Recap: 2010

Year in Review 2010

1. What did you do in 2010 that you'd never done before? Become a mom

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I never remember, so I'll just go with probably not, and perhaps. 

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Ashley, Penny

4. Did anyone close to you die? Thankfully no

5. What countries did you visit? Stayed around this country this year.  Still traveled a bunch, just not too far from home :-)

6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010? More time to carry out home improvement activities.

7. What date from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? January 19th, Cassidy's birthday!

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?  Giving birth to and learning to become a mom to sweet, sweet Cassidy.

9. What was your biggest failure? Incorporating "me" time into my life!

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? ooohhh, there was an AWFUL stomach virus going around back in April.  Eric and I caught it at the same time.  Talk about miserable -- I had just returned to work, we were still learning how to handle Cassidy -- and then that.  Yuck, what a bad time.

 

11. What was the best thing you bought? I'm going to go with my Ashford Waterfall Faucet.  It has gotten SO MANY COMPLIMENTS!!  :-) 

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? My mom's.  Not only has she selflessly given up two days during the week to watch Cassidy, she has all but kicked breast cancer's butt.  She is a warrior, and I love her for it.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? My own, actually.  It was really hard for me after Cassy was born, and from time to time I'd lash out at the nearest person, usually Eric, for no real reason.  I don't like that at all!  And he is always very forgiving, saying at least I know I'm being crazy -- but that's no excuse.  So Eric is the other person whose behavior merited celebration :-)

14. Where did most of your money go? Saving for the house. Cassidy, the house, and Shepherd Gate.

 

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Bringing Cassidy home from the hospital.

16. What song will always remind you of 2010? Everything Is All Right by Motion City Soundtrack.  This is the song I will blast and shout along to if I am feeling sad, overwhelmed, stressed, etc.  A few rounds of this  and I am back on track!

 

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? I'm the same as last year, but for different reasons!  Last year I was happy with the anticipation of having a little girl, now this year I'm happy with the excitement that comes from this little girl and her first christmas!
ii. thinner or fatter? about the same, some places lost weight others gained.  I'd say it about evens out.
iii. richer or poorer? richer in every way

18. What do you wish you'd done more of? Zumba, though I didn't discover it until late in the year.  2011 I hope will have me doing more of that!

19. What do you wish you'd done less of? Crying.  The baby blues hit me pretty hard. 

 

20. How will you be spending Christmas? Starting with the Christmas Eve performance (I'm the angel again!), then seeing the lights, night before christmas gift and the pickle, Christmas morning at our house, then at mom's, then dad's christmas day dinner, then the day after heading down to the cabin for a few days!

21. How will you be spending New Year's Eve? Low key evening in at my mom's with mandy, mark, maddy, eric, and cassy.  Playing games, watching movies.

(Thank you Courtney ;-))

22. Did you fall in love discover any great new websites in 2010?  I've been visiting groupon and Living Social a few times.  I don't really scour the internet.

23. How many one-night stands weddings?  We didn't go to any weddings this year.  That's somewhat surprising!

24. What was your favorite TV program? all new (for me) this year, and all golden in their own way:  Desperate Housewives, Outsourced, Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and The League.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?  Don't hate.

26. What was the best book you read? The Widow of the South.  It is a historical fiction novel about Carrie McGavock, owner of Carnton Plantation, who made sure the thousands upon thousands of soldiers that lost their lives in the battle on her property were given a proper final resting place. 

 

27. What was your greatest musical discovery? Better than Ezra all over again.  I got to see them in concert, and fell in love with the personality of the band, not just their music.  It was so great!

28. What did you want and get? A happy baby.  She's so happy.  I love it!

 

30. What was your favorite film of this year? Zombieland, regardless of whether or not that was actually a 2010 movie.  I discovered it this year, and that's my vote.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?  This year I turned 29.  Unfortunately, I turned 29 over the same weekend as the women's retreat at my church.  I love the women at my church, but I don't ever want to spend my birthday away from my family again.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? more leisure time.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010? NOT MATERNITY CLOTHES!  I made it back to my pre-pregnancy weight and clothing size before returning to work in March!

34. What kept you sane?  A husband who is competant at raising his daughter.  Lots and lots of prayer.  A few good bouts of crying.

 

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? I saved this for last because I really thought someone or something would come to mind.  It didn't.  So, this is the end.

 

36. What political issue stirred you the most?  Politics in general.  I'm tired of knee-jerk reactions to things, I'm tired of every political seat being in jeopardy for the slightest misstep.  If this nation wants healing, time has to be permited for plans to fall in to place -- it won't happen overnight, and it won't happen in a couple of months. 

37. Who did you miss? Facebook and blogs have really helped, but even so I miss my girl friends from college - Randi, Kim, Laurie, Gillian.  How did ALL of you end up in NC?!

38. Who were the best new people you met? All of the awesome helpers at The Nest Daycare!

 

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010:  You can still have a life after having a kid, if you really want one.  It's so easy to use kids as an excuse to not go out and do things.  Don't make excuses.  In the end you'll only be alienating yourself.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year: I got a girl, she is so small . . . I got a girl, she'll knock down any wall!  "I got a Girl" by Tripping Daisy

Baby Steps :-)

Look at those little baby steps!

All About Town

I don't generally tend to head in to DC all that often.  In fact, I go to the city so infrequently Eric and I dedicated an entire anniversary trip one year to playing tourist in our nation's capital.  However, it seems that when I do get to DC for one reason or another, a bunch of other reasons follow and I end up going to the city several times over the course of a month. 

Most recently, our office had a holiday dinner party at Brasserie Beck.  It was delicious, especially the steak with hollandaise hors d'ouvre.  It's funny to pinpoint an appetizer as the highlight of your meal, but for me, this one is certainly worth it.  The rest of the meal was great, we had a super fun gift exchange, nice conversation.  Another awesome dinner for the books :-)

The following week was the BTE concert I posted about previously.

Just this week, Eric and I were planning on going out to dinner and a movie, and MK was going to babysit for Cassy.  This all came about because that was the original plan for the concert -- MK babysitting, and Eric and I going to the concert.  But Eric's work schedule impeded that plan, so he stayed home and worked and MK took his ticket to the concert.  But to make sure Eric had some fun out as well, we rescheduled an evening for this past wednesday for dinner and a movie, and MK was all about babysitting again :-)  Of course Wednesday approached, and I come to find an email from our friend JK in my inbox.

"Sorry for the short notice, but I've got two tickets (freebies) to the caps v. ducks game tonight if you're interested!"

Of course we're interested, so we snag the tickets and instead the two for one dinner at Ruby Tuesday and watching Dawn Treader, we made a very long journey back into DC to the Verizon Center for some icy action. 

Sadly this night marked the Caps' 7th straight loss (boo).  JK was down in the scorer's booth, though, so we got to hang out with him and Mr. Wes Johnson, the "Voice of the Caps" and otherwise actor/comedian.  We got this pretty sweet picture taken, too:

It was a great night, and definitely one Eric deserved!  So many thanks to JK for his thoughtfulness in offering us the tickets!

I'm not planning any more trips to the city for a while.  The Caps game, despite the loss, was definitely a high note to end on. 

That being said, you just never know what's going to pop up :-)

They opened with King of New Orleans

You know the type of concert that happens to be one of your favorite bands, but you'd been afraid to see them live for fear that they would royally suck and then you'd be out of a favorite band?  That totally didn't happen to me last night!

I went to see Better than Ezra perform at the 9:30 club.  JD, one of my friends and fellow BTE fan, mentioned they were performing and then just bought tickets.  So of course I snagged one for me, and one for Eric.  Unfortunately Eric couldn't go, so MK went in his place.  Eric can't tell them apart from 3EB or Eve 6, and MK had no idea who they were.  Also with us were JN, who actually knew some songs, JK & D, who knew them only by chance of a wayward CD that fell into their hands several months ago, and JF who didn't know them, but was in the mood for a fun evening, anyway.  So it was an interesting mix of people with only two bonafide fans, a limo, and a night of fun.

Ummm, so, how can I put this in to words other than it was simply one of the BEST concerts I have EVER been to?  Great opening band, great Headliner band, amazing, funny, witty stage presence.  I likened BTE to BareNaked Ladies as far as their on-stage quips go.  I love, Love LOVE the fact that the lead singer integrates other songs and genres into his repertoire.  Things like that just give bands so much more personality.  Because after all, what is it you're paying for when you go to a concert?  I'm not paying just to hear the music.  I can do that at home, without the crowds and drunkards everywhere.  I'm paying for a show, I'm paying for the band's personality, I'm hopefully paying for something more memorable than "oh, yeah, that band?  They just sang.  That's all."  BTE is so much better than 'that's all.'  They, for me, had every last thing I could possibly want out of a concert.  They even played every song I really wanted them to play, save for one -- but JD mentioned in all the times he's seen them, that one song has never made the set or encore list.  Ah well.  Oh, and one last point on this -- they knew all the words to their songs.  I can't tell you how I detest going to a concert to listen to a band play their OWN SONGS and forget all of the lyrics to them.  Seriously, how is that possible?  BTE is just awesome.  And has good memories :-)

BTE is currently on a tour called "Road to Mardi Gras" where they will be culminating on the "Krewe of Rocckus" on Mardi Gras in New Orleans.  Basically they'll be your party hosts.  Pretty sweet :-)

Thank you God and Prayers

Thursday, 3:00pm, Mom goes in for Surgery.
Friday, 5:00pm, Mom is home from the hospital.
Saturday, 2:00pm -- Mom is out Christmas shopping.

Needless to say, her surgery went fantastically well!!

I received a text from my dad around 4:30 on Thursday afternoon:  Sentinels are clean.  That was maybe the best news we could have gotten!  That means that mom's sentinel nodes, the first place cancer would likely be hiding, were free of cancer.  So that also means that the cancer had not spread, and was perfectly contained!  Furthermore, what that means is NO chemo and NO radiation therapy!!!  GooooOOOO MOM!!

So I would like to thank you all for your prayers.  I appreciate them, but I know that they mean more to my Mom than can ever even be said.  To have so many people interceding on her behalf helped her feel more confident that she could kick breast cancer, and it seems that she has.

God has been so faithful to see her (and our family) through this "blip" in life, as mom put it.  All things are in His power, and I know he held mom in the palm of his hand through this time in her life.  To Him be the glory and all of the thanks for mom's survival story.

Bells will be ringing . . .

Happy Dec. 1st. 

Yep, I said it, it's official -- we're in December.  The last month of 2010 starts today. 

Leading up to today, I have managed to decorate both my house and the church.  I couldn't have done either of those things without Eric's help, and the help of some people at SG last night.  I was honestly expecting to be at church until the wee hours of the morning, but instead six people showed up to help out, and the hours -- and tasks -- flew by!  Eric, Cassy, and I went to get this year's Christmas tree, and I managed to get that trimmed as well.  Lyrics and Trivia are set and ready for the holiday party THIS SATURDAY 12/4!!

The office holiday dinner is this Friday.  It just seems so strange that Christmas festivities are already upon us.  I feel like I barely had time to greet November, and here we are talking Christmas.  I'm excited for it -- excited for Cassy to see all the lights and decorations, excited to fill her stocking for the very first time.  I get these little flutterings of anticipation all through me, and it's very fun :-)

My mom's surgery is tomorrow, which I am very reassured about.  I am honestly not scared at all, I have a great peace about this whole issue.  I know that so many people have been praying for her and her recovery, and I know that God hears all of these prayers.  Her EKG came back just fine yesterday, so that means everything is set for the go-ahead.  Soon this will be behind us, and I know that will be a great weight off of Mom's shoulders -- right in time for Christmas!

* * *

Cassy has 4 teeth now that you can actually see.  She has another one, at least, that's trying to come through.  It's possibly two, but we'll find out soon enough. 

Just a few nights ago she started standing on her own.  She really enjoys doing this if she has toys in both hands, so she can sort of 'show off' her standing skills.  If she's not holding anything she doesn't bother standing, because what's the point?  She's funny.

Cassy now speaks perfect baby gibberish.  She's just about mastered all consonant sounds, and has had the vowel sounds down pat for months.  Even so, I think it's the cutest thing to actually hear my own baby say "goo goo ga ga."  Cliche, yes.  Adorable, yes.  :-)

Outside of baby gibberish, Cassy actually does understand a few key words.  If I say, "where's your ball, do you want to play with your ball?"  She'll crawl right over to her ball.  She knows "Green Monkey," a stuffed animal Eric and I brought back for her from Philly Zoo.  She seemed to have a solid grasp on primary colors a month ago, but since then she's decided she doesn't like playing the colors game anymore.  Ho hum.  She does like turning pages in her board books, and toddling around on her walker.  I can't believe she's almost 11 months.  Seriously?  Next month we'll be celebrating her 1 year birthday.  Goooodness.