Good Bye 2009!!! Hello 2010!!!!

And so, we begin a new year. . .less than 12 hours from now, 2010 will begin. What will this new year bring for us? We accomplished so much during 2009. . .the house projects are really coming along and will continue into the new year; Pat and I have settled into our roles as Mommy and Daddy and, I think really doing okay in that regard. . .today, that is!; Aidan is healthy, growing and thriving AND really learning sooooo much in school!

For the coming year, we have a few small resolutions: eating and drinking more healthfully (isn't that always on the list?); getting our house organized (also on the list every year!); and working on being better parents to Aidan. . .Should be doable. I pray!

I ended up with the day off today. I had planned on a half day and then pick up Aidan about noon, come home and have lunch and then put him down for a nap at which time I would begin the process of putting some of the house decorations away and doing some laundry. Mother Nature had other ideas! We woke up this morning to a couple of inches of snow. It was supposed to turn to freezing rain and sleet (it didn't) and so my office closed!


So, outside we went to play with the neighbor girls. . .



So, I'm still getting some of the decorations taken down and packed up and I even cleaned out the frig. . .that feels good! And, in our spare time, we have begun the process of tearing apart the Office in order to paint and put down the floor before the desk arrives on the 16th. . .what a lot of junk has accumulated in there over the past 10 years!!! YIKES!!

Another issue we have been dealing with lately, likely a growing issue, is that Aidan has been awake a lot at night. He has been walking around a bit, too. Most of the time we hear him leave his room. But, last night the nocturnal wanderings had taken their toll on Mommy and Daddy and we slept through Aidan getting up, going down to the Dining Room and then back to bed again! We both even woke up at different points, got up to check on him and, finding him sleeping in his bed, went back to bed. . .I don't know when he went for his walk, but he had left his Caps Kids hat by the China Cabinet. . .Hopefully, this stage will pass quickly. Not sure I like it much!!

And so, I wish you all a Very Happy and Healthy New Year! My prayers are with you all throughout 2010!!

Ahhhhh. . .time to relax. . .and enjoy. . .

So, now we are truly into the Christmas season. . .Christmas having just started on December 25th, I am ready to relax and enjoy! I don't go back to work again until Wednesday the 30th and then for only a day and a half and then will be off again until January 4th! I'm so glad, too. . .

Everything got done for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It all turned out beautifully. I took lots of pictures, downloaded them yesterday, and now can't find them!! No pictures of me reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas". . .no pictures of the Stockings being hung by the Chimney with Care!. . .no pictures of the beautiful table for Christmas Eve dinner (which included Carolina Chowder, Maryland Crab Cakes, and some nice Corn Bread--all home made, of course!). . .no pictures of the mounds and mounds of presents lovingly wrapped and around the tree. . .No pictures of Aidan in his cute reindeer jammies opening all of the wonderful gifts everyone gave him, loving the 4 Wheeler Santa got him, and then shutting down because he had had enough. . .Nothing. . .Nada. . .Zilch. . .except. . .



That's it. . .the only one I have and that is only because I took it with my Blackberry! I'm sure I'll find where the pictures wound up on my computer, someday. And, when I do, I'll post them!

But, seriously, we had a really nice Christmas. Aidan has all of a sudden decided to not take a nap, which turned into a disaster on Christmas Eve--head spinning, snarling and foaming at the mouth, and me wondering if I should check his head for the 666. . .so no Church this year! We didn't want to subject all of those nice folks at Church to devil boy--not on Christmas Eve! But, he went to bed nicely and fell asleep and slept until 7:25! He was then really patient waiting upstairs (I had the cutest picture of him holding the dog bones while sitting on the stairs!) But, and note to self!, he was able to look over the railing on the bridge over the foyer and see into the Living Room where he spied the 4 wheeler! But, even though he saw it, he waited to go in there until after we had done our stockings! Good Boy. . .

Christmas Day, Pat's cousin and aunt drove down from Pennsylvania in the afternoon for dinner. At the time when they had started to say something about going home, I noticed it was 33 degrees outside and raining really hard. I couldn't send them out on the roads, going north, in that kind of weather! So, they stayed the night in the other guest room (Grandma and Grandpa had the first guest room reserved already) and on a blow up bed in the basement Rec Room. It made for a crazy night and next morning and thank goodness I had bought extras when I went grocery shopping last week! But, we all had fun playing and visiting and relaxing!

Yesterday, after everyone had gone on their way, we took ourselves off for some furniture shopping. We finally bought two really nice chairs for the Living Room, a beautiful desk for the office and an entertainment chest for our bedroom. The desk arrives in 3 weeks (better get that office painted and the new floor down!) and the chairs and chest arrive in 6 to 8 weeks. Here is what the chair looks like:



It's totally different than what I thought we'd buy, but we both like it and it is really pretty. . .another note to self--the day after Christmas is an excellent day to go furniture shopping!! The deals are awesome!!

Well, that's it from us. Now is the time to relax and begin pondering those New Year's resolutions. . .and making lists of things to do to get this house back into shape!! What a disaster!! : ) Oh, and making plans and arrangements for our next post-placement visit! It's only two months away, so I'd better start gathering some pictures from this past year. . .

Next time, I'll post a picture of Aidan outside on his new 4 Wheeler. . .the kid can move on that thing!

And Now The Fun Begins!!!

So, now we're off for a whole week! And, boy am I glad. . .there is so much to do during the next couple of days!!! YIKES!!! Okay, don't panic. . . deep breath. . .let it out slowly. . .okay, we can handle this. . .

Let me start at the beginning:

Pat works shift work. He started his 3-11 shift about 2 weeks ago and then was told that, because the guy on that shift next was out sick, he needed to cover that shift through the 23rd, which will be a double ending at 7:00 am on Christmas Eve. . .That's where the trouble begins. Then, we had a couple of Saturday storms: snow, then icy rain. Then, we had the doozy storm, which I've already posted about. But with all of that craziness, I have effectively been a single mom: unable to get the Christmas shopping completed not to mention grocery shopping for everyday items!

So, in anticipation of the storm last weekend, I did some major running around on Thrusday and Friday evenings, with Aidan in tow. Then I did some major online shopping on Thursday and Friday evening (all of those items have now arrived, too!). Yesterday, I went and did some of the grocery shopping. . .which included some for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I was going to go and get the last minute things today at the Outlet Mall, but the line to get in there was horrendous. I'll give that another pass tomorrow morning after which I will go back to the grocery store to pick up the items I forgot on my list yesterday and then back to my office to pick up my cell phone, which I forgot there today. . . whew!!

Tonight I will wrap and begin to do some cleaning. Tomorrow afternoon I will finish cleaning and begin cooking. Hopefully, I can get enough done tonight and tomorrow that Christmas Eve and Christmas Day will be minimal work at most. I am hoping! I'm not even planning anything super elaborate! But, well, you know how it is! You gotta do it right for these kinds of big days. . .

I will all be okay. . .It will all be okay. . .I'll work on getting the things done that absolutely must get done. . .note to self: tell Pat to take vacation time during this week next year!!

And, here are some pictures from the day after the storm while we cleaned up what came during the night. . .

SNOW!!!

Well. . .we have had our share, and someone else's, of snow! At last measure, around 4:00 this afternoon, we had about 22 inches of snow! It started last night about 9:00 and we were told we would have about 1-2 inches by morning and then the heavy snow would start and we would get about another 8-10 inches. . .well, they were wrong! There was at least 6, maybe 7 inches on the ground when I got up. I took these pictures at about 8:00 this morning:




Later on, Aidan "helped" Daddy shovel. Thank goodness for Snow Blowers!! We live on a pipestem, so we need to help with more than just our actual driveway. . .





And so, we ended the day becoming melted snowmen, and then going into the basement for movies and hot chocolate--where I realized that the basement is really buried!!




And, finally, when you have two big dogs, it is much nicer to have them come in and out through the basement rather than bring a foot of snow when them coming in the back door. . .or the front door!!




The view, five minutes ago. . .Yes, that is snow still coming down!

Just when I thought it was safe. . .

Just when I thought things couldn't get any better, they got a whole lot worse. . .

I took Monday off and took Aidan to the doctor. He has a sinus infection and double ear infections. . .thus the really really bad behavior. . .

By Tuesday morning, I had had a total of about eight hours sleep since Friday. . .Aidan was probably less, since I woke up to find him plastered to me at one point and have no earthly idea of when that happened!! But,we gamely went off to work and school yesterday anyway.

He hadn't been on the Augmentin long enough. . .Really, really bad at school. . .worse than on Friday. . .

Today he seemed better when he got up, after a full 10 hours sleep. And, he was really good at school today (thanks be to God!!) But, he has now developed his signature cough. So, back on the nebulizer. And, we will probably have to skip the Christmas Open House that Bethany is putting on tomorrow evening. I was looking forward to seeing our Social Worker too. . .

But, Aidan's health is sooooo much more important!!

Happy Anniversary! Happy Anniversary! Ho Ho Ho!!!

Well, our weekend continued our crazy trend of late. . .yesterday we got up early, had muffins for breakfast, got dressed and walked downtown for the Christmas Parade. It was a blast!



This is one of the times throughout the year that our town can really shine and yesterday it shone bright! We were sooooo excited for the parade to start. . .




A funny thing about Leesburg, VA. . .for years there has been a Christmas Tree, a Nativity Scene, and a Menorrah on the Court House Lawn. Kind of a town tradtition, if you will. But, the Court House Lawn is part of the County Government. If you get my drift, and see where this is going, forgive me for continuing. This year, in the infinite wisdom of a sub-committee of the County Supervisors, these fantastice traditions were denied. Yep, just plain ole denied. Long story short, it is a fight that is continuing and is actually a little sickening to hear about. So, I am proud to say that our town made a HUGE statement yesterday by having the Knights of Columbus and the Catholic Nativity be first in the parade, even before the Mayor and the Town Council folks. Loved that! Not a Catholic, but LOVED that!! Yea Leesburg!!

And so, the rest of the parade (not showing it all, for obvious reasons):






and then, pulling up the rear, who can it be???. . .




SANTA CLAUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After the parade, we went off to the rest of the festival with Giant Slides and. . .






MORE SANTA CLAUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Later, Me and Daddy went out for a quiet dinner at the restaurant he proposed at and we celebrated 23 years of married bliss. . .I have now been married half of my life!!! Incredible. . .

Today we finished up the tree, which Aidan seemed really interested in helping with this year. Isn't it great?????





Oh, and look at the fantastic Yellow Roses (my favorite) Pat gave me to celebrate our Anniversary. . .aren't they beautiful in my Dining Room???



The only fly in the ointment for the entire weekend is that I think Aidan is getting sick. . .he has had a cold for over a week and he started coughing today. Also, his glands are swollen where his tonsils are (felt from the outside under the chin). So, we're probably going to stay home tomorrow and try and get into the doctor. . .sigh. . .it was a good run of good health. . .

A Crazy Week in Crazy Review

What a crazy week! And it wasn't necessarily about Christmas craziness either!

As previously stated, it snowed on Saturday. So, some time was spent outside in the snow:







Then on Sunday, we went to church and I taught Aidan's Sunday School class. What a mess! These are 3 year olds, mind you. . .Class starts at 10:10. . .and I was expected to take my class of three year olds to the Sanctuary, from our basement class room a building away, and have them there by 10:20 in order to learn how to be sheep for some play being done on the 20th. I had to take my group through the Parish Hall, which was, oh by the way, being used for the the Alternative Gift Market and was, therefore, very crowded with lots of adults! Anyway, we got back to our classroom, all children accounted for, by 10:40. . .enough time for a lesson on St. Nicholas, the Bishop of Myra and candy canes all around. . .

On Monday, we went to dinner with Grandma and Grandpa. Afterwards, Daddy took Aidan with him to take Grandma and Grandpa home while Mommy went back to Aidan's school for our first ever Parent Teacher conference--Aidan has been holding out on us on his smarts!! Very smart indeed!! He can write his whole name!

Tuesday and Wednesday found us finishing our Dining Room Floor, which turned out great! My husband does this kind of thing really well:



I got everything moved back in on Thursday and set the China Cabinet back up. It looks really great. All I need to do now are the curtains. . .after the first of the year. . .

while I was working in the Dining Room last night, I heard the tell tale sound of the sirens coming down the street. I called to Daddy and Aidan and we all made it outside in time to see. . .the Fire Engine coming around with Santa, Rudolf and Frosty in the back!!! We waved and they waved back . . .but Aidan wanted them to stop and come play in his room. He couldn't understand why they wouldn't!





Today, after school, Aidan was in a Trike-a-thon with the benefit going to St. jude's Childrens Hospital. He raised over $300.00!! Awesome!! And this was his first fund raiser, too!





Tonight was finished off with us beginning the process of putting up our tree and Aidan checking out the Advent Calendar.




This weekend should be much quieter: We only have a parade with festival down in town tomorrow and then Daddy and I are going out for a special dinner tomorrow night and then, Sunday is our Anniversary. Hmmmm. . .I'm beginning to see the wisdom of my parents when they looked at me a bit incredulously and said. . .you've picked what for your wedding date????