Not a Resolution

It is the 4th of January, which means that after five months of inactivity, this blog entry looks suspiciously like the result of a New Year's resolution. It's not. I've made no resolution regarding my blog, but I have missed writing. I have been keeping up in my journal, but I write different kinds of things in my blog and I find myself composing blog entries in my head sometimes without having the time or energy or ability to sit down and type it all out.

I have started several entries over the last few months. On September 8, I started an entry saying: "You know there is something seriously wrong with your timing when you call up your parents to tell them some good news and your mom says, 'what are you having, a house or a baby?'" Pretty good line, huh? And very indicative of the crazy life we led in September. On 11/29 I titled a blog entry draft: "Might As Well Be Christmas in July." It was going to be about the 77 degree weather we were having when I was putting up my Christmas decorations, followed by various pictures of our new house decorated for the season. I'm not sure I ever got my house clean enough to take the pictures.

I've been dying to write a couple of book entries. I have been reading voraciously to pass the quiet time at home and I have lots to say about lots of books. I could never justify posting an out-of-the-blue post about books, though, when I haven't even gotten around to writing about the house or the new baby.  So for now I'm foregoing the book posts, though I do want to encourage everyone to go find a copy of The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner and start reading now. And don't stop until the end because you won't know how good it is until the end. It's short so it won't be much of a commitment....until you realize how much you want to continue on to the other three related books: The Queen of Attolia, The King of Attolia and A Conspiracy of Kings (but don't read the back covers - they give things away).

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I don't quite know what to say next. How do you catch up after skipping the last half of one of the most monumental years of your life?  Bullets will have to suffice unfortunately:

• At the end of August, Dave and I flew to Utah for three important family events: my brother's return from his LDS mission, my maternal grandma's viewing and funeral, and a large family and friends baby shower to welcome in my coming baby girl. All three things happened during two very full days, followed by a weekend in Park City celebrating the only weekend all my siblings would be together in four years. 

All 41 Cousins Together with My Sweet Grandpa

• We found out we could actually buy our house after all...only days before we closed...only days before we had to be out of our apartment. Everything you could imagine and more had gone wrong during the buying process (the two previous house entries aren't even the end of it all). We are very, very grateful for it, and very, very grateful we were able to move in two weeks before the baby was due.

• My baby didn't come on her due date, but a letter from Cambridge did. I passed my thesis and my programme! You may now call me Master Amy. 
• Our sweet baby girl was born at the end of September. More on her later.

• I spent a full two weeks in Utah for Thanksgiving. I felt great pleasure in being able to leave for so long without begging permission from a boss! We loved sharing the babes with both sides of the family.

At Grandma's New Headstone

(For the record, we didn't have a camera; the pictures above were taken by family members and I had to steal them. That explains the imbalanced representation of families.)

•  I went back to work at the beginning of December. That was quite the emotional roller-coaster. There may be more on that later too.
• We returned to Utah for Christmas. Happily, Santa brought me a new camera (I had never recovered from leaving my trusty, globe-trotting Canon on a double-decker in London and have spent the last year and a half taking pictures with Dave's two-year-old iTouch or our family video camera. Unfortunately neither had flash, and only the video camera could zoom). I am very excited to start posting the results of my photography experiments, since I have a lot to learn about this fun new tool (or toy - probably both). 
• Dave and I passed a fabulous, quiet New Year's Eve eating family-style Chinese food, reading out loud (from the Thief series, of course), cuddling with Baby and watching Mulan. We went to sleep happily listening to everyone else on our street welcome in the new year with fireworks. 

It's maybe not what I would have liked, but I now declare my blog officially "caught up." Here's to hoping the babes continues to take long naps so that the entries I compose in my head can come to life more frequently than hitherto possible.