a new era

It's funny but even the cynic that I can sometimes be (thanks in part to a cynical hubby) is filled with hope over our new president. He may end up sucking like the last one but at least his speaking skills will not become fodder for The Daily Show. We won't have to endure any more smirks that make us think that he doesn't really believe what he's saying so why should we? Anyhow, it's over, so I don't think I'll dwell it. We watched the inauguration on Tuesday like a lot of other people and we prepared E for the big day. Of course, since then, anyone who's on the TV is called Obama. So maybe she doesn't really know who he is specifically. ;)

Along with the new administration, I'm back on the WW bandwagon. A little less intensely than the last time but still in hopes to keep things in check. I gained 3.5 pounds over the holiday and I'm sure that not working out has shifted things in the downward direction a bit. This week I was back down 4 pounds, just for keeping track of what I was eating. I'm sure we all know where this will go next week! Rather than 5 days a week at the gym, I'm working on a more relaxing schedule... more walks in the evening with the whole family (we go whenever it's not raining) and this week I've even incorporated a few workouts at the gym. My goal is to drag my butt out of my warm toasty bed into the cold dark air of the house and make it to the gym only 2 mornings a week! That's not bad. However, that's been my goal since I returned from CA and I haven't been there once yet. It does not help that I put a blanket over the window and it's even darker in the morning than it was!

Ever since we returned from vaca, I can't get the kid to sleep in a bed for love nor money. For the last week, the poor thing has been sleeping on the floor, on her sleeping bag, behind her closed door (which we had to close otherwise she would get out of bed for an hour each night after we said goodnight), her little face peeking under the crack in the door. I wish I could get a photo but I can't. I feel, and I'm sure M will agree, like horrible parents but we have tried all angles. At the end of the day, we are the parents and we set the boundaries. We need to suffer the crying of our child so that she will sleep better (she actually sleeps really well on the floor and wakes up happy) and so we will. I can't wait to see how it is when we go and return from Ireland next year.

Well, I know I'm cutting this off but if I don't post it now, I'll forget until it's 2011... Talk with you cats later. :)

Quiet times

It's been a whirlwind of a month and if you are on Facebook, you already know all this. Plus if you watch the news, you probably know that we had the worst snowstorm in a few years right before Christmas. We loved seeing the snow fall the first day, we walked every day we could and we even went sledding down our hill. I guess that was the only advantage to living on a hill in a bad snowstorm... sledding was good and very close to home. Our deck had about a foot and a half of snow. The girl was home every.day. And I found out the disadvantage of working from home! You don't get to take snow days! What! Just because I don't drive to work doesn't mean I shouldn't get to enjoy a bit of fun like everyone else.... But no, I had to work and E was home the whole time. It was challenging to say the least. It certainly makes me appreciate stay-at-home moms even more than they can spend the whole day with their kids. Every day. Anyhow, this photo was taken when M went to the store with E in the sled and on his way back, she dozed off. It was too cute so we sent it to our local area blog and she made the front page briefly before she was kicked off by yet more snow coverage.

So, the week leading up to Christmas was very uneventful in our lives, just slow torture where you could not really get out of the house and/or your child did not want to walk in the snow so you either had to carry her everywhere or stay inside. We thought briefly that we would not be able to fly to So Cal for Christmas but at the last moment, we got a break and our neighbor agreed to drive us. I only have two photos of the girl from Christmas, that were taken on a Fl1p video camera... forgive me the crappy shot.

Oh, and to add to that great list of December 2008 items, I've probably gained back 10 pounds! WAH!