Goodbye to 2008

It's New Years Eve 2008. When midnight hits, *poof* 2008 is gone and it'll be 2009. I thought now would be a good time to think back and revisit everything that happened in our lives this year. The good, the bad, the happy, the sad, all of it. Ok, not everything, because we'd be here all night, and you'd be bored. But here's the short list, complete with pictures, because I love me some pictures.

Good: Sean and I were in A Streetcar Named Desire. I played Stella, and it was the best performance/role I've had to date. We got reactions from the audience that I never dreamed I would experience.

Bad: Lost my job at the publishing company. Boo...

Happy: Quickly found a new job at an energy consulting firm and I'm very happy here.

Bad/Good: Sean and I had his and hers wisdom teeth extractions.

Very Good: I helped marry off my best friend since childhood. She and her new husband make the cutest couple.Good: Sean won the lead role in Macbeth. He was a very sexy Shakespearean Scot :)
See? Told you ;)

Good: I played Ariel in the Tempest. The weather for this show suited the name to a T. We began one performance with a slight drizzle, and by the middle of the first act, my body paint was gone, we were soaking wet, and our director come out and let our devoted audience go.

Scary: Sean began to have pain in his stomach. We brought him to the ER, and after a late night involving CAT scans and sulfur smoothies, they determined that he had an inflamed appendix. The next day they performed an appendectomy. For those who know Sean, you know that no illness can go smoothly for him. A week later we made two consecutive night visits to the ER again because Sean's fever hit 104 degrees. The catheter from the surgery caused a UTI which ascended into his kidneys. I'm happy to report that he's been back in action and "normal" since!

Very Good: We bought a house!

Scary: Found out someone very close to us had cancer.

Very Happy: Surgery removed all the cancer.

Very Happy: I helped marry off my cousin. May have been four months later than expected, but she's now an army wife!
I think that hits the hot spots. Overall I'd say a very positive year! I hope 2009 is just as good, even better if possible! I know I've got one more to marry off in October, and I can't wait. Tomorrow I'll be back to talk about our New Years Resolutions.

Please have a safe and Happy New Year's Eve!

My holidays

I haven't had a moment to rest, and that's likely why I'm now runny, sneezy, and generally miserable. My darling husband had been sick most of the week, and I woke up yesterday morning with sore throat and post nasal drip...fun. Especially since I was in my cousin's wedding yesterday...but I'll get to that.

Wednesday (Christmas Eve): I went into work, and spent half of the short day at FedEx, getting hard copies of a report out the door. At one o'clock I headed home to bake, clean, and finish knitting my grandmother's present. At 6, we headed to Sean's family's Christmas party at his sister's house. Lots of food, family and babies. Four new babies born in the past year...something's in their water. Sean nearly had a coronary when he saw me holding the youngest, he's convinced pregnancy is contagious.

We headed home in time to welcome my grandmother, who stayed with us, then were soon out the door once more for the midnight service at my church. It was beautiful. Our church has a gothic style, and much of the service was dimly lit with candles.

Thursday (Christmas): I cooked and no one died! We had 14 people over, both my and his family. I made a ham, mashed potatoes which were delicious, and my mom brought a green bean casserole. And we have lots left in the fridge, not to mention the desserts! Later on we went to his parents' for their annual Christmas party.

Friday: 8:30 am we were on the road to Rochester, NY. A half hour later than we had hoped, but still good timing. We ran into my best friend, Justine, and her husband, Erik, about halfway down the New York Thruway. We got into Rochester around 2:15, which was good considering we hit a pretty nasty, though brief, snow squall in Syracuse. Our first stop was Best Buy. Sean and I had our eyes on a Nikon D40, and had the money from Christmas to get it. The rest of this post will feature pictures from our new baby.

Saturday: Woke up feeling awful, as before noted, and the weather wasn't fantastic, but the show goes on, and so did we.We got these two kids hitched, though it may have been four months later than expected. The lovely bride is my cousin, Shauna, and the cutting officer is her new husband, Steven.

For December the day was warm, but wet. We processed to the church, and everyone carried umbrellas and we girls all sported boots under our gowns.

The reception was a dessert reception, with pies, cakes, and strawberry shortcakes.


My reaction (behind me you can see my sister's)...unfortunately shortly after this photo I had to make a pit stop in the bathroom to fight off the consequences of post nasal drip and an empty stomach...sorry. This didn't hold back my sister, Catie, though, from helping herself. And though I didn't eat much, if I know my sister's metabolism, every calorie she ate will mysteriously appear on my hips.

Yeah, go ahead and rub it in, Catie.

We spent Saturday evening at Justine and Erik's, then headed out at 10 am this morning. Now I am on the couch, watching the Jets/Dolphins game to see if the Pats will make it to the playoffs.

Merry Christmas everyone, and (I can't believe I'm about to say this) go Jets!

Our baby

It's Tuesday and we still have no power. There is an electrician at our house so hopefully that status will change today. While we hate being displaced and inconveniencing others, we feel far worse for our furbaby, London.

London was Sean's Christmas present to me last year. I have always had pets growing up, so when it was just Sean and I, something felt like it was missing. Like our little family still needed that one little thing. We definitely aren't ready for babies, and our schedule is far too chaotic for a dog, so I suggested a cat. This was met with resistance, with Sean professing to "not be a cat person", but finally he broke down and looked through petfinder.com with me. We found two young cats, Kasha and Linden. We met Kasha first, at a Pet Smart holiday adoption day, but she seemed more fit for an older person who would want a companion. We were looking for a kittenish spark, one that would love to play and entertain himself while we were away, but would snuggle up on the couch with us at night.

Meeting Linden took us up to Winchendon, where he was staying at a shelter in a woman's house. He was in a large cage, and would play with a wand, but did not want to come out. He let us pet him as well. She tried to show us another cat, a sweet white one who was an absolute love. We had to make a choice, and Sean chose Linden, since he was so unique and beautiful. This other little cat would dazzle anyone and surely find a home soon, but we wanted to take a chance on the one we came for.

It was the best gamble we ever made. Linden (now our London) soon became the exact cat we wanted. He makes us laugh every day, and he loves us as much as we love him. Which is why it hurt us so much when we would crate him up to take him with us when we lost power. He didn't like the strange homes and would hide under the bed.

Yesterday was warm, and though we still had no power, we had to leave him home. Sean's mom runs a day care and needed the room we stayed in for the kids' naps. I've never seen an animal so happy to be home. We checked on him last night, and as soon as I walked through the door he was at the top of the stairs mewing loudly (for him). He wouldn't even let me get situated under a blanket before he was on my lap, purring and cuddling. Sean and I knew we couldn't stay home, but we couldn't bear to crate our little guy up again. So we left him home and stayed at my in-laws once more. I went to check on him this morning and it was just like last night. He was fine but he had missed us terribly.

Hopefully we will be up and running today, and we'll be back in our home, with our baby, where we should be. I just want a good night's sleep in my own bed again.

We're refugees

In case you're not up to date with Massachusetts weather, much of the state suffered from debilitating icing Thursday evening into Friday morning. See this story to find out more. Sean and I hardly slept that night as we listened to cracks and the sound of giant limbs tumbling to the ground. We woke twice to ones that bumped the house, the second actually rousing us out of bed for good. Looking out our front window we saw that this one had ripped the power lines off of our house.
Our yard is a waste land of downed tree limbs, many so large we can't even fathom how we're going to remove them. One landed between our neighbors' driveway and our own, with branches that encompassed my car. Thank God mine appears to be unscathed, as does the neighbor's.
This is the one that threatened our cars. Mine was just to the right of the orange cone. See more of the damage below.We couldn't get a hold of Sean's parents Friday morning, and with his dad recently home after surgery, we decided to venture out and check on them. A typical 2 minute drive up the street became a surreal trip through a maze of downed lines and tree branches. We hardly recognized the neighborhood. Thankfully everyone's alright, and no damage appears to have been incurred. However, the day passed and little progress seemed to have been made in restoring power. Evening arrived and the temperature was dropping, so we packed up London and enough clothing and supplies for the weekend and headed to my parents' house in Douglas, where they had gotten merely rain.

So here I am, and here we'll stay until power is restored. As we watched the news last night and they showed the many homes and families who would be braving the cold and the dark for the next few days, I was so thankful for the situation God gave us. Please pray for those who do not have anywhere else to go, they have a longer weekend ahead of them than us.