I’ve been trying to get this written out for days now and I just haven’t been able too. A lot has happened this year, mostly withing the last few weeks, and I just haven’t felt like doing much of anything. But it’s already two weeks into the new year, so it’s time to get out of my funk and get back into the thick of things. I know that this is going to be a bit choppy, but I’ve been writing bits and pieces of it out over the past week or so.
Milestones
This year has been a lot of fun as far as milestones with our daughter. We managed potty training…somehow with help from grandma and a very large bag of gummy bears. She has also learned just about every three letter word she could possibly need to know for kindergarten and is now blasting through 4 and 5 letter works. She is also writing a heck of a lot better than I ever did when I firs started school. All in all, she is at the level of a 5 or 6 year old, aside from reading. I know that she can read, she just pretends not to in order to aggravate everyone. We got her a Nabi tablet for Christmas and she is blowing through all the Pre-K stuff right now, so I know that she is off to a good start.
Loss
We seem to be having a new yearly thing and having at least one death in the family during the holiday season. My grandfather was hospitalized a week before Christmas, so my parents had to drop everything a head immediately out to Baltimore. They couldn’t get a flight, so they got stuck driving & he passed away before they were able to get up there. Meanwhile, I was stuck here not being able to be with the rest of my family. There was no way that my daughter was going to be able to last a 3+ day car ride without getting super sick. My parents stayed up there for about a week and half, and didn’t head back until the 26th. This was the first Christmas I’ve had without my parents being right there, & with everything else it ended up being a bit blue. After my parents got back, we celebrated our missed Christmas and my 30th birthday. I’m not very keen on being 30 and have been in a bit of a funk since (understatement of the year!).
Moving Forward
I’m not one to normally make New Year resolutions, but I think I’m going to make an exception this year. Hopefully it will get me out of my funk. I’ve decided that I’m going to do what it takes to get back into shape this year and loose weight. I’m really out of shape, and the knee surgery really hasn’t helped any. Plus, I’m still carrying around all of the fluid I gained shortly after having my daughter, which makes me feel even worse. I got two bottles of Thin Now! for a product review, and I’ve already noticed a big difference.
The big thing that we are considering this year is having another child. We would have had another one sooner, but I got tied up with the knee surgery and we really haven’t been able to afford having another. We were also leery about all the Healthcare changes as well. As it stands now, all Texas Heath hospitals & some associated doctors have been removed from our plan. Since all of the hospitals in the area are either owned by Texas Health or just this side of using leaches for everything, we are looking at the possibility of having to go all the way to Dallas to find both an OB-GYN & hospital (most likely Baylor). It’s really going to take some looking into before we make a final decision. (Since I first wrote this part, I did find an OB-GYN and hospital, but as it stands right now, it won’t be financially doable for us.)
The other big news for the year is that my grandmother is now making plans to come down and visit so that she can meet her great granddaughter. I’ve entered panic mode as a result. There are several improvement projects that we’ve started and not really finished. So, I need to paint the bathroom, paint the hallway, finish fixing the ceiling in the living room & paint it, and paint the kitchen. And that’s just the easy stuff. Hopefully this cold spell will end soon so I can get started. Also, if anyone knows an inexpensive rooking company in the DFW area, please let me know.
Blog Bits
I’ve already got a few giveaways up, and hopefully there will be plenty more this year. I’m going to be splitting some of my time this year between here and my design stuff since I’m going to have a lot of covers to do this year. I did my first print cover a month or so ago & I have orders for several more. I will be going to FenCon again this year and I plan on having a table again. There is also the possibility of being able to go to a writer’s conference as an Industry Professional, but that is way later in the year & I’ll have to play it by ear. I would also love to be able to go to some of the blogging conferences, but most of those are way to expensive for me right now.
Anyway, should be back to regular posting now.
I’m so sorry to hear about your struggles this year. But it sounds like you have a great perspective on the year to come!