In lieu of an actual post (insert promise of real content here…), check out my baby belly at 27 weeks!  Only 13 weeks left…

We hope you all had a great Holiday season - and we are wishing everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous 2009.  2008 seems to be ending on an upward note, so we are hoping that the New Year continues in this upward trend.  To keep things light and help prevent those post-holiday blues, here is a little Christmas Cheer straight from Hazel.  Enjoy!

I feel like I’m waking up from some kind of dream/hallucination in which I had major surgery to remove my appendix while 4 months pregnant; went to two Thanksgivings; celebrated my husband’s 30th and my 29th birthdays; took care of a child with a cold and a double ear infection; wrote a statistics paper and took a final exam in said class; then to celebrate, Hazel, John, and I all got sick sick sick with a nasty intestinal bug while our basement flooded.  Sounds like a bad sitcom.  That’s what I have been up to for the last month.  I hope the beginning of your Holiday Season was a little more festive than mine has been so far!

But the good news is we are all healthy (knock on wood!) and my class is done and nothing of import got ruined in the basement.  It’s snowy out today, our christmas tree is glowing with red & white lights, and Hazel wants to watch my Frosty “DDD” for the hundreth time - who can refuse such Holiday spirit?!  So, in honor of my newfound holiday spirit, and because it’s better late than never, I have posted some NEW items in my etsy shop - just in time for all you last minute shoppers.  I’ll even throw in free priority shipping on all my items until 12/20!  I have to thank fellow crafter/etsy-er The Old Oak Tree for the nice shout-out on her blog today - thanks for motivating me to post!

I think this quote from Hazel’s favorite ‘DDD’ pretty much sums up this post: “Messy, Messy, Messy!”

Driving at the sun,
back in my publishing days,
book ended my work.

Blinded by our star,
forced to move in bright darkness,
I loathed my commute.

I now drive westward,
as the workday yawns to life,
the sun safe behind.

Once my labors cease,
I point my car to the east,
with no need to squint.

Nirvana’s a band,
and a state I reach daily
over four score miles.

I feel confident in my assumption that my 30s will be a lamb-like ten years of easy-to-deal-with stuff because my 20s are definitely going out like a fierce, roaring lion of doom. Yes, like The Jazz Singer of the apocalypse, with each second that ticks me closer to my 30th birthday, scores of flapper girls and Al Capone look-alikes are doing the Charleston on my psyche.

To start, last week I was laid off from work with no forewarning. The HR person didn’t know nor did anyone else save the Executive Director, who handled the matter personally. After working on a holiday, I came in the next morning only to turn around and head home for good before 10 a.m. To say that I was shocked would be an understatement. Like a (more) horrible (than usual) Lifetime movie, I suddenly found myself unemployed in a recession-ish economy with a young daughter and wife with-child at home, just as the unforgiving Maine winter begins to grow in strength. All I needed was a cameo by Judith Light or Valerie Bertinelli to prove my allegory apt.

Then, Megan checked into the hospital Thursday night with acute abdominal distress, which is the last thing you want for a pregnant woman who is only halfway to her due date. The diagnosis: appendicitis. Surgery: immediate. My drawers: in a tight bunch.

But, as is always the case, it is most important to stay positive when life seems jolly rotten. Hence my lack of posts until now; I needed some distance to get my head straight and realize that everything will be fine. And lo, it is. Megan’s surgery came off swimmingly and our unborn child is fine and still doing the backstroke in her belly (the doctor kind of dumbed things down for me a bit) and I already have secured a six-week work contract that will most likely turn into fulltime employment. Huzzah!

In lieu of a snappy closing rejoinder, just go watch the ending song to Life of Brian on YouTube.

A little-known side effect of being pregnant is that all the hormones cause the pregnant lady to have the strangest dreams.  Even when not pregnant, I have been known to have some pretty crazy dreams (I recall one in particular that featured a female Paul as Paulina), but lately my brain has been working overtime when the rest of me is trying to get some rest.  For your amusement and consideration, a dream I had last night:

Why can’t all of our men (by ‘our men’, I was referring to our friends & loved ones, not our military servicemen) retire with such dignity?

I think to my (dream) self approvingly as a number of my male high school classmates stroll onto the stage to give their retirement speeches wearing either Batman (with cape) or Spiderman footie pajamas.

Ah, the perfect combination of power and comfort.