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January 14, 2003
Macy - 3.5 yrs old
Erin – 11 months
January 10, 2003
I’m going to start this entry but I feel certain I won’t come close to finishing it. My sister and my nieces are still here and for the moment the house is quiet. Macy and my niece Elena are playing in her room, Erin is napping and my sister is laying on the couch with my other niece watching Blue’s Clues. Ahhh… the sweet sound of silence!
I really want to get an update done about the entire holidays, but I think that would just take way too much time! So, I think I’ll do a quick over view….
My in-laws came to town the Saturday before Christmas. They stayed with my SIL and BIL over the weekend and came to our house on Monday. We went over to my SIL’s house for dinner Saturday night. It was really nice not having to cook and clean, but it was pain having a child that was just learning how to crawl in a house that is occupied by 4 cats and big black furry dog. I know they try to keep the dog hair up, but there is a pretty good thick coat of it all over their house. So, I either had to be holding Erin or she had to be in the portable high chair. Don’t get me wrong, we had a really nice dinner, but with an 11 month old I’ve found it’s almost easier to just stay home!
On Sunday we all played hooky from church and spent the day shopping. This is not something we would normally do, but that was the only day we were all going to be together other than Christmas day. Only my DH had the part of the week off, so we had a grand time at Discover Mills (Discover Mills is an awesome outlet mall, but it’s all enclosed). We sent the guys shopping at a different mall and they caught a movie. The girls did really well being out all day and I was really proud of them. I really have to have some of the most portable children. They just load up and go anywhere and have a great time doing it. When Erin gets sleepy she just nods off in the stroller. Macy also loves to shop! I think she likes it more than I do.
January 12, 2003
Well, I knew I wouldn’t get finished! It’s taken me 2 days to get back to writing my entry and I’m not sure how far I’ll get this time. Erin is napping, my sister is taking a nap downstairs and my niece Elena is helping Macy clean her room. My DH just called and they let them out of class early (an hour early to be exact), so my time will run out quickly.
January 14, 2003
You can see how far I got last time! Now I think I can get caught up. I took my sister to my Mom’s last night and my step Father is taking them to the airport this morning. It was really strange getting up this morning and not having someone there to share in my morning cup of joe. I’ve had company for a month! So the house seems strangely, but pleasantly quiet! I will miss my sister so much, but it was time to get my house back and get back into a routine.
So, to get caught up I think I’ll do a quick recap of the past month…
As I mentioned, my in-laws where here the week of Christmas. We really did have a great time. We shopped until I just thought I could not shop again and we ate, played cards till all hours of night, watched movies and just generally hung out. We got into playing this game called Phase Ten. It was so much fun. We would start playing as soon as we got the girls down and wouldn’t stop until close to midnight every night. We laughed so hard that more than once I had to run to the bathroom to keep from wetting my pants.
Christmas Day was fun. It started out pretty stressful because my SIL and I got our signals crossed and didn’t have our act together. But, it worked out for the best. She wanted to come over and see the girls come down in the morning to see what Santa had brought them. Then she was going to go home, get ready, and come back with her husband for us to all open presents. Well, I started to freak when I realized it would be 11 am before we opened presents. My Mom and Step Father were coming at 11 to see the girls and see what they got for Christmas. I really don’t like to change plans with them as my Step Father is not know for being flexible. I thought I would really get an earful. It turned out fine. We didn’t start opening presents until 10:45 and my Mom said it was fine if they came closer to noon. And it was neat because that gave everyone time to shower and dress and Macy and Erin had about 2 hours to play with the things Santa brought them before they opened all their presents. That may not work next year as it may be hard to keep a 4.5 yr old out of the presents, but it worked fine this year.
We cooked a huge meal later in the day and had a really nice dinner. I didn’t have to cook everything, but I did more than enough. And after we got done with dinner and were sitting around stuffed and exhausted we made a decree to change Christmas next year. We decided we’re doing a pot roast in the crock pot and using paper plates. We’re having lunch instead of dinner and we’re not going to be so tired that we can’t enjoy the day. We eat that same big meal at Thanksgiving and Christmas should be more about enjoying each other than working so hard for a meal that last 20 min. So, we think we can do something really nice without stressing ourselves out. I’m excited!!!
The day after Christmas was AWESOME!!! My MIL and I set out at about 7 AM to hit the stores. We were at the mall at 7:30 and we shopped until around 1 PM. We met my SIL for lunch and then we went to see a movie in the afternoon. My DH and my FIL stayed home with the kids all day and I got entire day off! What a treat! I think I’ll make that and annual tradition.
My sister and her family came in on Friday and stayed with my Mom. On Saturday night we went to my Mom’s for dinner and my in-laws went to my SIL and BIL’s to see his family. It was so great seeing all my family. We had a great time playing in the front yard with all the kids and they really enjoyed each other. I have 3 nieces and a 13 yr old cousin. He played with the kids so great and that really helped us be able to relax. I can’t wait for Erin to be running around with them next year.
The rest of week we spent between my Mom’s house and ours. She lives about 15 min away and my older sister and her family stayed with my Mom and my middle sister and my nieces stayed with us. On New Year’s Eve day I got a babysitter to keep all 5 kids and the ladies all went to lunch and shopping. It was my Mom, my 2 sisters and my aunt. It was such a nice day. You would have thought someone let the roosters out. We laughed and caused a scene at the restaurant, but it was so much fun.
New Years Eve, everyone came to our house and we had pizza and just hung out. By the time the clock struck 12, everyone had gone home and I had been in bed for 30 min. So as usual I rolled over just in time to watch the ball drop. I gave my DH his New Year’s kiss and back to dream land I went - the perfect New Year’s Eve.
Kelli, my oldest sister left on Monday after New Years and my middle sister just left this morning. It was fun having Carla (my sister) here (her DH left the Monday before New Year’s), but it was so tiring. Having 4 girls in the house under the age of 5 is a lot of work. But, my sister and I traded off a lot so I was able to get out and shop a few times, she was able to take some time to herself and we just pitched in and helped each other.
Let me tell you a little about Carla…. She is 2.5 yrs older than me and until she had her first child I would say we were anything but close. I would say we pretty much lived in different worlds and didn’t get along at all. We couldn’t be together more than 10 min without fighting. We both got married within a few months of each other and we lived in different cities. She was a big professional working women and I just wasn’t into that lifestyle. I had become a Christian when I was 20 so despite my efforts to heal our relationship we just had nothing in common. Before my sister got pg with my niece, she started attending a Bible Study with a girl she met at the gym. She soon became a Christian and we started talking more (trust me, my line was always open, but I think she just thought I was a nerd and we didn’t share any of the same interests).
When my sister had my niece she asked me to stay with them to help her for the first week. I was working for my Mom at the time so she let me have the week off (it’s a long story why I was asked to come and not my Mom. I think my Mom has always regretted not being there). Sometime during the week that I was there, she and I started to connect. I went out to get some pictures developed and when I got home she was crying because I was leaving and she didn’t want me to go. That floored me; she has never done anything like that before. (Okay, later I found it she had some pretty bad post partum depression, but it still made me feel good that she wanted me there.) About 2 days after I left, she called and really needed me to come back. She was in the pits and needed my help. I rushed right down (about a 5 hour car drive). By the time I got there she had gotten on medication and was better. But, I stayed the entire week and that was the beginning of what is now a beautiful friendship.
So fast forward to today… I would have to say that she is truly my best friend and our relationship has far surpassed anything I could have ever imagined. I’m so thankful for her and the time we have together!!
So, that catches me up to today. As I sit here the house is quiet. Macy is in preschool, Erin is taking her morning nap, the sky is crystal blue and it’s freezing outside. My house is destroyed from one end to the other and I really don’t care for the moment. I’m just taking a few minutes to sit back and reflect over the craziness of the past month. Thankfully, I’ve scheduled someone to come and clean my house on Friday so I have all week to get things picked up and ready for them to come. I don’t normally have my house cleaned, but there are just times when you need some extra help and this is one of those times.
The next big thing on our agenda is my DH is leaving a week from Thursday to complete the international part of his MBA. He’s going to Romania for 10 days with his class. They will partner with a Romania school and study business and they will work on an international project that will take him right up to graduation in May. This to me is our biggest hurdle. Once he gets passed this it’s all down hill. He’ll only have 3 months left before he graduates and that will be so easy compared the past year. We can and will make it!!!
Also, my baby Erin is going to have a first birthday on February 1st. I will write a much longer entry about that later.
I can’t do a first entry of the New Year without talking about my resolutions. Yes, I’m one of those people that make resolutions every year and I break most them before January is over. I guess they are more goals than resolutions. I like to set certain goals or things I would like to accomplish by the end of the year. I figure if I don’t set any goals then I for sure won’t achieve the things I’m striving for. So here are my goals for 2003…
Once and for all I want to start getting this weight off!!! I say that every year and some years I do better than others. This HAS to be the year!!!! I’m done having kids, I can’t use that as an excuse. I have a membership to the YMCA, so I can’t use bad weather as an excuse to not work out. And basically I’m not getting any younger and I have to do something about it now or I fear I never will. My goal is simple… I want to lose 5 lbs a month. That makes me 60 lbs lighter by Christmas. I have about 120 lbs to lose but I figure 5 lbs a month is an attainable goal. I’ve lost weight before but always manage to get it back on. Thankfully, I’m not a big yo-yo dieter. I actually weigh the same thing today as I did the day I got married 8.5 yrs ago. So I’m great at maintaining my weight and I can take weight off pretty easily, I just have a hard time keeping it off. I’m sure my weight loss efforts will take up a lot of space in my diary this year.
Secondly, I want to read my Bible the entire way through this year. Our church is starting a campaign to have its members read through the Bible in a year. I’ve probably read the entire Bible at one point or another, but never all the way through in one year. So far it’s going well and I’m off to a great start. My DH is doing the same thing. Our relationship to the Lord has always been an important part of our lives, but I have to admit as a couple we have gotten off track in past few years. We use to always pray together and read the Bible together. Well, now that we have kids and life is busy we don’t spend the time developing that part of our relationship as much as we use to. So, I’m excited about it and I’m really going to make the commitment to do it.
Thirdly, we have some family goals. Getting DH graduated from his MBA in May. We want to spend more time as a family. We are making the commitment to slow down and enjoy each other more. And we have great plans for this summer; we are planning a 2 wk vacation to celebrate his graduation and a time to reconnect as a family. We are also going to spend some time reconnecting as husband and wife. I hate to admit it but our marriage has taken a back seat to most everything else in our lives. It’s not because we want it to, but it’s been the easiest to let slide. Thankfully, we had a strong marriage going into this program and we still have a strong marriage. But, it’s also easy to forget your priorities and we don’t want to do that.
Also, I have big plans for our house. We decided to not sell our house this summer and we’re about to refinance. This is a really long story, but in a nut shell we have a peace about staying here. So, we are going to take some money from his bonus this year and do something’s we’ve been putting off because we thought we would be moving soon. Along with that I’m going to try to make a commitment to watch my spending on stuff we don’t need so we can put more money back into our house. I’m sure I’ll talk about that more as the year goes one.
Okay, now I think I’ve caught up and I’m looking forward to the future. I have all kinds of plans for when DH is out of the county and I’ll post more on that later as well. I have some surprises for him when he gets back, but I don’t want to reveal it here, since I’m not 100% sure he doesn’t read my diary. I’m about 99% sure, but I don’t want to chance it.
I have no organizing tips for this entry. At this point I’m just going to try and put my house back in order.
Well, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and has a blessed and Happy 2003!!!
Love,
Lara, Macy & Erin
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