Wrapping Up 2008. Finally. Thank God.

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?

Gave birth! Worked in public accounting.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

No, I don't think so. I can't even remember what they were. I don't know if I'll make some for next year-I guess I should get on that, since next year starts in about 8.5 hours!

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Me! You can't get closer than that.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

No. Thankfully.

5. What countries did you visit?

Not a single one. Why couldn't this question have been "what places" did you visit? How many of us visit other countries yearly?

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?

A healthier lifestyle. More eating right, exercising and less stress.

7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

7-29-08: Giving birth to my son

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

It was a tough year. I consider making it through with the ability to be optimistic about 2009 is my achievement.

9. What was your biggest failure?

Letting things get out hand. I always want to be the bigger person, you know? I hate life's drama, I hate arguing. There is a lot of that in my family and I try so hard to not be that person. Too many times this year I let myself fall into the trap.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Is pregnancy illness? Is post-birth injury?

11. What was the best thing you bought?

Our new bed and all the stuff to go on it. It was the best upgrade.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

The baby. He's so good.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

There are several. Let's leave it at that.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Bills. And. . . bills.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Having a baby. Christmas.

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?

I don't know. Maybe sometime later in life I'll hear something that will bring this year to mind.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:a) happier or sadder?b) thinner or fatter?c) richer or poorer?

Happier, I think. There was a lot of sad this year, but I'm happy that I'm through to the other sie. Thinner! Poorer.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Enjoying life. Exercising. Sleeping. Reading.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Stressing.

20. How did you spend Christmas?

With my husbands family, then my family, and also our own little time at home. It was a nice holiday.

21. Did you fall in love in 2008?

Yes, see #1.

22. What was your favorite TV program?

LOST

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

No. Though there are a few people that are on the "dislike" list.

24. What was the best book you read?

Okay, let's be honest. I didn't read anything very, um, heavy this year. The Twilight Series is probably the best thing I've read.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?

"Hallelujah" Jeff Buckley

26. What did you want and get?

A son.

27. What did you want and not get?

A size 6 body.

28. What was your favorite film of this year?

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

Had several dinners out with different people, I turned 25.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

More perspective.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?

"What's Clean?" "What Fits" or "Oh my God I'm Tired, Let's Wear Whatever I See First"

32. What kept you sane?

I don't know that I was entirely "sane" this year.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Gerard Butler

34. What political issue stirred you the most?

Government "bailouts"

35. Who did you miss?

My family that is out of state.

36. Who was the best new person you met?

My friends at my new job. My son.

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.

I learned that I'm stronger than I thought I was. I think I learned that from some really weak moments, but regardless, I learned it.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

Too many shadows in my room
Too many hours in this midnight
Too many corners in my mind
So much to do to set my heart right
Oh it's taking so long i could be wrong, i could be ready
Oh but if i take my heart's advice
I should assume it's still unsteady
I am in repair, i am in repair

Stood on the corner for a while
To wait for the wind to blow down on me
Hoping it takes with it my old ways
And brings some brand new look upon me
Oh it's taking so long i could be wrong, i could be ready
Oh but if i take my heart's advice I should assume it's still unsteady
I am in repair, i am in repair

And now i'm walking in a park
All of the birds they dance below me
Maybe when things turn green again
It will be good to say you know me

"In Repair" John Mayer

Strangely

Today I have a horrible headache. I mean, maybe the worst headache of my life. But I had to work.

I also have been more productive today than I have been in weeks.

Curiouser and curiouser.

(Useless fact I learned today: A female Executor of and estate is an Executrix. I had no idea. It just sounds so much less professional and more. . . dirty)

Oh Hell No.

I just spent 20 minutes doing a post on Christmas gifts. Complete with pictures. No I'm not doing it again. Sorry.

Boring, pictureless version:

Beverly Hills 90210 Seasons 5 and 6. Mindless hours of tv watching warms my heart.

George Foreman 360 grill. Loving it. I used it to make a pizza for lunch yesterday. Then for dinner I used it in conjunction with the microwave to blow a fuse. Whatever, still love it.

2 desk calendars. "Moms" and "Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader?" Both are currently on my desk next to Moms 2008. I look like some sort of date freak.

Camcorder. To cover all baby milestone documentary needs.

Hideous Sweater. Because what is Christmas without one?

Lego Batman for Wii. Do you have a Wii? Well get one so you can play this game. It is so hilarious. And the little Lego characters are so cute! You know how it's frustrating trying to figure out video games? Yeah, you'll be so busy laughing at the little guys you won't get frustrated. Also! I've died like eleven billion times and they still let me continue.

There's more, but I'm pretty mad at blogger and I'd hate to spend another 20 minutes only to receive the dreaded "Error" message, so I'm done here.

(Oh! And the baby got a massive haul of toys. Most popular toy? Tub Time something something. A boat, walrus, octopus, fish, seahorse medley. He got three of these things. So far he looks at it. And then tries to eat them.)

This Can Not Be True

NO!

Swoon, Swoon

A friend of mine was talking to me online today and said that she had a crush on Maculay Culkin when she was seven. This reminded of me of the crush I had when I was 5. Meet Randy Travis:

In case you are unaware, Randy is a country singer. He's ancient now. But when I was 5, I was in love. My mom would play his records (yes, the old fashioned black spinny ones) in our house and I would sing along. I said I was going to marry him. It was quite the blow to my dreams when I found out he was already married.

My friend about died laughing. She pointed out the obvious that at least her crush was on a kid, whereas mine was a grown, married man.

I progressed in my celebrity crushes and in Junior High had moved on to JTT:

This was a big crush. My best friend had a similar crush on Devon Sawa, of Casper fame. Anyway, we bought all the magazines Teen Beat, Tiger Beat, Bop, Big Bopper. We cut out pictures of these two and we each had one of those big photo albums. The ones where you peel the plastic off the sticky page, put the pictures in and put the plastic back. Yeah. . . we filled these "scrapbooks" and carried them around with us during sixth grade. I watched Man of the House about a billion times and, obviously, was quite the fan of Home Improvement. Then JTT dropped off the face of the Earth or whatever and I hear he's gay now.

I don't recall a major celebrity crush in high school. I mean, yeah there were the obvious Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, yada yada, but I guess I was more focused on actual boys at the time.

In college it was John Mayer:

Back when he was less of a news item and more of just a singer whose songs said all the right things. Ah, John. What happened? Anyway, I had several cds and listened to Heavier Things nonstop for awhile. We drove to Little Rock to see him in concert because he wasn't coming any close than that. This pretty much lasted all through college. I cringe a little now, because he's gotten so tabloid-y. I still like his music though.

And let's bring thing right up to the current day. My current celebrity crush is Mr. Gerard Butler:

Gerard and I met during P.S. I Love You. He is wonderful. And scottish. And HOT. Yeah, let's just go ahead and add second shot of Gerard, you won't mind? Will you?

That's nice. Now, who were your celebrity crushes?

Introducing. . .

I decided to make the changes I wanted right here on this blog. First off, I've decided on my own psuedonym, Rose. A friend of mine gave me a ring for my birthday with a rose on it that I love. I had a hard to finding a name for myself. I was drumming my fingers and looked down and thought "Rose"! So, if "Rose" posts in your comments that's me!

Now I just need psuedonyms for everyone else.

I also changed my title, as you can see. "Live From East Texas". . . for now anyway. Unless I come up with something better.

I figured out that I can change my domain name on here. . . I don't want to lose any of you though, so I'll post in your comments or something when that changes!! I'm assuming I'll just replace "emilyspeaking" with "livefromeasttexas" if that's available. . .

Opinions Please!

Seeing as I am no longer "enceinte" my blog title is misleading. ALSO I wish I had set up my blog with a pseudonym system, just to make it all easier. I realize I could just start using the pseudonyms now and blogger will let me change my title. But I also don't really like my www.emilyspeaking.blogger.net address. . . and I want it set up through a different email, one just for the blog. Lol, could I have any more demands about a blog that I set up? I didn't think it through.

Along those lines, I'm thinking of moving. Probably starting pretty soon, or as soon as I decide on a title and fun pseudonyms. Anyway, just letting everyone know that Emily is Enceinte is probably morphing into something else. Which is a good thing, I think.

My question is, is Wordpress better than Blogger? Does anyone have any opinions on the matter? Is it faster to upload photos with Wordpress? Also, if I wanted to do something fun with backgrounds, sidebars, etc. which is easier?

Thanks!

The I Should Be Working, But Instead I'm Making a List List

*Sometimes, especially in the nighttime, I cannot believe how lucky I am to have my son. His little noises and the way he just cuddles into me. It seems a little surreal.

*A little bit of work gossip is getting under my skin today. I can't stand work gossip. Everyone should do their jobs, worry about themselves, and if they have a problem go to the person they have a problem with. So much could be avoided.

*A has a double ear infection. He seems to be taking it pretty well, but I feel horrible for him. Poor little guy. Flu in September, now an ear infection. I know, I know, all babies get sick. But. . . they are just so helpless.

*My 1 year old neice was just admitted to the hospital with pnuemonia. I hope getting an IV with some fluids and medicine into her will make her better soon.

*Starting WW over Thanksgiving week was a wash. BUT I started full force on Monday and am doing really well. I'm working on small goals. The first one is to lose 5 pounds by Christmas.

*Fiber One now makes a fiber drink mix. It actually tastes pretty good. I got pink lemonade. Each packet contains 10 grams of fiber. It, um, works.

*Ugh-you know the post I wrote a while back about it being so easy to gloss over the bad stuff when blogging? There are some things on my mind. Not really horrible things, just issues I guess that are in the process of needing to be worked out. I don't really want to get into it all-what with my new attempt at a positive outlook, but at the same time it's really bringing me down. The biggest one though is my husband's bonding with the baby. Are men different? Sometimes it seems like he's really close and other times I'm put off by how they don't seem to have bonded yet. I don't know. . . am I worrying over nothing? What can I do about it?

*I still need some good thoughts. The thoughts are about that ADD medicine my husband has been taking (I think I deleted all the previous posts about it, so sorry if you have no idea what I'm talking about). I think I've finally convinced him that it's doing more harm than good and he said he's going to stop taking it. He says he didn't take it yesterday. And he WAS really tired, which usually happens when he misses a does. BUT, normally when he doesn't take it he is really grouchy/irritable. He wasn't yesterday. While I appreciate that he was not that way, I worry that maybe he is just saying he didn't take it. (I'm a little bit of a worrier, in case you couldn't tell) I just figured that when he stopped taking it there would be 3-4 bad days while he comes off of it and then he'd FINALLY be back to the person I married again. Like I said, don't get me wrong--I'm glad he wasn't a huge grouch yesterday, I just hope he really is getting off that medicine.

Those last two were kind of heavy, I am really trying to think of something lighter to end this on. . .

*I'm thinking of going into teaching. I did some alternative certification work last Spring, but then got this job. All I have left to do is take the tests and I'll be able to start a paid teaching internship next August if I wanted to. . . I KNOW I would have more fun teaching than I have with this job. I know there are problems that teachers have too, but man is accounting boring. Anyway. . . I have a lot of time between now and August to decide, but a lot of lame stuff has happened at work lately and it's getting more and more appealing. The big downside is the pay cut. I hate that I'm letting money factor into a decision so much, because I believe in doing what makes you happy. But, I'm also really practical.

Hm, not really light, but lighter than medicine that makes you insane. . .

Cross Your Fingers

Something is going on around here that will hopefully bring about some extremely positive changes. I'm superstitious about saying exactly what it is, but please think positive thoughts, say a prayer, knock on wood, cross your fingers, whatever you prefer that what needs to happen is going to happen. I'll update the situation in a few days. A problem that started nearly a year ago could get cleared up if someone just takes the first positive step. I think either way the next couple of days may be tough, so please positive thoughts, ok?

In the meantime- PICTURES!

Me and the baby in Austin on Thanksgiving Day.

BatBaby!

Well. . . more to come. Blogger is slow uploading these things!