When's the next flight outta here?

My husband is going on a business trip next week 3 days/2 nights. While I will relish some alone time to do endless reading, watch Lifetime and eating endless popcorn, the 12+ hours day shift with the children each day will be exhausting until I can plop in the bed and do NOTHING.  Don't get me wrong, I tolerate enjoy every moment of every day with my wee ones - even while listening to Kidz Bop over and over and over and over.  (I'm still waiting for someone to 'fess up to giving us that CD.)  But imagine if I had a business trip to go on - all by myself.  The thought!  We've taken a few (very few) trips without the boys and yes, I know what you're thinking, it's your own fault for not taking more.  But the truth is I don't really want to be without them all that often save for my weekly Pilates indulgence necessity and mommies night out ever now and then.  However sometimes I'm at a point where I am mentally, physically, whatever you want to call it exhausted and could just use a break.  So imagine if I said hey honey, next week I've got a mommy conference in Costa Rica (a girl can dream!) and I'll only be gone 3 days.  Anyway, not complaining just thinking out loud.  The possibilities...

If only I had read about this in the Mommy Manual, oh wait, that's right, there's no handbook for this journey.  That's a real shame 'cause I sure like to read directions.  Just ask my husband.

On the home front, we've had some very important business of listening to the new cats Riley and Snickers this morning to make sure they are still breathing.  I was pretty sure they still were since they were running at a pretty brisk pace before we finally captured them for their exam.  Here's a picture of the fun.  Thanks to step-grandma Shirley for the first aid kit.  The cats are especially enjoying it.

I just got a glimpse of the cats and it appears they have band-aids on them.  Well, of course they do says Conner, they just got their shots.  But now we need more band-aids for more shots.  Mommy the old band-aids have a lot of hair on them.  Really?  I can't imagine.

Thanksgiving 2009

We were so blessed this year to have Donna come be with us at Thanksgiving in Florida.  Her birthday also happened to fall on Thanksgiving this year so we had a lot to celebrate.  We had some family time before Donna came then Donna was there for five days and Gary, Angela and Hank were there for Thanksgiving and the weekend afterwards.  We didmost of the usual stuff like eat, eat and eat some more! Andy and I had our usual date night at Pandora's Steak House.  This restaurant is very nice albeit a bit stuffy for my tastes.  I'd prefer some waiters that actually make you feel welcome rather than you're putting them out but I digress.  The food is always solid so that's why we go.  After dinner we saw "The Blind Side" which is truly inspirational and is smashing box office records even now.

We also made it to Another Broken Egg which has a new and improved (more seating, less waiting) location.  And this year since Hank was around we actually had breakfast at an early hour (Gary and Angela have adapted so well to parenting ;-)  Poor Hank was teething and NOT sleeping well so Angela and Gary, well OK mainly Angela didn't get much rest and it took them at least 12 hours to get home in the holiday traffic on Sunday.  Man I don't miss those days.  It's nice to have two boys that sleep well through the night even though Camren did get up at 6:15 everyday at the beach.  Who could blame him?  And since we've been home almost everyday Camren says "beach".  He really wants to go back!

Happy Birthday Donna!

Halloween

We came back from Vegas the day before Halloween and I was extremely sick on the flight home. Borderline swine flu but definitely flu-like. It really kicked by booty. So it took all my strength to get out to a few houses for trick or treating. As I went to upload some pics I realized all of these are from a Halloween party the week before so I guess I didn't take any on Halloween. Oh well! Please note that Conner had a costume change during the party. He started out in his cockroach costume but changed to his mouse costume (from last year).

Vegas 2009

I had a fab time in Vegas this year...not a lot of sleep but we had the best time ever! We saw the Beatles "Love" Cirque de Soleil show. It was beyond words; a complete visual feast. Of course the music was awesome but that goes without saying ;-)

We also went to an improv comedy show and thankfully got spared too much ribbing since Andy was at a table with my aunt and myself. Andy played it cool and the comedian ran out of time. The conference was mediocre but thankfully the entertainment, spa treatments, food and shopping made up for it.

We got chastised for taking this picture because we were "blocking the line." Not sure how we were doing that since we were up against a wall...but anyway here's a low quality pic but you get the idea. The show was rocking!

Happy 2010

So much has happened since my last post - Vegas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, a new decade, two new rescue kitties...well, you get the idea. In regard to our annual beach Christmas photo please notice my new blog header. I love this photo because I'm laughing, the boys are smiling while looking forward and I know deep down that stupor on Andy's face is the one always in his head when trying to figure me out!

It's also been over a year since my sweet Mamaw passed away and I had intentions of writing about how much I've changed during the course of that time. Obviously, I haven't done that yet but in my (hopefully) improved self I'm not worried that I didn't get it done when I planned to. So here's a few words about how I viewed myself in 2009...

• desolate
• heart-broken
• frustrated
• sad
• stubborn
• strong
• transformed
• relaxed (ok, a little more so than in the past :-)
• fun
• connected
• less jaded
• full of life

But the one word that I think sums up all of the experiences of 2009 (and even some from years past) that shook me but brought me back to myself is RENEWED.

I feel good about renewal and am looking forward to a sunny 2010!

I am going to post some pics from the above mentioned events for your viewing pleasure. And when I take the time I'll add some video from my cool new Mino Flip Video that is a super small pocket HD recorder and sticks right into my USB so I should have no excuses for not taking video nor for not sharing video.

Peace and love in 2010

xo