ringing out 2011

ding ding ding!

I'll spare you the part where I talk about how absent I've been around these parts and jump right into the post.  to start, most of you know by now that I'm totally pregnant again.  We're thrilled and I'm already embracing maternity-wear.  I'm due July 12th, and we got to hear the baby's sweet, strong heartbeat Tuesday.  when I reminded my dr that I'm 38, he responded with, 'ah, a teenager', and Maggie gives us skeptical looks when we tell her there's a baby where obviously there's only Mama's awesome bellybutton.

it was a very, very busy last month and a half, and if our lives were always like they've been... well, they wouldn't be, because I would have long ago emotionally snapped and crawled into a corner to shake and eat pasta all day every day (I honestly do think about pasta a lot lately).

mgb has been consistently busy with his gig, with some time off to be able to stay home with Maggie.  he's been the absolute bee's knees, helping and doing the lion's share of the cooking in our crib.  lindabell has also been a VIP of late - we'd be in such a different situation without her willingness to come watch Maggie when we've both got to work.  I had a lot of loooong e-learning to slosh through - awesome courses like macro&microeconomics and pharmacology, to name a few - plus three audiobooks to try to finish before I could leave town for Christmas.  to add extra spice and excitement, one of my other clients ended up with surplus budget at the end of the year and instructed their project managers to spenditspenditspenditquick!!, so I ended up being pelted with multiple courses from multiple PMs.  which, aside from the limited-hours-in-the-day-finite-truth-thing, was a blessing for my household and all got (mostly) accomplished in the end.  by the time I wrapped up work before I left town for more work and the holiday, I honestly felt like my brain was made of soggy, shot-through paper mache and was actively rebelling against me, refusing to interpret even small words without stumbling and a dull ache.  I met Magz and mgb at the Galleria that night and felt positively giddy at being able to leave that particular form of work in the proverbial dust for at least ten days.

might I just say - one of the problems with churning out a lot of content in a short period of time is that you're not convinced anything you've done is actually any good.  which is an awful feeling.  if you work hard, you want to at least feel good about it.

After a few days recording anime in Dallas (which revealed itself to be a downright jolly la-la cakewalk compared to long-form reading), we finally headed to Hico to start celebrating the holiday.  we had such a lovely time at the ranch, and I so enjoyed getting to spend time with my family.  it was especially nice to get to see cousins and their kids - we always say we wish we saw each other more often, and always mean it.  on Saturday, we headed home to Houston to attend church Sunday morning and head to the Bells for Christmas Round Two, which was lovely lovely lovely despite Maggie starting to show signs of a cold.  we experienced such love, happiness, and generosity this Christmas with our families... how blessed we are for their presence and support!

Monday of this week I had nothing to do outside of my house, so I never left.  I did laundry and waxed domestic and wholly loved every single moment.  Except for the one where Chino pooped in the tub when I was trying to give him a bath.  Trauma for everyone.  He's never, ever, been easy to bathe, and while you'd think being old and half-blind and arthritic would help, he's still got plenty of fight left.  I had to fish out poo, let the water out, and start over because I didn't go through all of that to have him not be clean.

I did have to record another couple of things over the past few days, but I have to tell you this last podcast was pretty interesting to me.  it was about lean six sigma, and I could fill another blog post with correlations I was making with the information to my own work and groups I'm part of, my church, etc.  As an extravagant bonus and a first, while I was finishing reading today a service was cleaning my house, because my husband is magical and thoughtful that way.  *I did have to re-clean and disinfect the tub tonight - maggiebell has been a little under the weather, and today's good meals and extra electrolytes have made her a pooping machine who, yes, also pooped in the tub.  and out of the tub on her towel.  I think she just wanted two baths since it's one of her favorite things to do, especially now that she has some new bath toys thanks to Uncle Kevin and Aunt Linda.    

So I am now off work until next Tuesday afternoon, my house is clean (until the dog hobbles inside and sheds hair everywhere again), and I could not be more kiss-the-ground-grateful for the respite.  I mean, here I am, blogging.  I even perused Pinterest earlier today for the first time, though I'm still not sure I have the time or mental space for it.  I've mostly felt pretty good, physically, through everything - I've had some dizziness here and there, have had the usual tiredness and such, and have had to control my eating a little more than before (I start to feel pretty bad if a few hours go by without eating something).  here's the thing - I don't know how moms who work 9-5 all the time do it.  I don't know how they get their laundry done, how they get to the grocery store.  when you're trying to spend as much time as possible with your child & husband around work there's very little left for these activities, much less exotic-sounding things like 'going to the Y'.  I found myself feeling so covetous of my  mornings with Maggie, of my weekends, balancing family and church and holiday with deadlines and expectations.  don't get me wrong, it's a different kind of hard for moms who stay home.  I guess I just see very clearly that no one has it easy.

I don't plan on maintaining this level of work activity, btw.  I'm not built for it anymore.  my hope is that I'll eventually be able to let go of the work I do out of town and just manage the things I do in Houston around what works for us.  I have a long-run show to record on in the metroplex right now, but I haven't been submitting for any new shows.  I don't know how baby number two will impact our lives, and I'm trying to stack the work deck more favorably in the event we choose to make some changes.  the audiobooks are still new to me, but are a good flexible, part-time option that I can have a lot of control over (I can decline auditions, work when I choose, etc.).  right now I'm still trying to establish myself with the company (and perhaps another one), but it seems to be going really well so far.  I had some concerns about a few character choices in my current YA book, as there are multiple tween/teen girls from varying countries and I simply couldn't prepare for all of the different accents in the time crunch.  I opted to do the ones I thought I could manage and just try to differentiate the others as best I could, but it was eating at me a little and I was dreading the feedback from my proofer (who could totally request I redo anything necessary, but since we're paid per finished minute lots of corrections doesn't help your bottom line).  this morning, however, I woke up to an email from her that began, 'This is so skillfully narrated!'  thank you, Lord, for that gift.

So.  tomorrow, we have a vietnamese lunch date with the Moh family.  then we're dropping the bitty off at Grammy and Opa's and heading out for reverse date night (afternoon movie followed by early dinner).  I plan to enjoy every moment of this four-day weekend, and usher in 2012 surrounded by lovely people.  it's been a very big, long, challenging, blessed year, and I'm grateful for it's being and it's passing.

and now, picture palooza.  starting from before Thanksgiving:

 

 

 

enjoying the concert while mr. bell & mr. fuller were at the men's prayer luncheon

 

with Opa at Thanksgiving

 

 

see my big-girl Thanksgiving silverware?

 

our new friends

 

 

 

testing her early christmas present for maximum slideability.

magz went on her first plane ride with Daddy, Hobby to Love Field

Dada and magz in the cockpit after her first flight, on which she was a champ.

 

 

cousin love.

 

 

ranch christmas

three little elves

 

 

 

 

 

 

catalog model, secret agent baby

 

 

 

 

this ladybug kickball was a total christmas score.

taking in the nice scenery.

on the horizon:

I'm seriously considering taking part in the Beth Moore study being undertaken by the ladies bible class  january-march.  at first I dismissed it, because I was pretty sure childcare wasn't provided and, frankly, the idea of having to orchestrate childcare myself and hold my Thursday mornings open to make it happen - or take Maggie with me and wrestle her the whole time - made me feel too tired to bother.  BUT, there's a possibility that childcare WILL be provided, and even if it's not... I could really use something meaningful and Christ-oriented right now, and if I have to work a little to make it happen so be it.  I make space for other things.

I'm ready to get back to Saturday night meetings!

a garage makeover is coming.  our children are going to share a room, so we'll need to clear some things out of the closets, etc. and create better storage and multipurpose use in the garage.  I'm excited about bringing budget-friendly order and a cool vibe to that space out there.

and now I'm off to the fluffy bed that I didn't have to make up today.

-m.y.