If At First You Don't Succeed....

Yes I'm going to 'try try again' at blogging.  I've noticed I have to be in the mood to blog.  Or I should say, I can't be grumpy or feeling down when blogging, otherwise the more pessimistic sides of my life would only filter through.

*sigh*

2014, I hope you turn out to be a better year for blogging.  I still take plenty of pictures and write down only the funniest kid sayings, so hopefully, some of them will make it onto my online journal.  First up: Why have I been gone so long?  I do have legit reasons, on top my unwillingness to blog.  The list is as follows:

1. I had a baby and was adjusting to new life with said baby
   
2. We decided to buy our condo that we were renting
   
3. Simultaneously we decided that we needed to move our family to Utah to be helpful to my mom/ familiy members because my Dad has Alzheimer's and was/is rather difficult to be with.
4. In 5 weeks (end of July to end of August) I repainted my kitchen cupboards, repainted the kitchen, repainted the fireplace, updated one bathroom (new flooring, vanity, paint and moldings), gutted the other, stupidly removed the 'popcorn ceiling' from our hallway and had to have the ceiling refinished, do major sanding in our third bedroom and repainted that and had someone come in and repaint the common spaces.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. During those same 5 weeks, I packed our condo, all by myself.
   
6. We also had to find renters for our condo. (the person we picked bailed on us 9 days before we were leaving....that wasn't stressful at all.  We did end up finding people. Hooray!)
7. We then drove across the country.  I've never done that.  I can now say I have.  I can't say I want to do it too many more times with small children.  When our children are older, more reliably potty trained and can better entertain themselves, I will be more open to the idea of long road trips.  That being said, I feel they did remarkably well for being in the car 3 1/2 days.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
    
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. We then moved into a house, twice the size of our last place with a yard.  It is wonderful, but I had to move all our stuff into this bigger house and figure out how to clean and organize it all.  Getting moved in was very stressful.  I don't think I started getting into any sort of routine until November.  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
9. We had Halloween festivities for two weeks. (When I was a kid, Halloween was one day...that meant candy on one day.  I'm sounding old, and I'm not old....)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
    
10. Once November hit....well, the holiday season hit.  I hosted Thanksgiving at my house for my side of the family, and had several family gatherings all weekend long.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
11. Prepared for Christmas
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
12. We took a week long trip to California mid December to see some cousins.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
13. Celebrated Christmas and saw friends and family over the break
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
     
    
    
    Now we are here, settled, survived the holidays and I have no excuses why I shouldn't blog.  Rather incredible list, eh?  One of my new year's resolutions is to stay off of Facebook for a whole month because I waste WAAAAAAAAAY too much time on there.  I'm hoping that the time I would normally spend on there, will be spent blogging, or reading parenting books (because you can never read too many of those).