2009 was kind of a bad year. We were looking forward to 2010 with all the new and good things it would bring. It brought new and good things all right, but at the same time we found ourselves constantly stressed, on edge, exhausted, exasperated, and spread thin. I’ve felt generally unsettled; I have this sense of “temporaryness,” as if just around the bend lies the peaceful, orderly lifestyle that will allow me to relax and enjoy my family, friends, hobbies, etc.

I know you’re laughing at the term “orderly” used in reference to a household with two small children. I don’t mean that I expect every little thing to be in its place all the time, or that I plan to adhere to a strict schedule. That’s absurd. But still, I feel like I need a bit of routine to function at my best. Routine isn’t hindering; it’s freeing. It allows you to get done what you need to get done so you can get on with life.

I was most of the way through the year before I realized that every single month brought some reason why I couldn’t get into the groove of homemaking:

• January: fixing/cleaning up house to put on market
• February: showing house, David out of town a lot, looking for new house
• March: big time pregnancy nausea, selling house, preparing to move, looking for new house
• April: packing, moving out, moving in with my parents, closing on old house
• May: closing on new house, living with my parents, getting work done on new house
• June: living with my parents, getting work done on new house, moving in
• July: getting settled, preparing for kitchen remodel
• August: kitchen remodel
• September: two new dogs, kitchen remodel, pregnancy complications resulting in physical therapy several hours a week
• October: new baby, recovering from C-section
• November: new baby (yeah, I get to use this one for a few months)
• December: new baby, holiday activities

So there you have it. An excuse for every month.

These are all (well, maybe except for the ailments) good things. David started a new job last January which has been very good for him and our family. Our new house is wonderful, absolutely perfect for us and something that will meet our needs for years to come. The kitchen is (almost) done and is so nice for a family who loves to cook. We are blessed to have our rescue dogs, Sydney and Lexi, even though they are a handful sometimes. And then our favorite little disruption of all—Sarah—just takes our breath away with how amazing she is.

So I’m hoping that 2011 will be a year of settling in, relaxing, enjoying the abundant blessings we’ve been given, enhancing relationships, opening our home to others, giving more, serving more, learning more, taking great pictures, trying new recipes, reading lots of children’s books, going to the park, playing music, and getting enough sleep. :)

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We are planning to move in on Saturday! It took a little longer than we first thought to get all the work done, but there was a lot that needed to be done. The house was formerly owned by a smoker, so it needed new carpet and new paint, floor to ceiling. In fact, we had the ceilings scraped and retextured, and they look great. The paint is finished except for a few touch-ups, and the carpet should be installed today and tomorrow. I used to wonder why anyone would pay people to paint the inside of their house, but since the entire thing needed to be done before we moved in, and David has to work, and I’m pregnant and have a toddler to take care of, it would have been impossible for us to do it ourselves in a timely manner. I really like the drywall guys who did the ceiling texturing, as well as the painters, who painted all the walls, ceilings, and trim, so if you need a recommendation for either of those, let me know.

David took some “before” pictures a couple of weeks ago, so I’ll try to get some “after” pictures and get them posted. Honestly, though, moving in has priority over picture-taking, so don’t hold your breath!

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Around my parents’ property, fortunately for us! We’re staying out at “the Ranch,” as we call it, while we’re in between houses. My parents have a nice place with 5 acres a few miles outside of town, and there are 2 pairs of Canada geese, each with 7 babies, and a lone white goose that accompanies them. They’re usually pretty far out from the house, close to the little lake, but this evening one family came up a little closer to the house to eat some of the scratch grain my dad puts out. Pretty cool, huh?

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We are packing up and preparing to vacate our house in a couple of weeks! It sold a few weeks ago, and so far everything is on track for us to close on time. The inspection on our home revealed nothing major except the need for a new roof, which fortunately was covered by our insurance due to hail damage. It felt so good to have confirmation that we are responsible homeowners and have taken good care of this house through the years. I knew it, but it was nice to really know.

We have found a new house, and I love it! Or, rather, I love the house it will become. It’s an older house that needs a little work before we can move in, but I am so excited about the house it will be. We aren’t the kind of people that want to move every few years, so we really wanted a house that would meet our needs the whole time our kids are growing up, and this one fits the bill. It’s in a great neighborhood, it has lots of space for our kids and all the friends they’ll bring home through the years, it’s on a wonderful lot with a big back yard, and it has a great layout with the floor plan we want. (Conway seems to be obsessed with split floor plans, where the master is on one side of the house with the remaining bedrooms on the other. I’m sorry, but if there’s a fire, or if someone is trying to break into our house in the middle of the night, I want to be able to get to my babies in two seconds flat and get out of there!)

There will be a few weeks between moving out of this house and moving into the new one, so we will be crashing with my parents in the interim and storing our stuff. It’s not the way I had originally envisioned moving, but it will work out ok. They have plenty of space for us and will love having Anna around more. They’re very accommodating!

I’ve been trying to pack, but this is all new to me. I’ve never in my life moved in such a way that we had to pack up the entire contents of our house at once. When my parents moved back when I was in college, it was an in-town move with some overlap between the houses, so we just threw some stuff in boxes, drove stuff to the new house, emptied the boxes and used them again, etc. Everything didn’t have to be actually packed. You could just strap a lamp into the passenger seat of your car, throw some pots and pans in a box and stick it in the floorboard, grab some hanging clothes and pile them in the backseat, and you were all set. Same thing when David and I moved from our first apartment into this house. This time, everything has to be well-packed in boxes. That’s easy enough for the stuff we don’t use every day (I’ve already packed things like books, china, decorations, games and movies), but we’re still living here and using our stuff, so how/when do I pack it? It’s a learning experience for sure—one I’ll have to learn all over again next time because we’re NOT wanting to do this again for at least 20 years!

So, in case you were wondering, there you have it. I’ll post more about the new house once it’s actually ours.

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One of the reasons I’ve been mostly absent from blogdom lately is that we’re trying to move. It’s time. We’ve been considering it off and on for a couple of years, and have even looked at some houses online, but for some reason we just never took the initiative to get it done. And now I’m glad we didn’t.

David landed a great new job at the end of last year (which would make a good post if I ever get around to writing it). He started earlier this month, and he’s working out of our home. So he really needs a room that can be dedicated to being his office and nothing else (we currently have our 3rd bedroom set up as a guest room/office.) There’s also that enticing tax credit that expires April 30. Those two things together seem to indicate that NOW is the right time for us!

We’ve been fixing, cleaning, painting, cleaning some more, painting some more, and I think are fairly close to having our house ready to put on the market. Our goal is February 1, which is next Monday—yikes! It’s interesting trying to stage a house with a toddler who gets bent out of shape when things aren’t in exactly the right place. (“Yes, sweetie, I know the Kleenex box goes there, but it doesn’t look good in the picture.”)

We are planning to sell it ourselves, but if it doesn’t work after a while, we will hire a Realtor. (Did you know “Realtor” is capitalized and is a trademarked term? I thought it was like “plumber” or “doctor” or something.) I’ve been trying to focus on house stuff exclusively until it is ready to show. But I really want to do some other things again, like exercise, read, work on photography, play music, and cook. Yes, even cook. Know what I did this week? I got some store-bought salsa. Oh, the horror! (And it isn’t very good.) I keep telling myself this is just for a short time.

Any moving tips, anyone? Especially those of you with little kids? :)

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The blog Freebies 4 Mom has an exclusive coupon code to get 50 free (including shipping!) photo cards. Check it out here.

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Have I mentioned that I’m not a morning person? I’m amazed at people who can accomplish a list of 100 things before lunchtime. Anyway, whenever I decide to run errands, for some reason, I can’t seem to get out of the house before about 11:00.

For instance, today (after the “morning routine” of getting myself and Anna up, dressed, fed, bed made, bathroom picked up, etc…. you know, the stuff that takes twice as long as it should), I decided to go to Target, since I needed to buy a gift for a family that is registered there. Ahhh, Target. There are usually some good deals to be had there. Since I’m going anyway, I might as well pull up the frugal-freak blogs I read and see what goodies I can snag for next to nothing this week.

Going through the lists, I find the potential to get some Aveeno baby stuff for 50 cents. That’s a good deal! I need to print coupons off the Aveeno site and Target coupons. I go to the Aveeno site and try to log in. Doesn’t take it. Maybe I don’t have an account there after all. I sign up. E-mail address is already taken. Ok, so I do have an account… use the “forgot password” link. Open e-mail, get new password, go back to Aveeno site, log in, try to print coupon. It tells me I need to turn off pop-up blocker. Do that. Can’t find a way to go back to the coupon page. Close window and open site again, then print 2 coupons. Go to link for Target coupons and print 2.

At this point I should mention that my computer, bless its little processing heart, is very old and slow. So, things that take most people about 3 seconds take me about 30-60. That doesn’t sound like much, but over the course of a day it really adds up to a lot of wasted time. (I’m getting a new computer today, by the way!)

Coupons printed, I announce to David (who is working from home) that we’re off to Target. What about Quaker stuff, he asks? Oh yeah, I can get a good deal on that too if I can come up with enough coupons. I go get my coupon file. Sunday’s coupons are still sitting in a pile on the kitchen table, so I file those. Find some Quaker coupons, but need more in order to get the deal. Look up Target deals again, go to coupon site, select coupon, and try to print. Tells me I need to have Java enabled. Java is enabled. No telling what the problem is. David says to send him the link and he will print it. He does. He closes window because I forgot to tell him to print 2. He does it again, and fortunately it prints.

But wait… the registry list, which is the whole reason I was going in the first place! Pull up registry list on Target site and print. (Later, leave list lying on counter and have to print in-store anyway.)

Almost ready! But first, make Anna pick up some of the multitude of items she has strewn about while I’ve been doing all this, put shoes on her, get a sippy cup of milk for her bag, load up… and we’re off.

11:15 A.M. Sigh.

I got a cute gift, some Quaker granola bars for 74 cents a box, and some Aveeno baby wash for 50 cents a bottle. It’s worth it, right?

I know, I know, a little advance planning would help all this. I intend for Sunday afternoon to be my planning time, but I seem to have more planning to do than time. Especially when I take a long nap instead. :)

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That was what weather.com had for the forecast today. I love how they put things sometimes. And, might I add, it’s about time. Looks like a nice week ahead.

My Stella d’Oros like it.

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That was my time for my first ever 5K—the Women Can Run 5K.

I was a little worried yesterday when looking at the weather forecast, as I really didn’t want to repeat last Saturday and be put in the position again of whether or not to run. But the storms made their way through during the night (thanks, David, for getting up with Sasha so I could sleep!) and by this morning it was absolutely beautiful. Rather than being hot and steamy after the rain, cooler, drier air had moved in and it was wonderful.

I’ve been running at about a 10-minute-mile pace, and sometimes a little faster, so I expected to make or beat that pace since I’ve heard that race-day enthusiasm makes you run better. But, somehow, I took that “pace yourself” thing a little too far and came in at a 10:08 mile. (They use timing chips, so that was my actual time, not time spent waiting for the crowd to pass the start line.) I even ran the whole way except for a few seconds of walking while I was sipping water. It’s still a good time; I’m just surprised.

David and Anna came to see me at the finish line, and we hung around a bit while I got my snacks (which I of course had to share with Anna) and waited for others to finish. We had parked at Laurel Park, so we walked back to our cars and David went on home while I played with Anna a little while. I stopped back by Conway Regional so I could see my time, which I’m glad I did since it’s still not posted on the internet yet as of this writing.

I actually felt pretty good after running… well, not immediately after, but within 5 minutes. I take that to mean I’m in pretty good shape. There was a time when running left me feeling drained for the rest of the day.

I guess you can say I’m hooked now, because I just signed up for the Paws on the Pavement 5K next Saturday in Little Rock. Hey, it benefits an animal rescue group. How could I not do it, right? :) And I’m thinking about running the Lum N Abner 5K in Mena while we’re there for my family reunion, especially if one or more of my family members is running it.

And do not ask me if I’m doing the Soaring Wings half-marathon. If they decide to have a half-half-half-marathon, I’ll do it.

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I woke up this morning to thunder, lightning, and pouring rain. I hopped online, looked on local TV stations, etc. to see if there was any cancellation notice about the Toad Suck 10K/5K. Nothing. I studied the weather radar about every 5 minutes; the storms were just going to keep on coming. I didn’t think there was any way they could have the race today. But I thought I’d drive over there just to be sure, then go to the sports center and run inside. I was expecting a mostly empty parking lot.

Boy, was I wrong! It was swarming with people! I parked and made my way to the fieldhouse, hoping to hear some notice of a postponement. But there was none. By starting time, it was raining a “Noah line ’em up” rain and even lightning. I really thought they had to cancel a race because of lightning. But apparently not. So there I was in the fieldhouse with those who were debating whether or not to go for it, and those insane hard-core runner types were outside, and off they went. I turned in my timing chip and left (along with many other people, I might add), forfeiting my 20 dollars. I’m pretty cheap, but I was not about to put myself through that because of losing 20 dollars.

I couldn’t really see how many runners there were from inside, so I figured it was just those super-competitive people who travel around doing these things and who were running for a prize. I went to the sports center, ran my 3.1 miles (along with a few other Toad Suck racers who wanted to stay dry), and felt 100% satisfied with my decision. Ok, maybe 99%.

It was my first race, and I really want my first race to be a success, and I thought if I got out there it would be a sure failure. I’ve never run in the rain before. And this was no little sprinkle; this was an extremely heavy downpour. You’re not supposed to try anything new on race day (new shoes, new clothes, eating something for breakfast you don’t normally eat, etc.), and running in that kind of rain would have been a HUGE new thing. I didn’t have any idea what it would be like. I didn’t have appropriate clothing. I could get struck by lightning. So I did the right thing, right?

Then I saw the results posted this afternoon. I was astonished at just how many people actually ran in that storm! I don’t know what percentage exactly, but it looks like well over half. I mean, SEVERAL HUNDRED people thought this was a good idea. That puts me in the minority. I, who thought I had made a very sensible decision, was apparently, in the eyes of most of the runners there, a big weenie.

So who was right? Are that many people really that crazy, or am I that much of a wimp?

I guess the question it came down to was this: Is it worth it? If I had to run through that kind of storm for a purpose, I could do it. If it were to save my child, or get away from a serial killer, or something along those lines, then of course I would do it without a second thought. But was it worth it just for the sake of running? I don’t think so. I was doing this for fun, and that definitely would not have been fun.

[UPDATE: Ok, it may not be as bad as it first seemed. I was looking at registrants vs. participants; there were about 500 registered, and most of them (about 380) ran. But since registration is allowed on race day, there were probably lots of other people who would have come and registered that morning who had the good sense to stay home. As David pointed out, the number of participants this year was only about a third what it was last year.]

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