Overwhelmed

I keep a mental list of things that are important in a partner to pass on to Annie when she is of dating age, approximately 45 years from now. These are things like having a good personality, thinking you are pretty without makeup, sharing similar religious beliefs, and liking their mother. You know, the important stuff. I am officially adding to the list that they should have at least one aunt (Rick has two)  that is an expert crafter. 

Aunt Janet had been collecting pics of Annie for a while now, but I wasn't sure exactly what she was up to. The gift was delivered on Christmas. The album is the most beautiful collection of pictures I have ever seen. And nothing was left out. She had momentos from all the big events too (christening, first birthday, first Christmas card). Nothing was forgotten. 

She even got Liza and David's wedding, which really put it over the top.

To say I was emotional when I received it would be an understatement. I was crying like a baby. A baby that finally has a baby book for her baby. 

Thank you, Aunt Janet!

Eat, drink, and be merry

I leaned a little harder on the eating over drinking this year. I think I just wanted to really have something to rally against come January 1.  But back to the holidays....

I have to admit that Annie has blown out the walls on my cold black Grinch heart. I was excited to put up the tree and cried a few times when reviewing all the lovely ornaments we received last year for babies first Christmas. We hung stockings and baked and LISTENED TO MONKEY FIGHTING (working on swear words) CHRISTMAS MUSIC. I even turned a blind eye to Rick getting up on a high ladder for exterior light hanging. I guess all of a sudden the risk of him sustaining a devastating injury from a fall is outweighed by my desire for Annie to see her house trimmed in lights. 

We spent time with family, but it never seems to be enough. What used to be late nights enjoying cocktails with my favorite big brother who always travels in from out of town has become measured alcohol consumption (but not food, never measure food!) and barely making it to 9:00 before we have to bail and head home.

This year was special for so many reasons, all of them Annie-centric. She seemed to know there was something special going on. She loved spending time with her beloved cousins and probably tested every ounce of patience all three of them have. And her big cousins and Uncle Dan turned it out this year for her. They noticed Annie's love of all things fort related and built her her very own tee pee! This thing is tricked out with lights and all weather canvas and you should have seen her fast-feet happy dance when she first saw it.

Behold the tee pee! Had it not been zero degrees I think she would have tried to spend the night in there. 

Thank you to these sweet ladies for such a thoughtful gift (Dan especially, though not pictured)!

And the holiday (and non-holiday) tradition of Uncle Happy and Chloe silliness continued. It's fun to see her starting to be able to dish it right back to him. After good manners, this is probably one of the most important personality traits one can have in this family. And our manners are questionable at best. 

All photos from Rick's family Christmas are on a real camera but trust it was equally awesome. I feel so blessed to have such wonderful and generous people surround us over the holidays. Thank you all for helping to make this year so special!

To The Makers of Pepto Bismol

I really think Pepto should come with a free phone app that sends a message, oh, say 36 hours after you take a dose of the stuff. The message would say something like:

YOU TOOK PEPTO BISMOL 36 HOURS AGO. THAT'S WHY YOUR POOP IS BLACK.

NO, YOU ARE NOT GOING TO DIE.

Save a lot of people a lot of anxiety.

Ohm My Goodness

Living Social had a deal about 5 months ago for a month of unlimited yoga for $30. The spot is right by our house (seriously not even a mile away) and it is normally around $12/visit and supposed to be a really nice facility. I figured this was just the thing I needed to help with my back problems and get me back on the working out train.

Did I mention I had back problems? Oh yes. Back in July there was an ER visit coupled with months of physical therapy and now I am better. Better than I was. Meaning I can stand up straight. Now you are up to speed.

But the yoga deal fell to the wayside during the Great Back Drama of 2012, then there was the wedding, then there was me realizing that EACH YOGA CLASS IS AN HOUR AND A HALF. Trying to slip that into an already tight schedule wasn't the easiest task. But I found one beginner yoga class on Monday nights that would seem to work. And then I completely forgot about it until I got a friendly reminder from Living Social that the deal was about to expire.

If I am being honest here, I think I was scared to re-enter the working out world. Though my brother would argue that yoga is hardly working out....if I am putting on spandex and entering a room with other people in spandex and someone might break a sweat...it's working out. And I hadn't done any sort of "public" working out (other than in front of Rick or limping along the road trying to "run") in, oh, say 2.5 years. And prior to that I was fairly fit, so in my mind this would be a public declaration of just how far I had slid into the pit of flabby out-of-shapedness. No fun.

But I screwed up my courage, donned my spandex and headed out last night. I arrived approximately 45 minutes before the class started thanks to my inability to correctly use the internet. And then I was trapped in a room that was covered in signs about "inner reflection" and "being present", so I felt a little bad about checking facebook and instagram for those 45 mintues. So I sat. And tried to relax. And not think about if my thighs were gonna look huge in child's pose.

Finally we were let into the room and I was thrilled to see that there were no mirrors in there. The room was dark and warm and not crowded. We were instructed to sit and then did breathing exercises for the first 10 minutes.

Have you ever tried to really focus on your breathing? Like someone telling you to breathe with "continuity" and "intention"? As if those are even real things. But yet telling you to relax at the same time? I swear my chest was jerking, my eyes were watering and I almost passed out about six times. I finally had to focus really hard on the back of my eyelids and ditch the breathing business and finally I seemed to "relax". There's a little unsolicited yoga tip from me to you.

The rest of the class was a bit of a blur. There was no clock, no mirror to scope out others in the class and size up who had on the cutest lululemon tights. There were a few tense moments when I was sure I had not waited the appropriate amount of time between eating and yoga-ing, but thankfully nothing slipped. Or at least nothing that I will confess to.

I survived. And I felt wonderful after. I was back in the "work out world". Granted, it was the least threatening atmosphere anyone could ever imagine, but I did it. And I can walk today. I still can't breathe right, but maybe I will get that on track in the next 29 days until my deal expires.

Perhaps this whole yoga thing will jump-start my fitness routine in 2013?

Don't hold your breath.

Tree is for Torture

The tree is up. And we took special care to put on ornaments that Annie would love.

All you experienced parents out there are laughing at us right now.

Yes, we created a big, beautiful, shiny object that is covered in trinkets and treasures for our precious daughter.

That she can't touch.

Rick's got a line on some safety fencing. Wonder if it comes in red?

They Don't Call it "Magic Kingdom" for Nothing

Backstory: Rick and I have a sort of ongoing joke about who loses more stuff. While I am constantly in a state of looking for "misplaced" things (cell phones, sunglasses, phone chargers, remotes), I usually find things....eventually. With his help. After acting like a frantic maniac for 15 minutes. The expense of the misplaced object is directly correlated to the level of freaking out. Rick has actually lost a few things (camera, sunglasses). In his defense, I am clearly not as big of a help to him as he is to me in the searching department, so there's that little inequality.

Vacations really seem to bring out my frantic searching for misplaced things. This is usually because nothing is in its "normal" spot. I am constantly rifling through the diaper bag/purse/carry-on combo I am sporting, swearing I forgot something. I panic even if Rick swears he knows it's in the bag. I need to physically see it to stop the freaking. This usually peaks in the airport parking lot where I empty out all our bags, confirm that we did actually pack everything, and thusly confirming I am a total lunatic. I will be accepting invitations to join you all on vacations via email and text (assuming I haven't misplaced my phone) after that ringing endorsement.

So when, on DAY ONE of our trip to Disney, I realized I had "misplaced" my Ray Bans, we went through our usual tossing of the condo and bags in an effort to locate them. No luck. Once I confirmed they were not in the condo, I pretty much wrote them off. I felt I had better odds of getting them back had I dropped them in the Mississippi River. I was actually fairly composed (for me) as the fate of the sunglasses was sealed. I purchased cheap shades (that, ironically, were never "misplaced" for the remainder of the trip) and went about getting our Disney on.

But I loved those sunglasses. And I remembered seeing a HUGE building on our way into the resort that said "Disney Lost and Found" with a line out the front. Yes, even the lost and found has lines at Disney. An entire building dedicated to lost things. I also remembered a stat that almost 70,000 pairs of glassess are turned in at DW a year. I found this stat staggering but it also gave me a bit of hope. Why couldn't mine be one of the 70,000? The smart part of my brain reminded me that they are cute and expensive sunglasses and it's likely they were pocketed by someone, assuming they weren't smashed by a monorail.

The naive and optimistic/dumb part of my brain prevailed (as it usually does) and I called Disney's lost and found (DLAF) 1-800 number a week ago today.

DLAF/Bob: Disney Lost and Found, this is Bob. How can I help you?

K: Hi, I realize this is a long shot, but I lost my sunglasses there last week.

Bob: Sure, do you know the date and approximate location of where you lost them, and can you provide a description?

(at this point my smart brain was giving me the ol' "I told you this was a lost cause" face, but dumb brain pressed on)

K: Sure, it was Wednesday and I think I lost them either at Epcot or on the monorail to/from Epcot. They are light brown raybans with round lenses.

Bob: Ok, let me go check. Hold on.

dumb brain and smart brain in united internal monologue: HOLD ON? Don't you need to sift through a pile of glasses that is in the back of a huge warehouse? EPCOT is an entire PARK! And we took two trains to get there! Shouldn't they get back to you in a week during which Bob's sole purpose on this earth is locating your sunglasses? Surely this is....

Bob (90 seconds later): I'm back. We've got 'em. What's your mailing address?

K: WHAT? You have got to be kidding????

I am pretty sure I might have told Bob I loved him at that point. Or something equally embarassing. I know I did not play it cool.

Bob took my info and said it could take a week for me to get them. And no charge for shipping or the 2-3 minutes of Bob's time.

My smart brain was still thinking that it was likely we would be sent some busted oakleys from 1998 that Bob sends out just to mess with people and get them off the line.

The mail came on Friday:

Losing Power Ball ticket to hide mailing address and to also prove we are not multi-millionaires. yet.

TAAAAA-FREAKING-DAAAAA!

They even have smudges from little sticky fingers on them to prove they are MINE. I guess Bob's services don't extend to lens cleaning.

After Rick's head exploded as he sees what goes on with the much smaller scale museum lost and found, he joined me in being very impressed with what must be the most organized lost and found on the planet.

The return of my prodigal sunglasses was a wonderful end to a great trip. We will certainly be back to Disney, though maybe next time we'll bring Bob with us.