2018

New Year's Eve. I'm ready. Well, I am sort of ready. My brother and I have decided to channel our Southern roots and we are doing our first ever "low country boil." I have text directions from my southern cousins, my father has texted about the importance of finding a good sausage, my brother and I ran up a large Costco bill (and we didn't even buy alcohol), we have food prepped and we are ready. Except we may or may not be waiting on the boil equipment to arrive from Fed Ex. 
We totally are, waiting for it to arrive.
And our children may or may not be tired of us saying (multiple times), "Does everyone know we are having a New Year's Boil? Is everyone coming to the New Year's Boil? Who's excited for the New Year's Boil?" 
They totally are, tired of us saying theses things.

Not only are they tired of us saying it, they are  completely unimpressed with it at all. But that is my life with teenagers, completely unimpressed with anything I am doing. It is also the first year where we will basically have only one kid home for New Year's Eve. My fourth grade nephew stands alone. All others from age 10 to 19 have found plans and excused themselves from the Low Country Boil.

New York girl is home. So I feel like our TV runs Sex and the City and Gossip Girl on loop. I am worried as I write they will both take over my writing voice causing me to ask and answer questions in Carrie Bradshaw style as well as end the blog with xoxo Gossip Girl.

Is it harder to say good-bye to the old year when the year has been good? (There's Carrie)

2018 was a really good year for me, for us, for our family. I find myself looking back on so many amazing (and surreal) milestones and looking forward to some big ones still to come. It was a year with no regret that lived up to the promise it had for us on New Year's Eve last year. In fact, it has far exceeded it's promise.

Highlights include:
A college graduation, 21st birthday and engagement for our oldest. That's a lot. She can slow down in 2019.

A year and a half of successful life in New York City for our college girl. While school is not her favorite thing,  she is getting it done and she has a work ethic like no other. Great jobs and a hard worker. 

Senior year progressing and college applications completed with a couple of early acceptances. She can breathe easy as she awaits the rest. 

And as always...and then there's Mary. High School started and studying reluctantly, and competitive dance daily with great dedication. In 2019 she will be an only child.

I cruised into 50 on a ship with my Southern Auntie and Cousins. It was amazing in every way. Another thing that far exceeded any expectation I had. Blog on this to follow.

Corey made a small, but significant change with his business. 

We we were blessed.  2018 was just an amazing year. Possibly our best in the last decade.

I find myself tentative about sending it off. How can 2019 fill such big shoes?

In November I saw To Kill A Mockingbird in New York on Broadway.  It also far exceeded any and every expectation I had. And as a lifetime To Kill a Mockingbird devotee as well as lover of all  things Aaron Sorkin, my expectations were extremely high. It was three hours long and felt like ten minutes. Jeff Daniels was superb. He made Atticus his own, but you still left with a soft spot for Gregory Peck and his Atticus. Aaron Sorkin was true to Harper Lee and the original story, but subtly kept it relevant to today, as well as adding his talent for masterful, quick dialogue and humor. It was a masterpiece. 

And that's really what 2018 was for us. It was To Kill A Mockingbird on Broadway. A masterpiece that far exceeded every expectation I had, and felt like it went by in ten minutes.

While writing Fed Ex delivered. The sea food boil now waits on the ability of my husband and brother to put the burner together. I have steak to bar b q as a backup. 

Happy New Year to you all. May 2019 be your To Kill A Mockingbird on Broadway and far exceed every expectation you might have. 


xoxo Gossip Girl

Dumb Bell Math and Puppy Paws

"Mary is failing math. The kind of failing where the quarter is over, she has an F and there is not much hope it will get past a D by semester's end when she can move to a different math.

Don't ask me what math she is in, I don't know or understand since math changed. I know she is in a fairly common mid-level math, and we need to get to a basic skills math class. One that was referred to lovingly in my home when I was young as, dumb bell math. But I am sure I am not allowed to call it dumb bell math anymore in fear of offending the masses. To be clear, I took and struggled with dumb bell math, while hearing it called dumb bell math, and grew up successfully to tell the tale."

I wrote this in October. Back when I was still attempting to write. Then I just stopped, writing. I don't know why. A long writer's block I guess. Now it is December and I promised myself I would write something, anything, and post it. Just so I could close out the year with the promise of starting the New Year with some more consistent writing.

Semester ends Friday. She has a D to finish it off. She will transfer to the new math when we return in January. When I ask about her other grades she has told me to wait and be "surprised." With Mary I am unsure if she is hoping to surprise me in a good way, or a bad one. Fourth child, I am not interested in trolling the online grade keeper to see how she is doing. We shall see.

College apps are done and in. Paige has a white board in her room. It used to have a list of all the colleges she was applying to and they were wiped off as she completed. I was in her room this morning and the list has been replaced with a two column graphic organizer labeled Yes and No at the top. She threw a wide net, it will be interesting to see what she catches and where she lands.

College (and post college) girls arrive home this week. Calm before the storm. There is a re-entry re-adjustment for us all as we become a whole family unit again. It takes about three or four days before every one adjusts and settles in. Sadly, now, they are only home three or four days so there is only about an hour where we all like and enjoy each other. It's a really nice hour though.

Our oldest got engaged this month. This is surreal. I have zero idea how we will plan a wedding in this day and age. It all seems really detail oriented. Not my strong suit. He's great. We love and adore him. She's young. He has some citizenship challenges. This all concerned my husband for about a minute, as long as anything really concerns him besides work. I finally had to say, "We weren't much older and I am 25 years into a marriage most people at our wedding probably gave 25 weeks." It will work out.

I am in the process of updating our backyard, as one should in the rainy winter  months with dogs. So that they can track in mud and be a general nuisance. I went out this morning to find their little paw marks in my freshly laid cement. I don't hate it. In my beautifully planned, elegant, backyard there will be a trail of little paw prints. Did I mention I am not detail oriented? They will be there forever. Probably unnoticed by most. One because people don't tend to look down, and two because I really don't invite people over anymore at this stage in my life.

They are a bit of a metaphor (simile? symbol?) for my life, those paw prints. Really nice, well designed life with the best of intentions, but then...some permanent paw prints run right through it change the aesthetic.

2018 was a really good year. Looking forward to seeing where the paw prints lead me next year!