2013 Craziness

The end of 2012 to the start of 2013 has to be the craziest days of our lives. It all started when our Honeybaked ham delivery went missing. Someone from UPS probably ate it. Then, Dad and Joan came to visit us for a week. It was fun spending time with them, especially for Oliver, but it was also very tiring to be out all the time in the cold weather. To add to the holiday stress, we went to Macy's to see Santa and waited 3 hours. Oliver was so patient the whole time. Dad almost passed out while waiting in line. And Oliver ended up saying after we got home "That's the last time we'll be doing that." Then Joan had some allergic reaction to something and they ended up spending almost a whole day at the ER on Christmas eve! 

Christmas day luckily had no major drama. We had a nice brunch at our place, with our substitute ham with a homemade glaze. Chris's mom came from New Jersey for the day and we all enjoyed a nice meal and opened "a zillion" presents. Oliver has been a very good boy all year and his presents proved it. However, the next day we woke up to the news that our good friend/landlord who is 71, fell and broke his hip. I also received an email from our tenants at Crescent Heights with a long list of repairs. Not the way I'd like to start the day.

Just when we thought we're out of the woods of bad news, we were woken up on New Year's morning at 7am by the pounding on our front door from our landlady Elaine. She had an intruder in her home standing in her bedroom!  This is while her husband is still at the hospital recovering from hip surgery. We spent New Year's day talking to the the police and trying to figure out what happened. Luckily no one was hurt and nothing was taken. We all took it as a wake up call (literally) to be more cautious and up the security of the building. 

And then...2 days later Elaine broke her toe. 

Even though these things didn't really happen to us. We've had to jump in and help take care of things. Len and Elaine are like family to us and they were so grateful we were here to help them out through a tough time. We ended up having a New-er Year dinner after Len was out of the hospital to start the year over. We each held a ball and dropped it after a count down. Oliver loved it, and I feel like that will become a new tradition for us.

The drama continues with some major changes with Chris's work that became a big stress for us. Although we've been very optimistic about changes and welcome the transition. 

Just to add a cherry on top of all the madness, my dear friend for 16 years has decided that she no longer wants to be friends with me. It makes me very sad that we've been through so much together and have grown very close, but maybe our lives are going in different directions and we have drifted apart. A very wise 4 year old said this to me. "I still want to be her friend. Maybe she is tired from playing with you. So play with some other friends for a while and maybe she will play with you again later." (Thank you Oliver, you are amazing and I really appreciate your advice.)

The good news is the Dooley 3 are resilient and feeling stronger than ever.  Did I say 3? I mean the Dooley 4!  Yes, I am now carrying baby #2. It's a much different pregnancy than with Oliver. Much more nausea and exhausted all the time. I'm at 14 weeks now and finally is feeling a little better. We haven't told Oliver yet. Waiting till we know the gender before we make him officially big brother. I'm already so proud of him for being super caring and understanding when I've been too "sick" to play with him. This baby is very lucky to have a big brother like him. 

Meanwhile, I'm continuing to teach Mandarine at Imagine, working on a some freelance design projects, and working on getting my certificate for becoming a parenting instructor. I'm excited about 2013 and feeling more calm and at ease with where I'm at in this stage of my life. I'm working towards a more simpler life filled with happiness and peace. Whatever craziness that comes our way, I feel grounded enough to handle anything.