Happy New Year!

Happy 2010!!!! I really like the sound of that. Maybe it's an obsessive compulsive thing - but it sounds like it's going to be a good year since it's a very clean, solid-sounding number, LOL.

So where was I at the start of the LAST decade? How could I forget? I was sick in bed!!!! What a way to start the Millennium: with mononucleosis.

On Monday December 5, 1999 it was freezing at Iowa State University where I was a sophomore in college. Snow was on the ground while I was interviewing & filming students for my TV show because I was a reporter on our campus television station. I began sweating. I was burning hot. So I took off my winter coat like it was no big deal and walked around in just a light, long-sleeved shirt. People began telling me something was wrong with me if I was hot outside in that weather! I realized I did feel a little light headed but otherwise was fine. However, when I got back to my dorm room I was exhausted. So I climbed into my loft and took a nap. When I woke up, I thought I was going to pass out. Every hour it got worse and so I went to the campus medical center and they tested me for mono. It came back positive. At the time I wasn't really "sick" but they told me I must make plans to leave school early for Christmas break.

So I went to the doctor in my parents' town. I still remember him chuckling and saying, "I hate to tell you this but you're about to be sicker than you've ever been in your life. In about two weeks you're not going to be able to get out of bed. Your throat is going to be so sore you're probably going to need painkillers. I had mono when I was around your age and I will never forget it for as long as I live."

I thought he was exaggerating. How could he know exactly what I was going to feel in two weeks?

Duh.

Thankfully, I took my finals as fast as I could - one of them I had to wait and come back for when the mono had indeed taken over me so I failed the test miserably, but luckily it didn't make a difference with my final grade. I spent my 20th birthday on Tuesday, December 21, 1999 in bed watching Mary Tyler Moore reruns and eating soup crackers. By then my throat had become so swollen and full of puss that when I opened my mouth there was no hole in the back - just a white ball. I did indeed have to take the painkillers to get through that incredibly miserable time that. . .just like my doctor, I remember the awful 24/7 pain clearly ten years later.

When January 1st came I was back to the land of the living (as you can see from the picture I posted above taken that day). I still didn't have a ton of energy, but at least I wasn't in pain and was able to travel to all of my families' houses to celebrate a late Christmas. I was able to return to school on time for the second semester and felt 100% back to normal by mid-January.

Soooo, on New Years Eve I remember watching the ball fall with my parents and also longing [stupidly] for the guy who I had started dating Halloween '99 but had broken my heart right before I'd come home for Christmas break (and who I'm pretty sure gave me mono since I knew no one with it but he said to me, "wow that's crazy you have mono, so many of my friends have it right now.") When we returned to school I basically told him I didn't care how he treated me, I wanted to still be his girlfriend. I mean, come on he was just soooo good looking. (Geeze, I'm so glad I'm not 20 anymore!!!)

I came to my senses in February when I sang "Bye Bye Bye" to him on the phone (I'm not kidding - I am that much of a dork, LOL, I literally sang the Nsync song - my friends from that time still love to remind me! In the guy's defense he wasn't a bad guy, he was just a year younger than me, thus making him a typical immature 18 year old! He works with the President now - I know this due to Facebook where he has written me a couple of nice messages & comments - closure is a nice thing). ANYWAY, that paved the way for me to notice Joe (the complete opposite of the other guy) just two months later. . .thus starting our relationship that would end in marriage!!!

So that's where I was with my life exactly ten years ago. That's how the last decade started off. When I think of what an unpredictable, rollercoaster life was, it is amazing to look at where I am right now and how THIS decade is starting. Life is very predictable, very stable, and very clear. That's what happens in your twenties. I've heard many times a person changes more emotionally, morally, psychologically, etc. in their twenties than at any other time. So true. I mean, I still have a lot of the same thought-processes and personality traits, etc. but MAN is life a lot simpler now. It's in place. It's where I want it. I spent my twenties getting it here, so the confusing way it started was the way it felt each year in that decade. I think that is over now which is fine with me.

As I said in my post on September 1: Tag, I was it. . .now you're it: I got married, I worked in TV, radio, and wrote 3 books, I bought two houses, I had a baby - but those things I planned, I did them on purpose, they were carefully thought-out, those were things I was "supposed" to do. Prior to the year 2000 I just let life happen and I hope to do that again. I mean, I still want to make goals and have dreams (I still have yet to be a published novelist) - but I want there to be the unexpected as well. There were a couple of years I tried to get that in my twenties in an unhealthy way but I understand now the difference. I want them to be POSITIVE things. I don't like having a Christmas birthday, but I do really like having a birthday that falls at the end of the year so that I'm always a year wiser at the start of the new one!!!! (Here I am on my 5th birthday)After I posted my last update on Dec 19, my friend Sarah flew in from Seattle late that night. Joe picked her up and they returned to the house about 12:30 am so I was already asleep. Logan stayed here this time so I got up with him at 7 am on Sunday, December 20. Sarah got up a couple of hours later and it was great to have her here again just a month after her Thanksgiving visit! We went to the grocery store and then to the movie Brothers.

We'd wanted to see The Lovely Bones - in my post in September titled Hello, I wrote that I'd read the book and gave it my full star rating. But apparently it came out in many states the weekend before, however won't be here in Omaha until January 10th. It is one of Sarah's favorite books (she's one of the people who first recommended it to me) so that was a bummer we couldn't see it together. But Brothers was good - just very intense. Not a feel-good movie or really any happy moments. . .but it was realistic. And we're Jake Gyllenhaal fans, so no complaints there :)

Another gal had planned to meet us but I learned she is expecting a baby in June(!) so she was tired and didn't end up coming, but Chris came - I had mentioned in my post a couple of weeks ago It Worked, that we hadn't gotten together since August so that was fun (she's my friend who works with Joe). She and Sarah hit it off and we went out to eat at Old Chicago afterward. In my post titled The End Of Summer I had said that I wasn't going to eat there anymore, but that location is a lot better than the one by where I live, we had a fabulous meal & conversation.

Chris is moving to the east coast the beginning of April rather than the end of May, but on the bright side her son is recovered from his pneumonia and doing well now. Both she (with her 10 month old) and my friend Brooke (with her 8 month old) are having to work on getting their babies to sleep through the night. Both are like me as far as they never wanted to do the cry it out method, however unlike Logan who stopped waking up on his own at 9 months, their babies sometimes get up as many as 9 times a night, so they are compromising and just going in and rubbing their babies' backs and singing to them, etc. but not picking them up or rocking them each time anymore which I think sounds like a good plan, I hope it works for them! It already seems to be showing progress.

Monday, December 21 was my 30th birthday! Joe let me sleep in (which means he got ready for work AND Logan)! Sarah and I vegged out on the couch watching one of my movies until later that afternoon I had an appt. for a brow wax. I mentioned in my post Tis The Season that I started going to an esthetician when Sarah was here in November. I had gotten my first facial and the lady encouraged me to go for a new brow design. So I went THE ENTIRE MONTH without plucking my eyebrows. Do you realize how hard this was? I have Italian descent in me. Let's just say the last week I did not go out in public. I said to Joe one day, "Have you noticed I haven't plucked my eyebrows?" He's like, "I do think one day maybe I noticed that."

Men. :p

When I said, "People are going to think I'm a frump that lets myself go" he said, "No, if I saw you I'd think to myself, oh that's nice, she's going for a new brow design."

JOE!!!

Needless to say, I was caught off guard when the esthetician started raving about my eyebrows, telling me I was so lucky, they were beautiful.

Lucky and beautiful are not exactly the words I would use to describe them, but apparently some people actually have a hard time growing eyebrows but mine are easy and so I can have "the perfect" design. Why, of course - some people have great legs, others great skin. . .me? Uh, apparently eyebrows. :~ Kaayyyy.

We're not there yet, though. She said I have to go through this torture one more month, but sometime in February I should have the ideal brows. In the meantime while I grow them out again I can use eyeshadow to fill in the gaps so that will at least allow me to go out in public, maybe.

Stacy (my friend who is a hair stylist there) was working this time because they were off Christmas so she came over to give me a hug and wish me a happy birthday. I wish that I would have known in advance that she'd be there because I would have had her do my hair that day. Sarah and I decided not to do the full spa day I had considered in my post Tis The Season, but we had already made an appt. for the following day at the salon I've been going to since I divorced my former stylist in April. I have never been able to go 5.5 months without getting my hair trimmed/shaped up - but I did (former record in my life was 4 months)! My new hair stylist has really helped my hair to be better than ever. So I am giving in and have decided to get it highlighted next month. I hadn't planned on ever coloring it again since I went back to my natural color in July, but that was just because it was damaging my hair. But my stylist insisted she can keep it looking this good, plus with all of the organic coloring now you don't have to worry about chemicals and such. I am ready for a change again (am also growing it long) and since my hair color is looking rather mousy I am ready for it to be brightened up the end of January. The longest I had gone since I got married 6.5 years ago was 10 months (during my pregnancy), this time will be 6 months.

But back to my birthday - I picked Logan up at Babysitter's around 4:30 pm where he went for the full day both Monday & Tuesday. Until then the longest he'd ever gone was 12 hrs a handful of the weeks over the past 9 months, but that week was 17 hrs! He did excellent, in fact she said to me, "Is he really always that good?" She said that he was just happy and sweet and going along with "whatever" all day; in her 27 years of childcare she's never had an easier 20 month old. Dear Lord up above please let him stay that way!!!

It was cute the next day when Joe picked Logan up (which he never does), Logan put his hands up and said, "Where is Mama?" He still doesn't say many sentences but Joe read that Einstein didn't talk at all until he was three, LOL.

That evening we went out to eat to Roja for Mexican food. Logan ate an entire bowl of salsa by himself! Joe had gotten me my annual DQ chocolate extreme blizzard cake so we had that for dessert, and he gave me a really sweet card and 3 gifts including the Smore oranment in the following pic (I collect Smores stuff)! Sarah and I watched one of my DVDs and then went to bed.On Tuesday, December 22nd we went to my salon where Sarah got a massage during my hair trim. She said it wasn't as good as Deb last April, but was still excellent. Speaking of my massage therapist Deb, Chris went to her that week and said it was the best she'd ever been to - which is saying a lot because she's been to a ton of massage therapists all over the world (she's from Romania). She said that none of the ones in the Midwest have made her top list until now! She's already booked her next appt. and is making her husband go, too :)

Afterward Sarah and I went out to eat at Big Fred's Pizza - a place I'd only eaten once (when I was pregnant) and was good but I had forgotten the name and where it was located so I was so excited to see it on our drive!!! Joe and I had often tried to remember, but apparently both of our brains were fogged with pregnancy because it took us two years :p

We hadn't planned on going to Iowa for Christmas until the following day, however that week there had been constant reports of an ice storm coming so we made the decision to leave when Joe got off of work that day instead. (That reminds me - after our previous storm I was driving with Logan one day and my breaks didn't immediately work so I started sliding and was weaving around so that I wouldn't hit the car in front of me that was turning. Once I got a hold of my car I was so relieved - meanwhile, Logan was laughing and clapping and bouncing in his carseat. "Of course you would think that was fun. Mommy didn't think that was very fun." I had to laugh.) We took Sarah to Des Moines where her dad picked her up, and then Joe, Logan, and I went to his mom's house.

On Wednesday, December 23 I helped Sandi make pies which I have only done once in my life (when Joe and I first got married) and it had been a disaster so I'd never attempted them again. But with Sandi's help I succeeded with a very yummy cherry and pumpkin pie! His sister flew in with her partner that evening (they were only an hour delayed which wasn't bad considered the ice storm had been going on all day). We spent that evening doing Joe's family's tradition of decorating Sandi's Christmas tree. Logan really got into it! :)On Thursday, December 24 we had our Christmas with Joe's family. It was so fun to watch Logan understand Christmas this year. Last year he just crawled around but this year he was excited to open all of his presents and he clapped and acted happy playing with all of them right away! Just the week before, Sandi had asked for one more idea for me so I picked a random book I had seen at the store. The last time I did that was Christmas 2006 which turned out to be one of my all-time fav books (Something Borrowed) by one of my all-time fav authors (Emily Giffin). The same thing happened this time! I could not put down Time Of My Life by Allison Winn Scotch. Here is the summary:

Jillian Westfield has a life straight out of the women's magazines she obsessively reads. She's got the modern-print rugs of Metropolitan Home, the elegant meals from Gourmet, and the clutter-free closets out of Real Simple. With her investment-banker husband behind the wheel and her cherubic eighteen-month-old in the backseat, hers could be the family in the magazines' Range Rover ads.

Yet somehow all of the how-to-magazine stories in the world can't seem to fix her faltering marriage or stop her from asking, "What if?"

Then one morning Jillian wakes up seven years in the past. She's back in her Manhattan apartment. She's back in her fast-paced job. And she's still with Jackson, the ex-boyfriend, and star of her what-if fantasies.

Armed with twenty-twenty hindsight, she's free to choose all over again. She can reconnect to the mother who abandoned her, she can use ad campaigns from her future to wow her clients and she can fix the fights that doomed her relationship with Jackson. Or can she?It is my new fav book. Joe's fav gift was the Blue Ray player that his mom got us!

We hadn't planned on leaving until Christmas day, but warnings of another storm made us decide to leave that evening for my dad & stepmom's house a half an hour away. That night we celebrated my birthday and Logan had fun playing with their toys. Unfortunately, my grandma couldn't make it up from Missouri but my brother came over the next morning (his mom had planned to pick him up from the airport at 4 pm on the 23rd but Jacob didn't end up getting in until almost midnight due to the storm). He hadn't been home on Christmas since he went out to Hollywood Oct '06 so it was nice to spend it with him. We opened presents on Friday, December 25 and once again Logan had a blast. He was glued to a rocket-car my dad & stepmom bought him. Us adults had a fun time playing Catchphrase (we were rolling on the floor at some of the responses).

At both houses food was out all day long and so Logan ate more junk than he's ever eaten in his life! I was worried he was going to go back to being picky and wanting to eat all day at home since we finally had gotten out of that a month ago - but thankfully he didn't. Same thing with sleeping. As I'd mentioned here, he'd slept excellent after Thanksgiving, however at everyone's houses over Christmas he'd sleep easily in his crib for half the night and then want to come into our bed for the rest of the night. That was okay with me because their cribs were not like ours at home that is impossible for him to climb out of - I kept thinking he was going to fall out and injure himself.

So he took his first nap by himself in a regular bed and never got out of it (he called "Joe!" when he was awake for us to come get him) so maybe it won't be as hard as I think to move him to a big boy bed. . .although we're still hoping to wait until after he turns 2! He slept until 8 each morning but it was still really exhausting for me. It was our shortest Christmas trip in the 7 that Joe and I have been married, and yet it seemed like the longest. Even though Logan is easy on car rides now, it's still a lot of work to travel with a toddler! His behavior was fine, he only had two tempter tantrums (one was at Wal-Mart so it was the first time I've ever had to leave a store with him due to his behavior - he wanted to take all of the toys off the shelves and run around like a madman), but I admire parents that can just travel anywhere and everywhere with their kids. We've decided we're not going to do the Michigan trip this summer after all. (So all that's left for my vacation plans in 2010 are to visit Sarah in Seattle for the first time this spring and my brother in L.A. this summer.) Maybe when Logan is 3 we'll take a real vacation with him, however by then we'll probably have another baby so maybe not!!! I ended up getting run down with a bad cold & cough as soon as we got home. Thankfully Logan (or Joe) didn't get it and Logan has been sleeping perfect here at home. (His skin has also been wonderful since we've continued the Aveeno and have been able to cut down to 2 times a day.)

On Saturday, December 26 we picked up Sarah from her parents and headed back to Omaha. If she hadn't had a flight early Sunday morning we would have waited another day to return home because until then the interstate was closed! In fact, until the hour we actually left they were still recommending no one travel. But the storm had been over since the night before so Joe thought we'd give it a try. Thankfully, the roads were clear by the time we drove on them and we had no problem at all. (Although when I opened the back door to let Cosmo outside he couldn't get out because the snow was taller than he was - we got at least 18 inches!)Sarah and I went out to eat by ourselves to La Mesa Mexican Restaurant to have our final night of girl talk. (Once again, in my post 10.5 months Old I had said we weren't going to eat there anymore because the past year had been disappointing. However I gave it another shot and it was just like it used to be so it is back on my list!)

It was sad to say goodbye that night after seeing her 3 times this year (since she moved to Seattle in 2004 I've only seen her once a year), but she has decided she is moving to Chicago as soon as she can. She's always wanted to live there more than anywhere else, but had planned for it to be the last place - she had always wanted to live somewhere else first. However, now that she has the job she wants (as of this past July) her priority is finding the man who will become her husband :) It will be easy to transfer her position to Chicago and so it makes sense for her to move to the place she wants to stay and look for the love of her life there!

It will be a lot easier to get together with her if she does move to Chicago, plus I have started to take an interest in moving there as well (to the suburbs of course, HAHA!) In my post titled Finally, I mentioned that the only places I've ever been interested in living were Austin, TX and North Carolina. But I've realized that my desire for Austin went out the window after we came close to moving there in 2006 and then it fell through. However, Joe & I have had it in our minds that we might move to the Charlotte, NC area within the next five years. But with each day that Logan gets older the less that moving out of the Midwest appeals to us. Yes, that means we'll have to continue to endure the winter but maybe it's because family is close by or it's because this is where Joe & I were raised and so we want the same type of upbringing for our kids, I don't know. I still want to live in NC someday, but now it seems best for when Joe & I retire! Therefore, the only other state I'd be interested in living until then is Illinois.

I wrote in November how Joe & I had a great time in Chicago - well, on the way there we actually discussed the option of moving there, whether Joe could transfer within his same company since he is already doing his ideal position. I feel like it's either there or otherwise we stay in Nebraska for the next 30-some years. Because I am really strong about not wanting to move when my kids are in school. I moved in third grade and it was rough. So second grade at the most for Logan - otherwise he's graduating high school here!

I love Omaha so I am not against living here for thirty years, I feel perfectly at home here. It's just that I moved here for Joe because this is where he got his first job out of college. I like the idea of choosing to move somewhere and if we like it then we stay 'til our kids graduate HS, if we don't then we'll quickly move back here and it will be like we never left (I've known many families over the years who have done that and had no problem picking up where they left off). I guess just like Sarah I feel like there's one other place I'd like to live before retirement. The suburbs in Chicago are so similar to the suburbs here, I felt very comfortable when we spent a weekend in Naperville in April 2007 for Joe's nephew's wedding. So, we will see whether Nebraska is the place for us for the next 30 years or whether we move to Illinois within the next five. (2015 would be 12 years of living here which is the most I've lived anywhere, right now the record is 10.)

Joe took Sarah to the airport early Sunday morning, December 27 while Logan & I were still sleeping, and when he came back the three of us had our Christmas finally!!! The best moment of the whole week I will never forget: after Logan opened all of his gifts he tilted his head to one side and smiled the most thankful smile at Joe and me and then ran over to me and gave me a tight hug. Immediately afterward he ran over to Joe and gave him a hug as well. Tears immediately formed in my eyes. My heart became mush!!! I could not believe my 20-month old THANKED us for his gifts. That came totally from the sweetness of his heart - we figured he was too young to teach him anything like that!That afternoon my mom & stepdad came over for our final Christmas. They had been in Kansas City with my maternal family and were on their way home to Iowa. They got a kick out of watching Logan get excited with all of his new toys. He has been so entertained the past week, I wish it would never wear off! He got the blowing ball popper that I wrote about in my post Kicked Our Colds which he LOVES (I got "kid cookbooks" which I had hoped for in that same post), as well as his own janitor set because he is still obsessive about cleaning. So now he has his own vacuum, broom, mop, dust pan, bucket, and cart! He also has his own lawn mower, a "my pet scout," plenty of new books, clothes, shoes (+first snow boots) and BALLS! He has new trucks, cars, a personalized book shelf, and more. Santa was good to him! Oh - speaking of Santa, I'd forgotten that Sarah's parents raised her telling her the truth like what I wrote I was going to do in my post Santa - To Tell Or Not To Tell? She said she loves that her parents did that and will do the same if she ever has kids. She said she always felt special, like she had a secret that nobody else knew about. She and her brother never let the cat out of the bag so that gave me hope Logan can do the same. I've since talked to several other people who have also shared that finding out was traumatic and so they will be keeping Santa as a fun, imaginary tale, too rather than insisting that he's real to their kids. So I guess I'm not as much in the minority as I thought!!!

To conclude the week, Joe took off work Monday, December 28th thru today because otherwise he'd lose his vacation for the new year, so it has been nice having him at home! Especially since my Babysitter is closed this week and I've been trying to get over my cold. I'm almost recovered so am motivated to start back on The Five Factor Diet today and bootcamp exercising after I lost 7 lbs on it in October but stopped due to the holidays (have only exercised 3 times since then) so have since gained it all back - and probably more but am refusing to weigh myself at the moment! All I know is that I'm spending the next however-many-months getting in the best shape of my life (losing 20 lbs) before I get pregnant this summer with baby #2! I'll share my other new year's resolutions in my next post. . .this one has been long enough so it will be it for this week! Yesterday we took down all of our Christmas decorations while listening to our final Christmas music as our New Year's Eve activity - it was sad, Logan had reminded us to turn on the lights every single day! For supper we went out to eat for my last meal (since I'm not allowing myself to go out to eat during the month of January) to Roja again! We met Chris, her husband, and her son there which was fun, and after cheering for ISU who won the Insight Bowl (beating Minnesota for the first time since 1898), Joe & I finished the night watching the ball fall!

Hope this is the start of a wonderful year for everyone!!!!