Friday, January 8, 2010

junk it 2010

i was motivated today by this post on mrs moneysaver, a website i frequent for grocery deals. if you count every room (counting bathrooms separately) in our house, it totals 10 areas to be de-junked! i would love nothing more than to have this project completed in 10 weeks...but between work, being a mom, and my new running schedule (of which i am halfway through week 2 - thanks robyn!), i am going to allow myself a little more than one week per room/area in need of de-junktification...is that even a word???

my plan is to complete all 10 areas in 12 weeks!!!

i'm going to keep a positive attitude about it and make it a good experience. i hope to involve all members of the family in this activity (well, maybe not jacob!). i imagine some of the things i will find...say crazy old photos in the basement and nasty old makeup under my bathroom sink, may make for some funny stories. i would love for you to join me in this project...we can keep each other motivated and share stories of what we find.

here's to clearing our homes...which according to motivational speaker, valorie burton, should help clear our minds in 2010!!!

junk it 2010
assignment 1 : kitchen (to include all cabinets, drawers & pantry!)
start date: friday, january 8
due date: friday, january 15


Sunday, January 3, 2010

tis the season...

on tuesday the 22nd we started the TREK out to st louis to celebrate christmas with the banocy gang. the trip out there was pretty long...especially since it started out with a bunch of traffic...took us 3 hours to get to frederick, md, which normally takes about 45 mins-1 hour! when we got to frederick, we stopped at cracker barrel for dinner. seeing as the kids had each eaten a HUGE snack while sitting in the 3 hours of traffic (only way to keep 'em quiet!), neither of them ate much of their dinner. andrew was also a bit too excited about taking a stroll the good ol' country store...hoping we'd buy him something. of course, the usual fit ensued when we said we weren't buying anything. the best part though, was that we then had to listen to the fit of crying once we got back in the car. must i remind you, we still had a LONG way to go before getting to stl. many movies, diaper changes and cups of coffee later, we reached our destination. it took about 17 1/2 hours...of which jacob slept about 2 and andrew maybe slept 4. WAHOO...we were there though!!!
we took it easy the first day, trying to recover from the drive. i was happy to see everyone, and SO super excited to see jodi, derek's sister, since she was about to pop out her baby any day. she looked great...and was definitely ready to have that baby!!! while jacob put up a bit of a fight at bedtime, andrew proved to us that he was exhausted, when he ASKED us if he could please go to bed. i don't think that has ever happened with andrew! the next day was christmas eve, which is always spent with the extended banocy family. the kids had a blast playing together and it was nice to have a chance to catch up with people we tend to only see once a year. of course, the wine and cookies were a nice addition too :)




on christmas morning we slept in a bit...still recovering from the drive i presume. dorothy was the angel of the morning...having coffee and breakfast ready when we woke up! now that's what i'm talking about!!! jodi, jason and amelia came over a little while later and we opened presents together. it was a lot of fun to watch the kids and their expressions when they opened each gift. (especially jacob - since he could actually open them this year!)

the rest of the week was spent relaxing, reading, decorating cookies, attempting a gingerbread house, watching movies, playing plenty of legos & wii...and most importantly, waiting for baby pom pom to arrive! (btw...baby pom pom is the name amelia gave the baby in her mommy's belly...so cute!)






when the baby hadn't arrived by tuesday, i decided it was time to take jodi in for a pedicure...maybe those people could massage the right part of her foot and move this along! knowing that jodi would be induced the next day, we got our pedicures and then jodi, jason, derek and i went out for what would be jodi's last supper, as a mom of one child! jodi was induced the next morning, and baby pom pom...oops...i mean, henry oliver ward, was born on wednesday, december 30th at 6:22pm. YIPPEE...i finally have a nephew!!! not that i don't adore my nieces, of course. i'm just thrilled that andrew & jacob will have a boy cousin to grow up with!!!

as soon as we left the hospital thursday night, dorothy and i went shopping for henry. i just couldn't wait!!! we then decided to stay one more day...heck, we'd stayed this long...and spend a little more time with the newest member of our family. we stopped at the hospital on our way out of stl to give more h&k to the ward family...and then we were off.
thankfully, our ride home only took 14 hours :) we spent new year's eve on I-70 and got home around 4:30am on january 1, 2010.
it was a great trip, made even greater with the birth of our newest nephew, henry!

i can't finish this post without telling everyone that jacob said "papa" and "gg" while we were there. it was really cute to hear him say both! but...the best was when he would say "mia"...for amelia! TOO CUTE!!!

here's hoping everyone has a great 2010...filled with much success in whatever you choose to do and lots of laughter along the way!


 
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