Annual Review

I do this every year. Here's the 2010 version-

1. What did you do in 2010 that you'd never done before? Moved with a baby, lived at Joe's parents' house, worked for the government, visited San Diego, supported the family solo.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I didn't make any. My goals for next year so far are to watch every movie Danny DeVito has ever been in, and to appreciate one of Joe's friends more.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Beckey and Dan had Olivia, Rob and Lauren had Nolan

4. Did anyone close to you die? My grandpa just passed away.

5. What countries did you visit? stuck to the good ol' USA

6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010? More time with family and friends, a comfortable happy life, confidence in general, and satisfaction with life as it is.

7. What dates from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? I don't have any days that I remember in particular. Maybe November 22 since it was my first day at my new job.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Getting my new job and moving home!

9. What was your biggest failure? It taking so long to find a new job.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Not really. I got a quick stomach bug a couple weeks ago, but that was about it. I can't complain.

11. What was the best thing you bought? New furniture.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Ramona! She is always impressing me with as she learns new things and becomes a person with her own thoughts and feelings.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? No one really. I guess it makes me upset to see people who are completely ungrateful for what they have and live with a sense of entitlement. But no one in particular comes to mind.

14. Where did most of your money go? Moving expenses. Between the actual cost of moving stuff and buying new things for our new place, we dropped quite a bit of cash on it.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? My new job and moving home! It's nice to start a new job and learn new things, and I'm so glad I get to see my loved ones all the time.

16. What song will always remind you of 2010? Tobe's Got a Drinking Problem by the Street Dogs and Mony Mony by Billy Idol because those are Ramona's jams.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? much happier
b) thinner or fatter? thinner
c) richer or poorer? richer

18. What do you wish you'd done more of? Appreciating what I have and learning new things.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of? Complaining

20. How will you be spending New Years? No big plans. I think we're going to hang out with Joe's parents.

22. Did you fall in love in 2010? Stayed in love with my sweet little family

23. How many one-night stands? none

24. What was your favorite tv program? Top Chef, Louie, Mad Men, Yo Gabba Gabba.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? Nope

26. What was the best book you read? The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (not that it was that great, but I didn't read much since there wasn't a library in Death Valley.)

27.What was your greatest musical discovery? Yo Gabba Gabba's awesome songs

28. What did you want and get? A new job and a move to Ohio

29. What did you want and not get? Joe to have a job in Ohio

30. What was your favorite film of this year? Harry Potter

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I am 27. I ate breakfast, went to work and played with Ramona after work.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Moving home sooner, but I can't complain. Better late than never.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010? Lazy.

34. What/who kept you sane? My sister and Joe.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? DJ Lance Rock and Tim Gunn

36. What political issue stirred you the most? Health care.

37. Who did you miss? My BFF from the Grand Canyon, Ann

38. Who was the best new person you met? Nobody that exciting.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010: Know what you want and go for it!

Zoo Lights and More

So Tuesday was an eventful day. It was the day Ramona turned 14 months old, the day we decided to go to the zoo lights with my parents, and the day Joe went to staffing agencies to do some hard core job searching. It was also the day I got my first postpartum period. It wasn't that big of a deal except that I wasn't expecting it at all. I mean, I knew it had to happen at some point and that my weaning of Ramona meant it would happen soon, but I didn't expect it that day, when Joe had the car so I couldn't run to the store to buy tampons on my lunch break. And then when I finally used a tampon for the first time in two years and had the worst cramps ever and spent several hours schlepping around the zoo with a cranky baby who refused to ride in her stroller and insisted in being carried ONLY by Mommy. No, it was not an ideal timing for that event. But we did have fun at the zoo and Ramona eventually cheered up (after eating a gingerbread cookie, of course) so it wasn't too bad. And it's certainly a sign that the weaning is almost complete, which I'm happy about.

Of course, the big excitement is Christmas. We had a really great time and Ramona was in an awesome mood pretty much the entire time. Christmas Eve we ran around finishing everything and wrapping presents and all that. We finally got everything together and went to my parents' house for dinner, church, and presents. We got some good stuff and I saw some people I hadn't seen in ages at church, so that was nice. Of course, it's always nice to spend time with my family, and Erin was a good sport about Ramona opening Erin's present a million times. After that we went home and crashed and got up early on Christmas to get more wrapping done before we headed down to my aunt's house near Columbus. It was the first time I'd seen her house and it was really cute. We had a great time there and got all kinds of great presents and good food and I saw a lot of family members (a few I hadn't seen in years, which was really cool.) We had to leave a little earlier than I would like, but we had to get back up north to eat Christmas dinner with Joe's family. More good food, presents and fun were had there.

So far it looks like Ramona's favorite presents are the activity walker thing she got from my Aunt Chris, and the toy broom she got from Joe's brother Chris and his girlfriend Stephanie. I think the thing I was happiest that she got was a hat and mittens, and I've got her trained to wear the hat already, but the gloves are not going over very well. Everyone was so generous, not only with the gifts, but with the time spent and the conversations had. It was one of the best Christmases I've had in a long time, and I was so happy to see Ramona spend time with her extended family on both sides.

Something New

As promised, here is a bit more of what has been going on-

I really am enjoying my new job. It is challenging and interesting and I really feel good about what I did every day when I go home. I feel it made a difference that I was there. And that is something that makes me happy.

Joe is still job hunting, but he's only been here a few weeks, so I'm not worried about it. My family is off of work and school this week, so we're taking Ramona over there Tuesday so Joe can work on his job stuff uninterrupted and meet up with some employment agencies. Then we're going to Zoo Lights! I'm excited about that.

We're getting the apartment together. Slooooowly but surely. We still need to buy a lot of stuff, but I'm kind of waiting to see what we get for Xmas first. (Although I did blow quite a bit of money at Ikea yesterday.) I had a lot of fun going up to Ikea with Joe and my sister and her fiance. Joe's parents watched Ramona while we went, and it was extra fun because Kathleen and Mitch had never been to an Ikea before. I got a computer chair, an easy chair, a coffee table, a mirror, and four dining room chairs. I have more stuff I liked and will get later, but like I said, I want to see what happens at Christmas.

I feel weird. I have been blowing a lot of money on material stuff (new clothes, Christmas presents, housewares, and furniture) since we moved back. I haven't really spent much money on things over the last few years. I feel kind of bad about it, even though I know it's not a big deal. I mean, I need all the stuff I'm buying. It's not like I'm just throwing money away on stupid crap. But I still feel guilty. Not so much that I don't deserve nice things as much as I don't like spending money on myself. I think I get nervous or worried about spending money in general. I don't know. I didn't use to have this problem. I guess I feel like I'm not any more deserving of nice things than other people who don't have them are, so I feel bad about having them because other people who are just as deserving don't. Does that make any sense? Oh well, after I get the house the way I want it I'll stop spending money on it, and I've been buying mostly quality stuff that I really like that will last a long time.

Ramona is happy and enjoying things. She is such a sweet, happy kid now, and it makes my heart melt to see her big toothy grin all the time. Her hair has gotten much darker and thicker all the sudden, just over the last week or so. It's still not anything to write home about and you could easily find hairier newborns, but for our little baldy it's pretty impressive.

I took her to JC Penney to get pictures done. They are pretty terrible. She was in a great mood, but had absolutely no desire to sit still and get her picture taken. We'd sit her down, the photographer would ring some bells and make noises to get her to smile, she'd give the lady a look of attitude, and she'd stand up, walk over and grab the bells out of the lady's hand. Then she'd start knocking down the set and pulling on the lighting. Then she'd walk out of the studio into the showroom and start taking down picture frames. So we got a few pretty terrible pictures of Ramona where she looks either really stoned or really confused. Then the photographer wanted to do family pictures since we would be able to hold Ramona still. I was kind of annoyed because I was not dressed to do pictures (and we weren't in any way color coordinated) and I was wearing a sort of low cut shirt, which meant Ramona was pulling it down in half the pictures and covering me up in the other half. But we did buy some, and I pick them up the day before Christmas Eve, so I'll bring them to family Christmas if anyone wants some.

Well, that's most of the recent goings on. Bring on the short work weeks and holiday parties!

Another quickie

Tonight we're spending the night in the new place for the first time. Nothing is really unpacked and we're sitting on the floor because I'm not buying new furniture until after the holidays in hopes that people will get me gift cards. But we have our new mattress, which is heavenly and our new desk, which is awesome. I LOVE the new place. I keep smiling just looking around and thinking "It's ours for the next year!"

All is well and I promise to do a longer, more detailed post at some point this weekend. Just know that we are all super happy right now.

Many Apologies

Sorry I haven't been posting much the past couple of weeks, but we are signing a lease and moving into a duplex this weekend. Once we have our own place I will start posting more often again. Probably not as often as before, since I am in a city with actual things to do, and my baby likes to stay up until I go to bed since we encountered the change to east coast time, but more frequently then I've been doing.

Recent excitement: Sick family (especially me, Mony, and Grandpa Lindsey), new job fun, new living arrangements fun, and Christmas shopping