Sick bed...

I have been really sick these past 13 days. I have done nothing more than lay in bed or on the couch in a Nyquil coma. Full blown flu and then laryngitis to add insult to injury. Casey and Alex have been holding down the fort, managing the day to day, meals, dogs, and the sicky.

But as of yesterday I am feeling on the mend. I was able to get up, do some laundry, shower because I wanted to be clean not because I wanted heat and steam, eat more than one meal, and actually skipped a medicine dose! Today is even better, I fell into the morning routine before I even realized what I was doing. The paper was retrieved from the lawn, the coffee was perking, the dogs were out and running around, and Casey wasn't even down stairs yet!

It feels fabulous to be inching closer to a healthy me. And I dropped about 10 pounds during this flu , bonus!

January 2011 masthead

Hello Reality. This year for all my mastheads, I am going to post pictures of me cause I want too. No Photoshopping allowed. So welcome* the wrinkles and crow feet and dark circles and ruddy skin. Welcome to Nicole ala Reality. *grin*

* edited to change ingore to Welcome, per Nicole's suggestion because really it's just a passage of time. Time that holds a marriage, a child, my life. Thanks friend!

New Years Eve, perfect

We spent New Years Eve at home this year, just like years past. There is a comfort to ringing in a new year within our own walls, with our cooking, our libations, our family and friends. If last night is any indication to have 2011 will be like for us, then we are in for a great year.

Me, tired, happy and anticipating a new year.

Casey, Master and Commander for all things fun.

Alex, a blur all night, there were way too many Nerf fights, snacks, and fireworks to explode to slow down.

Kim, girlie girl with the Fouey pup. The background image is a great peek into the crazy times we had.

Robert, Copilot and instigator of craziness.



The Mess to Success Project

In tandem with my own little New Years listy goals, Sunny told me about a project to purge 111 items from my home during 1/11. Neato I said! With just the four household messes listed above I should no problem hitting that 111 mark.  I will check in each Friday during January to see how my mess to success mission is going.

Thanks to Jenny at Words on Wendhurst for such a great idea!

Trimming the Life Fat

It's Limbo week, that odd week of the year where the holidays are over and the New Year has yet to start, which means everything is in reflection. I have all ready made my prep list and have moved on to thinking about what I would like to cut out of my life in the next year. For a girl who loves lists, this is the perfect mental workout!

Tangable:

1. Facebook games, I admit it, I love to zone out on Frontierville. The missions, the cropping, the holiday events, it's a vice AND a mega time waster. It takes away time I could be spending with my family, on my house, cooking recipes from the stack of cookbooks we have, gardening, puppy playing, LIFE.
2. Couch time, the TV is ALWAYS on. Time to make some rules about when the TV is on and what is being watched.
3. Paperwork, the sheer amount of paper, mail, contracts, reciepts that we have/store is CRAZY! I want to start purge and organizing this better than it currently is. Maybe even look into Neat Reciepts again.
4. Clutter, it is everywhere, enough said.
5. Processed STUFF, think foods, sodas, snacks, ice creams, etc.  I know how to make all that stuff, so I need to just make it instead of buy it.

InTangable:

1. Stress, I am my own worst enemy. I CREATE stress for some stupid reason. New Mantra= Less Stress is More Living
2. Anxiety, which is closely related to stress. I can work myself up over just about anything.
3. Arguements, I have slowly been realizing that many of the arguements that I am involved in, I start. Ouch!
4. Cursing, yeah I can and do sound like a sailor. Time to stop, I want to sound as educated and classy as I really am.
5. Expectations, I hold a high bar to everyone else but myself. So I want to drop other's bar and pick mine up.

Obviously, my New Year is working towards making a New Me.

The Art of Preparing for a New Year

Every year like clock work, around 5pm on Christmas Day, I get a strong urge to organize, clean, declutter, plan, prepare, and make loads of lists. This year was no different. My mind has been swirling with ideas and plans for 48 hours, so here is my list of prep to be completed by the New Year, with a grace period of course.

The Prep List

• Set up a new Bill Box, Receipt Box, and Contract Box for 2011
• Organize and prep for storage the 2010 boxes listed above.
• Purge the Pantry.
• Mini Goal: Get everything up off the floor.
• Take down Christmas!
• Organize the storage of Christmas
• Label storage Boxes.
• Make a list of what is needed for Next Christmas and tape to Ornament Box
• Prep Spring decoration box
• Paint fireplace and touch up blue walls.
• Hang Mantel Mirror and setup a candle decoration
• Organize, Purge, and deep clean Master Closet.
• Organize, Purge, and deep clean all bathrooms
• Super clean the Fridge and Freezer.
• Organize and Purge books.
• Take books to resale store.
• Take Donations to Goodwill, AFTER the New Year
• Organize my office closet.

Whew! I am going to be busy.

The Christmas Elves



Alex's Winter Wonderland

 This is the first Christmas that Alex has displayed a bit of "I know who Santa really is" wisdom, which really meant that his Christmas Magic level was a little low. So I cooked up this idea to make a ton of snowflakes and hang them in his room on Christmas Eve so he would wake up to a Winter Wonderland.

We had our good friends Kim and Robert over on Christmas Eve night, so we put them to work with paper and scissors and crafted a bunch of Snowflakes. Elf Kim up'ed the anty by bringing a bag of glitter snow which was scattered all over his room to make it look like Narnia.

The hilarity was barely contained while we tried to be quiet hanging these up in his room, but we were successful because Alex didn't wake up at all!

These are the memories I hope he will never forget. These are the things that we love to do as Parents, make things just a bit more special.

His snowflake room makes us all smile, which is exactly what we aimed for.

Foiled, but I am still Happy!

Two weeks ago I dared myself to post through the month of December so I could start off 2011 with my 800th post. Then I got the Mother of All Colds, which is still hanging around in the form of an irritating cough.

Regardless, I am still Happy.

Christmas with my family was Happy, Fun, Sweet, & Good.

Now I am in that weird limbo between the MEGA holiday and a New Year, and I feel like I should be making lists and goals and plans.

But all I can think about right now is taking a hot hot bath with a good book and playlist.

782- All most thwarted!

Whew, that was a close one, I got sick yesterday and wasn't able to post.

Because all I was able to do was lay on the couch under a down comforter, with two dogs piled around me, a glass of water just out of reach, the remote, and a pile of phones. I only surfaced to greet Alex at the door after school, and to shovel some of Casey's cooking in my stomach, and then I passed out again.

I had to work today, like REAL work, as in I needed to get fully dressed and presentable because it wasn't virtual work. Of course the first time I have to do this in 6 months I am dog ass sick.

Enter the love of my cracked out existence, Dayquil tabs. I am so wired on DQ right now that if I stop and look at something with a pattern, my vision gets all sketchy. No joke.

Casey asked me if I am at the heart palpitation part yet. Said like a true veteran of must work a contract while deathly sick days. I am not that bad yet, but I could be if I dose myself one more time. So I won't. Instead I am going to go sit in a hot tub, rub Vicks on my chest, drink a gallon of water, and crawl into bed. Before 9pm.

I have 5 minutes to enact my plan!

19 to go!

I have been blogging/journaling for a long time. I started off on LiveJournal and moved here to Blogger years ago when I wanted to open my blog up to more readers without requiring a login.  Well today's post marks my 781st post here at All the Moments. I can hardly believe it! Apparently I have a lot to say! So I have challenged myself to end the year strong by posting 19 more times in the next 24 days so I can start the new year with post 800!

My Rules*:

1. No picture only posts. Feels like a cop out to me. Maybe i can bend this one for Christmas day.
2. Only 2 listed posts, or else I will just be random poster girl.
3. At least 1 post per family member, cause they are so special to me, and I sometimes forget to talk about them in the midst of talking about me.
4. 1 Final Day in the Life post for 2010.

I am excited! Any suggestions of posts for me?

* I need rules cause I will bend and break them if I don't establish them. :)

Tangled no More

I did it! Ignore my puffy eyes, I had a horrible allergy attack.

 I have had long hair FOREVER! Like really long, it touched the top of my waist band. It had gotten to the point that it was always in my way, getting tangled, and was a headache maker. So this past week I got the idea in my head to donate it it all to Locks of Love. I checked out their site, measured my hair, and then promised to find someone to cut it. The very next day I mentioned it to my friend Kim, who also has very long hair, and she said her stylist will cut and style our hair for free if we donate! Next thing we know, we have a double appointment on Friday.



I have a lot of thick hair, isn't this crazy?!

 I ended up cutting off 14 inches and coloring my hair a shade darker due to a ton of sun and pool damage. I LOVE the shorter length, it's sassy and light and fun. Now I just need to get my donation in the mail and practice drying my hair. :)

What keeps us going



Twinkle Light in the morning

 Cliches have been sliding through my thoughts lately. Phrases like Hope Floats, a Man is an Island unto Himself, It's always greener on the other side of the fence, even lyrics like "Hearts and Hands and Smiles". All these unbidden ideas have been surfacing in the waters around my shores ( to continue the island idea).

When he left for work today and we exchanged Good Byes and answered final queries, I shut the door and wrapped my hands around my warm mug and thought to myself that we were islands, drifting parallel, stopping to discover each other like Unique Columbuses. We tied our anchors to each other and set down roots to hold our islands steady. Alex erupted like an undersea volcano, breaching into his own island, one that is docked between us till he is ready to drift on his own. His island wild and young, green and loud. Close to cultivating civilizations and deep dark forests. Our jobs to buffer him from the world's storms and open him to the world's calms. A trio of Islands, clustered, harboring and holding.

So what keeps us going through the storms and calms. Cliches once again rose to the surface of my mind. One after another, they based themselves on a simple concept. Easy to grasp when you do it blindly with faith. Hard to grasp when your eyes try to focus and direct.  Hope. It keeps us going with every motion and plan. We wake up and Hope that there is coffee. We plan and plot and outline the best possible course, and Hope that our life follows that chart. We send prayers and well wishes across the miles, sheltered in bubbles of Hope. We Hope that the cake tastes as good as it looks. Our trust is draped in Hope. Our love is unlimited in Hope.

I wonder what we can accomplish if we openly and purposefully see the Hope in every situation? Would the storms batter at us with duller edges? Would the sunshine be brighter and more crisp? Would our roots pull up and tangle themselves beneath our islands, nesting us together as we drift? Or would Hope thicken and deepen our roots, settling them into the core below?

 Irregardless, Hope is here. It feds us, shelters us, softens us, strengthens us. So maybe, just maybe, Hope is actually the waters that we Float upon.

Snippets of Love, Life and Loss

• My Mother in Law was here during the Thanksgiving week and let me just say, I Love That Woman! She is calm and supportive and funny and open. We all miss her and can't wait to see her again.
• Casey has been busting his ass to learn a new class to teach and test out on. Scratch that, TWO new classes to teach and test. His first test is this coming Saturday with the second having to be done by the end of year. He is literally the best study-er I have ever seen.
• Our Grand Am blew up this weekend, it broke a piston rod, which makes it nothing but scrap to us. Luckily the service manager at our repair shop wants to buy it, so all I have to do is take him the title, sign it over, get some cash, clean out our stuff and hand over the keys. She was our growing up car, she hauled us all over the place ever since Alex was a newborn. Good memories, good car.
• Our neighbors Yorki was hit by a car this weekend and died. We were the first ones there and Casey was in the process of moving her when they came home. It was horrible, I have never seen someone grieve like she did. The parents were out of town for the holiday week so it was just the daughters at home, both in their early twenties, but neither having had to deal with something like this before. We tried to do as much as we could to help. Casey handled the body and cleaned up the street as best as he could. I tried to direct traffic and help the younger sister help her older sister. There are so many what-ifs and I-told-you-so's for this accident, but the thing that I want to take away from it all is to make sure that our pets are always secure, collared, and safe. It was just so sad and so needless. We both came in the house and snuggled our little pups all night.
• I have been putting together a playlist of music that MAKES me want to move. Like The Killers, Things that I have done, omg that song puts a wiggle in my pants like nothing else. And the Ranconteurs Old Enough. And HELLO Aerosmith's Dude looks like a lady! And I must admit that Fergie's Glamorous is way up there too!  All in an effort to shake my booty to a smaller size. :)
• I finished a HUGE crochet project this past week, a gift for my SIL's. I totally forgot to get a picture of it. It feels great to wrap up a big project like that.
• Steady work starts up for me again next week, which is FABULOUS. I am really looking forward to teaching live classes again. And a steady/bigger paycheck is always welcome.

Noticing the Home.

Perfect Autumn light.

I feel like I am saturated in the elements of my home. I have been noticing all the small details that make this place ours, the objects and views that are so familiar they are all most like loved ones. The daylight hours have shortened and it seems like Mother Nature has decided to make each light filled moment that much more special. Everything is golden, crisp, clear, and vibrant in these moments of seasonal death. Celebrating their lives instead of their demise.


Keeping Archie occupied with bird watching.

I am in the midst of cleaning for family visits, my mother in law arrives early next week. I am pushing towards that moment of clean when I can start "homing", making cozy niches and pleasing scenes. Piling quilts and towels, placing candles and glittering objects. Homing our house, creating comfort and cozy.

A glance into the kitchen that spoke to me of home.

Moving from room to room I keep noticing snippets that speak of us, the people who make the family within these walls. Coats and socks left out look loved and warm. Books and papers look inviting and interesting. The corner of the couch looks just left with lingering warmth. Puppies, like living hot water bottles, are at the ready for snuggling and mindless touches. Between all these bouts of cleaning and purging I see our life in the scenes of living within these walls.

I am so very Thankful for this life and those who share it with me.

Stopping for the signs...

I had a moment today when I realized that I need to stop for the signs more often. I need to listen for His whispering more. I need to acknowledge the not so subtle nudges and the blatant whammies. When the remote won't switch to the next song, just stop and listen. When my voice is low even when I am at my highest volume, just stop and listen to what is said. When I want and pine and need and crave, just stop and focus in through all that desires to find the core.

I blaze through thoughts, words and moments to get to what? What is truly so important that I can not savor words and memories and time? The point, the savoring of all the inbetweens...

The Fog has Arrived...

Planning

About this time of year I get a new planner. In years past I was a die hard fan of one type, but have branched out to other planners of the same style. I love to have sections of each of us and I really dislike planners that break down the day into hours.

I found this new planner a couple weeks ago and I LOVE IT! It has a everything I want/need in a planner and most importantly I use it. :) Due to this new planner I am on the ball for Thanksgiving, most of my prep for MIL visit is done, and Christmas is all most completely purchased and planned for! Fabulous if you ask me!

The Final Walkabout

It has taken me a little while to be able to write about Betty. I miss her, I keep spying her out of the corner of my eye, in nearly every room. I even heard her for the first week and would reach down absent mindedly to stroke her head. She has been gone for three weeks now. It only took us an hour to see the huge puzzle piece that was newly missing from our life. She was a large part of our daily living, especially at the end when she needed so much medical care. I selfishly think to myself that I could have gone on cleaning, disinfecting, wrapping, and praying for her. But Betty couldn't have, she was miserable enough at the end.

She took one long walk about around the yard with all of us, people and pups. She explored the watermelon bed, crunched through the falling leaves, rooted her nose into Bella's legs to move her along. She stopped by Alex's heels, licked a hello and wandered on. She followed Penny and walked shoulder to shoulder with Archie.  She drifted into Casey hand and rub. She kept her face down to the ground, inhaling all the scents that make up our home.

I like to think of her in that last hour on her walk about around the yard, instead of the true last hour of her life. She went blessedly quick, with my arms wrapped around her and Casey and Alex's kisses lingering on her head.

She is truely and deeply missed.

Hello November

 I am loving this month, yes we are only 3 days in, but there are so many great things to look forward to in November for our family. Lots of work, new contracts finalizing, my mother in law coming for Thanksgiving week, the end of fall semester for me, a week off for Alex, and the last of our Christmas shopping completed! Not to mentioned cooking loads of fabulous food!

 I took down all the Halloween stuff this afternoon. I had said that we would leave it up for another week, but I was just OVER it. I love Halloween and all the excitement it brings to Casey and Alex, but it just felt wrong to leave it all up ( even though we had only finished decorating inside on the 30th). so I put it all away and discovered in the process a bag of Autumn goodness that I had bought last year on clearance. I had completely forgotten all about until I spied some of the glittery goodness peaking out of a bin that I thought just held random holidays. talk about Autumn bliss!

So I put it up and added our pumpkins of all sorts, the flame less candles and our little squirrel candle holder. Happy Happy Autumn!!

* Ignore the touch up painting I need to do around the fireplace, I can barely contain the groans when I think about more painting.

The weekend in hindsight

This past weekend was a complete whirlwind. Looking back over the 72 hours that it made up I can see why all three of us are exhausted today. Feel free to skip this next part if you take my word for the weekend craziness.

Alex had a Halloween party, I hung out with my parents for a couple hours and then made a late run to the airport to get Casey, we picked up Alex around midnight on the way back form the airport and then made a stop at Walmart to see if they had any fog machines left. Came home and passed out around 2am, was woken up by the doorbell, it was my friend who I said I would go to the farmer's market with, delayed 15 minutes to take a fast shower and dress, strolled said Farmer's Market. Came home, did some more decorating inside and tried to manage the mega piles of laundry that sprouted out of our carpet. Dropped Alex off at my parents house so Casey and I could have dinner out for our anniversary. Discovered that we had been at the restaurant 3+ hours (so fun!), made a late night run to grocery for beer, came home and decorated the front yard for Halloween at 11pm. Passed out at midnight, up early to get Alex from parents house, home to finish decorating with Alex, more laundry, some cleaning, a term paper, an accounting project, ordered pizza, trick or treating, home to hand out candy with Casey. Broke down decorations at midnight, in bed shortly after, and up around 4am because Casey had to leave on a business trip. Whew! 

But between all the madness I happily loved on our new wall color. Ignore the catastrophe around it. That would be the leftovers from Halloween, late night trip packing and weekend living.

 I also present to you the mess that was me after painting the popcorn ceilings in the living room and hallway. This was the light amount of spatter, my chest and arms were all most completely white. Loads of work, but so worth it! Yes that is paint on my lips and near my eye. I get into my work. :)