100 Things About Me Vol. 3

#51 - 75

51. I love getting comments on my blog ( so please take a minute and say hi).

52. On a day-to-day basis, especially in winter, I am a homebody, in spirit if not in the flesh.


53. Even so, when we go on vacation I am never ready to come home.

54. I hate it when people getting on an elevator, actually enter the elevator before other people can exit, thereby making the exiting much more awkward and physical.

55. However, I was recently mortified to catch myself distractedly doing just that. Wounded by disdainful, exit glares, the same ones that I have myself fired many a time, I wanted to say, " I didn't mean to! Really! I'm one of you! " But I just hung my head in shame.


56. I am passionate about homeschooling my daughters.


57. That said, most of the time I don't even come close to maximizing the potential of educating them at home.



58. I have a fondness for pink grapefruit Jelly Bellies.


59. I am physically unable to leave a blog post unchanged after I have published it. I'm always going back and tweaking words.


60. I once had a completely infatuous relationship with a married man who was older than my father.


61. I was 5 at the time, and had not yet been made aware of love's boundaries. Also, it was one-sided.

62. Argumentative by nature, I will often play devil's advocate just to keep things interesting.


63. However, when I truly, strongly disagree with someone, I'm more likely to remain silent for fear of losing my temper. Or sounding stupid.

64. I love camping with my family.

65. But due to busy schedules, we really don't get to camp that much.

66. Every time I see one of those commercials advertising a particular medication for men, I wonder about the actors.........do they get recognized in public? Are they the laughingstock of neighborhood barbecues? How much are they getting paid and is it really a fair price for self-respect?

67. I have the astounding ability to blog while mountains of clean laundry waiting to be folded quietly overtake my home.


68. Like right now.

69. I don't understand road rage. Road annoyance, sure, but rage?? Is it really worth it?


70. When I had fewer kids and more time, one of my favorite things to do was to put on some Eagles music and try singing the different harmony parts.

71. About fifteen years ago, I dreamed I was onstage singing back up for Don Henley. I was wearing jeans and an old, soft, flannel shirt. He was singing "Heart of the Matter" and in the chorus I would "ooooooh" and belt out "forgiveness...... forgiveness".

72. To this day, it is the best dream I ever had.

73. I'm a global thinker, which is a trendy way of saying I'm terrible with details.

74. The smell of coconut oil is an aphrodisiac for me.... but only if it's coming from my husband's sunscreen.


75. My written grammar, weak as it is, completely eclipses my spoken grammar. Honestly, hearing me speak, one might wonder if I'd been raised by the Clampetts.

#1 - 25

#26 - 50

Brother with a Capital B

or "What Was Originally Meant to be My Post Yesterday But Then I Got Sidetracked With the Sissy Confusion, Which Ended Up Taking Over"

In school they make sure you know, among other things, when and how to use proper capitalization. They start teaching you these rules of grammar in 1st grade, and by 3rd grade you should really have it down.
What they don't tell you in school though, what they somehow forget to tell you even though they live with you and play Gobblet with you, and kiss you good night, and are entrenched in the daily interaction between you and other family members, is this:

Sometimes, the fence separating common nouns from proper nouns gets flattened by a persistent rogue word , who then sneakily wanders over the fallen posts and into the other pasture, taking up permanent residence there. He does this because his parents, doing only what came naturally, began using his new relationship title as the only form of addressing him the minute after you, his baby sister were born.

"Here Brother, do you want to hold her?"

"I think she likes you, Brother!"

then to you - "Look, Brother's got you! Yes, you like Brother, don't you?"

It was all very new and sweet and somehow the name stuck without anybody realizing it until several years and another sister later, somebody overhears you call to him, and looks amusedly at your mother.

"Brother? They call him Brother?"

"Yeah", she says, wondering mildly if she should be embarrassed. "They do. He IS their only one you know". Indeed. What did they expect you to call him?

And then suddenly, Baby Sister, you are 8 years old and you wrestle with 3rd grade Spelling.

One day, after carefully writing out your list words, you bring them to your mother for her approval, and stand beside her while she reads:

reaches

gather

bother

Brother

charge

thunder

Your mother smiles and you want to know what's funny. "Nothing", she tells you. "You did great....your handwriting is very neat today, and you spelled them perfectly".

You grin proudly, and go off to find your American Girl book and a quiet place in the sunlight.

For the time being, Brother is still safe as a proper noun.

What's In A Name?

"You want to know what's weird about us Sissy?" Peanut looked reflective. "We call each OTHER Sissy!"

"Right!" Sissy laughed. And then Peanut was laughing too, and they were both shaking their heads and looking at each other like - "Who DOES that?"

It's true. Around here both girls share the name Sissy. It makes things a little simpler. "Tell Sissy to come here a minute", or "Why don't you show Sissy your new trick?" is so much gentler to the brain cells than attempting the correct name.

Sometimes it can lead to momentary confusion though. Like this morning - I was telling Sissy I was going to write in my blog about her. She looked very pleased.
"Are you going to put my name in it?" she wanted to know. Before I could answer she frowned. "Hey! Have you EVER put my name on your blog?"
"Not your real name," I told her. "On my blog I call you Sissy".
"Right"...., she nodded, then looked puzzled, "..... and you call Sissy.......?"
"Peanut" I answered.
"Right." Satisfied now, she walked away but was back in seconds.
"But do you think they know you're not talking about a REAL peanut?"
"Umm, I think so, yeah".

When choosing blog names for my kids, I could have called them both Sissy, but in print it would have been just too much. So I thought of using their father's special nicknames for them .

Only the 8 year-old's nickname contains part of her real name, so using it would have defeated the purpose of a secret blog identity.

That wasn't a problem with the 6 year-old. So it was decided. In the world of Raising Butterflies, the 8 year-old would get the default-female-sibling name , and the 6 year-old would be known by her nickname.

And that's how Sissy became Sissy and the other Sissy became Peanut.

I just hope all this time it's been clear that I haven't been writing about a REAL peanut.

Crowded Unsanitary Living Conditions

When Brother was very young, he was fairly healthy. He usually got sick once a year, twice at the most..... run-of-the-mill stuff like strep and upper respiratory infections and itinerant stomach bugs.

Whenever he would get sick, I would look up his symptoms in a Pediatric Illness book I had (this was before ANYBODY had a computer, let alone Internet access). There was one risk factor that was common to every illness he ever had ..... crowded, unsanitary living conditions. This annoyed me because there were only three of us then and more than enough room in this house, and our living conditions, while not antibacterial, were pretty clean.
I didn't waste time worrying about it though. It was just one of those things that had to be listed as a POSSIBLE reason a child might get croup, or chicken pox. Crowded, unsanitary, living conditions....it had a comedic ring to it. It might be a good name for a band or a TV sitcom, but it sure didn't apply to our home. Besides, there were always other risk factors we met, like, oh...... exposure to the outside world.

The book fell apart awhile back and I got rid of it. It was rather obsolete anyway, since somewhere along the way, the Internet had become my go-to guide in matters of my childrens' health. The times they were a-changing. And maybe the terminology isn't PC anymore, but my Internet medical sources never list crowded, unsanitary, living conditions as a risk factor for anything.

But then yesterday as I watched the thermometer in Sissy's mouth hit 102 and I counted the number of times the girls have been sick since October, the phrase crept into my mind for the first time in ages. I thought about it. The population of this house HAS almost doubled since Brother was little, and I DID keep it much cleaner in The Early Years.

Could it be possible? Have we really sunk to the level of the lowest common denominator of childhood illness?

Crowded Unsanitary Living Conditions....... I think the term is growing on me. It trips off the tongue with a rather appealing cadence.
Maybe I should change the name of my blog.

Secret Play - The Share and Shoot

Sissy's basketball coach (aka Daddy) came home yesterday with a small dry erase board. The board is marked with basketball court lines, and supposedly is handy for demonstrating basketball plays to one's team. Supposing, of course, that one's team is actually paying attention, and not fighting over who gets to draw on the board next. Both girls wanted to show us how they could draw offensive plays.

Peanut's secret play goes something like this:

"First, I dribble the ball down," she speaks in a melody of hills and valleys. "Then, I pass the ball to S. Then S. passes it to K. , then K. passes it to A. , then A. passes it to H. and H. SHOOTS!", she finishes with a flourish, then remembers, "Oh and I get the rebound."

She holds up the pretend basketball court. Her play looks like an incomplete dot-to-dot drawing. But it's a good play. Everybody gets a turn to handle the ball. Everybody has fun. I think it just might work ..... as long as there are no defensive players on the court.

Why It's A Major Award, That's What It Is.....

Look at it....would you just LOOK at it!

It's, it's indescribably beautiful! Why, it reminds me of the Fourth of July!

The good people at Tennesseebloggers.com sent me an e-mail informing me that Raising Butterflies has been listed in their Best Blogs in Tennessee directory.

Oh, the temptation to let the above sentence stand without any further explanation.... wait, I just want to read it one more time.

Okay. The thing is, Tennesseebloggers.com calls ALL the blogs in it's directory a" Best Blog in Tennessee". What's more, they're so all-inclusive that I'm pretty sure if you live in Tennessee AND you have a blog, you have met all the criteria. Ha! I love it. No ugly voting, no rejection issues...and you get a cute little award button to put on your blog.

Narcissistic? Well, yeah. But I'm doing it in the name of state pride :)

They really do have an informative site, with blogs listed by categories like: regional, political, faith and religion, personal journals, food, etc. There's even some Tennessee trivia.

100 Things About Me Vol. 2

I thought if I broke it down into a 4-part series, it would be manageable to write, and perhaps not too insufferably long to read.

#26 - 50

26. I like crossword puzzles.



27. However, I'm not great at it. I can only solve the New York Times puzzle by playing on a team of 3 - myself, my husband, and our friend Google.



28. I can't get into Sudoku - I've tried.



29. I hate it when I hear the word Appalachia pronounced incorrectly. There is no long "a" people!



30. I'm almost always for the underdog, even if my kid is on the other team.



31. My favorite drink is Sierra Mist.



32. For the first time ever, I'm excited about the Superbowl.



33. But only because Tom Petty's playing the halftime show. I don't even know what teams are playing.



34. I have a degree in nursing.



35. My first major was broadcasting.



36. I thought it would be cool to be a DJ.



37. I switched majors after a semester spent working at the campus radio station made me realize I didn't really want my voice to be heard on radios everywhere. I just wanted to play music all day.



38. I have to be holding a hot cup of caffeine before I can be nice in the morning.



39. I've lived on the same street nearly all of my 40 years.



40. I was madly in love with Shaun Cassidy when I was 10.



41. I wonder where he is now.



42. I was well into my 20's before I realized there was no little drummer boy in the biblical account of the birth of Jesus. (That one was really hard to admit).



43. I'm partial to even numbers. I only like odd ones if they're multiples of five.



44. My second child was born on the 19th of the month, after 24 hours of labor, at around 5pm. I still regret not holding out another 7 hours so her birthdate would be the 20th - an even number AND a multiple of 5.



45. No, I've never considered getting therapy.



46. I'm a semi-regular sufferer of insomnia.

47. As such, I've spent many hours mindlessly surfing the Internet, acquiring an impressive collection of inane pop culture trivia, like the fact that Weird Al Yankovic gave his daughter my name.

48. I've had a myspace page since before I started blogging.

49. I started it to keep tabs on some kids I know .

50. I'd like to get rid of it but I can't bring myself to, because some old friends have contacted me through myspace and I'd probably lose touch with them completely if I gave it up.


Click here for #1 - 25

History Lesson Today

Today the girls had a Keepers At Home meeting. It's a club similar to Girl Scouts but more scripturally based. The name is taken from a verse in Titus in which older women are told to train younger women to be keepers at home.

Usually the girls work on learning some type of skill that will be useful to them when they have their own homes. Today was different. Because it was Martin Luther King Day, much of the meeting focused on Dr. King's leadership in the civil rights movement. The girls who go to public school seemed to already know most of what was being taught. I hadn't yet made the girls aware of who he was, and I really wasn't planning to until they got a little older, but I was glad they got to learn about him today.

The coolest part was that we crowded around a computer and watched the entire "I Have A Dream" speech on youtube. I think it was the first time I've ever heard the whole thing, although I've heard the end of it many times and it still gives me chills.

Oh wait. The girls did learn a skill today - one they've been attempting unsuccessfully for a couple of months. They did not learn this skill at Keepers At Home. In fact, I threatened them with their lives if they even THOUGHT about showing off this skill at Keepers At Home, as it's not really the kind of thing that befits little godly-young-ladies-in-training.

But they're both so proud that they can now............... do arm farts. Their father was greeted with a chorus of them when he came home from work.

So ......... today they learned something historically and socially significant, and something useless and mildly offensive. I guess it's been a well rounded day.

When Butterflies Fall

There is nothing quite as scary or exciting as releasing your first precious, hand-raised butterfly into the wild.

And there is nothing quite as heartbreaking as watching it struggle mightily to fly, only to fall defeated to the ground.

You ask yourself how this could have happened. You see many other young adult butterflies soaring in the sky - graceful, confident, ready to take on the world.

Why isn't your butterfly like them?
Did you hand-feed him too long? He was all you had for so many years and you loved him so fiercely.... could you have denied him experiences he needed to build strong wings?
The younger butterflies finally came, one after the other, and took up so much of your time.... did you abandon him at a critical stage in his development, after hovering so much he never gained the independence he needed? Is he just a late bloomer? Or is he bound to be different for the rest of his life?

You cry tears of remorse and confusion - out of his presence, lest he think himself a disappointment to you and become truly crippled in discouragement.

You dry the tears and come out. You tell him it's OK.
You help him brush off his wings , regain his bearings, and try again.

And you hold your breath and pray.

Because it's all you can do.

My 100th Post

"100 Things About Me "

Vol. I

#1 - 25

1. My name is Nina Renee. Literally translated from Spanish and French origins, it means "girl reborn".

2. My parents did not know this when they named me.


3. As a Christian, it was very cool to make that discovery just a few years ago.


4. I'm left-handed.


5. But I bat right-handed.

6. I married a man who is right-handed but bats left-handed.

7. I'm the oldest of 3 with 2 younger brothers.

8. I married a man who is the youngest of 3 with 2 older sisters.

9. I'm pretty sure that's where the mirror effect ends.

10. I got married when I was 18.

11. I think 18 is way too young to get married.

12. My first child was born after a planned pregnancy.

13. I (along with my husband) thought 4 years was about right for spacing children, and planned accordingly.

14. I now know what they mean when they say "If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans".

15. My second child was born 11 years after my first.

16. After the birth of my second child, we thought we were done having children, having forgotten #14.

17. My third child was born 19 months after my second, allowing me to join the ranks of those who have experienced both infertility and surprise pregnancies.

18. I wouldn't change a thing about either experience.

19. I would give just about anything to be able to play a musical instrument.

20. Except the time it would take to learn how .

21. I do play a screamin' air guitar.

22. It's small consolation.

23. I'm an ex-smoker.... quit December 1998.

24.I watch too much TV. But I would love to try living without it.

25. I use too much computer. But I can't imagine living without it.

January 15, 1961

My husband was born 47 years ago today.

By 1967 - the year I was born - he was a worldly man of 6.




His lifetime had already seen the first American fly into space, the Beatles invade America, the U.S. enter the VietNam War, and a man who shared his birthday give a speech called "I Have A Dream" - to name just a few major events.

Of course, my husband remembers none of these things.
One of his earliest memories though, is related to perhaps the most significant event in a decade full of significant events.

It is of a little boy his age he saw on television. All he remembers is seeing the little boy stand in a salute. My mother-in-law would tell me later that my husband asked her what the little boy was doing and why.

The little boy was John F. Kennedy Jr., saluting his father's retreating casket.
A famous image, shown on probably every documentary ever aired about JFK's life and death, I've seen it more times than I can count and am moved by it every time....
this chubby-legged, solemn-faced 3 year-old in such a grown-up pose.......contradictory but very fitting , even though he couldn't have understood the significance of any of it. Did he even understand that his father wasn't coming back?

I don't remember any of the 60's, but when I think of that period in history, that image of John-John stands out.
It's kind of weird and yet somehow cool, to be married to someone who even vaguely remembers seeing it when it happened.

And now I have to post this while it is still my husband's birthday.

Happy Birthday Man of Mine.

A Better Day!

Sissy woke up this morning and said , " Hey! My legs don't feel funny when I walk!"
She spent the morning doing schoolwork and generally acting more like herself again.
Then she ate a whole bowl of soup for lunch, which is more than she's eaten at one time in almost a week.
I think she's back. :)

It's A Good Thing I'm Not Superstitious

or I would be inclined to believe that my last post was directly related to Sissy's slow recovery from this stomach thing.

Just follow the timeline and see what I mean.

Last Saturday night: Peanut gets sick.

Sunday: Peanut is sick all day.

Monday: Peanut wakes up feeling much better.

Tuesday: Noone is sick.

Tuesday night: Sissy gets sick.

Wednesday: Sissy is sick all day.

Thursday: Sissy starts perking up

Thursday night: I write a blog post about how I LIKE it a little bit when my kids are sick.

Friday: Sissy is not so perky today.

Saturday: Sissy rallies enough to play a 6 - minute period of basketball. She spends the rest of the day lying around.

Sunday: Sissy gets up and goes to church, but still tires very easily. She comes home from church and takes a two-hour nap.

She has no color. She has no appetite. She has no energy. There's nothing sweet about it now.

See how it looks?

But, I'm NOT superstitious so I'm leaving my previous post as - is. In spite of the fact that I got no comments reassuring me that I'm not weird.

Moving Right Along

Okay, I now know, that I can turn out writing that makes me more nauseous than the actual experience written about. I considered deleting the last post for that reason. But in the name of posterity, it shall remain.

Is it very weird to LIKE it just a little bit when your kids are sick? I don't mean critically ill, or bad prognosis sick, I mean sick with stuff that you know they're going to get over in a few days, but in the meantime they just lie around and eat popsicles and be sweet?

Peanut and Sissy are both sweet in very different ways when they're sick.

Peanut wants me parked with her on the couch at all times. If I get up to go to the bathroom, she protests. When I return five minutes later, she latches onto me like I've been gone a month.
It's really very good for the ego. Not so much for getting laundry done or kitchens cleaned though.

Sissy doesn't mind getting extra attention when she's sick, but she's fine without it. The sweet part, is that I get to watch her sleep. There on the couch in the afternoon light, with her hair falling over her cheek.... her eyes closed , her face softened in sleep ..... she could be four years old again. Sigh.

I wouldn't wish them sick for anything in the world, but when they ARE sick, I have to say there are things I enjoy about it.

That isn't very weird....... is it?

A First Time For Everything I Guess

Be advised.
The content of the following paragraph is disgusting in nature, and not for the weak-of -stomach.
Feel free to skip it. Because it was unprecedented, I couldn't NOT write about it.


Today marks the first time in over 21 years of housekeeping, that I have ever had to vacuum the inside of my washing machine. The REASON I had to do this, involves child vomit. And the not-so-good chewing habits of the vomiter. And less than average common sense on my part, combined with the uncontrollable need to just get the foul odor away from me and in some hot bleachy water as quickly as I could. What I found when I took the sheets out of the washer was the bottom of the washer littered with nice clean chunks of ..... yeah.

So we've been kicking the new year off with a hardy little stomach bug -- just so we can go ahead and cross it off the list.

I Know, It's Only Rock & Roll But I Like It

Yes I do. I also like bluegrass, inspirational, motown, country, big band, 80's pop, ...... and I can listen to them all on my new mp3 player.

I have really fallen off the wagon since I got this thing. My listening habits were becoming much more discerning. But since Christmas I've been on a real binge, ripping and burning CD's I hadn't listened to in years.I have a total of 278 songs on my player so far. Most, we already owned on CD, but some I just recently bought.

My parents gave me a Visa Card for Christmas and I've used almost all of it to purchase individual songs on Wal-Mart.com. I LOVE that you can do that! There are so many songs I've always liked, but I didn't like the artist enough to spring for the whole CD. Now, I can pick and choose.

I'm like a kid in a candy store.
I've tried to choose carefully though, and I think I have a pretty good mix.....some classics from the 60's and 70's, some early 80's nostalgia, and a couple of songs that came out in the 90's.
Here's what I got so far:

I named the playlist "Love, Mom and Dad".

1. Respect - Aretha Franklin
2. Think - Aretha Franklin
3. Midnight Train to Georgia - Gladys Knight & the Pips
4. Build Me Up Buttercup - The Foundations
5. Layla - Derek and the Dominoes
6. All Right Now - Free
7. Here Come Those Tears Again - Jackson Browne
8. The Pretender - Jackson Browne
9. Some Kind of Wonderful - Grand Funk
10. Sara Smile - Hall and Oates
11. She's Gone - Hall and Oates
12. Rockin Me - Steve Miller Band
13. Blinded By The Light - Mannfred Mann's Earth Band
14. Waiting For A Girl Like You - Foreigner
15. Stop Draggin My Heart Around - Stevie Nicks/Tom Petty
16. You Make My Dreams Come True - Hall and Oates
17. Kiss On My List - Hall and Oates
18. Tempted - Squeeze
19. What Kind Of Fool Am I - Rick Springfield
20. Love Somebody - Rick Springfield
21. Crazy - Aerosmith
22. What It Takes - Aerosmith
23. And I Am Telling You - Jennifer Hudson


The CD's I put on my player in their entirety, include Casting Crowns, Third Day, Building 429, the Eagles, Beatles, James Taylor, John Mellencamp, Alison Krauss, Waylon Jennings, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Bob Seger, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Allman Brothers, and Atlanta Rhythm Section.

I was also able to put Peanut's song from the Christmas play on it. The list of artists is arranged alphabetically, which tucks Peanut safely between John Mellencamp and Lynyrd Skynyrd (because believe it or not, her real name isn't Peanut).

It also has Alison Krauss and Aerosmith living happily side by side.

Yes, there is a perfect world. And I can hold it in the palm of my hand. :)

Christmas Gift

The man formerly known as Mud has redeemed himself.

Not that I was waiting for him to redeem himself, or that I even remember past offenses, but if I were the kind of woman who never forgets little things like sweet potato pies, I would now consider my memory erased.

Why? Because he surprised me at Christmas. And unlike the Sweet Potato Pie Incident, I had no preconceived notions of what my gift might be. None at all! Not until I had all the wrapping paper off and saw the words on the box, did I have any idea what he got me.

That never happens!! I ALWAYS know what he gets me for Christmas, usually because he asks me what I want, and I tell him. He’s even been known to give me money, and I have no problem with that at all. I love hitting the sales after Christmas with gift money.

Last year we combined our gifts to each other and got a new TV because our old one had died. The year before that I asked for and got, a printer/copier/scanner. Again, a practical, but much needed gift.
See, I’m not ALL about romance.

There have been years when we agreed not to get each other anything.
Since we hadn’t discussed what to get each other at all this year, and I was somewhat preoccupied with being sick the week before Christmas, I just assumed this was one of our ‘off’ years.

But there was a gift for me from him on Christmas morning. I was surprised, but I figured it was some token thing he had heard me say I needed.
So I tore off the paper, expecting to find some nice socks. What I found was something I never would have asked for, but have wanted for a long time…..
An MP3 player!!! I’ve wanted one ever since they first came out, but when you need things like a new printer, or TV, an mp3 player seems pretty frivolous.

So yeah, Keith is pretty proud of himself. He can also bask in the fact that he outgifted me. Actually, if he had gotten me socks, he would have outgifted me. Again, I was sick, we hadn’t talked about it….. excuses, excuses.

He does have a birthday in a couple of weeks though.
I wonder if I can redeem myself.

Post-Holiday Post

Wow, it's hard to believe it's been a mere two weeks since I posted. It feels like months. Things got really hairy around here before Christmas. I caught a terrible cold and the only thing that got me through wrapping presents Christmas Eve was the nice Nyquil buzz I had going. The hangover the next morning was a killer though.
Brother has also been sick, and is much better but not completely.

And Peanut, my sweet Peanut, has really been through the wringer. She developed a severe urinary tract infection before Christmas. It came on quite suddenly and she was miserably ill for several hours before she got antibiotics and started feeling better. Unfortunately, those several hours she felt the worst, happened to include our church's Christmas play, in which Peanut was to sing a solo. I won't go into detail about that evening, because I don't think I can go there again in my mind.
As it turned out though, Peanut was asked to sing her solo in church the next Sunday.
She did and did a fine job, with Sissy and other children joining her for part of the song. I wish I knew how to upload the CD.

Also, because this was Peanut's second UTI, her pediatrician strongly recommended she have a couple of tests to check out her kidneys, bladder, etc. One of those tests was no big deal. The other, was the worst thing I have ever had to witness being done to one of my children. I can't write much about it either. I just want to forget it. I know Peanut does too.
The good news is she is healthy. Her tests were within normal limits. For that I am thankful.

So anyway, that's what we've been up to over the holidays. We're about to get back on track though, and I'm sure I'll soon be blogging about lighter, happier things again. I sure hope so anyway. It's no fun being heavy.