The Queen's Rambles

I hope you all had a wonderful New Year’s Eve and are looking forward to a great 2013! I don’t know what this year holds for me, but I’m hoping we continue on the upward trend! Both 2010 and 2011 pretty much completely sucked for me, health wise. I got a baby out of the deal–the sweetest, roliest-poliest, bestest little baby in the world. But it still sucked.

The past year has finally delivered a lot of healing after I had emergency surgery to remove a teratoma from my ovary in April (though my back is still killing me), plus life has just improved significantly. The newborn stage makes life tough. We’re quickly approaching three years old. True, three is much more hellish than two, but so far even two hasn’t been that bad (let’s forget the four weeks that I was prepared to sell her to gypsies given the right price). These days we are mostly getting enough sleep, our life doesn’t revolve around nap schedules, no more diapers are involved and we can expect the kids to be pretty well behaved and listen when we go places.

We also had a really, really wonderful family vacation. We took a road trip up to Mystic, CT and I’ve determined I never want to travel by air again. Nor do I ever want to stay in a hotel again. Private rented cottage is the way to go!

I also let go of the guilt of not spending all my vacation time with my family of origin. I need to focus on making myself and my little family happy. Freedom from guilt has been a beautiful gift. I am not and can not be responsible for their happiness.

I finally found a weight loss program that works for me. I’m tired of it and I don’t want to do it, but I know it works. I’ve lost 24 pounds since August. Could have been more if I would have stuck with it, but it definitely feels good to have those 24 pounds off!

Erik is enjoying school much more this school year (not all of 2012), so that’s a huge HUGE relief. We just have to cross our fingers that his second grade teacher clicks with him as well as his first grade teacher. *mutters darkly about inflexible, pregnant kindergarten teacher*

I’ve immersed myself in volunteer work, which I usually love even though it overwhelms me sometimes. I’m an Area Coordinator for MOMS Club International and really enjoy that role. I communicate with 8 chapters and try to help them stay on track. I appreciate MOMS Club and think it does so much good for stay-at-home moms that I’m happy to give back.

I must admit I am tired of Camp Fire. Our Council is not well run and it drives me crazy when people are not dependable. It is also very draining to do everything and plan everything and not have the children really enjoy it. I think they will enjoy it next year when it is more focused on camping, but I am not sure if I even want to continue next year. Erik is not all that into it and it’s a helluvalotta work.

Oh! We also saw the Rockettes! How could I forget that? It was so much fun to see all the iconic New York sites, but it was also a place that I did not find attractive other than the “gee whiz” quality. I have no need to go back.

I don’t know what 2013 has in store, but here are a few resolutions:

1) Stick to Weight Watchers. TRACK MY POINTS!
2) Buy nothing new in January and February (except consumables, obviously) [wildly successful resolution last year!]
3) Use weekly and daily to-do lists to make myself more productive
4) Make my photo book spreads for the previous month by the 7th of each month (major, major fail on this last year. I didn’t make a single spread. Still haven’t started the 2012 book)
5) Go on one date night a month. Elsa is potty trained so we can drop the kids off at various Date Night babysitting services or we can hire a babysitter now that I have interviewed a few. (Failed big time with this same resolution last year)

We also have our 10 year anniversary this year and we want it to be great! I don’t know the budget or the plan, but surely we can come up with something. Originally we wanted my mom to come out and watch the kids while we went off somewhere warm and exotic, but I don’t think that will happen. My mom is not that dependable thanks to my sister. She needs to be on stand-by to make sure my niece and nephews are cared for.

Maybe a family cruise that has babysitters and kids’ activities? The thought of a cruise is not all that appealing because of my intense fish phobia. Are there resorts that have babysitters and family activities? And I don’t mean Great Wolf Lodge. Ha.

Ok, I just looked it up and there are resorts with daycare provided. We’ll have to look into that.

So did any of you do anything thrilling last night?

I made a little appetizer dinner with cheese, crackers, cocktail wienies, chips, etc. We had our bonus child, her brother, and our little family. I don’t usually let the brother in the house since he is a pill, but we had a MOMS Club hot chocolate party earlier in the day and I couldn’t very well tell this one kid he wasn’t allowed in my house when I had 10 other kids running around, eating cookies, drinking hot chocolate, etc. He behaved himself just fine, I think. I forgot to have him turn out his pockets when he left, but all of Erik’s DS games are locked away in my room so hopefully the sticky fingers didn’t stick on anything too valuable (or anything at all, really!)

The little girl refused to eat the cocktail wieners because she thought they were literally wieners of the penis variety. I’m not sure if she thought they were from an animal or little boys, but she was NOT going to eat them even after reassured they were not actual mini-penises.

That certainly gave me a good chuckle. Reminded me of when I was a little kid and was also soooooo embarrassed on Wednesdays because the radio station kept going on and on and on about it being “hump day” and I didn’t think little children should be hearing about that sort of thing. We lived in a small town close to lots of cattle ranches so we would often see cows or dogs humpin’ away. I guess sex is not quite the same mystery when you have that visual.