"For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will be found by you," says the LORD. "I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.
- Jeremiah 29:11-14

2009 is upon us! A focus in my life this past year has been that I can accomplish nothing by my own power and that - in giving myself to God's purpose and plans - I will live the fullest life possible. God wants this abundant life for us and desires for us to rely on His power to sustain us. Although this "out of control" sensation can feel scary, it will actually set us free! God knows the plans that He has for us, and they are for good! We can embrace this promise in the new year. We can also be assured that we don't have to know where we are going and that God will lead us step by step as we place our lives in His care. He longs to meet us exactly where we are, with all our mistakes, shortcomings, fears, and failures. HE is our hope and our future!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

"Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!" (2 Corinthians 9:15)

We are blessed and thankful for the birth of God's son, Jesus!

Oh gosh...

... I am a horrible blogger. Just to let everyone know that I am, indeed, alive and of fairly sound mind and body, here are some ridiculously cute photos. Consider them my way of saying "I'm sorry!", ye faithful blog readers. Oh, and also my way of saying, "Aren't my kids the stinking cutest?!"

Dominic goes to school!

I know, I know... My child can not possibly be this grown up. Dominic started preschool this past Monday and I'm not sure if he was more excited about actually going to school or about wearing his new shoes. Either way, the whole thing was absolutely adorable!

First haircut!

Adrian is so blue because he needs a haircut... (In actuality, A is blue for other reasons, but we won't get into that. It's working so well for the haircut theme.)


Tada! My girly man is a little boy again! :) He looked/looks ridiculously cute.

ONE-derful!

Our boy is one! Actually, our boy turned one a week ago and life has been a whirlwind ever since. My friend, Sarah, flew in on Friday for a visit and for Adrian's party. I haven't seen her since the fourth grade (well, I did see her once for a half hour or so when we were 14, but she doesn't remember it, so I don't count it - ha!) and we've been out of touch all these years. About 6 months ago, I reconnected with her via the internet and we just picked up right where we left off. It's pretty amazing! We had a fabulous, all-together-too-short weekend together and are already planning a repeat get-together.

Saturday the big one-year-old took his first steps! He took four or five and he is giving no indication of a repeat performance anytime soon. :)

Sunday was his big party in the park. It was a gorgeous, semi-cool morning with almost the whole "digger park" to ourselves.

Monday was his one-year checkup. The beast, as we affectionately all him, is still a beast. He weighed in at 23 lbs., 11 oz.! He also has an ear infection of which I had no suspicion! Poor guy!

So, yes... the first year has flown by. I am a bit sadly nostalgic that the baby days are mostly gone and I am quickly becoming a mother of two big boys. I am happy, though, to anticipate a future of much joy with my little people. I am blessed.

I watched Elena last week while Heidi went to her new job training. Having 33% more children and double the babies went remarkably well. I was even able to get some exercise and a couple good shots for Adrian and Elena's wedding video... :)

I lied...

... It's been way longer than a week since I promised a forthcoming blog. Is anyone still out there?

My mom and dad left early this morning after a three-day visit. I am insanely jealous of people who get to live geographically close to their families... especially those with children.

Speaking of children... Mine are growing up. Fast. I'm not sure that I approve of this. Dominic starts preschool on September 8. This is not too much of a monumental milestone for me in and of itself except as it relates to the fact that this time next year, my baby will go to kindergarten. That's right, folks. Kindergarten. Five days a week. For which he'll need me to buy him a backpack. This is serious.

And Adrian, my sweet little newborn, is on the brink of his first birthday. Was I not just pregnant with him, like... yesterday?

Whoever said, "The days creep by, but the years fly by" hit the nail on the head. This is how people get old. Why do I suddenly feel myself hurtling toward being a crazy old cat lady?

Whoa.

Although busy, life is good... No one is sick right now, Adrian is sleeping all night again (phew!), and they just put in a Cheesecake Factory a mile from my house. :) I will bloggity blog this week, I promise!

B-U-S-T-E-D!!!

Where have I been? Well, fielding dramanic (drama + Dominic = "dramanic"... one of my favorite and oh-so-appropriate words) of course! Actually, the "incidents" have subsided a bit since my last post. Now I am just dealing with the usual daily messes and accidents, per the usual. What a relief! (Knock on wood) I have discovered that there is a direct correlation between those "incidents" and the days that we stay inside for the most part and don't go anywhere or do anything. Let me tell ya... A trip every day somewhere is worth avoiding that!

Anywho...

So, in between diaper changing, kid-book reading, snot wiping, and feeding, I've been up to the usual... Having celebrities over for catered lunches, leaving the kids with their respective nannies and picking up a few things at Louis Vuitton and Versace, jetting down for quick jaunts in the Caribbean. You know...

Contrary to rumors I've heard are flying, I am still alive and still of mainly sound body and mind. Ok, so the sound mind part might be a bit of a stretch, but what's new, right? Since arriving home from North Carolina last weekend, I have been outlandishly busy with the norm, on top of playing fielder to my destructo four-year-old. Dominic has suddenly become fiercely independent and very... er... curious and "helpful" (his word, not mine). Let me give you a run-down of the past five days...



Day #1 - Dominic dropped a large-ish container of yogurt all over the CARPETED dining room floor. It landed in such a precise way that I am still cleaning up hard, sticky spots that have dried a good ten feet away from the area of impact.



Day #2 - During his "rest time", Dominic's four-year-old mind concluded that it would be a good idea to pour half a bottle of baby vapor bath down his drain (and, of course, inadvertently onto the carpet and every other surrounding porous surface) and dump a nearly-full bottle of baby powder down the vent in his floor. You can imagine the problems that I'm bound to encounter when the weather gets hot and I need to start running our A/C. Who needs air freshener? It's going to smell fresh as a baby's bottom in here for about the next 6 years.



Day #3 - Dominic got thirsty in the wee hours of the morning and decided that he needed a drink. I came downstairs the next morning to a skim of Juicy Juice covering an entire counter, most of the floor, and - of course - the areas between the counter and the stove and refrigerator due to the run off.



Day #4 - I vacuumed upstairs and forgot to bring the vacuum back down before Dominic's rest (read:terror) time. I went back upstairs some 20ish minutes into rest time and found the entire contents of the vacuum bag strewn around his room and a baby powder (in the vauum bag from day #2's incident) cloud hovering so thick that breathing was definitely difficult.



Day #5 - Dominic went into my bathroom in search of hair gel, apparently. He proceeded to find and spill the gel everywhere and also spray half a bottle of coconut-lime body spray and another half bottle of expensive perfume on himself and the carpet.

Today is Day #6 and I am living in active anticipation of the daily drama yet to unfold. So, I've been a little preoccupied and blogging has fallen a bit low on my list of priorities. Regular posting should resume when the children go to school or sometime in 18 years or so...

"All growed up..."

... As Dominic would say. And Adrian is, indeed, getting "growed up" faster than I would prefer! ;) He is officially too big for his infant carseat and now rides in the "big boy carseat" that Dominic went into when he was a year old. In the carseat picture, he is also wearing an outfit that Dominic wore at 18 months old! My chunky monkey got weighed on Wednesday and is 21 pounds. Whew! No wonder my back hurts! :)

Thursday

One kitchen table covered with markers, paper, empty yogurt cups, and Splenda packets, among other crap... Check.

One mommy with an unbelievably sore back and neck... Check.

One crabby, snotty, fever-y, teething baby... Check.

One wild preschooler who just "helped" me scrub the toilet (without my knowing, of course)... Check.

Ten loads of un-done laundry... Check.


This is the making of a bad day. I might just be able to justify a therapeutic trip to Home Goods.

You can tell me I'm a genious now or wait 'til later...

So, nothing makes me happier (well, except maybe cheesecake... or Vin Diesel, but that's another post) than finding a practical solution to an annoying problem. Yes, this goes hand-in-hand with my organization fetish. Want to make something of it? At any rate, I am marketing this one. I just solved every preschool mother's dilemma of little people washing their hands and then being too short to re-hang the towel that has inevitably been pulled off the rack and left on the floor on the counter. Check it out. I just never cease to amaze myself. :-P

Today we couldn't resist a trip to the zoo. The weather was absolute perfection and our zoo membership cards arrived in the mail yesterday. Seemed like a sign to me! We had a wonderful time - even little Adrian who rode in his stroller and didn't make a peep the 4-ish hours we were there.

Me and my cute matching boys! :)

Dominic - busy growing up!
Happy baby brother
Mpmmy and her "cubs" :)
This was just too sweet for words and I wish I could have captured it a little less "blurrily." Dominic and Adrian were riding the train and holding hands...

Ok, really... What is more frustrating than being wide awake all night when you are desperately tired and your baby is sleeping?! It's a curse, I tell you. This happens to me from time-to-time and really makes me feel like I am losing it. Adrian started throwing up yesterday evening proceeding a day consisting of much whining and crying. Mommy was spot-on, it turned out, with a diagnosis of "upset tummy." I think moms are built to intrinsically know when puke is coming. It's nature's way of sort of bracing us for the horror ahead. Puking kids just might be worse than insomnia. Anyway... Where was I again? Ahh, yes. Adrian puking. I think that my body was readying itself to be up all night with a throw-uppy baby and then... he slept. Well, he woke up twice in need of a paci reinsertion and that's where my sleep ended and my problems began. And now it is 5 am. I am tired. Yet awake.

In other news, one productive (?) thing happened during the night/my nap. I turned 26. Whoa. Didn't I just turn 18? Better yet, didn't I just turn 6? Why does that birthday party with the entire kindergarten class (sorry Mom) and sitting in the neighbors' tree house (something seems hazardous about 10 six-year-olds in a treehouse, but that's beside the point) seem eerily recent? Is this how people get old? Did I mention I have grey hair? I do. And not just one or two. Like, if I push my hair down against my scalp and look in the mirror there are at least six at any given time. Six thick, ugly WHITE hairs taunting my youth. I don't think that's gonna work for me.

So, I'm canceling my trip to the gym for today. I just made this decision in the last 34 seconds. I am pretty sure the whole grey hair thing pushed me over the edge and made me lose my enthusiasm. Well, that and the whole lack of sleep issue...

Did I mention I can't sleep?

Pretty baby

Crap crap crappity crap crap crap...

So, Skybus went out of business. They cited the cause being "soaring jet fuel prices coupled with a poor economy." Nevermind the fact that - I kid you not - they apparently chose the rudest, crappiest employees they could find which produced the most horrendous customer service (or lack thereof) that I have ever experienced.

I had sworn that I would never give Skybus my business again after our next already-purchased flight.

Which brings me to my dilemma: Our already purchased flight to my sister's wedding in four weeks. Skybus is filing bankruptcy and has basically told all of their customers that they are S.O.L.

Greeeeaaaaaat...

In other news, we've been car shopping all weekend. Well, I've been car shopping by proxy. Ian's been doing the dirty work while I sit at home waiting for him to call me and ask questions or bring by something on a test drive. It's working for me. We've pretty much settled on a Toyota Avalon, which we will probably go pick up sometime tomorrow.

So, that is that. Canceled flights, house and car buying, and the normal mix of everyday kid-related drama. I know, you're envious...

Yet another sign that you have children: You clean out from under your fridge and what you sweep up is a hodge podge of raisins, Goldfish crackers, Cheerios, and miscellaneous missing small toy parts.

Meanwhile, I am leaving Ian and running away with Matt Lauer. (Yes, from the Today Show.) If anyone gets the USA Weekend in their Sunday paper, read the article about spring cleaning and Matt's take on organization. Is he my long lost soulmate or what? He expressed my sentiments exactly when he said that he is in complete nirvana when he visits the Container Store. Ahh, Matt, it could have been so good...

Jenn's shower hosted by yours truly - note the beautiful bride

Happy Adrian
Flowers! These are like gold to those of us living in the Tundra
Wrightsville Beach, NC
Mommy and Adrian

I didn't know that my blog was so popular until I didn't post anything for awhile... a long while. I know, I know - I'm a slacker, but I have good excuses for being so. We got home from North Carolina last week. Dominic was already sick and Adrian and I immediately got sick upon arrival. (I'm sure it was caused by our bodies balking at the fact that it was 75 degrees when we got on the plane in NC and snowing when we got back off in Columbus...) Reentry from a trip causes mass chaos for a week. Having sick kids causes mass chaos for a week minimum, so that's where where my blog and I have been. Enough said.
Here are some photos. Go on, get your fix!