2013 year end review

All I keep thinking about today is how last year on New Years Eve the husband and I stayed home and dance partied our way into 2013. We made delicious snacks, drank champagne, and had a party for 2 in our little Dallas apartment living room. We had no idea I was about 2 weeks pregnant and that the impending new year of 2013 would be our biggest, most challenging, and greatest year ever. Nope, we just drank cheap champagne from the bottle and enjoyed our sweet ignorance.

This year brought in so many adventures. Just 15 days after our living room NYE party I found out I was expecting our little Owen. We were already working on our house. The husband started a new job shortly after the new year. I moved jobs too, and now I've quit that job. Not to mention we moved to the suburbs, had a baby, and are now parents of an almost 4 month old. I also had a little scare with the whole breast lump biopsy, which thankfully was nothing. All in all, it was a crazy year.

We're planning a somewhat similar New Years Eve as last year. We will be home, having a pajama party with our little family of 3. There might be champagne, there better be dancing, and I hope we can make it to midnight.

I have many hopes for 2014. But, if 2013 has proved anything...it's that you can't plan, you can't imagine, you just have to let it happen.

Owens 1st Christmas!

It's his first everything! First Christmas, road trip, first night away from home, first time to meet several relatives, first time to meet Santa, and first time to get sick.

Owen woke up Christmas Eve with a nasty cough :-( he was choking and hacking. Poor thing, he's been attacked by phlem. I think it was the drastic climate/allergen change from north Texas to south Texas. His first morning at Nonni and Pawpaws, and he felt yucky. But even though he is kind of sickly, he is still smiling and cooing. We are so in love with the personality he is starting to show us. He's the best!

I'm a (temporary) quitter.

I am officially unemployed. I quit my job. This was my 5th school year teaching with Vista Academy. But, my husband and I decided that I should take some time out of my own classroom and work part time as a substitute teacher. I'll still be working 3-5 days a week. It will be so great to have extra time with Owen and not have to worry about lesson plans, parents, or staff meetings. But man, I am scared! My entire career goal since I was in high school was to become a kindergarten teacher. I met my goal, and now I quit. It's scary to give up a steady paycheck. Scary to wonder if anyone will hire me after taking a semester or longer off.

Grandparents on my side and my husbands side don't understand why I'm working at all. They think I should just be a mom. Work is for husbands. Well I'd love nothing more for that to be possible, but it's just not. They don't get it.

Luckily, whether I'm working full time or part time, we have a great babysitter. The husbands Grandma is retiring and comes over to stay with our Owen when I have to work. She loves him, and he loves her too. And she may or may not have done some of our laundry the other day (jackpot!)... We really love that even though I can't be a stay at home mommy. We have family that is more than willing to help out. Maybe one day I'll get to stay home and then she will get to be the quitter!

Cheers to unemployment...sort of. Not really. Kinda.

P.A.W. -Pump At Work

The lovely view of the ceiling in the closet I pump in at work. It's a little scary in here, but I may breastfeed forever because I love the break time! Usually I don't get any breaks at all.