New Year, (almost) Same Post

I can't quite let go of this streak, even though I haven't written since last January!

1. What did you do in 2019 that you’d never done before?  Hmm...I learned to do string art.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I don't make resolutions

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? A few Facebook friends

4. Did anyone close to you die? Grandma Long, Adam's Aunt Sandy, and just last night, My Aunt Sandy, plus our cat Tippy. 

5. What countries did you visit? Another year stateside for me

6. What would you like to have in 2020 that you didn’t have in 2019? More financial stability 

7. What dates from 2019 will be etched upon your memory, and why? Hmm nothing jumps out at me.

8. What was your biggest achievement of this year? I've still feeling good about my work

9. What was your biggest failure? I read and wrote less this year than I have in a long time.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?  Not me, though I helped my mom when she broke her shoulder. 

11. What was the best thing you bought? My fitbit versa 2

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? My kiddos accomplishments 

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Ugh, Donald Trump. (Some more)

14. Where did most of your money go? Bills 

15. What did you get really excited about? Finding what works for me to start getting healthier

16. What song will always remind you of 2019? Shallow Lady Gaga

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer  or poorer? Things are looking up for all three of these!

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Reading and writing

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Stressing out

20. How did you spend Christmas? We had a quiet but lovely day at home. Comfy clothes, games, and watching the kids enjoy the day

21. Did you fall in love in 2019? More and more every day with my husband and kids

22. What was your favorite TV show? The good place

 23. What was the best book you read? I did a lot of rereading when I read this year

24. What was your greatest musical discovery?  Lol the Frozen 2 soundtrack

25. What did you want and get? First family photos in 6 years

26. What did you want and not get? We didn't go away for our anniversary like I had hoped.

27. What was your favorite film of 2019? Frozen 2 (sorry)

28. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 37. I worked and had chocolate cake lol

29. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Less stress and anxiety in general

30. How would you describe your personal fashion concept of 2019? I kept up my haircut. I kept it mostly comfy this year however I could

31. What kept you sane? Adam and the boys, family and friends, audiobooks, music and YouTube 

32. What political issue stirred you the most? Donald Trump is still president

33. Who did you miss? My sister, my grandparents and my great aunt and my little Gabriel.

 34. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2019. Some years are going to be nothing spectacular, and that's ok.

 35. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. 

Crash through the surface, where they can't hurt us
We're far from the shallow now

Big Changes

Wow it's been like two months since I've posted. In my defense, my life has been CRAZY! In the last two months:

• We moved! It actually happened! We sold our house and bought a new one and everyone made it to the new place in one piece!  Moving is terrible! I can't find my stuff! I have a ton of unpacking and projects to do! My new neighborhood is great, though. The house is great too, although we've already had a few hiccups. On to the next bullet!
• We had a ton of rain and then water leaked into my mom's room in the basement. BOO! Our friend/contractor came over last weekend and he and Adam graded the ground on that side of the house--apparently it was somewhat sloped down toward the house, which isn't good. We've had a good 5 dry days but more rain in expected tomorrow so fingers crossed that it's fixed the problem!
• We had to have some electrical work that was supposed to be done after inspection repaired, which was super annoying. Then we had our friend/contractor fix it some more. We'd asked that all the ungrounded 3 prong plugs in the basement be grounded, but the replaced them with 2 prong grounded plugs, which these days are pretty useless! Since we needed to plug in computers and the like, our friend changed them out.
• Did I mention our neighbors are so nice? The realtor that sold the house lives across the street with her husband (who I recently found out is the dad of a guy I went to high school with). Two doors down from them is a guy around my age that works at Tyler's school. He brought over coupons for Macy's the first weekend. We also met the neighbors on both sides of us. There is an elderly lady to one side and a middle aged couple on the other. We are particularly fond of Mary (who is deaf and I'm fascinated by sign language)  and her husband Kevin. Kevin found out that our mower had died (literally the week before we moved) and I looked out my back window one evening and Kevin was mowing our grass. SO NICE!
• Where did I leave off with the book? I think I mentioned we were seeking out professional editing. Our publisher recommended a couple of people and we ended up working with a guy named Rob. His price was fair and he was very willing to edit without making huge plot changing suggestions. He cleaned up our technical writing a lot (God bless him, I hate that part) and made some great suggestions that we were able to incorporate with only minor edits and additions, but that I really feel make a big difference. And he's just all around a really nice guy and he really seemed to like the book and admire our writing. He was particularly impressed by our synergy writing together.
• Once we incorporated Rob's edits, we sent the book back to our publisher. About a week ago, we got the edits and their smart-edit report back. This publisher offers this report on all books they publish--basically, it's a list of possible grammatical errors, commonly misused words, works that are possibly overused, and other such things that their computer program can recognize. They are very clear that you can chose to make no changes based on the report. I thought it was pretty helpful and made a good deal of very minor tweaks, most of them on the repetitive word issue. The manuscript went back to the publisher late Sunday night and now we are OFFICIALLY in the production queue! A publishing date should be coming very soon, along with their proposal for our cover art!  So exciting!
• I got a promotion at work! I've done the same job for 11 years (at least in title, although the job has changed a lot over the years) and I've been searching for a new opportunity with my company for a long time. It's been difficult. We are a large corporation, but my office is relatively small and opportunities are very limited. About a year ago, my boss helped me make a big push to take on leading the group of people that do the same job as I did. The girl that coordinated the group ended up going on maternity leave (she was the one who was due around the same time I would have been with Gabe), so I performed a lot of her duties while she was out. When she returned, she didn't really go back to doing that portion of her job. They posted the job as a hybrid-type role--someone who would have regular shipping and invoicing duties (that's what I do (did)) and also act as coordinator and lead the team--train new associates, update work instructions, liaison with other departments, develop new process, etc. I am very happy that I got the opportunity and I had a lot of support. It's a lot of work, but I'm glad to be more challenged again.
• Unfortunately on the work front, I'm really juggling things at work now, covering for a coworker that is out on medical leave and preparing to cover for an invoicer that is leaving as of next week. Remember when I did the Canadian invoicing and then went to Ontario to train their new hire. Well, she's leaving. So now I'll be doing that again.
• Aside from that, there has been birthdays, field trips, and not nearly enough sleep!

Oh, one last thing! Kelly and I created a separate website for author/book stuff. If you'd like to follow us there, just visit positivevoicewrites.wordpress.com . All of our social media is linked there as well.

What a year I'm having!  The book, the job, and the house have been things I've wanted for a long time and they are all going to become a reality in the course of a few months! It's awesome and overwhelming!

10th Blogoversary!!!

10 years!  I have been writing (on and off, but I had posts every year) here for 10 years! Granted, I have very few readers, but still, I have to give myself points for longevity. Maybe I just like to hear myself talk?  LOL anyway, I'm still here and man, a lot has been documented here in the last 10 years--high points and low points.  I've documented the birth of my kids, my losses, my infertility journey, the joys of motherhood and marriage, the trials over everyday life, fitness journeys, new homes (more to this coming VERY soon!), and now my journey as an author.  There are posts that are merely funny and some filled with deep thoughts and self-exploration.  I know not many people read my ramblings, but I go back and read them sometimes and I'm glad I have them written here.


So if you're reading, thanks.  And past me, thanks for taking the time to document these memories.

Work in Process

It's starting to feel more real! After signing our contract to publish our book with Black Rose Writing, we started researching professional editors. Black Rose does some editing, but very minor, and the recommend you consider this. We decided it was worth it to put the best product possible out there. I contacted several editors for quotes and we settled on an editor who was really excited about our story. He's working on the book now and should have his edits to us this coming week!  We're setting up a call with him to discuss his suggestions--although we made it clear we were looking for grammar, punctuation, spelling, continuity, etc, not plot or character changes.  He mentioned that he felt we didn't need a lot of editing compared to what he usually sees and also that he was impressed by our synergy--being able to blend our writing styles together seamlessly. I'm excited to see what he thinks!

We also had some photos taken of use last week for our bio. A friend of Kelly's (my friend and co-author) did the photos and I really love how they are turning out so far (she took a ton and is still editing). Kelly and I both hate getting our pictures taken, but I think we got the best shots possible. Some of the shots were from a park right across the street from where I grew up. The rest were done at a business nearby that is covered with professional graffiti.

So by the end of the week we should have the edited manuscript back, then I need to start going over the changes. We also decided to change the setting from a fictional town in Ohio to a fictional town here in Indiana. We've been hearing so much about the issues from our book here where we live that we decided it was important to "bring it home" so to speak. I'm guessing the editing process will take me a couple of weeks. I'm hoping to get the final draft to the publisher by mid April or the first of May at the latest. That time line might have gotten more important (and difficult) as of this week, because we have an offer pending on our house. I don't want to say much yet, but things might get crazy very very soon so wish me luck to juggle all of this!

Once our publisher gets the draft back, they'll put it through their editing process and then we'll start talking cover art, publicity, marketing, etc. Wow, this is for real!

Here are a few of the best shots from our photo shoot.

Besties and co-authors.

Kelly - The creative mind that came up with our novel.

What a cool background!

Us in black and white

This is probably my favorite single shot

Just me

All about Christmas!

I'm so predictable. I nearly vanish in November and December every year. I suppose it's a busy time for everyone. My job is EXTREMELY busy around this time of year, and this year is, if anything, more so! I'll be covering for the maternity leave for a coworker (well, a coworker from Birmingham) who is the go-to for all things for my group. Side note: It's a little hard to swallow, as we were literally due the same week. Anyway, I'm fielding lots of questions on invoicing and year end stuff. It's interesting and different, but can make getting my normal work done a little challenging.

So yeah, busy. I need to finish my Christmas shopping too. This weekend we took the kids to see Santa. We went to the mall this year. The last two years we attended an event at Tyler's school, but they didn't have it this year. The kids did great and were super excited--a change from last year when AJ was afraid of Santa.

Waiting in line! Blurry because they couldn't stand still from excitement!

They've been (pretty) good this year! AJ looks so deceptively innocent here.

We continued the Christmas preparation weekend by putting up the Christmas Tree.  I remembered that I planned to do a blog post about a few special Christmas ornaments, so I snapped a few photos after we'd finished.

Oh Christmas Tree!

Turtles!  Tyler's friend made him these!

Can you see tiny little me? Circa 1989

This used to be a rocking horse, until our sheepdog Shasta knocked over the tree one year and gnawed off a leg and the rockers.

Last year's obligatory Christmas Craft!

Tyler's first ornament! He loved that toy!

AJ's first ornament, complete with his footprint!

The ornament I bought the first year Adam and I were together 2002.

My first ornament! 1982

Our nativity scene--we put it down low where the kids can play with it.

We usually hang the stockings on bookshelves (no fireplace), but we put the shelves away this year, so command hooks it is!

Busy weekend and now it's the week again!  Any guesses on if you'll get another blog post before my New Years Post???

What's next?

I should be 18 weeks pregnant right now...we should have just found out, or be getting ready to find out, that we are expecting a baby boy.

I try not to think of that too much. I actually do have to stop and think of how far along I would be.

I've had my first few run ins with people who didn't know about the miscarriage. One was at the grocery store. We know a lot of the people who work there and one of them asked me when I was due. Surprisingly I didn't cry. I didn't really give myself time to. Then at work I offhandedly mention the work I'd missed at the end of June and she made a comment that told me she didn't know. So I had to explain. A few weeks ago a coworker came to me and said he was sorry, that he'd heard about the loss.  I did cry that time. But I also thanked him. It means a lot to me when people acknowledge it.  Of course it makes me sad, but sometimes I'm more sad that people don't bring it up. I know it's awkward, and I know people don't want to upset me. So I just remind myself of that.

My sweet coworker even drove by the cemetery where the memorial will be held. She lives nearby and she found the little area and sent me a picture. I was really touched by that. I think we should get the invitations next month, since it'll be in October.

I still want to name the baby, but mom and Adam haven't really seemed concerned about that. I don't really want to do it alone. I feel like at this point it's "too late" even. But I'd hate to have to write "Baby Boy last name" on the list for the memorial and I really would like a name to refer to. But would it mean something at this point? Or just be arbitrary? I don't know. If we conceive again I have got to come up with names or at least a nickname for the baby.

So that brings me to the future. We will be trying again. My hcg level was down to 3 last weekend and I had my first period just 4 weeks after the D&C. I also had a positive OPK last week, so I know I ovulated. My OB wanted me to wait until I had a normal period to ttc. I'm assuming my next one will be normal (the last one was maybe a little heavier and slightly longer). I'm not sure if we'll try then or not. Sometimes I am excited to try, yearning for it. And sometimes I'm overwhelmed and scared and anxious. For now I'm taking it a day at a time.

So what else has been going on? Tyler went back to school, big second grader!  He immediately caught those pesky germs (sinusitis, apparently). AJ is going pee on the potty just about every time, although he rarely says he needs to go, he just happens to be holding it until we take him. He's going to have some dental work done soon and I'm dreading it. My poor kiddos seem to have weak teeth!

We're still working our butts off on the house. We are sooooo close to done!  Just two more indoor projects and a few outdoors, if the rain will ever hold off! I'm spending time every evening scrubbing things, ugh. 

That's it for now...Here are a few pics of the First Day of 2nd Grade and a few bonus shots of the State Fair visit on a super rainy day.

Tyler is holding up 2 fingers and AJ is trying to copy him LOL

Mommy with the Boys!

With Daddy and Little Brother

Farmer Tyler

AJ didn't mind the rain--at first!

Deputy Tyler

Traditional New Year Post!

 Predictably absent from the blog for most of November and December. Seriously, that ALWAYS happens!  Anyway, updates to come shortly (I hope), but for now, obligatory New Year's post!  It's 2016!?

1. What did you do in 2015 that you’d never done before?  I traveled outside the U.S. for the first time, to Canada.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I don't really make resolutions, per se, but I wanted to refocus on fitness and I didn't really manage that.  My focus for most of the year was making progress on the house, and we did make some good progress.  This year, I really want to FINISH the home improvement projects and sell this place!!  Next New Years I hope we are in our forever home!  I would love to get back to my fitness goals as well, and Kelly and I really want to get closer to trying to get our book published. I think of these as goals more than resolutions. Is there a difference, really?

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? My dear friend Mandy had her adorable son Kellan!!

4. Did anyone close to you die? Hmm, I don't think so, not this year.

5. What countries did you visit? Canada!  It was fun and cold!

6. What would you like to have in 2016 that you didn’t have in 2015? I would like to be able to buy a bigger house that suits my growing family better! (same answer as last year AND the year before)

7. What dates from 2015 will be etched upon your memory, and why? Hmmmm...I don't know of any particular date this year that sticks out.

8. What was your biggest achievement of this year? We made some awesome updates to the house.

9. What was your biggest failure?  :( Gained back some of the weight I lost...Boo

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?  I hurt my pinkie finger over the summer while painting Tyler's room...it still bugs me a little bit. 

11. What was the best thing you bought? I guess I'd say my Galaxy S4, so much better than my old phone.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Always Adam for rolling with the punches and putting up with me!  Tyler doing so awesome in school!  AJ for learning so much!

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? SOOOO many terrible shootings! Depressing!

14. Where did most of your money go? Bills, diapers, food

15. What did you get really excited about? House hunting, which keeps getting put off, but is still fun! 

16. What song will always remind you of 2015? Fight Song by Rachel Platten

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer? Happier! Fatter (Boo)  I'd say slightly richer (money isn't tight quite so much).

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Eating better and working out more

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Stressing out

20. How did you spend Christmas? We stayed home with mom and my sisters. We had a big breakfast and a big dinner and relaxed.

21. Did you fall in love in 2015? More and more every day with my husband and kids

22. What was your favorite TV program? Big Bang Theory, Dancing with the Stars, and The Little Couple

 23. What was the best book you read? The Little Couple's book

24. What was your greatest musical discovery? Rachel Platten

25. What did you want and get? To make progress on the house

26. What did you want and not get? A promotion and a new house!

27. What was your favorite film of 2015? Mockingjay Part 2 and Pitch Perfect 2

28. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 33.  I worked as always (end of month), and my family celebrated me and twin.  I am happy to know that THIS year, my birthday is on a SATURDAY!

29. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? If I had had more time to take care of things

30. How would you describe your personal fashion concept of 2015? I am currently OBSESSED with Leggings!  They are seriously so comfy!  I swear, I only wear them with long sweaters though. I'm also in love with the boots gifted to me by work, which are super warm.

31. What kept you sane? My hubby, my kids, my mom, my sisters, my family, my friends, and my coworkers! Talking and writing and laughing and music!

32. What political issue stirred you the most? I do not get involved with politics if I can possibly help it, but please God, please Lord do not let Donald Trump become President.

33. Who did you miss? My sister, my grandparents and my great aunt. My family when I traveled

 34. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2015.  One thing at a time

 35. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. "Even if we can't find heaven, I'll walk through Hell with you. Love, you're not alone, cause I'm gonna stand by you" Stand by You-Rachel Platten

The State of the Fair

Shew, we are feeling the heat in the midwest!  Or maybe it's just because I'm coming off a weekend of yard sale and State Fair?  Well, it's hot, regardless.  We did a 3 day yard sale and then the very next day we spent the entire day at the State Fair.  I learned my lesson, we were almost too tired to enjoy the fair this time around.  My feet hurt after about an hour.  Still, we had a good time, especially the kids, at least until AJ's naptime came around, then he MELTED DOWN big time, so we called it quits.

I'm feeling short on words today, so I will default to pictures! :)

Pony Rides! (I want to crop myself right out of these pics)

AJ is excited for his turn.  Daddy is excited watching Tyler ride, I think.

Ach, he's so big!

He LOVED it!  Grinned and chattered the whole time!

AJ running, free of the stroller for a moment

Farmer Tyler--This tractor had a TV screen inside that simulated the view from a real tractor, so cool!

Goofing around at lunchtime

This was a remote controlled robot-thing.  AJ was terrified of it.

Another type of horse!

Tyler and Daddy take on the Ferris Wheel

AJ loved the train! Until it was over, anyway.

Staycation 2015

Thanks for the comments on my last post ladies!!  You're so sweet!

Last week, Adam and I took off work to spend some time with the kiddos (before Tyler goes back to school NEXT WEEK) and to accomplish a few things on the house.  The weather wasn't exactly cooperative (rainy, stormy at times and HOT) but we did manage to paint our bedroom (which included the walls, ceiling, and trim) and Tyler's room (just the walls). I feel pretty good about that, as I wanted to tackle two projects and that qualifies, although I would have liked to tackle something bigger that will be more of a challenge on a weekend.  We went with a warm tan/sandy color in our room and although I'd planned to do white in Tyler's room, he convinced me to let him pick a color (with guidance) and chose a light blue, which I ended up being happy with.  I was very sad to paint over his stamped paw prints, though!  It broke my heart a little bit! We did leave one behind, at his request, and I'll just paint it over before we move.  Oh, I did have a bit of an issue when we were taping off Tyler's room.  I was finishing taping the ceiling and had just one piece left to put up. I was trying to reach, using a three step step ladder.  As I was reaching, I thought "I'd better just get down and move over, or I'm going to fall.  So I started to get down. And the ladder tipped over and I fell.  Oops.  I actually cracked my head pretty hard on the door frame as I went down, which was a little scary.  Luckily, aside from a bad bump and a headache, I felt okay, not dizzy or anything.  I had put my hands out though, and the pinkie on my left hand got sore pretty quickly and swelled a bit.  I sat down for a few minutes to make sure I was okay, and then we went ahead and painted.  I felt fine, just a little sore and then a lot sore the last few days, pulled muscles and stuff. My head is still tender and muscles in my upper arms and neck are pretty sore.  My pinkie is still swollen, stiff, and aching, so I am wearing a little splint on it, which makes typing interesting. My backspace button is getting a workout!

Other than painting, I tried to take the kids to the park, but it was too muddy, so I let them play a few minutes at the indoor playground at chick fil a, but that was pretty awful--crowded and the lack of manners of the kids there made me crazy.  Instead, we took the kids to to Monkey Joe's on Friday, which of course they loved.  And they are still young enough that they are tired after about an hour, so that works for me!  Adam and mom both go auctions, so they spent some time on that.

Friday was our 11 year anniversary (can't believe that) so we planned to go out, but it was really storming and literally POURED for like 5 hours, so we stayed home and went out Saturday night instead.  We had dinner at Texas Roadhouse and then drove around for awhile, looking at houses for fun.  Then we got some fro yo at Orangeleaf (YUM).  After that we hemmed and hawed over what to do and ended up at Goodwill, where Adam found some awesome deals to sell on Ebay.  Then we stopped at Walmart to get a curtain rod for Tyler's room and got AJ some socks (I swear, he has dragon claws, he gets holes in all his socks) and got the kids some PJs.  We laughed at how dull the evening probably seemed, but we had a really good time anyway.

So there you have it, our staycation!  I leave you with pictures!

AJ got ahold of my phone. He also erased all my pictures. Thank goodness for auto back up!

Tyler at Monkey Joes

AJ getting ready to slide!

Whee!

Farewell Pawprints! (And our initials, which Adam put there way back when)

Painting-Adam, you're doing it wrong

Bedroom color-it's actually a bit lighter than this. The other pic I took, you can't even tell it's not white

Tyler's room--it's blue, I promise. #bad lighting Also pictured: Coconut the Monkey's whole family and my old friend Whiskers the seal

My boo-boo

10 Favorite Things About Being a Mom

I'm such a thief, I'm stealing this idea from Amber at Old Lady No Baby again!  It's such a great idea and with Mother's Day just having past, I couldn't resist!

1. HUGS!  KISSES!  SNUGGLES!  I can't get enough and it seems like my kiddos agree!

2.  I love it when my kids master a new skill or accomplish something new.  That rush of pride is amazing! Watching Tyler read an entire book with almost no help amazes me!

3.  The things kids say! The other day, I was changing AJ's poopy diaper and he said, "Oh AJ!  What a mess!"  I cracked up!

4.  I love when other people think my child is cute/smart/funny.  It just thrills me!  Tyler got to "pin" my sister at her graduation ceremony last week and he went bopping down those stairs and giving thumbs up and everyone laughed and I was like HE'S MINE!

5.  Laughter!!!  We do a lot of tickling in our house!

6.  Unconditional love.  I have it for them and they have it for me and it is THE BEST.

7. Watching my boys bond.  They really do adore each other!

 

8.   Falling in love with them and their daddy all over again, every day.

9. I'm a special person in their lives.  The cries of "Mama!" from AJ when I get home from work or Tyler's face when I surprise him picking him up from school is AWESOME!

10. My kids make grateful.  They make me want to be better.  I want to be a good mom for them and a better person.  I'm a work in progress and they make me strive to better myself.  I really think that being a mom is the most important thing I will ever do and it's up to me to give them a good start.  I don't always do as well as I'd like, but because of them I keep trying!