Grrr.

Ok- I have two minutes left in the work day but had to find a little time to rant. I hate Birmingham. Needles in the parking lot next to my car at Books A Million and a notice on my door that there has been "criminal activity" in our gated apartment community- all in one day. Two more years and we are outta here...

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When did this happen?!

When?! When did I lose the ability to touch my toes, when did my muscles go on vacation and leave me with, well, flab? I woke up and I'm 28...kinda freakin' out after the fact here. It's easy to glance over my birthday (Jan. 3)- it comes right after Christmas and New Years so I can usually attribute festivities to these holidays and effectively ignore another year gone by. But alas, time has caught up with me, muscles have atrophied and flexibility has gone the way of the dodo.

In hopes of getting toned for our cruise coming up in May I have decided to get healthy. Not necessarily lose weight- I don't care much about that but just to build up some muscle and not get winded every time I run up three flights of stairs. So I popped in a ballet conditioning video and decided a few plies and tondues would help. I got about 15 minutes in when the husband awoke from his morning hibernation. Ah heck- 15 minutes was better then nothing right? Well I am ashamed to say that a few round of demi and grande plies was enough to make my muscles complain. How pitiful is that?!

But I have decided...no matter how short or pitiful the exercise is I will get out there and do SOMETHING. So here I go...off to run around the neighborhood. If you hear sirens don't panic...it's just me passing out.

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New year...new obsessions...

I realize it's been awhile since I've posted- I promise I'll do better!

It's a new year, and I feel like at the beginning of every new year I have new obsessions. My most recent obsession has become writing children's books. Nothing fancy- and mostly just for fun. They are meant to be picture books for preschool aged children. It's an outlet and it's fun to actually write the crazy ideas that float around in my brain sometimes. :) So far my stories have been themed around choices...here's a little taste from one of the stories about a new sibling:

Me and my mom, two peas in a pod,
We laugh, we sing, we jump like a frog.
Dad and I we like to fly-
To the moon and back, up through the sky!

The apple of their eye- that’s what I am
That is until...along came Sam.
“It’ll be fun” they said, “You’ll be best of friends”
But so far he just poops and cries to no end.

Bottles and diapers all over the floor
No forts, no planes, no cool toys galore.
I wanted a brother, a partner in crime
Not this little baby all covered in slime.

Choices, choices- what should I do?
Should I mope and pout or simply make do?
What if I kick or scream or hide all his toys?
Can I send him back to the store that sells boys?

Ok- it goes on but you get the point. Work is slow and I'm anxious for school to start- can you tell?! Ha!

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I made it!

This first semester of law school for my husband has been a breeze for me. Ha! My poor hubby. I feel like these last few months have been the first time in a really long time that I have not had any big stressors in my life. Most people told us that the first year of law school would be hell (and well- it may be for my hubby but he's takin' it like a champ!) but I have an easy job and I'm not going to school. I don't have a crazy boss anymore and we are living closer to family which makes things a bit easier for me.

The only goal I have had this semester is to study and do well on my GMAT test so I could start the MBA program here at Samford. Well, I took the test on November 7th and (needing a 480) walked out with a 670. Yay!! Exactly one week later I received my acceptance letter into the program. So hello late night classes, coffee runs and cramming for tests, and goodbye stress free weekends, early bedtimes (which I oh so love!) and free time.

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Updates...

It's been awhile so I figured I should post some recent pictures. I finally made it home to hold my nephew- although he is growing so fast I feel like I'm missing it all! Slow down!

Also, we had an unexpected tragedy in our family as my Uncle Tim died suddenly on September 10, 2009. He was probably the most jovial man I ever met and will be greatly missed. Here is a pic of Tim, his wife Diane and his two boys Robert and Ryan. And pics of my family when I went home for the funeral...

Also, Noel and I have taken in a cat named Mr. Ernest Hemingway (soon to be changed if we decide to keep him!). He is a polydactyl cat- meaning he has more toes that normal. :) 22 in all. 6 on each front paw and 5 on each back paw.

Here is a little background info on Hemingway cats:

They were introduced into the U.S primarily via ships in Boston. Sailors valued polydactyls for their extraordinary climbing and hunting abilities and considered them to be extremely good luck when at sea. Polydactyly appears to improve the dexterity of the cat. The extra toes enable the cat to learn and perform feats of manual dexterity generally not observed in other cats, such as opening latches or catching objects with a single paw.

Nobel Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway was one of the more famous lovers of polydactyl cats, after being first given a six-toed cat by a ship's captain. Upon Hemingway's death in 1961, his former home in Key West, Florida, became a museum and a home for his cats, and it currently houses approximately fifty descendants of his cats (about half of which are polydactyl). Because of his love for these animals, Hemingway cat, or simply Hemingway, is a slang term which has come to describe polydactyls.

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