New for 2014

I think we are slowly coming out of the polar vortex.  It was 27 degrees out when I went running yesterday and only 25 degrees this morning while I waited for the bus.  It doesn't really bother me too much waiting for the bus in the cold, dark morning except for one thing.  My toes getting really cold.  That must be why people wear boots in colder climates, because it keeps their feet warm.  My little leather work shoes and old, thin socks are no defense against the bitter cold.

And yes, you read that right, I finally went for a run.  It was only three miles but it felt good and I didn't keel over from lack of physical fitness.  I just have to be able to add 10 miles to that and I'll be golden.  It was a bit chilly and although I never warmed up enough to sweat even one drop, I wasn't freezing the entire time.  My face was cold but other that that it wasn't too horrible.

And now to my new year commitments...

Looking back on my 2013 commitments, these are pretty much the same.  So, I didn't commit to them very well.  I will try and do better this time around!!!

I don't like to call them resolutions because most resolutions fail miserably.  Not that my commitments don't fail with time but I am hopeful.  My co-worker says that 2014 is going to be our year and I really want to believe that it will be.  Last year, although it had it's great moments, did not end well and I could use a more positive year in 2014.  There are a lot of things I'd like to commit to do better in 2014, so here they are (yes, I realize I am a bit late in these but I have been doing them since the beginning of January,  I just didn't get a chance to write about them.

 
1. Be a better friend. 
 

My bus friends - haven't seen them since this photo
was taken in May!!!

I have some really amazing friends and in 2013 I called in a lot of friend favors but I rarely was a good friend back.  Between adjusting to being a working mom, taking classes, coaching golf, etc., I was kind of overwhelmed and good intentions like phone calls and notes and letters and short visits just never happened.  I can't expect to have great friends if I am never a great friend myself.  This year I want to get more organized and keep in better touch, get more coffees, send more notes, etc.

2. Be a better housekeeper.  

Evan will always challenge this endeavor as he sees it as his mission to take out everything I put away!

 Last year I got a bit lazy with chores (for most of the reasons above), and the house was often a mess.  This year I would like to make little changes so that the place is more presentable.  For example, make the bed every day.  Ivan thinks it's stupid to make the bed when you are just going to sleep in it again, but I like looking at a made bed.  It makes the room look nicer.  I'd also like to find places for all the stuff that accumulates on the dining room table.  We'd like to eat family dinners there but we are always moving junk around.  And then I'd just like to be more on top of things like cleaning bathrooms, doing laundry, washing dishes, etc.

3. Be less frumpy.  
 

Not the frumpiest, but hair in ponytail, no make-up, and bad posture - changes could be made.

 I haven't completely fallen into the frumpy stage, but I am close.  My hair is always in a ponytail, I never have make-up on, and I wear the same sweatshirt and jeans every day of the weekend.  Something must be done!  I can't continue to let myself fall to the wayside.  So, a little self-improvement can't hurt.  First on the list is better posture.  I need to stand up straight, end of story.  I also need to start putting on some make-up every once in a while.  And blow-drying my hair (when I get it cut).  I can't look like I just rolled out of bed every day.

4. Do more things.

Camping - let's do more of this!

After Evan was born we slowed down a bit, activities got expensive and we were content to just hang out at home.  Nothing wrong with that at all, but now Evan is older and it's fun and easier to go places.  I'd like to go to church more, take Dolce to the dog park more, play more golf, do more fun activities like the aquarium and zoo.  Take Evan to the playground, on hikes, and for bike rides.  Get more camping in.  Things like that.  

Ok, those are most of my commitments for the year. I realize there are a lot and they are quite involved but if I succeed in just one area I will be a better person for it!

What commitments did you make for 2014??

Christmas Vacation Part II (and lots of photos)

Before I get started I just have to mention that it is 3 degrees out and with the wind chill it feels like -14 degrees.  I thought I was going to freeze waiting for the bus at 6am but Ivan nicely waited at the bus stop so I could stay in the warm car.  I was very appreciative.

Now, back to pretending I am still on vacation and enjoying life in Vermont.

You would think that a nice storm was adventure enough and that the rest of the trip would be smooth sailing...but you would be wrong.  This year my younger sister and her family came up for Christmas and my older sister stayed in Texas.  Usually it is the other way around, but we had fun my my younger sister and her family...although we missed my older sister and her boyfriend.  

The babies eating breakfast - they are only 3 months apart

Due to the large amount of ice on the trees, they were getting heavy and many branches were breaking and trees were falling.  It you went outside you could actually hear sporadic crashing in the woods.  Unfortunately, one or two trees looked like they were going to fall right on the house in the direction of the guest bedroom!  And they weren't little trees.  My Dad called some tree people to come cut it down but they couldn't come until the next morning.  The tree looked so precarious that my sister and family ended up sleeping in my parents' room and my parents slept on a mattress in the living room.  Ivan, Evan, and I were fine because we always sleep in the basement because it's much easier down there with Dolce.  So we were safe from falling trees.  Luckily no trees fell and the tree guys came on Christmas Eve and cut them both down (they were each 88ft tall!!) for a hefty price.  

What an adventure!

Then it was Christmas!  

My parents' tree - it is so pretty, I love it.  They've had the same
tree for 23 years or something.

We have a Christmas tradition were Christmas morning we wait until everyone is awake and then we munch on Panetone (an Italian fruit bread) and open presents.  My Dad is responsible for handing out the presents and we open them one at a time.  I know it seems slow and arduous but I love it.  That way you can thank the person who gave it to you, see what other people got, and watch people open your present.  Plus it prolongs the gift opening session.

Getting ready to open presents Christmas morning

This year Ivan and I didn't buy anyone presents.  We sent out an email in advance so people would know and wouldn't think we had forgotten.  We just didn't have the money after moving and putting down our deposit and everything.  That put a small damper on the holidays because we love gift giving and we had great ideas for people's gifts this year.  And there is something extra special about buying Christmas gifts during the holiday.  Plus, people still bought us stuff and then we felt bad opening things from people we didn't buy anything for.  Such is life though and we'll just have to make it up next year.

I got some great gifts like a Barnes and Nible gift card, new clothes, a Peace Corps calendar, a teapot, tea, Christmas ornaments, a necklace, a big blanket, a cookbook, a microwave popcorn maker, new sheets.  I loved everything.  

Evan looking at the tree...before Santa came.

Evan got lots of fun gifts too.  We gave him a wooden train and a piggy bank (we had purchased the two items before we spent all our money on moving).  He also received some clothes, some ornaments, some little cars, books, a hammer type toy, a puzzle, some bath toys, and other things I can't remember this early in the morning.

Ivan was most excited about a gift certificate to his favorite Chinese Buffet.  The gift certificate was for $60.00 and the buffet only costs $5.95 a person.  Super cheap, right!!  So he went twice and treated the entire family one time.  He still has almost $20 left for when we return.  That man loves his Chinese buffets.  He also got a Honduran soccer scarf, new socks, clothes, and some other things I can't remember because I wasn't able to pay attention while I was opening mine and Evan's gifts.

The rest of the trip involved lots of time hanging out with Evan and my sister's girls, chatting with my mom, sledding in the woods, hanging out at my Aunt's house, and drinking lots of tea.  

Evan had a great time playing with kitchen items!

Evan dancing in his Christmas outfit.

Getting ready to go sledding!

Playing with Mimi on the kitchen floor (we spent a lot of time in the kitchen).

Evan in his snow outfit - coat, snow pants, snow boots, and all!

The trees were still frozen days later - this is the view from
the living room window.

Evan loved taking every item out of the drawers and playing with them all over the kitchen floor.

Playing in the little rocking boat my parents had - so cute!

Cousins happily playing in the kitchen - check out the doll stuck in the basketball hoop!

An attempt at a cousin photo in front of the tree - complete failure!

Hanging out with Papa (ignore the opened pantry in the back)

The weekend before we left we headed into Burlington to go to the Echo Center, which is a lake aquarium geared toward kids.  Evan loved looking at the fish, playing in the water, and playing in the kids room which had a boat and a little slide.

He could have stayed here forever!

Looking at snakes.

I had to take a photo of Evan in his shirt next to the Caution Wet Floor sign - that shirt is so special beause
my friend made it for me because I have that same tattoo.

It was a fun place.  Afterwards we headed to dinner at the Skinny Pancake where my Dad's second cousin works and enjoyed yummy crepes.  They were really delicious.  

And that my friend is my recap! 

The only other adventure we had was coming home from an attempted trip to Burlington (we turned around because it was snowing too much and we passed three accidents in an hour) we went to drive down the street my parents' house is on, only to find out that an electric pole had fallen and there were downed wires all over the street.  We called the electrical company and headed to Chinese Buffet to wait while the wires were removed.  It turned out that they were cable wires instead and we could just drive over them.  Which is what we ended up doing the rest of the time because the cable company never came out to fix them.  Luckily they weren't the cable lines to my parents' house so we still had TV and internet. 

We had an uneventful drive home and came home to find our house ransacked.  Oh wait, no, it wasn't ransacked.  We left it looking like a disaster because we hadn't had time to unpack anything.  I spent the rest of the week trying to get things organized and figure out how we were going to fit everything in our new place.

I'm still working on that.

I sure miss vacation. I really miss sleeping in until 8am and not having to commute into the city everyday.  And getting home so late.  But at least I don't have class this semester, so that's a big positive.

And as far as my half marathon training goes - it isn't going anywhere.  I had all these plans to run in Vermont and half my suitcase was filled with running clothes - and then the ice storm came and the ice never went away.  I was too nervous about slipping and spraining an ankle so I didn't go.  Plus, there are no sidewalks where my parents live and I have to run on road that have a speed limit of 50mph but no shoulder - with a snow-packed street it just didn't seem like a smart idea.  Of course not training for my half marathon doesn't seem so smart either!

How's the weather where you are?  Are you suffering from the Polar Vortex too???  Have you ever run a race with little to no training???

Our Christmas Vacation, Part I

Hello!  Merry Christmas!!!  Happy New Year!!  It has been too long since we've chatted.  I didn't mean to be away so long but I just never got around to posting while I was on vacation.  I had a lot of things to share but nothing so important it couldn't wait.  And now it's 6am and I am on the bus again, back to work, like vacation never happened.  I am hoping I am refreshed for the new year and motivated to get a lot of work done and all that.  We'll see what happens when I get to the office...that motivation often disappears!

We had such a fun holiday.  Honestly, it would have been difficult to not have fun though.  We really needed some time away from reality and work and the move and unpacking and all that jazz.  By the end of the month it was starting to wear us down and we just wanted to be finished with it all.  I took my Chem final without studying (and luckily got a B, not a high B but I still kept my A in the class so who cares), we moved, started to slowly unpack (which we are still doing), and packed up our suitcases for Vermont.

Yet again we woke up on the Friday before Christmas super early and were on the road close to 5:30am...me, hubs, Evan, and Dolce.  It was squishy like always but we survived another ten hour car ride.

The dog and Evan get lots of very close time together.  Evan pulls out Dolce's fur and Dolce eats Evan's snacks.  I think it's a fair trade.

Once we hit Albany the drive got a bit interesting.  The temperatures started dropping and it started raining...and freezing.  Literally the rain froze on our windshield almost faster that we could clear it.

That stuff in the upper right corner is pure ice.  It was crazy!  Ivan was driving and he did a great job...while I took pictures.  We were still able to make decent time and arrived at my parent's house close to 4pm.  Not too shabby.  And even though it was a bit treacherous, it was a very pretty snow-filled trip.

If you can believe it, the picture above is Lake Champlain, frozen over and covered with snow.  It was weird looking at it and knowing it was a lake, but seeing no water.

The rest of our trip went similar to the car ride: snow-filled, treacherous, lots of people and animals, yet still filled with the people you love and lots of fun times together that make it special.  Our first adventure was a terrible ice storm (figures, since we battled ice on our drive up).  Literally everything was frozen -the streets, our cars, the trees, the snow.

It looked beautiful though.

The snow was frozen right onto the trees, which I thought was the prettiest thing ever.  It made the trees look like they had fresh snow on them for days.  However, you know what else freezes during a nice storm?  Power lines!  And it rural-ish Vermont, when you have no power, you also have no heat and no water.  Not fun...especially since a nice storm usually means cold temperatures.  I was happy that power was restored about four hours later...not too much suffering.  It would have been three weeks before we got power back in Maryland!

Ok, I feel like this is getting long and I still have so much to share so I think I'll end it now and continue tomorrow.  Don't stay away too long though - the adventures continue!!

Happy Monday!!

School is over (and no pictures)

Chemistry? Done!!!  I'm not sure if it was done well, but thank goodness it's over.  Last week the final was cancelled due to snow and so we had to take the make-up last night, a full week after we should have finished the class.  It was not ideal because I spent all weekend moving and didn't even get to study at all.  It was not a good situation.  I felt like I had to guess on a lot of the questions but I am hopeful that it turned out ok in the end.  Or that I had a high enough grade going into the exam that the final won't be the end of the world.  We shall see how it turns out...I may or may not divulge depending on how embarrassing the grade turns out to be.

The apartment is starting to look livable.  Ivan stayed home from work yesterday and put the baby's room together.  I will probably need to redo it because furniture is in front of windows and the clothes were dumped into the drawers, but at least he tried.  I still need a cabinet to put my food in though...it's driving me bonkers having it all over the floor in bags.

And the biggest adjustment?  Leaving the house on time.  Now we live farther away from my sister's and the golf course but Ivan thinks we can still leave at the same time.  So instead we rush around like crazy people trying to make sure I don't miss the bus.  And then today I waited at my new bus stop only to forget my bag in the car when I left and then my husband had to meet me at the mall and give me the bag.  I guess we'll get it eventually...just have to smooth out some wrinkles.

Work is crazy these days...busy and different somehow.  I feel like I fit in there less and less.  It's an odd feeling but one that I hope passes.  I have been there so long but it feels like somehow I am getting pushed out.  It's mentally exhausting and on top of it I have a lot of work.  Not a good mix.

Alright, I better get some shut-eye.  Twice now I've been up until after midnight...which means a short measly 4.5 hours of sleep.  Maybe I can get a bit more here on the bus.  Minus the fact that the guy next to me has the light on...

Happy Tuesday!!

The Big Move

Before we get into my weekend, I just have to mention that a lady sitting two rows in front of me has on a fur coat.  I am hoping it's fake fur (do they make real fur anymore??), but it still seems weird.  Who wears fur coats anymore, fake or real??  And to work??

So, we moved.  We are officially in our new apartment.  And it was definitely painful getting here!  I took Friday off to pack and get ready but I had Evan with me and he made it quite difficult.  Then he had a doctor's appointment at 1pm and we didn't get out of there until 3pm and then it was 3:30pm before we got home and half the afternoon was lost.  Luckily my friend Karin came over for a couple hours in the evening (before heading to a Christmas party!) to help pack up more of the kitchen and then she came over at 8am on moving day with her daughter to help pack up the pantry food.  

Moving day was the opposite of fun.  We have so much stuff!!  But in reality we don't...we only have enough stuff for a two bedroom apartment.  How can it seem like a lot??  It's not like we have a house full of stuff...thank goodness.  For some reason moving day was slow and long and overwhelming.  Ivan had a friend from work come help him move the heavy items and then Karin helped and my friend Allyson bought us lunch and helped clean the old apartment in the evening.  At one point though, Ivan's friend had left and my two friends had left for afternoon engagements and it was just Ivan and me (luckily my sister had offered to watch Evan and Dolce) and it was 4:10pm and the truck had to be back by 5pm.  We were at the new place and had an entire truck-load of stuff that had to be unloaded in 40 minutes. With just us two (and I hardly count because I am a wimp).  We did it in about 45 minutes...in the snow that turned to rain.  It snowed for a while but nothing stuck to the roads (but it did stick to our stuff), so at least it wasn't miserable driving the truck around.  But all our stuff got wet and we were soaked and it was freezing.  Good thing Allyson is a smarty and had told us to buy plastic to put on the carpet so we didn't track mud and snow/rain into the new place.  Good plan!!!

After returning the truck we had to pick up the kid and the dog and borrow my sister's car to make a few more trips.  While Ivan was making trips I was cleaning.  Karin and Allyson joined me again and we got to work scrubbing bathrooms, washing walls, vacuuming, mopping floors, cleaning kitchens, emptying fridge food, etc.  It took a while but we finished around 11pm.  And we were so exhausted. And tired of cleaning.  But since I'm nervous about getting my deposit money back I wanted it to be as clean as possible.

That was the dining room...I was trying to keep Evan entertained with wooden spoons and bowls.  Dolce just hung out.

Here's the living room.  Evan is still having a ball running around the empty space making soup.

I think the apartment is way cleaner than it was when we moved in!  I even steam cleaned the carpets!

And now our new place.  It's nice but there are boxes everywhere and Dolce had a hard time trying to find a place to sleep.  He decided to sleep next to our bed.  We made some progress yesterday though.  I unpacked the kitchen (or what I could of it, it's so tiny I need to buy a cabinet to put my food in because there is no pantry.  This took practically all day but I eventually found the stove to make dinner (eggs with ham).  I then moved on to the bedroom and got my clothes in the drawers and closets and then organized my bathroom.

Then I made lunches, washed dishes, and went to bed...because I have to work today.  

Things are looking good in some places, like the living room.

And some places need a lot more work, like the other side of the living room!

I hope you don't have to move soon and when you do, you don't do it in the middle of winter and you maybe hire movers.  And if you are lucky, you hire packers and movers!

Prolonging the misery

As you may have noticed, I didn't blog on Tuesday like normal.  Why??  Well, it was a snow day so I didn't have to work!  Yay!  I actually did some work because if I don't get my annual report written by the time I leave for vacation then I have to write it in Vermont.  Not what I feel like doing in the least.  I also studied a bit for my Chem lecture exam (it's cumulative, how mean is that?), but then it was cancelled.  Although it gives me more time to study (maybe...I am moving this weekend), it also prolongs the misery.  I thought I would be all done at this point, but no, I am still thinking about chemistry.  Now I have to take it on Monday instead.

The snow was beautiful though!

That's the view off the balcony, for the next two days.  Then we will have a new view and our new view looks into a parking lot, so it won't be as pretty.

Here's the view from the front.

Pretty too!  We didn't get much more than three inches but it was enough to cover everything and make it peaceful.  I love snow!

Yesterday my friend came over to help pack while I worked and she packed up all our dishes!  I was trying to make dinner last night and I had to unpack my knives because I couldn't cut up the chicken!  And she only left us dessert plates so Ivan kept saying she was putting us on a diet by making us eat such small portions.  That didn't stop Ivan though...he just had five helpings.  

And Evan has turned into a tortilla theif!

Here he is in the bedroom.  He grabbed Ivan's tortilla off the sofa (yeah, maybe if Ivan ate at the table we wouldn't have this problem) and then made a mad dash for the bedroom squealing the entire time. It was hilarious.  And just as a note, the bed is completely unmade because we are lazy and it's on the floor because Ivan took it apart already for the move.  We kinda like it on the floor though.  Ivan doesn't want to put it back together!

And one more random bit of info.  I was reading Caitlin's blog, Healthy Tipping Point, and she had a post about an amazing organization called Healing Horses.  It really sounded like such a wonderful place and maybe some of you were looking for an organization to donate to for Christmas or a new place to champion so I thought I'd share it.  The post that Caitlin wrote was beautiful, so I would highly recommend reading it.  If I had an extra $25 this month I would definitely donate!  But I don't.  I will next month though so I'd love to sponsor a horse.

Ok, that is all I have to report.  Most likely the next time you hear from me I will be in my new place!  I can't wait to get out of this dump.  Now that I've been forced to move, I realize just how horrible this place really is...and I am so thankful we are leaving.  And Whole Foods doesn't even open until the end of July so that's not even going to happen for a while.  Plus, Whole Foods is a money suck so it's probably better for me to be far away! And then I can continue supporting the local organic stores like David's and Roots instead.

Happy Thursday!!

Snow and ice

Wow, this weekend went super fast.  Maybe because I had a meeting all day on Friday instead of working from home.  And those three days of meetings really wore me out.  I wanted to sleep in on Saturday but Evan had other plans.  He was cutting a tooth and so pretty much was up all night.  I think he fell asleep at around 4am.  And then he was up at 7am.  Definitely not what I was hoping for after only getting a few hours of sleep all week.  He made up for it on Sunday though and we slept until 8am.

Sunday we got our first snow fall of the season!

It ended up being about two or three inches.  I was pretty excited.  Except that my friend Sarah was supposed to come and help me pack but we were too worried about the road conditions so she didn't come.  It was a good thing too because the roads were horrible.  However,  I was sad I didn't get to see her.  Hopefully she makes it on Saturday!

I put Evan in his new snowsuit (compliments of Mimi), and we took Dolce for a walk.

It was getting a little dark so it Is kind of hard to see Evan, but he was all bundled up in snow pants and a winter coat.  That little hat is a bit problematic because it likes to fall down and cover his entire face.  That made him a bit unhappy.  At one point I took him out and let him play in the snow, which he loved, but then getting him back into the stroller was a fight.  Dolce spent the entire time eating snow, which is so annoying because then he has to go out nineteen times in the next hour.  It's a struggle I tell you!

I did get some packing done, even without Sarah's motivation.  I also made English muffin bread, pumpkin soup, chicken soup, and chicken enchilada soup.  And Ivan nicely washed the dishes while. I gave Evan a bath.

This week is a bit stressful because I have my Chem lecture final tomorrow and then moving on Saturday...which means I have to be packed by Saturday too.  The other night while I was rocking Evan to sleep (I know, he's probably too old for this but I don't care), I heard rodents in the walls scurrying about.  I'm not sure if it was mice, rats, squirrels, or what - but it was disgusting and I was counting my blessings that we were moving to a better place (can it be worse???).  We just have to physically move to that other place and that is what stresses me out!

P.S. I found the BOB weather shield!!!!!  I had been looking for it for months and couldn't find it - and then I'm packing up the bedroom closet and found it in a bag.  I was SO HAPPY!!

Did it snow where you live this weekend?