Happy New Year!

I had lunch with a good friend yesterday, and we talked about the things we are looking forward to in 2012. She is counting down the minutes to a brand new year, and rightfully so. Her year has held a slew of transitions and challenges. In fact, many of my friends are in this same position. For many people I know, 2011 was a year of tragedy at its worst and uncomfortable transformation at its least.

However, 2011 for me, was probably the very best year of my life, thus far. It definitely came with a few curve balls. There was the day the Green Demon broke down and The Champ and I spent most of the day in the fetal position. And there was that one very expensive day in the emergency room, (if you don't know where your bartholin glands are, you are luckier than I.) And The Champ was laid off for several months, which was unsettling. But overall I'm hard pressed to even come up with low lights to write about.

Some of my most satisfying experiences happened this year. I graduated from grad school, started my therapy practice, picked up some part time work with my dad, found a church home, and married my very best friend. For the first time in a very long time, I am the epitome of settled in, and I couldn't imagine being more content.

We were finishing up some grocery shopping yesterday, and the clerk asked if we had New Year's plans. I said we would probably stay home. She commented, "Ah...a boring New Year huh?"

Boring? I'm planning to stretch out in the floor with the two best things that have ever happened to me, throw a movie in the dvd player, and munch on some goodies until we fall asleep. I suppose that what might look "boring" to others, looks like happiness to me.

And this year, while other people watch the ball drop with anticipation for 2012, I will be a little sad to put an end cap on 2011. Sad, but very thankful.

Some people have had a hard year, and for that reason they count down the seconds.

I have had an amazing year. So tonight, I will be counting my blessings.

Happy New Year!

My Whole Wide World

eve-ry-thing: (ev-ree-thing)

pronoun

1. total; all

2. something vitally important

As in: They are my everything.

Isn't it strange how you can fit "everything" into one tiny little picture? I could write a really long post about all of the things that make each of them so amazing, but it would only make me sound like one of THOSE women. You know the ones. They paint a really pretty picture so you think their family shits sunshine.

I'm not sure yet what exactly you have to juice to make that happen.

However, I will say this: the little one eats salad, and the big one does the laundry.

Yep. Everything.

Ode to Jack Lalanne

I want to lose a few pounds.

By "a few," I mean 10 or 15. I don't want to try and be model skinny, because I'd like to enjoy a brownie from time to time without feeling too terribly guilty. But I'm a little chunkier than I'd like to be, and I'm definitely not happy with the way I feel in most of my clothes. Also, and this is my main motivation, I want to have another baby! We're really in no hurry to start trying, but it is on the to-do list in the (sort of) not so distant future, and I don't want a repeat of what happened when I was pregnant with E. By that I mean, I want to be in decent shape prior to getting pregnant, and I don't really want to weigh 200 pounds the day I give birth. So my plan is to lose a few pounds pre-pregnancy and then try to not to eat my body weight in Chicken McNuggets like I did the last time.

A few weeks back I took up juicing. A friend gave me a juicer, and I juiced until the centrifugal mechanism died and it went to small kitchen appliance heaven. So I hopped on Ebay and found a Jack Lalanne Power Juicer for about $65. I was determined to keep up this new little hobby for a couple of reasons:

1. Juicing is really healthy. It gives you the bulk of the nutrients in the vegetables and less of the bulky fiber that is difficult to digest. It also detoxes your body and establishes a healthy pH balance. You can read all about it here. Also, I kind of feel like I'm being an advocate for my body when I do it. Coming from the girl that ate ice cream for breakfast for 8 years of her life, I would say that's progress.

2. And this is REALLY my motivation: it makes me poop like a mother effin champion! Some of you probably take easy pooping for granted. Shame on you. I could go days at a time without the slightest little hint of a rabbit turd, but the day I started juicing, I also started pooping! Daily! Sometimes multiple times! So when Juicer #1 broke, HELL NO I wasn't going to give up juicing! My bowels were counting on me.

So here's my favorite recipe:

2 tomatoes on the vine

1 red bell pepper

2 stalks celery

a handful of baby carrots

a handful of fresh spinach

It tastes like really fresh v8. Unfortunately, when you combine red things and green things, it makes brown things. So don't look at it. Just put it in a colored glass and make Jack proud!

A Good Squeeze

It felt like time to start over. I have kept another blog on and off for the last 4 years (more off than on, lately) but I started that blog at the onset of a horribly painful time in my life. It reads a little like a soap opera, and you can find it here. In that blog you will find tales of love, divorce, hope, disappointment, and lots of me being angry at God and trying to figure out what's next.

In this blog, you will find out what happens after all of that stuff.

A little preview:

I am married to my friend of 13 years and my husband of 1 month. In Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert writes about needing a champion. He is mine.

I have a 5 year old son who makes me love life. He was sort of handed a bunch of lemons when he was born to me and his dad, Ex, but man alive, that child makes sweet lemonade!

I have recently become an avid vegetable juicer. It's not because I'm a health nut. In fact, for the first 8 years of my life I ate ice cream for breakfast. Rather, it's because if I don't juice, I don't poop. And I appreciate the hell out of a really good poop!

I like doing crafts. In theory. In reality, they often make me cry. But I keep doing them, because as my husband, The Champion, stated to me the other day as I began to have a string ornament craft induced meltdown, "There's no crying in crafts!"

I believe God loves me. I don't always get it right. I've made a big mess out of life a few times. I sometimes say bad words. And I'm not always excited about tithing. But holy cow, how God loves me!

A fresh new blog for my fresh squeezed life! No pulp, please!