12 Lessons Learned in 2009

1. An ipod is waaaay better than a "spongepod".
This was a year of techno tragedy for me.  My beloved ipod which I affectionately called "The Brick"...it died. It actually got a frowny face on its screen when I attempted to revive it.   The thing's been my companion for over decade, which is why it's called "the brick", it was an original.  You know,  the ones that felt like they weighed ten pounds,  almost half an inch thick.  Yes that ipod, and I totally got made fun of for still using such a dinosaur.  But I loved the thing. It was 60 gigs full of pure joy, no video, no cover art, just pure music. And with its massive weight, it added some strength training when I jogged with it.

Because  I am a lover of music, this tradgedy soon had me suffering with drawls from living a life unplugged.  My music/audiobook/language lesson cravings became more than I could take.  After the first day of silence I began to get the shakes and knew something drastic needed to be done.  In a feverish attempt to get a fix, I rummaged through Connor's closet and found a temporary solution...I call it "The Spongepod".  It helped with my horrible music withdrawals and eased some of my symptoms temporarily.  But what I learned was that the sound quality of my ipod serenading me from my Bose docking station, well it's A LOT better than a spongepod.   But it's all I've got for now.

2. If you like it, it will be discontinued.
If I could choose one word to sum up 2009 it would be "discontinued".  So many favorite things that I just can't get anymore.  It almost keeps me awake at night.  Here's some of the things I miss the most:

• Italian hot chocolate at Starbucks
• Ginger Body Soufle from The Body Shop
• One of my favorite restaurants, Pasta Piatti, changed their menu.  Now where do I find the best bruchetta and bistecca??  This is why I went there.
• My favorite household cleaners: Lysol's Rain Clean, Shower Power (should have been called Stainless Sink Power if you ask me), Comet with the handy flip cap, and that great smelling Lysol disinfectant that came in the white and purple sprayer.
• Nitro Circus.  What will Connor and I watch on TV together now?
• Zicam.  Who cares if it ruins your sense of smell! It was good stuff!  Besides, most would agree that the life of a parent would be much better off without our sense of smell.  It's a stinky business raising kids.
  
• "The Brick", goodbye dear friend, you will be missed.  They just don't make them like you anymore.
• My Thirties. Discontinued.
  

 3.  I'll never be a sniper, I have bad aim.
The full story on this one is found here on my other blog...Diabetes Diaries but suffice it to say that I'm still getting used to changing Chloe's insulin pump and I'm still not very good at it.  The poor girl.  Here's the shorter less humorous version of my lesson learned.

Chloe called me from school a few weeks ago because her insulin pump ran out of insulin.  I went down to fill it back up, but when you do, you also have to change the needle out that goes into her body.  To change it you use this lovely mechanism I lovingly call "The Torpedo" because it looks like a rocket launcher with a very long very scary looking needle at the end of it .  You load the thing, cock the darn thing back, aim, and press a trigger (I stop short of yelling, "Fire in the Hole!" because it tends to scare everyone).  I got everything ready then I numbed the place on her belly where I was trying to put it (meaning STAB HER WITH IT).  Sure enough, I pressed the trigger and totally overshot my target!  Poor Chloe turns red and holds her breath to keep from screaming.  She didn't let out a peep but she sure furrowed her brows at me to give me a warning look that I had totally screwed up.  When the threat of a painful scream had abated, she took a deep breath and said, "Mom, you really need to get better at that."  Lesson learned, I'll just never be a sniper, I've got bad aim.  I'm now looking for victims volunteers who will let me do a little target practice on them, it's for a good cause...any takers?

4. We're lucky to have a techno-geek living in the house.
Need your home computers all networked together? No problem.  Want a central printer to wirelessly take orders from any computer anywhere in the house? No problem.  This is all due to Mitchell our techno-geek.  He is handy to have around.  When he leaves for college we're worried we'll have to pay someone to help us change our TV's input from satellite to DVD cause he's the only one who knows how to do it.  The kid rebuilt my laptop after it flat lined (I might mention this happened just three days after my ipod died) and he also loads all our videos so they're blog-ready.  Mitchell also has our 26 digit number/letter password for our internet memorized so we never have to look it up; he can recite it in his geeky sleep.  We're lucky to have this kid around, but don't tell him that, he'll start charging us hourly fees.


5.  Pardon the expression but...If you blog something bad about your cat, you'll piss it off.  Literally.
Just hours after I posted my cat hating blog entry Political Coup, the dang thing found my down coat in our mudroom and sprayed it.  It's never ever done anything like this before.  This is war.


6. We can actually answer the age old question of how much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.
The answer is: A LOT more than the boys bargained for.  Our house has a really amazing wood stove we built into a fireplace.  It's recessed into the rock so it doesn't even look anything like the old wood stoves used to.  We keep it burning all winter long and our house gets so warm we wear shorts in the winter and usually have windows and doors open.  Most folks come over fully bundled for the winter and quickly shed most of their clothes.

Poor Connor and Mitchell have learned that wood heat warms twice.  Once when you cut and stack it, and then again when you use it in the stove.  We love the cozy heat, but the boys dread all the work.  Little do they know we just like keeping them outside and out of trouble.


7.  Pushing your sister out of an airplane is one of life's true pleasures.

Back in July I decided that I was gonna turn 40 kicking and screaming as I hurled myself out of a plane.  Best decision ever.  But an even greater and most unexpected pleasure sprung up from the whole adventure.  I talked my sister Steph into going with me.  She did not like the idea whatsoever but I insisted.  I jumped last so that I could watch her take the big leap and I'll never forget it.  Her face was frozen with fear, her arms crossed over her chest, fists clenched for dear life on her parachute straps, and the distinct shape of her mouth as she looked at me from the edge of the open door and formed the words "I hate you".  Then she was gone.  For me, that was more thrilling than the actual jump! (Birthday Blog)

8.   I still cave under peer pressure at the age of 40.
This one is the most embarrassing lesson I learned this year (yes, even worse than lesson #10).  I knew it was wrong and that I should have never tried it.  I should have just said no.  I even resisted at first but everyone was doing it.  Oh, I'm sooo ashamed.

I went to see New Moon.  There I said it.  I don't even like Twilight.  In fact, I hate it.  But when a huge group of friends all invited me to go I totally caved in.  I even explained to them my strong aversion to the book, the movie, the whole lameness of it all and turned them down the instant they asked me.  But they kept insisting.  So I went.

I don't think they'll ever invite me back because I spent the whole time choking back the giggles.  I watched the whole affair with my scarf tightly over my mouth that I removed only when a shirt-less Jacob appeared on the screen which I felt required loud mocking cat-calls. 

Hopefully all the girls will forgive me.  They are a great bunch of fun.  The movie was just a little too much for a self-proclaimed tomboy like me.  You'll notice I'm the only one in the photo that doesn't sport a fancy New Moon shirt (but I did steal a friend's weird Jacob pillow which she brought to the theater).  Unfortunately I couldn't find my t-shirt that says "I'd rather be home bathing my cat" or I'd have worn it.

9.   I can flirt in French.
Seriously, I got really good at it.  Unfortunately it only worked on men over 75.  But what the heck.  This past spring I got to brush up on my crappy high school french when I spent a month sailing around a bunch of french speaking Caribbean islands (Touring the Leewards).  By the third island, I often had an entourage of really old Frenchmen following me around.  Good to know that at 40 and still got it, even if it is with just the over 70 crowd!


10.  I'm a total idiot.

This lesson will not surprise you.  I'm a little slow so I'm just now picking up on my personal failings in the smart department.  I'm sure most of you have suspected or even confirmed my idiocy for years.  So how did I come to learn what most of you already know?  A toothbrush.  Yes, that's right.  A toothbrush.

You see, I have a favorite one I've been using for a couple of years.  Actually, not the same one, don't be alarmed.  I mean the same BRAND of toothbrush.  It's got a great handle and medium bristles that are great for scrubbing teeth.  I love a good toothbrush.

About a month ago I  updated our toothbrush inventory and decided Mark should give my brand a try.  I threw his old one out and switched it for the new one and waited to see if he noticed.  Later that day he remarked, "I love that new toothbrush you got me.  The motorized bristles are awesome."

"Motorized bristles?" I said with a look of bewilderment.

After some serious jokes at my expense, I went and studied my beloved brand of toothbrush that I've been using for over three years.  Sure enough it's motorized.  No wonder the darned thing is so expensive!  So that's what the plus and minus on the handle were for!  I'm an idiot.  What can I say?


11.  Put on your shoes.

This is a hard lesson to learn but we're doing it.  We don't think about it, we just put on our shoes and get out there.  It's brought more energy and health to our lives.  Mark completed his first triathlon in which he placed second in his age group...and my sister Steph, my sister Wendy, and I all ran in our first couple of races. Wendy is a gladiator woman, she kicks my behind every time.  Most days it isn't what we want to do but we've learned to just put on your shoes.  ( Mark's Tri )

12.  Weddings are expensive. 
Throwing a reception in the backyard sounds cheap.  It isn't.

Finding a new son that fits perfectly into the family, a blessing.


12.5   I am blessed to have amazing friends and family.
Throwing a reception in the backyard sounds easy.  It isn't.  I learned that I have some pretty amazing friends (you know who you are...Petersens...and Lesley) and some hard working family members who let me boss them around in the kitchen, the yard, and everywhere else.  I still get teary and overwhelmed with feelings of deep gratitude for our amazing friends and family who helped me pull off one blissfully perfect day.