Hello 2006!

Happy New Year! I hope that everyone is healthy and happy.

Resolutions

I hope that everyone who has made resolutions is inspired and successful. Here are my resolutions in no particular order:

Decorate my bedroom and the hall bathroom
To stop swearing
Finish the cross stitch project I started for Aunt Donna
Wear a size 12 or smaller by my 35th birthday (Yikes! I’ll soon be closer to 40 than 30…)
Get on a consistent cleaning schedule around the house
Take a vacation that does not in any way involve the state of Michigan

Housekeeping

I have promised many pictures – the girls’ birthday, Emma and Charlie, Christmas, etc. Yet another weekend has gone by and we have yet to download the pictures from our digital camera. Soon, dear reader! Soon!

Blog of Mouth

My sister, Donielle, has entered the world of blogging. Just as I was inspired by Trista, Donielle was inspired by me. One blog begetting another is a powerful thing.

It will be nice to keep up with my little niece, Sophia, as she grows. Please check out her blog at http://3happiness.blogspot.com/.

Update from November - A Confession, Really...

Back in November, I recommitted myself to getting to a healthy weight and getting fit. I had a successful six week run – which included losing over four pounds after a mini-vacation with the Schmidt clan. I had a wonderful Thanksgiving and was on a roll. In December, we started Weight Watchers at Work. This should have added fuel to my fire. It did, until a contracting company dropped cookies off to me that I didn’t expect. I hadn’t planned for them at all. That was the beginning of a downward spiral for me. A month later, I’m up about 10 of the 13 pounds I had lost. That’s okay. I am still three pounds to the good from November. Besides, this is a journey and I will be on it for the rest of my life. It’s a learning process for me. I am not perfect. I’m back on program today. I’m going to weigh in on Wednesday no matter what. Using No Weigh In passes has the same effect for me as skipping the meeting altogether. I know that now. Better to pay the piper early than wait four weeks.

Allison’s Latest Tricks

Kisses: Allison not only blows kisses with a big “mmmm”, she is now giving kisses. It is so adorable! On Saturday she spent a good five minutes walking from Danny to Emma to me giving us each kisses. There’s nothing more precious in the world than a voluntary kiss from your child!

Climbing Up and Down: A week ago, Allison could not climb up the little slide in our basement. This weekend, she climbed up on her first try like she’s been doing that for ages. And you have to be careful, too! I left the gate to the stairs open in a rush one morning only to find Allison down three or four stairs. I called for her and she didn’t answer. She knew she was someplace she wasn’t supposed to be. Who does that remind you of, Mom?

Dancing: Allison has really taken off with dancing. She loves to bop around whenever there is music around. It’s fun to watch her enjoy herself so much.

Imitating the family: Recently Allison has taken to imitating us. Last week Danny caught Allison trying to use her toe to turn off the white noise machine in the bedroom like I do! Who knew she’s been watching me do that? She also likes to do whatever Emma is doing. She’s tried to jump and do all sorts of things like her big sister.

Emma’s Growing World

Emma is getting more and more mature as time marches on.

She can (very proudly) dress and undress herself. At the same time, she likes to pretend she’s a baby. Last night after bath, she wanted me to get her dressed “like Allison.” One more annoying little habit Emma has is mooning you. Sometimes the full moon comes with a “poot” as well. If Emma walks up to you and bends over – run for cover! I have no idea how many times she’s said, “I pooted behind you.” or “I pooted next to you.” etc… Pray God that is a phase! If not, she learned it from Danny or perhaps her Uncle Rob!

She’ll try to trick you. She’s gotten sophisticated enough to cry and get a reaction out of you before letting you in on the game. She’ll also tell you that she’s had an accident or made some other kind of mess. Once she’s hooked you in, she smiles and laughs at her joke. She’ll definitely be a prankster. She loves to pretend, too. She’ll crawl around and meow or bark. She loves for us to address her as a dog or kitty and pet her. If you really want to make her day, offer to take her to the pet store. I’m waiting on the day she brings Danny home with a bunny in tow… She’s scared to death of dogs, but she loves cats. Unfortunately, Danny is very allergic to cats. I’ve been told that bunnies can be trained to a litter box. We’ll see.

Her language skills are incredible. She’s picking up on everything she hears. She’s quoting her favorite movies now. If you hear her call you “Chuck”, don’t be offended. It’s a term of endearment in her Wallace and Gromit movies. Unfortunately, she’s also picking up on the bad language that her friends bring in to school. It’s a shame how early children are picking up on truly bad language. I was well into high school before I ever dropped an “F bomb.” This is not to say that her parents don’t use colorful language from time to time (see Resolutions above).

She is getting ready to transfer to the pre-school building. She’s not sure how she feels about that at all. She would like to be with her friends, Charlie and Ben, but she also doesn’t like the “big kids”. I think that this is a cause of some tension for her. I’ve talked with the director of her daycare and much of this is normal. Once children get down there and get used to the new environment they don’t want to go back to the “baby building”. There’s too much to do and explore in preschool.

Emma is such a cautious spirit. She has yet to try to climb out of her crib. Allison will have to teach her how to be an adventurer.

Her tender heart is really starting to take shape these days. A mistaken word or touch can really ruin her day. It is very sad when I pick her up from daycare broken hearted. This is not to say that she’s always nice to everyone else. Danny took her to Sam’s Club yesterday. They ran in to two kids from her school. Danny said that they kept calling to Emma to say hi. Emma barely gave them a second glance. We’re not looking forward to those junior high years!

Danny’s DJ Gig

Danny has been having some fun with his podcasts. His last podcast is incredible! It has songs that sound like Christmas songs but aren’t. You should really check it out if you haven’t already (http://ashamblesburg.squarespace.com/). He’s working on his first of the new year as I write.

Danny’s also become a journalist. If you like The Onion, he’s got a site for you. Ever since the aftermath of 9/11, Danny and his friend Daniel have had an idea to start their own alternative news website. They are both really creative. If you need a laugh and puns don’t make you puke, check out www.new2lose.com!

As for Me…

There isn’t a lot going on in my world. Work is going well and we had a lot of fun with the kids over the holidays. Emma starts grade school in three years and I’m trying to figure out a way to be at home when she gets home from school. I would love to be home with both girls right now, but I always appreciated knowing that my Mom would be at home after school. Even if I never mentioned a word about it, it was especially nice to know that she would be there after having a bad day at school. I’ve been giving some thought to going back into teaching. I even started teaching a religion class at church this year. Unfortunately, I hate it. There is no way I could ever be a teacher. I would rather work at Target during the day. I just don’t have that in me. As many of you probably know, I’ve spent the last year or so working out Allison’s birth experience. It got me to thinking about being a Labor and Delivery nurse. I would enjoy being able to comfort women in labor. Maybe I would be able to help other women such as myself. Who knows. I don’t know how I would do that, though. It would require a good time back at school just to be an RN. I’m heading toward 40 and I don’t know if I have the true desire or energy to go back to school for two more years. Besides, my English background doesn’t lend itself so easily to a more science and math-heavy curriculum. Who knows? I’m not counting it out, but it would be hard to incur more college debt just as I’m paying off my Masters Degree.

That’s all from Our Shady Tree today. I am truly hoping to get more pictures posted ASAP!