So here it is, the first tackle of 2009.  And I have a final update on what was our biggest project from 2008 – the last step in our huge bedroom switch-around that we accomplished during the summer. Namely, finishing the job of cleaning out the main part of the basement and turning it back into a room that we can actually use.

And – it’s done!  Or at least almost done. I still have a bookshelf that needs organizing, and there are a few little tweaks here and there. But the room is actually usable again – and that’s what’s important for now.

Of course, this whole project has been full of drama, so it wouldn’t have been complete without some as well… We had put off having the waterproofing done until spring – figuring that we were rather safe from heavy rains until then.

So, guess what happened to all of the snow that we got right before and during Christmas?  Yep, it rained – hard, and melted it all. Right into our basement (again).  Sigh. The waterproofing absolutely has to get done this spring, but for now we’ve got pretty much everything vulnerable to water out of the way.

So here’s a reminder of what this part of the basement looked like the last time I posted about this project in November…

And here’s how it looks today:

The area where the drywall has been cut out at the bottom, where the plastic tub and the computer table are is where the water comes in. You can see that I’ve emptied the bottom shelf of my one bookshelf, just in case as well.

The door with the hats hanging on it goes to the playroom that we worked on last fall. And you can see part of the white bookshelf that’s the last one I need to organize at some point.

I do have to have Ron work on an electric issue down there still – the outlet over by the computer table appears to be hooked into the light switch for some reason since it only has power when the lights are on. So the girls’ computer is still non-functional for the moment. And the tv hasn’t been hooked back up yet either – we don’t have a cable hookup in this area of the basement, so it’ll just be for watching movies on.

At least for now, that is.  After all, I am married to a ‘cable guy’.  At some point when his back is healed, he can run a cable line over there for us. 

What are you tackling this week? And check out other Tackle It Tuesday posts over at 5 Minutes for Mom!

Hmm, let’s see…

At 6:55 am, I was awakened by Abby - 5 minutes before my alarm was set to go off. Who then lay across the foot of our bed to wait since I was determined to enjoy every one of those minutes before having to get up.

At 6:58 am, I had a small toddler sitting on top of me chanting, “I want bweakfast!” over and over again.

At 7:00 am, when the alarm went off, the girls headed upstairs while I hit the snooze button and got the 5 minutes of rest that I’d been cheated out of. 

By 7:20 am, Abby and Hannah were dressed and all 3 girls had eaten breakfast.

By the way, the singing of ‘YMCA’ at the top of your lungs any time before 8:00 am should be outlawed.  I’m just saying. 

7:45 am saw Abby and Hannah with hair done, boots and coats on, getting their backpacks, snacks and water bottles ready.

And at 7:53 am, they were out the door and off to the corner bus stop amid my calls of “Have a good day!” and “I love you!”.

7:54 am – I have an almost 3-year-old crying and begging to put her coat on to go to “B’s” house (daycare), while still in her Wiggles jammies.  Not until tomorrow, little one - thank goodness we have a playdate with Amber this afternoon. Becca is very excited to have a friend coming over to play.

At 8:00 am, when Ron got up, it was very quiet in my house.

Happy Back-to-School day! 

…to school, for the older girls. Both are very excited about seeing their friends and teachers again. Hannah is especially thrilled to see her usual teacher, who has been off since October on maternity leave.

…to daycare, for Becca. We took these two weeks off from sending her to daycare two mornings a week. Partly because our daycare provider also takes vacation over the holidays and also because it would’ve been difficult to send Becca with both Abby and Hannah at home. I think that Becca and I are both looking forward to her going back though – she loves being at daycare and seeing her friends there, and I love being able to run errands and get things done without hearing “Mom!”, “Mom!”, “Mom!” every 2 minutes.

…to reality, for me. With only a few weeks of unemployment left, I am hoping to be able to get an extension since I have so far found no do-able full-time job prospects, and no other real options that would provide the kind of income that I need to earn. The state of the economy certainly isn’t helping, nor is the fact that my field isn’t exactly growing at the moment.

…to the doctor, for Ron. And to physical therapy as well. He hurt his back again last weekend and not only is it worse this time, but since he wasn’t injured on the job, there’s no help from worker’s comp. He’s been largely immobile all week, which is driving both him and I nuts. Not to mention that the weeks without a paycheck will kill us financially (again).

Back to waking up early in the mornings to rush the girls off to school, to remembering backpacks, lunches, snacks and homework. And to the schedule of cheer and church activities that we’ve had weeks off from now.

But also, back…

…to seeing the excitement on the girls’ faces when they get off the bus and while they tell me about their days.

…to having the girls play better together after having the break from spending 24 hours a day together.

…to being able to chat with the other moms at daycare, at school, at church, and at cheer when dropping kids off and picking them up.

…to being able to pick up my house in the morning and knowing it’ll remain “as is”, for at least a few hours.

Back to having an excuse to get out of bed in the morning and out of the house during the day. And to looking forward to things coming up, like fun with friends, birthday parties, and surviving yet another winter in the midwest.

I think I’m ready. 

We had a very nice New Year’s Eve. It started off with a play date for Hannah with one of her little (boy) friends from school – which turned into a 4-hour visit after Abby, Becca and I returned to pick her up and ended up staying for another couple of hours. Hannah’s friend ‘G’ has a little sister only a couple of months younger than Becca, and the five of them played really well together.

Later in the day, we headed over to Kristi’s house for the New Year’s Eve party that she’d planned for the kids. She went all out – complete with balloons dropping from the living room ceiling, leis and funky 2009 glasses for everyone, and fun music for everyone to dance to.

So we actually celebrated ‘midnight’ at 6:30pm… Nobody cared – least of all the kids. And since I ended up being home asleep in bed by midnight, it was nice to have already ‘rung in’ 2009. 

You can read all about the party itself (and see pictures) over at Kristi’s site so I won’t re-post all of it here. But there are a few things that I’d love to share as well…

First of all – don’t ever rely on the cheese that comes with those boxed pizza kits. Ugh, bleck. Powdered cheese just doesn’t belong on pizza. It did LOOK pretty appetizing though:

It is amazing though how much a little incentive like chocolate cake will make kids eat something even as nasty as this pizza turned out to be. 

Dinner was forgotten the moment that the balloons were released though – and the music was turned up. It was so much fun to watch everyone jump, dance and go crazy around the living room.

Doing the YMCA…

The party blowers were quite a hit as well…

Rock on, Aaron!

The boys had some pretty fancy footwork going on…

A little bit softer now…

And then SHOUT! 

Becca spent a lot of the time trying to ‘save’ the balloons by hoarding them.

Until the other kids decided it was time to ‘liberate’ them.

Becca wasn’t too happy at first… But she didn’t have any problem handing balloons over to Steve once he started popping them by sitting on them. In fact, she was quite entertained and sat watching him – clapping and cheering when every balloon popped. 

All in all – it was a very fun way to usher in the New Year.

So here’s to hoping that 2009 will be everything that you wish it to be!

It’s Friday again! My favorite day of the week.

Here’s my question for this week:

Do you have any goals for 2009?

Be sure to check out An Island Life for other fun Aloha Friday questions and to play along!

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Like most kids out there, Hannah made a wish list before Christmas. And there were a lot of the typical things on it – a Barbie cruise ship, a new necklace, a Webkinz, etc.

Three of the items, however, made me smile – for various reasons.

First, she wished for Spring. Which is something I wish for most days during the winter too.

That one will come true – but unfortunately not for about another three months. 

Then she wished for a new sister. I was a bit confused about that one since she’s not always completely thrilled with the little sister that she already has. Then she clarified for me – she was wishing to trade Becca in for a different sister.

I’m thinking that even Santa can’t pull that one off. But it was a nice try. 

The third item that I found interesting on Hannah’s Christmas list was that she wanted to lose a tooth on Christmas. She did have a couple of loose ones, so it wasn’t completely unrealistic either. We joked about her losing one on Christmas Eve and the possibility of Santa and the Tooth Fairy running into each other when making their separate visits. But she really wanted a tooth to fall out ON Christmas.

Sometimes Christmas wishes do come true…

Apparently many other kids must have the same wish, because the Tooth Fairy was VERY busy that night. So busy, in fact, that she didn’t make it to our house and Hannah’s pillow until the next morning. I’m sure that she felt very badly about the late visit.

In fact I have it on very good authority that she did. 

I’m still waiting for that other top front tooth to fall out one of these days – it’s looking a bit out of place in there at the moment now that she’s lost four others in the front.

Hmm, maybe on Valentine’s Day?

Last year I did this after seeing it over on An Island Life. But since I only started blogging in mid-2007, I didn’t have a whole year’s worth of posts to share. Well this year I do (or for last year rather, lol), and figured that it would make a perfect Thursday Thirteen list as well, with the absolute most popular (most viewed, according to Google Analytics) post from the entire year as #13.

So without further ado, here are my most popular posts for each month of 2008, not including giveaways or meme posts like Tackle It Tuesday, Wordless Wednesday or Aloha Friday.  Enjoy! 

January - So what is Feedburner all about anyway? Feeds and RSS - Part 1

February - Me, myself and I

March - Does it really matter what ‘other people’ think?

April - Now that just can’t be comfortable…

May - Well, at least we knew it was coming.

June - The ‘kid’ I married…

July - So what have I been up to during my first two days of unemployment?

August - Becca the Busy Builder

September - Well, at least Elmo doesn’t talk back…

October - “I wanna wear unnerwear!”

November - Here’s how the advertisers have completely captured the 6-year-old girl market

December - How to spend almost nothing on birthday gifts for your 6-year-old…

And the most popular non-giveaway post of all for the entire year was Wow. Now THAT was a party. which is also one of my most searched posts as well – about our friends Carlos and Cheryl’s son DJ’s Webkinz birthday party last April. There must be A LOT of people out there who are looking for Webkinz party ideas!  Of course, now I’m curious to see what they’ll come up with for DJ’s 8th birthday party this year. 

What were your most popular or favorite posts this year on your own blog?  Feel free to play along – and if you do, leave your link so we can all come and check them out too!

Well, unlike last year when the theme could be summed up as “same old, same old” – 2008 was full of changes for me. Or at least one big change, as I was forced to leave the ‘working mom’ world when I was laid off from my job on June 30th. With that one big change, so many smaller ones came as well – figuring out how to manage being a temporary SAHM, and wondering how we’d be able to stay afloat financially. The one was really much easier than I’d expected – and as for the other, well we’re still working on it. Ron’s recent back injuries haven’t helped, nor has the need to replace our aging minivan recently. But we will manage – somehow we always seem to.

2008 also brought about big changes for me as a blogger. In January I made the small step of purchasing my own domain name and dropping the ‘blogspot’ from my (still) Blogger-hosted blog. That’s when “MomOf3Girls.net” was born. And things changed much more significantly a month later when I moved everything over to Wordpress and began to learn a lot more about how to code in html and php. I’m by no means an expert – but I can generally figure out how to do what I want to do.  And on September 1st, I unveiled this beautiful blog design by Sweet ‘n Simple Design (thank you so much, Shera!).

In May, I expanded my blogging considerably by adding my product review site at “Just a mom’s take on things…” to the mix. And thanks to the many loyal (both old and new) readers who have made that site such a success in the months since it began! I truly enjoy sharing my thoughts and opinions with you all – and providing fun giveaways as well, of course.

In 2008 I grew to love blogging even more than I had originally, and began to also learn how to treat it as a business as well, by starting to delve a bit more into SEO, social media and networking. This is something that I plan to continue expanding on this year as well since I feel that it’s really helped me to grow as a blogger and as a writer. But I want to make sure that I never lose sight of why I began this blog to begin with – to chronicle my life with Ron and the girls, to meet and share experiences with other parents, and to meet and get to know others in this amazing community of bloggers.

Last year I said ‘thank you’ by linking to all of those who helped make my blogging year such a success by what they posted, tagged, awarded or commented. I would love to do so again this year as well. I know I haven’t done as well lately with responding to comments, tags or awards – but please know that I will get to them (eventually!) and do appreciate each and every one. 

So here we go…

I’ve learned so much more about how blogging, html and CSS work from blogs such as MamaBlogga, ProBlogger, Blogging Tips, Blogging Basics 101, Daily Blog Tips, and BlogCoach.  I also began writing my own blogging tips series called Getting Technical.

I’ve learned more about writing from reading posts and participating in writing contests and group writing projects at MamaBlogga, Scribbit, and An Island Life.

I’ve done weekly meme’s such as Camera Critters, Meme Monday, Monday Morning Meme, Heads or Tails, Tackle It Tuesday, Wordless Wednesday, Thursday Thirteen, Photostory Friday, Aloha Friday and Weekend Top Five. I also started my own weekly meme called I Remember When…. Although it hasn’t taken off terribly well so far, I plan to keep remembering and hope that many others will eventually join in as well. 

I’ve been tagged for meme’s by Beth & Cory’s Mom, Mom Knows Everything, MomOf3(4ToB), Mindless Chatter Of A Busy Mom, My Life As Mama Jodi, Amanda, The Road To Home, A “Sample” of Jennifer’s Thoughts…, Pediascribe, I’m A Drama Mama, An Island Life, Skittles’ Place, #!/usr/bin/mom, Mom of 2… (taking it one day at a time), Tara’s View of the World, The Turtles Three, Three Weddings, My Family, Mommy of 5, Earthly Explorations, Juliana’s Site, One Mom’s World, Parenting Pink, Take 90 West, Bagga Chips, Two of a Kind Working on a Full House, and WAHM Adventures.  I’ve also been tagged for several that I haven’t gotten to yet (sorry!) – one of my goals for 2009 is to stay more on top of those, and I promise I’ll get to everyone’s soon.  :)  If I’ve missed anyone here, I’m sorry and please let me know so I can add you to the list.

I’ve received awards from a lot of wonderful friends as well, like Karen, Corey, Jennifer, Anna, Michelle, KC, Sherry, Tammy, Melanie, Kailani, Jean, Summer, Debbie, Kathy, Tish, Lisa, Lydia, Gina, Elizabeth, Lori, Julie, Jamie, Amanda, Harmony, Jennifer, Crystal, and Kim.  Thank you so much again to all of you!

Several of my ‘real life’ friends started their own blogs this year – it’s been fun to share the blogging experience with Kristi, Chris, Beth, Amber, Jen, Kirsten, and Tina.

My top ten commenters here this year have been Colleen (1001), Tammy (166), Kristi (153), CrAzY Working Mom (133), deb (131), Jean (116), Dad of Divas (115), KC (93), Dawn @ Coming to … (92), and Karen (Pediascribe) (91).  Thank you so much to all of you and to everyone who’s left a comment, no matter how many or few. All of you truly make this site my blogging ‘home’.

And I can’t finish this without mentioning all of the amazing blogs that I’ve been reading in 2008. Trying to recognize everyone would probably be impossible, but I want to share some link love with as many as I can. Some of these I read regularly, some have become blogging friends, some I read whenever I can squeeze in an extra moment, and some are regular commenters here that I try to check out whenever I can. And I’m sure there are many more out there yet to be discovered!

#!/usr/bin/mom, 5 Minutes For Mom, A Frog In My Soup, A little bit about me!!, …, A Life Uncommon, A “Sample” of Jennifer’s Thoughts, A Whole Lot of Nothing, Absolutely Bananas, Adventures in Babywearing, Amanda, AND SHE LIVED!, An Iowa Mom, An Island Life, And Babies Make Six, and baby makes four, An Ordinary Life, Any Apples, arewethereyetmom.com, Audrey’s Blog, BaggaChips, BECAUSE I SAID SO, Becca’s Buzz, Believer in Balance, Beth & Cory’s Mom, Big Binder, Blog That Mommy!, Blonde Mom Blog, Casual Friday Everyday, Comedy Plus, Coming To A Nursery Near You, Creative Thoughts, CrAzY Working Mom, Crunchy Domestic Goddess, Dad of Divas, Desperately Seeking Sanity, eastcoastlife, Everything Moms, ExPat Mom, From Dates to Diapers, and beyond!, From Talbots to Target, Gliding Through Motherhood, Hug Twice, I’m a Drama Mama, In The Life Of A Child, Jamie’s Precious Peas, Jane’s Blog, Jen’s Genuine Life, Jodilightful!, Just Jessie, Life is like champagne……, Life With Hannah and Lily, LIVE! and In Color, Livin’ With Me!, Living and Loving Every Minute Of It, loves flowers, Love Shak, Baby, MamaBlogga, Manic Mommies, Memoirs of a Mommy, Metropolitan Mama, Mindless Chatter of a Busy Mom, MomDot, MOM KNOWS EVERYTHING, Momma Bean, Mommin’ It Up!, mommy bytes, Mommy Needs Coffee, MomOf3(4ToB), My Joyful Life as a Momma and a Wife, My Life as Mama Jodi, My Three Wisemans, Nazarene Family Services, Northern VA Photographer, Notes from the Trenches, Not Just a Working Mom, One Moms World, Our Happy Happenings, PediaScribe, PenniesInMyPocket, Playgroups are No Place For Children, PMKU, Real Life, Pointless Babbling By Mason & Terri’s Mom, Rocks In My Dryer, Sarah and Jordan updates, scribbit, Shake The Salt, Sharon’s Blog, Short Stop, Skimbaco Lifestyle, Skittles’ Place, SortaCrunchy, Suburban Bliss, Suburban Oblivion, Such the Spot, Summer’s Nook, Swimming in Sugar and Spice, Table for Five, Take 90 West, Tara’s view of the world, The Chronicles of a SAHM, The Laughs Will Go On…, the r house, The ParentingPink Blog, The Pumkin Patch, The Road to Home, The Twinkies, The Wheels Are Rolling, The Wilson Six, Three P’s in a Pod, Three Peas in a Pod, Three-Girl Circus, Three Weddings, Two Lines On a Stick, Two of a kind, working on a full house, Up With Moms, Velveteen Mind, We Are Reilly…, WeSnLaNi, Wishing and Discovering, Working Momma 247, and, last but certainly not least, Write From Karen.

I would like to wish everyone reading this, whether friend, lurker, commenter or just passing by - the very best of wishes for a wonderful 2009. May your New Year be joyous and all you want it to be!

See more photos at Wordless Wednesday and 5 Minutes For Mom!

1. Louise 2. Kimberly 3. eastcoastlife 4. PlanetM3 5. Angela at mommy bytes 6. Jennifer (prayedforone) 7. BlapherMJ 8. saint2 9. Toni @Photo Bug Baby

10. Dee 11. Angela Klocke 12. Snowbird 13. Diana Rambles 14. TheAngelForever 15. jayedee 16. Michelle M. 17. Alisha @ Izzy \'N Emmy 18. MomOf3(4ToB)

19. stacey moore 20. Kim @ What\'s That Smell? 21. Cascia @ Healthy Moms 22. Shynea (Baby\'s 1st Christmas) 23. Catherine @ The Blonde Diaries 24. Bonds, Elizabeth Bonds. 25. You're next!

I’m liking this format that Kristi started, for a quick, easy (and well, as concise as I could make it) way to recall the best (and worst) parts of the weekend. And now that she’s made it an ‘official’ meme – well, I had to join in, and hope that you will too. 

Yes, I’m a bit late with posting my top five this week. I wanted to get the Christmas posts done first. So now that that’s done, here’s our ‘Weekend Top 5’ for this week:

5: The dreaded ‘day after’ Christmas letdown. After my mom and brother left, the girls and I headed out to see if we could find a new Christmas tree for next year on clearance. After hitting 3 different stores unsuccessfully (we don’t want a pre-lit tree or one that’s in a pot, or only 4.5 feet tall!), we gave up and met up with Kristi and her boys at Playworld for dinner and to let the kids all run off some much needed energy.

Becca, who had a mild cough when we left the house but otherwise seemed fine, refused to hardly play at all, and instead sat in the booth with me for most of the time. Her cough was worse, and she actually fell asleep for a while before we left.

All she wanted to do when we got home was snuggle with me in the recliner and by bedtime she was running a slight fever, poor thing. We gave her Motrin, put her to bed and hoped for the best.

4: I headed out on Friday night to go shopping with Kristi – a combination of returning/exchanging things, checking out the post-Christmas clearance sales, and seeing what was left at our KB Toys store. I got Becca’s birthday shopping almost entirely done just in this one trip. And Kristi and I had a great time relaxing and talking over Twisted Frostys at Wendy’s afterward.

3: On Saturday morning, Becca woke up fever-free and apparently feeling fine.  So we went ahead with our plans to have our friends Carlos and Cheryl and their two boys over to exchange Christmas gifts and let the kids play together. We don’t see them as much anymore now that we live an hour apart, plus the guys’ work schedules have made it challenging, but we always have fun together and the girls were so excited to see DJ and Quinn.

I spent the early part of Saturday cleaning and straightening the house from the disaster that it had become over Christmas. And finding homes for all of the new toys in the girls’ rooms as well.

2: Becca and Quinn had a blast playing with the Dora and Diego Aquadoodle that my mom had given Becca for Christmas. It’s a really cool toy – the little car really does follow right along the path you draw.

Everyone got new Webkinz. Abby loves her Eagle (originally named ‘Feathers’, but apparently that’s a non-allowed word in Webkinz World, so he’s now ‘Beaky’.

And DJ was excited to get his black poodle Webkinz.

Hannah got a dolphin (‘Sea Creature’ also wasn’t accepted, so she’s ‘Seaweed’ instead) and Quinn got a white poodle Lil’ Kinz. Becca’s not into Webkinz (yet!), so Cheryl got her a Dora doll that’s been played with just about constantly since.

1: One thing that a guy with previous back issues should never do is to pick up his kids (including his 50+ pound 7-year-old) and swing them around upside down. Ron learned this lesson the hard way on Saturday and by Sunday could barely move at all from the back spasms (again). He spent the entire day sitting in the recliner with a heating pad on his back while the girls and I had a lazy day playing with new toys and trying to get the house back in shape.

So that was our weekend!   How was yours?