Friday, December 31, 2010

New Years "Resolutions"

1) Blog more

2) Grow my cooking repertoire to include more challenging and unique foods, and actually BLOG about what we cook

3) Start a raised bed garden in our backyard...which admittedly, our whole back yard is the size of the garden I grew up with. Oh how I love city living.

4) Continue to explore making our own dog food.

5) Finally finish all of our planned major home projects (we should be done these by February), and to tackle any new projects in a timely manner.

6) Remodel our wine cellar. The previous owners installed it "upside down", ie: corks up, and it needs some serious TLC. Let me also note, that it also needs to be stocked...it's so hard to keep a bottle in it!

7) Enjoy every moment, both challenging and easy, with Anders. 

8) Take more pictures!

9) Laugh more. 2010 was a rough year for us all. It's time to enjoy life and take things in stride.

10) Focus on that which is important and ignore that which is not.

Happy New Year!
S, M and A

Christmas 2010

This Christmas was our first in Nebraska and it brought quite a few changes. We celebrated Christmas with S's family in Florida in early December, and my parents came out to NE for 10 days to celebrate with us. Traditionally, we spend the day, and Christmas Eve, running around to different homes to meet up with all of our family, and cook a huge meal to enjoy with everyone. This was our first year "offically" hosting Christmas for our family, and it was very calm, quiet and different.

We did not do a good job taking pictures, but, thankfully, my parents did. More pictures to come as they settle back into their lives in Vermont!

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

This time.....

This time last year, well, yesterday 12/27 to be exact, we packed up our SUV and left our home in Vermont to move to Nebraska. We left every single thing exactly where it was since S's company was paying to have it all packed by our movers, and we loaded our two nut dogs, a bag of clothing, 2 sleeping bags, our top tier of our wedding cake, some books, all important documents and some munchies into our car and we left.

S cried for about 3 miles. I waited until week 2 in Nebraska, when, after a long day of unpacking, I discovered our movers had destroyed our brand new carpet in our basement. And then I sat down and I balled for 30 minutes.

Now, we both knew everything would be fine, and now, 12 months later, it is. But what we also knew was that we had a very uphill battle facing us. We have lived and traveled outside of Vermont and the US. We have gone months without seeing our families. We have been lonely and we have survived. However, moving to Nebraska was the hardest thing we have ever done.

Essentially, we left our jobs (which we both loved), every single person we knew, our home (that S built), and our wonderful lifestyle, all for S to pursue a job he hoped that would bring him professional success. Thankfully, S loves what he is doing, and without moving he would have never gotten many of the opportunities that have been allotted to him in Nebraska. But that doesn't make life easier.

We are learning to lean on each other more than we ever imagined we would. We are learning what our strengths are and where we are weak, and we are trying so hard to be stronger and "better" for A. We have finally, and I mean FINALLY, started to see our home in Nebraska as our house, and we are ready to take the next step in our lives, which right now means growing our lives here and realizing that looking back is not a good thing.

And, we have learned that somedays, it will just suck. Flat out suck. Living 1500+ miles from all that you have known and being aware that there is no "summer break" to go home to will suck a lot.

And on those days, I am thankful we have a very well stocked wine cellar.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Hello December

how is it December already? I hate to say it, but it as been almost a MONTH since I had 5 minutes to sit down and blog....yep, I am a blogging failure!

In life news: Thanksgiving was a bust-S was getting over the stomach flu, A had a sinus infection and I had a nasty little cold. We all hunkered down with our turkey and caught up on our DVRed shows. Sad, but true. We went to Florida to visit S's parents and grandmother at their homes down in the sunshine. It was a great way to spend a cold December week, and it was wonderful to finally get to fly with S for a full trip! Right now we are all getting ready for my parents to come out for Christmas-which means that it may actually be time for us to finish decorating our house. We are so behind in all things home/life related simply because since the first week of November one member of our family has been sick with one ailment or another.

On the baby front: Anders is 6 months old! Woohooo!!!! He is becoming more and more of a "real child" (as S likes to say) every day. He can sit unassisted, he has outgrown his bouncer, swing and infant car seat, he eats a boat load of "real" food and he is learning how to self entertain.

One of the cutest things is to watch him eat solids. He loves pears, apples, peas and anything mixed with cinnamon. He's indifferent to green beans and sweet potatoes. This kiddo loves his food.

Oh yeah, and he is huge. Here's our stats over the past appointments:
Birth: 7 lb 8 oz, 20.5 inches
2 months: 12 lb12 oz, 25.5 inches
4 months: 17 lb 12 oz, 27.5 inches
6 months: 19 lb 9 oz, 29 inches
We are in 12 month clothing. Sadly for A, they are all too wide, so we spend the day pulling his pants up...which, of course, he hates.

Last weekend we went to see Santa, and A was wonderful.

He loved Santa's real beard, and Santa loved that A only touched it instead of pulling it....just you wait one more year!

Hiding under S's golf hat

Family shot at S's family Christmas in Florida.

Jolly little 6 month old!