New Years Excercises

Here are some MEMEs I do every year.

Exercise #1

1. What did you do in 2014 that you'd never done before? I got pregnant, all on my own! (OK, with some help from DH, but no doctors! LOL.. and technically this happened in December 2013 but I did not find out until 2014...). Other new things - I lead a meeting at work and took on more of a leadership role then I have ever had at work. I was induced. I held my CHILDREN (plural).

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I will write another post about this.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Does myself count? :) Also, my good friend Kim. There are many many more 2015 babies on the way.

4. Did anyone close to you die? My Grandpa In Law

5. What countries did you spend time in this year? Just America.

6. What would you like to have in 2015 that you lacked in 2014? More time to write and reflect.

7. What dates from 2014 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? Jan 6th, the day I found out I was pregnant. Sept 22nd, the day Felicity was born.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Giving birth to a healthy daughter. (Sensing a theme?)

9. What was your biggest failure? Letting the year get away from me. I think this tends to happen when I am pregnant....

10. Did you suffer any serious injury or illness? Nope!

11. What was the best thing you bought? I am not sure.. nothing sticks out, but maybe I will think of something later.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Benjamin for being such a loving big brother. My parents, for being so helpful to us. DH for being such a great dad.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and/or depressed? per usual.. politicians

14. Where did most of your money go? Daycare, mortgage, eating

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? The release of "Mockingjay" movie, Felicity's birth, our Thanksgiving trip to St Louis.

16. What song will always remind you of 2014?   All about the Base

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? happier
b) thinner or fatter? fatter
c) richer or poorer? about the same?

18. What do you wish you'd done more of? reflecting

19. What do you wish you'd done less of? eating

20. How did you spend Christmas? In Duluth - Santa came to our house, then we went to my parents for the day.

21. Did you fall in love in 2014? With Felicity :)

22. What are the main websites you used? Zetaboards, Facebook, What To Expect

23. Did you write anything worth reading this year? No, I hardly wrote anything.

24. What was your favorite TV program? Doctor Who (mostly on Netflix), Sherlock, Project Runway

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? I try not to hate people in general.

26. What was the best book you read? I was very bad at recording my reading. I only read book club books pretty much.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery? Sleeping At Last

28. What did you want and get? A baby, more responsability at work.

29. What did you want and not get? lottery win

30. What was your favorite film of this year? Mockingjay

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? 30. DS was sick. I got some Arby's and had a pregnancy hormone breakdown. Not my best moment...

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Winning the lottery.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2014? Whatever fits.

34. What kept you sane? The help and support of my family and friends.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Cumberbatch is really on the rise...

36. What political issue stirred you the most? Honestly, I feel like I mostly ignored politics. The election was a pretty big deal though. I was glad to see gay marriage continue to expand.

37. Who did you miss? The Bens, My Graduate School Friends, my ILs

38. Who was the best new person you met? Virtual friends for my Sept mom's group

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2014? Its love that makes the world go round.

40. What word or phrase sums up this year? Contentment

Exercise #2

1 minute ago... I was watching Charmed on my Kindle during my lunchbreak at work.
1 hour ago... I was frantically working on a difficulty MFIP case.
1 day ago... I was watching football with my kids and ILs
1 month ago... I was recovering from our whirlwind trip to St Louis
1 year ago... I was home alone. DH and DS were still in St Louis from Christmas. I was pregnant, but I didn't know it yet.
1 decade ago... I was a Junior in college getting ready to do my study abroad in Salzburg Austria
1 lifetime ago... I think I was in revolutionary in Russia

5 minutes ago... I was eating pork&sauerkraut leftovers
5 hours ago... getting ready for work, rather more leisurely than normal since the kids stayed home.
5 days ago... Preparing for a big work meeting I was in charge of.
5 months ago... Waiting anxiously for Felicity to arrive.
5 years ago... I was working at Social Security. Has it REALLY been five years since I started work there?

Exercise #3

The rule is simply: Post the first line of each month of my blog from the last year.

JANUARY: I have a lot of catch up to do, and some fun stuff moving forward. The main reason I have not been posting is because I got a Kindle
FEBRUARY:  Benjamin's quote of the week - "Cows don't drink water. Cows drink milk, people drink water".
MARCH: So, its been over a month since I got on here. I haven't been doing much besides wasting time!! Life is like that sometimes.
APRIL:   I didn't do much to prepare for Easter this year. Heck, we didn't tell Benjamin what the Easter bunny is until last night. Yet it still turned out to be a great holiday.
MAY:  I got a bad report from daycare today. Benjamin got in trouble.
JUNE:  I just celebrated my Golden Birthday this past weekend.
JULY: Long time, no type. I thik I need to do a Benjamin update.

AUGUST:  Today I am 35 Weeks pregnant, 35 Days to go. I had a doctors appt and everything was pretty much perfect.
SEPTEMBER: 39 Weeks pregnant... one to go
OCTOBER: Felicity obviously did not want to come on her own
NOVEMBER:  Felicity is 6 weeks old (As of Monday), and also as of Monday, I am back to work.
DECEMBER:  Nearly a month ago I posted "A Kid Post", with the full intentions of posting, within 24-48 hrs, a companion post called "A Me Post". Ironically, the post (which I wrote only an intro paragraph for), was about how FULL my life is now - both busy and full of love.