It’s definitely sweater weather. Rather, it’s definitely sweater weather before lunchtime, and t-shirt under sweater weather after, lest you swelter. But around here, it’s silly not to layer every day of the year. You just never really know what’s going to happen out there.

I celebrated by making a sweater for Finn, prompted by an instinctive need to protect my young from the harsh realities of pending winter, and possibly also from my enjoyment of the calming art of knitting. In fact, probably more of the latter than the former, given that a) we are blessed with mild winters, b) we are blessed with climate control indoors, and c) we are blessed with the fact that most his sweaters from last year still fit. But moving on.

Here he is wearing his new sweater. From any respectable distance, his buttons just look like toggle buttons, and they pretty much are. But they actually have little gold metal bands on them that make them look like small footballs. I didn’t notice this until I had sewn them on, so inattentive am I. They belonged to my mother’s button collection, which makes the sweater even more special. I don’t think it’s considered tooting my own horn to share this with you, since it is my blog after all. I’m proud of the sweater. :-)

So much has changed in the last month or so, and so much is the same. We did have a wonderful family vacation at Edisto last month. It seems like as soon as we got back from our trip, life reached a “new normal”, as Brian and I have been terming it. Not exactly different, but just that new levels of energy are required to keep up with the typical day. For one thing, Finn is now capable of so many new antics and magic tricks, and he doesn’t run out of them, ever, at all, even once, during the whole day. Which is obviously a sign of awesome talent, but it’s also hard for me to keep up. Add to this the fact that he now needs to wear glasses all day, and an eye patch for part of the day, and suddenly I am the one doing magic tricks to keep him distracted from his own face. We are like a monkey-house some days.

But it’s wonderful. I’m not complaining (even though sometimes I do) – but I’m constantly amazed at the tricks time plays on us. I heard once that our concept of time is relative to how much of it we’ve already experienced. So as children, having only experienced a small amount of time, it passes more slowly. And as we get older, having known more and more time, it seems to pass more quickly. It seems to be logical, although if I think about it too much I get dizzy. What do you think?

The appropriate thing to do here is to share more photos of a cute toddler in glasses and a green sweater.

Wishing you all a happy fall. :-)

Are you on Pinterest? If you aren’t, you should be (and if you need an invitation to join, just let me know!). This is one of my new favorite things to do when I have a little time to myself. It’s described as a digital pinboard, or a visual bookmarking tool. While it’s definitely useful for capturing and remembering things you see on the internet, my favorite thing to do is to browse the things that other people are pinning. It’s full of recipes and baking, home organizing, decorating, and (possibly my favorite category) craft ideas. There’s a huge supply of users who love to share DIY ideas they find, and unlike browsing DIY and craft blogs for inspiration, it’s so easy and quick to see so much at a glance on Pinterest. Not only have I found a lot of ideas on Pinterest, but I’ve also actually created a lot of the things I’ve Pinned. I used it a lot for inspiration for Finn’s first birthday party, and for crafts and decorating around the house.

Friday I decided to make some time for a craft project. I found these on Pinterest and thought they were a perfect afternoon project. Even better, I already had almost all the supplies.

We have a challenge keeping bibs on Finn at dinnertime. For whatever reason, he hates to wear them, and every one of the billion or so bibs we own is secured with Velcro. So when he rips them off his neck, they usually leave nasty red scratches on his baby-soft skin. These are perfect, because they tie in the back (and can be double-knotted once he gets clever enough to untie), and they have straps to go behind the arms, which prevents him from lifting the bib off his chest to smear food underneath (which he’s already clever enough to do!).

I made four in an afternoon using the tutorial and a combination of sale fabrics and fabric I already had.

Once Finn realized he couldn’t take these off, he seemed content to leave them on.

The ties are long enough in the back that I can double-knot if I need to.

I think they turned out great.

I tend to be sporadic and impulsive when it comes to crafts, so I love projects that can come together quickly and are less likely to sit around unfinished. I’ll be making more of these for sure – they’re incredibly useful. I think for the next ones, I’ll probably enlarge the pattern a bit so they’ll last well into Finn’s toddler years. These will continue to fit his neck and arms, I think, but will become a little short on the torso before too long. Also, because I was being impulsive and eager, I didn’t pre-shrink any of the fabrics, so the “baprons” quilted a little in the wash – still functional and still cute, but something I’ll be careful about in the future.

Just wanted to share my Friday project with you. Have a happy week, and pin something for Fall! It’s so close, I can smell it!

A couple of weeks ago, we went to a Braves game in Atlanta. I’m not usually big on sporting events, but it was a trip out of town and I had never been to a baseball game before, so it was actually really exciting. It was a lot bigger than I expected, and Finn held up better than I expected (it was a late game with a pre-show ceremony, so well past his bedtime). To avoid too much driving, we stayed in Atlanta that night and had an all-around good time of things. And I can’t forget to mention that we were able to use our ticket stubs to score free burritos at Moe’s on the way home Saturday – thanks to an appropriately timed home run. If I had known they gave out free burritos at these things, I’d probably not have made it this far in my life without having been to a game. :-)

Arrive at Corley’s with a short list of three items. Remove Finn from his carseat and put him on my hip. Watch as Finn slams the car door on my little finger. Lie down in the backseat for a brief blackout. Regain consciousness and check finger for swelling. Go into the store. Ruefully remember that this store doesn’t have seatbelts in grocery carts. Grab a bag of frozen peas to ice finger. Have Finn stick his thumb into half of a ten-dollar chocolate pound cake. Use 23 sanitizing wipes to clean Finns hands as he keeps grabbing raw meat packages. Purchase expensive damaged pound cake, otherwise-unnecessary frozen peas, and raw meat. Watch Finn climb out of the shopping cart while I’m paying. Listen to Finn shriek as I force him back into the shopping cart. Load groceries and Finn into the car. Say a brief prayer of thankfulness that this wasn’t as bad as the trip to Bi-Lo last week. Drive home, wondering if there is really not enough of a market for online grocery ordering and delivery businesses in Greenwood.

I really can’t believe it’s already August. Even though August is usually just as hot as July here in South Carolina, it still feels like a precursor to Fall. Schools are starting back soon, and even though it’s been a few years since I had to worry about classes, I still can’t help from shopping the school supply aisles. I love to feel the crispness of new notebooks and enjoy the scent of fresh crayons.

We’ve had a beautiful summer already, with lots of fresh fruit, splashing with Finn in the baby pool, and one trip to the beach (with another coming in September to officially close the season). As I was praying this morning, I went through the list of all the blessings we’ve received in just the last week alone, and I was just overwhelmed with joy. Even when days and weeks are hard, God is still good.

Some things that I’m looking forward to for this month:

• I’ve got some fun knitting and sewing projects lined up.
• Brian starts classes next week (not that I exactly envy him, since going to school is never a walk in the park, but I am excited for him!).
• The weather maybe, possibly, will start cooling down this month.
• Finn and I will be enjoying morning walks around the neighborhood.
• We’re going to see a Braves game in Atlanta (I’ve never been to a baseball game).

We had a spectacular trip. Savoring the memories. :-)

tod·dler
–noun
a person who toddles, especially a young child learning to walk.

The other night, I had a dream that took place at Lander. I was presumably still a student in the dream, although the context of this particular dream was less “classes and exams” and more “dementors are attacking the University” styled action-dream. In retrospect, I’m guessing this was Saturday night, after I’d watched most of the Deathly Hallows Part 2 at the drive-in. Anyway, despite the dream’s surreal departure from any true events, current or past, I still woke up feeling like a [worn out, existentially and magically confused] college student. With my brain slowly trying to move from dreamland into reality, my confusion peaked as I rolled over and saw a sleeping toddler next to me.

My sleeping toddler. My sleeping toddler.

Because of my unswerving dedication to keeping this blog technically accurate on all counts, I have to confess to you that my son is now a toddler. My research tells me that there are two ways of defining the official transition from baby to toddler – the first, as defined above and suggested by the word itself, is when the youngster begins to walk. The second defined transition, which is generally used in discussing age-related development, is when the child passes his first birthday. Finn falls squarely into both categories, as he is now thirteen solid months of age, and is walking with a grace that he clearly doesn’t get from his clumsy mother. However, technical accuracy aside, it’s really a very gradual transition that I’m not sure will be as starkly drawn as these definitions would have it. In fact, were the definition of the word based squarely on my emotional readiness to begin calling him a toddler, the transition would probably still be many years away.

Still, I do love it when I have moments that bring to a sharp clarity the amazing changes in life that can sometimes be dulled by their gradualness… by the everyday minutiae that surrounds them. I guess sometimes the awe in these moments is a little bittersweet, as if I’m suddenly forced to mourn for the moments, days, and years that are gone. But mostly, they are the moments when I most clearly see God’s hand in my life.

I wrote (and discarded) a first draft of this post, and its intent was sort of to catch up on things and describe my days – except I quickly realized that my days lately are slow, long, and when put into words they definitely come off as “dull”. But it’s not true! Even when my days are full of routine and things that would sound dull, life is absolutely amazing! So having no desire to write about things that are dull, I do want on occasion to tell you of the things that are exceptional… to me, anyway.

We are leaving tomorrow for a beach vacation – a mere two days, but enough to enjoy the sun and sand and ocean. I enjoy looking forward to vacations almost as much as the vacations themselves, so I’m already in a state of excited bliss! Tomorrow also marks four years that Brian and I have been married – a happy coincidence that was realized only after the vacation was booked (yes – I did almost forget my anniversary! Don’t tell!) They have easily been the four happiest years of my life. And, only because I’m living under the mandate that I need three good points to make this a good paragraph, I will add that as of last week, I can finally make pizza from scratch. You know, some things are only hard because you spend years of your life thinking they’re hard. As it turns out, you can make real pizza without having to throw anything into the air and then catch it again.

Thanks for reading! Share your pizza recipes!
-Mandy

I love summer afternoons. And, despite my aversion to the heat from my oven coupled with the heat of the day, I can’t help but enjoy making fresh bread every time I get a chance.

I’m a solid week behind on these, because I couldn’t really share last week’s photo right away. :-) Last Saturday, Amy and JR came to visit, and announced their engagement! I snapped a celebratory picture, but didn’t want to post it until they’d told all the close family and friends, and then made it Facebook-official.

I’m so excited and happy for them!

This week’s photo comes to you from a Saturday stroll in Abbeville. The weather this weekend was so stunning, that we spent as much time outside as we could. Finn loves to be outside, and I really can’t wait for the weather to stay warm so we can spend time in the backyard, or go for walks every morning.

Note the Star Wars onesie… I was very happy to score that on clearance at Old Navy this week. Finn didn’t yet have any “Star Wars” merchandise, mostly because it’s licensed and very pricey (and some of it is a bit cheesy). I got this one for $3. Brian was of course very pleased.

Finn didn’t really like the snow. I wasn’t surprised – but I was glad to get one photo of Finn almost smiling. We got inches and inches of snow over Sunday evening and through the day Monday, and today – Saturday, it’s still covering our backyard. I’ve never seen this much snow in Greenwood in my lifetime. Here’s hoping that Finn will see it again someday when he’s old enough to appreciate it – but if not, at least there are photos.

Huge events of the last eight months:

• March through mid-June saw me through the very pregnantest part of pregnancy.
• In April, I left my job of four years.
• Finn Edward Dean was born on June 17th. He was much bigger than I imagined, weighing 9 pounds and 10 more ounces. It was one of the best experiences of my life.
• Finn quickly established himself as the most delightful and precious creature I’d ever seen.
• We travelled to the beach at the end of summer, and the mountains once autumn rolled around.

OK, there we have it. You’re all caught up. I feel silly sharing lists like this, when I know that probably everyone reading this already knows these things, but it makes me feel like I can blog about trivial things again without leaving something out.

I haven’t posted a photo of my cat since a couple Christmases ago. I think it’s safe to post another, without being annoying. But like the Christmas Tinsel photo, this one does an excellent job of hiding Penny’s weight problem, which she is in denial of. We are hoping the beautiful weather lately will prompt her to get outside more and exercise.

Anyway, I think this photo will go into the collection of photos that we will look back on in many years, and will help us remember Penny as a loving, sweet, cuddly cat that was a special part of our family. And forget that she is actually a manic, self-obsessed beast of an animal that strives to be the source of someone’s frustration at least once a day.

I’ve gotten a new camera, and am really looking forward to capturing more of my life in pictures. I’m learning a lot about my camera and photography; although probably not the “right way”, it’s still fun for me to learn. It seems like things are changing so quickly these days, and I don’t want to miss any of it.

In about three months, I will be a mother. It’s not nearly as hard to believe as it was just a few months ago, before BabyDean was kicking and squirming inside of me. Now it feels much more real, and exciting, and perfect. Still, I know my life with BabyDean will be entirely different from what I imagine it will be like, in both good and difficult ways, as things always are when I set expectations on them. That’s what makes life so much fun. :-)

Brian and I have decided on a most-likely name for BabyDean, but until he’s born we’re keeping it a secret. Just because the name might not suit him once he’s born. Just because we don’t really care for monogrammed things. Just because it’s kind of special to have a secret between us. Just because we can.

Since I didn’t blog very much in 2009, I want to take this new year’s opportunity to review the highlights of the year.

• January: Marked the first semester in four and a half years that I did not participate in registering, attending, enjoying, or suffering through a single class at Lander University or PTC. I had finished that chapter of my life. Had sinus infection mid-month.
• February: Received new laptop at work, though I would continue to use the old broken laptop until November because I would procrastinate moving all my applications over. Girl Scout cookie season. Read “Crazy Love” by Francis Chan. Cell phone speaker broke; ordered awesome old-school candy bar Nokia on eBay.
• March: It snowed. I traveled to London and Galway, Ireland with my sister on a complete whim (realizing I would not have many more opportunities for spontaneity in my increasingly grown-up life). I fell in love with Ireland. Left awesome old-school candy bar Nokia on transatlantic flight. Had sinus infection mid-month.
• April: Started house-shopping, as we were ready to leave the apartment behind. Saw Wilco in Knoxville, TN with Brian and Amy. Put offer on two houses – the second of which would become ours. Ordered second awesome old-school candy bar Nokia from eBay. Had sinus and ear infection mid-month.
• May: Turned twenty-three. Packed all my possessions to move into new home. Closed on new house. Didn’t catch swine flu.
• June: Moved into new home. Finally have a “craft room.” Enjoyed relaxing beach vacation at Hilton Head with friends. Had first series of home disasters, including regurgitating bathroom plumbing. Dropped second awesome old-school candy bar Nokia into recently repaired toilet.
• July: Had our first act of vandalism as a homeowner when some kids launched a brick through the storm door at 4 AM. Celebrated second Wedding Anniversary with Brian. Saw Pete Yorn in Atlanta with Amy and Abby. Finally bought an iPhone. Had sinus infection mid-month.
• August: MIssed the joys of going to class for the first time. Briefly considered applying for graduate school, or possibly just pottery classes. Hosted an ice cream social, which was our first big event at the new house. Still didn’t catch swine flu.
• September: Finally have annual vacation with Brian. Went on Eastern Caribbean Cruise for 7 nights, living a life of complete relaxation and luxury. Really enjoyed a few Coco Locos. Discovered the presence of Baby Dean, now four weeks and the size of a poppy seed, due June 6th. Had sinus infection mid-month.
• October: Visited the Biltmore Estate in Asheville with family. Discovered morning sickness. Had lots of big projects going on and worked a lot of overtime. Didn’t get the swine flu shot, despite doctor’s insistence. Still didn’t catch swine flu.
• November: Attended a very refreshing and inspiring church Women’s Retreat in North Carolina. Finally got over morning sickness just in time to enjoy two Thanksgiving meals in one day. Got very sick after Thanksgiving – it’s still not swine flu! Just another sinus infection, which turned into bronchitis.
• December: Had a wonderfully enjoyable Christmas holiday, which included two weeks of plant shutdown and time off of work. I am really glad to say that it was probably the most relaxing, stress-free, and Christ-centered Christmas I’ve ever enjoyed. Travelled with Brian to Washington, D.C. for an educational vacation. Watched Tim Keeler get married on December 31st, minutes before we rang in the New Year.

It’s exciting to review how much has happened for us in just one year! God has truly blessed us beyond measure, and Brian and I are very excited about what 2010 holds for us and our growing family. Since we’ve been traveling (we’ve just returned from a quick trip to Charleston with my family, to start the year off right), I haven’t had an opportunity to really consider and make resolutions for the new year… I’ll be doing some of that over the coming days and will share them all here. I don’t know who all might still keep up with this, since I’ve only written a few posts in the last year. Still, I hope that all of you (whoever “you” are) have had a wonderful 2009, and are ready for God to use you for great things in 2010.

This concludes the short debriefing.

I’ve been struggling to get photos together from my trip, and for whatever reason, I’ve had the hardest time figuring out how to use iPhoto in conjunction with Photoshop to edit my pictures. Apparently, iPhoto has this cool but confusing feature where it will maintain the original version of your photo that you imported, and then every time you edit the photo, it will save the edits for you so that you can always “roll back” any changes that you regret. I don’t think this feature works well with Photoshop or other external editors though, and I know it doesn’t work well when I’m trying to upload my images to Flickr. I know those of you who have been Mac and iPhoto devotees for years are scoffing at me, and you should. This is probably something really easy to do, and I’m a little embarrassed to be such a Mac-noob. But I am asking you for help, internet.

Anyway, back to the trip I mentioned. Last month, on a complete and utter whim, I decided to meet Amy in London and then travel to Ireland. This was as shocking of a decision to me as it was to others, since I concieved and finalized the decision about five days before I left. This was my first time out of the country, and even though I only had a total of about 4 days overseas, it was a wonderful trip. Because of my iPhoto frustration, I didn’t get all the photos up on Flickr, but I hope to have them added as I figure things out. You can see the ones I’ve got so far right here.

We only got to spend one full day in London – not enough time to see everything, but I think I could have stayed a month and still not have seen everything. We hit the important places – the British Museum, Buckingham Palace, and walked along the Thames to see the Big Ben and some other historic places. The highlight of our trip was definitely Ireland. We went to Galway, which is a city on the West coast of Ireland (opposite Dublin). We got to see the countryside on our bus trip from Shannon airport, and it was stunning. The land was just as I had always imagined – incredibly green, and it really looked good enough to eat. I’m not kidding. I really considered it.

The city of Galway was great as well. We stayed right on Eyre Square, and were surrounded by lots of cute shops and pubs. Everyone in Galway is so friendly and laid back. We got to spend two nights and almost three days in Galway. We took one half-day trip to a town nearby called Athenry. It was really quaint and sweet – a real countryside town. The little town was built around an old castle and the remaining castle walls, and it was just really cool to see how people there lived among those kinds of relics without even thinking about it. Kids were cutting through the castle yard, hopping over medieval walls on their way home from school. We even heard people speaking in Gaelic, and I was truly caught off-guard when the bartender at the Arch Pub asked us if we were “Gemini”, meaning “twins”. I thought she was asking if we were German, and I was appalled when Amy kept agreeing with her. It took me a while to figure it out.

We also managed to catch an incredible movie the day we left Galway called “The Secret of Kells”. It had just been released, and was one of the most beautiful movies I had ever seen, from the story to the incredible artwork. I don’t know if it will ever be released here in any way, but it was definitely one of the best parts of the trip. If you ever get the chance, it’s worth going to fairly extreme lengths to catch this movie.

Well, that’s the recap. It’s been about a month since the trip, but I think I’ve remembered the key pieces, despite the delay. The title of this post is a translation from a song by Pizzicato Five called “The Apartment.” That’s really all there is to say about that.

Things I have been up to lately:

• Not going to school
• Eating a lot of girl scout cookies
• Moving my website to a new domain (did you notice?)
• Making lattes with my new espresso maker
• Traveling a bit for fun and work (Charleston, Asheville, Columbia)
• Trying to put my cat on a diet
• Biking around town (on sunny days)
• Planning a trip to Japan

Updating the site, slowly but surely. I switched to a new server (mine refused to upgrade from some decades-old version of Java) and swapped out domains, but both still get you here.

I am pleasantly surprised to find that the relief I feel from the culmination of my academic career, formalized by my graduation ceremony (diploma still pending), grows with every passing day, despite its initial lack of cathartic euphoria. I had expected that the moment I finished my final assignment, I would immediately feel the rising victory of one who had just crested Mt. Fuji, and found herself gazing upon the expansive and mysterious beauty that lies beyond. Instead, as I balanced my laptop in the driver’s seat of the car, completing the last few discussion postings on the various methods of hypothesis testing in the parking lot of the chiropractor’s office, I found my feelings of accomplishment far outweighed by the somewhat selfish wish that I were the one in the office reaping the rewards of spinal alignment, instead of patiently waiting on Brian while contorting my skeletal frame around the car so that I could type comfortably without setting off the horn. Oh, spine! How well you have served me. *

After the less-exciting-than-expected day of reckoning, the morning of graduation found me in a state of dread. Over the past few years, I’ve developed quite the “stage trick” of going unconscious at the worst times – most especially, moments of very important and very public celebration. There was my high school graduation, when I took a brief nap in the middle of my historian speech. Then there was the really fancy all-formal three-fork benefit dinner, when I fainted at the table, lost my appetizer all over the satin gown I had finished sewing just that morning, and had to be carried out the door by three tuxedoed men while still vomiting and unconscious in my chair. Then of course there was the wedding, after which a dear seven year old friend had to ask me why I decided to get married while lying on the floor of the church. I chalked it up to personal preference. “I wanted to get married while hanging upside down from the rafters, but since there were no rafters, I had to settle for the floor. When it’s your wedding, you can do whatever you want.”

The thing about having a temperamental blood pressure is that it is affected by things like fear and panic. And of course, the thought of fainting at my college graduation with several hundred onlookers and just as many cameras induces fear and panic – which lowers my blood pressure and induces involuntary loss of consciousness. Obviously the best solution to this stupid cycle is just not to think about fainting. Yeah, right. Like that works. I wish I could finish this paragraph with one of two endings to this story. The first: I learned to control the complex signals between my brain and my parasympathetic nerves (asympathetic, I would argue), achieving a graduation that was both rewarding and free of fear. The second: I collapsed in a heap on the stage of the Finis Horne Arena, prompting some bumbling and humorous response by Dr. Ball and the faculty on stage, which of course I do not remember, but has been retold to me in stories of increasing dramatization ever since.

The real story is much less exciting, but is satisfactory. I did go through many moments of near-unconsciousness while sitting in the tropical over-heated arena waiting to be ushered to the stage (would I be avoiding culpability if I blamed it on the aroma of my fellow graduate three seats down, who had been celebrating since six that morning with Bud Light and bean burritos? I mean come on, it’s not even noon). There were even moments that I found myself forming escape plans that included leaving my cap and gown under my chair, slithering across the floor to the stadium seats, and pretending I was a member of the family of the Honorary Doctoral candidate, who were seated in the front row. Despite my fear and the many close calls, when I actually stood up (which, for those with finicky BP, is usually a trigger for vasovagal fainting) and proceeded to the stage, received my fake diploma with placeholder letter and a handshake from the big man himself, I did not faint, and I did not wobble. I successfully descended the stairs and made it back to my chair to enjoy the rest of the ceremony and the tainted air of stale Taco Bell. I wish I had an explanation of my success that I could carry with me to every important and thus unconscious experience I shall have in the future. I have no such lesson, except maybe that it takes an immense amount of concentration to walk across a stage while trying not to laugh at Dr. Ball’s funny little hat, and while also trying not to trip over the silly polyester robe, and while also trying not to look like Mr. Bean Burrito, who must have made his parents proud as he staggered and swayed his way into the next stage of his life (and almost into the podium). No, I’m afraid that this was a lesson that I cannot apply to any other occasion, as I have no immediate intentions of ever going through such a graduation ceremony again.

So although my actual completion of studies and my graduation ceremony were not the life-changing hat-throwing moments they were built up to be, the days since have been increasingly glorious. Last night, after my laborious day eating Christmas cookies at the office**, I settled into the worn side of the couch (formerly known as the “homework corner”), opened my laptop, and entered into a rigorous session of MyFarming. This was followed by some hot chocolate, gift wrapping (my favorite chore), and a viewing of “Burn After Reading” (an unpredictable Coen Brothers success). Each day I am more grateful for the time I have to enjoy, especially right now at the holidays.

Excellent transition to the topic at hand: Christmas! Brian and I are blessed to have our immediate families here in town, which means we don’t have to brave the ridiculous winter weather to travel during holidays. We can stay cozy and warm at home, which is yet another thing I am thankful for. Despite the hecticness of November, I managed to get the vast majority of my shopping done by the first weekend in December, and didn’t set foot in a store to do it. I’m really proud of this, since it’s the first year I haven’t been stressing out on Christmas week to finish my shopping. Between cash-back and reward point groups, along with coupon resources and holiday specials, I managed to either get free shipping or discounts enough to negate the shipping on pretty much everything I bought. Many people hesitate to buy online – and I agree that it doesn’t quite have the same experience as physical shopping. I sorely missed the sweaty, angry, early-Saturday-morning trampling experience of the shopping mall this season. Other than that, I would call it a success, and hope I can continue this proactive and organized behavior, which is completely uncharacteristic of me, in the future. It’s left me a lot of time to enjoy the spirit of the holiday, which is often lost in the madness. It’s been peaceful and quiet, and I am really looking forward to the rest of this week.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone! I am thankful for all of you, and hope you have a peaceful and meaningful season.

*In the unlikely case that anyone is concerned about my spine (and thanks, if you are), it is actually okay. I get adjustments as often as my wonderful chiropractic doctor recommends, which is often enough to keep me mostly pain free, but not often enough that I get tired of the incredible awesomeness of the muscle stim machine.

**I by no means intend to imply that my days at work are a piece of pie. I do mean to say that there is pie, at work, in the month of December. Pie and coffee. And cookies. Double Stuf Oreos, to be exact. YES.