2009 Lessons

What a beautiful year of blessings 2009 brought me. Although there are many highlights to 2009, I find myself reflecting the things that I have learned the most this year. I have posted links to the ones that have posts that relate.

Planning a wedding just isn't that fun.

Buying your first home is equally stressful and exciting. Nothing makes you prouder on closing day to realize "I worked for this, and it's finally mine."

Feeling burned out on a job and waiting until May to take a single day off in order to have a lot of vacation time for your wedding is not as smart as it sounds.

You find out who your true friends are when you go through life changing events.

A child that you have never met really can change your life.

A Mexico vacation is worth every single penny.

Do not drink the water in Mexico, or eat the ice on the plane on the way home.

Do not expect someone to take a hint. Just tell them how you feel.

Let go of unhealthy friendships.

Listening to your niece learn how to say your name is the sweetest sound to hear.

Nothing will get in the way of my husband and seeing the Boston Red Sox play in person.

WD-40 does not kill bugs.

Centipedes crawl really fast.

The Poochie-Bell is the world's greatest invention.

Remember that God puts you in places only when he needs you to be there.

Get out of your job that makes you feel meaningless.

You cannot stop a child from reflecting your parenting-no matter how guarded to tell them to be.

Children that have always been given up on believe that everyone will give up on them eventually.

Some people really do live in situations that I only believed to be in the movies.

Some people really don't want to be helped.

You can't change anyone's priorities.

Married life is what you make it.

Appreciation to your spouse is the key that opens many doors.

Dogs will manage to find the one thing you forget to put away.

I'm way beyond blessed. I am reminded each and every day when I go to work to be thankful for the unbelievable amount of blessings I have been given.

My bloggy readers really are the best. :)

Happy 2010 everyone! Be safe and celebrate it well!!

Recap

I'm so behind these days! I've been finding it harder to blog because the things on my mind lately are things I really can't share with the internet world. My sweet kiddos at work that I spend every day with come home with me in my thoughts, and I wish I could share their stories. Sadly, due to confidentiality rules and out of respect to their privacy, I can't. So I've been finding it harder to find topics on my blog. I'm working it out though, and trying to get in a new groove!

Anyway, it's time to recap! Jason and I got lots of Christmas cards this year, and I found this envelope the funniest:

This card came from one of Jason's family members, and I thought it was so cute that they put my name on the envelope instead of his. I've been teasing him about being "Mrs. Orlando" for a few weeks now. :)

We had a long day trip to visit family for Christmas, and couldn't bear the thought of Fenway staying in his "bed" that long without food or water. So after removing the toilet paper, picking up the rugs, and raising everything else out of Fenway's reach, we left him safely in our bathroom with lots of toys, food, and water. Except...

Fenway kind of likes to rearrange his bowls, remember? Well, apparently the new, heavier bowls did not stop our sweet puppy, and he overturned his bowl. What a mess!! And, Jason and I forgot ONE tiny thing. My ROBE on the back of the bathroom door!

Sigh. I love that robe. It was perfect length, and towel material just like I love. I hope we can find another one. Jason picked that robe out for me during one of our Christmases as a dating couple together. I'll spare you the photo of the strings of this robe AFTER Fenway ate them and threw them up.

I stayed pretty sick all Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Thank goodness for finnigrin, after dose 2 or 3 (I can't remember), the medcine finally worked out they were supposed to. I'll spare you the details. You're welcome.

And NOW, we have taken down all of our lovely Christmas decorations and created a new centerpiece for our kitchen table to ring in the New Year! I wanted something subtle, and yet still cozy.

I can't wait to get all those candles lit for a few romantic dinners!

Merry Christmas

I planned on blogging last weekend, to show you the shenanigans that Fenway got into.  

I planned on catching up on blogging on Monday, to catch up from not doing what I planned.

I planned on posting a copy of our Christmas card for you to see.

I planned on blogging last night, to share some Christmas-y events and photos.

And then I planned on blogging this morning, to catch up.

After the chaos of the week got the best of me, I now have food poisoning.  So I guess we will have to do a major blog recap after the holidays and I'm not spending more time in the bathroom than I am anywhere else. :(

Merry MERRY Christmas to you all.  I hope your time with your families is full of blessings, and pray for safe travels for all of you.

Happy 101!

Jess, my awesome ornament swap partner, tagged me in this Happy 101 Award!  Thanks Jess, y

ou are the greatest!

Here are the award rules: List 10 things that make you happy, try to do at least one of them today, and tag 10 bloggers that brighten your day. For those 10 bloggers who get the award, you must then link back to my blog!

10  Things That Make Me Happy

1.  My husband.  You just don't find the good ones like that anywhere! :)

2. Sweet *not so* baby Riley.  She's sweet enough that it makes me melt, and mischievous enough to make me realize that I'm proud to be an aunt, but not ready a Mommy yet. 

3.  My new job.  What a great thing it is to go to work and spend my days with children, and drama free adults.

4.  Warm weather.  Oh how I'm dreaming of the beach right now.

5.  Fenway.  He's the world's sweetest pup.

6.  Friends that will be in town by this weekend! 

7.  Our beautiful home.

8.  Fireplaces.

9.  Country music.  

10.  Hot baths with a glass of wine!

Thanks again Jess!  I'm passing this along to all of you tonight.  I know things are crazy with all the holiday festivities approaching, and I'd love to read about the things that make you happy! So join in! :)

Love it!

My awesome aunt made my tree skirt and stockings this year! Since Jason and I insist on being unique in pretty much everything, it was impossible to find stockings and a tree skirt that went with our color scheme. So my Aunt Angie came to the rescue and worked her tail off to make it perfect!! Check it out!

Jason's stocking is blue and mine is purple...and little Fenway's is right in the middle :). And we definitely have enough fabric leftover for a baby girl or boy stocking someday! :)

Curly Fenny!

I appreciate your patience with me on my lack of blogging lately. And I promise, I HAVE been reading each and every one of your blogs, but I haven't been commenting lately. I keep meaning to go back and comment, but then I run out of free time and forget. Please forgive me! Hopefully once I settle in to my new schedule with my AMAZING new job, I'll be back into a routine again.

Since I've been so absent, I wanted to share our latest Fenway pictures! His long, poofy hair was getting WAY too long, causing a lot of matted spots that were hurting Fenway to try to get them out. So we decided that he needed a bit of a trim-and boy did a TON of curl surface!! Look how cute!

Such a sweet puppy! He's definitely even more of a snuggle buddy now!! :)

Thankful Thursday

I've started my new job as of yesterday and tonight, I'm most thankful for the simple things.  My beautiful home, my supportive family, my dearest friends.  Due to confidentiality, I cannot share with you some things that I would like.  However, over the past few days I have seen some incredibly sad stories and situations that bring on behavioral/mental health issues in children.  Tonight, if you feel lead to do so, please just say a prayer for these children that go home to much less than ideal situations.  

I'm thankful for the opportunity to see these situations, because not only do I have a chance to make an impact, but I have been given another chance to comprehend just how blessed I really am.

Ornament Swap!

Justine at Almost There hosted an ornament swap, and gave me a great partner! Jess and I decided that we would send each other ornaments that symbolized something that would represent us or where we come from. Since she is from Central Florida, she sent me the most BEAUTIFUL Disney ornament!

I LOVE how beautiful this is, you did a great job Jess!! Thank you SO much!! :)