Little Miss Pants

Annie is the eldest of the three Wimsatt kids. From the day she was born we've all called her "Annie Pants". Last week she announced to her mom that for Christmas she would like some "sweat jeans". You know, the comfy pants that sometimes have a matching zip up hoodie.

On Sunday she was showing me how she can pick up her 9 month old brother James but is only allowed to stay on the carpet. Gotta love a 5 year old who knows that Baby James taking a spill on the hardwood floor is not a situation she would like to be responsible for.

Baby it's cold outside

There's nothing better than loving your new hat and gloves so much that you must wear them to take a nap. Our nephew Jack loves his new stuff.

D to the E to the L-I-C-I-O-U-S

Meet my sister, Fergalicious.

Not many people get to attend their company's holiday party and cut a rug all night long with their sister...I did last night. We were laughing it up on the dance floor and for a minute at the party I was wishing that my ENTIRE FAMILY worked at Resource (if you've been to a wedding with my family you'll know why) and was on that dance floor. Then in the next minute I realized that they might chase everyone off the dance floor and out of the party. Never mind that idea.

Sweet Baby James

Our 9 month old nephew James was over last weekend for a few hours while his two older siblings went to a holiday concert with their parents. The first 30 minutes were great and his eyes were as blue as could be as he woke up from a nap. Then, panic set in and for the next 2 hrs those darling blue eyes were filled with alligator tears and his face red and blotchy as he cried non-stop for his mom. Trapped in a terrible house with a terrible aunt and uncle who wanted nothing but to try and calm his panic, his sadness and frustration were justified. Fortunately the aunt and uncle survived until the parents and siblings returned and so did sweet baby James having cried his little self to sleep.

No photos, please

I loathe blog postings that don't include a photo. But right now I'm banning any photos of me from the neck down. No kidding. Interested in the plan to end this paparazzi blackout? Read on...

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, thoroughly disgusted with our respective lack of willpower and current fitness status, my mother-in-law Karen and I were philosophizing over what exactly is the motivation (or punishment) that would commit each of us to a regular workout. We were upon the danger zone of decadence in the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas - when pants only get tighter in the weeks leading up to December 25, and I already can't fit into 70% of my pants from last year!

After many ideas we determined that a CASH consequence for each day that we missed our scheduled workout was enough daily motivation to at least get us started toward a healthier lifestyle. So for each missed workout, the offender (non-workouter) owes the other person some amount of money. But it needed to be enough money that it would hurt to actually work. Let's face it, if the consequence for a missed workout was say, a dollar per day, I'll pay for the week upfront thank you very much.

Here's the deal:
-There are 31 days between day 1, and the next time Karen and I will see each other again (Dec 24)
-For each missed workout, the offender owes the other person $10
-A potential "worst case" grand total penalty of $310 each

Each night Karen and I SMS each other with the new "worst case" grand total. It's 9:30pm, and I have 2.5 hrs remaining to txt her my $270 update for today. Gotta run...no joke.

Honey, I'm home!

Whenever we're lost and we pull into the driveway of a random house to turn around the first thing we both say is "honey, I'm home". Fortunately for us, this driveway will only become more familiar over time.

A gray house with a yellow door...again! The colors are oddly sentimental - as they are the same as our first house in Grandview. On Friday the moving truck will arrive and we'll be reunited with all of our furniture and "stuff" we've been separated from for half a year. I have a feeling this weekend opening boxes will feel like Christmas...or at least I should keep telling myself that.

ONE

365 days ago today on September 23, 2006, it was raining, then sunny, then raining, then sunny, then rain. As 3:30pm approached, we were trying to decide between holding our wedding ceremony outside on the picturesque west terrace of the Franklin Park Conservatory as we had envisioned it for a year in planning or to save all of our dear aunts' freshly styled hairdos (and admittedly mine too) and hold the ceremony indoors safe from the September rainshowers that fell on our weekend. Erring on the conservative side, Barce made the call to hold the ceremony indoors and what a good decision it was as rain began to pour down ten minutes into our ceremony.

The subsequent 364 days were fraught with far more challenging decisions: to leave a new job with AE that ultimately created more stress than opporutnity, and our new city of Pittsburgh where we began a new life and our first big adventure together, to move back to Columbus and sell the Pittsburgh house after less than a year of ownership and 2 bathroom renovation projects, to switch careers for a second time in less than 12 months embarking in a new unknown challenge of becoming a marketer in the Pharmaceutical industry.

There were several times in the last year when we both wished we could retreat back to the life of a 6-year-old and by saying "I want my mom", things would fix themselves and someone would tell us the right decision. Over several sleepless nights and countless bottles of wine when decisions were difficult and every choice had severe consequences we'd sometimes look at each other and say just that, "I want my mom". Fortunately when consulted, both of our moms pushed those decisions right back on us...and supported us for changing our minds again, in search of greater happiness.

Sometimes it feels like our wedding day was just three months ago but when we reflect on all the change and decisions it also seems like three years. As they say, hindsight is 20/20 but one thing we have learned in this first year is that we do make pretty good decisons in this new life together. From little ones like holding the ceremony indoors to the much bigger ones like finding our way back to Columbus. On September 23, 2007, it's a gorgeous sunny day and fortunately for us the biggest decision we intend make today is what we'll eat for lunch.

Starting over

Our blogging ambitions started over a year ago when I tried to start a blog as we began our journey to Pittsburgh. I posted to it one time, but for some reason I could never figure out how to add another post to it. I kept thinking I needed to go away and return with fresh energy when I wasn't frustrated. Sort of like when you are figuring out how to program a new [insert technical device here]. Even today with renewed patience (for about the 30th time) I couldn't figure out how to add a new post. I'm convinced the blog (like Pittsburgh) simply wasn't meant to be. Check it out http://themunslers.blogspot.com/

Sometimes it just makes sense to start over.