Christmas

Christmas has been good. We spent the week in Cambridge, staying half the time at each set of parents' homes. I feel like we've spent our time well, we did a lot of family stuff. But we totally missed out on church. I'm super bummed about it. Ryan just didn't feel up to it.

He's been pretty sick for about 4 weeks with an on-again-off-again fever and super exhaustion. He sleeps a LOT. When it first started, he was tested for all the basic sickness stuff and was all clear. Three weeks later, he's seen 3 more doctors, been put on an antibiotic and taken off 2 days later (misdiagnosed), had 13 vials of blood drawn +4 cups, had a throat swab again, peed in a cup, had a cat scan, and now he has a super sore throat with the yucky white spots in his throat. We know we didn't start with strep 4 weeks ago, so did he pick it up while at the clinic since his immune system is weak? What the heck?! So Ryan has the yuck. We just don't know which yuck. We find out Monday -hopefully. And hopefully it's not that yucky.

So pray for Ryan.

Thankfully everyone else has been able to steer clear of Ryan's yuck! Sully had a good first Christmas. Crazy gifts that sing, light up, wiggle, and amuse both Sully and Brinkley. Sully's Grandparents were very generous! Sully's mom kinda expected it (and was totally thankful for it!) and only got him a Disney's Cars flashlight (he loves lights) which literally broke in under 5 seconds. Bummer. It's a good thing he won't remember that or I would feel like a total failure.

Me and Ryan's parents went together on a new vacuum for us! What an awesome gift! The one we've been using is incredibly lame. I'm pumped to test it out!

We're still in Cambridge. Our cars have been in pretty bad shape so this week they've been on the road to improvement. 2 new tires, a fixed side-view mirror, a replaced burnt-out brake light... on Monday both cars will have their tires aligned and rotated and we'll be finished. And ready to go home. :) I'm just hoping to get to church in the morning (we'll see how things go), to visit with a few more friends, and to send out our Christmas cards in the meantime.

This is my favorite Christmas pic of Sully:



I hope you all had perfectly wonderful Christmases with lots of happy memories!

More kisses.

I just have to share that I got one of Sully's awesome kisses over the phone today! Huge smile in my heart!

Not Me! Monday

It's Not Me! Monday and I would like to inform you that I was not involved in the following shenanigans.

This week I did not drink orange juice from a measuring cup and ice cream right out of the box because there were  no clean dishes left... Not Me!

I did not leave with the keys for someone else's house thinking they were for my own.  And lock myself and my 6 month old out of the house ALL day long? Never. Not Me.

I did not continue to drive out of the garage unable to see over my left shoulder causing the right side-view mirror to crunch-hit-the-garage and fall off my husband's car. Ach! Who would do that!? (Not Me!)

Someone had a very bad first Not Me! Monday post.  But it was Not Me!

Goals

Have you ever heard that the most successful people in the world are the ones who write down their goals?  I've done this in the past but have always misplaced my lists.  :)  I think the point is to look at them, be reminded of them, and to always have them in your thoughts.  So I'm going to keep them recorded here.  I'm just going to start small and I'll probably continue to add to the list.  There's no limit, right?

Financial Goals:

Have my school loans paid off.

Have Ryan's school loans paid off. 

Own a home (and furnish it!).

Have enough money to pay for our kids' college. (Although I don't actually want to pay for it... or at least I don't want them to know it. I want them to be responsible for it.  Possibly after they've finished college we can surprise them by paying off all of their school loans.)

Have enough money to vacation once a year.

To be able to buy a Caribou Coffee (for myself and a friend!) without worrying about our budget!

Ryan and I have not made a habit of using a credit card.  The only purchases we've made on our one card have been for business  -photography equipment (computer, cam gear, etc).  My goal is to keep it this way.  I think living within our means is a huge step in attaining these goals.

Numbers...  I didn't put any amounts anywhere.  I just don't know what it would take to fulfill all of these goals. But!  I would LOVE for them to be fulfilled in 5 years.  I'm sure the house obviously wouldn't be fully paid for though.  (And the kids' college goal isn't about to happen in 5 years either.)

Like I said, I'll come back with more.

Sully's Kisses

A few weeks ago Sully started to Kiss me!  They are not your average sweet baby kisses.  These are fierce, ferocious, mad kisses!  

He seems to burst into a kiss, grabbing my head with both arms, fists full of hair.  He pulls my face right up to his wide open jaws for a few seconds before releasing.   A little scary, but oh so sweet!

Two weekends ago I had been gone all day at a wedding. When I got home I received so many kisses!  One right after another for almost 5 minutes!  We were all laughing at his excitement.  It was so great!

These are the things that make being a mommy so wonderful.