No way

I've been trying (once again) to do the whole "get up at 5:30 am to work out thing," but some mornings (like this morning) I don't manage it. On mornings like this one, I only get out of bed when Evie wakes and groggily calls to me. She's not much of a morning person. I get some milk for her and bring her back to bed with me where I pathetically lie in bed, both of us awake (Justin out being hooah at PT), trying to eek out a few more horizontal minutes.

One of my tactics to lengthen this time has been to let Evie play with the ringtones on my phone. (Insert that pathetic part again...) She has thus began calling the phone "Bah bah bah bah bah!" after her favorite ringtone entitled "Sunny Day." The rhythm is something like three eighth notes, a dotted quarter, then another eighth, to give you the full context--E says the 'bah bahs' in rhythm. This is usually a very innocent activity in the early hours of the morning, but on occasion she has accidentally exited out of the ringtone menu and, before I have noticed, activated my speed dial (sorry Momma, Denise, and an apology in advance to Julia...it's bound to happen to you one of these days...).

Well, today, while excitedly dancing to the "bah bah bah bah bahs" Evie lost grip on the phone and it fell between the mattress and the wall behind the bed. In the dead center. I tried reaching for it, but it was no good, so I simply abandoned it there for most of the morning. (Suddenly it's WAY less cool since I got my ipod touch.)

Mid afternoon or so I decided I really needed to make an effort to get it back out. This was going to involve me finding something long to reach and poke with, and a lot of wiggling on my stomach, face in the carpet. So what did I do? I told Chokydar to go get it.

Now here's the crazy part. She made for going under the bed. I was like WHAAA??? No way!!! We've never trained her to do tricks really and, although I suspect her of speaking English fairly fluently, the response was so immediate and unexpected, it took me completely by surprise. I do this sort of thing all the time now with Evelyn (try new suggestions, not send her under the bed) because she is more and more capable every day. She often will surprise me by being able to do something I wasn't really sure that she could. It's almost as if Choky had been observing this phenomenon and was afraid that Evie was showing her up.

So I got the phone back. But no thanks to Chokydar. Apparently one of her toys was just under the edge of the bed, so she's not a super genius after all. She's still a Super Puli, though.

And I discovered Justin's missing ipod under the bed as well!! It had presumable suffered the same fate as my phone, but no one knew it. We've been looking for that thing for weeks!

A dangerous pastime...

So I've been thinking...

In comparing this year's holidays to last year I was struck by a couple of things. Last year I was not super excited about Christmas; even thought about not putting up the tree (I did put it up, with Julia's help!). Without Justin home and Evie not old enough to know what was going on it just didn't feel the same. This year however, I was super psyched for Christmas, started decorating and crafting and wrapping and singing ASAP and yet I felt like the 25th came and went not unlike a steam engine. It was a wonderful holiday, don't get me wrong, but I felt a bit railroaded by the whole thing and have some ideas of how I may want to do things differently in the future.

Similarly, last New Year's I was incredibly excited. Again, I think it had much to do with turning the page onto the calendar year in which Justin would return from deployment. I was full of hope and enthusiasm and excitement and possibilities. This year, on the other hand, I'm having a harder time getting off the ground. I don't want to mislead you; I'm not without excitement for the new year. I think my major problem is that I look around and see so many things I'd like to improve, I don't know where to begin. And then I get exhausted just thinking about it all.

There are some small things off the top of my head that I want to do for myself. This year I want to:

-Read more. I used to be an avid reader, and nowadays I simply don't sit down to read. Anything counts, but I'd like to focus on new fiction (reading Harry Potter over and over doesn't count).

-Drink more water. Some days I go a whole day without drinking any. Unless you count the water used to make my coffee. No? I didn't think that counted.

-Declutter. Especially my wardrobe. Goodbye wishful thinking size 8 pants.

-Draw. Anything.

-Take more walks with Chokydar and Evie. (Justin too of course, but he's not just wild about them, whereas the other two can't get enough.

I'd also like to get rid of some of my emotional crutches. For instance, when I'm stressed or avoiding something, I have the tendency to gobble candy. When I say "gobble" think entire boxes in a day. Then I'll go out and get more. I thought it would be a good idea to give up candy altogether for a year, as I see myself more of an abstainer than a moderator, but this idea was not greeted enthusiastically by anyone I tested it on. ("You're going to do WHAT?!?!?") So that idea is on hold, although I'm still debating instituting it.

I came across some useful looking resolution/goal worksheets (I NEED spreadsheets, charts, calendars, check lists, etc.) and think I will look over them to try and get myself geared up and open to renewal. They are both from Simplemom.net and have gotten me thinking. This one is maybe a little too in depth for me, but is a good jumping off point, and I like the philosophy behind this post that says "winter is the time for setting goals, not starting goals."

Are you making resolutions/goals for 2010?

There and back again

We got back Sunday afternoon from our "vacation" (i.e. lots of enjoyable hard work) to Houston and New Jersey/New York. The trip included treacherous icy road conditions, snow storms, family, the best of friends, catching up, Evie's first encounter with stairs, excellent fondue, wii golf and bowling, a diverted excursion to Menlo Park mall instead of West Point, Cinnamon crunch bagels (with hazelnut cream cheese) from Panera, the NJ Transit, taking the wrong train for the first time ever, Ragtime on Broadway, fantastic Greek food on 56th and 7th, and the flight from hell, and much, much more. Well, nevermind...after hearing of the debacle at Newark airport this week, suddenly our trip didn't seem nearly so bad.

And through all of that (or perhaps because of), I somehow managed to take only a handful of pictures. Thankfully the drive back up to OK was the best we've had in months and we're using the week to unpack, settle back into routine, play with Christmas toys, and welcome the new year!

Hope yours has started well!