2008 Will be Great! Really!

The New Year has started off with a bang for us. We had a fantastic time visiting our friends for a week up in Canada. While it is true that I had pneumonia and didn't know it, and Ella broke her finger and we didn't know it until the next day, and our poor little Bosco ripped his paw at the kennel on New Year's Day and had to go to the emergency vet to get stitches, WE REALLY DID HAVE A GREAT TIME!

Now that we are back to our normal life, we really do have a lot to look forward to in the coming year. Here is my list in no particular order.

1. Genna will be potty trained. She just will. She has to because I am tired of her pooping her pants and lying about it. The problem is that her poop REALLY DOESN'T STINK and it will sit in her diaper for an hour and then she will have a blistering diaper rash. We started the potty training this weekend, and it is going OK. She is now just lying about whether or not she peed or pooped in her panties.

2. Genna will be three next month. I have high hopes for her once she turns three since her two-year-old self has just about killed Herr and me.

3. Ella will start kindergarten in the fall. I can't believe my baby will soon be an actual STUDENT in the fall.

4. We are going to get some home projects done. We are having our 3x7 foot "master" bathcloset (it's not a bathroom!) gutted and remodeled. We are replacing interior doors on the second floor and finishing up installing crown moulding. We are also going to get started on finishing up a small section of the unfinished side of our basement to create more living space. We'll also get started on our kitchen. Just in time for Herr to take a new job and move us somewhere else. Kidding, people. I kid. Maybe.

5. The absolutely best, most fantastic show EVER in the history of television premieres it's fifth and final season tonight. I am so excited about the premiere of The Wire , I almost can't stand myself.

6. Herr and I are going to get to do a bit of travelling this year, sans children. We are heading to Seattle in February to visit some friends. Then we are going to celebrate our 15th anniversary a couple of months early by going to Hawaii in late-July. If anyone has some suggestions for what we should do in Kaui, by all means let me know.

7. I have a huge pile of books to read over the coming months, with a list of many more I want to get.

8. The New York Times is FINALLY delivering our Sunday paper consistently. Now I have the comfort of knowing that I can send the girls to the basement every Sunday morning so that I may drink my coffee in peace and read the "Sunday Styles" section. I absolutely LOVE reading the wedding pages.

9. Speaking of weddings, my friends Mark and Phil are going to have a commitment ceremony in the spring with a reception at MOMA . It will coincide with Herr's birthday, so it should be a blast of a weekend. I also recently heard that my gay cousin has decided he's not gay anymore and is getting married to a woman with two kids sometime this year. Now THAT should be some Hausfrau family fun. I am pretty sure my invite will be lost in the mail because I have been asking the questions that no one else has been asking. Namely, "How is he not gay anymore?!" No one seems to think this is at all strange, which may be an indicator of just how whacked out my family truly is.

10. My friends will be having babies! I have two friends who will be having babies in the next few weeks and I couldn't be more thrilled. One is definitely a girl and the other is unknown. This will allow me to unload a ton of baby stuff so that we can work on the basement, as mentioned in item #4.

11.  And finally, a new President will be elected in November.  I haven't decided if I will vote for Obama or Hillary yet.  I would really just rather vote for Bill again.


How about you? What are you looking forward to?