Wordless Wednesday 14: New Year's Eve

I was going through my photos to select for Wordless Wednesday when I remembered my New Year's Eve pics. I hadn't even noticed that they turned out so great! We had a great time. Enjoy!

[caption id="attachment_860" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The family getting ready to end the year"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_858" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Lil man rockin' the Cars hat that Santa left him at Grandma's"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_859" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Watching the fireworks. He loves them!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_861" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="He loved the sparklers"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_857" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="He put on my beads and left us deaf with the horn!"][/caption]

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Thanks to Uisce for creating Wordless Wednesday.

What I'm thankful for this year

I meant to post this on Thanksgiving day, but it's been a hectic weekend, what with planning our trip, decorating for the holidays, and my recovery (still) from my back spasm.

The year 2010 has been very good to me. Not like 2009 when I spent most of the year battling depression and PPD after my miscarriage during the holidays of 2008. No, this year I vowed to change things up, and am so grateful for everything that's happened to me, and everyone around me. Am I depression-free? Heck, no! Did I lose all the weight I gained during the depression and hypothyroidism? Not even close! But I feel a LOT better, and can honestly say that I'm prepared for whatever 2011 has in store for me.

These are the things I'm most thankful for right now:

♥ My husband. Last week we celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary, and last Sunday we renewed our vows in church before God and our family. It was a short but very special act that proved that we're ready for our next 10 years. He has definitely been my rock, my best friend, and my soul mate. I can't imagine my life without him. Well, I can imagine it, but it's not pretty. If you want to know more about how I feel towards him, read my last post, 10 years of wedded... bliss? I just read it before starting to write this, and I'm still crying like a little girl. Please don't tell hubs, I need to keep my cool front!

♥ My son. The people who know me pre-child will NEVER believe this, but Daniel is the light of my life. Everyone always told me "your life will change completely once you become a mother", and I would always say "only if you want it to". Well guess what, turns out I wanted to! Everything that was important to me before seems so stupid and trivial now, and I have a whole new set of priorities that I would've never thought of before. I even used to criticize other moms about their obsessions with their children, and now I'm one of those moms, yikes! But loving every second of it. If you want an example of how motherhood has changed me, read this post, The Mommy in me.

♥ My family. This is a complicated one, because I've had so many negative situations with my family, that one would think that I would not include it here. But I am thankful. Friends come and go, and when friendships fail, there's usually nothing keeping you together. But with family it's different. You may have your downfalls, but come the next holiday or family gathering, and they're all there, and like it or not, you have to face them. I kinda like that, because it forces you to face the situation and move on. Besides, who else can you count on to tell you the truth to your face, not even caring if they hurt your feelings or not? Oh ya, feelings get hurt (A LOT!), but the truth is always told.

♥ My friends. As you can imagine, I don't have a lot of friends. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you probably don't know me in real life. What I mean is, friendships, like all relationships, take time and effort, and I usually forget to keep up with my friends. The few friends that I have probably don't even know this, but I treasure them deeply. I guess I'm more of a quality, not quantity kind of gal. Also? Twitter friends. Yes, I mean the ones where I only know their @ names, and live in a different country than I do (cue my family groaning in disgust and looking at me unapprovingly). Lately, I have gained a lot of friends who have a lot in common with me. Fellow mompreneurs who juggle motherhood, home businesses and/or corporate life, and home and family. They've been my sounding board to all my struggles, doubts, questions, and moral support. Most of my newfound clarity and outlook on life, I owe to them.

This is not a comprehensive list by any means, but I think these are the most important aspects of my life at this moment. I'm a firm believer that there is no such thing as a negative experience if you use it to learn and grow. The person you are now is the sum of ALL your experiences - the good, the bad, and the ugly. I love the saying "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger".

And by now I might as well be freaking HULK!!

10 years of wedded... bliss?

... I would say so.

Ten years ago today I walked down the aisle to meet my soul mate. I vowed to take him as my husband, to have and to hold, from that day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.

We definitely have had our ups and downs, but we have been able to talk through anything. We are as different as night and day. I'm a strong-willed loudmouth who doesn't let ANYTHING slide. I'm way too proud and self-centered. He is the complete opposite. He's a sweetheart and soft-spoken most of the time. He hates confrontation, and will let anything go if it means avoiding conflict. Do we fight? All. The. Time. OK, so it's mostly me fighting with him about something that he did or didn't do. Or didn't do the right way... OK, my way.

Honestly, I don't know how he puts up with me. But somehow he gets me. He knows exactly what to say and how to say it so that we can resolve all our issues. He is definitely my best friend. There's nothing that I can't talk to him about. If you ask him, he'll probably tell you that I talk too much, but he still listens to me, even when I go on and on...

So today I sit here, ten years later, completely prepared to say those vows again before God and my family, when we renew our vows this Sunday at church. I'm ready for the next ten years, and couldn't have asked for a better partner to share them with.

Now what to get that special person in such a special occasion? I was searching the Internet for the anniversary gift lists; there are 2 lists: traditional and modern. For 10 years, the traditional gift is tin/aluminum, and the modern gift is diamond jewlery. So if I'm a modern gal, which I believe I am, he can get me diamond jewlery - I'm not picky, any kind of jewlery will do. And if hubs is a traditional man, which he definitely is, I can give him a six-pack of beer? Ya, that seems fair...

Here's to 10 more years!

Family vs. Facebook?

I have a love-hate relationship with Facebook. When I first found out about it in early 2007, I thought this was a great platform to share my baby pictures with everyone, but what I was most excited about was finally getting in touch with my classmates and friends that I hadn't spoken to in years. Between people from school, college, sorority, the different jobs and the different choirs I've belonged to, my list quickly added up to 300+. I was so happy to chat with everyone and find out what they've been up to, and of course, show off my baby as well. :)

Then my family started joining.

At first I didn't see the harm in it. After all, I see them all the time, so it wasn't a big deal. We would even joke about whatever we saw on Facebook every time we had a family party.

Then the gossip issues started.

Slowly I noticed that they were taking things way too seriously and getting angry or criticizing everything that they read or saw. Things started turning south pretty quickly. Now I can put my family members into 3 categories:

1. Not on Facebook or very little interaction. These people take everything WAY too personal and get offended easily. They don't like it when people overshare, and feel like Facebook is a bad place where people are either mean or lying.

2. Gossips Investigators. These people may overshare or not share at all, but they're constantly checking everyone else's status and posts. They may comment or simply observe, but either way, they report back to the rest of the family what you said or shared.

3. Intruders. These people are not my friends, but have managed to either get into, or sit beside mutual friends while they were checking out my profile. I'm not lying, there are actual people in my family who have done this.

Now I'm left with two choices regarding Facebook:

1. I can watch what I say and share. This will undoubtedly cause me less trouble with my family. However, it goes against everything I stand for. You know, freedom of speech and all that bullshit.

2. I can block everyone who falls into the 3 categories above. The good thing about Facebook is I can control who sees my status, pics, and other posts. The problem? Explaining to the members of my family why they suddenly can't see my pics or wall. I think the reason why family conversations are awkward is because they usually don't know how to take a comment with an open mind, and tend to say things they wouldn't normally say to non-family members. Oh, and that sometimes includes me too.

So after debating the pros and cons of each, I have decided to implement the second one. My selling point was when I realized I was wasting too much time and energy thinking about all this. Also, I was going to have to think about this EVERY single time I posted a status to make sure it was filtered correctly.

I realized it wasn't worth it. I want to have a good experience on Facebook, and be able to interact freely with my friends, and be able to write what I want, when I want, without having to think about how people will interpret what I'm writing.

Now all I need is a volunteer to talk to my family for me...