Potpourri

I'm just going to spout out a lot of random things going on because I have no continuous ideas for a post today.

1. Some conversations with Scott as of late:

S: "Stuck on his Facebook profile page, 'How do I see other people's 'news' on here?'"

S: *bringing Ivy in one morning* "We've got a champion sleeper here, don't we?"
C: "Ivy was up for almost 3 hours last night..."

2. The Queen is teething which is pretty bad.  Luckily we feel super bad for her so it's easier to cope with this mania than her normal mania.  In other Ivy news, Ivy is obsessed with tags.  She doesn't really like toys, she likes tags with toys on them.  She's also still very wary of strangers and will not cooperate with anyone but us (and "cooperating" with us is even kind of a stretch of a word, I think she just tolerates us because we feed her).  She likes her dad's hair and is developing some great brown locks of her own.  She will not laugh at the same thing twice.  She is finally a good napper although she's still only slept through the night a grand total of one time in her now lengthy life.  Once Ivy is sleep trained (in the millenium), we will need to look into adult sleep training because we've become even worse sleepers than Ivy.

3. For whatever reason I am so thrilled about Valentine's Day this year.  There's little to no chance that I will leave the house on Valentine's Day but a girl needs something to believe in during Utah winters, what can I say?

4. I can't believe I am mentioning this, but our subdivision got a grocery store and I am just so thrilled by this.  So far we've pretty much only bought ice cream and garlic bread there, but that's really all I needed in a nearby store anyway.

5. At long last, I think I'm getting a tax refund this year.  Granted we "get" to pick ambiguous extra withholding amounts which is complicated to estimate, but how does any American fill out a W-4 correctly?  I feel so skilled in my work until I have to file my own return.

The Holidays 2016

The Christmas season this year was...probably not the year to top all years, I will put it that way.  The weeks leading up to the holiday were kind of normal-- a mix of the busy season at work, holiday parties, gift shopping, the works.  Unfortunately Ivy was sick with multiple illnesses for most of December though, and Scott, in true Scott-holiday-fashion got the stomach flu again this year.  I'm pretty sure there is an 80% chance Scott will get the flu during the week between Christmas and New Years.  It is a proven science.  

Anyway, back to Christmas.  We planned to travel to Texas on Christmas day.  Throughout the weeks leading up to the trip I lost even more sleep than normal thinking about this endeavor.  I love visiting the Foley's; but I don't take Ivy to the grocery store, so the thought of taking her to another state made me queasy.  I may or may not have asked Scott to cancel this trip on multiple occasions.  Ha.  Well, the day came, and it turns out I was kind of right to fear this so much.  

In the morning, we woke up to a ton of snow.  We had to get up a little early, but it tuns out Ivy would've woken us up anyway so I just hung on to that small reality (like it was going to comfort me?...) as a sleep-walked through the house getting stuff ready.  We fed the hungry Ivy, and then we went out to do some snow removal.  I was only outside for a few minutes when I came back in to check on our babe.  Lo-and-behold, I found her on the floor, totally still, her body face-down on her bedroom rug....  It turns out she had just decided to go to sleep again, even though she's never done that on the floor with the lights on, surrounded by toys.  I, however, had no idea that was what she was doing, and it was a truly terrible 2 seconds.  Right after this, Scott came inside.  I was very upset and couldn't communicate well, which meant he also had to experience the terror as he ran upstairs trying to find out what had happened.  Worst Christmas morning ever, aside from something like this actually happening, of course.

After this episode, we had about 2 minutes til the cab driver showed up, so we recovered.  I warmed up the Christmas breakfast of your dreams: Toaster Strudels and we ate them on the way to the airport.  It was very snowy on the drive there, and we almost missed the exit entirely.  When we got there, I noticed a sketchy syringe on Scott's seat so that was another little bonus to our day.  We washed our hands and hoped there was no drug screening at security.  

Of course, all the flights were delayed and that messed up our entire plan for Ivy to spend some of the flight peacefully asleep and/or eating.  Somehow we were able to avoid the multi-hour delays and get on another flight though.  We were the last to board and I'm sure the other passengers were thrilled to see Lady Ives waltz onto the aircraft at the last second.  It didn't go all that well, but it really could've been worse.  In the end, it was less eventful than the rest of the day, so there's some perspective for you.  I did manage to catch this snapshot during part of it, for the next time I need a good laugh and/or cry:

Once we finally arrived in Texas, of course our luggage was lost.  Also, there was a communication gap with the family and no one was there to get us.  We just sat outside really more surprised than anything that so many thing had gone wrong!  It was certainly a memorable Christmas. 

Aside from those few minor details, we had a pretty good trip. :)

2016

I'm kind of turning my head to the side and squinting my eyes at the thought of recapping 2016.  This comes to mind...

I guess I wouldn't say it was a bad year since nothing "bad" happened, but in general growing a human and being a first-time parent was pretty rocky and not something I'm eager to repeat.  I guess I just feel like I've felt sick for about 99% of 2016 so it's been a long year, but I'm hopeful things improve in 2017!

Moving on to another year-end thing: me turning 27!  27 seems kind of...late 20's?  It's different than 26 I will tell you that.  Anyway in celebration of my birthday, I will share 27 scraps of wisdom from my old age.

1. I am not afraid to run the dishwasher when it isn't full.

2. You can get a lot done in 15 minutes.

3. Amazon Prime.

4. Tackling a nagging task is an instant mood-booster.

5. Going out for ice cream is also always an instant mood-booster.

6. It's ok to not like things that a lot of other people like (like breastfeeding, Indian food, museums, or the card game-Scum).

7. It's also ok to openly admit that you don't like things that a lot of other people like.

8. The key to happiness is Scott Foley.

9. Online grocery shopping.

10. Learning to enjoy cooking can bring a lot of satisfaction to life because for some reason we have to prepare and eat food every day.

11. Dominos pan pizza is a great option for when you forget about #10.

12. A clean house is a necessity.

13. Exercising daily is also a necessity.

14. Working late at night can feel like a treat when you spin it that way.  Accomplishing something uninterrupted?  Sign me up.

15. If something's really important to you, you'll do it.  There aren't very many excuses beyond that.

16. Movies take a long time to watch and are rarely worth it.  But when they are, buy twizzlers and peanut M&Ms.

17. Most things feel worse in the middle of the night.  I didn't learn this until this year since I never saw the middle of the night before.  Avoid decisions during these hours.

18. The all-natural movement will probably bring more pain, smells, and inconvenience to your life.

19. Now is probably the best time to do whatever you're thinking about doing.  It will most likely not be more convenient later.

20. People aren't mind readers.

21. Always pack a swimsuit.

22. Any day can be a special occasion.  Make a great things list.

23. Differentiate between casual and important things and treat them as such.

24. Don't go with the very cheapest hotel.  (I learned this vicariously through Scott's experiences with bed bugs, terrible WiFi, and a midnight intruder.)

25. Plan on going to Home Depot 3 extra times with any project and you won't end up disappointed when it inevitably happens.

26. Go to bed on time.

27. Get a back scratch every day.