January 22, 23, 2016 (and other stuff)

On the 22nd of January, Ziggy destroyed his dog bed. Sigh.

On the 23rd of January, I went wig shopping at Fifi Mahony’s and wore it to a parade that evening. Heather also got a wig. I just realized I used all of my birthday money on hair. My mom gave me some that I used to get it chopped, and my in-laws gave me some that I used for this fabulous wig. Woot!

In other news (I haven’t really blogged much lately besides pics) my latest New Orleans Moms Blog post is up. I used an old picture of Oliver for this one.

January 20, 21, 2016

Ziggy stole my favorite sweatshirt.

The sky was blue but the river was foggy. It was quite beautiful. #nofilter

January 17, 18, 19, 2016

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We finally made it to see George’s parents (his mom has been sick for a while) and they gave me these Santa ornaments. I don’t know where they got the idea that I like wine. Heh.

The boys were off on Monday, and I, being the Meanest Mom on Earth, made them leave the house and go for a walk. They brought cheese. The river is still so high! Usually it’s out past those trees back there.

Pretty rose, so vibrant it almost hurts. It’s like springtime in New Orleans. I love the house in the background.

January 14, 15, 2016

I drove to Baton Rouge (and back) on Thursday to see my mom get installed as president of the Greater Baton Rouge Woman’s Council. Go mom!

Ziggy got neutered Friday morning. He was not a fan of the cone of shame. I call this one “sad dog in dark yard.”

January 9, 10, and 11, 2016

January 9, 2016
I really intended to have a better photo for Saturday, which was my 41st birthday. It was a fantastic day. I went to the gym in the morning, then lunch with a giant margarita at lunch, followed by a brow waxing. To cap it off, I met up with my friend Kettie for a drink (she was in town from Dallas) along with another friend, and then Ren magically showed up as well! And finally, as if that wasn’t enough, my neighborhood girlfriends all gathered at our friend Jen’s house for nibbles and adult beverages around the fire pit. Can’t beat it, really.

January 10, 2016
Sadly, I woke up feeling quite ill on Sunday. No, it was not because I overindulged on my birthday, I don’t think. I actually had a fever and all. But I managed to not barf while taking Ziggy for a walk.

January 11, 2016
Still feeling a bit under the weather. But managed to walk Ziggy again. The river is so high right now! I never tire of this view of downtown and the French Quarter, especially when the sky is so blue.

January 8, 2016

We brought Ziggy along on the ride to school this morning, and Millie and Ann Frances and Hank were really excited to see him.

January 4, 2016 {97 months}

A change of scenery this month. Spied this nice wall on the side of a house (which gossip says was purchased by Linda Hamilton, but who knows if that is true) while out walking Ziggy.

If you think it’s hard to get three boys to cooperate, imagine adding a dog in the mix.

January 3, 2016

Expect a Ziggy-heavy 366 project this time around. He’s a much more willing subject, even though I don’t think he likes it when I have my camera up to my face.

2015 in review

Man, did this year go by fast, or what?

January

Beckett bought me a birthday crown!

I turned 40!

In Barcelona!

Then celebrated again with my friends once I was back home.

February

Lots of high school friends

This lady drives us to school?!??

Not much besides Mardi Gras, really.

My Achilles’ tendon started hurting.

Went to Vegas for Kiki’s 40th.

March

Ellie, Emily, Linus, Oliver, Miles

The traditional pre-race selfie.

Spoke at my first WordCamp, in Dayton.

Ran the Shamrockin’ Run for the third time.

Emily and Ellie visited.

Scott Bakula was in our front yard.

April

The kids made a poster for her, and the adults made a few too.

Kiki came to visit and we had a garage sale.

We also went on a big boat and ~~watched~~ missed seeing Heather finish her first Ironman triathlon.

It was…a slow month.

May

My ankle got x-rayed.

I took the boys to Virginia.

The boys made a movie.

Miles danced.

I wrote a v popular post for the New Orleans Moms Blog.

Started physical therapy for my Achilles’ tendon.

June

But still, I’m happy.

Cockermouth flooded. A lot.

George and I gallivanted around England.

July

I went to NYC for BlogHer.

Completed my third (and last) triathlon.

August

Got the attic insulated.

My coworker came to visit.

I photographed my friends’ wedding.

The boys started 2nd grade.

I went uber-Goth for the NOMB Mom’s Night Out.

September

We got a new fridge!

I was volunteer coordinator at WordCamp DFW.

The boys started playing soccer.

October

We were devastated by the loss of our dear friend Gareth.

I went to Park City again for the Automattic Grand Meetup

I got another tattoo.

Ran my twelfth half marathon.

November

Breakfast gluttony

There’s the boat.

The first ice cream of many.

Breakfast at the kid’s cafe

George and I celebrated our tenth anniversary!

We went on a big cruise.

December

The boys turned 8!

We got a dog!

My ankle still hurts.

In blogging news…

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 190,000 times in 2015. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 8 days for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Quick Christmas recap

Christmas 2015: It was hot.

There.

Oh, well, there’s more.

I made us all steak and crispy gnocchi for Christmas Eve dinner (and now I’ve found that they love gnocchi so win!) and put a batch of eggnog French Toast in the fridge to soak overnight. And then drank the rest of the eggnog with Winter Pimm’s, which I’m sorry to say is impossible to buy in the US but is really good in eggnog.

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I also spent made lemon cake and lemon bars from the lemons on our tree in the backyard. I am quite proud of that, I have to say.

Christmas morning, the boys were kind enough to not leave their room until 7 am (remember that one Christmas when I got up before them and got to enjoy my coffee and sit in front of the fire? (Of course I mean “the fire channel on TV.”) Yeah, that was nice. Maybe it’ll happen again when they’re teenagers.

So at the stroke of 7, the gift opening commenced!

Gifts from Santa were opened first…Linus got a 3DS game that he’d been coveting, Oliver a couple of books and a Rubic’s cube, and Miles got some accessories for his faux GoPro. I think Oliver got a bit cheated, Santa-wise. Dang that Santa. Sigh.

Their favorite part is opening the gifts from each other. Miles got Linus an Amiibo, Oliver got Miles a DVD with the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and some kinetic sand, and Linus got Oliver a Diary of a Wimpy kid activity book and a little binder for Pokemon cards.

I got to open my gifts next. A silly ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ mug, some dog toys (well, they’re for me in that…the dog will stay occupied while I work?) and an Instant Pot. I’m really excited by that, I’ve been wanting a pressure cooker for a while. I made hard boiled eggs in it (easy!) and a pot roast (may have overcooked that.) So if you have any pressure cooker recipes that you like, send ’em my way.

My mom and Larry came over for Christmas dinner, which was delicious.

It snowed!

Later, we went to Chris and Steph’s house where we, you know, ate a little more, and Ziggy wore himself out playing with the other dogs.

All in all a pretty calm (I was going to say “chill” but it was SO FREAKING HOT AND HUMID I cannot even use that word) Christmas, and hopefully next year the boys won’t be so dang hard to shop for.

It’s Christmas Eve Eve!

And the boys’ Christmas present is feeling much better. Which equals more hyper and more chewing on random things, like my favorite pillow that I brought back from London, and the loop on Oliver’s stocking.

I mean, nothing too bad, nothing that can’t be clumsily repaired or anything. But still. My main concern is my beloved ottoman that I got this summer. I’m sure it’s extremely tasty. Oh, and his harness. So that means we can’t go for a walk until I go get a new one, which means he has a lot of energy that he may funnel into chewing inappropriate things.

We’re just learning as we go along. But even with the occasional accidents (Ziggy does not like going outside in the rain, I mean, I don’t blame him or anything, and it’s been raining all week) he’s been a good doggy.

He also keeps my treadmill warm for me.

In other news, I’ve taken all three boys shopping for gifts for a brother and Daddy, and it was nice yet again to get that one on one time with them. For my records: Oliver went first, and shopped for Miles; Miles went second and shopped for Linus; and finally, Linus shopped for Oliver.

We also watched Home Alone for the first time, which the boys found hysterical.

Oliver said it sounded scary, because being left home alone is basically his worst nightmare, so I had to prove that it actually isn’t a horror film.

Holiday decorating has taken somewhat of a backseat this year, between Ziggy and annoyingly warm temps, but I did get this adorable Wapuu ornament. Awwww!

We took the boys to see Star Wars last weekend. It was entertaining! High praise considering I’m generally not a fan of the franchise or anything. It was very bright when we took this picture. Heh.

Today I’m off work and the boys are at holiday camp, so I am going to enjoy my day with some solo shopping (for a dog harness) and a movie with a friend.

Sickness everywhere

I feel like the past four months have been nothing but illness around here. Our next door neighbor is a pediatrician and she opened her own practice a couple of months back and I’m fairly sure we must be her best patients. I remember telling her before her practice opened that we’d probably hardly ever be there because the boys hardly ever get sick.

And then they proceeded to be sick constantly. Last week they were all coughing and having a touch of asthma, but Linus just couldn’t shake it. We got him on steroids last week, he was okay over the weekend, and then this morning, he woke up wheezing bad again. So back to the doctor today. The kid hasn’t been at school since Wednesday.

In fact, I just got a call from my friend Alicia, because her daughters were so worried about Linus (he’s their favorite.) Anyway, he’ll be back at school tomorrow, whew.

The Zigster is another matter. He has been having digestive issues since before we got him. We thought they were resolved, but apparently not. So I took him to the vet near us today and it turns out he has hookworm. I was having nightmare visions of surgery to remove a lego or something, so I’m quite relieved it’s treatable.

The vet thinks he might also have IBS of some sort (irritable bowel syndrome) which would mean having him on bland food for a while. For now we have him on this wet food that is so disgustingly repulsive. I swear, I was able to bring a sample of really gross stuff (I won’t go into detail) without gagging but opening that can of food almost had me barfing everywhere. Yuck.

He won’t be able to go on long walks until he’s better (plus, we don’t know if he’s been vaccinated) but at least we reinforced the iron fence this weekend so he can’t get out.

Pics!