Happy Birthday to You!

Happy Birthday to my 1st little sister~Emily!!! :)

It's a "golden" one-29 on the 29th!

Enjoy the end of your twenties-next year you can be 'old' with me ;)
(Just kidding!)

Hope it is one very special day!!!

Love,
Your big sis~Anita

Life right now...

is SUPER crazy at the moment!

*Volleyball practices officially started this week. We held tryouts last week (on the one day we didn't have a snow day :) and one day this week.) That is always a tough thing-not enough spaces and too many sad faces-I didn't sleep very well that night :( Unfortunately we have also had to work around remaining basketball seasons at the moment so getting gym time has been a little tough & very unconsistent. We're able to practice everyday, but the time has been different each day...confusing for us as well as the players...it should settle down soon though...

*On top of volleyball, this week has been filled with places that I need to be either almost immediately or immediately after practice. Monday=parish council meeting and Wednesday=teaching PSR so both of these nights were fairly late nights where I wasn't home at all (maybe an hour on Monday) during the course of an entire day, which makes for a looong feeling week...

*I have also officially signed up for an official running event (I will probably have more on this in a future post) this spring so have been attempting to train around all of these different practice times and places to be as well...

*I am definitely going to be in need of some quality time with my little guy (& the big one too I guess :) since we've gone from "Snow day=all day together & lots of them" to maybe a good hour a day spent together in just the past 2 weeks...

*Outside of the lack of family quality time (which I was well aware of when I stepped up for the coaching postition), it has been a good experience & worth it! And, last but not least,
THANK GOD FOR A WONDERFUL BABYSITTER!!!!! :)
We're definitely blessed that she doesn't seem to mind spending some extra quality time with Luke during this time of year!

It's "Pretty Fly"! ;)

I had been putting off adding music tracks to my phone. Why? I really have no good reason...I just hadn't done it. I kept thinking that it would be nice to have this as a backup to listen to when I'm somewhere besides home & get a chance to go running if for some reason my MP3 player wasn't with me (which it is not most of the time.) Well, yesterday, I asked Scott if he would mind doing that & lucky for me, I have a nice husband who did just that :) I told him to add whatever he could find on our computer & then I would sort them into playlists later. Well, once again, lucky for me, Luke has taken some SUPER naps over the past two snow days & I ended up with time on my hands to sort out the songs. It was great getting to hear parts of old favorites, remembering certain memories when certain song titles came up & rediscovering songs I had forgotten.

There were several that instantly made me laugh like this classic that I had "forgotten" :)
Enjoy!

"Make Me Think" (at least for a little bit anyway :)

I haven't done one of these for a very long time, but am short on 'material' (at least any that I think you all would find interesting) & I happened upon my little book of questions here in the office so here it goes. I decided that since today is 1-20, I would choose question 120 (brilliant philosophy...your impressed...I can tell ;)

Question #120: "Would you accept $10,000 to shave your head and continue your normal activities sans hat or wig without explaining the reason for your haircut?"

Answer: YES!!! We're talking about $10,000 folks and it's just hair! Although, this book was copyrighted in 1985/1987 so I would have to say that some things have changed. I think that any doctor would medically recommend that one at least wear a hat when out in the sun (with sunblock of course) to decrease sun exposure, but as for not wearing a hat otherwise...sure. I do admit, though, it would be very hard to part with my hair, however, the question does not state that it would be a permanent thing so knowing that all I'm really doing is waiting for it to grow back, well, I think that would make it easier. Especially, knowing that $10,000 could go a long way around here...house/property projects or pay off part of mortgage or go towards future adoption(s) or Luke's college fund, etc, etc, etc...plus I wouldn't have to take time to mess with fixing my hair everyday either ! :)

So, yes, I could part with my hair temporarily if it meant helping out my family in a major way! The hardest parts would be people assuming that there was something wrong with my health and not telling anybody why I actually did it ;)

Four Bottles

Sorry folks, I'm short on ideas at the moment! My nasal/sinus passages have been wreaking havoc on my brain today and the past few days~so the thought of typing coherent thoughts has been low on my list of things to do. I have been blessed to get in a few naps though over the weekend, which means you get the benefit of a post...a ripped-off from an email post...but still it's a post! :)

I received this from a friend a long time ago & saved it because it still makes me laugh every time. It's short, but to the point...

Beware if you don't like crude language, there is ONE cuss word coming right up!

"Life can be summarized in four bottles...

SHIT!!! We're on #3!!!" :)

Hope you enjoyed! ;)

The First Christmas...

probably wasn't exactly like this!

After finally getting to add the last additions (3 wise men & their camel) to his Nativity set on Epiphany Sunday, Luke decided to do this with all of them...

I myself always enjoy a nice Christmas parade too & wondered just how different the Christmas story would have been if our Luke was the Luke who wrote one of the versions of it :) I'm sure Thomas the train & company would have felt privileged to have been included. The parade is made even more complete by having all of the livestock at the end of it! Although, I'm not sure how much more glamorous it is for the Baby Jesus to be hauled around on a train car rather than resting in his manger, but at least he's the one at the front of it all...

Tuesday's Soapbox: Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!!!

Now that it's January, I've been waiting to hear it or see it posted somewhere and then the other day I finally saw it...

my first "I'm tired of cold, where's spring?"ish type comment the other day on Facebook.

I swear, as soon as Christmas is over, many times people are looking for spring/no more snow already.

It's January!!! We haven't even officially been in winter for 1 month yet!!!

They can call me crazy, but I say bring on the SNOW!! Yes, I realize I benefit because I receive a "snow day" from work when it does snow a bunch, but it is also WINTER & I want/like snow. No, it doesn't have to be a lot of snow, just enough to cover the ground.

If it's going to be freezing cold outside, I at least want it to look like it is freezing cold outside! :)

It's also kind of scary fun to get to drive in it too! ;)

So...come on down snow & those of you wishing for spring already~when it's snowing at this point come March...I'll be right there with you, until then you'd better just plan on staying bundled up for awhile longer!

80's Styles~Thank You! :)

All one has to do is take a quick look around to see that many of the styles from the 80's are back! I myself did not get to take part in many of these styles at the time. I was a mere child & my mother purchased clothes for us that were "sensible" and the "trendier" things didn't always fit this bill :)

One of the styles that I can remember never experiencing were leggings. Oh, we had tights to wear with our pretty dresses & then eventually stirrup pants (ugh! And yes I have seen that these are back in the stores again too. Double UGH!) , but leggings...no. I am an adult now though & am able to purchase my own clothes so I recently bought myself a pair of leggings! I LOVE them! I love wearing them with my tall boots & a skirt/sweater. I love that I can feel dressed up, but still not really be exposing any skin (especially since it is now winter & really cold outside!) They are a great excuse to wear a skirt any time of the year & hide things you don't want people looking at, like those pesky vericose veins behind my knees :)

Another item from the 80's that I may have had, but never used or really had a need for was an exercise sweat/headband. My husband brought this one back into my world. A sweatband was one of my gifts for Christmas from him this year. WHAT? I know, here's the backstory. When I run, especially if there is any wind at all, I can not keep my earbuds for my MP3 player in my ears for the life of me. If one is staying in, then the other is falling out & sometimes both of them give me issues. I began hinting around about needing something to help keep them in or some headphone style ones. I, however, accidently used the term "headband" one time when talking about this so, low & behold, there was my headband for Christmas from him. :) I poked fun of it a bit, but when I tried it today, it was SUPER! It fit snug on my head AND held my earbuds in my ears without one single problem!!! Sweatbands, who knew? :)

So, does anyone know if there is a newfound benefit to leg warmers? Maybe they'll make it back yet too! ;)

My Moment in History Brought to You Today By...

STUPIDITY!!!

I was working on sorting through a pile of papers/junk in the basement (you know, the one we're hoping to get cleaned up ;) I got to the bottom of the pile & found an album that I knew contained picutres from my college days. Awww...the memories...and, ahem, the word listed at the top of this post!

As I was flipping through the pictures (and remembering the good times :), I came across some pictures circa 2002 of one of my roommates (& best friends still to this day), Lora, and myself...we were attempting to set one of her books on fire in our apartment sink...we did not succeed, the thing would never light on fire.

I looked at them & thought "Wow! That was a really stupid thing to attempt to do!"

I then turned around & called her to tell her this same thing :)

The phone call wasn't long, maybe a minute, but I know that the smiles & laughter those memories brought were priceless. It also reconfirmed that maybe we haven't been quite the best of influences on each other too, but boy have we had some fun ;)

Thanks for sharing in my brief walk down memory lane! Who knows...there may be more of these to come as I continue my cleaning adventures :)

Ponder this...

"'To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did.'
When God takes something from your grasp, He's not punishing you, but merely opening your hands to receive something better."

I have received this quote in a forward several different times through the years. It makes sense to me on many levels & for many different reasons & I could go on & on about how/why, however, I'll refrain for today. Basically, just a twist on "When God closes a door, he opens a window," but I like how this one is worded better.

I just thought I'd share. :)

Toy Room

It's official Luke has a "Toy Room."

My idea is for most of his toys to be located in the basement where he could just go downstairs on his own & play with them when he wants to. He has several ride-on toys so this seems like it would be an ideal solution.

The problem: Have you seen our basement? ;)

It's a mess! Storage/workspace/crafts dumping ground/seasonal decorations/whatever the heck we decide to throw down there...it's a mess!

We did not have nearly as much "free" time over this holiday break due to quite a bit of traveling/holiday celebrations as I would have liked so the basement was not tackled. Oh, it's been 'started', but there is still a LONG, LONG way to go!

Post-Christmas, there are way too many toys for our living room to handle & I do not want Luke to have toys in his bedroom, so another solution had to be found.

We have a guest bedroom/nursery-in-waiting/general junk accumulator upstairs next to Luke's room that Scott was also wanting to tackle over Christmas break (he wanted to move Luke into a the bigger full-size bed that was located in this room under a big pile of the aforementioned "junk" :) At some point, I realized that it would be much easier to clear out this bedroom for toys until the basement is ready~Scott realized this very quickly too ;)

We began clearing out the space, but it was a bit bittersweet too...it meant that the crib that has been "waiting" had to come down & the carseat, baby bathtub, etc also had to be "put away". It was a bit hard for both of us, but the result is a space that is great for Luke to play in for right now & he has upgraded to a lovely full-sized bed!

Mentally, I think this was a bit beneficial though, even though we hardly went into this room & the door stayed shut most of the time-it feels nice to be able to walk right into it without all of the 'memories' hitting me right in the face right away...I didn't realize until it was all set up as a "toy room" how much I've felt like my life has been "on hold" even if we have been moving on with our lives until that was all put away.

No worries, though, if we would happen to get "the call" tomorrow~I'm sure we could have it all back out & ready to go again in no time at all ;) In the meantime, we'll just enjoy the toys & each other (at least until that basement gets cleaned up anyway)! :)

It's That Time of Year Again~Resolutions!

My 2011 Resolutions:

1) Be Healthier-this includes exercising more & regularly (I had actually been doing pretty good in general with this one until Christmas week hit!), eating healthier (ditto to the above), finally running that 5 K I've been dreaming about (I was up to 2.7 miles-then came super cold temps, a bad cold that made breathing difficult, & crazy Christmas chaos-I ran this morning, but I hadn't run for 2 weeks & 2.7 hasn't been done for almost 3 so I'm easing back into it & started with somewhere between a 1/2-1 mile! It felt good to run again though!)

2) Read 12,000 pages-I have set a certain number of books in the past, but always feel frustrated if I don't reach the goal or if I choose to read a really long book (1,000+ pages) because I could have read 2-3 other books in the same timeframe & these really long books hurt my "book count". So this year, I decided to aim for a page number goal because I am currently reading one of those 1,000+ page books & I didn't want to start out behind already :) 12,000 is based off a guess that an average book contains 300 pages & I want to read at least 40 books.

These are the two big goals that I want to focus on for 2011. I have a couple of others, but I don't want to make them "official" here-at least not yet anyway, maybe this summer if I need some summertime resolutions. In the meantime, I will most likely focus on them too, just on my own, but as for these two goals...I will do my best to hold myself accountable here for myself & for all of you to follow along with too.

Addendums to my list & My Apologies

In my rush to finish up these "30" posts before my self-imposed deadline of Dec 31st, I managed to forget 2 very important people who should have been part of it

:( Sorry!

There were actually several places I had considered including them:

#23 & #24 posts along with my sisters, I had actually thought about making these about my sisters' families in general, but made a last minute decision to not do them this way. I also considered just including them along with my sisters, but once I started writing it leant itself more to being just about my relationships with my sisters specifically & once again decided not to include them...

#26 was originally going to be titled "The In-laws", but (again a last minute decision as I sat down to write) I changed it to just Scott's family & forgot that these people had not yet been mentioned in the posts discussed above...

#27 had considered briefly early on to include these people in this post because without them, most of my "little people" would not even exist & along with forgetting that they had not been included anywhere else-once I sat down to write, the words just flowed out as you read them in the post...

Sooo, I failed to include them anywhere in my "30" list & for that I give many apologies!!!

Eric & Neil, my brother-in-laws, you most definitely make the "Top 30" :) You make my sisters' lives better, you helped bring many of my "little people" into all of our lives, Luke thinks you are both just super (it helps that you both do lots of farm related things ;), & you can both always make us all laugh!!!

Thanks for being such great parts of my first 30 years!

(I apologize and here's to hoping that you'll now speak to me during my next 30 years! :)