Here's to the new decade!!

A lot of people think about their lives in 10 year segments...usually moving from their 20s into their 30s, 30s into their 40s...while I was excited about turning 30, it seems like the new decade starting is a good time to reflect on the last 10 years of my life...what a decade it's been!!

11 years ago (tomorrow, in fact) I met Scott at Buffalo Wild Wings.  If I had known then what would happen in the next ten years, I never would've believed I could be so lucky.  Thankfully, I know how lucky I am and am grateful for that day.  

In 2001, Scott and I moved in together.  It started with a drawer, and without any huge discussions or angst, became the beginning of our lives together.  We got a cat, had great friends, we worked a lot, and drank a lot of beer.  We got engaged at Christmas time.  

In 02, we were still working, drinking, but planning a wedding at the same time. 

We were married in 2003, Scotty was born in 2004.  We lived in a small apartment, didn't have any money, but we got through it.  

In 2005, I started working for Rockingham Group, we moved into a slightly larger, but still small apartment, had a little bit more money, bought a kid-friendly vehicle, and  realized we were going to need something more...our family wasn't finished growing yet.  

In 2006, we bought our home, Scotty had his first trip to Nags Head, Reina was born, we made new friends in our new neighborhood.  This was also the year that we said goodbye to our good friend, Jason Aholtz.  

2007 was a hard year...I lost one of the best friends I've ever had.  Mo was by far, the most kind-hearted, giving, honest and caring person I've known.  I will miss her as long as I live.   I also left RG to work for one of their agents and continue to be grateful for the Echards for hiring me!

In 2008, we got Annie - the best dog in the whole world.  We became accustomed to cleaning up dog hair and pee.  

In 2009, Scotty started Kindergarten and we met new neighbors who introduced us to the greatest invention of the century...STUMP!

This last year has been amazing-we had some hard times - Scott had his 3rd back surgery after being in an incredible amount of pain, and was out of work for 3 months.  But, it's been good too...my kids are great - they have incredible brains, personalities and senses of humors.  

We added our last member of the family - Jax, who was incredibly sick as a puppy, but is, as of last week, is off meds and doing very well.   

Of course, there is too much to include everything in one post, but we've been lucky to make new friends, reconnect with old ones we lost touch with...we've discovered new music, new love and met many new milestones.  There have been vacations, weddings, births, baptisms, and funerals as well as concerts, parties, movies, cook-outs, tickle sessions and cuddling.  

I don't know how the next 10 years will compare - but, I know they will not be dull nor boring.  My wish for myself, my family and all of you is that the blessings will continue, health will be good and fun will be had.  Happy New Year and Decade, everyone!  oxoxo

This week in the Yelverton household...

It's been a fairly quiet week here...a few cool things happened...

Scott and I dragged ourselves out of bed for the Lunar Eclipse Monday night/Tuesday morning.  It was a pretty cool thing to see.

Before:

We took this picture at about 10:30pm Monday night.  It was a full, BRILLIANT moon.  There weren't any clouds close by and we had high hopes for the eclipse!



And in full eclipse:

 We set our alarm to get up around 2:30am.  We went out, and it had clouded up a little, but the first glimpse up in the sky took my breath away - and it wasn't just because of the cold.  To see the moon looking like this was admittedly eerie!  I could totally understand why ancient people would take celestial events as omens.  We only got a clear view for a few minutes before the cloud banks rolled around.  But, what a view it was!!!  It was also cool knowing that his particular lunar eclipse happened on the Winter Solstice - that won't happen again for hundreds of years.  It's also cool knowing that from here on out, the days will be getting longer and we are that much closer to spring, warm weather, flip-flops, coolers of beer and STUMP!!!  YAY!

Reina and Scott also put on some pretty funny dance/singing performances for us on Tuesday night.  The videos were taken right after their baths, and, well...I'll just let you see for yourselves.

In this first one, Reina found something in her shoe...wait for the dramatic crescendo at the end...

In this one, Scotty and Reina perform a duet, with a special guest appearance...

(Excuse my cough at the very beginning...still trying to get rid of the crud)

She gets a bit dizzy here...and Scotty is hanging out in the curtains waiting for his big break...

HAHAHAHAHAH!!  Hope this makes you laugh as much as it does me.  And I hope everyone has a very happy, safe and joyful Christmas.  Hug your family, your babies and enjoy every crazed minute of this holiday!!!

Elf on the Shelf meet God the Mad Scientist *Mwahahaha*

This morning, Scott got up to go to work.  I was sort of half awake and heard him get in the shower.  After he made it downstairs, I jolted awake and realized that I forgot to move Pointy, our elf on the shelf. 

If you've never heard of "Elf on the Shelf" how it works is that each Christmas season, your elf (which you get to name yourself) comes to your house along with the decorations.  It spends the day watching your behavior.  Every night, after you go to bed, using elf magic, your elf flies to the North Pole and reports to Santa who was naughty and who was nice.  The next morning, he hides in a new place.  If he comes in contact with human hands, he loses his magic and will not be able to fly home.  

Needless to say, I forgot.  I heard Scotty's voice downstairs, so I thought I'd text Scott and let him know.  Maybe he could move him if Scotty hadn't noticed yet.  This is what I got back and my succinct response: 

I laid awake wondering how I would talk to Scotty about why Pointy didn't move last night.  What questions would he have?  How could I explain WHY I was moving Pointy in the first place.  Now, my kid is really smart, I mean REALLY... I figured if he asked, I would explain to him about how Pointy is just a representation of the actual elf who comes to our house to make sure the kids are good...or maybe, I would tell him that its a representation of how Santa keeps an eye on kids, that Pointy is a daily reminder to be good.  Oh, I know, I thought to myself...I could use God to help explain it...we never SEE God, but we know he's there, we talk to him, he talks and acts through us.  Scotty went to a fairly God-fearing pre-school, I thought he'd understand that. 

Then my stream of consciousness took over

That got me thinking about God, and how we view God, it made me think of a conversation Scott and I had about how to reconcile God (the unseen) and Science (the seen) - It's quite simple really, God is the ultimate Scientist.  I mean, how can he NOT be???  He created humans to have fingerprints!!  How cool are they?  Not only do the swirls on your fingers distinguish you from every other person on the planet, they help you keep from dropping wet glasses as you put them in the dishwasher.  Not a day goes by that I don't give thanks for my fingerprints.  

Our eyelids are AMAZING!!!  They have soft, moist edges that match up perfectly and create a seal to keep out almost everything...how could these things not be a product of the smartest, most ingenious inventor ever? 

AND...God gave us the ability to MAKE PEOPLE!  A female baby has all the eggs she's ever going to have...even though she won't need them for many years, there they are, just waiting to become something else.  

Then I thought about...what if God wasn't just a scientist, but a mad scientist??  It's not quite the matrix, but what if we're all robots, some experiment that worked...how genius is that??  He created things that are thinking, breathing, replicating, and when they (we) get worn out, or damaged, we die.  Over time, his little creatures figured out ways to extend life, heal some of the damage that may incur.  And when we do die, we even figured out how to dispose of ourselves.  If that isn't proof of a divine being, I don't know what is.   

And you know what, Scotty didn't even ask about Pointy.  SMH.

Bah, sorta....well not really, humbug!!

So, anyone who knows me, really, knows that I'm sort of a scrooge about

Christmas until about 2 weeks before Christmas.  There are a lot of things I dislike about Christmas, but there are some great things that by far outweigh the bad.  

I love that we've had snow already...twice...in December. 











I love that my dogs go crazy for the ice outside, they bite it off the sidewalk as fast as they can.  I love Reina singing "Jingle Bells, Jingle bells, jingle all the way, hey" over and over and over and over as she lays in bed before falling asleep.



I love "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer," "Frosty the Snowman" and the other cheesy Christmas songs.









Before picking out our Christmas tree, we had pizza at CiCis.  That made the kids SUPER happy:

Can't you tell??















Here's our tree: About halfway decorated...needless to say, we've
been busy, and we've spread the process out over the last 2 weeks.  I love that Scotty remembers every single ornament for our tree...he knows who gave it to us, how long we've had it, and usually remembers a story to go with it.

Tonight, we went to Scotty's school for his Holiday Program/Spotswood Elementary 50 year Anniversary celebration.  Not only did he do GREAT during the program, our good friend, Trent Wagler gave the class a big assist on the guitar.  That made me really happy!





I love my new winter hat for the 15 degree weather we've had:










I love the way my Christmas lights look on my house!

 I love stars, bowls full of

 Christmas lights and votive candles!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!!!!

Random stuff around my house...excuse the clutter

In a random moment of sweetness, inspired by the music in "Spirited Away" (which is a great movie...you should definitely check it out), my children decided to dance.  It was sooo cute!!!

My daughter, Pig Pen.  Reina is just her nickname.  Apparently she eats with her WHOLE face.

Scotty the Neeeeeeenja!

  

Hey, you darn dog, that's MY pillow!!!!!!

I think my headache has been a result of waiting for the Dexter season finale

I've always wanted to write this:

***WARNING...SPOILER ALERT!***WARNING...SPOILER ALERT!***

If you aren't all caught up on Dexter, please stop reading!

For those of who don't know Dexter and haven't heeded my warning, this is Dexter:

Dexter is played by Michael C. Hall.  He is a blood spatter anaylyst for the Miami Metro Police Homicide Division.  He is also a serial killer.  But he is so much more than that.  He takes care of the unsolved murders, the guys who got off on technicalities, or the bad guys who truly "deserve" to die.  He's smart, methodical and doesn't even need a search warrant.

Without going into an explanation of 5 seasons worth of plotlines, just know he's badass.



At some point this summer, Scott and I started streaming Dexter on Netflix.  We watched the first 2 seasons in about 2 weeks.  After the first season, we were hooked and ready to buy our own Henleys and start taking out the bad guys.  We signed up for Netflix so we could watch the rest of them.  We watched the 3rd and 4th seasons just in time for the 5th (and current) season to start.  For the price of our Netflix subscription, we added Showtime to our cable subscription and started watching the current episodes.  We finished episode 11 on Monday night and I have been stressed out all week waiting to find out what happens.

This is Lumen...isn't she cute?  She is played by Julia Stiles and she steals every scene that she's in.  She's beautiful, vulnerable, poignant and out for revenge.  She was kidnapped, tortured, tormented and raped by 5 men until Dexter found her.  Dexter helps her get vengeance, takes her under his wing and of course, into his bed.  At first, I was hoping they wouldn't start a romantic relationship, because Dexter is horrible at them, but in his defense, it must be hard work trying to maintain the I'm-not-a-serial-killer persona.

So, now they're lovers, a killing team; she learning the "trade" from him and dishing out the bastards' just-desserts.  And they are so cute together.  The writers did a great job showing Dexter as different with her and the actors do a brilliant job.

In the last episode, Lumen is captured and taken by the last of her torturers...Dexter arrives too late to save her, but finds a bloody knife that belonged to Lumen, so its hopeful that she got a good stab in before being abducted again.  We are left at the end of the episode not knowing where she's been taken.  AAACK!!!  I am so worried about her!!


The other storyline that I'm seriously invested in is that of Deb and Quinn.  Deb is played by Jennifer Carpenter and is Michael C. Hall's real-life wife.  She is a tough, savvy, foul-mouthed detective who has had more than her fair share of shit (her word, not mine-hah!) thrown at her during this show.  Her partner on the show is Quinn, played by Desmond Harrington (of "Wrong Turn" fame - double hah!) and they, too have become lovers.  Now, the plotline is really twisty, in part because Dexter caught Quinn stealing evidence, Quinn suspected Dexter to be involved in the murder of Rita, Dexter's late wife and hired a shady ex-narc cop to check him out.   Quinn also dropped the "L-Bomb" on Deb.

Now, Deb knows that Quinn was checking Dexter out behind her back and sees that as a betrayal.  So, she's not speaking to Quinn right now.  That makes me sad, because not only are they really great together, Quinn and Deb are mine and Scott's alter egos when throwing Darts.


Ever since Monday, I've had a horrible headache...dull achy pain behind my eyes, behind my forehead and under my temples.  Advil, Advil Cold and Sinus and Excedrin Migraine have failed to give me any relieft.  My only hope is some Advil PM...or the season finale on Sunday night.

On a side note, I'm pretty sure that the bad guy from the 2nd Terminator movie is Desmond Harrington's long lost father: