josh + kati + marion

From this post, two years ago

With this

Which led to

This

And we can’t forget about

This beautiful thing.

Which led to this

Which led to this

Which turned into this

Who grew up into this

Who decided she wanted a sister

Which led to a family of four in four years

There is nothing nobler or more admirable than when two people who see eye to eye keep house as man and wife, confounding their enemies and delighting their friends.

- Homer

Have you ever broken up with someone over a period of time? You know it’s coming but you just don’t have the heart to do it right now so you spend time coming up with what you don’t like about a person and why it’s for the better, etc. Then when you do it, you feel better for a split second but almost immediately feel a deep sense of regret and longing and afraid you’ve made a mistake?

That’s what moving was like for us this past month. Our house just wasn’t cutting it anymore. Two bedrooms and one bath wasn’t big enough for our growing family and the severe lack of storage space was going to be almost impossible to deal with when we have two babies. So, we found another place, slightly smaller square footage, but three bedrooms, two baths, and more closets than you can shake a stick at!

We had to sign the lease on the new place almost a full month before our lease was up on the old house, so we had no choice but to drag out the breakup. That’s a lot of time to think about why you want to break up.

The fact that you could see daylight between the wall and the floor in our bedroom.
The doors that don’t actually close.
The two closets in the entire house.
The neighbors across the street (when my mom visited, she asked if it was a halfway home. Seriously.)
The sinking spots in the floor.
The fact that one side of the house was always on fire while the other side was freezing.
The water that sat under our bedroom for 2.5 years until the landlords replaced the pipes.
The gas stove that only had three working burners.
The staircase in the back that only was touching the ground on one pole (not dangerous at all, right?)

You get the idea? I had a list a mile long of why this breakup was a good thing.

Then moving day came, and all I could think of was

This is the house where I got all three of my positive pregnancy tests

The house where we said hello and goodbye to our Thomas Kitty

The house where we hosted our first Thanksgiving as a married couple

The house where we parked our first new car

The house where I got the middle of the night call that my grandfather passed away

The house where my feet got h-u-g-e

The house where we weathered a hurricane

The house where we brought Marion home

The house where I learned to love more than I ever knew I was capable of loving

The house where we learned how much fun Christmas is with children

Even if the child wasn’t having so much fun

The house where we learned to appreciate sleep

The house where we had a Texan (which I still can’t believe our baby was born in TEXAS!)

The house with the fantastic back yard

The house where someone learned to be naughty

The house of learning to crawl

The house of learning to stand

The house where a father celebrated his first father’s day

The house of a first birthday

The house of, well, this one really speaks for itself

The house of teaching the next generation how to be a fan

The house of chunky little mosquito bitten toddler legs

The house of first arts and crafts projects

The house of first snowfalls (thanks to a well timed visit of Gigi from Alaska)

The house of learning how much fun it is to help mama in the kitchen

And dada with his bike

The house of a first pair of boots

It was more than a house, it was our home, and despite the fact that it is (to use the classic break up line) “for the best,” we’re sad to say goodbye.

So I’ve decided to be lunar this year, so really, I’m just a day late posting these. Not 45 days late

I have lots of friends doing a 100/1001 challenge, but I’m not content to be normal, so I’ve decided to do 100 in 2010. Over achiever much?

I’m usually not a fan of resolutions and I’m especially not a fan of keeping them! I prefer to think of them as goals or as things that will help my life go in a certain direction for the year. Like most new moms (which, by the way, I’m convinced even when Marion is 24, I’ll still think I’m a “new mom”) I’ve really struggled with finding a balance with this third person in our lives and I’ve found myself being pushed to the back. So this year, my goals are focusing on improving myself, my my health, my self image, my crafts and my relationship with my husband.

I’ve broken them down into ten categories, each an area that I want to focus on.

Do ten things just for me
Knit ten things just for me
Sew ten things
Bake/cook/make ten things I’ve never baked before
Go on ten childless dates with my husband
Knit ten Christmas gifts (before December!)
Read ten NY Times top ten bestseller books
Have ten at home dates with my husband
Take ten dates just with myself

I left the ten things in each of those categories open, since well, new recipes and knitting patterns are published all the time. The only thing I got specific with was the as always physical category. If I didn’t get more focused, the only goal I would accomplish in this would be adding ten pounds

Ten physical goals
1. Run a 5K
2. Run a 10K
3. Do a triathlon
4. Run/Walk/Move my body 500 miles (mileage list here) 6% done as of February
5. Do 50 Pilates classes (class list here)
6. Do 50 Yoga classes (class list here)
7. Try a belly dancing series
8. Swim a mile
9. Stop working out in T-shirts (not quantitative, I know, but it’s my list so it can be anything I want it to be!)
10. Limit myself to just one soda during the week (weekends don’t count!)

So there. You can check up on my progress on the new tab I’ve added to the home page or just click here.

Sorry for the lack of posting lately, but I caught a nasty cold for a few weeks and just wasn’t up to much blogging.

Luckily, I have such a good helper she made being sick easier on me

(video embedded in this post)

I’m all better now so regular blog updates will resume!

January – she is a Texas girl after all

February – first (of very, very, very many) trip to the zoo

March – first bluebonnet picture

April – first plane ride (with Mr Brown Dog, of course!)

May – first tooth!

June – first Cubs game

July – discovering the joy of books (and playing with mama-made toys)

August – family vacation in Arkansas

September – someone turned one!

October – first trip to a pumpkin patch & corn maze

November – our second trip to the Alamo

December – first trip to the beach

What a year 2009 was! Our first full year as parents was full of challenges and fears and uncertainties, but also full of amazing blessings, joy and love that we never even knew existed. We’re not the same people, parents, partners that we were this time a year ago, and I think that’s a good thing. I feel that we’ve now hit a groove with our lives, which probably means we’re about to get thrown for a loop! So 2010, bring it!

To see what 2008 held for us, click here.

Did you know it’s only 47 more days until Thanksgiving?

Did your heart rate go up, blood pressure increase and a general feeling of dread come over you when you thought about the holidays?

Isn’t it really sad that when we think about the holidays it generally involves a reaction of “oh no” rather than “oh yay!”

Several of my friends have been participating in a 40 day joy challenge on facebook. Every day, they post something that has made them joyful that day (or multiple things if they’ve had a good day.) I’ve loved reading what has made them happy, thankful and put a smile on their face and it’s made me want to try to restructure my feelings about the holidays.

I think I really began to loathe the holidays when I worked in retail and moved to Atlanta. Nothing will kill the holiday spirit like a twelve hour shift the Saturday before Christmas or the challenge of getting to the airport, not losing your luggage and praying your plane isn’t delayed because it’s the last flight out of the night.

Now I have a baby and I want her to have good holiday memories – not memories of perfect holidays because that’s just setting her up to fail when she gets older! – but memories of families together and playing with her cousins and peace, love and world happiness, etc. I don’t want her to think holidays are times families are forced together, stressed out, bickering with each other, complaining about the same thing year after year and not doing anything about. I want her to flat out have a good time and just to feel that holidays are a time of love.

Next week, I’m starting my own 40 day challenge. It’s my 40 days of thankfulness/joy, of trying to reshape my thinking about the holidays, to let go of silly stresses like finding the right Christmas cards (and getting them out on time), and to focus on what made me happy about the holidays when I was little: spending time with people I love, that feeling of peace and happiness and utter contentment that comes when you open the door to home and hear everyone inside say “Yay, you made it!” I’m going post something every day that I’m thankful for, and I’m going to try not to make them all Marion related. Some days I imagine they’ll be universal ideas (good health, a roof over my head, etc) and some days they’ll probably apply just to me (like buying new yarn.) But every day I hope they’ll make me feel a little more thankful, a little more joyful, without even having to work at it.

If you’ve lost your holiday joy and spirit, take the 40 day challenge with me. They say it takes 21 days to make something a new habit so finding something to be thankful for over 40 days should make it life altering!

the video in the post below was marked as private by accident. I guess that’s what happens when you post late at night! It’s fixed now