She Likes Purple

Seven Quick Last-Day-In-November Takes

1. November is nearly over! No more daily posts, I know you are sobbing into your hands right now. But it was fun! I hope to keep up this posting-more-often thing. 

2. All I can think about today is The Vampire Diaries. I don't even care that I just said that and 98% of you rolled your eyes at me because that's nothing new, right? Anyway, I'm a huge fan of this show and I'd argue it's not just for teens or those who like teen-y shows. It's dark, it's bloody, it's sexy, it's quippy too. And the twists and turns are just fun and often surprising where I feel so much of television just fails to surprise me like I'd like it to. Anyway, last night's episode was very, very good and if you ARE a fan, well, read this recap of it. It's exactly how I feel about the episode.

3. I'm sure you super-duper care about how I want to wrap our Christmas presents this year but I want to do something like this, with holiday-themed stamps instead of bird ones. We're going minimal on the gifts, and that makes me actually excited about wrapping them! 

4. I love, love, love this dress. I think about this dress on my commute. I want to buy it and wear it to Mike's holiday party and then my holiday party and then my birthday dinner and then maybe sleep with it, too. It's nearly $300, though, and I just can't justify that in any way, shape, or form. (If you see this dress go one sale OMG PLEASE TELL ME.) (It would have to be like a 75%-off sale, but still.)

5. Speaking of dropping tons of money, it's rumored that my team (Texas A&M) is possibly going to the Capital One Bowl. (In Orlando.) I don't even know if this is true or if there are tickets to be had but I'm just trying to figure out a way to make this work. I don't know when an opportunity to go to such an awesome bowl will present itself again to us (uh, it hasn't presented itself since I was in high-school, so.) We have miles and points and....I dunno. Mike thinks it's insane and impossible and it very likely is. Still. I can't stop thinking about it.

6. I got the (unbelievable) opportunity to interview Spike Mendelsohn this week for Food Lush and since he's been a huge favorite of mine since his first run on Top Chef, I was over the moon excited about it. I was also nervous as hell, so nervous I could puke. I actually thought of cancelling. I actually hoped he would cancel. I know that sounds insane, but I was just NERVOUS. ALL CAPS NERVOUS. I went through with it because of course it was a fun opportunity and I couldn't wait to be able to say that I did that! I interviewed him! (Well, over the phone.) And it went well. He was friendly and warm. I'm sharing this because I think life does this more often than we think it does--it gives us cool opportunities that we possibly shy away from because they're just so nerve-wracking and scary. I'm going to try to remember this feeling. This feeling of doing something very cool even though it was very scary and being proud on the other side of it.

(Oh, interview goes up next week.)

7. December is tomorrow! High of 80 on Sunday! Texas is adorable. 

A Pregnancy Regret

When I was pregnant, there was no doubt we would find out what we were having as soon as we possibly could. Frustratingly, we had to wait until around 22 weeks because of my doctor's appointment policies and I thought those extra days would make me go insane. Some people find out at 17 weeks! The pregnancy injustices! Didn't my doctor understand that I NEEDED to know what we were having?

(Spoiler alert: it's a boy!)

Now and for the last couple years, though? Well. I regret finding out while pregnant.

I don't know how to articulate this without it sounding sorta strange or like I'm creating things to be weepy about four years later, but it's very likely I'll have just the one pregnancy. Combine that with how quickly these last (nearly) four years have flown by (so fast, my god), and I just wish I could have lived in the moment back then in a better way. I wish I could have forgotten about registries and blue onesies and his middle name (which we didn't decide until the day we were discharged from the hospital, anyway) (it's Parker) and just tried to enjoy being pregnant. 

I had a relatively easy pregnancy. I say that because there were no big complications (there was a very brief scare mid-way but that turned out to be nothing) and he was born healthy and ultimately that's all that matters, but I was also very, very sick. I kind of feel weird talking about it because I wasn't the sickest pregnant lady you'll ever meet, no, and Zofran definitely helped and I ended up gaining (plenty of) weight but I was on Zofran for nearly the entire pregnancy (I only say "nearly" because I was on Reglan the last month after finally responding to it and it was OMG SO MUCH CHEAPER). Before I got on Zofran, I lost 12 pounds in two weeks.

I had to pay out-of-pocket for some Zofran because my insurance wouldn't cover all that was prescribed and I needed, hilariously, all that was prescribed. Because of this, I threw up in the shower many mornings so I could wait to take that first pill. When I was in California for BlogHer '08, I ran out of pills and that flight home was one of the most miserable experiences of my life.

Aside from nausea, I also had horrible reflux the last month that caused me to throw up a lot, as well. Oh, man. That was something special. And I'm just going to put this out there so we can all be very real with each other: there were hemorrhoids.

I say all this not to make you feel badly for me--I know plenty who had it so much worse (which is why I always feel weird talking about how sick I was to begin with), people who didn't respond to Zofran, who were in multiple ERs, who had complications much worse than a three-day false alarm, who dealt with all this and then some while parenting other kids--but I say all this because it doesn't make much sense that I went through that and ultimately still liked being pregnant.

But I did. 

Feeling Kyle kick was, easily, without a doubt, hands down, my absolute favorite thing in all the world until the moment he was born. I was one of the lucky women who never got tired of those kicks, never. I loved them until the day he was born. I would sit on the couch and watch my belly roll around for literally hours. (It's what I would look forward to doing on the weekends.) I would take (dozens of, really) videos of my belly moving. I would sit in staff meetings and watch my shirt thump and shake, grinning. My co-worker said I kept my hand on my stomach when I'd walk around the office months after Kyle was born. I just...I still miss those kicks. I loved those kicks. (I'm weepy right now as I type these words because they made me love a pregnancy that didn't have many other redeeming qualities.)

For me, and this is a very unique thought that nearly no one has understood when I've tried to verbalize it before, I wish that for those nine months I could have just been pregnant, just focused on those kicks and little else, not wished the time by so quickly to get to Kyle because he was always going to be at the end of it. He was always waiting for me whether or not I knew he was a he at 22 or 40 weeks. I was always going to meet the coolest little boy that's ever existed at the end of my pregnancy and knowing he was going to be a boy didn't steal that coolness, don't get me wrong, but I just wish I could have shelved the constant loop of "is it a boy or a girl?" and then "It's a boy!" and replaced it with "these nine months will feel like a blink one day, just sit on the couch with your hand on your belly for a few minutes more and breathe."

Mike and I also made a deal that he would name our baby if it was a girl and I would get naming rights if it was a boy. We made this deal because our short list of names for either sex were names we both liked a lot and if it had been Sophia or Sloane or Addison (our top-three girl names), I would have been happy. But we knew, after making that deal, that if we had a boy it would be Kyle. That was always my top pick. I liked a lot of names (Reid, Seth, Gabe, Joel, Ryan, Sean--I apparently really like four-letter boy names), but something was always telling me I was carrying Kyle. I didn't need a sonogram to tell me, in hindsight. I always knew it was him. 

I know this all sounds ridiculous. Even as I write this, I sense that your eyes have rolled right out of your head and I don't even blame you. And it was so fun to buy Kyle a little striped GAP sweater (this one!*) right after we got confirmation that he was indeed a he, but I can't deny that since then, every time I find out a friend isn't finding out, a pang of regret hits me. Not a pang that I want another baby or I wish I would have eaten fewer chocolate croissants (HA, NEVER) or I wish I would have bought that one awesome baby product. No, just, that would have been nice, to have waited.

What about you, did you find out, not find out, regret whatever you chose, etc.? We should all have different feelings on this, right, and I don't expect too many people to get where I'm coming from, but I'd still love to hear your experience.

*I look at that photo and physically remember that colicky baby but ooooooh that's still Kyle! Those eyes, that boy. All Kyle.

A Week of Holiday-ish Activities

Refresher: My sister, brother-in-law, and nephew will be in Texas the week of Christmas. Instead of a month of activities, I'm going easy on myself (and my wallet) and putting together a week of activities while they're here. Subject to change the week of, of course, since kids are notoriously predictable in their unpredictability.

1. Make bead ornaments. (Maybe they can make a handful for friends, other cousins, etc.?)

2. Make and decorate Christmas cookies. I thought it might be fun for the kids to make some extras and...bring them somewhere to give to...some people. Yeah, I've clearly thought this kind act through.

3. Take a train ride! 

4. Let the kids color paper lanterns and then release them in our backyard. I'm about to make it a Tangled-themed Christmas! 

5. Candy cane hunt (stolen from Elizabeth who stole it from Jen)

6. Hot chocolate bar and then a movie (stolen from A'Dell; I have no original ideas)

7. Even though it'll be after Christmas, I'd like to take the boys to Barnes & Noble or the Target sale aisles and let them pick out an ornament or holidy book each. It can be the thing that reminds them of the Christmas they got to spend together since I'm not sure when it'll happen next.

Bonus! Paint pinecones. I kind of think if it's nice enough to hang outside at all that week, we should toss the kids in the front yard and paint pinecones.

There you have it! So much easier to pick seven activities than 25. 

What to Do in New Orleans: A Cocktail Tour!

(Wow, is this belated. I started this post on 11/14! That's...many days ago.)

When we got to New Orleans last Thursday weeks ago--Kristie, Elizabeth, and I drove from Fort Worth, extending my Road Trips to the Blathering record to three out of three--we drove straight to the waterfront for a cocktail tour.*

I don't know if you know this about me, but I was a history major in college. You know, one of those lucrative degrees that earn you a ton of money and respect. Anyway, this tour combined my love of history with my love of fancy drinks, and I was a big, big fan.

We started off near Jackson Brewery (which is not a brewery at all, apparently, which I learned when I asked the window agent if our first stop was Jackson Brewery and she said to me, "THAT'S NOT A REAL BREWERY.") and walked to Pirates Alley Cafe. At the first stop, we got a history lesson of absinthe and the period of time when New Orleans embraced it as their alcohol of choice. Something about wine being too expensive or prohibition or I DON'T KNOW, I WAS HUGGING EMILY AT THIS POINT. Then we were offered either an absinthe cocktail (HAHAHA NO) or a Pimm's Cup (sure!). The latter was delicious. I'd never had one before, and I loved it.

We then went to the Court of Two Sisters, which was hilariously where we'd already booked our group breakfast the following day. Here we got a history of....stuff. And we had...sangria, I think? (Note to self: This is why bloggers write posts more timely, so they can remember things.) (I'm also regretting telling you I was a history major since I obviously RETAIN HISTORY INFORMATION SO WELL.)

Anyway, then we went to Arnaud's, where we got a tour of the bar's Mardi Gras Museum and a history of the restaurant and bar and owner and his (interesting) daughter. It was fascinating, actually. (A little bit more on all that here.) We had French 75's, which we've already established I'm a fan of.

We had to skip out on the last place (The Carousel) to get ready for dinner, unfortunately, but it really was a great time. A walking tour of the French Quarter, a history lesson, and our tour guide ordered our drinks for us, so we could spend more time not paying to attention things, it would seem. When/If I go back to New Orleans, I'll probably add this tour to my to-do list, especially if I'm taking Mike. I think he'd love it and he'd probably be brave enough to try the absinthe cocktail AND smart enough to listen to the tour guide.

*Note: the $29 tour price didn't include drinks, which makes it seem crazy overpriced, but I'd still recommend it. I also split a cocktail at each place, so that helped.

Keeping It Real

I can bring the sappy parenting posts, sure I can. I am a blogger, after all. But let me share this with you, so we can keep things real around here.

The other day, Mike got off work early and spent most of the afternoon hanging out with Kyle. When I finally got home, we had to jump right in the car and head to a family dinner with many of my in-laws, so I barely got to say hello to Kyle before we were on the road.

Once we were all buckled in and had taken off, I turned around, exhaled, and said, "Hey buds! How was your day? I missed you!" These are things I say to him nearly every single work day. This was the first day he scowled at me and said in response:

"I love Daddy."

Added to my 2013 to-do list: bring up more often all the places I threw up in while pregnant, including that one special place called LABOR.

Don't let his sweet face fool you. Heart breaker, this kid.

Time is Kind of a Bitch

Kyle uses a step-stool to brush his teeth and turn on the light in the bathroom when he needs it. He used to stretch to the sink even when he was standing on the top step and each day, as he grows, I can see that there is an end to him needing it. A year or two, I don't know how long it'll take. But we'll toss the step-stool into our garage one of these days, just like we tossed every toy or baby tool before it. We won't need it one day. That's just how it goes.

Every time I look into my purse, there are matchbox cars or legos or sippy cups. (It's a big purse, yes.) I smile each time. A piece of my little guy, when I'm in a meeting or at lunch or at the store without him. It's comforting, it's everything.

One day those reminders will be tossed out, too.

(Wow, this got SAD and quick.)

What I really wanted to say, to capture in one quick post, was that I have a step-stool in my (very small) bathroom that I often stub my toes on and legos in my purse that I often stab my fingers on, and ohhhhh do I wish they could stay there forever.

Girl's Night

I bought some high, high heels a while ago (I'd link to that post if I weren't typing this from my phone) and told Kristie how impulsive and ridiculous such a purchase was. I work in a casual office. I grocery shop, go to three-year-old soccer games, and blog in my spare time. None of these activities require high, high heels.

She's a great friend, though, that lady. She organized a "wear your fanciest shoes" girl's night out, where cocktails and dessert were also encouraged.

I was really tired a couple hours before leaving. I also have a scratchy, kinda sore throat. I thought that sitting on my couch sounded so much better than high, high heels and even dessert with good friends. I was wrong, thankfully.

It was a good decision, the shoes, the friends, the night. Lesson: try to say yes more to shoes, to friends, to dessert.

(Oh, we also saw The Bachelor's Jake at our restaurant. I can add him to my Dallas-area reality star spotting list, which also includes David Archuleta.)

Christmas (Week) Menu

Now that Thanksgiving is an entire DAY behind us, let's talk about Christmas food. I think that makes perfect sense.

So, again, my sister and her family are coming in for the week of Christmas, and since I can't actually remember the last Christmas I spent with her (maybe in 2000?), I am ridiculously excited about this year's festivities.

I'm planning some special menus.

Christmas Eve

She flies in Christmas Eve afternoon and I assumed no one would feel like cooking a big meal, but Mike got very sad about breaking our breakfast-for-dinner Christmas Eve tradition, so we'll cook.

Brown butter blueberry muffins

Pancakes (either red velvet or oatmeal cookie)

Mike's Scramble. (Mike is going to whip up scrambled eggs with onions, peppers, cheese, etc. He's requested we refer to this as "Mike's Scramble" for the duration of the holidays.)

Bloody Mary's. I might need to buy this mix (#47 from the Food Lush gift guide)

Christmas morning

Cheap cinnamon rolls from a tube. (Delicious, though!)

Mimosas

Coffee

Christmas Night

Steak (Mike's taking care of this)

Scallops in hazelnut browned butter (I've been eating a little fish for about a month now--just once every couple weeks or so--and I'll enjoy these on Christmas night.)

Whiskey glazed carrots

Green bean casserole

Twice baked new potatoes

Store-bought dinner rolls

French 75s

French silk pie, perhaps? (Haven't quite decided on dessert.)

Other

I think I'll try to whip up these cranberry & brie sandwiches at some point and maybe these old-fashioned chocolate donuts, too, because why not. It's Christmas.

One other dinner will also be this (oh-so-good) veggie lasagna or these spicy shrimp with yogurt

Have you thought about what you're having this year?

Happy Thanksgiving

I ate all the mashed potatoes today. I wouldn't be surprised if I dream about mashed potatoes tonight, in fact. (No one should have been concerned I'd go hungry my first meat-free Thanksgiving, that's for sure.)

It was a sweet day, filled with family, laughter, and, yes, so much food. The kids ran around the backyard like monkeys, the adults kept wandering into the kitchen for more food, for some insane reason, and we crawled into bed at 7:30 (where I'm typing this from right now).

I'm so thankful for so much right now, and I hope you are too.

Happy Thanksgiving.

2012's Greatest Accomplishment

Janssen--who is one of my favorite bloggers, she writes about such useful and applicable and accessible things that I am constantly bookmarking or pinning or remembering her brilliance for later--wrote about her 2012 greatest accomplishment the other day. I loved what she picked, and that it was so individual to her. 

I thought long and hard about my own greatest accomplishment and I was struggling! A whole year, that's big pressure. So I stopped over thinking it and just focused on when I felt most at peace and proud of myself and yoga came to mind. I signed up for a local studio this year and started going to classes both alone (which was kind of a big deal for me) and with friends. I've tried all the classes my studio offers and I've found favorite ones and not-so-favorite ones, but I do them all. I leave every single class feeling like I can be better, like I can be great.

(Of course, I occasionally lose that message standing in front of my fridge at midnight but, whatever, I am a flawed, cheese-loving human.)

I received my 25-class bracelet right before leaving for the Blathering and I was just so proud. 25 classes! That's something. I am adding "get my 100 class bracelet in 2013" to my 2013 to-do list and that both feels like a lofty goal and yet a totally achievable one. 75 classes in 13 months. About five classes a month? Yeah, I can do that. 

Accomplishments can feel a little weird because we like tangible things to show for them, impressive before-and-after photos or pieces of papers with official words on them or just the outside world telling us what we're doing is a Real Accomplishment. When sometimes it's just whatever makes us feel more like ourselves that's the greatest accomplishment. This year was spectacularly busy (aren't they all?) and it also felt like a year of questions, remember?, so it was just so nice to find something that made me feel more like me. Something I hope to do long-term, something that's all mine, something that challenges me but doesn't frustrate me.

It's great to have found it.

***

Completely unrelated, please please please check out these (so awesome) gift guides by some very talented Lush writers. Here's Style Lush (by Elizabeth) and Food Lush (by Caitlin). I get to work with brilliant people, and that's something very cool indeed. 

Bring it, Holidays.

Lights up BEFORE Thanksgiving, like holiday bosses. (I would have put our lights up in July and by I, I mean Mike, but he wouldn't. Scrooge.)

I look at this photo and realize that while Texas may not technically be part of the South, it's a very Southern thing to put up Christmas lights in t-shirts. Promise it was 70ish when this photo was snapped! We're not forcing manual labor without the proper wardrobe!

I also have our Christmas menu all figured out. (Post to come.)

I'm excited about the holidays this year, if you couldn't tell. Partly because my sister and her family are coming to celebrate with us, for the first time ever (as a family), partly because my Christmas menu includes mimosas and carbs, and partly because I hope my mom buys me SOMETHING off this list. She's usually the one I can count on to (not really) surprise me with one thing I (really) want.

Good things, basically. The next month is full of good things.

(Continually updating our holiday plan here! Two cross-outs already. HOLIDAY BOSSES.)

Conversations

You know what I wasn't really expecting from age three? I wasn't expecting to have conversations with Kyle like he's just another person I speak to in the course of my day. Which sounds ridiculous, I know, especially considering how often I spoke to three year olds before Kyle. But, still, the conversations have caught me by surprise. For example, while I'm brushing my teeth in the morning, Kyle will yell from his room about not being able to find a particular jacket he wants to wear and then I'll hear him mumble under his breath, "I thought it was right here." What is that? That's something a PERSON would say, a person with thoughts and opinions and memories completely apart from me. It's mind-blowing in an almost better way than the first steps and first words and first other things were.

I'll say, "Let's go to Target, we need hummus and paper towels and..." "I think we need juice, too." "Oh yeah?" "Yeah, I think we're out." LIKE HE'S JUST A PERSON, WHO NOTICES OUR JUICE LEVELS.

I was always more excited about having a child than I was about having a baby, if I'm being totally straight with you. Now, don't get me wrong. I LOVE BABIES. I love holding babies and buying things for babies and throwing baby showers and...handing babies back to their mothers. Give me a KID, that's more my speed. Still, I'm just repeatedly shocked, stunned, floored by how cool it is to have an actual conversation about football or Thanksgiving or new shoes with a person I MADE. I made him! And now I'm giving him an abbreviated story of the first Thanksgiving (minus all the plagues and deaths and stuff) and while I tell him about it, HE NODS. HE NODS AND RETAINS THE INFORMATION.

He's in this phase where he's starting to hear words I don't want him to repeat. Words like dumb and chubby (Tangled, what's up with the use of THAT?) and stupid and other words I just don't want him to use so flippantly and without thought. So, we tell him these words aren't nice or sweet and we should try to choose other words. Somehow, this has made him hesitant to use ANY word he's unfamiliar with. "Mommy, can I say the word...spectacular?" I just...the brain of a three year old. Guys, it's THE BEST THING EVER. (Also, yes. You can call your mother spectacular.)

Speaking of Tangled, we watched it this weekend for the first time and I loved the paper lanterns. You may remember we did this in Vieques (and nearly set the entire island on fire) and I've bought some to let go in our backyard for my 31st birthday. So, when we watched Tangled I said, "Oh, I want to do that for my birthday!" and when we watched the movie for a second time, Kyle turned to me when they first lit the lanterns and said, "Mommy, we're going to do that for your birthday. It's going to be beautiful."

We were getting groceries out of the car just tonight and Molly wandered out of the yard (AS SHE DOES) and Kyle said, "Oh, Molly! Get out of the street. Mom, she's in the street again." He was just potty-trained THIS YEAR and now he's rolling his eyes at Molly's disobedience WITH US. It's something else. It's really something else.

He's such a person, and I know this isn't NEWS and I'm not the first mother on earth to raise a baby into a person, but I have to tell you, there is the Grand Canyon and the Pyramids and Arches National Park (which literally caught my breath in my throat) and the Northern Lights and democracy and all those lions-and-puppies-as-friends YouTube videos and then there's having a real conversation with your child.

Miracles, all of them.

Kyle, YOU are spectacular.

A Fitness Update

What I've learned in my 30+ years is that life is simply not a straight line, at least not for me. I start off at one point--with fitness, for example--and there will always come a time when I move backward, maybe a few giant steps back from where I started, even. I've always thought the real secret to life is to just figure out how to maintain progress, and I still think that. I just don't think I'll ever completely master it. There will always be a month here, six months there, when I just don't live up to my full potential.

I've failed this half-marathon training, if you couldn't tell from my lack of half-marathon training updates. I "run" my next half in less than a month, and my training has been a couple miles this week, a brisk walk the next, and I'm surprisingly okay with all this. Last fall, I was running like a machine and this fall I'm just not. Maybe next fall I will again.

I'm tired of beating myself up over whatever ebb or flow I happen to find myself in.

I like pushing myself and setting goals and declaring personal challenges but sometimes goals are set and not met. That's just how it goes. 

Phew, good to get that all out. 

I'm looking forward to 2013. I'm looking forward to a few fitness challenges, a few (shorter) races--I just don't think I'm meant for so many half-marathons. I love me a 10K, though--and maybe some other things, too.. If I don't overly excel at those things, though, that'll be okay.

We ebb, we flow, we keep on trying.

Thanksgiving Menu

We're spending Thanksgiving with Mike's parents and I'm in charge of a dessert and a bread dish. Mike is in charge of his killer mashed potatoes. I wish I could share his recipe, but he wants to keep it a family secret. (He'd be the worst food blogger.) I'll try to get him drunk over the holidays so I can earn his permission. They're incredible. Everyone deserves to have mashed potatoes that delicious at some point in their lives.

I've decided to make:

1. Jalapeno cheddar scones. I've made these many times before. They're not spicy, at all, for anyone coming to my Thanksgiving dinner who might not like heat. The jalapeno brings flavor without much kick.

2. My mom is bringing a pumpkin pie, so I thought I'd bring peanut butter chocolate chip bars. They don't exactly scream Thanksgiving but there's a total of six ingreidents, five of which I already have, and they look delicious, too. 

What are you making this Thanksgiving?

(You are probably wondering why on earth I'm posting this kind of thing. I mean, great, I'm making scones, is that really POST WORTHY? Yes, it is, when you are trying to post EVERY SINGLE DAY OF A MONTH. This kind of challenge should really happen in February.)

Quote

We moved offices this past week and I found a post-it buried in a desk drawer with this quote scribbled on it:

"There are years that ask questions and years that answer." 

2012 felt like a year of many questions for me, not anything dramatic or alarming. It was just a year I questioned myself some and felt a little uneven in my footing. So much good stuff, but a lot of noise in my head, too, if that makes any sense at all.

Anyway, I think 2013 might have some answers.

Aging Grumpily

As Molly's gotten older, she's become...how do I say this...without causing shock...and disgust...an asshole. That probably still causes some shock and disgust, doesn't it? We still love her! Of course! She's our girl, always will be, but she's just constantly (metaphorically) flipping us off these days. 

For instance, if we leave a bag of food or candy on the counter, she'll get in that shit. She used to do this and, no lie, hide the bags and wrappers under her dog bed. We'd eventually find them and she'd run for the opposite side of the house or, no kidding, put herself in time-out. Now, we walk into our bedroom and it's like a Halloween troll broke in and raided the joint. Candy wrappers strewn about the room and Molly kind of looks at us like, "What? That stuff was delicious and I don't even care what happens next." 

When we tell her to get off the couch for whatever reason, she'll lift her head and give us a look like, "You'll have to physically make me. Sorry I'm not sorry." 

We joke that she's realizing she has more life behind her than in front (she's nine, not exactly ancient but not exactly a puppy either), and she's grabbing life by the horns, tattooing YOLO on her paw, etc.

It's hilarious, actually. Molly was such a nervous, rule-abiding dog for years. In college, we'd let her out in the front yard and she'd sit there for hours, sunning on the sidewalk, napping in the grass. She'd never run away or walk farther than the mailbox. Now, when I let her out to check the mail with me, I have to pull her in from sniffing the plants outside our fence. She's gotten petulant, basically.

Except, you know, she's still this good with the boy we brought home nearly four years ago and totally ruined her life with. 

Although as Rebecca said when I posted this on Instagram, she looks so long-suffering here. Always dramatic, that dog of ours.

My December Plan

Last year I wrote a December to-do list, inspired by A'Dell. It was so helpful! I'm doing it again, so the holidays can be possibly less stressy and nuts than they tend to be. (Although you will note that I am not adding "come down with strep three days before Christmas," HEAR THAT 2011.)

1. Hang lights on the house. (Hey, Mike, hang lights on the house!)

2. Make a decision about holiday cards. To send them or not to send them, that is the question.

3. Find a place for a girl's holiday tea. Then send an evite for said tea.

4. Gifts for Kyle's teachers. I think we'll make cookies with a Starbucks card attached, like always. Hey, who doesn't like sugar and the gift of fancy coffee? (Crazies, that's who.) (Kidding, if you don't like those things.)

5. Advent Calendar Activities. My sister and her family are visiting the week of Christmas, so I thought about making just a week-long advent calendar with fun activities for the boys to do together. 

6. Christmas pjs! 

7. Christmas menus. I'm thinking of dinner out on Christmas Eve since my sister won't arrive until that afternoon. Then we'll have our traditional cinnamon rolls and mimosas Christmas morning, and a big Christmas dinner spread. We'll have our traditional breakfast for dinner another night that week, when Mike's parents can join us. 

8. Make my birthday plans. I'm skipping a party this year and stealing away for the night with Mike. I'm really excited. 

9. Look at Christmas lights! I love this tradition and we'll either do this Christmas Eve or Christmas night.

10. Take a ride on the vintage railroad that runs from one nearby town to the Fort Worth Stockyards.

11. Make lasagna for a neighbor. There's a very sweet elderly woman who lives near us and ever since we first met her (years ago!), I've wanted to bring her a meal, to just be a little neighborly. We'll see if I can pull this off.

12. Write my (more realistic) 2013 to-do list. I hear you, readers! I should go easier on myself with the goals I set next year.

13. Take Kyle to see Santa. (It's free at Mike's work and I think free is grand.)

We're going easy on gifts this year, so I think I can knock out my shopping in one afternoon on Amazon, but I'll still probably add a task or two to this list, if I can think of something I'm absolutely overlooking. What's on your list?

The Official Blathering Cocktails

I'm desperate to toss up a post tonight and call it because this posting every day thing is no easy feat. If I make it another fifteen days, I expect someone to arrange a parade to go down my street.

I thought I might share my two favorite cocktail recipes really quickly, two recipes I shared with most of the Blathering attendees last week. I was in charge of cocktails--a job I take quite seriously, you'll be shocked--and while I spent many hours "researching" champagne cocktails, I fell back on two tried-and-true favorites, simple drinks I think will be a big win at your next party if you're throwing a party and in the market for champagne cocktails, that is.

1. Kir Royale

1 part creme de cassis
3 parts champagne

Sugar the rim of a champagne flute. Pour 3/4 of a glass of champagne and 1/4 of creme de cassis. Stir.

2. French 75

1 part gin
3 parts champagne

Sugar the rim (or, hey!, use edible glitter) of a champagne flute. Pour 3/4 of a glass of champagne and 1/4 of gin. Squeeze a wedge of lemon into the glass. Stir.

These are my takes on these drinks, so if I have any of the amounts wrong, blame, uh, me. Delicious, though!

Both seemed to be well-received at the Blathering's Friday dinner. If they weren't, I just kept passing them out until people changed their minds. My rule in life: if you can't convince someone you're brilliant, give them a lot of drinks until they start to believe you.

Cheers!

On Goals (+ A Hotel Room Winner)

My year to-do list is sad, guys, and I've known this to be true for some time. I don't know if I just had an unexpectedly busy year or if taking off the entire month of February to watch Sons of Anarchy put a bigger wrench in my productivity than I first thought it would, but I will have left a lot undone at the end of 2012.

I think I'm more-or-less okay with this. 

Life is sometimes one task completion after another and sometimes it's just...the absolute opposite of that. I think I'm okay that my 2012 to-do list is basically the latter.

I still plan to write a list for next year and maybe reasses my priorities while doing so and also try to be more realistic about my home improvement time allotment. I just had a lot of ambitions to paint and re-decorate and hang photos and, wow, self, do you know the couch is in the same room as the wall you want to hang photos on? COUCH ALWAYS WINS.

I'm still doing daily goals via Twitter and I like it a lot. I'm also embracing the hell out of my reminders app (Alarmed). Basically everything I ever need to remember goes into that app and my phone beeps nine million times a day. It works for me, though!

A few things I'm considering adding to my to-do list in 2013:

A 60-Day Yoga Challenge (yoga 5x/week for 60 days)
Read all of the books on PW's best of 2012 list
Re-boot my book club
Start a cookbook club
Start Couch 2 5K and Couch 2 10K, so I can get back into the running groove of things

What are you already thinking about doing in 2013?

***

Oh, and we have a Radisson stay giveaway winner!

Congrats to #57, Leigh. I'll be in touch soon! 

Until Next Year

(I sadly skipped two days of posting while I was gone, but I'll make those two up somewhere along the way and call it even.)

The thing about getting 60 ladies together for a weekend of conversation and city-exploring at The Blathering is that not every moment can be glorious. Some moments can be a little awkward, some blurry from too-much champagne, some loud, and others a little isolating, but you just hope when you hit the road for home, the good moments amount to a whole lot. That they amount to enough reason to go back the next year and the next and the next.

Every year there is good and bad for me at The Blathering--although always more good--but this year was filled with the most good, and I loved it an indescribable amount. I'd go back tomorrow, if I could. (Well, maybe not tomorrow, I sure did miss my boys.) I loved the city, I loved all the hugs, I loved the laughter, and I loved that it seemed liked so many people around me were taking good away with them, too. 

(I also really loved that right before kicking off a fabulous Saturday night dinner, my Aggies upset Alabama. It was a can't-put-into-words awesome feeling. Only topped by one particular game vs OU in 2002 that I got to stand in the stands for.)

New Orleans charmed me within the first few minutes. What a city, that city. It had been 15 years since I last visited and I had never been without chaperones. Everyone was so warm, so welcoming. Like they wanted us to stay, to have fun, to enjoy ourselves. Have a drink!, the city seemed to say. Relax and have fun. Well, if you insist.

I have so many stories from my few days away, and I'll try to share them over this week. For now, some pictures. And deep gratitude for this event, for the city the event was in, and for the beautiful women who travel to it each year. Without them, there would be no Blathering.

I'm so grateful there is.

Next year we're heading to Charleston (dates to be announced soon) and I hope you can make it.