Changes in 2009

On eve of 2010, I reflect on the changes that have happened in 2009 -

Working at the Y, easiest job - E.V.E.R. -1st real job since 2001
Leather couch- never in a million years did I think I'd get this, because Josh hates leather
Tiled entry way (started in Jan 2009) and hopefully the other half will be finished in 2010
New cat, not wanted, but part of the family nonetheless
Nursing School, again...
Lia Sophia, never, never thought I'd go into direct selling, but I love it!
Collin potty training - this is H.U.G.E.
Running in a race - and actually jogging the better part of it!

Overall, 2009 was a hard year, I started it really not liking myself - and ended it in a little better self image than I started it, so even though there's room for improvement, I am going in the right direction!

Poop is cool

We have been potty training Collin!! And he's finally starting to go to the bathroom without constant prodding from us. He's even wearing underwear at night, which has saved us SO much money on diapers and wipes, it's wonderful!

Tonight, he yelled "Mom, I go poppy in the toilet, come wipe my butt"

I went into the bathroom and do my motherly duty, while praising him and telling him what a good boy he is, he turns to me and says, "my butt is cool, it shoot out the poop"

What a NUT BALL!!

Christmas

The morning of Christmas came later than I had expected, it was 7:40 am this year, I assumed it would be 3 or 4am, looks like we wore the children out on Christmas Eve!!

They had a wonderful Christmas, they got Wii games and instruments and action figures, and can't forget the Nerf guns!!

It was a wonderful morning, and then mom and dad napped.... after naps we went to Grandma and PaPa's for games and food. It was a day full of Super Mario World and puppy chow... I must go to the gym now...

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we went to Leah and Bob's house (my in laws) and we had a wonderful dinner and re-enacted the Nativity. Leah sat down with the ceramic nativity and told the story to all the children (my favorite quote of the night was when Gma said "do you know what an inn is?" and Nick answered, "it's like a hotel or maybe a motel"). Then the kids re-enacted the nativity, they get dressed up with towels and ties and pillowcases, this year we had 2 angels (Lindsey and Kiley Jane), 2 Mary's (Maddie and Jordan), 4 wise men (Josh, Collin, Clay and Nick), Cregan was the Shepherd and Scott was Joseph, Baby Jesus was a baby doll. After that we sang songs, Cregan always has to do a solo of course... a future rock star and all :)

Shortly after we headed home and let the kids open their pajamas and took their picture in front of the tree. They headed off to bed, and Clay was so excited he exclaimed that he wasn't going to be able to sleep at all that night, and guess what he was the first one out!!

Christmas Cookies

Yummy

Christmas Miracle

A month ago our computer "crashed", and I've been without all the conveniences of the Internet, it's been driving me insane, and just when I can't go another week without a computer....it's back and ahhhh, sigh of relief, now I have a skip in my walk, a smile on my face, a laptop in my arms..... all while checking my email!!

4 miler

On Thanksgiving Day, Sophie and I ran the Flying Feathers 4 miler in Dublin. I had been "training" for this for a couple of months and had gotten to run periodically to a 3 mile run and just thought to myself, well I'll just walk the rest. The day of the race was very, very cold, but it was so exciting to be with these 1000's of people all gearing up for the race. The race started and Sophie, who's just so fit and in shape, is pumping me up with excitement, she's just contagious with it! Well, I tell her to go on ahead of me within the first 1/2 mile, I'm a very slow jogger and I know I'm slowing down her speed. So I just truck along, la te da and next thing I know I'm a the 1 mile mark!! So I walk for about a half a second until I realize I'm not that tired, so I go on, and there's the 2 mile marker!! Still not too tired, I walk for about 1-2 minutes and then go on jogging again, it went like that until the end, I only walked probably a quarter of a mile!! And jogged the rest, I could NOT believe it! It had to be the adrenaline and the fact that kids around 9-10 were jogging it too.

I was hurting later, my knees were so sore but overall I felt really good and very happy! We ended up going to my Tanya's for dinner that afternoon and then Sophie's later in the evening. It was a wonderful Thanksgiving!