A Year In Review

Nothing like waiting until the last minute.  Well, not exactly the last, but it's pretty close.

2012 has been a year of such fun for our family.  There have been so many amazing and grand adventures we've had together.  The memories are priceless and the moments are captured in our hearts forever.

Just like any other year, we've had good days, great days and "wish we could do this one over kind of days."  No matter the day, no matter the event, there isn't a day that I would go back and trade though...for each of those moments help to make us who we are today.

Just a snippet of our year...

• Reilly became a successful non stop, always chattering, talking machine.  For the early struggles we went through with his speech, we are so very grateful that he doesn't ever stop now.  I love hearing about the world through his eyes.  He always has something profound to say, often something that stops us in our tracks, makes us laugh or forces us to stop and appreciate the little things in life.
• We spent a fun weekend in Ohio at a water park with some family.  It was one of those spontaneous, pack your bags, we're leaving in 20 minutes kind of trips.  So. Much. Fun.
• We were able to get away and spend Dave's 40th birthday at a beautiful little cabin by the Smokey Mountains.  Keely and Jeff were able to go with us and make memories that we'll always treasure.
• Reilly was potty-trained.  Hello raise to our monthly income!
• Rei had his first overnight slumber parties at Aunt Keely and Uncle Jeff's and Aunt Kim and Uncle Glenn's houses while I was at camp with my students.
• Dave and I should have invested in a broccoli farm for all that our son has eaten this past year.  F.A.V.O.R.I.T.E!
• We spent many summer days with our hands in play-doh, our feet walking around the neighborhood, our arms propelling us through swimming pool waters and our voices talking about anything and everything.
• I was able to fulfill my wish of seeing black bears up close...like 20 feet away up close.  I was in heaven.
• I was able to watch a very dear friend become a mommy, learn what unconditional love is and be a small part of their journey of having a child with special needs. 
• I was able to celebrate with another dear friend the news of becoming a mommy in 2013 and at the same time celebrate an engagement of marriage.
• I learned through very close connections what having a very best friend really means.
• Reilly and I can probably recite the zookeepers talks about all of the zoo animals, and I'm fairly certain I can give you most of their names from our many hours spent wandering around the zoo this summer.
• Reilly and I spent 4 days of fun in Ohio this summer at the Longaberger Bee with some very special ladies.
•  Reilly made the transition from the amazing Ms. Monica in the Farm Room at GCC to the Garden Patch room for 3 year olds.
• We were lucky enough to spend a very special Caillou filled 3 year birthday party with our friends and family.
• We were forced to say goodbye to Gramma Moroni...much too soon.
• We celebrated Halloween many times over with Brady...Reilly went as Mickey Mouse and Brady was a piece of cheese.
• Dave started a new job and was promoted to group leader within a couple of months.
• Dave and I feel confident that we watched just about every episode of Caillou that was every produced.
• The three of us can now speak whale fluently, due to the number of times we've watched Finding Nemo in the last month.
• We can also recite Toy Story 3 (1, 2, 3 Toy Story is what Reilly calls it) by heart, as well as Cars and Cars 2. 
• Reilly had his second surgery--adenoids out, second set of tubes in and a nasal scope.

There are so many other things that we've gotten to do this past year...our days are filled with excitement and love.  Being a mommy and a wife is by far the best thing God has ever allowed me to do...I'm so thankful that 2012 was spent with my favorite people.

I'm so looking forward to making new, wonderful memories in 2013!

Happy New Year!

The Greatest Gift of All....

It's December.

 December means a lot of things.

 Shopping.  Crazy drivers on Grape Road.  Gift wrapping.  Carol singing.  Elves swinging from ceiling fans.  Enormous amounts of calorie intakes.  Snow falling.  Hot cocoa drinking nights.  Candy cane licking.

December has always meant a lot of things.   Just all sorts of fun things.

When I was growing up, Christmas in our house looked like most others in the neighborhood.  We had the ol' (and when I say ol', I mean ANTIQUE-FADED-LOSING IT'S PAINT) Frosty that lit up outside, along with the ol' (see above for the same definition) Santa face that hung on our fence.  We spent most of December patiently (OK, maybe not so patiently) waiting for Dad to climb up to the attic and get down the tree so he could do his part in hanging the lights, and then we could decorate the tree.  Looking back, I think something I appreciate now that I never did back then was the fact that we didn't use traditional ornaments on our tree.  Ever.  Only ornaments that the three of us girls made or ones that were specially purchased for us.

Christmas Eve was kind of a tradition...the three of us girls had to sleep in the basement on the couches together, so we would be sure to hear Santa upstairs when he delivered our gifts.  It never failed...sometime Christmas Eve night or early Christmas morning, one of us would have to go to the bathroom.  It didn't happen the other 364 days of the year, but it sure did happen that night.  And of course, if one of us had to go upstairs to the bathroom, we had to take a least one buddy with us.  Although the tree wasn't on the way to the bathroom, I remember creeping around for the first peek of the presents under the tree.

There are Christmas Mornings that I know I will never forget.  Like the year we made our potty trip upstairs and our living room had been turned into a Cabbage Patch Dreamland.  Everything Cabbage Patch. D.R.E.AM.Y.

There were so many great gifts that I received growing up.  Although our family never had a ton of money, we always had a really great Christmas morning because most of our "wants" were fulfilled.

Looking back, I realize now that the greatest gift I was ever given was on the day I was born.  I was lucky enough to be born into a family where two other girls came before me.  I was born a sister to two of the most amazing girls I'll ever know.

I'm not gonna lie and say I've always felt this way.  Kim, Keely and I fought.  Man did we fight.  Like, ALL THE TIME.  We spent many an hour in our bedrooms because we couldn't not fight.  We just fought.  About everything.

We're all older now.  There are not two greater influences in my life than my sisters.  They are my role models.  My heroes.  My people I call when I'm having a bad day.  My people I call when I'm having a good day.  My best friends.  My examples of how I should act.  My examples of the person I want to be.  My listening ears when I need to talk.  My "Get it together--you're acting like a fool" reality check.  They are my everything.  I honestly don't know what I would do without them.  They are the best sisters I could have ever hoped for.  The best Aunts my son could have.  The best sister-in-laws my husband could have dreamed of. They truly are both the best people I know.

I love my sisters a lot.  But on the 19th of December every year, I love them just a little bit more.

 December 19th of 1996 is the day God called my mom to Heaven.  My two sisters are the reason I made it through the second half of my senior year of high school.  They, with the help of my dad, are the reason I had a graduation party.  They got me through college.  They get me through each day.

I see my Mom in each one of my sisters.  If I had to give up a parent at such an early age, I'm so very thankful that God left me with these two to look up to.  My Mom left really, really big shoes to fill...Keely and Kim are doing a fantastic job and there is not a day that goes by that I know my Mom is looking down on us and proud of who we are and the boys we're raising.

 After Reilly's surgery at the beginning of the month...we couldn't leave until he had drank his juice.  Guess who made that happen?  MY SISTERS!

Aunt Keely may have had some "leftovers that he forgot to swallow" running down her back.

Twelve.

It's the 12th day of the 12th month of the 12th year (after 2000 that is) and there's no better way to celebrate this day than with a blog.

I've thought long and hard all day about the best blog I could do.

I've got nothing.  Zip.  Zero.  Nothing has inspired me.

Therefore, I'm going to ramble.  Really just to say that I blogged on 12/12/12.

I apologize in advance.

This isn't going to be my best.  I know that from the get-go.  It's only fair to warn you.  So...you've been warned.  (And quite honestly, I'll never know if you stopped reading right here.  It's still going to show up on my blog views as if you read the entire thing.  It's a win for both of us, really.)

I decided to describe the 12 feelings I'm having right now, on this 12th day of the 12th month of the 12th year.

1.  BLESSED--I have so many amazing things in my life.  My husband, my son, my dad and step-mom, my sisters, my brother in laws, my nephew, my friends.  Just everything.  I am a better person because of who I am related to and who I spend my days with surrounded by. 

2.  SCATTER-BRAINED--It's seriously 13 days before Christmas and I don't know if I'm coming or going.  Really.  HAVE. NO. CLUE.

3.  HOPEFUL--I never give up hope that a house elf will soon show up and start to do chores around my house that I never seem to get to.  Just a few things...laundry, dishes, dust, vacuum, sweep, toilets, sink, you know...not much!  Oh, and I need the elf to use it's magic powers to grow a money tree so I can then pay it for it's elfly duties.

4.  IN PAIN--I'm pretty convinced Dave kicked the snot out of my ankle last night in the 2.3 minutes I actually slept.  He claims he didn't, and I'm certain I would have woken up with the amount of pain I'm in today, but it's my story and I'm sticking to it.

5.  APOLOGETIC--I'm so very sorry for the residents, teachers and students in the state of Florida.  As soon as you read the paper and find out who the new School Commissioner is, you'll know why.

6.  SAD--This coming week marks another anniversary of the day my Mom was called to Heaven.  There is not a day that goes by that I don't miss her, talk to her and see her in my son's mischievous ways.  This will also be the first Christmas season that we go through without Gramma.  I can perfectly picture her sitting in her chair on Christmas Day, surrounded by all her great-grand kids, giggling right along with them when my Aunt Anna passes out all the singing toys.

7. EXHAUSTED--Did I mention I got 2.3 minutes of sleep last night?

8.  BEFUDDLED--In case you hadn't heard, my son wants a real live penguin AND a real live peacock for Christmas.  This is the first year he's really into the Santa thing, and I know there's going to be some disappointment on Christmas morning when nothing under the tree has a heart beat.

9.  THANKFUL--I'm so very thankful for all the blessings I have in my life.  See Blessed.

10.  COLD--Evidently a tank top and pajama pants aren't going to cut it for Dreamland tonight.  That's provided I get to visit at any point in the coming hours.

11.  MISSING MY FRIENDS--I hate when life gets in the way of really great friendships.  Not like in the way in the way, but you know, just prevents you from making face to face contact on a regular basis.  I have some of the most amazing friends, some that I work with, some that work other places, and it feels like I rarely get to see them.  I know that our friendships run so deep that we can pick right up where we last left off, but it sure would be nice to see them more often.

12.  HAPPY--I'm just happy.  I have a good life.  I have a great family, set of friends, job.  Life is good.


Kudos if you've made it this far in this blog.  I appreciate your dedication.

A New Kind Of Tradition

Some may think I'm addicted to Pinterest.  In my defense, I feel I can say with certainty that I'm not the only one.  Everyone, nearly everyone I know, falls into the same category.  There's just so much to do.  So much to see.  So much to plan.  So much to pin.  Aww...the insanity.

I will admit that I've actually cooked/baked/created/invented/copied/produced only about an eighth of the amazing things I've found and pinned.  It was a summer goal.  Oops.  We got some in, but just not nearly enough.

One thing that I pinned a while back was something that I've thought out every day.  I didn't want to forget, so I constantly reminded myself about it.  December finally rolled around and I remembered.  I was pretty proud of myself.

Some genius, far smarter than I am, kind of mom thought up this idea and I fell in love. 

The idea is to purchase 24 books for your child. Sure, that's a lot of books, sure that could be a lot of money...but...umm....seriously...who can balk at buying books for your kid? (I realize this could be the teacher in me talking.)  Instead of having some sort of Advent Calendar (I'm sure you could do both...we're starting small!), the process is to wrap up all 24 books (I may look into paying someone to do this next year!) and put them in a basket.  Each evening, before bed, your child gets to choose a "present" from the basket and open it up.  The book they open then becomes the bedtime story for that night. Even Reilly can count through how many books we have left to open, which is how many days we have left until Santa comes.

 UMMM.....HELLO!  Genius!

I'm not gonna lie.  I had my doubts as to whether this would work with a three year old.  However, I am in love.  LOVE I tell you.  This has seriously changed the bedtime routine at our house.  We've always tried to be the good parents who read to Rei before he goes to bed.  However, if you've met my always-on-the-go-never-stop-moving-until-he-falls-into-a-deep-sleep kid...you can imagine just how fun it was to try to convince him to sit still long enough to get in a couple pages, let alone a book.

About 20 minutes before bedtime, everything gets shut off but the Christmas tree in our house.  Phones, television, electronics, computers...everything.  All three of us sit down on the couch next to the tree and share the new book that Reilly has opened.  It is seriously amazing.  Not only does Reilly leave the other gifts under the tree alone, (he knows his are in the basket), we have a constant way to count how many days until Santa comes, we get 24 new books in our library and we spend quality, uninterrupted family time each night.

LOVE

As a matter of fact, I loved the idea so much, we bought a set for the amazing Ms. Betsy...so now Reilly gets to share our new tradition with his friends, and we're helping build her library, too.