A Pocketful of Happiness

So long, twenty-eight.  It's been real, but it's time to move on now.  When I awoke yesterday to another birthday, I began to catalog all that happened in the past year of my life.  I'm thinking twenty-eight is a year I won't be forgetting any time soon.

Plenty of notable stuff happened, including The Hubbs' first time ever at my childhood vacation spot.  There was also the Great ST Saga of Aught Nine and the (not-so) tragic loss of my job.  The Princess's diagnosis is a big one, which prompted the decision to start school with the intention of becoming a COTA.  Then there's all of the therapy scheduling, as well as our first IEP and the beginning of preparations to send her to school in April.  Scads of smaller items made the list, but I'm not going to bore you all with them here.

Hello, twenty-nine.  Welcome.  I have a feeling we can be great friends if we just try.  After all, I plan to stay acquainted with you for quite some time.  This girl ain't turnin' thirty any time soon!  Now, I'm not one for New Years' resolutions, but I think I'm going to try something new.

 
My resolutions for age 29:

• Take everything with a grain of salt.  Most of the time, making a mountain out of a molehill accomplishes nothing but stretching my nerves into little bitty tight-ropes.
• Cherish the little moments.  Take the time to get down on my daughter's level and play - really play - with her. 
• Continue to wean myself off of the cell phone.  I've gotten much better over the last couple of months, and my new goal is to be BlackBerry-free by June when my contract is up for renewal.
• Worry less.  I want to be able to spend time with The Hubbs without mentally making a checklist of all of the things I have to do. 
• Consult brain before engaging mouth.  This is a biggie, an ongoing goal I've had since I was about eight.  I spend so much time with my foot in my mouth, I'm beginning to consider the prospect of developing a foot cream that tastes of Japanese food.  Kill two birds with one stone, right?
• Be kind.  This includes situations involving other drivers who may or may not have remembered to engage their brains before acting.
• Continue to plug away at school, and take the time to enjoy the learning process.

We'll see how that goes.

Yesterday was spent taking a nice, leisurely family stroll through some of our favorite haunts.  After lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings, we headed down toward our favorite shopping center.  We all bummed around for a few hours, spending surprisingly little money.  Big scores of the day were: The Princess's sand pail and shovel for a dollar; Mommy's $40 necklace, for which we only paid $5; The Princess's new big, pink ball (it's bigger than she is); The Princess's new multi-color beaded necklaces for $3.50.  Anyone notice a theme here?  We also scored a CD I've been hunting down for months, which I'm glad to say is awesome, as well as the new DVD in the Twilight series.

Oh, and the biggest highlight of the day, which I nearly forgot to mention: The Princess's first haircut.  I've cut her bangs plenty of times, but have never gone further than that.  When we all got home from shopping, I trimmed her bangs.  She was being so cooperative, and I figured it was worth a shot...she turned her back to me and let me trim her locks so they're all even.  In some spots I cut off as much as two inches, which seemed like so much.  Every time I look at her now, I see how much shorter her hair is.  But it's still long, falling around her shoulder blades when dry.  And I'm proud to say I didn't cry.  I may have misted up a little, but absolutely no tears escaped these here eyes.

My folks visited last night and brought pizza with them from one of our favorite joints. Bonus!  Since Pop doesn't get home from work until about 7:00, it was definitely bed time when they left.  We put the princess to bed, where she rolled over and happily snuggled into Dirt Pink for the night.  The Hubbs and I, however, couldn't bring ourselves to cut the night short...so we started watching New Moon.  Admittedly, we didn't make it very far, but we'll finish it at some point today.

All in all, it turned out to be one of those rare days.  You know the ones - nothing earth-shattering happened, but I left it with a pocketful of happiness.  I certainly couldn't ask for anything more than that.