Hello 2007

And "Hello, again" to my blog. A pretty long break for me. I am glad to see all of my blog friends had a safe and happy Christmas season. Have your homes recovered? Mine hasn't. We left shortly after present opening on Christmas morning to visit family in north-east Texas and spent the entire week there. Got back on Saturday with more boxes of gifts, tried to disassemble tree, put away nativity, clean living room, unpack a weeks worth of laundry for myself the master and five children, restock empty fridge...I think I might catch up in February.
Today is the master's birthday. He is a whopping five years older than I. We celebrated his birthday with his family this past week and are back on a strict Weight Watcher's diet so I think his birthday meal will be a Smart-Ones dinner and a Smart-Ones Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Desert. Those things are YUMMY. They would be good even if I wasn't on WW. On that subject--DREAD going back to meeting on Saturday. I've probably gained back 6 pounds. But they say when you least want to go that's when you need to go the most, so Saturday I'm gonna heft myself up on that scale and take whatever comes. I'll cry about it privately later. My original goal was to make lifetime member by February (you don't pay after you become a lifetime member) but now it is looking like March.
Oh, but I'm pumped for it. We have a family tradition of New Years. All year long, we make family videos and we sign off with, "Happy New Year!" Then on New Years Day, we watch all our videos from that year. Last night as the master held me in his arms, he said, "as we watched those videos, I just kept thinking how blessed we are. We may not have any money, but our kids are so happy and we find so much joy in our home...." and superficial me was thinking, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, but did you happen to notice the BIG FAT COW you are married to?" I was really shocked by what I saw January-September. I do NOT want to go back there. But in all seriousness, I truly was touched by the hominess factor of the day. Two things jumped out (besides my blubber):
1. How far we have come on this house. I get down about this house sometimes. We still don't have trim in some of the rooms. We need to replace the windows. We have flooring issues. But looking at those videos...WOW. Last year we were living in a FEMA trailer and the house didn't have walls! We have come a long, long way. So here's to hoping that next year's videos will be as encouraging.
2. How far Marina has come. Last year she was just a BABY. I was blown away by how much sheer physical growth has gone on in that little body this year. And talking! She had like 0 words in her vocabulary in January and now she is talking in full sentences. Also, as you would expect of family videos, they mostly chronicle major events/parties/occasions. Lots of people, lots of noise, OUT OF HER ROUTINE. Now this is not when Marina is at her best. But you can see through the year that she tolerates the Hub-Bub better and better. Oh, we haven't arrived yet, but we are improving, and I'm EXCITED about that. I need to keep those videos handy for Fiona days--they say to me, "She is coming along fine...she is going to make it....you ARE making progress...you ARE a good mommy...I think I can...I think I can...."