2008 in review December 29, 2008

What a whirlwind year!  As it comes to a close, I can’t help but think of all that happened this year.  My first thought was “Whew!  Glad it’s over.  Let’s move on to the next.”  Then I realized that that’s not fair.  It’s not like 2008 was incredibly terrible.  I have a lot to be thankful for, a lot of good things going on.  But as always, the bad stuff sneaks right in there.  So I’ll start with the bad, end with the good, and hope that the good stuff continues and multiplies in the upcoming year.  So, in no particular order:

The bad:

1. Aunt Joyce’s death

2. Grandma’s death

3. Losing a baby

4. Losing Giz

5. Aunt Mary’s death

6. Sickness–mono, 2 bouts of stomach flu, The Great Cold of January thru February, various other colds, earaches, and ailments.  I haven’t been this sick in one year since I was a wee little one. Mike also had a gout flare-up.

 

The good:

1. Going to Vegas over the Fourth of July with Mike

2. Vegas in August with the girls

3. Vegas over Thanksgiving with Mike (can anyone guess where my favorite vacation spot is?)

4. Forrest.  There’s nothing like having a kitten in the house.  He’s now healthy and growing, and YES! declawed.  He’s a constant source of entertainment, amusement, and frustration.

5. Making headway on home improvement projects.

6. Our benefit for the American Cancer Society

7. Good times with friends and family–near and far.  A spa trip with Michele and the girls in January in Phoenix; Becky’s bachelorette party in Pittsburgh and wedding in New York City; trips to The Sticks; visit from Lori and Paul and their kids; going to see Amy and Jeff and their baby; book club every month; 3 trips to Vegas (oh, I already mentioned those?); trip to Indianapolis for the Indy Mini; vists to and from Mike’s brother, our sister-in-law, and my adorable niece and nephew; and more that I can’t think of off the top of my head . . .

8. Random dates with Mike

9. JLo’s and ACT’s engagement

10. Connecting with so many cool people on Goodreads and through blogging.  I never thought that I would have so many friends that I never met.

11. My brother’s engagement to Abby

12. Making progress on the baby-making front.  Support from our family and friends, a great doctor, and DRUGS–gimme the drugs!

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Catching up November 1, 2008

The week before last, I did something I never did before.  I took a week of vacation time . . .without going on vacation.  The last time I even took a whole week of vacation was three summers ago when we went to the Outer Banks with Mike’s family.  The time before that was a trip to Aruba in 2003.  The only other week off was our honeymoon–9 years ago.  All of our vacation time has been long weekends or centered around a holiday.  I needed a break.

My one goal was to get our bedroom torn apart, painted, put back together, and the curtains (that I bought 2 years ago!) hung.  I spent all of Monday and Tuesday doing just that.

finished!

Notice my little helper.  I’ve been wanting to paint our bedroom for a long time, but knew that it would be a pain–our furniture is heavy.  Oh, and our bedroom is usually a mess.  It was nice not to have to cram it into a weekend and to know that I could take my time.

The rest of the week was fairly uneventful.  I had a few other little projects I wanted to get done, which I did, and a few larger projects that I wanted to get done that I blew off in favor of curling up in a chair to read.  It was a relaxing week overall, and I enjoyed every minute of it.  I might end up taking a week off every year just to do stuff around the house.

That Friday night, Mike, my sister-in-law JLo, and I piled in the car and headed to Virginia to celebrate our niece’s sixth birthday.  On Saturday, we ventured out into the drizzly rain to Hollywood Cemetery to take pictures for a school project that JLo was working on. 

Afterwards, we went out for lunch to Richbrau, a brewpub and restaurant.  By the time we finished eating, it was pouring down rain, so we headed back to the house to celebrate LiLo’s 6th birthday with homemade lasagna and an Oreo pie.

We headed back to Pittsburgh on Sunday, and by the time we got home, I had a cold.  This week flew by, getting back into the swing of things at work and trying to shake off this cold.  Thursday night, Mike decided he wanted to carve a pumpkin.  Forrest helped.

Last night was our neighborhood trick-or-treat, and the weather cooperated for once.  We set up a table at the end of the driveway with the jack-o-lantern and candy, and spent most of the time catching up with neighbors.

Mike’s roasting pumpkin seeds as I type this, waiting on the garage door repairman to come.  We’re both anxious to pick up Forrest at the vet.  He came through the surgery without a hitch and had his stitches removed this morning.  We should have clearance to go him around noon.  The house has been so quiet without him–we can’t wait to have him back at home!

Before and after September 28, 2008

For some reason I’ve had the desire to dig into some long-put-off home improvement projects over the past two weekends.  Last weekend I painted the master bathroom–what a difference a little color makes!

Before:

And after:

This weekend, I tackled the little sitting room that’s attached to our bedroom.  For the past two years it has been the “junk room”–ironing board, a desk stacked with books, decorations that will eventually go in our bedroom once I get it painted.  About a year and a half ago I painted it a very bright yellow, kind of by accident.  That little paint square looked much paler than a whole room painted that color.  Those of you who know me well know that bright colors just aren’t my thing.  I laughed it off and jokingly named the color “Electric Big Bird” and figured someday I’d repaint it.  You can’t even see the room until you go through our bedroom and around a corner, so at least Mike and I were the only ones that would see it.

A few weeks ago I got the bright idea (pun intended) to make it into a sports room for Mike.  All of Mike’s favorite teams–Pirates, Steelers, Pitt, Oregon–have yellow in their colors, so hey, I wouldn’t even have to repaint the room.  Mike has collected all kinds of stuff over the years, almost all of it in boxes in the basement. He’s on a guys trip to Vegas this weekend, so the timing was perfect.  He knew I was going to work on it this weekend, but I know that he had no idea to what extent I planned it out and that I would get as much done as I did.  So it will be somewhat of a surprise when he sees all of the holes I pounded into the wall when he returns tomorrow.

Before:

I still have to paint the TV stand, hang a few more pictures, and have Mike go with me to look at a black leather chair (since it’s going to be his butt that will be sitting in it), and there are 2 red shelves that are backordered that will go on either side of the TV stand, but it’s done as it’s going to get for now:

I’m going to spend the few waking hours that are left in this weekend reading and watching TV (which hasn’t been turned on ALL WEEKEND).  Hopefully Mike will be surprised when he sees what I’ve done, but even if he’s not I at least feel like I accomplished a lot this weekend.