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January 12 CHAI just realized it's been 6 months since I've written in my blog...that's because it's been CRAZY! Meridith and I launched our stamp design company (www.lizzieannedesigns.com) and that is keeping us very busy. We are going to be in the CHA show in Anaheim at the end of the month and it's starting to freak me out...it's costing so much money to be in this show. I really hope it pays off. We have been getting a lot of interest though so far so I'm getting excited as well! We'll see how it goes...
Other things that have happened since then is I found out I was prego end of August! YEEEAHHHH! We went to Disneyland the day after I found out, and the last day or two of my trip, the SICKNESS arrived. It stayed until right before Thanksgiving. So that was also eating up a lot of time...I was barely well enough to do anything during that. So much sicker than I was with Ethan. But of course we are thrilled, AND we found out we're having a girl! Yippeee! Baby is due May 9th.
THEN the "weather" came. We've had record flooding, windstorms, and snow the past 3 months...it's like one natural disaster after another. Of course this has been happening all over Western Washington---not just us---but when it's bad, it's always worse in Duvall. Most residents in Duvall were without power for 8 days during the windstorm and we just got 7 inches of snow two days ago...CRAZY. Makes you wonder what's going on around here (well I think it's Global Warming. Check out the "Inconvienent Truth" documentary.) During the power outage we gave up and decided to drive to my parents house in Salt Lake. Of course we found out our power came back hours after we left. :) But we were still glad we went...we had a really good time. Not sure we'll ever make that drive in winter again (we'll fly next time) but it was nice to be with the family for Christmas. Below is a photo of Ethan and Meridith's daughter, Olivia, at Temple Square. (Note they are holding hands...cute!)
So that's been the last few months in a nutshell. I'm looking forward to this show...both going to it and being DONE with it...so hopefully I can spend Feb, March, and April filling stamp orders and waiting for baby #2 to arrive. August 17 The Mysteries of ParentingI have so many friends who are having problems with child bearing, child rearing, and parenting right now it blows my mind. I have friends who badly want to be parents with no kids. I have friends who seem to be able to have kids but have horrible pregnancies and don't have as many children as they would like (I guess I could add myself to that category.) I have friends who have TOO MANY kids. I have a friend who cried to me today about finding out she was pregnant with her third girl...she was hoping for a boy as this was to be her last pregnancy. I have a friend who was knocked up and who will probably end up on welfare because she can't afford to raise a child (adoption..hello?!) And of course, I have friends who have children with disabilities and health issues...those are the most heartbreaking.
Why is the process of bringing these little souls down to this earth so dang hard and so complicated? (question for the day I get to heaven I guess...)
The kid thing has got to be the single thing in life that brings the most joy and the most pain at the same time. Every friend I have who is dealing with these types of trials suffers greatly, and it's very sad. It doesn't really help to hear that others are going through it as well (and there are plenty of others) because it's just not something that you want to have happen to you. I think as kids, especially as girls...we assume that someday we'll just have the exact children we want, and that will be that and we hold on to that until the day we actually start having them. And it's crazy for us when things don't turn out the way we had planned---which is funny because when it comes to having children you pretty much have zero control over what your gonna get.
I feel very lucky to have my little boy, and I know I am lucky. June 23 Purple wallsEthan is definitely turning into a little boy. Note the attached photos. He and his cousin Carson decided to color all four walls and the CEILING (they climbed up the loft bed) of his bedroom purple the other day. They managed to do it in the 5 minutes I wasn't watching them. It took 1 1/2 hours to scrub off. Luckily, Carson freely admitted to doing most the work so my sister is the one who ended up doing the scrubbing. ha ha.
Note the photo of Ethan and Carson moments before committing the crime. Don't they just look so sweet an innocent?? What I love is at this age they come right out and admit they did it like it was no big deal. "Ethan! Did you write on the walls?!!!" "Yeah mom, it's purple!!!" So proud of their work. Until they wind up in the naughty-corner. May 28 GirlfriendsI've always believed that one's girlfriends are as important (if not more important) than, well, men. :) Now, if you end up finding that one special man than by all means, that man should be numero uno. But I have to say that most girlfriends I have are devoted to that one man (husband) but in turn are devoted to a whole lot more girlfriends. And rightly so. That's because it takes a girl to really understand what a girl goes through I think. I might cry to my husband about things that are bothering me and I appreciate the feedback I get from him...from the "male" perspective. But I know it will most likely be my girlfriends that really understand!
Something I have been pondering lately is why it is I've lost touch with some old friends...this is very unlike me. I think it may be because I choose friends differently than I used to. I feel like I have such limited time now that the friends I do keep in touch with need to really live by the girlfriend code. The code being that Girlfriends are high-priority. (maybe not always top, but definately high.) I have some old friends who never really grasped this concept, and these are the friends I've ended up loosing touch with, not oddly enough. It's sad to me because I am not the type of person to ever loose touch with a friend...at least a friend who I have some history with. But I guess I'm just at that point in my life where I need friendships to be effortless and meaningful. Luckily I have plenty of friends who fit that bill. Hopefully I fit the bill as a friend to them as well...it's so easy to get caught up in life and forget to be a good friend back. I really do appreciate my friends more than they know.
Speaking of girlfriends, I just returned from a scrapbooking retreat on Whidbey Island...it was lovely! The weather was so perfect...we got so lucky because May can be iffy. We rented this beautiful house overlooking the water. I got lots of scrapbooking done, and I also went wine-tasting for the first time...ha ha ha! :) It was fun. (a little wine aint gonna kill me.) Below is a photo of our scrapbooking group. This will definately become a yearly tradition!
May 17 TortureI don't know why I do this to myself...but here I am on another stupid fad diet. This one my sister talked me into. Ugh. To make it worse, my aunt has been on this one for years, and I've always thought she was insane because she does things like blend celery sticks and spinach and water together and that's all she'll eat all day (I am not doing that.) I've literally had nothing but this disgusting "cleanse" drink today--I am starving. It's supposed to get rid of your cravings...so far it's not working because I could really go for a big bowl of ice cream right now. I don't know why I do this to myself...I guess because I'm a girl and that's what we do. It bugs me that I haven't taken off that last 5 pounds of pregnancy weight. I wish I could be like my husband and not care...I'm sure he doesn't even have a clue how much he weighs.
Speaking of torture, I am scheduled to have the laparoscopy surgery on June 7th. I keep putting it off thinking maybe we'll get pregnant this month, okay maybe next month..yadda yadda yadda, and it never happens. So I guess it's time to start doing something about this. Maybe I'll get lucky and I'll get pregnant because I *think* I need surgery and therefore don't care if I get pregnant this month....so I'll be surprised. So all I need to do now is not care this month. Yeah right. Off to surgery I go. April 29 Katie, Ethan, Jaden, and SiennaI'm diggin these scrapbooking pages I did of my friend Katie and her girls and Ethan when we were in Zions, so I had to post them :) It was fun to get the kids together....and fun for me and Katie to just hang out. April 20 The Tenth YearThis is the third post to my blog in three days which is very odd for me. I've got a lot running through my mind however and I'm finding my blog space theraputic :)
My best friend Ulrika emailed me today and alerted me to the fact that in June it will have been our 10th Anniversary graduating from college! Crazy.
And speaking of those ten years...I can remember that year I graduated more than any year of my life. Seriously. The years that followed up until now are a bit of a blur. But that one year... 1996 - 1997 plays through my mind a lot, even in my dreams. I wonder why...sometimes it really bothers me. I guess because *so much* happened that year...I went through more change than I ever have any other year. That was the year I graduated, moved to Park City, moved to Seattle, met Phillip, and got married. A lot of my very best friends kind of went their way that year as well (including my best friend who moved to Sweden). Yeah. Big year.
I think I also had a lot of unresolved things happen with friends and various people, both in Salt Lake and in Seattle, and having things unresolved bothers me. (Or, it must bother me because otherwise it wouldn't keep playing over in my head. At the time it didn't bother me..it was later.) It's just interesting to me how our minds keep reminding us of these things that make such an impact on our lives, even if we don't realize it. I know for a fact that I miss a lot of the people that were in my life that year...both friends I left behind in Salt Lake and friends I left (in a way) in Seattle when I got married. I'm still in touch with most of these people, but I miss the connections I had. As much as I love being married and love my husband dearly, I do miss the closeness of those friendships...it's hard to maintain those types of friendships when you are so involved in your family life. But I think it's just as important.
One thing I can say is that since that year, I learned *not* to let anything that matters to me go unresolved again. And I definately know how much a good friend is worth to me...a lot, so I invest more time into friendships that really matter to me. And that may be why the past nine years are a happy blur. :) GoneWell, my store is *really* going to be gone now...it is being sold to a guy who wants to open a coffee shop on Monday. He's also buying the space next to it and knocking down the walls inbetween...will be completely redecorating the place. So that space that we put so much time into is going to be GONE GONE in the next few months. It's fine...just a little sad.
Time for me to get going on my next business venture. (Stamp company.)
On the bright side, we're finally getting a coffee shop in town! Yeah! April 06 "Spring" ForwardSpring is here, and there is something about this time of year that always really makes me want to get my butt into gear and do things I've always wanted to do but have been putting off. Not sure why Spring does this to me...it might be because the days feel longer with the time change, or just that whole "rebirth" you see all around you. I can't help but notice all the little buds on the trees and the flowers popping up everywhere...it exciting! Change is here! The season is telling me to change something in my life as well.
And change I have. Things I've done this past month...
Life is good right now. The only thing really bugging me is the whole baby #2 issue (or lack of #2 baby). I could write an entire blog entry about this one...but I don't want to dwell on it quite yet. I've just got to be patient. I really feel there is another baby for me and Phillip in the future. March 22 The Eb and Flow of MoneyIt just amazes me the way money can go up and down in one freaking day. Take, for example, my day today. UP: DOWN: UP: DOWN: UP: I fought a dental insurance claim that wasn't being paid for some ridiculous reason. I won (much to my amazement.) Up $160.00. DOWN: UP: DOWN: REALLY DOWN I also sense that an X-Box 360 is in my near future. ("We can do Media Center from your new computer and run it through the new X-Box...isn't that great?") ...see what I mean? All in the course of a day. Drives me nuts. December 17 Happy Anniversary to UsToday Phillip and I are celebrating our 8th Anniversary. And to celebrate, we are not going to a fancy pants restaraunt like we normally do...we are going to our favorite hole-in-the-wall dive Thai food retaraunt in downtown Seattle called Mae Phim. All plates $5.50.
Why?
We've been reminiscing about the good/hard-ol-days when we were both young and broke (VERY BROKE) and it was things like being able to afford eating cheap Thai food instead of Mac and Cheese that made us happy ;) There is nothing that can make or break a marriage like being broke. Now that we're a little more financially stable (well, relatively speaking ;) we think back on those times and realize that we can make it through anything! We're going on our cute, cheap little date tongiht to celebrate having made it through thick and thin the last 8 years.
We will be treating ourselves to a movie at the Cinerama downtown with all the butter-laden movie theatre popcorn we can eat however. :) |
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