May 2009 Round Up

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Click mosaic to biggify, or see my May 2009 Project 365 Posts.

What books and/or magazines did I read this month?
Check me out! I read not one, but TWO books this month!! Finally finished The Eight, by Katherine Neville. I've started and stopped that book at least 3 times. Enjoyable. Also read My Word is My Bond, by Sir Roger Moore (yes, the former James Bond, thus the title). Interesting; good not great. But still, I read, I read!

What movies and/or tv shows did I watch this month?
Well, I think all of our "usual" shows are over. The Closer starts again in June. Law & Order: Criminal Intent and In Plain Sight are currently running, and Mythbusters is new for now. I don't think we have any thing else on tap for this summer. Guess it's back to Netflix, which has been woefully neglected for the past several months. Did better with them this month, though.

New: From the Earth to the Moon (mini-series; finished 3 of 4 discs, with #4 on its way now), Star Trek (awesome!), Up (good, but not for Luke)

And as promised, here are the movies that we watched more than an hour of at some point during the month. Some are Luke "rest time" movies that we watch in the afternoons on weekend while he rests on the couch (since he no longer naps), some are old favorites that we caught on Starz/Encore when they were already in progress and didn't mind coming into the middle. I flip on movies during the day to keep me company sometimes, particularly while I eat lunch. And I will admit, we watched more this month than usual. Old Favorites: Little Women (1994), Sneakers, Star Wars (THE original), Star Wars Episode I, Noises Off, Mystery Alaska, French Kiss, Back to the Future, The Abyss, Ice Age, The Princess Bride, WALL-E, Outbreak, Stargate, Peter Pan, Field of Dreams, That Thing You Do!.

What special days did I celebrate and how?
I got to spend Mother's Day Saturday with my mom and her mom. Spent Memorial Day at my parents' house and visited my grandfather and my MIL while we were down there.

What gifts did I give and/or receive?
I sent out several small digitally scrapped prints to various friends. For Mother's Day, I gave my mom a "Nana" photo frame and gave snapshot prints to Mom and my grandmother. I received a new camera from my parents (thank you!) and The Princess Bride on Blu-ray from Luke and DH.

What illnesses or health concerns did I have?
I felt pretty bad for a couple of days in the middle of the month. Fine otherwise. My doctor changed my blood pressure meds last month, and all of the little headaches that I had attributed to stress and fatigue have vanished! It's awesome, except that now when I do get a headache, it is much more annoying than it used to be because I am no longer accustomed to them. And my back is nearly 100% better (I'd say 98%, with just the very occasional twinge now and then).

What fun things did I do with my friends and/or family?
Took Luke to his first baseball game at Turner Field. Did the usual beach and bubbles at my parents' house.

What new foods, recipes or restaurants did I try this month?
Tried a "no cook" pizza sauce recipe. It was okay. I think it needs some tinkering, but I'm not sure exactly how or what. Also tried a few new recipes that Mom found: pot roast (good, but still a touch dry; will tinker), bacon cheeseburger meatloaf (very yummy), bacon and swiss quiche (fabulous; even DH loved it). Also tinkered with some baked bean additives (doctoring up canned baked beans; not sure that counts as a recipe, yet).

What special or unusual purchases did I make?
Did we even buy anything this month (besides groceries and the like)? I can't think of anything unusual. I think we're all just waiting for the new Guitar Hero to come out. Oh wait, we got Luke his first pair of flip-flops (for beach outings only, thus they live at my parents' house).

What were this month's disappointments?
Had another project wait until the last minute to fall apart. Was supposed to complete May 29; will probably be at least 2 weeks late, maybe more.

What were my accomplishments this month?
I had another work project (that has been a total PITA to now) finally finish, on time even, despite some last minute setbacks. The vendor can't get paid yet, due to the missing part, but it is not a piece that prohibits the equipment from functioning (just from passing inspection), so it still counts as done from a service (read: billing) perspective because it can start being sold to customers. Woo-hoo!

Every Day in May - Days read: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, missed 15 and 16, 17 (read 90 minutes as penance), 18, 19, missed 20, 21 (read an hour), missed 22-26 (did not read on vacation; bad me), 27, 28, 29, 30, 31

Okay, so I didn't do so great on that one. Still, much better than I had been doing, and I finished two books! In one month!! It's like a miracle. And I even think I want to read another one. I'm trying to make it a habit to read while DH put Luke to bed (they're reading, why shouldn't I?), which I think will do well.

101 List Status: Not too bad. 15% of the time has elapsed (850 days remaining, as of right now), and I've completed 13% of the items. I'll take it! There are also another 10 that are currently in progress (which I started tracking just so I wouldn't forget, like Netflix DVDs watched and books read).

53. Take Luke on MARTA.
54. Take Luke to a MLB game at Turner Field.
I will admit that I had every intention of doing these two items on the same outing when I put them on the list, but I still feel they deserve to be separate items. When I was making the list, I had no idea when DH would feel Luke was "ready" for a game. I also knew that it was entirely possible we would have reason to take MARTA before actually going to a game with Luke, so I felt it was okay to list them separately. They really serve two different purposes, to expose Luke to live baseball, and to actually get the train-happy child *on* a train. So, two separate entries are justified, IMO.

71. Start using curbside recycling.
Our feeble attempts to be greener. We are not very green people, I will admit (though we do drive cars, not SUVs, despite everyone insisting that we should have one with a (just one!) child). I suppose every little bit helps, though, and especially now that the cats are getting wet cat food in aluminum cans, I simply could not bear the thought of generating that much trash for the landfills. This makes me feel a tiny less bit guilty.

95. Label/relabel all blog posts.
I'm sure I didn't do as thorough a job as I should/could have, but I think I hit the main highlights of getting each post in the correct major category, should anyone have the desire to flip through them some day. (It's really more for me when I am looking for something!)

Still doing well on Project 365. Managed not to miss a day in May.

What were Luke's accomplishments this month?



Luke is still testing boundaries (lying, sticking out tongue, asking "why" every time we ask him to do something, etc), but either it isn't as bad this month, or I'm learning to cope better. I know, I know, everyone keeps saying it is a phase. I'm trying to keep that in mind. "This, too, shall pass," right? It had better, or he may not pass to age 5. His teachers at school all think he is wonderful, though, and expect him to excel in pre-K next year.

His imagination is really starting to run wild, something I worried about early on (seemed to take a long time to manifest fully, like other kids), but I no longer fret about it. (I guess that goes hand in hand with the lying, to a certain extent.) I swear, the child thinks in Tinkertoys and Legos. And my brother, who hadn't seen him since Christmas, commented that his speech has improved. Being with him every day, we just don't notice the small improvements that much, so that was nice to hear. I still think he sounds younger/behind the other kids in his class, but maybe I'm just sensitive to it.

Anything else noteworthy to record?
Luke is no longer saying "motor-sy-kickle." I don't know how it got corrected, but it is now motorcycle. I miss it, though. We do have a few new verbal cute-ness statements. Binoculars are "noculators" and it is "ready, set, action" (not "lights, camera, action", nor "ready, set, go"). But I think my new favorite is when he wants to play something that involves one group attacking another (Star Wars, Transformers, etc). Think about how that is usually explained in a show. "We're under attack" or "they're under attack." Right? So now, when he is instructing one of us on how to play, it usually goes something like this: "Okay, now, I the good guy and you the bad guy, and you need to under attack me." LOL!

Monthly Round Up courtesy of Katie the Scrapbook Lady.

Currently feeling: amused