This was not the plan

How many times have we all said that?

This was not the plan.

This wasn't even the plan for this post. I want to have some great insight to offer about how to survive difficult seasons of your life because Lord, it has been a long one. To sit here on my bed, computer in my lap, and say something that will help uplift someone. But the truth is that I am only in my room because I am hiding out. My parents are downstairs and, quite frankly, making me absolutely insane. I cannot watch one more episode of "Pimp My Ride" or the other nonsensical shows that have been playing on a loop without losing my mind. I thought that putting the spare tv in the guest bedroom would encourage them to watch tv in that room. Oh how wrong I was. So rather than biting my already bruised and bleeding tongue, I am hiding out.

Disclaimer: I am very certain that my father doesn't even know I have a blog and my mother might know that such a thing exists, but she certainly has never read it. For those of you who may not have met them and worry that I am offending.

So here I sit, sipping my drink, and contemplating a way to share all of what is going on here in this circus of my life that will include words other than expletives. The long and short of it is, that the only thing to say is that the Ringling Brothers ain't got nothing on this. So I have traded in writing for diapers and bottles and another lap around the house with a fussy baby. And the most exciting thing in my life right now is that I have figured out how to make my Fitbit count my steps when I'm carrying the baby in my arms. For tonight that will have to be enough.

One day, one day, there will be a new plan. A plan with vacations and sand and road-trip sing-a-longs and enough laughter to fuel us forever. But for tonight this will have to be enough.

A tale of two houses

Do you know what the definition of insanity should be? Trying to move with a very active 6-year-old and a fussy 3 month old baby. Even more insane is when you're trying to move everything yourself over the course of a couple of weeks instead of just packing it all up and doing it in one or two days. Originally I thought that it would be easier since I could take things that were already packed and get them out of the way. However, that just means that half of what I need is at each house, and never in the house that I need it to be at in the moment. In hindsight, I might have been incorrect in my assessment of what it would take to move.

This weekend was the final push and everything is officially under the same roof. Of course there are 14 million boxes and my whole extended family running around so it is about as chaotic as you would imagine. There is a distinct possibility that at this exact moment, I am hiding in a closet in order to write. I wasn't even really looking to write anything profound, just get out whole sentences that weren't me trying to figure out what to feed the hungry people around me demanding to be fed.

Not that I am not grateful to those people, because I am. There is absolutely no way that I could have moved without the enormous amount of help from the people that came to pitch in. I am just also incapable of making any more decisions at the moment, even if it's just what we want to be delivered, pizza or Chinese.  So I'm going to sit here in my quiet closet for five more minutes and do nothing in the glorious silence before I rejoin the land of the living. I'd stay a bit longer, but I forgot my glass of wine, and I'm a girl with priorities so I guess I shall have to head back out for now!

A year of changes

As we bring 2015 to a close and I reflect back on the last twelve months, I can't help but wonder how exactly I've managed to remain sane. Well sane-ish...I gave up on actual sanity years ago. It certainly has been a year of unexpected changes, some welcome, some not. I've joked with friends that rather than 'Gratitude', my word(s) for this year should have been 'expletives'. It doesn't really matter which one because they've all been rolling off my tongue in rapid fire succession in the midst of the years' events. I have tried to remain as positive as possible throughout everything that has happened. I have failed completely, laughed it off, and poured another drink. Now you all know that I'm a gin girl through and through.

BUT...

Apparently when the going gets tough the tough develop a taste for bourbon. Not that lately I've had much time for sitting and sipping on cocktails. Lately, I've been mainlining all of the caffeine I can handle. Coffee, soda, red bull, you name it, I'm drinking it. I have never been so tired or so full of joy in my life. If you're thinking it sounds like there's a new baby in our house, well, you'd be right.

I'd like you to meet Kinsley Blair Anderson, who we affectionately call KB. She was born the day before Thanksgiving and is the cutest little peanut ever. The story of how she came to live with us is long and complicated and really doesn't matter nearly as much as the fact that we love having her! As you can imagine, Alaina is beside herself with glee at the opportunity to play with a live baby doll.

Aren't they sweet in their pretty Christmas Dresses? Of course, what you're not seeing is me in the picture because 20 minutes of wrestling a newborn into tights left me a hot, sweaty mess. Which was absolutely worth it to see them dressed up together but not something I needed photographic evidence of. Let's just go ahead and assume that the only pictures coming up will be of the tiny humans since we all know that no one has time for mascara around here these days. But that's okay. They're cuter than the rest of us anyway.

Even when they're making crazy eyes at me for taking yet another picture because the one million that I've already taken just aren't enough.

Happy New Year!