Happy Birthday to Robin!

She is celebrating her twenty-ninth birthday. Yes, she is twenty-nine everyone. Really!

I wasn't supposed to post anything on teh blog until after we finished our Christmas letter, but I had to for this momentous occasion. And for those of you who haven't done the math, yes, my husband is 11- months younger than my little sister.

To commemorate this event, I will now post various pictures of Robin.

Robin and Will Playing with Christmas Presents

Robin and Will Playing with Turtle

Robin as Tallest Munchkin Ever

Robin Looking Tired on First Roadtrip Ever - 1999

Red Robin Bandit

Robin with Meijer Bag (birthday celebration for 22nd)

Robin in High School

Yup, perhaps I will add more insight to this post later, but for now... Happy Birthday Robin!

**Must finish Christmas Letter!

The January Caffeine Reduction Plan...

...has gone terribly awry. You see, the idea was that I would start with the base amount of coffee that I consume in a day. This is approximately 2 or 3 cups of coffee. Then, I would gradually start replacing some of the caffeinated coffee in the pot with decaffeinated coffee.

Side note: With the help of Robin, we finally found our coffee pot. Yes, it was in the garage, in a box, much like the rest of our stuff. Now I don't have to convince a coffee filter to stay in my travel mug while I drain hot water through the coffee grounds.

A way to make bad coffee

The caffeine reduction plan was simple and gradual. I would still drink coffee, but have less caffeine. I would convince myself that I wanted to order tasty decaf at coffee houses. I would wean gradually!

What happened? Oddly, it was lack of sleep that caused me to re-think my plan. I know, normally lack of sleep inspires people to drink more coffee. However, this is different. It all started Monday night.

What happened Monday night? Will slept for 10 hours! This was very exciting. We put him to bed at 8pm and he woke up at 6am. The next day I was alert, energized, loving life. I thought, this is the dawn of a new area of wakefulness and productivity!

Of course on Tuesday night things didn't go so well. Will woke up more times than I can count. Counting skills greatly decrease as you get less sleep. Wednesday night he only woke up 2 times, but really, I am not sure what day it is now, so I could be wrong, he may have woken up 4 times for all I remember. Confusion about Will not sleeping aside, I decided it was time for drastic action. It is possible that the caffeine that I drink could be affecting Will.

I stopped yesterday.

If Will's sleeping does not improve in a week, I may go back to the sweet nectar of caffeine. But really, at that point, the hard part of quitting is over (hard part is headache for 3 days). I may just take Ben's approach to it and start drinking the anti-oxidant-rich, healthier tea.

My New Year's Resolution

Yea! Happy New Year! Oh wait, it is January 2nd? I've missed New Year's Day?

It could be worse. I count being one day late as getting closer to being on track. At least we are not a week late, right? (For those of you who thought we dropped you off our Christmas Letter List, don't worry, the problem is that we just haven't sent it yet... oh wait, I mean we haven't even written it yet. Then we will send it.)

Now, as to a New Year's Resolution... I typically don't make these. My A-type personality dictates that I should be setting goals and accomplishing outlined objectives all year round. This I do. Granted, the past 9 sleep-deprived months have caused many of my goals to fall by the wayside. And then there were the prior 9 months where I got lazy about some goals, using the pregnancy excuse and the fact that I was in Japan.

In any case, here is my official "New Year's Resolution"
Be more fashionable.

As I sit here in my REI zip-off travel pants/shorts that I bought when I was 3 months pregnant and an un-matching shirt, I realize that this goal is important. Plus, every morning I end up grabbing whatever combination of shirt and pants fit me, rather than ones that match. It turns out that loosing "pregnancy weight" isn't the issue. It's regaining the pre-pregnancy shape. When I dressed up for Dan's work's Christmas party (oh wait, no, that was an "employee appreciation dinner"), I realized that while my formal dresses actually fit me, they didn't look good until I added a corset underneath. Here I thought that Southern Belles of the past wore corsets because of vanity and to get a man. Turns out they were necessary items of clothing after having children. So, yes, my strange shape is contributing to my lack of fashionability.

Angela and Dan in Narrow Entry Way

Of course, it's not like I have been fashionable in the past. I just don't have the eye for it. Plus, it is hard to find clothes that fit me as I am 5'10" tall. So when I would find clothes that fit, I would buy them simply for that fact, not because they looked particularly fashionable. But no more! Now that I am a 30-year-old young professional and mother, I need practical, attractive, well-fitting clothes.

So, that is my New Year's Resolution. I'll let you know how it goes. Other stuff on the horizon (besides completing our 2006 Christmas Letter) include: the January Caffeine Reduction Plan, completing those pesky pre-30-years-old goals, working on my pre-32 goals, achieving a work/life balance, organizing my photos, and, of course, exercising more.