hair

This is one of Annie's first hairdo's back in September 2009:

Annie is a cute girl. She has a sweet little face and a nice, shy personality and a pretty smile, albeit with some, um, interesting, teeth. But her hair is her best feature! She likes to have it done. She looks in the mirror and says "pigtails?" "bows?" "barrettes?" "pretty!!" It is fuzzy and crazy but fun. She uses conditioner every day but sometimes still has bad hair days.

Sometimes it is totally under control, sometimes completely wild, but always absolutely adorable! her little pigtails actually look like pigtails, and I am going to be so tired when her

curls stop defying gravity!

new york city in italics

I have a very annoying habit while writing of overusing parentheses (I am sure you have noticed this). I do it here, I do it in emails constantly, and I am not sure why. An old friend named Kevin who I thought of out of the blue yesterday once told me that I write emails like a 12 year old but that was okay because he could hear my voice when he read them (this was when I was overusing ....). I think I mostly use parentheses because I think fast, I type fast, and I want to add new thoughts but I don't want to figure out where they logically fit in. Anyway, OUT with parentheses, New York City was so fabulous that it is time to move on to a new literary style.

Anyway, do you find this quote depressing?

"All the lives we could live, all the people we will never know, never will be, they are everywhere. That is what the world is."

-Alexander Hermon

Chris says this is depressing, but I disagree. Not that it is incredibly uplifting, but it is truth. Our lives our products of choice meets destiny and we have to be happy where we are. Bloom where we are planted.

Anyway, in another life, I would have been a hip urbanite! Don't they talk about New York in the springtime or something? It really is that great.

Chris won a trip to New York City for being such a work superstar, so we traveled to NYC with 44 of our closest Sysco friends :) We walked and wandered, held hands, ran through Central Park, had a fabulous late lunch/early dinner at one of Chris's favorite chef's restaurants, saw a rockin' Rock of Ages, went for a breathtaking sunset cruise, and capped it all off with a couple hours just hanging out on a rooftop being cool with my cousins. It was so nice seeing them. We had a great time and enjoyed each other, but, even more so, maybe fell in love with Sysco a little bit again. It is simply wonderful having a husband who enjoys his job. The view from our hotel room and more:

happy beach days

We had a beautiful, joyful Easter with glorious weather. The azaleas, a month late, are finally in bloom and it is just so easy to love life.

It is a special thing to see the world through Annie's eyes. I love her so much she brings tears to my eyes. She has no memory whatsoever of last summer (which she loved). It is all new and all great. She love, loves the water. She is not a particularly fearless or adventurous child. She leans more toward caution, sitting at the top of the slide and building up her confidence before pushing off. She is so brave in the water though! She will go in up to her waist and does not want to be helped, but she likes me to stand right there. Then when she sees a big wave or feels a big wave pulling her feet, she can reach out and hold onto my leg. We cannot keep her out of the water, and it is only 63 degrees. Yes, she is my daughter. And when I finally have to pick her up and carry her back to the sand, I see our shadows, which have long legs and heads with matching halos of curly fuzz.

beach

Yesterday was, finally, lovely. I went for a quick run and then Annie, Toby, and I went to the beach while Chris went for his run. It was fun and beautiful but more than I could handle. Toby was so stoked to be at the beach that he was going crazy, chasing the ball and swimming and generally running around. Annie decide she wanted to go in the water and was doing okay until she was completely taken out by a small wave and rolled in her perfectly dry clothes. Before pictures:

birthday "week"

The last time I had a birthday week was probably in Gainesville. Back then, birthdays were definitely several days long but usually lasted at least a week. A perfect example of this was Jessica and Ellen's 21st birthdays, which were two Thursdays in a row, giving us all a two-week party.

I really am surprised and a little traumatized to be leaving my 20's behind. This is less traumatizing that surprising. I am 30.....? 30...?! What does this mean? I can't actually remember my 20th birthday, but it probably went something like this: BBQ at Royal Village, maybe some time by the pool if it was warm enough, beer, then maybe capped off by a night at Grog. I was single at this point, enjoying the Gville life. Ten years later, life is different: calmer, slower yet busier at the same time, happy, better. Yes, different, but I would say better. In some ways my life now is surprising but also could have been predicted. At this point in my journey, I am confident and capable, loving and open.

Now, away from the middle-aged rambling and back to the basics. My birthday started with dinner at our house and drinks at Fly's Tie on 3/20. Chris made a meatless feast, and many of my favorite people took their time to celebrate me! :) What feels better than good friends? My real birthday, though somewhat dampened by the transmission news and a horrid case of laryngytis, was fun and celebratory when we went to dinner with Nana, Mom, and Dad. Today, a trip to the zoo put the finishing touches on a very special and memorable week. A few pics:

Giraffe:

Annie, Chris and an elephant bum:

Annie and Grandma:

pissing off the car gods

Truly sorry to be so crude. As most of you probably do not know, Chris and I really turned over a new leaf this year. I read Dave Ramsey and we have really (100% truly) been budgeting and saving - not some of the time but all of the time. I am not going to be crude again and talk about money, but we are like most Americans in that we have very little in emergency savings. We are not idiots. We pay our bills and we contribute to our retirement, but there just is not much left over. Dave is inspirational, and we finally (finally!) got a mini emergency fund and I was feeling in control and positive until this week when our emergency fund is not nearly enough to cover all this crap:

3/19: Katie's blinker on the fritz (yes, this is apparently cheap although I don't know because I haven't fixed it yet but this just set the tone)
3/20: Squeaky brakes = new rotors for Chris = sorry Kate, you have to wait another week for two new tires even though you have to fill up the one with the slow leak several times a week (good thing I don't drive far)
3/22: Katie's car won't start = new starter (the only blessing in this is the angel at the auto parts store who saved us several hours of labor)
3/23: Chris new transmission (total damage TBA)
3/23: Adding it because it is truly odd that it happened today: all my radio stations spontaneously reset to fuzz. What the......?????????

My last post as a 29 year old is a total pity post. I guess I won't be blogging from my new birthday laptop tomorrow.

Bah. You know how you feel like you work so hard to get ahead and get your life in order and, in a blink, you are back to square one? Have you been there?

adventures in toddler-raising

While I was neglecting Anne today, and by neglecting I mean cooking dinner, she took the cup we use to wash her hair out of the tub and used it to empty all the water out of the toilet onto the bathroom floor. Yes, we left the lid open, and, yes, thank goodness, we had flushed. I went in and caught her doing it and she looked GUILTY. I took her clothes off to put her in the bath before drying the floor, and she slipped and fell in her puddle and hit her head on the tile. She started screaming so I picked her up but apparently the fall scared the #%$* out of her. This is a family blog, but let's just say my shirt was soaked. All in a day's work! HA!!! Love this mini girl..... :)