A Year in Review

2012 has provided us with one helluva wild ride. Then again, I don’t know that there’s been a single year of our lives—since J and were together, at least—that hasn’t been a wild ride.  That being said, the reason I started this blog nearly three years ago was to reflect on our lives—to find the positive and remember it through the hard times. I lost that once, and I never want to travel through that darkness again.

So, let’s take a quick look at some of the highlights of 2012—as featured on this blog or not—and then I’ll be ready to start thinking about 2013… although, if you caught me on Twitter last night, you know that I’ll only be making resolutions I know I can keep. Like spending more time on Pinterest.

In January, I mentally powered through an minor PA relapse. Writing about it gave me the chance to connect with other individuals who suffer from RA, PA, and Lupus. We traded notes on meds, exercises, shortcuts and foods.  I’ve been med free for quite some time now (since July 2009), and I can attribute most of it to J’s enforcement of a positive attitude and exercising Every. Damn. Day. Which, at first, made me feel like I was going to die. I hate freaking exercise.

In February, J and I took a weekend trip to KC and I started writing for Sprocket Ink! My favorite posts to write in the last year certainly had to be about the Hunger Games Haters and the Zombie Apocalypse. Also, last February, I began to take a stand against the teacher who was making Ant’s life a living hell.

In March, I first starting preaching the benefits of finding your Twitter tribe, and wrote an SI article that started the phrase ‘Hooker Powers’ amongst my friends. It was awesome.

April brought a declaration from J that I need to write about him more often, and Alex from Late Enough and I shared a mutual hatred of birds.  Also? The Bloggess released the funniest book ever.

May marked the one year anniversary of the tornado which devastated my hometown in 2011. Steph from Musings of a Sarcastic Mind  started #OperationPlayMore and I joined in. J was still on me to write more about him.

June brought vacation. Because there’s no better time to go to Disney World than when there’s a tropical storm. No lie! The rain keeps the temperatures down and the lines away. It was fantastic to know that it was 83 degrees in Florida while it was 106 in Missouri. Plus? We totally got to see a rocket launch and Atlantis make its way home. Also, there was the broken shower incident of 2012… I still hold Mike Holmes responsible…

July was hot. And unbearable. And tried to kill me, since June didn’t get the job done.

In August, I spent a week in Chicago sans-guys. Granted, it was for work, but it was awesome. Good food. My first official train ride.  

In September, which is one of the busiest months of the year for me (I know, I know… I say it about almost every month) we openly admitted to K’s OCD diagnosis—which had been a summer-long process, and to make me feel better, the Twitter gave me a vacuum. Again, this is why the Twitter is awesome! Okay, maybe it didn’t exactly happen that way, but close enough. Oh, and I totally copped to believing in ghostesses, and started a group with like-minded women who want to travel to ghosty places, learn to ghost-hunt, and drink. Mostly the traveling and drinking bit, I bet. Then Noa from Oh, Noa told me she wanted to come and investigate my house (she totally was a ghost hunter before) and I didn’t find it creepy at all.

October and November both are kind of a blur. I spent most of my time writing the grant. I also had some funny moments (well, funny for J, not for me) and Jesse took pity on me and sent me some Rock Star Wine! 

  

In December… well, I officially admitted I have let myself go (although I’ve been able to rectify a bit of that over the last week of vacation—I even gave myself a manicure on Saturday—a manicure!) and then… well, I think it was hard for many of us to get in the Christmas spirit this year—especially if we had elementary-aged children.  Each year, the four of us do something or make something to remind us of the Christmas spirit. This year, I’m happy to say we participated in #28ActsofKindness.

Why 28? Because there were 28 victims that day, at least in my mind. I don’t believe in monsters, but I do believe we have a massive gap in mental health care services in our nation today. I also told you that I am (still) waiting in the Common Ground.

And there you have it. Not an exceptional year, per se, but an adventure, nonetheless. Every day with these three guys (and Super-Sophie) is an adventure, to be sure!  I’m looking forward to 2013… but I suppose that’s fodder for a post tomorrow. 

What is(are) the highlight(s) from your 2012? And what are you looking forward to in 2013? 

Sponsored Post: Shabby Apple Discount- Ends Friday!

Each fall, I get the overwhelming urge to go clothes shopping. For those of you who know me in real life (ahem, Jesse, ahem) and have been shopping with me, you know that just about any other time throughout the year, clothes shopping with me is damn-near unbearable.  I usually despise shopping… except in the fall.

Find this dress here

Ghostesses, Redux

If you’re not all up to speed on our own personal ghost adventures, you can read the background to this story by scrolling down.

Weekend Wrap-Up: Fun with Jasonisms

J: You didn’t write about me all week long. I thought you were going to write about me more often.

Me: Um. NO. You told me that I should write about you more often. I told you that you should get your own blog.

J: I thought I was taking on more tasks around the house to give you more time to write about me.

Me: No, I am spending some time writing short stories—something which I have not done for a long, long time.

J: Am I in the short stories, at the very least?

Me: One. I killed you off, though.

J: You did what?

Me: It was after you did that thing last week—the one where I asked you to rub my aching shoulders and you put your giant paws around my neck and pretended that you were going to strangle me like a deranged madman. And then laughed about it all night like a deranged madman.

J: Well, I thought that it would convince you not to ask me for shoulder rubs anymore. Like when I filled the dishwasher with Dawn.

Me: And I thought it would convince you not to pretend to kill me anymore. Or I will pretend to kill you in my stories. We each have our ways, honey. By the way—did the Dawn incident stop you from loading the dishwasher?

J: No.

Me: Then this isn’t going to stop me from asking for shoulder rubs either…

And this is how you know you are in a blissful marriage—you can joke about killing one another and not really mean it, all the time. 

For all of his 'attempts' to kill me, I know he
loves me because he makes me things like this...

 It weekend wrap-up time! Let’s start with what I was writing when I wasn’t here:

I told you about my hero of the month, Damon, who is a fast-acting teen (I bet it’s because he’s avoiding the Purell cocktails).

I also wondered aloud why this guy is building Titanic: The Remix, and then sailing it along the exact same path (which, if you’ll remember, ended at the bottom of the icy Atlantic) as the original.

What did I find elsewhere?

Jesse (who you can read both on her blog and Sprocket Ink) wrote a post about meeting The Bloggess, and guess who was the first person to comment on her post? (Hint: it wasn’t me.)

I also suggest that you read her post from this week called: It Looks Like a Stripper Threw Up in Here.

Angela of the Cheesy Bloggers talked of her 1990s fashion faux pas, and oh…. Yes. I did a lot of these, including the tapestry vest.  

And what was on my mind last year?

J and I were forcing the children to learn an important life lesson: that we are not short order cooks.

Weekend Wrap-Up: May Day-ish

Ah… another week gone by, and this time I’m actually going to have a weekend wrap-up! May is always a crazy whirlwind of activity (how many field trips and class projects can one school district throw at a family? I’ll let you know once the month is over, but we are standing at four and three, respectively, for the next two weeks), and I am usually rather impressed with myself if I can MOSTLY hold things together through the university’s commencement ceremonies and until the boys get out of school.

Photo Source

J and I actually had the time and the energy to have a date night last night. A date night! With a bottle of wine and things that the boys would never agree to eat (like duck. DUCK!). It was weird to be sitting down, eating together, and talking. About things that weren’t “Which one of us is going to the school lunch thing on Tuesday?” and “What time does he need to be dropped off for the Six Flags trip?”

Ah, the glamorous life of parenthood. Why didn’t the nurses warn us of this crap before we left the childbirth prep class? Why don’t they teach classes on logistics and event planning the way they do for epidurals?

While on our date night, we discussed the wild success that The Bloggess has had on her book tour (seriously, buy this book!) and J, of course, always wonders how her husband (Victor) feels about all of this excitement surrounding his wife, and then I mentioned that I planned to buy him a TEAM VICTOR shirt, and then J said the most astounding thing I’ve heard him say in our marriage…

That is, when you compare idiosyncrasies between him and myself, it becomes increasingly apparent that J is actually The Bloggess type in our relationship, and I’m more like Victor.

Say what? I have always felt that I’m the more eccentric one.

And then he laid out his case… about how I’m more the one to be silent and listen in social situations, and he’s more likely the one who says something wildly off topic and inappropriate and quirky… about how he’s the one who randomly buys things (this is true—he’s on this glasses thing—we don’t need more glasses, but he thinks he must buy them if they’re on clearance, and then we’re trying to find a place to put these things—like Waterford pilsner glass sets that he picks up for $17)… about how he’s the one with the wild imagination and no filter on his mouth…

I realized he’s right. As much as I hate to admit it, I am downright boring when it compares to J. So, why is it that I have the blog and he doesn’t? When I asked him this, he said that I just need to spend some more time writing about him. Something in a cross between “Shit my husband says,” and “Let me tell you about all of the times he’s scared the shit out of me by making the children’s toys—and other inanimate objects—‘speak’ to me when I least expect it. Like when I’m asleep.

And this is why I will never get bored in our marriage. Since the first night I met him, he’s had a thing for elaborately rigging up happy meal toys to say foul-mouthed things.

Okay, I’m done allowing J to hijack this post, so let’s get down to business! This is what I wrote when I wasn’t here:

I talked about how Don Draper’s example can save you thousands in couple’s therapy, if you just do the opposite of what he does.

On a more serious note, I talked about a one-sentence long piece of legislation in our state that makes me a bit less proud to live in Missouri. Apparently, someone forwarded it to Ellen’s show!

Also, I wrote a 6000 word piece of fiction, and submitted it to a contest here! Wish me luck (and if you write, enter it!).

What was going on elsewhere:

Alex from Late Enough shares her hatred of birds. I shared my hatred of birds with her. We realize that birds are the scourge of the earth.

Sunday Morning has broadcast the most accurate and balanced description of student loan and tuition problems that I have seen. Check it out—it shows all sides.

The Bloggess makes mention of the book signing snafu that happened directly in front of Jesse (wail of grief here!) when she was at the signing in Dallas. More on this to come!

Steffie (don’t call her that!) relates the best text message conversation I’ve ever heard.

What was I nattering on about last year?

I wrote the first ever Imperfect Mothers post, in honor of Earth Day, no less. It is one of my highest viewed posts, ever. If you haven't read it, you need to. Because it will make you a good parent AND save Mother Earth!

Yeah, About That…It’s the Spider’s Fault!

So, the blogging on a regular basis—yeah, well, hmmm. I know, I know; bad Sarah.

Does it help if I told you that I’ve been sick with a cold that just won’t quit? During midterms? And there has just been ALL of this grading? And the temperatures outside are so unseasonably warm that you can’t help but go outside? And I’m trying to see as much of Jesse as possible before she leaves me?

(This is where you should imagine me emitting the loudest, most disconcerting wail of grief one can conjure.)

Well, even if it doesn’t help you, it helps me. It makes me feel better. Just like fresh air and open windows and sunshine make me feel better. Another thing that makes me feel better? The fact that every time I type the word “as,” my computer autocorrects it to “ass.” That gives you some insight into my sense of humor, doesn’t it? I have the gutter mind of a twelve year old boy.

I’m all about feeling better right now. There’s been too much bickering and drama and everything else that is emotionally draining. I am tired of fighting with life right now—even though I feel as if we are making progress (again, not my story to tell, at this point, so I keep my mouth zipped up tight, in deference to the second son’s wishes). So, I am taking the advice I and so many others have given through our blogs and personal lives: enjoy the small moments. Forget the other stuff for a while, and just enjoy, and laugh.

Normally this is where I would redirect to the original point of my blog post, but I don’t really have a point to which to direct you this evening. This is likely the most pointless blog post you are likely to read this week. Or month. Or, perhaps, ever.

But I do have a funny story! I suppose that is my point, in a roundabout way—a small moment, a story, a piece of life to share with others to make them forget for a moment and laugh right along with you…

This morning, I woke up during the second alarm (yes, we have multiple alarms—never underestimate my ability to sleep through alarms). I stretched, lazily rolled over, and opened my eyes. That’s when I saw it- the spider sleeping beside me in bed. It was the size of a baby tarantula—it’s diameter was probably about the length of my thumb.

Yeah, about that big. Sleeping right next to me. Scary bastard!

Naturally I screamed bloody murder until J ran out of the bathroom. I screamed at him to kill it. When he tried to do so, I scrambled out of bed, and then screamed at him to not kill it in the bed. I made him scoot that damn spider around the bedroom until he found a place where I thought it would be appropriate for the monstrous spider to meets its doom.

And he did it, without complaining. This is how you know that your marriage is working, folks. That, and if he makes you coffee before he leaves for work. After he kills the spider and washes his hands, of course.

I think I may have just given my first piece of published marriage advice. I surely have missed my calling.

What small moment has made you forget about your troubles and laugh this week?