Goodbye 2009

This year hasn’t been particularly noteworthy for good or bad things.  Since no drama is a good thing, over all this year has been pretty pleasant.

The first thing that happened this year was Mr. A took a new job with better hours (yay) and less pay (boo).  It hasn’t been perfect, but having him around more has improved our lifestyle substantially.

The other main thing I remember from this year begin with L’s stomach problems.  That drove me to distraction until we finally figured out that she is EXTREMELY lactose intolerant and maybe even slightly allergic to milk too.  Now that milk is verboten for her, she is a much happier girl.

Then we decided to sell the house.    Despite three full price offers and being in contract not once, but twice, we didn’t sell the house because selling the house made both Mr. A and I total freaks.  Apparently, I only posted on my blog twice in June too.  Is that possible?

My old friend D contacted me this year.  She is the sister of the boyfriend who killed himself.  I hadn’t talked to her since he died.  That sent me into a spiral of re-grieving, but I am oh so glad we are talking again.   We have only visited in person once, but I plan to see her again in the near future. I have missed her all these years.

In the fall, M went to 1st grade and L started preschool. Can I get a big Hallelujah?  Four mornings a week, I am all alone.  Oh, how it does me such good to be ALONE sometimes.

I have also made some great new friends and gotten closer with some lovely old friends this year.  I love my afternoons at the park and monthly pub nights.  I am crossing my fingers that we will continue those traditions for the foreseeable future.  A group of us are also going to try a sprint triathlon in 2010, so cross your fingers for us.

M started Chinese Club in the fall.  So far, it is the best language learning program we have found for her.  L has continued on with her tutor and really likes learning chinese…on days when she has taken an adequate nap.  Other days, she is a terror in size 2T during her chinese lessons.  Their teacher may never want to have children after teaching three year old L.

This year some adoption related things also happened.  I briefly considered adding a third child to our family.  I have thanked my lucky stars almost every day since that Mr. A dissuaded me from that plan.  We are DONE.  No more children in this family. Finito.    L started processing the loss of her first home and her birth family this year.  It is just the beginning, but I can see the wheels in her head beginning to turn.  We also finally started actively searching for her birth family after several years of research and mentally preparing.  I am very hopeful that 2010 will be the year we find out some answers.

And finally, it seems fitting that are sending off this low-key, not much change year by kicking of 2010 with the very opposite.  Today, we signed the papers today to sell our house.  We will most likely be renting for a while (maybe until we get back from our 2011 trip to China) unless the prefect house at the perfect price becomes available.  (Very Unlikely.)

In 2009, we worked on perfecting the art of no-drama, low-stress living.  It is  a little bit scary to be heading into the new year without knowing where our home will be, but as long as we are all healthy and safe in 2010, I am sure we will be ok.