Wow. It has been a shockingly long time since I’ve written a blog post. My excuses include the following:

• Busy season at work (August-ish through November-ish). We’re talking 12+ hour days, driving all over the state, not able to stop working to even put Arie to bed some nights.
• See above reason.

Now that things have slowed down on the work front, and the saddle bags I was carrying around under my eyes have diminished, it seems a lot more fun (not to mention realistic) to get back into writing.

Let’s start with a life update. Arie is closing in on 2.5 years, and is really getting the hang of these terrible twos (I know, I know, wait till the threenager years). He’s actually not that bad for the most part, but he sure does have a lot of sass. In his defense he does get that from both parents. He even knows how (and when) to make that throat noise when he’s annoyed by someone…it’s horrible and hilarious. Mostly it’s used against me when I tell him he has to do something like eat his chicken before he can have an orange. When he’s being really naughty I just tell him I’m going to send him to go live with daddy. He doesn’t understand that joke yet, but given enough time and repetition, I’m sure his therapy bills will catch up with me.

Hilary, my sister, is still living with me and Arie. After a year and a half I’ve finally moved [most] of my clothes out of the closet in her room so that she can feel a little more “at home”. What that meant for me though was adding some of my clothes to Eric’s closet, which I really didn’t care for. It felt wrong to change anything in there, even though I wasn’t taking anything of his out. I didn’t really expect to have such an emotional response to such a simple act. I suppose it’s those small things that take you by surprise in the cruelest of ways.

For Christmas we (Arie, Hilary, my parents, and I) went to the Netherlands to visit our family. I still prefer to avoid the holiday, so this presented a perfect opportunity for distraction and fun. We had such a great time…after Arie’s jet lag passed…exploring the country, trying new foods, and spending time with the Muller family. As with most things in my life these days, it did have a bit of a bittersweet taste to it though. The Netherlands was always where Eric and I had planned to go together, so as fabulous as it was, the fact that Eric wasn’t there with me was always on my mind.

And speaking of Christmas, I think I outdid myself this year with my Christmas card. As you should know by now, I’m a lover of finding humor in our situation. So since I finally got around to getting Eric’s headstone completed, it seemed only right to feature it in all it’s glory and attempt to take home the prize for the most awkward family photo.

Get it? We SLEIGH – like Santa’s sleigh!? I crack myself up.

That about wraps up 2017. I’m really looking forward to 2018 though. I’ve got some big dreams, and hopefully the plans to match. Part of those plans include getting back into posting more frequently on this blog. The summary “what we’ve been doing” posts just aren’t near as fun to write about as a post with a point and a vision. So here’s to posting with purpose in 2018!