Happy Old Year!!

We've been talking with the kids about resolutions and what we can each promise to ourselves to try to make us better people and live better lives.

Katie is going to try to eat more vegetables. Scratch that. Katie is going to try to eat a vegetable. I remember one meal last year where she ate one kernel of corn and we all did a celebratory victory dance. She knows all the good things that veggies can provide- the muscles, the healthy heart, blah blah. She always makes her dolls and barbies eat veggies, and hopefully will apply it to real life this year!

Ryan is going to set his bed every day because he's so practical.

If Claire were able to articulate this, I'm quite sure she would resolve to only eat healthy snacks. I am going to assist her in this effort by moving the snack box, which I should have done years ago!

I have to lose my Halloween candy/Thanksgiving dinner/Christmas cookie weight before bathing suit season. I will decide when it gets closer if it's going to be either 9 or 19 pounds- we'll just have to see how things are going come mid-May.

And I'm having issues with a very addictive game on Facebook...Bejeweled Blitz... buh-bye! I need to get my life back. I just don't have it in me to resist your pull anymore so I'm cold turkeying it. Deleting it from my facebook page and my life. Forever.

Tim has yet to weigh in on his enduring struggle for the year to come. More than likely it will be to reduce is intake of caffeine. And by February he will renounce that horrible plan because without Coke we are left with a very crabby, undesirable version of Tim. And life is too short to waste time with crabby. So he will give it up for Lent instead because we can survive 40 days of crabby, but not 365.

I am in shock that we're ending another whole decade. Remember 10 years ago when everyone was in a panic about Y2K and the world coming to an end? Doesn't seem like it was that long ago! Tim and I were at a Millenium Party with a ton of people playing Beer Pong in the basement. And now we have 3 kids, a house, and a dog with retirement plans and everything! Where does the time go?

Ryan will not permit me to say Happy New Year until tomorrow so until then... Happy Old Year!!!

Once Upon a Zumba Class

A sweet friend of mine recently told me that she takes her little girl with her to Zumba class sometimes and I suddenly got a very funny vision in my head of Katie attempting to Zumba. I thought this is something we must try.

Our first attempt was a dismal nightmare because the instructor canceled class at the last minute and Katie had a throwback to 3 years ago and screamed and demanded to do Zumba class anyway. So I started jumping around the family room with her and she rolled her eyes and scoffed at me that I couldn't possibly have been doing it right. Which gave me a flashback to the reason I had to stop going to Zumba class a few years ago.

Because I may look Latino, and I took 2 years of high school spanish so I can ask you where the bathroom is and tell you your cat is fat, but I can NOT dance. I have no rhythm, no coordination, and no sense of direction. If the crowd is moving left, I go right and watch everyone leap out of my way. Most importantly, I have no bootylicious shakeability. Which is a requirement for Zumba.

I also always have such a dumb look on my face when I'm exercising. I'm trying to remember the steps, counting the moves and trying to remember when I'm supposed to turn, or flip to the side, or switch feet, or wave my arms in the air -which I always seem to do precisely when everyone else has just finished. And in Zumba, I cannot keep up with the rapid succession of changes and dance steps.

So my friend didn't tell me that she was an expert in the art of sexy latin dancing... for one song, the instructor moved her up to the front row as a shining example for us to watch. Catcalls and everything, she was really rockin the sports pavillion!

I had to laugh when we got there because I'd assured Ryan that he wasn't missing out on anything and this was a girlie thing. He will get his big day to partake in a class at the pavillion sometime, but this just wasn't going to be it. So when we got in the room and secured our spot safely in the back row, I noticed an old man in the front corner. I whispered to Katie if that little old man can dance, we definitely can handle it. Little did I know that he choreographs some of the songs and could out-zumba everyone in the room except the teacher. While singing along to the music. Of course I knew she'd rat me out to Ryan and let him know that boys can do it too.

Katie did great. She loved it and was bouncing around happily the whole time. There was only one collision where she was still moving forward when everyone else was on the way back already. She did every step wrong, but she's too young to notice or care. She can't wait to go back.

The Sears Angel

Waiting for the repair man... why are they allowed to give a service window of 8-5? I think I'd like a job that I can show up anytime between the hours of 8 and 5. I hope he has the part he needs to fix the washing machine. I really don't want to do this again in a week when the part comes in. Ryan has already pointed out numerous times that he only has one pair of socks left. And they are shinguards! If he can't fix the machine today I might have to go to a laundromat. Do laundromats still exist? Actually it doesn't matter, I'll just buy a package of socks.

As soon as Tim and I slip out to get a quick lunch, the guy calls. He's 1o minutes away. Bummer. There goes lunch!

The problem with the washer? A 4 inch screw in Tim's pocket that must have fallen out and somehow got inside wedged under the drum. Probably several hundred dollars to fix, but this repairman signed off on it as a warranty problem and didn't charge us anything. We were warned when we bought the washer that little things like screws or safety pins could fall out of pockets and really mess with the motor and that kind of "user error" was not covered by the warranty. Our Sears Angel felt bad charging us for such a common mistake. He also showed Tim how to drain this little filter area that we didn't know we were supposed to be draining. He even cleaned out the dryer hoses and tweaked the dryer to make it run more quietly. I didn't even realize it was loud until now that it doesn't make any noise at all. . I thought we were going to have to return some of the kids' Christmas gifts to pay for this repair!

Now I'm wondering why Tim was walking around with a 4 inch screw in his pocket! That's pretty risky if you ask me.

Birthdays

Birthdays have certainly changed over the years! This year my birthday included a lukewarm bath prepared by Katie with bubbles and candles and Claire hanging over the side of the tub asking every 10 seconds, "You like you bath?"

I could hear Tim setting up the bed, as he had just washed the sheets. I love the smell of freshly washed sheets! So after shivering in the tub for about 15 minutes as if I were dying of fever, I'd had enough and decided to snuggle into my nice warm bed to really relax. Hmmm, nice job on the sheets TIM, they're still damp! Brrrr! What a night!

Truthfully, I wouldn't have it any other way. Listening to the kids argue with Tim over where to place things on the breakfast tray, and fighting over who gets to help carry it upstairs, watching their little faces try to hold back the excitement and surprise over my gifts, staying inconspicuously out of their way while they bake me a cake, knowing how much Tim has struggled to find time to sneak down to the basement with the kids to make super secret birthday cards for me, all of it makes me feel so loved and special. Happiest of birthdays to me.