1. I am a natural blonde. I have never colored my hair – even in my rebellious teens!
2. I love the C has the same hair as I do, although, as he gets older, he’ll probably not like it…
3. I am a hard person to be friends with – I can be moody, stand-offish, or competitive at times.
4. On the other hand, I am also loyal, I know how to have fun and I love to make people laugh.
5. I like to send people “real” mail.
6. I love dogs. I really want either a cocker spaniel or bulldog someday.
7. I still miss my Moo. I think about her almost everyday.
8. I love being a mom, I seriously love being a mom to 2 boys.
9. The hubs and I have been together 13, married almost 10. He is still my best friend.
10. I love to scrapbook. Capturing the memories for my kids makes me happy.
11. I have a strange addiction to scrapbook paper.
12. I love to read. Currently, I am addicted to teen vampire novels.
13. I love to take photos.
14. I want to improve my photography this year.
15. I set goals for myself each year, but I don’t talk about them very often.
16. I secretly love to go running if I feel like I have been sitting around all day or cooped up in an office. The act of pounding the pavement with my tunes is such a stress-reliever.
17. I never thought I would think that about running.
18. This is another one of those secret goals that I don’t talk about – I want to improve my running distance and skills this year.
19. But I won’t run if it is rainy or too cold. I’m not that into running (yet).
20. My favorite wine right now is Pinot Noir.
21. A great night to me would include wine, chatting and laughing with friends.
22. I love the spring and summer.
23. I would rather be hot than cold.
24. I wish I could work part time in the summer so I would have more time to play with the boys.
25. I love to take walks with them.
26. I am determined this summer to get us out hiking around MD. ((secret goal alert))
27. I think my son is pretty smart and am so glad that he is (finally) settling into school and working well in his class.
28. I think my friends are pretty cool. I wish I lived closer to some!
29. I am not the best of saying this to my far-flung friends, but I hope they know how much we miss them!
30. I love Athens. I am glad J doesn’t mind taking me there when we visit Atlanta.
31. I can’t wait to finish the basement and make it a GA room – A UGA room filled with my UGA pics, actually…
32. There will be some BLUE in it somewhere.
33. I still can’t believe I am in my mid-30’s. I thought it would be different than this somehow, although, now that I am here, I wouldn’t change a thing.
34. Well, maybe a few things – more time, less work, but overall, love the spot I am in.
35. I love to sleep.

Welcome 35, I guess I am ready for you!

In an effort to try new things and break out of my box a little, I decided to enter a little photography contest this month with one of the photos I took the other day. I had fun with the boys the other day and I really liked how some of the pictures I took turned out. So I decided to enter this one…

And see how it goes. This website does a photo contest each month. You can read more about it here, as well as see other entries. I am very interested in any feedback I get on the photo.

So while I am shaking on the inside for entering my photo, I am glad I finally got off the box (so to speak) and actually entered this month. So go over there and give me some love!

Bits shows me how it’s done…

C steps up his game, to show me his love.

I absolutely love that they do this with me. All too soon, they will think it is corny and not fun and will stop, so for now, I’m glad they think it’s a fun way to tell me they love me!

Oh and be sure to Click thru to see the rest of the set of photos. I got some fantastic smiles and the lighting seemed to really work for me. So enjoy and have a fab Valentine’s Day! We love you!

Telling secrets in the snow

Down the lane (this looks like a card to me)

My bearded love

Snow as tall as Bits

What I could forget…

I hope you all enjoyed the ((forced)) winter break and stayed warm!

Who decided to not be born until only 8 days before we were set to be down there. They had to evict her to make sure she was out just to visit me. What? You don’t think they purposely made her come out for my visit? Well, whatever the reason, she was worth the wait and I was so excited to see the baby!

I am so excited to have another niece, another purpose to be in the little girl section, another girl to spoil (and then send home to mom)…

So welcome to the family, little one. Know you are loved.

And C laughed at some fart jokes I told while under the famous UGA arches…

I am SUCH a professional. Seriously folks. The hubby buys me a big lens for the camera – and strangers actually think I know what I am doing and ask me (ha ha ha) for help with their own photographs, meanwhile, I tell my son fart jokes to get him to laugh so I can get a more natural smile. Fart jokes. It’s how professionals do it, I hear.

But making a change is hard work. So I am starting off slow.

Today I wrote a list of the dinners we make – whether I make them often or every few months, I included it on the list. This helped me feel better about my “standards.” Even if I feel like I am making the same things – shockingly I am not. I have about 25 different dinners I tend to make. (Who knew??)

Now that I have a list, I’ll make that my “Master List” and I’ll use it to help me plan 6 or 7 meals to make each week. This way, I can lesson the repeats and I hope find some new favorites. I’ll write my plan on the board each week so the husband can see his choices. (I tend to run them by him on Sunday while I formulate my shopping list and plan for the week, so he’s aware).

I only do 6 or 7 because we need to have leeway in dinners – leftovers, working late, stuck in traffic, tired, not feeling well, sick child, all reasons why we might have to go off plan.

To also help with this, we also downloaded the Groceries App for my iphone. This way, I can limit my wanderings around the grocery store. Not re-buy items we don’t need and hopefully spend better and wiser.

Future plans of mine include trying to add in new recipes for dinner. I would love to make more casseroles or crock-pot dinners. But I don’t know how or any good recipes (so send ‘em my way if you have them) and improve my cooking skills.

I plan to keep you updated through the year if we stick with it or decide we hate pre-planning and decided to rent a chef! (Ha!)

And you? What do you do with this question?

Welcome 2010. I could do a look back, but this time of year is when I start to feel blue, so I thought I would take some time to remember some sweet moments from 2010 so far.

• The light in the sky and over the lightly snowed on land was absolutely gorgeous this morning. It made me happy that I was actually up to see it and appreciate it on my way to work, even if all I had with me was my iPhone, I still got a reminder of the beauty!
• C jumps out of the car, turns slightly and flashes me a smile and a sly I love you sign as he heads into school. I am going through my last minute reminders “stay in green” “make good choices” “have a good day” and I hope he knows how much I love him.
• R talks non-stop about the fire engines and the ambulances and the lights and the siren, but he says “wer wer wer (siren sound)” instead of siren. If we happen to see one, he yells for me to follow it. I am grateful for this chatter that fills up my car and ears each night.
• Each night, I whisper to C and R, “sweet dreams are here to stay” and most nights the whisper it back. Do they know I would gladly fight away and demon or nighttime ghost that scares them? I hope they do.

So 2010 is here. I hope you are rocking it like me. Enjoy the little moments.

Monday Confessional

• I have not been keeping up with the Christmas Countdown as religiously this year. I think maybe the pressure to capture it to document it last year kept me on better track. But this year, we have done things, sometimes not in order, and sometimes not at all.
• We did make Christmas cookies! With no potholders! Who needs them?!?!?!
• Running does not come easy for me. I don’t actually like it much, but I feel like if I keep pushing the running will come easier. Not sure when.
• I like running music.
• I worked for over 15 hours in one day last week. Now I don’t want to go back to work.
• I am working on a way to casually drop that first part into every conversation with my boss for the next few days…just a casual mention here and there. “Oh you are traveling for the holidays? I would but I am so worn out from my 15 hour days…
• What? Not a good plan?
• I feel like I am not ready for the holidays and have completely avoided thinking about our upcoming travel to the Atlanta-area soon.
• I need to pack.
• Me and 3 other people. Soon.
• Damn.
• I can’t wait to meet my new niece! I think she is on the way today!

Well what’s yours? Come on, tell me what’s stressing you? What’s on your mind this holiday season?

That being said, expect posting to be light (even more so than now!) through the holidays while we travel and catch up with family and friends. I will be checking in here, but not sure how much posting time I will have!

Each day is numbered 1 through 24 and on the back of each card is a little folder with the days activity slipped inside. This lets me mix up the activities each year.

The inside of the front cover has a little elf I created reminding me to enjoy these moments:

As I know that all too soon, the kids will be too old, they won’t want to do the activities, will think that I am lame. But for now, they are having the best time.

This is C, working on making a chain for the tree, Day 1 activity.

So for now, I’ll take it. It’s just what I need to get me through this crazy month!

Oh and I’ll probably forget to post every day, but I will be updating my Flickr set as we work through our activities. So be sure to check here for updates! Enjoy your holiday season!