the road.

Unfortunately, as we were hungry, we bit into the calzones and the General's temporary crown broke in half and fell out of his mouth. Well, there was no way the dentist was open, so we were left with a dilemma on our hands of what to do next. There was no way to get back up north, and no way we were going to go back up there only to get back in the line of traffic. We decided to go home. I took over driving, and headed west instead of south, cut through the PW Forest on Rte. 619, hit route 1 below Quantico, followed Rte. 1 to Eskimo Hill in Stafford, shot off there and took 2 back roads to our house. We got home at 9:30pm. Judy and Lucas and Joe had just gotten back themselves from Dottie's doctor's appointment.

We sat and ate pizza and debated what to do about the tooth. I called the dentist and left a message that we'd like to come up first thing in the morning. Then as we got to talking, Judy suggested that since I'd left our car at her house, why didn't she drive us up north, we could stay over at her house, and then go to the dentist first thing and come home in the morning? So that's what we did. It was dead quiet up there, we got our car back, and hit the dentist's office at 7:30am. They didn't open till 8:00, but we got in at 7:45 and the General was the first person they saw. Fortunately for us, one of their office managers/receptionists lives in Woodbridge and felt our pain.

So now it is Christmas Eve, and as yet, I have not baked a single cookie. Good for WW, but not so good for me--baking cookies makes Christmas 'Christmas' for me. So we haul it home, I don't let the General eat any breakfast, and I get home, and Judy is baking cookies, my parents are out shopping, Lucas is on the Wii and Joe is hanging out. The phone is ringing like crazy with my mom calling to ask various questions, and the General goes upstairs. Well, as it turns out, Judy and Lucas had slept in our room the previous night and there was some stuff around the room. Judy ran up to move it out of the way and the General said something about his phone charger being unplugged. This sent Judy into a screaming burst of tears and she literally ran down the stairs, slamming doors, screaming and sobbing. In an attempt to make peace, I went down to see what the matter was, but she couldn't even talk, so I went back upstairs to demand some answers from the General, who thought Judy was laughing. So I took him by the hand and shoved him in the room with Judy to work out their differences. The cookies were burning, so Joe and I attempted to take care of that.

My parents got home, and my dad decided to take Lucas and head to Richmond to meet up with his girlfriend's family (my dad's girlfriend, not Lucas's). So they left and Judy and the General had rejoined us by now, and we all had lunch and then Joe and I headed to the store to get dinner--as Christmas Eve dinner is now traditionally my job, and I love doing it. We decided to make crab and shrimp stuffed mushrooms and Joe's famous linguine with shrimp. I was in charge of the mushrooms, so I got that stuff, and Joe got everything else. We also got some cheese and crackers for a little pre-dinner yumminess to go with the mushrooms, which the general was not going to touch.

My dad and Lucas got back around 3:30 and Joe and I started cooking. We ate and unfortunately, the General's crown fell out again. Fortunately, it didn't break this time, but I was so aggravated, and so was he. We had some "fix it" crown glue, so I put it on there and he put it back in. It seemed to hold OK, but I called the dentist and from their recording gleaned that they would not re-open until Saturday. I left a message that we'd be back up on Saturday, but I was inwardly fuming about having to go back to NoVa again. My sister, sensing imminent meltdown on my part, volunteered to take the General, and I agreed that would be a good thing.

By 10, I think most of us were in bed. Christmas came and went in a blur. We opened up our presents and had a nice breakfast. My dad and I went to Mass, my once yearly tip of the hat to Jesus. I hate the church down here--the masses are so overblown and all that singing drives me crazy. Just say what you want to say and shut up. Well, they announced who the priest was going to be and the old guy behind us said, "Oh God" and groaned, which filled me with dread, and rightly so. This dude wound up giving us a history lesson on the early history of the church, persecution of the Christians, and the heresy of the Aryans. He stopped in the midst of the prayers and didn't seem able to start back up again. Finally my dad leaned over and said, "Do you think he forgot the words?" which led me to giggle uncontrollably.

We got home and Mom was doing battle with dinner, so I helped out where I could. Dad and Judy were watching TV, everyone was just kind of hanging around. We took some pictures, as the General and i got everyone bathrobes for Christmas, but for once everyone was too hot, so they didn't stay on very long. The above photo was with the robes, below is without (obviously).



We had a nice meal, and then the General and I dug in and decided to fix my mom's computer, as she was leaving the next day and had had a major crash the day before. A lot of the files had been encrypted, so we had to figure out how to hack into the files from XP home, and I did so. Man did I feel like Queen for a Day when I got those files up and running :-) We backed everything up on a flash drive and restored it all to the hard drive, so everything was fine.

Meanwhile, my mom and sister were getting into it downstairs, having one hell of a screaming match complete with several creative curse words thrown in. The rest of us just stayed out of the way and everything was resolved.

Friday, my mom left around 10:30. The General and I had finished up with her computer that morning and I helped her pack up. She and little Sidney Pup were headed back to the warmer climes of Florida. My dad was buying me a new digital camera for Christmas, and I noted that the one I wanted was on sale at Ritz Camera, so he decided we should go and grab it. So we did. We took Judy with us, and I got the camera I wanted--a Panasonic TZ4 (thanks, Brian, for the info!)--and not only, but I also go it with 18 free camera classes, a warranty, free photos, and a free photo book, all for less than what it should have cost retail. What a sale!

Then the three of us hit Carlos O'Kelly's for lunch. And man, did we eat! It was the kind of meal you get only once in a blue moon, but it feels so good when it's hapening. I literally ate nothing else all day--just that meal. We had nachos and fried ice cream, enchiladas, queso, chips and salsa, and sopapillas. No doubt it used up my full points allotment for the day. We got home around 4 and Lucas and Joe were leaving--Joe to go home and Lucas to bring a load of stuff up to their place to get it out of our house--Dottie got tons of presents for Christmas--clothes, formula, diapers, toys, etc.

By 6:30, my dad and I were getting antsy. We had our annual trek to Richmond to the Ginter Gardens light show planned and we were hoping Lucas would get back in time to take care of Dottie so Judy could go. That didn't wind up happening, so close to 7, my dad and I headed out. The gardens were gorgeous and I got to play around with my new camera some. Most fun, Dad and I climbed into an igloo made of blue lights and we immediately looked like Violet Beauregard from Willy Wonka.



On the way home, we stopped at the nearby BK. Last year we stopped there, and some jerk had parked so close to us that we couldn't get into the car and we wound up dumping my Sprite all over their car door for revenge. This year, we decided to hit the drive through and the guy manning the drive through talked like he had marbles in his mouth. We literally couldn't understand a word this guy was saying. And the more he talked, the worse it got and he seemed to be yelling at me for something. Finally, my dad busted out laughing, and I started laughing and we could barely get the order out. As it was, I cancelled getting my apple fries. I just couldn't repeat myself again. We are curious what the BK will have in store next year.

Saturday, we were all busy again. I went to Weight Watchers in the morning and Judy took the General back to the dentist. As it turns out, the General has something called a Class 3 bite, which makes temporary crowns all but impossible. (When the General bites, he bites hard!) Two different dentists were there to work on him. They wound up using permanent glue to attach that bad boy and we are now on day 3 without anything making a move. So we are hopeful. Dad and I went to the dump in the morning and then hit the Linens N Things going out of business sale. We spent $23 and wound up with a pile of stuff. I don't even know if all of it works or not, but I was excited to get it. On the way home, we went to the post office and he asked me about how much it would cost him to send Judy and I to tea. I made a guess, and when we got home, I called over to the new tea shop in F'burg, but they were closed, so we didn't get to go there. Instead, we went to Tea Thyme. We made that tea last for 2+ hours. It was a lot of fun. There was a group of women there, all with their little girls and we started dreaming of bringing our own daughters some day to tea after Christmas. We finished up and hit the Tea Thyme gift shop and then decided to go back to Linens N Things in case there was anything left worth having. There was not. We went to Borders and Old Navy and Catherine's as well. I got my new hat (thanks to all for the fun comments on it--I LOVE this hat!) Then we watched The Muppet's Christmas Carol, which was fun, and some Faerie Tale Theater, which is now out on DVD. I used to love it when we were little, so I got it for Dottie for Christmas, but I think her mother and aunt will be more interested in it than she will be. I set up a little photo shoot with Dottie in the afternoon to try the baby setting on the new camera. Now that she's a month old, she's not as pliable to my will--she has very definite opinions about posing for pictures. She also had definite opinions about wardrobe, but Old Navy had a little top and frilly skirt on sale that I couldn't pass up and I wanted her to wear it for her pictures, so I was determined she'd wear them. Finally, she acquiesced, but she screamed for a few minutes just to let me know she wasn't happy. The pictures came out great though, don't you think? (of course there are more on my flicker at http://www.flickr.com/photos/katekosior)




Then it was my dad's turn for a meltdown. He was making us meatloaf for dinner, and couldn't find anything. It turned out we were out of bread crumbs, which I did not know, and then he came upstairs yelling about us not having potatoes. (I was in the middle of my photo shoot and was kind of busy) I went downstairs to get him some potatoes and he was standing there with a bag of potatoes in his hand. I said, "What are those?" "Well, there are only five, how can I make french fries out of 5 potatoes?" They were 5 HUGE potatoes. I said, "Well, I'm not going to eat any, so don't worry about it. I'll make potato pancakes out of the leftover mashed potatoes."

So he was not happy about that but finally agreed. He also couldn't find a CD. I guess he was pretty pissed because he was still steaming about it yesterday morning and the General told him to settle down and that with 5 extra people in the house using stuff and moving it, I couldn't possibly be expected to know where everything is.

Sunday morning my dad left, and Judy and Lucas hung out till 10 (!) last night. We got the house kind of picked up and I helped them pack some. Judy and I went to Old Town and she took the pictures of me in my new hat. I'm finally starting to like the way I look in pictures, which is a huge step forward. And it feels good, too. I also took a picture of a mega-cool mailbox I saw while we were driving around. That was the excitement to be had in the burg on a Sunday afternoon.



It was clear Lucas was ready to roll after supper, which Judy bought and prepared for us as a "thank you" for our hospitality. Hilariously, she forgot to buy french fries for the General and asked me what to do, when I spotted the potato bag atop the fridge and discovered that my dad had only used 3 of the 5 potatoes. So she made fries from those.

Once they left, I spent about 20 minutes picking up a few things in the house, sweeping up dog food and crumbs, tossing the burned cookies into the trash, putting away papers and gifts, and making a "deal with it Monday" pile on the kitchen table.

So that was our Christmas. Of course, our Three Kings dinner is on January 10th, so I am leaving everything as is, decorations wise and furniture wise, till then. I think because we got a much smaller tree this year, we might even be able to leave the tree up, which is exciting. Last year we had to take it down.

Today, the General and I will be making another dump run (our 5th run in 2 weeks). We plan to meet up with Jacalyn and Doug and the boys for pizza and will go up to Alexandria for New Year's Eve, as they are supposed to have the best fireworks around. The General is going back to work on 1/2 for a day, so I'll get a day to myself at the end of this week, but honestly, we've just enjoyed today and last night immensely. It's been weird though too, and almost too quiet. It was a good holiday, just way too busy. I'm not sure what we'll do next year--I want to be able to enjoy my December more and do things like baking and decorating with a bit more joy in my heart. With doctor's appointments, book signings, old jobs ending and new jobs starting, the stomach flu, The General getting sick, people in and out, new babies, etc. it was a crazy month. Thank God for online shopping--honestly I don't know how I'd have gotten my shopping done without it!

Hope everyone else had similarly great holidays. I'm going back upstairs to snuggle with my honey. :-)

Christmas and Other Matters

I haven't been feeling all that Christmasy this year, for reasons most of you can imagine. But we've been working hard this weekend at getting a bit more into the spirit. I spent Friday afternoon shopping like crazy and with just one or two little exceptions, I got it done. I got tons of great bargains off Amazon.com--I probably slashed the bills in half for what I thought I'd pay for certain items and I know the recipients will be pleased with what they get. I also know my brother-in-law will love what my dad is getting, as when I told Lucas about it, he started writhing with joy and anticipation. So at least I've hit on one winner for sure.

Do you have tough people to shop for? I sure do! MY MOTHER! (I know you're reading this, Mom, and I want you to know you are the toughest person on my list this year!) Ask my mom what she wants for Christmas. Go ahead. I dare you. Dimes to donuts, she'll tell you, "stamps". She will also tell you this for her birthday, Mother's Day, Flag Day, and Easter. Stamps don't cut it with me. The laugh's on her, however. I came up with a few little things and yesterday had a stroke of absolute genius, so fortunately I know what she's getting now, and it's brilliant.

My husband is also a challenge. I was going to get him a nice surprise of satellite radio this year. I went to Best Buy to find out about getting it. Why is it that those little geeks at Best Buy treat women shopping alone like gum on their shoe? I hate that! This little twerp was so condescending about what I'd need and spent all of 15 seconds with me before turning to the guy behind me and talking his ear off with a completely different tone of voice and body language and everything. This is the second bad experience I've had at Best Buy in the past couple months. So I'm not going in there unless I know what I need and I don't need to ask questions about it. Jerks. So now I'm stumped on a gift for the Mister. I know one thing he wants, but I need to find him a surprise too!

Yesterday, we spent the day at our friends Paul and Kris's home in Springfield. Each year, their church puts on a big shindig. It's a lovely concert for Christmas with a huge choir and orchestra, the pastor says a few words, and there are a few dramatic interpretations (although they save that largely for Easter). I don't know why, but whenever I go to big productions like that I get all weepy, and yesterday was no exception. I handled it, you know, but frankly it's getting embarrassing. I'm becoming one of those weepy women.

Afterwards we went back to their house for a big lasagna dinner. Paul is a fantastic cook, and we really enjoyed ourselves being loved up on by the dogs and cats, meeting their nephew and his wife, as well as catching up with a friend of theirs that we see at every Christmas and Easter show. Driving home, we both agreed that now it feels like the holidays. The show really kicked it off for us both.

Then we returned home to our cold, dark little house. We didn't do Christmas lights this year. I'm a bit sad about it, but a) my sister is the one who always goes up on the ladder, and she's in no fit state to do so this year, and b) I'm not so sure I want to pay the electric bill for it this year. We don't have up a tree yet, and that's going to have to wait till next weekend. Pretty much all that's up are the two nativity sets. One was my grandfather's and one is one that my dad gave me a few years ago.

I got a defective advent calendar this year! There was no little box for 12 or 13, and one of the boxes didn't have a number on it! Freakin' German paper engineering!

Today will be grocery shopping and enjoying the last few days of peace and quiet before the storm arrives. Everyone is arriving on the weekend and next Monday. Tuesday I have 2 medical appointments--the doctor in the morning and the dentist in the afternoon, but I've commanded my dad to take me to the dentist as I'm having both sides of my mouth done, because I just want to get it over and done with. However, I don't especially like going, the General is getting his crown replaced, and I just don't want to have to drive. I'm going to let Mom cook for everyone :-) Or something. (Surprise, Mom!)

This week at work will be pretty laid back. I have very few appointments to handle as most people don't want to see you this week. My busy day will be on Friday--I actually have 3 people pencilled in. And I have 2 on Wednesday. Tuesday and Thursday I'm still trying to work people in so I don't have to go to Fairfax. I have one a piece then. Monday is our big office party and staff meeting day. Apparently we're going out to eat, Kris informed me, and I have to ready myself for the gift exchange. I drew a hard pick this year, so I'm going with the infamous baked goods gift. I also have to make Kris some scones today--she won my baked goods auction item for the Combined Virginia Campaign at work.

And we have to go to the dump and the grocery store. So today will be quite busy. Fortunately there are some very good football games on today, so I can enjoy the sounds of the General hollering his head off while I bake up goodies for other people to eat. They warn us in Weight Watchers about "food pushers"--people who are constantly trying to get you to eat a little of this and a bite of that, or a bunch of something else. I have become the ultimate food pusher. I don't want to give up baking, but I'm not eating much of that stuff any more, so I send it work with Michael, I let him eat it, I take it to my office or to book club. Anything to have it out of the house. I still have about a dozen scones left (should have given out more at book club!), so they're becoming part of my gift for the gift swap. Hope she likes 'em!

Michael is loving the new job and I am loving the new him! He has so much more energy from getting an extra hour and a half of sleep that I fear I may not be able to keep up with him a whole lot longer. He rolls out of bed ready to take on the world, and comes home with a grin on his face. He keeps saying, "I made a good decision, Susan." And I believe he has. I think he likes the Marines way of doing things. You say, "Joe, I want a cup of coffee" and two seconds later, you have a cup of coffee. There's no taking it to the committee, discussing for days the various coffee additives, and what you might have meant. There's just coffee. That certainly appeals to his no-nonsense side.

As for me, we have two exciting new retail businesses opening here soon and I am strongly considering trying to get myself hired at either one. We are getting a Barnes & Noble here, and I'd love to work there doing something other than stocking and selling. I'll have to check their job listings to see if maybe they need an event planner or something like that. The other is Wegman's, which is opening in June. I really would like to open a decent bakery here in town, and I really don't know the first thing about it. So I thought if I could get myself hired on at the Wegman's bakery, which is a real bakery, not a fakery like the grocery store, then I could learn tons about what goes into it and would probably wind up forgetting all about the dreams of working there. I asked the General, "Would you still love me if I quit my good job and went to work at a grocery store?" and he said, "I'd still love you even if you were just bagging groceries at the grocery store." Awww. What a guy.

So that's the news from here. I hear him in the shower, so I'm going to get myself dressed and ready to roll for the day's tasks. Hope everyone's having a fun weekend!

Saturday Cleaning

As most of you know by now, 2008 hasn't been really much of my year in certain regards. Sure, there are good things happening, most notably the adoption and the weight loss journey, but there are other things happening that make me sit back and go, "Hmmm, how could I possibly have pissed off God this badly?"

So Friday (I think), I got a call from my mom that she was coming early as Judy's baby is due any minute (we think she may have started labor this evening, in fact, so stay tuned for updates). So Saturday I decided was a good time to clean house.

My house was starting to reflect my general mood--a total mishmash of incongrous thoughts and ideas. There were a bazillion tchotchkes on the windowsills, tons of pictures all over the mantle and living room, posters and postcards and paintings and wreaths and even my old NYS license plates on the walls.

As I sat around, I realized that because in general, I like things to be pretty clutter-free, my house was not helping me feel a whole lot better.

So I started wondering how I'd feel if I took down or put away exactly half of all the stuff that was out.

I don't think I did that throughout the house, but I can guarantee that in the family room, I did. I cleaned off the windowsills and put everything away, then dusted thoroughly. Stuff came off the walls--posters and postcards, wreaths and the license plates gone.

At first, it was kind of a shock--I was thinking, "Damn! Where's all my stuff!?" but 4 days later, I can say that it has really helped with my peace of mind. I feel so much better now that all the stuff is put away. The curtains are back open, so it's no longer like living in a cave. I just have to find room for my mom's stuff for her dog so he can't get into it, but so that we can have our dining room table back.

I plan to similarly clean house in other areas of the home. As we continue to plan and prepare for Baby Kosior's someday arrival, just the idea that in moving the rabbit downstairs, I could get the baby room done the way I want it and move all the baby stuff upstairs and out of our guest room makes me feel free. Hopefully we'll be able to accomplish this as soon as the Thanksgiving rush is over.

On top of Freedom Friday, it all feels pretty darn good.

Kosior Fall Fun Festival 2.0

So this weekend was the 2nd Annual Kosior Fall Fun Festival. Of course, it poured all day on Saturday, so the outdoor festivities had to be postponed. However, we made the best of it.

Judy and Lucas came down Friday evening, for what Lucas has determined is their last trip till after D. is born. Because NaNo starts this weekend, I won't be traveling up there on weekends, so it should be quiet.

We had dinner and sat around chatting and planning for an unplanned rainy day. We decided to do some baking. I had found directions for making little mini pumpkin cakes, plus one of the girls from my book club made some delicious pumpkin cookies and sent me the recipe, plus Melissa had brought some pumpkin pie fudge over 2 weekends ago, plus we always make a batch of my mom's donuts every fall. So that was the plan.

Saturday morning, we got moving and did the shopping (got all my book club goodies too, so ladies, be ready!), then came back and baked all day. When I say that we baked all day, what I really mean is that Judy baked all day. I acted as more of a gopher, grabbing ingredients and letting her do all the hard work. This appears to be part of her "nesting" as my sister has never been particularly domestic, nor has she ever shown the slightest inclination towards baking.

Everything came out great and the kitchen smelled SO GOOD. And I managed to keep it clean. I love baking and making a big mess, but to me, the ultimate accomplishment is doing all that AND still managing to come downstairs to a clean kitchen in the morning regardless.

Somehow during the day, we all got into a big debate about what our favorite Billy Joel song was, so we wound up singing along to Billy Joel CDs all afternoon as well.

Sunday morning, we ate donuts and played Yahtzee, and then Melissa came by and we went to Belvedere Plantation for their fall festival, just as we did last year. We did only one trail of the corn maze this year--Lucas's orders that Judy was not going to give birth in a cornfield (not that I considered this a problem). It was fun, but due to all the crappy weather, a lot of the corn had been trampled down and so it was pretty easy to see where you were going. I don't think their heart was really in it, I think they were just humoring me, so I was disappointed, but oh well. At least we did part of it.

Afterwards, we took in the pig races, which was real cute. Those pigs were so funny running around the little track. Our section's pig won the last two races, which felt so good, considering our first pig got out of the gate, thought better of the whole thing, and started running back the way he came. But he got the hang of it and finished dead last by about 15 seconds. So cute!

Then we took the hayride to the pumpkin patch and picked pumpkins. I don't do anything halfway--I wanted PUMPKINS. I found a real nice specimen, so I grabbed him for the General and then found a second one that looked quite nice as well. It was all I could do to stagger back to the haywagon with those things, but finally I was able to, and we got back to the main part of the farm and got a wheelbarrow for all of us to tuck our pumpkins in. I noted at that time that my wrist was feeling a bit funny, but I figured it was just because the pumpkins were awkward--the big one didn't have much of a stem.

After a nice snack of kettlecorn and apple cider slushies, we checked out. My big pumpkin weighed in at 25 pounds!!!! The littler one was a respectable 17 pounds! That is a lot of pumpkin to be hauling. I wound up pulling the car up, because my arm was really hurting by then, and it turned out I managed to pull a muscle in my left arm. Go figure.

We got home and the General came downstairs, flush with a Patriots victory. I started cleaning out the big pumpkin, thinking that it would be much lighter to carry afterwards. WRONG! That sucker had walls at least 2 inches thick! It took me a good while to hack through it and even a good while longer to clean it out. There were pumpkin seeds everywhere--we all had good sized pumpkins. It was crazy.

The General wanted his pumpkin to look "surprised" or "frightened"--I can't remember which and looking at the pumpkin now, it looks both surprised and frightened--so I did a passable job (I think anyway) of making the pumpkin look that way. Then I got to cleaning out my pumpkin, which I wound up letting Lucas carve because I was wiped out after cleaning that sucker out. It is a traditional smiling jack-o-lantern, with triangle eyes and a smiling mouth full of teeth.

Both pumpkins came out great.

And then it was time to pack up and head out. The great "Big Broadcast" Halloween spectacular was going to come on, so we wanted to haul ass to a spot where there was good reception before it came on--which is all of about 6 miles from the house.

Got back to Judy and Lucas's, and he must have been feeling his oats, because he said he felt the decorating choices were a bit "ghetto". So we worked on getting the artwork re-hung, and then Judy and I put the bedding that Michael and I had bought D. into the crib. Judy got kind of sappy at that point, saying she knew it had been hard and she wished she could have made it easier, but I pretty well had to cut her off because any type of talk like that gets me supremely pissed off and I was having a nice time. So we just let it go. I let her know that due to NaNoWriMo and then D's arrival, this would be my last night up there except for staff meeting days, which she seemed OK with. And then it was bed time.

So that was this year's fall fun festival. I'll try to get some pictures up soon for everyone to see the pumpkins, which all came out really, really cute. I took my half of the goodies to work yesterday for a little party, and it was gone in no time. Everyone absolutely loved all of it. The fudge was gone before lunch, and the cookies were gone in no time as well. I left the cake there when I left, so I'm not sure what happened with them, but I'm willing to bet they didn't last too long either!

Planning and Shopping

This is week 2 of the great experiment. I went this morning to buy the paper and get my coupons for the week, and spent another 20 minutes or so downloading coupons before going out. Michael and I sat down yesterday and worked out our plan for the week's meals.

However, in a twist, we decided to try shopping for 2 weeks instead of just one. I figured it was worth a shot. We will be eating out 3 times in the next 2 weeks, so we didn't need 3 meals; however, we will be having company next weekend, so we will be feeding a crowd. This makes up for the three less meals.

Our menu plan looks like this:

Week 1

Sunday: (Susan out volunteering--gets free dinner, Michael flying solo)
Hot dogs
Chips

Monday: Dinner out with a friend

Tuesday: (Hubby's choice)
Quesadillas

Wednesday: (Wife's Choice)
Fettucine with chicken and broccoli
Salad

Thursday: (Adventurous New Recipe)
Cowboy Stew
Tortilla chips
Left over quesadillas

Friday: (Start cooking for a crowd)
Aussie Meat Pies
Salad
Green beans

Saturday: (It's looking like Saturday is turning into pizza night)
Homemade pizzas--sausage and mushroom stuffed, pepperoni, and white

Week 2

Sunday: (last night cooking for a crowd)
Stuffed shells
Salad

Monday: Dinner out with Friends

Tuesday (Hubby's Choice)
Sloppy Joes
Corn

Wednesday: (Wife's choice)
Sausage, Pepper, and Onion heros
Fries

Thursday (Adventurous New Recipe)
White Burgundy Chicken with Egg Noodles
Mixed veggies

Friday: Dinner Out with Friends for Halloween--Melting Pot is having a BIG discount on their Big Night Off dinners--only $33 instead of $48 for coming in costume. Oh yeah, we're all over that.

Saturday:
Probably pizza :-)

We decided to shop at Super Target this morning. They have printable coupons on their site and a few things I needed were things they were couponing, so I was happy with that idea.

I made a pretty comprehensive list, although I did leave off 2 items that I didn't want to keep around until next week (mushrooms, Italian bread) and I couldn't find the wine for the chicken at Target.

We did get absolutely everything else. We also picked up breakfasts (cereal for me, breakfast sandwiches for him) and lunches (bread, yogurt, deli meat, etc), snacks, supplies for a cake I am going to make for our next staff meeting, beverages (milk and soda), some first aid supplies for M's toe, cleaning supplies, and organizational aids (pre-printed shopping lists for the fridge from Real Simple--all I have to do now is check off what we're out of).

Our total bill for all this for two weeks, minus the approximately 6 dollars in coupons, was just over $185.

Our previous 1 week total used to be $160. And I would never have anything to actually cook. I had lots of food and no ingredients.

What's more, I managed to get everything put away in the fridge, freezer, and cupboards. UNUSUAL! Usually there is food stacked on the counters.

I'm starting to feel a whole lot less stressed about quitting work. I don't plan on quitting soon, but I do plan on quitting in the next year. And with a little one coming home, hopefully in the not-too-distant future, we need to learn to conserve and budget.

It's almost a game at this point. Jacalyn is a real expert at the CVS game--though a lot of the things you have to buy to make the CVS system work are things that I don't actually need, so I've pretty well decided against going whole hog on the stuff for now. I mean, honestly, what the hell are we going to do with Just For Men? Michael has approximately two gray hairs. I also don't need 10 toothbrushes, Halloween buckets, or fun lights. So while I'm intrigued by the process, I don't think it's something I'm going to do just to get money back on spending money on things I don't need.

I have 2 major house projects that we're going to wind up saving for in the spring--one involves the nursery and one involves the kitchen. I really, really need more storage in the kitchen. The previous owners knocked out a wall between the kitchen and dining room. I would like to have that wall put back up and a pantry built along the wall where my hutch/china cabinet is currently located. Then I could buy more items in bulk and actually have some place to store things. In the nursery, I would like to knock out the ridiculous closet, which is chockful of wasted space, and put in two closets on the other wall, with a bench between then. So this is the plan for next year's tax return. In both rooms, we will gain much more storage and the use of space will be a lot better.

Hope everyone has a great week. Time for lunch!