Ketchup Day

It's Ketchup Day: January 2010 Edition. Enjoy!
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Life has been busy and keeping us on our toes. Blogging has been difficult this month, but I'm trying to keep my head above water. I'm happy that January is almost over, because February is a short month (even though it always feels long), and once March hits, it's almost spring.

Every year that I live through winter, I hate it more and more. Don't get me wrong; I like having four seasons. It's just that I wish winter only lasted through Christmas. Really, I'm starting to believe I'm not meant for the cold. I dream of picking up everyone we know and love, and moving (all together!) to a warmer climate. Wouldn't that be nice?

As much as I'm bitching about the cold, we really had a nice weekend. Yesterday was sunny and relatively warm, so we took Tessa for a really long walk. Today wasn't as nice (it rained), but the temperatures were in the 40s so it is hard to complain. Although I always appreciate the warm days that are a reprieve, I'm always a little bit bitter about them because I know they're just a tease. This week, we're back into the 20s and snow, snow, snow. BLAH BLAH BLAH.
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Remember the heart-wrenching story about little Maddie? Her mommy, Heather, had a new baby on Friday. I couldn't be happier for an internet stranger. The child she lost cannot, of course, ever be replaced, but I feel like love is so tremendously healing, and that darling little Annabel is the best thing that could have happened for her parents.

Ironically, someone else had a baby this weekend, too. Jenny, who I've written about before because her blog was the first I ever saw and read, welcomed her third daughter on Saturday. Like Heather, Jenny lost her first daughter much too soon. Allie died of leukemia in 2004 at just 9 months of age. Today, her second daughter, Maggie, is 4 years old, and the family is now complete with the addition of little Katie.

Happiness all around!
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A few of you have asked (in the comments of other posts) about our upcoming vacation plans. Well, the truth is that we don't have any. Yet. But we're working on it.

We have several ideas, but we have quite a few balls up in the air right now and we need to get everything straightened out before we start making decisions about any vacations. We're hoping that our next trip will happen around the end of April, but we'll see. I'll be sure to keep you all posted about where we're going next! :)

I think that by the time our next one rolls around, this will have been the longest stretch we've gone between vacations since before we were married... so I'm sure I'm going to be really ready!
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I've made quite a bit of progress on my 101 in 1001 list lately! I went in on Friday and crossed off and updated a bunch of things. Woohoo! Check it out, if you want.
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We've been watching football all day. Earlier, we went to Champps for the Jets vs. Colts game. I didn't really know who to root for, as I hate Peyton Manning, and I couldn't in good conscience root for the Jets (they are division rivals for the Bills). By the end, however, I realized that I would have preferred the Jets. I think. I guess I'll never really know. But I found myself scowling when I realized that Peyton and the Colts would be going to the Super Bowl again!

The second game, Vikings vs. Saints, is still going on now, and it's a pretty interesting game so far. I'd really like to see the Saints pull this one out! I like Drew Brees, and let's face it--I've made no secret of how I feel about Brett Favre. We'll see what happens. No matter the outcome, we'll be gathering a small group at our house for the Super Bowl again this year. I always look forward to that!
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And with that, another weekend comes to a close. I am not looking forward to going back to work this week. It seems like the work weeks are continuously getting longer, while the weekends are getting shorter. *sigh*

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For Maddie

For a couple of days now, I have been struggling with the decision about whether or not to blog about this story. After all, I was not a follower of the blog, I did not know any of the background on this little girl and her family, and it felt a little bit like I would be overstepping a boundary.

But at the end of the day, a baby has unexpectedly died. She developed a cough (a cough!) over the weekend, and passed away on Tuesday. And because of the power of the internet, people from all over the world are pouring their love and support into this family. On Twitter, thousands of people--including Jimmy Fallon and Alyssa Milano--have "tweeted" about little Madeline Alice Spohr.

Through the tragedy, we are reminded of how wonderful we can all be to one another. In lieu of flowers and gifts, Heather & Mike Spohr have asked people to donate to the March of Dimes in memory of their daughter (who was a preemie herself). They were already raising money and planning to participate in the March for Babies later this month, and their original fundraising goal was $3,000. Thanks to the thousands of mourners who have been called to action following Maddie's death, Heather & Mike's total is now over $21,000 raised for the March of Dimes. Amazing, and for such a good cause.

In a strange twist of the internet version of the six degrees of separation, Heather, Mike and Maddie Spohr are real-life friends of Matt and Madeline Logelin, who I have written about before.

I'm crushed about the death of little Madeline, just as I would be hearing/reading about any other person losing their child. It's one of the worst injustices in this world--people are not ever supposed to have to bury their children.

I don't really feel like I can say much else. I just wanted to do my part in helping raise awareness about Maddie, and especially about the fundraising going on for March of Dimes in Maddie's memory. If you feel so inclined, please visit Heather's blog (I've read a few of her past posts, and she's actually quite hilarious), although she has understandably not been updating it this week. For even more information, visit Meghan's blog. She has been coordinating everything for Heather.

I leave you with a beautiful photo tribute that was put together on YouTube. For Maddie.

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Taggedy Tagged

I've been tagged by Lynsey over at Foster Following.

The rules of this little photo game:
Open the folder with all of your photos.
Open your 6th photo folder.
Take your 6th photo in that folder and blog it.
Write something about it.
Tag 6 fellow bloggers to do the same.

This photo is from August 2004. This isn't the greatest photo of the bunch (there were much more exciting ones!), but I had to follow the rules. I guess I was taking pics of the stadium to document the complete view from our seats, because when this pic was taken, the players were at the other end of the field!

Anyway, I had purchased preseason Bills tickets for super cheap on ebay, and Michael and I went out and enjoyed the game (vs. the Denver Broncos) on a warm summer night. It's good we did stuff like this then, because I can't even imagine doing it now. This was almost five years ago, and I still had hope that the Bills would pull themselves out of a funk.

Four crappy seasons later, and I am no longer convinced. There's very little chance in hell that I would ever make the effort to go see one of their preseason games again. We didn't even go to a regular season game this past year, which says a lot (we ALWAYS go to at least one game a season). I'm tired of them losing! Faithful fan, yes. But I still admit that they SUCK.

My husband has informed me that free agency starts at midnight tonight, so maybe we'll actually acquire some players WHO CAN PLAY (that's apparently too much to ask?).

The Bills also released two of their terrible starters today. Here's hoping for CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN. (It worked for Obama. Can't it work for the Bills, too?)

For my six people to tag, I'm going to pick six random followers. Here we go...
1. Katy at Follow Me to I Do
2. Sarah at Life as an Alex
3. Sassy Mrs.
4. Silly Monkey at Random Ramblings
5. Vanessa at Pen, Paper and Cake
6. Gia at A Life in Progress

(That just took me wayyy longer than it should have because of Blogger's genius redesign of the whole "followers" gadget. Blogger, for the record? I hate you right now.)

I'm off to rest my aching bod. My kickboxing instructor gave us a hardcore asskicking tonight. It was ridiculous. Thank god it is almost the weekend!

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Questions & Answers

Last week, I posted about having a little bit of writer's block. I offered to answer questions any of you may have, just to give me something to write about. Then I ended up having things to blog about day after day after day. Which was good.

Today? I'm not so inspired today.

So I'm going back to find your questions, and answer them. This probably won't be too terribly exciting, but here we go...

From Anonymous, and also Gia: What are some of your favorite blogs?

I have actually posted about this before, but not really all in one spot. I mention them here and there. I read a lot of blogs, but my favorites are probably Matt, Liz, and Madeline; Mama's on a Playdate; Boobs, Injuries, and Dr. Pepper; More Than a Minivan Mom; and Cake Wrecks.

For baked goods, I really like Good Things Catered. Her meals are a little too "upscale" for me. :) I just don't cook that type of food! But Katie has never led me astray with a dessert. Everything I've tried has been really, really good.

From Vanessa: I have a question - how do you fit it all in? Are you very organised with journals etc? How far in advance do you plan everything to get it done? And do you feel your responsibilities/hobbies have changed since getting married?

To be honest, Vanessa, I'm not really sure what you mean when you say "fit it all in." The truth is that life is pretty busy. But compared to other times in my life, I do think it's a good kind of busy. Most of the things that I do, I enjoy doing. I love having lazy weeks or even just a lazy night or two per week, but for the most part, I do like to stay busy.

Lately, I've been filling my free time with aerobics--step and kickboxing--twice a week, and then lots of baking. In the past, I did a ton of paper projects (especially for the wedding), or I took the cake decorating classes. Oh, and I do watch a pretty decent amount of television! I can't help it; I like TV. There is usually at least one show per night that I like to watch.

I don't keep journals (aside from the blog), and I don't really plan each day in advance. So in that way, I guess you can say I'm not very organized. I just kind of go with the flow. If I feel like cooking or baking, I will. If I don't, I won't.

I don't think my responsibilities have changed at all since getting married. We lived together for three years prior to the wedding, so marriage hasn't really changed our lives that much at all. We're just a little more "grown up" now, I guess. Everyone's getting married and having babies!

My hobbies have changed, definitely. But that's just because I spent a year doing so much for the wedding. So many projects. Once that was all over, I had to channel my energy into something else.

From Laura: you seem to thoroughly research things before making a decision (i.e. buying your tv). have you bought a car recently? if so, what did you do as far as researching?

I'm surprised that this character trait has come through in my blog, but I guess that it has. I am an obsessive researcher. Not for every purchase, of course, but for bigger ones (i.e. TV, car, house, appliances, computers, cameras, etc... even vacations!), I do a lot of research. I usually get it done pretty quickly, because once we decide to get something, I'm usually excited to get it now. So for the TV, it was a bunch of research over a couple of weeks. I usually stick to the info I can find online. Reviews, comparisons, etc.

I purchased my car in 2004, so I'm not sure if that's recent enough for you. But at that time, I had a 1991 Honda Civic that had treated me really well, so I was certain that I wanted another Honda. So while I did a lot of research and reading to inform myself, I didn't really do the kind of comparison shopping that you might find other people do. And, for what it's worth, I ended up buying a Honda CR-V.

Our next "big" purchase will likely be a new washer and dryer. Our dryer has been on the fritz; it takes like two hours to dry a load and it is annoying. We're trying to hold out a bit longer, but I realllllly want one of those nice front-loading sets. I still have a lot of research to do on those. We'll see what happens.

Vanessa and another Anonymous poster touched on questions regarding my job.

Honestly, I try to stay away from blogging about my job. First of all, there's not usually anything terribly exciting to blog about. I'm in marketing and I do a lot of writing for a living, so I feel like... why would I want to continue writing about that in my free time? Besides, I don't think there are a lot of people who would find it interesting! As far as further education or exciting things that may happen/were expected to happen, I'll just say that there is really nothing new to share. If I made some big life change, it would be hard not to blog about it, so I'm sure you'll all know if and when there is. :)

From Mrs.B.: Are there any home projects that you are doing/want to do? Do you still take orders for the aisle runners and banners? Do you have any great crafty tips?

Well, this year, we already did the big floor project, as well as the new sliding glass door and the addition of the pantry cabinet (all related to the floor project).

In 2009, we're thinking about more floors! We're definitely planning to replace our bathroom floor, and we'll also be looking into new carpeting. And of course, with us, we always go big or go home. We figure... if we're going to have the carpet ripped up anyway, we may as well take the opportunity to repaint. So if all that happens, that will be a very big project. After that, I don't think there's anything else we could possibly want to do before we eventually sell (a couple of years down the road). But who knows... as homeowners, there always seem to be more projects!

And no, I do not take orders for the aisle runners and banners. As soon as our wedding passed, I pretty much immediately felt as if I had "gotten over" all things wedding. It's weird how quickly things can change.

I can't think of any crafty tips that I haven't already shared!

Well, there are all of the Q&As so far. If you want to leave other questions, feel free to do so in the comments and I'll answer them with another post in the future.

Oh, and one other thing. That whole "secrecy" thing I posted about before? Some of you were speculating, and I hate to disappoint, but....

I am so not pregnant.

In all honesty, it just has to do with Christmas presents. There are a couple of gifts I want to share, but don't want to for fear of spoiling them. They're cool, but not THAT exciting!

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My first glimpse of a blog

Currently, I have numerous blogs flagged in my Google Reader, and check it every morning. I follow a number of blogs. I look back and wonder how it is that I got here. Where did I even learn about half of these blogs?

Back in 2004, before blogging exploded into what it is today, I have to admit that I didn't really know what a blog was. But you know what? I was reading one.

At work one day, I was going through a recent copy of the Dallas Morning News, and I came across an article about a baby girl named Allie. I don't even remember the specifics of the article, but I know it caught my attention.

A baby girl fighting leukemia.

Her mother keeping family, friends, and strangers updated through daily posts on an "online journal." (Funny looking back on it; the word blog wasn't even being used.)

The article provided the URL to the journal: www.scotthousehold.com. I logged on, and found myself captivated by a tiny girl with big blue eyes and chubby cheeks. A happy, bouncing baby who had an all-out war going on inside of her little body.

On a slow day at work, I remember spending hours reading through all of the post archives, getting to know this family through Jenny Scott's words. After that, I kept tabs on the Scotts through Jenny's blog. Sadly, a few short weeks after I started reading, Allie passed away.

This Saturday will mark the fourth anniversary of Allie's death. And you know what? I'm still reading. Her mom now blogs over at Mama's on a Playdate. Since 2004, Jenny has been through a lot. Around January 2005, Jenny teamed up with another mother who had lost her daughter to leukemia. They started a non-profit organization called Heroes for Children, which provides assistance to families dealing with cancer in the state of Texas. Allie not only changed Jenny's life in the obvious ways... she also influenced her career. Prior to Allie becoming sick, Jenny was a teacher. Now, she celebrates as her hard work as a non-profit director results in Heroes for Children growing every single year.

Also in early 2005, Jenny announced on her blog that she was pregnant again. She gave birth to another baby girl, Maggie, in October 2005. I've watched her grow (she's almost 3 years old now!). Very strange to think about.

Through Jenny, I've also found some other blogs that I have been following regularly. Friends of hers, including:

- A bleeding heart liberal from Rhode Island, teacher, and mother of three, who now finds herself living in the heart of a red state. With a wicked sense of humor.

- A child/family photographer who is about to adopt a child.

- A mother of four, including a set of twins.

OH! And it's through one of them that I found one of my favorite blogs: Boobs, Injuries, and Dr. Pepper. Crystal makes me bust out laughing on a regular basis.

My weekday morning routine now consists of CNN.com, e-mail, and my Google Reader blogs. They are just a part of life now!

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Life is beautiful.

Every once in a while in life, something comes along and smacks you in the face. You know, just to give you some perspective.

This happened to me yesterday. A seemingly random couple of clicks landed me on a blog that I have since been unable to get out of my head.

I was on The Knot message boards, killing a little bit of time reading random posts, and then I clicked on the blog link in Michelle's signature. I skimmed back through a couple of posts and found a link to the blog of Matt Logelin. In her post, Michelle had mentioned that the blog made people cry. She had been talking about infertility and tragedy in her post. About the blog, I thought--maybe someone who lost a child?

I clicked on the link to Matt and started reading some of the most recent posts. At first, I thought--there is no way I can read this blog--his writing style is certainly unique (I got used to it). My second thought was that I could not understand what happened. He had pictures up of a beautiful, seemingly healthy baby girl... why is this guy's blog so sad? "Life and Death in 27 hours"--what does this mean? Then I started to notice that there was not a mommy ever pictured with the baby. All the pictures were of Matt and his daughter.

Upon further exploration, I saw a link up on the top right that said, "If you've never been here before." I clicked on it and proceeded to read a fairly short recap (Matt's writing is definitely succinct) of his tremendously horrific story.

Matt's daughter was born prematurely on March 24.

A short 27 hours later, on March 25, his absolutely beautiful wife, Liz, died suddenly of a pulmonary embolism.

Mere minutes before she was supposed to hold their daughter for the first time.

Uhh, yeah. I'll give you a minute to wipe your tears.

I mean, seriously. There is not much that is more sad than a story like that.

I keep asking myself what is so special about this guy, Matt. Why has his story affected me so deeply? He's not the first man to ever lose his wife and have to raise a child (or children) on his own. But I guess it is the manner in which he lost her that makes this story especially sad. It was supposed to be the happiest time of their lives. Instead, it turned into some mess of emotions. The happiest times and the worst of times... all rolled into one.

Shortly after his daughter's birth and his wife's death, a grandmother of another baby in the NICU actually told Matt he should give his baby up for adoption. And in reality, he really could have done that. But he didn't. Every day, he gets up and works through his pain to care for his beautiful baby girl. And although it's what he should be doing as a father, I still can't help but feel admiration for him.

If I didn't just completely ruin your day, you should check out his blog. Is it depressing? Hell yes. But at the same time, it is truly uplifting. An example of how life truly does go on. With the end of a life, came the beginning of a life. It's an odd thing. And reading it--crying and smiling simultaneously--I think it's possible to catch just a glimpse of the emotional rollercoaster he is riding every day.

I've read through two months of his posts (and a few other random ones here and there) since discovering his blog, and it's been humbling to "watch" his grief process. Good days, bad days... they are all there on the blog. His writing is so simple, yet so deep... and you can feel his raw emotions through reading.

I just think it is an amazing, amazing story. And I wanted to share.

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