New Year's Reflections

Happy New Year, everyone! Hope your holiday was as great as mine (post-Christmas, of course). We managed to get healthy enough to have some friends over to our place for pizza and gaming. I made poached pears for dessert and managed to kill Dr. Lucky all in one evening. It was great fun, and even better, everyone stuck around long enough to toast the new year with sparkling strawberry and apple juice. On New Year's Day, we had our college friends up for a late Christmas get together. There was much laughing and opening of presents, and we had lunch at Steak N' Shake, where apparently Happy Hour occurs every weekday from 2 pm to 4 pm and all drinks and shakes are half price. So, guess what everyone drank along with their meals? There were nine of us, and we had eight milk shakes of varying flavors at our table at one time (V shared mine, since a whole shake would be too much for him). We ended the evening with one of our friends sticking around and playing a European board game with B and me. It was a wonderful way to finish up our New Year's celebrations.
Now that 2008 is over and 2009 has begun, it's a good time to reflect on my hopes and dreams for this coming year. I'm not really into making resolutions right now, since I feel as though they'll be kept for about a minute. Maybe if I think of them as something other than resolutions, I'll manage to succeed in fulfilling them. Plus, some of them aren't really resolutions at all, just things I'd like to be able to do this year:
1. I hope to be a more patient and loving wife and mother. I think I already managed the mommy part today when I took my son to the mall and didn't blow up every time he wanted to stop and play with the game controllers in all the electronics stores.
2. I hope to get myself in better shape and to use our YMCA membership more often. This means I'll have to start forcing myself to get out of bed and go to the YMCA, instead of going downstairs and fiddling around on the Internet all morning. I'm hoping V will get over his fear of the day care there, which means I'll have more time to work out. Well, next Monday's as good a time as any to find out.
3. I hope to learn how to sew and embroider. My husband gave me a great electronic sewing machine with a separate embroidery unit for Christmas. The gift was completely from left field, and I really have no idea why he got it for me. I was completely overwhelmed. However, he spoke to my mother-in-law about it before Christmas, and not only did she give me loads of great sewing accessories, she also found a person in our new city who gives lessons. This year's as good a time as any to start being creative again.
4. I hope to travel more. It's not like we haven't traveled a whole lot in the past few years. We've been very lucky to have so many opportunities to see different parts of the United States. However, B gets loads of vacation time, and if the timing's right and nothing else happens to hinder us, I'd love to go to Europe, especially Great Britain. We both enjoy British movies and television shows, and I'm a huge Jane Austen fan. I think it would be so cool to see London, Bath, and Lyme, which are some of the cities where Jane grew up and lived. We already have plans to travel to Charleston, South Carolina, with B's family in July, and I'm really looking forward to it. It's another new city for us to see and experience, and it'll be wonderful to be near the Atlantic Ocean again. Also, I wouldn't mind taking a few days and going back to Seattle, Washington. We have some very good friends who live there, and I really enjoyed seeing the city and one of its neighboring islands back in 2007. Of course, the possibility of some of this travel will depend on the timing of my next hope.
5. I (and B) would like to try to have another baby. About a month or so ago, B brought up the fact that we're at a good point in our life to add another member to our family. He's already six months into his new job, and his work schedule is definitely much better than it was the last time I was pregnant, so he'll be available to help at home much more often. I don't have any kind of work schedule to worry about, so I'll be able to focus more on taking care of myself and the growing fetus. V's almost two and a half years old, and he's at the stage where he enjoys playing with and being around other kids. When B and I talked about having another baby, I told him about the fears I have related to the idea. Will I be able to care for another child, especially when I have one who depends on me so much already? Will I be able to love both of my children equally? Will I be able to be a good wife to my husband, too, when I'll have two little ones competing for my attention? What if I have a very difficult pregnancy? My first pregnancy was pretty easy, except for the fact that V was breech and had to be delivered by C-section. What if the next time around, I have lots of morning sickness and fatigue and even worse complications? How will I be able to take care of V and myself at the same time? What if we have the same breast feeding and sleeping issues as we did with V? I'm sure there are more things I can come up with, but those were all my main points for not having another child. Then, yesterday, I thought about our discussion again, and I realized that I need to just get over myself and look forward to the possibility of having another baby. I'm not getting any younger, V really does need a little brother or sister to help him learn things like sharing and caring for others, and we have enough room in our new house for another family member. It's as good a time as any to start trying. B and I just need to talk about it some more, I need to see my doctor and get myself in better shape, and we need to make sure we time it right. Last time we wanted to get pregnant, we thought we had oodles of time to try. A month later, I found out I was going to have V. Yeah, we chalk that up to my dad's family's wonderful abundance of fertility. He DID have ten brothers and sisters, you know.
So, those are just a few of the things I hope to see happen in 2009. I wish you all have a blessed year, and thank you so much for joining me here at my little blog. I promise to try to keep it interesting, upbeat, and maybe even a little exciting in the coming months!
Best,
Amanda