2008.

I've seen this on a few blogs, and it's a great way to sum up a year.

So here we go:

January:

christmas clean-up.
bailey turns 3!
stress at work.

February:
superbowl with friends.

wallpaper fiasco; bathroom redecorated
v-day at home, 3 years since we got engaged!
more work stress.

March:
first beautiful spring day of the year!

and another snow just a couple of days later!
and for good measure, work stress.

April:

I turn officially old.
my amazing husband makes it better with a table runner that is pure happiness and chocolate cake. he's so good. :)
oh yeah, and work stress.

May:

K graduates!

promotion at work. getting paid more makes work a little bit better, but doesn't solve everything. decide to take a chance...

J is done with the semester after lots of hard work done. 1 yr down (or 21 years, depending on how you look at it), 3-4 (or a million, again, depending on how you look at it) to go.

take first vacation day of the year. totally needed. head to NOLA

rock out and celebrate E and J's wedding

on the same day as the wedding, celebrate 5 years together.

June:
married for 2 years. :) still love each other. :)

thank all that is holy, and a very very generous set of parents, that I get to go to PARIS!!
J stays home, but enjoys a baseball game and nachos with the boys.

ups, downs, lots of steps, crepes, art, laughs, shopping, memories in Paris
damn, I miss this.

while in Paris, get offered new job (at home, not in Paris). make decision via lots of emails and motherly advice. excellent choice.
start new job, thank lucky stars for June.

July:
add a new member to our family.
Bailey considers running away from home.

August:
even though she's trouble, she's freakin adorable
we still love you too, bud.
J goes back to school.
thrilled with new job.

September:

generous parents take us to Mizzou for some fun

get soaked, but have a great time. see new J school.
visit the site of our first CoMo "date," first time J has been back since it burned down and was rebuilt. ahhh memories.

October:
lake shopping trip.
travel for work.
J has a birthday.

he reminds us how old he is (and shows of a new gift). not 30!
btw, I'm an awesome wife. just look at that face. :)
go to Chicago for conference, see sibs, spend Halloween in Chi-town.

November:

yes we can!
travel to Chicago again, this time with ines.
mecca.
and they even have breakfast. and we know this b/c we went twice. in less than 24 hours.
turkey day in Cleveland. Grandpa turns 90!
Rosie eats a starfish.

December:

dogs love each other. fight like siblings, but snuggle too. relieved that we didn't ruin Bailey's life.
bake ~11 batches of cookies in the month of December. most on one Saturday alone. forget to take picture of massive baking mess.
get Rosie to wear a bow. lasts less than a minute.

see family and friends, home and across the country. feel lots of love.

market, layoffs, gas prices. it's all scary, even more so at the end of the year.
feel blessed to have each other, and a pretty great life.
here's to a great 2008, and an even better 2009.

for my momma

Hi.

Yep, I'm back. :) It's been a little busy lately. And I love blogging, but the crap-ass laptop I currently have makes it take a good hour and a half to post. And when I get to use J's desktop (technically it's "ours"), I have pressing things to accomplish before he steals it back. Something about "papers" and "grading papers" and "doing well in school," or something like that. The nerve. ;) (really, he offers it up all the time, but I don't want to keep him from that stuff.)

All 2 of you can thank my mother for saying at Thanksgiving: "Why don't you update your blog anymore? I keep going to read it and there's nothing. I really liked reading it!" Leave it to good old mom-guilt. ;)

So, here's the bullet rundown of our life since, oh, like September or so (save the one election post):

• lots of school. J's doing great-- presented at a couple of conferences this fall, and we have REALLY REALLY exciting conferences to go to next year. THRILLED.
  
• still loving my new(er) job. (It's been 6 months, so not so new anymore.) a little scared about the economy, but my company has never had layoffs before. let's pray now isn't when they decide to start. for now, all is very very well.
• Rosie gets in trouble every 5 minutes, but we love her and couldn't imagine life without her. She recently got spayed and scared the crap out of all of us when she ate a starfish. She's doing okay now, though, so no harm no foul. That girl sure knows how to get into trouble, but she's equally good at being a sweet little lump of love. It's hard to stay mad at her for long.
• Bailey is great, loving having a sister, still getting lots of love without her jumping in his face. He's such a sweetie.
• I traveled all over in October and November: the lake to shop with mom + sis, Chicago for J's conference and spend time with the sibs, Chicago for an IKEA run! with the ine/ene/eens, to the west coast for work, to OH-IO for turkey day weekend (after actual turkey day with my family). That was a whole lot of running.
• J turned 29. pictures will follow. he hates that I like to remind him he's in his 30th year. :)
• tree is up, lights going up this weekend, planning an all-day shopping blitz to start/finish our shopping tomorrow.
  
• Thrilled about all-day shopping tomorrow b/c after the lake + downtown Chicago shopping + IKEA... well. Any of you that know me can guess that was a bit much. So I've been shopping free for about a month. I'm ready to go all-out tomorrow, all for other people. :) SO FUN!!!

That's all I've got for now... I'll try to do a big picture post soon to catch up...
J

ch-ch-ch-changes

and I'm not talking about David Bowie.

J has had some time off recently with a break between the end of his spring semester and the start of his summer session. If I were him and had a break from the massive amounts of reading and writing, I would spend my time: baking, shopping, napping, catching up on daytime tv, decorating, scrapbooking, practicing photography, having lunch with friends, playing with Bailey... pretty much anything other than what he's been up to:
Reading and writing.
The man gets a break from the usual, and guess what he does: he keeps on working. Figures, doesn't it? :) At least we know he's found something that he loves. He's managed to keep himself very busy with two reading groups (but they drink beer at a pub while discussing literature, so that's not really work, right?) and dissertation reading. This week he started an intensive language class, so he's buried in the books even more. I miss my husband who had time to hang out rather than study, but so it goes.

I guess that's not so much "changing" is it? Okay, well by "ch-ch-ch-changes" I guess I was more talking about me...

I started my new job last week. While there are so many wonderful things about my new job, and I was REALLY ready to start something new, I'm having some mixed emotions... Pros: more flexible time, less (or NO) 50-55 hour weeks, no tracking, smaller team, working with a new level of trainees, new material, getting away from drama and politics, better work-life balance. Cons: learning curve, different drama but still drama (not me, but around me), missing my friends in my old department, time not as flexible as I thought it would be, but not bad, traveling.
I think when I've got a couple of months under my belt, I'll be loving it, but at the moment, it's kind of like riding a roller-coaster. Overall, a good choice, but I think in the excitement, I forgot to remind myself that with change (yeah!) comes... well, comes change (hmmm) and change isn't always easy.

Bailey's got some change coming too, but that's a whole other post...