Thankfulness from January

I remembered to do this for November but missed December.  I'm thinking that it would be good to look back at the things I was thankful for in January, even if only to continue this a a healthy practice.

I'm thankful that...

• though sickness was a theme, we're all relatively healthy and comfortable
• we're growing stronger as a family for a miriad of reasons
• that we got to spend a snow day and a long weekend together
• for all of the ways that Abby continues to amaze me
• that a decision has been made about our future home ownership, and that things can begin to unfold for us here
• Lost is back, and so is Scrubs!
• Anny and I are learning how to take control of what we can, and let go of what we can't
• the Sanctuary renovation project at church is moving along - I have heard that insulation is up!
• I've connected with old friends, and met new ones

What are you thankful for from the last few weeks?

Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

(Please keep in mind that I do not tag people for anything - if you would like to participate and have not yet, go ahead. If you haven't and don't want to, don't. I'm not going to allocate time for your day, I'm bad enough about my own!)

1 - I love my wife more than anyone else in the world...
2 - ...except for maybe Abby, the light of my life.
3 - My medicines scare me, and smell gross. I don't think the smell helps the fear.
4 - Without my medications, I don't know what life would be like for me.
5 - I really enjoy reading other people's 25 Things Lists, but can't imagine why someone would read mine.
6 - I watch way too much TV, but will only go out of my way for Lost and Scrubs anymore.
7 - I have stopped wearing t-shirts in public since leaving my camp life. If you see me in a colarless shirt you are either a) in my home or b) seeing me in a very dirty work project at church.
8 - I have no desire to live in another country. I would like to visit Australia, but that's mostly to spend time with friends.
9 - I'm quite handy when I make the time for it.
10 - I love finishing a project, but rarely do.
11 - I really enjoy photography, but am not very good at it.
12 - I have esteem issues, particularly when I'm working on something that can be compared to others (like photography).
13 - My text messages are grammatically correct 98% of the time.
14 - I'm lazy, but I don't want to be.
15 - I'm a huge hockey fan. One year I bought the Center Ice Package and watched five or six games a week for the whole season.
16 - I get a bit jealous that I have been blogging for almost three years now, and there are people out there with many more readers and commenters than I get.
17 - I have started and killed three blogs for parents because I'm not brave enough to get support from others in such a venture.
18 - I want to be more involved in supporting others with FSGS (the kidney disease that I have) but I just don't have the time or energy to devote to it.
19 - I did several typing tests last fall in preparation for a job search and typed 70 words per minute with 95% accuracy.
20 - I'm secretly really excited about our trip to Casper, WY, this spring. It's a wonderful place to visit.
21 - I'm looking forward to all of the things that we can do with Abby this spring that were beyond her last year.
22 - It drives me completely nuts that Anny is practically unreachable during the day. I understand, but am still nuts about it.
23 - I really get into Toddler Tunes of all sorts. Right now I'm listening to Neil Sedaka singing "Lunch Will Keep Us Together." At work.
24 - I am very creative when it comes to food, and presentation tends to trump taste at home. When I'm out, it's the opposite. I eat the same things over and over and don't really care about how it looks.
25 - I'm ready for another snow day, even though I had one this week!

The Inauguration - A Different View

There are wonderful accounts and reflections about the historic Inauguration of Barack Obama on Tuesday.  There are literally millions of people that are more eloquent than I am.  Here are my observations as a resident of the suburbs of DC, as well as a person of faith.

On Our Experience:
We decided not to go into the city in the middle of last week because of a cold that both Abby and I are fighting.  Instead, we had some friends over to celebrate together.  Abby had friends to play with, and we got to share the experience in community.  Overall, a great day.

I found the speech overwhelming and inspiring, both at the same time.  I'm excited to see change happen at the national level, but am curious to see how it unfolds. 

I do have a minor qualm with the way that the whole service went.  I am a person of faith, but am very pluaralistic in my beliefs.  I was uncomfortable with the Lord's Prayer being recited during the service.  Many of our Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and non-believing friends and neighbors do not know such a recitation, and that is not going to help mend fences.  I know that Christians are a majority, but we need to continue to work toward being truly open.  I don't think that the service did that.

On Local Travel and Logistics:
There were road closures and metro station confusion all day long (and for days in advance), but it appears that things went off with nothing but praise. 

I know that the Metro system stopped collecting fares at some point during the day, which probably helped the whole day go more smoothly since we had so many people who do not know the system.  It will be intersting to see if they go to the Feds and ask for reimbursement, or if they really take one for the team.

It was a great weekend to play the Liscence Plate Game.  I swear to you that we saw at least 25 different states and territories represented on vehicles on the road. 

I have friends who made the trek down.  They said that it was totally worth it, but would only do it again if they know the President personally.  You can read Natalie's account HERE.

Our local NBC channel picked the wrong week to unveil their new website and slogan: For Locals Only.  Umm, this was not the week to be for locals only - this was a time to be from not-here.

All in all - I'm grateful to have watched, even if it was through the TV.  I'm hopeful for what lies ahead for me as an individual, but moreso what lies ahead for us as a people together.  I'm prayerful for all in power as they ramp up to work on the jobs they have been hired to do.

The Not-So-Moving Monroes

For the last year or so, Anny and I have been seriously considering, even banking on, a move to the mid-west to be closer to her side of the family.  Now just seems like the right time to move for a variety of reasons.  We have done all sorts of research - home searches, job searches, school searches - toward making a move this summer.

But last week all of those plans came to a grinding halt.  We met with a realtor that my brother and his wife are using in their current house search.  She is very experienced in our town and area, and is very frank with her comments.  She came one afternoon when my sister was in town.  This gave us a little bit more freedom to talk with her while Abby and Michelle got to spend some quality time together.  Win for all!

After seeing our home she showed us some pretty simple math:
We owe X
We could maybe-possibly-on-a-chance-only get X+about $8,000
The buyer would ask that we pay closing, legal, et cetera, meaning we would come out with X-$20,000.

Yeah, I don't know many people that can afford taking a $20,000 loss on a house, and I know that we can not.

That means a change of plans, though a stay of scenery.  This works for us, and at least we know that due to the economy and the ability of buyers to be picky about their housing choices we have a place that we will be for the forseeable future.  We have answers that we so desperately needed.

The problem with our house is evident when you first walk in - there is a slope of about 3 inches over 20 feet.  The house has not shiften in my memory, and I've lived in the house since I was 11 years old.  It was built on the top of a recently-closed quarry.  That means it was built on fill, and settled very early on.  It's obvious on your first visit to our house, but we've ignored it for so long that we hardly notice it anymore.  Most people can hide a flaw with their house - a leaky faucet or hole in the wall - but you can't hide our slope!

We are in a good situation - we have a good, fairly sturdy house.  We both have jobs that are not in doubt in these hard economic times.  We have wonderful friends and family surrounding us.  It just felt right, you know?

What now, though, for the hopeful travelers?  Well, we buckle down and figure out what exactly we want our life here to be.  We have a lot of friends, and we need to strenghten those friendships.  We can more firmly commit to things that are more than six months away, both at home and at work. 

So, with all of that being said - do you want to be our neighbor?  The house next door is for sale, and they have reduced the price recently!  (Not helping our sale, mind you, but could help you!)  We live in a wonderful little town just outside of several wonderful big towns.  HERE is our neighbors house.  We're nice neighbors, and I'll even cut your grass once in a while with no hesitation!

A Blog Interview

Saw Amy at PrettyBabies do this on her blog, and thought it was a great idea...


The Rules:
1. If you want to participate, leave me a comment saying, "Interview me." (And your e-mail address, please.)
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

The Questions Amy Asked Me:
1. What is your biggest fear?

I honestly fear every single day that Anny and Abby will get into a massive car wreck and I will be helplessly stuck in traffic.  The route they take home is major highway to major highway.  Anny is a wonderful and safe driver, so I have no basis for this fear, but it's there nonetheless.  I can't imagine a tomorrow without them.
2. Who is your hero?
This is a hard one.  My grandfather worked his way up through the ranks at NASA, then when it was time to retire he did it right.  He has always made family a priority and has been there for most of the major events in my life.  He drove here from his house to be with us on the day that Abby was born.  He didn't monopolize time with her or us, but just wanted to be a presence on that special day. 

3. If you could eat only one food forever, without regard for nutrition, what would it be?
I'm boring - it would be pizza.  I did that one summer when I decided that I was never going to fit into 34-inch-waist jeans again.  I then discovered just how bad that much potassium is for a person with kidney disease, so now it's more of a treat.  I still eat it, but certainly less than before.  There is so much variety of pizza, and I think that's why I love it.

4. If I gave you $100,000 to go on a trip, how would you spend it? Would you spend all your time in one place, or would you go to as many places as you could? Where? What would you do when you got there?
I can not imagine spending that much money on one place, at least not just for the three of us.  I would probably spend more of it on being sure that my family and friends could be with us wherever we went than on the place itself.  As for the place, I think that Disney is only a couple of years off for us, but I can't ride rides anymore.  I would probably feel more comfortable renting out a camp ground with lots of things to do and lots of places to relax.

5. What are your dreams for Abby's future?
I really just want her to be happy in whatever she is doing.  I want her to take that one "dream job" at some point in her life, even if it means that she'll pay for it later.  Of course, I want that dream job to be all that she dreams it to be, but I can't control that!  I don't think that she has to be a wife, or a college student, or full time employee to be happy.  I want to encourage her daily in whatever she chooses for her own life.  I have people like that in my life, but they are not necessarily my parents.

The bottom line is that I want Abby to know that no matter what she chooses to do, or not do, she is valuable. 

If you want me to come up with five questions for you, drop a comment or an email.  Amy sure does know how to come up with good questions...

And We're Back!

I guess I should start with Christmas and will blog later about other subjects...

This Christmas I took off almost a full two weeks from work between holidays, vacation and sick days I only had to work for about a half of a day in the middle.  Turns out that putting in that half day was good for my coming back to the office yesterday because I could hit the ground running just a little bit.

We spent the first week visiting with Paul and Sarahlynn and their girls in St Louis.  Aside from plane delays on the Baltimore side of both flights, it was a wonderful time away.  The extra two hour delay on our way out was certainly not the best way to start a trip, but Abby was a great sport.  I took her over to the B gate at BWI and we found some children headed out to Orlando to play with.  They danced, jumped and chased each other for so long that Anny texted "everything okay?" 

Since we only get the cousins together every six months or so, for now, it always makes me just a little bit nervous about how they will react to each other.  Turns out, once again, that there is nothing to cause concern!  We arrived so late Saturday that the cousins (two girls, one 23 months, one five years) were long asleep, so the first re-meeting would wait for the morning.  Since we were on east coast time, and they are an hour behind us, we were up first.  As everyone began to wake up, it was like a wonderful reunion for all three of them!

Abby had used the word "mine" two times the weekend before, but perfected it while we were there!  Anny and I keep comparing the three of them to the seagulls in Finding Nemo:


It really was adorable when it comes right down to it.

It was great to spend time with Anny's family, even though our time was short. 

The week of New Year's we were home.  We were sure to figure out something out of the house during the day, and got to catch up with friends during the week too.  We took Abby to the play areas at two malls (Columbia - A+ and Tysons Corner - B+) as well as the massive fish tank at our local Bass Pro Shop.  She was amused and happy to have us around, I think. 

Now we have all settled back into work and school and are getting the routine of life back down.  I would say that Abby does really well at that, too.  I know that she does better than I do, after all!

More blogging to come later this week - not sure which topic will fire me up, but lots of things are simmering!