Toonified at the Tin Roof

Cuteness

2012 Blair Family Reunion

Catching up

I was looking at previous blog posts the other day trying to put together a time line for something I was working on and I was struck by how much fun it was to blog and how nice it was to have my/our little piece of history right there at my fingertips. It made me want to try again to be more diligent about posting my thoughts, observations, and ramblings. So to start this off I'm going to try and recap some of the more significant things that have happened in the past several months. I'll get the sad stuff out of the way first. 2011 was a year for saying goodbye to some very special people. Steve lost his grandpa, Shorty and I lost my grandma. Both lived long wonderful lives and touched so many people. Far too many friends and 'kids' I went to grade school and high school passed away as well. They didn't get to spend nearly enough time here with us but they too touched many people in their short time. It really doesn't matter if you lose someone you love when they are 30 something or 100 something. You will always be grateful for the time you had with them but will always wish for a little more time and it still hurts and you still miss them. Steve finished his first year of going back to school and is getting ready to start his second year in a few weeks. He should be finished or close to finishing by this time next year. I'm proud of him for taking such a big and scary step and doing a great job. He's going to be busy this year with work and a full load of classes but he's anxious to get started again. I got to see Karma kick a few tail feathers and can't help but take a little bit of pleasure in it. Rarely do you get to see it. I'm careful though to take too much pleasure in it b/c I don't need Karma kicking my feathers, thank you very much. We had a really great time taking the boys up the Quad Cities a few weeks ago for the annual Blair Family Reunion. I was so happy that they just jumped right in and played with the other kids and enjoyed themselves. I'm working on what I want to be when I grow up - still. I'm also just a few months away from turning 40 and while the number doesn't bother me I'm amazed that I've been around for almost 40 years and the 80's music is now considered 'classic rock/pop'. Really I was only 9 or so when the Go-Go's came out with We've got the Beat and Rick Springfield is in his 60's?!?! I was diagnosed with ADD back in May and while I could spend several posts talking about it I'll just sum it up by saying it's changed so many things about me that I had no idea were even related to ADD. I feel the need to share the info with other people who have struggled with different issues b/c they have never been properly diagnosed. I finally got my French Bulldog and Steve finally got his boat this summer. Both were cheap and both have had issues but we are enjoying our new 'babies'. Hard to believe we've been in our house for 3 years now. It's starting to come together thanks to a few coats of paint (ty to JAH for helping with the color choices), some rearranging, organizing, purging, and a bit of focus. Garage sale is in the works as well, once the weather cools off. This kind of sounds like a Christmas letter to me, something I have never done and likely won't ever do but at least I caught up somewhat. The fact that I still post at all after 7 seven years is actually quite remarkable for me and hopefully I'll pick up the pace a bit going forward.