Another one for the history books

Another year come and gone.  Why must they fly by so very quickly?  It's good for me to do a brief recount of 2013 and remember all of the positive things that have come from the time gone by.

• Began blogging again, and even though my posts were extremely few and far between most months, I still made the effort and that was a good start.  So for that I'm proud of myself.
• Joined a gym and made lots of progress for a few months, which then declined during the stress of the DIL and move across country.  Now I'm struggling to get back into the swing of it and having recurring health issues. This is top priority for 2014.
• Best friends Jon and Kristin were married @ the end of May, with Brian being the best man.
• We had a failed short sale on our home, which turned into a DIL.  That appears to be finalizing and closing in the next week or two.  Mixed feelings on this as it sucks but ended up being our only choice.
• Freeman held it's first Solutionista conference in Dallas with designers attending from across the enterprise and it was great to meet nearly all of my counterparts face to face.
• Nathan turned 1 year on August 20, 2013.
• Visited my company's Dallas Corporate office, and had a wonderful yearly review along with a great visit to the custom exhibits Fabrication location.  Had a great dinner with my Dallas bestie Melinda.
• Several major and minor tiffs with my bestie/hubby.  Most stupid, and a bigger deal that needed to be.  I am learning how to be in love with him again.  It's a never-ending struggle to live with another human, let alone have to share everything with him/her.  We're both learning and growing together.  Progress, even small steps, is being made.  For that I'm very grateful.
• Left the Boston/Providence area officially when we drove away Nov. 2nd.
• Arrived in Chicago on November 3rd to officially start the next chapter of our lives.
• Nathan's 1st real Thanksgiving / Christmas to remember, and we spent it with Chicago family and friends + my Mom.  It was a great time and even though the whole house was sick with colds, we made the best of the extreme cold weather and feeling crappy.  It was so wonderful to see how happy Nathan was, and to see him interacting with his family.
• Learning to be grateful for what I have and what I have accomplished.  Taking a less serious approach to the little things and realizing that sometimes things just have to wait.  Major tasks can be completed in small steps rather than marathon, back breaking events.
• Love my husband, remember why we fell in love and remind him of how much I appreciate him often.

I'm looking forward to getting equally great things achieved and accomplished in 2014.  

Packing insanity! In one week we move to Chicago!

Just a quick note to say that I've been so busy these last couple of months getting everything in order for our move that I haven't had time to write about any of it.  Shame on me.  I promised myself I'd keep up with this blog, if only for myself and I'm failing again.

Well I'll just be needing to pick myself right up and dust myself off - and begin again.  And I will.  But not till I get this craziness behind me.  This move will prove to be a good confidence booster, because now that I have my son, everything sort of freaks me out this last year.  It'll be good to get past one more extreme life change and come out on the other side seeing that all things are possible.  I'll get through this too.

Celebratory items of note:

Nathan's walking now and took his first steps 9/21/13, one day past 13 months.  Now he's trucking around and doing very well.  I suspect in another few weeks he'll start running, if not sooner.  EEK! :)

Found a great rental at approximately the price we wanted to spend per month.  Signed 2 year lease, seems like great landlords so far - and the property has all new appliances, central AC and furnace.  Woot!

Frustration mixed with a good heap of anxiety

It's been quite some time since my last update.   Lots has happened.  Nathan and I have been sick with two colds, and this week I have upper respiratory, laryngitis and a massive ear infection.  Spending the days working from home and trying not to let my anxiety and frustration get the better of me.

Our short sale has been in jeopardy, as BoA approved the purchase price (which included a closing credit of $4600) but they declined the credit and some of the fees.  After going back with a counter offer to them, with the fees reduced and telling them that the buyers planned to withdraw if the closing credit were denied, BoA in their infinite stupidity and greed, denied the credit a second time.  We were desperate to retain the buyers and make the short sale stick, so we offered to pay the closing credit directly to them.  Even with offering them everything they were asking for - they still notified us they intended to withdraw.

Heartbroken, and sick to my stomach, I am fighting my way through the rest of this week but it's been such a struggle.  It's been an enormous challenge to wrap my head around losing our buyers and the house going back up on the market.  We're exploring other options, primarily deed in lieu of foreclosure and so hopefully one way or another we will get this resolved, and get moved.   That's all I can bear to report for now.....

Where on earth did that year go?

Yesterday was August 20th, 2013 - Nathan's very 1st Birthday.  I can't believe my baby boy turned one.  I am astonished at how fast the year went by.  When I reel through my mind the images, memories and experiences that I had during the first year of his life, I am humbled.  I completely understand why people say that children grow up too fast.   It was a low key day until I got home from work, in which time we crammed in a visit from Auntie Laura and her girls who came bearing cakes and presents.  They made it an extra special birthday since we were without family for hopefully the ONLY time in Nathan's life.  Then we quickly ate take-out dinner followed by three back to back Skype sessions with the Grandparents.

All in all it was a great evening, even though Nathan's schedule got disrupted a bit.   This weekend on Sunday we'll be doing a smash cake photo session with our neighbor Denise.  I'm excited for it and hope it turns out well, as I put a good bit of work into planning and execution of it.  We shall see!

Cause you know blueberries freeze in space, right?

Arrrrghhhh!  I'm falling down again.  Promised myself I wouldn't miss a beat on this whole blog thing.  Where the hell do the hours in the day go?   I feel like I'm traveling the way of the Trek gang.  I don't want to travel at warp speed Mister Scott!  I just want to slow it down nice and easy, and take my time.  Boo!

Nathan's got a nasty cough this week, and we found out the daycare we send him to is closing down.  I'm pretty heartbroken about it, and should write more about my thoughts on it, but not right now.  I don't want to be upset any more today.  So good thoughts, good thoughts!

Speaking of Star Trek, this past weekend on the return episode of Breaking Bad, Jesse's druggie buddy recounted his idea of a Trek script.  It was super super funny.

Babies like spicy food - yes really!

Since Nathan was about eight months old I started to worry about his food intake.  As my obsessive mommy instincts had me reading up a bit on what babies should be eating, I've stumbled across so many suggestions and recommendations that my head is spinning.  There are so many opinions on this subject matter that it could make even the most solidly confident person dizzy with wonder.  So enter me.  I'm already worried that Nathan won't start eating any solids on his own and for the past four months I've offered finger foods of various different times every single night.

He would eat NOTHING.  Nada, zip, zilch.  Frustrated?  Yeah, that word doesn't even begin to cover how stressed I started to become.  About two months ago, I gave it up though, and finally resigned myself to do my best not to worry.  I let it go as best I could.

Fast forward to this past weekend.  On Saturday, Brian was making breakfast and I asked him to make plain scrambled eggs for Nathan.  That was one food we had not tried yet.  To my utter delight and amazement, he ate them.  He also ate a couple of tiny bits of bacon.  Sunday morning, he ate eggs again along with pancake bits.  Ever since he's been eating / trying just about everything we put in front of him.

Last night, Brian made Chicken Tikka Masala which is a mildly spicy Indian dish with a red sauce.  He used boneless skinless thighs which are tender and yummy.  Nathan had already eaten the equivalent of a half of a banana cut into bits, rolled in wheat germ.  Then I offered him some bits of the chicken with just a tiny bit of sauce and he loved it!  I couldn't give him bits of it fast enough.  He also tried Naan bread and liked that too.  I'm so relieved and excited that Nathan is finally taking an interest in eating.   Yay! :)

He's finally better~

Over the weekend, Nathan finally got over his first real illness (colds don't count).  He had a stomach bug that lingered on for almost seven days.  He was sick so much, that I did laundry nearly every day this past week - poor little guy.   It is amazing how the doctor wasn't at all concerned with his 103+ fever when he was first taken to see the doctor.  I learned so much about myself and Nathan this week.  I feel like we conquered a huge hill, and it was just one little step toward strengthening our bonds as a family.  All in all, even though it was really scary, I think Brian and I did a great job at keeping calm and handling our sweetie being so sick.