D.C. Area Nesties
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
s/o QOTD....what were the 2011 highlights?
we know what we want to do in 2012....what there some of the highpoints of 2011?
--we finally took our out of the country trip! Hooray for Spain
-- paid off DH"s student loan and our car (that sexy '04 Accord!)
-- remained CC debt free (came just under our e-fund goals for the year but well, had to use said e-fund for some car repairs!)
-- ran two 10Ks, a 5k and a 15K.....i think i can call myself a runner.
Re: s/o QOTD....what were the 2011 highlights?
2011 highlights
1) I had a baby
2) He has been ebf so far (11 months, 2 weeks and some days)
3) I've gone back to work and have managed to keep our lives mostly sane for the most part.
4) Both DH and I have prioritized me time for each other, and both have been able to pursue our hobbies (sewing for me, brewing beer for him) even with LO here. I finished 4 or 5 quilts (baby quilts), have 3 more in progress, and made LO's Christmas stocking and our Christmas tree skirt. He brewed about 7 or 8 batches of beer.
1. That DH and I survived the first year+ of twins very well and our relationship is as strong as ever.
2. Running a marathon just a year after having the babies.
3. Seeing my LOs learn to crawl and then walk. It's been amazing.
- staying credit card debt free even though i was unemployed for 6 months (and only received two weeks of unemployment benefits for that entire time)
- spending two weeks in MA (and RI & NH) with my family, especially the time with my grandma. i hadn't spent more than a few days at a time with them since 2005.
- temp job i like that will be turning permanent early in 2012 (finally!)
- dear friends visiting from NY & OK this fall
- taking our first real vacation since 2009 (which was also our first trip to barcelona so another hooray for spain!)
-Napa, Vail, and Vegas
-Paying off DH's car
-started the year off with an amazing, unforgettable trip to Hawaii
-my freelance business actually made real money this year and expanded my portfolio nicely
-I transitioned to being a full-time SAHM and have not (completely) lost my sanity
-got knocked up again, looking forward to baby boy #2!
-I think that's all I've got!
- Had a baby
- Slowly began sewing again
- Started a blog (will reveal once it's got some more posts)
- Took a fun family summer vacation to Brainerd, MN
- Survived my mega crazy multi-city work trip with the Administrator of my Fed. Agency. Also, got an award for developing a first-of-its-kind program.
Feb - We had a fair amount of work done on our new house and we moved into it.
April - We bought a minivan.
May - We had a baby and my 2 year old adores her.
July - We celebrated 4 years of marriage.
Dec - The sale of our old house finally went through (the buyers rented from us for most of the year).
I got back to reading books which I love to do. It is hard when the kids are little but I have read 42 books this year thanks to my Kindle, the library and audiobooks.
We set up our life insurance and will/trust etc for the kids. This is a huge peace of mind thing for us to know it is all set should anything happen to one or both of us that the financial side of things will not be a burden to those left behind.
We celebrated 5 years of marriage and were exhausted thinking about all we have done in that amount of time. It was more of a in our heart celebration though since that night we actually took the kids to Chuck E Cheese with MIL (she is not able to babysit them by herself) who was visiting for the week after Molly's 2nd bday party.
DS was born in January, that was perhaps the best highlight, certainly the one that added the most joy (and took away the most sleep)
Vacation with the family to Boston was pretty wonderful the two times we went this year.
My mom quitting smoking after having a heart attack was an awesome highlight. She smoked for 50 years, said she would until she was in the grave, but when it became very real that she would be in an early grave from smoking, she gave it up. I am so proud of her.
Realizing that two was only marginally more difficult than one child was really a blessing. I was worried about handling it all, and it has gone just fine.
Being almost finished paying off one of our two cars (I've been doubling the car payment for the last 2 years) makes me so happy. There will be a celebration in a few months...
Despite a rough start to 2011 since all hell broke loose with DS sleeping, it was a pretty good year for us
March - paid off our car with an unexpectedly large tax return
March- July- sleep trained DS and finally managed to get DS sleeping through the night
July - vacation in Maine with DS was a blast and relaxing
August - signed a 2-year lease and moved into a much bigger place
October - December -started running again and ran my first 10K
November - Got a promotion at work, yay!
Off to the beach
DS 7/18/2010
Handy 2.0 Due Early August
2011/2012 Races
12/17/2011 Christmas Caper 10K
2/11/2012 Have a Heart 5K
3/17/2012 DC RNR Half Marathon
4/22/2012 10M Parkway Classic
10/28/2012 Marine Corps Marathon
Our three-week trip to New Zealand and Australia, after a couple years of planning.
Starting a new (albeit temporary) job in a completely different area.
My BFF's annual visit from Seattle.
Paying off credit card debt and making fairly sizeable (for us) contributions to savings.
Baby248 - ETA 1/10/13
May: celebrated our 2nd anniversary
July: went on a family vacation to Bethany Beach for the second time
October: moved into a larger space
Planning Bio
Survived my stem cell transplant and am thriving and kicking cancer's a$$
Paid off DH's car loan
Made sizable deposits to savings, despite being on disability
found a new job (not sure if that is a positive though!)
My nephew came home from Iraq
- Ran the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler and Wilson Bridge Half Marathon (in addition to multiple shorter races).
- Kept off the 60 lbs I lost in 2010 and lost an additional 12.
- Finished the fixer-upper we bought in 2008 and got it rented out (finally!)
- Bought a new (to me) 2010 Honda CRV, to replace my 1998 Civic (finally!)
- Celebrated 2 years of marriage in October!
- I made some great strides in my photography skills and met some awesome friends doing it.
- took on three new roles at work, and although I feel like I could do a lot better, other folks are very happy with my performance. Work has had its ups and downs, but in the end I know my superiors think I'm pretty capable.
- went to Key West twice, which means I got to eat shrimp and lobster eggs Benedict at Blue Heaven twice.
- raised a pretty hilarious and generally kick ass toddler.
- going out to CA to visit my BFF alone (and using FF miles, I got to fly home first class!)
- becoming an FTE, finally, and getting a healthy raise
- traveling to Maine with DH, DS, my brother, and my two best friends for the first time--we had such an amazing time that we want to do it again every year
- paid off our credit card debt and started putting more toward savings
- maintained my goal weight for most of the year
TTC #2: BFP 12/17/11, m/c 1/7/12 and D&C 1/12/12
baby blog/cooking blog
Refinanced the house
New car and new job for DH
I'm not sick anymore
I started a small clarinet studio and the extra $ is fun. I'm saving for a Croatia trip in 2012
Went to France
Pregnant
New furniture
New car
DH got a long-awaited promotion, in an agency that no longer gives out merit-based promotions
DH's commute changing from 3 hours a day to just over 1 hour total!
10 wonderful days in Hawaii
a work trip to Japan for DH
celebrating 10 years since the night we first met!
oh, and I almost forgot that I not only started a new fitness routine (body step) but also attended all but two of the weekly classes... for an entire year!
Scout
Chocolate Blog!
- celebrated my lil man's 1st birthday with the entire family.
- turned 30
- went on a week long vacay w/ ds in tow and everything went off without a hitch
- managed to get knocked up while on BC (considering it took me 3 years to have DS without BC I consider this an accomplishment).
- survived the first trimester and all the complications that I've had this lil one seems to be thriving - based on the 4 sonograms I've already had!
- Paid off my student loans (I can't remember if this happened at the end of 2010 or beginning of 2011, but I'm putting it here.)
- 90% finished with the tiling project in our basement. It literally took us (ok, DH) an entire year to do it. All we have to do now is grout and seal it, which should be happening over the next two days.
- Successfully survived the first year of parenthood and a full year as a working parent.
- Kept up a fitness routine and ran a few races (two 10-milers and two 5ks). Also started a strength training routine this fall and I can already tell I'm getting stronger.
I'm a working mom of three and just getting through each day seems like a huge accomplishment. Does that count? Because there aren't really any big trips or home improvements or promotions for us for 2011, but I still think we did OK.
A few things that come to mind:
No big trips for us - not for several years now - someday I hope to have some great trips to add to a future highlight list!!!
1. DH and i managed to get the swing of having two kids, 4 jobs (i have 3 PTs - my hypnotherapy/hypnobirthing/reiki business, distributor of mila - a health and wellness superfood and my corporate job wtih benefits, and he has 1 FT) and still have time to like each other
2. my business is flourishing and that thrills me. i so enjoy what i do, i love helping people heal, feel better about themselves and their lives, meet their goals, have their babies, and overall improve their health.
3. my son turned 5 and my daughter turned 1 and they are pretty neat people. i think we are doing a decent job!
4. i can't recall a time in my life when i was happier!
- Celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary by going to Spain (another hooray for Spain!)
- Went on some other awesome trips which included 3 trips to NYC, New Orleans, Virginia Beach, Traverse City (Michigan), and Chicago
- Paid off my car so no car payments for us any longer!
- Moved into a great rental house in Arlington that we love. I'm glad we love it because no moving this winter for us!
Some of these aren't happy things, but I learned a lot from them--so I guess that is highlight worthy.
-DS was born--an amazing blessing after loss and IF.
-We fought hard to make nursing work and did it (and are still going strong)
-My back and pelvis (damaged during PG and delivery) made some big leaps in healing. The chronic pain was hard to deal with, but I learned a lot about advocating for myself, accepting help, etc.
-We figured out how to make managing two FT jobs with no paid childcare work.
-I weathered major changes at work including getting passed up for a big promotion. I learned that failures are chances to learn and grow. In the end, I think that I will be a better person and leader for it.
-DH's company finally started paying us back the large amount of money they owed us (withheld while they were trying to stay afloat during the economic crisis). A 2012 highlight will be figuring out how to actually spend it!
- still happily married after 6.5 years. That says a lot for two divorced people.
- got big promotion at work in October. Got lots more money and big new office, too! I worked VERY HARD to earn this, and appreciate that I need to continue to prove my worth...
- and when John's business was slow this year, that hard work was able to support our home. It was hard on our marriage (I worked more than 80 hours/week Oct 20-Dec 16, inc Tgiving week on "vacation"), but in the end, it was what was needed and I know he'd do the same for me, if he could/had to.
- kids are great -- jobs, school, relationships. I take credit for raising such great children! (smile)
- two trips to see my sister in CA -- she raises horses and so can't leave her "compound" very often so it was great to camp at her house, drink wine, and laugh our asses off (we are very funny together, if you're not a FB friend...).
"What is a week-end?"