I'm Back...

It’s been 373 days (give or take a few days...) since my last blog post. And I’m back… mostly because my mom has taken to cyber-stalking me on Facebook and coming to all the wrong conclusion about 10 word posts. She needs a little more information about what’s going on in my life so I’ve decided to try and re-start the blog.

I say “try” because there have been some changes since I wrote my last post, mainly that I’ve gone back to work… full-time. So this is no longer a blog written by a stay-at-home mom to try and keep her family in the loop about the daily goings-on and maybe let another stay-at-home mom know she isn’t alone. Instead, it’s now a blog written by a working-mom who can barely keep it together. It will still be full of chaos and mayhem and lots of photos. The big difference is where I go during the day.

So, to get you up to speed, here is what the family has been up to over the past year:

• Chloe is now 2 (going on 25) and she has brought my mother’s curse to fruition. She is just like me… opinionated, stubborn, and a handful.
• Evan is now 4 (going on cutest boy alive) and has settled into himself. He finally understands consequences, follows direction, and gives me plenty of free time to handle Chloe. Oh, and he has totally fallen for the elf. And while I use it as a bribery technique, I do have some concerns about him constantly asking me if he is being good or bad…. $25 to his therapy fund.
• As a family we’ve seen some really great local parks / attractions (Great Falls MD and VA, Kilgore Falls, MD, National Zoo, Glen Echo Park, MD Renaissance Fair, Green Meadows Farm, etc) and we’ve had some adventures (Chincoteague, VA / Assateague, MD with friends, Luray Caverns, Shenandoah National Park, Pine View (family home in the Poconos), Walt Disney World and trips back and forth to New Jersey).
• For work I’ve travelled to Tucson, AZ, Denver, CO, Dallas, TX and Orlando, FL. Which means that Brian got to figure out how to be a single parent while I was away. It was a rough beginning for him but he figured it all out – especially once he decided his main mission was just to keep the kids alive while I was gone.
• I’ve lowered my standards for the definition of clean and I do a lot of cooking on the weekends which has worked out so far (oh, and I bought everyone extra pairs of underwear in case laundry doesn’t get done quite as often as it used to).
• And, I’ve started working out. About time to lose the “baby weight”… you know, since I haven’t had a baby in our house for over a year.

So I don’t know what I’ll be writing about, but I’m sure it will be entertaining and I know it will give my mother a sense of ease. But since I never have a plan about much of anything I’m pretty sure it will work out. Because one way or another it always does.

Until then, enjoy these 2 beautiful children:

Evan at Great Falls, VA

Evan and Chloe playing dress-up

Evan and Chloe playing dress-up... again

My two sleeping beauties

Chloe licking the whipped cream off of a beater while wearing her Spiderman pajamas