It's Bridgetmas Eve!

That's right...well almost, in 19 minutes it will officially be Bridgetmas Eve, the day before my 33rd birthday, oh and Christmas too...my Aunt Cheri's Birthday as well, though I'll not comment on her age, we'll just say that she's older : )

Its been a fast year, the girls and I were watching video clips on the computer from our trip to Punta Cana back in January. Its so hard to believe that was almost a year ago, Nora kept saying, "I go there, I go back." They keep telling us they want to go back to Rolla too, if I had to pick, I'd go with Punta Cana...it had a beach. That was right when I decided to do the triathlon and subsequently tore a ligament in my knee and sprained my ankle playing roller hockey on said vacation (on the plus side, I was the only female in that tournament, scored two goals and our team won...USA all the way!). The triathlon seems forever ago as well, I remember thinking I'd never be able to actually finish, especially after seeing the bike course and having to get off and walk several times in the beginning, but I did and in better time than I expected. Of course, I have yet to do another due to other injuries and lack of time but this is one of my big goals for 2008, there are a few indoor tris this winter I can use for practice and then I'd like to aim for Memphis in May with my friend Rachel.

Nora turned two, its amazing how quickly the time has gone the second time around. She is such a funny kid and loves to laugh. She, loves to laugh and does easily and is fearless as she was showing us last night at the pool as she throws herself off the side regardless of whether or not you are ready to catch her. She likes to play dolls and of course do anything that Logan does, its hard for her sometimes when Logan wants her space, she really seems to look up to her and doesn't understand her sissy's need to be alone.

Logan turned five, that still hurts me to say. She loves Kindergarten and the excitement of being the oldest in room 7. She has a thing for science, especially weather and natural disasters and also seems to enjoy math (obviously not my genetics at work) and of course art. Tonight as Charles and I were putting together some Christmas presents I was going through her art work, of which we have a ton, she really does make some interesting patterns and color mixtures...I know its one of her favorite things to do. She also started gymnastics this fall and is enjoying that as well, she tried Chinese for a couple of months but was frustrated because she didn't understand the teacher and the papers she brought home weren't written so that non-Chinese speaking parents (of which I think we were the only ones) could help, so we dropped that and now she wants to learn to play the violin.

Charles and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary and our 10 year of being together. I say it to myself all the time, I don't know how he puts up with me, but for whatever reason it is, I am truly grateful! To celebrate we went to dinner and then later in the month took the girls camping with our friends the Boyets and the VanPuttes to Trail of Tears State Park near Cape. Other than Nora's bowels ceasing to work, it was a fun trip. We also did a float trip earlier in the summer, a now annual event, and a day hike to Hawn. Its been so great to find a group of friends to share our love of the outdoors and have our kids all get along so well, hopefully this will be a group of friends that will stay together for many years to come.

Another thing that we have started this year is running, I got the ball rolling with the triathlon but in October Logan and her friends Julia and Jackson participated in a fun run...it was Logan's first and she was hooked! She did a run on Thanksgiving, despite it being about 3 degrees (ok, it wasn't that cold but it was cold and for her to actually do it was amazing) and is anxious to do another, but the next one for kids isn't until April. Nora wants to do one too, so when we do the GO!St. Louis Run for Logan, there is a 50 yard dash for Nora's age group as well. Logan has mentioned a desire to do a triathlon but she needs to actually learn to swim further than 5 yards!

While we've had our ups and downs this year, I realize that I am so very lucky to have the family that I do. My daughters are happy, healthy, loving little girls who are growing up to be wonderful people thanks to all of the people in their lives. I have a husband who loves me no matter what, even when I can't understand why. I have my parents who love me and care about me no matter what. I have a close circle of friends who protect me, listen to me, love me, accept me, and help me see that I am doing a good job even when I can't. I have parents at school who show me that they appreciate the care that I give to their children everyday even when it doesn't seem like it and I have countless others that touch my life in some way either once in a while or on a regular basis in some way shape or form that have helped me make it to the eve of my 33rd birthday when there have been days when I didn't feel like making it to the next morning. Thanks to everyone who has been there and is there for me, I can't tell you enough how much I thank the powers that be for giving me a strong support network...goodness knows its the best birthday present I could ever ask for! It's now officially Bridgetmas Eve!

Let the good times roll...please!

Hurrah! I am officially on "vacation" until Wednesday January 2nd, 2008. That thankfully seems so far off from now but I'm sure in reality the time is going to fly by. I have needed this mental health holiday for quite some time now, and after the week I have had I pray to the heavens this helps. Tuesday we had our lunch at the Ritz with David which was wonderful but in the process I managed to drop my wallet and didn't realize it until the next morning when my gas tank was on "E" and I went to fill it. Thankfully Charles decided to follow me to QT so he paid otherwise we wouldn't have made it to school (which in retrospect wouldn't have been a bad thing). I haven't had cause to take my wallet out of my purse much so I couldn't even remember the last time I had seen it, then I really panicked because I had taken my social security card into work to be copied for licencing and didn't remember that I had taken it out so I thought that was missing too. So of course all day I was unsettled and distracted by this and trying to remember the last time I had used my debit card which had been a whole week earlier. But since then we had been to Bread Co, Wal-Mart, Target, Michaels...even though I hadn't taken my wallet out it easily could have fallen out of my purse (this is why I hate purses). Charles then mentioned maybe it fell out at the Ritz...nah...couldn't have. We went ahead and reported my bank card missing...Bank of America now knows I am an idiot because I didn't know my own password, didn't know how many accounts we have with them but thankfully I could still identify myself, date of birth and place of residence....Alzheimer's at 32 is scary!

I almost didn't even call the Ritz, it just didn't seem likely, the wallet was gone. But I took the chance. Sure enough, it was there...well at least it has a somewhat happy ending, I don't have to get a new drivers licence :) But this is how my month has been, my neurons don't seem to be firing, I can't seem to have one day of normalcy and my eye won't stop twitching. I asked for a new brain for Christmas, I'll even take one second hand, just one that works at a higher capacity than the one I have now. Maybe Santa will spring for a new sense of humor as well, I seem to need one of those these days as well.

So here is to the next week and a half of spending time with my girls, relaxing as much as I can, not stressing out about things (though I doubt that will happen) and maybe regaining a bit of the sanity that seems to have left me over the last few weeks...I miss it.

Straight No Chaser - 12 Days

It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year?!?!

Ok I am in a serious funk, have been since Thanksgiving. It is in part because my foot since it was never determined what was wrong with it and now a month later I am still having trouble with it. I tried skating on it for the first time Sunday and am paying for it now. Then there was the stress of conferences, then I found out that someone I have known pretty well for the last 14 years has inoperable cancer in her lungs, liver and brain...a coworker's brother passed away a week and a half ago, it was raining no stop here for a while and I just get stressed out with the holidays.

Not that there haven't been bright spots along the way. We had our first snowfall of the season this past weekend so we had fun playing in that. Logan got to light the Chanukah menorah all on her own this year and in her words, "I was a little nervous at first but I didn't set myself on fire", we have discovered the hilarity of the phrase "I want BACON" and welcomed a new furry friend Clementine SkippyjonJones Jacks into our house. Everyone is thrilled by our new kitty except Bonnie but then what do you expect from a 14 year old cat.

The brightest spot of all is the selflessness of our children. One morning as we were getting ready for school Logan noticed a bag of old toys that we were donating to the crisis nursery. She asked what they were for and I explained. A few minutes later she said, "You know my piggy bank?" I said yes and she said, "I want to take the money and give it to kids that don't have anything for Christmas". So what we did was count her money...and later Nora's because whatever Logan does Nora must as well : ) and with that the two of them picked out toys for a little girl that Charles' work had adopted. Logan was so proud of herself that she got to pay for them all by herself. It was so amazing that this act came completely from her and that even Nora wanted to be a part of it. I keep going back to it when I feel truly down.