Two Thousand Ten Is Almost Over!

2010 is almost over... time to reflect.  We started the New Year mid-January with little Alexa’s first trip to Disney where we played at Magic Kingdom and Ebcot.  And I ran my first Disney half marathon race the same weekend.  Despite our frozen ears and toes in Orlando’s record low temperatures that weekend, we all had a great time.  Just two short months later, Alexa took her first steps and became an official walker… the milestones didn’t stop there.

Alexa turned one year old mid April and began speaking up a storm.  By the end of the year, we lost count of how many new words she was saying (or attempting to say), but we think it could be more than 200 words and she’s even putting two words together!  She learned her colors, shapes, letters, opposites, animals, some sign language, and the numbers 1-10 this year.  Her favorite color is yellow, her favorite shape is a star, she loves showing us the opposites “up” and “down”, her favorite animal changed from giraffe to lamb to we think cat or dog now, her favorite sign language signs are “more” and “I love you”, and her favorite number is the number 9.

George is still traveling extensively for work about 8+ months of the year.  On the long trips (longer than 1 or 2 months), we get to join him since I work as a Graphic Designer remotely and do Marketing for the same company.  Of course, little Alexa enjoys the benefits of the yacht profession lifestyle experiencing many different cultures.  Over the summer, we worked in Monaco, France, and Italy together as a family for a few months.  Alexa was quite the trooper and even picked up a little French along the way.  The plan is the same in 2011 for the summer in Antibes, France (and surrounding areas) for 4 months.

In addition to our Disney race weekend, we took a little 3-day family vacation this year while working in the Mediterranean… A road trip to the French Alps to hike in the mountains in Chamonix.  The scenery was breath taking and we even walked through a glacier.  We highly recommend going, summer or winter.  We were also able to spend a week in St. Tropez, France at a friend’s ocean front villa.  So nice.

Baby cousin Parker was born end of August and he's such a cutie pie.  We wish we lived closer and could see him and cousin Ava more often.

In my spare time, I raced a few more half marathon races for charity throughout the year with a PR of 1:54:41 in a 13.1 mile race in a hail storm in Texas.  I recently raced in the Palm Beach half marathon charity event earlier this month and plan to run a handful of half marathon races in 2011, maybe even a full marathon.  Alexa and I also participated in some charity event walks to raise money to save farm animals and also raise money for breast cancer research.  In addition, I have been working hard to finish my MBA degree in the evenings and I’m finishing out the 2010 year with only one more class to go before completing my MBA in Marketing and Communications Media Spring 2011.

In January 2011, our jobs are transferring us to the Caribbean where we will all be working and living until sometime in March.  While in the Caribbean, I plan to run a race or two in the islands; learn to kite board (finally); scuba diving as much as possible; practice my French; finish my last MBA class online; work for my graphic design, marketing and event planning job for Rybovich; learn a variety of other extra curricular activities I have on my “to do list”; join island mommy groups with Alexa; work on a variety of skills with Alexa; keep up with my blog, and of course we will all have as much fun as possible.  There is talk we may even be expecting baby number two in 2011, we shall see…

Reindeer (almost Vegan), Gluten-free Carob Chip Sugar Cookies & Glitter Sprinkled Sea Shells

I honestly do not know anyone who procrastinates as badly as I do and still gets the job done (and done well I might add).  Although this time, I’m really pushing it.  And what am I doing instead of working?  Drinking a big glass of vino roso and blogging.  I don’t even want to begin to go into what I have to do this week and next.  Ok… never mind my suffocating mountain of work.  We can get to that later. J  Instead, I’d like to bask in recent memories with Alexa.  She is such a sweetheart full of love and kisses.  I’m so fortunate to be blessed with such a beautiful soul.  We’ve been busy since Daddy flew off to the Caribbean early morning Sunday.  We made reindeer (almost vegan), gluten-free carob chip sugar cookies from scratch, glitter sprinkled sea shell Christmas tree ornaments (glitter sprinkled Alexa, walls, floor, and Mommy too) and danced in our super fun tot music class.  We slid down slides and swang on swings.  We fed the otters, ducks and other things.  Books and “Elmo’s Christmas Countdown” are a fav.  These are all memories I will save.  We “adopted” three, 4-year old children from the Salvation Army for Christmas this year and bought them a small toy of their choice this morning.  I wish we had enough money to give everyone in the world some peace, shelter, love and a special toy for Christmas.

Busted!

It’s been a long, long time...

It’s been a long, long time, I’m sorry but I just couldn’t find the time or energy to blog.  Alexa has been very ill, first with a kidney infection, then with a horrible flu and finally with a devastating stomach illness.   Daddy had to travel twice for about half of the whole dreadful experience.  My concern for Alexa has been debilitating.  One Pediatric Urologist (one of the top in Florida) wants to perform surgery on her immediately, the other wants to wait and keep her on another 6 months to a year of Prophylactic antibiotics which I am sooo uncomfortable with.  The surgery would be a kind of c-section type surgery where they make an incision across her lower abdomen to replace the valves leading from her bladder to her kidney.  I, unfortunately, was forced to have a c-section when giving birth to Alexa and I do not wish that pain on anyone let alone my own little 19-month old daughter.  And if that 50-50 diagnosis wasn’t stressful enough, Alexa’s extremely severe diarrhea and vomiting over the last week coupled with her lack of fluid intake stressed me to no end that she may become deathly dehydrated.  Thankfully, Alexa is finally feeling much better after over 3 total weeks of Hell.  She is running, playing, smiling, eating, drinking, and creating marvelous artwork on paper as well as on seashells, our walls and all over herself. (Pictures to come)

Tomorrow morning I am running the Palm Beach half marathon which should be quite interesting since I haven’t run since Alexa became ill more than 3 weeks ago and the race website states “No iPods”.  WTF?!?!  Regardless of how difficult a 6am 13.1 mile run in 50 degree weather with no music might be, I am looking forward to getting out there and running none the less.  Thankfully I have a buddy or two to run with and in girlie fashion to chit chat with the whole time.  After my run, Alexa and I plan to make some vegan Christmas cookies and reindeer chocolate iced cupcakes.  Then, we will finish making our seashell Christmas tree decorations and decorate our Floridian tree.  Daddy is in the Caribbean so he won’t be here to enjoy our vegan sweetie baking, Christmas crafts and tree decorating.  Although I’m sure Alexa and I will have a blast tomorrow, it would be really nice to spend a week in the Caribbean with Daddy, then come back and make these Christmas delights together as a family.  Sigh.

Just as a heads up to my fellow bloggers… Sunday night, and pretty much the whole rest of the next 12 days, I will probably not be sleeping trying to get a 20 page content analysis written (due this Thursday), 2 presentations created and presented, take an Accounting final exam, write a 10 page Financial analysis on a public company, and write a course reflection paper all while working my regular job and taking care of Alexa alone.  Plus, I still have to find time to train for my next half marathon, so my blogging might be put on the back burner again.  Unless of course, I decide to procrastinate, which is a huge possibility.  I tend to procrastinate and then do whatever it takes last minute to create the most perfect A+ masterpiece.  Sleep is over rated.  These are the kinds of challenges I absolutely love.  Look out world… super Mom is on the loose again!