... funny things are everywhere

the year that was...

2012:
... the year my baby hit double digits
... the year I had to start looking up while standing and conversing with my firstborn
... the year I thought James might actually quit tennis
... the year I had to find another job
... the year I worked up the courage to start teaching spin
... a year my boys got along almost as much as they fought
... my first full year of being the early shift do walker in our house
... a year filled with family time and lots of good memories

Happy new year, my friends! May 2013 bring you good health and peace.

ice pellets and freezing rain...

On our way to tennis on Sunday, with ice pellets falling from the sky:

J: Mom, it feels like those little candies... you know...
Me: Do you mean pop rocks?
J: Yah, that's it!

.....

On our way to tennis on Monday, with light freezing drizzle falling from the sky:

Me: In just a few months, we'll be back on these courts, hitting tennis balls outside again.

on procrastination, lipstick and other random things

Five on Friday

1. Procrastination
Why do I do it? It's certainly not because it makes me feel better. It never does. I lose sleep; I feel stressed, eat junk food and gain weight. No good comes of it. Ever. I'm trying to come to terms with the idea that it is NOT a good coping mechanism. Maybe that should be my focus for 2013. My one little word: Now.

2. Dressing for Success
I wore a suit to work yesterday. And fake pearls. Stakeholder meeting. Nothing too out of the ordinary, except I put on bright red lipstick too. This was in memory of my friend's sister (who loved her lip liner and lipstick). Her name was Barb, and she was lovely. She was younger than me, and she died of an aggressive form of skin cancer two years ago. My heart aches for my friend, Christine.

3. Holiday Preparation
We are almost ready for Christmas. Tree is up. Gifts are bought. Just a few more things to do before the big day. :)

4. Work Stuff
I'm still loving my fast-paced, higher profile job. I love wearing nice clothes (see point 2, above) but I need to figure out how to stop eating crap and gaining weight (see point 1). Oh well.

5. Passage of Time
So happy it's Friday but am wondering how it got to be mid-December already. Yikes! Seems like not too long ago we were ringing in the new year.

Anyway, happy Friday! Have a great weekend!

.....

deck the halls, trim the tree...

Year two with plastic tree. I have to admit that it's easier (albeit less fun) to just haul it out of the basement and fluff out the plasticky branches.

Everyone helped, and there was minimal fighting between the boys. And they let me take photos without making silly faces... plus Thomas put the angel on top without any help from Mike!

Where have the years gone?!

No worries. Every Christmas, I relive a bit of the past when I hang the handmade ornaments they made at daycare and preschool. :)

.....

Welcome to December!

So refresh my memory... where exactly did the first eleven months of the year go?!

Seriously, how did it get to be three weeks from Christmas? And while we're answering the unanswerable, how did I get to be the mom of a seventh grader? One who refuses to let me take any pictures of him most days. As in, if you were to look at my facebook photo albums, you'd think I only have one son.

Today, as we were tidying up his room, I got him to put this on and let me take a picture.

(Oh, and I made a card that I'm pretty happy with, so I wanted to share that too...)