Enjoy the Silence

I haven't been posting much because I haven't had anything really unusual to say lately. Life is puttering on. But I'll give you one of my world-famous fly-by updates just so you know I'm alive and kicking.

Project Runway: Apex (aka Fashion Intervention) is a complete and utter success. Apparently, throwing money at a problem DOES actually fix it. Since I've started wearing my designer duds, I have received an endless stream of compliments. Not just on the clothes, but also on my weight (which holds steady at 70lbs too much) and my skin (which has always been an asset of mine). My jaw is dragging the floor from the shock of how well this has worked. And of course, all the compliments have my confidence up, which just boosts the effects of the clothing.

Disney plans are forming. I've recently joined DisFriends, which is a MySpace for Disney Geeks and Nerds, and I fit right in. I've been trying to think of ways to finagle an April trip, we're already definitely going in October, and then I will probably go down for a Disney Geek convention in December. However, I'm not sure the wallet will support all that, so we're in a holding pattern at the moment. This is mainly because...

Our crawlspace runneth over. We had a termite inspection on Monday (an annual necessity here in the wood-chawing-beastie-friendly South) and the inspector found none of the little buggers. *YAY* She did find a very wet, almost rotted support beam and some insulation that resembles papier-mache. *BOOOOOOOO* Upon further inspection, Chris found two pipes that just seem to terminate right into our basement. The good news, it's not a leak. *YAY* The bad news, it's some sort of mixed-up backwards plumbing error (we assume) that will most likely take money (and/or several months of agonizing phone calls to our builder) to resolve. *BOOOOO*

Our children are well. This is a huge accomplishment, as they were sick off and on pretty much from May until Christmas. I'm finding myself wanting to put sneeze guards around them to keep them healthy and hearty.

Our house is half-organized. We've been cleaning and purging in an attempt to ready ourselves for some new furniture (a promised gift from Mom) and a new flat-screen tv (which Chris has been patiently waiting for for, oh, say, eight years now. And in cleaning and organizing, we find that life is generally just better. So we are actually keeping it pretty straight. This is also a big accomplishment for us... but it makes dull blog material. Moving on...

I've been dealing with a career crisis for two months now, trying to figure out what is missing in my job that is keeping me from totally loving it. I've done some soul-searching and I think I've found the answer. The best part is that I think the answer is in my current job... so I won't be following the four-year itch and trying to find something else. I'm going to wait it out. Once I decided that a couple of weeks ago, I've found that I'm doing much better at work than I had been and that makes me feel I've made the right decision. I'm juggling way too many balls at the moment, but if I pull it off, I'll really feel like I accomplished something, which I really NEED to feel at this point.

And finally, we're about to hold the ninth annual Holiday Party. This year, we pushed it off until January in the hopes that it would be less stressful and more people would attend. We think attendence will remain about the same, but it IS less stressful. This weekend, I'm planning what to make and starting prep work. I'm cooking everything, which is what I used to do, and stopped when I was pregnant and nursing. So basically, this party is a symbol that our lives are stabilizing. Our kids are becoming more independent and I am finally completely comfortable with the title of "mom." Feels good.