Welcome 2010!

I am looking forward to 2010 for a lot of different reasons. I feel like 2009 has been a year of preparation and beginnings and that, by default, 2010 will be an extension and an improvement on those beginnings.

My real estate career in Sunshineville began this year. I've worked very hard to lay the groundwork for my future career. I've learned a ton and I've got ten times as much left to learn. I'm getting there.

I started my novel and hope that by doing a little bit at a time, I will be able to finish it this coming year. Maybe. We'll see how motivated I get.

I've started (slowly) doing better things for my body. I make an attempt every day to drink water. I have yet to hit the magic "eight glasses", but each ounce I drink is one that I wouldn't normally. I have been averaging two times a week of some sort of exercise. This may not sound like a lot, and it's really not, but again, for every time I do exercise, it's one more time than I have done previously. I still struggle daily with the amount of coffee I consume. I was getting down to what most people would consider a normal amount (okay, high normal) until we had guests in our house over the weekend. Four extra people, all of whom consume coffee, in my house for almost four days. It's amazing how quickly I fall off the wagon when surrounded by other addicts.

We didn't do many (read "any") improvements on our home this year but we've been planning several projects for the coming year. We will most likely be painting the exterior of our house in the early spring. We'd like to put a pergola on the back of the house off of our bedroom. There are several wiring projects Mister C would like to do as well. Unfortunately, his wiring projects always cause me to have to do drywall repair and painting so I'm kind of hoping that he doesn't get around to these particular projects.

The biggest change in our home has been the change in Master J. He has blossomed this year. He's been getting progressively better. At least until he went on Christmas break. Now, he needs to get himself back to school and back into progressing forward.

So I guess we'll see what 2010 brings us. But I really think it is going to be a great year. May you all be blessed with a wonderful, prosperous year full of friends, family, fun and new experiences. See you next year.

It can't be that far off...

It's been kind of gray around here the last few days. Grayness makes me not feel as chipper as I normally do. It drags me down. It reminds me why I live in Sunshineville in the first place. While I dislike the few gray days we get around here, I also recognize that the majority of my friends are dealing with much worse weather than I what with the blizzards and generally crappy weather they've had the past few weeks. So this post is for them as well as for me. A little bit of color from last spring at the Desert Botanical Gardens. This is as close as we'll get to the blooming season for a few months, so enjoy...

Merry Christmas

I hope your day was filled with joy, family and friends, or at the very least that it was memorable for it's moments of chaos and mayhem...

The Night Before Christmas

What we were trying...



The reality...



What we ended up with...

It's Festivus!

That's right, today is December 23rd the traditional day for the celebration of Festivus! Woo Hoo! I'm looking forward to the airing of grievances and I've been practicing for the Feats of Strength for the past hour or so. Let's all hope for a Festivus Miracle! Happy Festivus!

Blond moment #1057

So earlier today, Mamoo informed me that Master J had mentioned that he had seen a swear word on my phone. I assume it was from a text message I had received at some point, most likely from a certain friend (hi Brandy!) Anyway, there's been some issue with a little boy liking to "help" his mom by fetching her phone for her when she gets a text message. Apparently his intent is really to be just a tad bit of a busy body. I don't like him to read my messages though. Not because they are generally so full of interesting new curse words or anything either. Honestly if we're trying to prevent the acquisition of new foul language I'm going to have to go on a speaking hiatus. No, it's really more of a "it's none of your business what my business is" issue. So I got smart. I went into my fancy phone and set it so there's no "preview" of text messages when they come in. I need to go into the little text icon to fetch my message. Aren't I just the brightest little thing? Fast forward several hours. I sent a text to a friend to let her know I hadn't forgotten her. I immediately got back a text from her. When I picked up my phone and looked at the screen, I shook my head and said to Mister C "What the hell? Brandy just sent me a text message and do you know what it says? It just says "text message". What do you think that means?"

To which he replied "That you have a text message you need to go in and read?"

And again I am reminded that Mister C really has front row seats to his own comedy show. He just sits back and waits to see what I'll say next.

One is the loneliest number...

At least according to Papa it is. See these two adorable puppies playing nicely together? The one in the back, the one that's standing on the other one? That's the female that my folks decided on last week.




This one here? That's her brother. The one being beat on in the above photo. The one that they decided they had to adopt as well. Because they didn't want the first one to be lonely.




I didn't get it from strangers.