The Missed Shot.

Sometimes the shot you were going for just doesn't happen. But, sometimes, what you get instead might just be even better. Check out this post by Becky Earl. Really. Go now. I'll wait...

Isn't that fantastic? All those shots are just gorgeous.
Love it, love it, love it.
What a great post. So beautiful.
I really just love photos like that. You know, the ones that show the real person. The way they really are. And the real interactions between the family members. It doesn't matter if someone isn't quite in the frame just right, or if someone else isn't smiling just perfectly, or if someone else is even a bit out of focus. When you've captured the real deal - that's all that matters.

Check out these photos that The Fairy Blogmother's amazing brother did for her.
Also, super cool. And, it's more than just the amazing lighting that makes them so cool. It's the fact that he managed to capture them all, as they really are. So fabulous (the family, and the shots).

I hope to get better at that this year.
Definitely one of my goals: to relax on the whole "needs to be perfect" thing and embrace more of the "just needs to be real" thing.

Saturday Snapshot

Taken by Maddie, age 7.


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Throwdown! Photo Backup.

Okay, as you know, I have learned the hard way about the importance of backing up your photos and not only that, but a little organization helps, too (especially if you've been really wanting to start doing some scrapbooking...like I have...for years now). So, here is what I've done for this week's Throwdown:



I got all my printed photos and sorted them by (pre-dslr) year and (fairly roughly, I must admit) I put them into these photo storage boxes. I bought them quite awhile ago, actually, and i've just noticed that they do not say "acid free" on them. So, i'll have to get them out of there (i'm going to move them into albums), but that will be easy because at least now they are somewhat organized.


I then downloaded the super-cool Picasa3 software and used that to tag by name ~all~ my photos (I also added a few other helpful tags) and I put all my photos from the last year into quarterly files. I also, and this was the part I got really excited about, put my digital scrapbooking supplies and projects into ~their~ own albums! I also have an album for my photography-related stuff...templates, overlays, etc.

What?! Who do I think I am?! Some organized chick???
Wow.
So cool.



I then backed up all those nicely organized albums onto dvd's which I have labelled and stored in this purty DVD album!



But wait! There's more!
I also got them all onto my external hard drive!



The next step will be to put them all into online storage as well, but I have to wait for access to a better (than 3G) internet source to get that done. But that will be soon. I'm never losing another photo again!

So, did you participate in this week's challenge? If so, please let me know how you did/what you did and swing back next week for a brand new THROWDOWN!

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Thursday Throwdown! (kinda')

Hey! I just wanted to let you know that the "Back Up Your Photos" Throwdown from last week has gone pretty darn well for me (How 'bout you?). I'll try to be back tomorrow with some pics and info. on what I've done. I was just a little busy today getting a jump-start on my next Throwdown (totally cheating, I know).


{and because a post is always more fun when it includes a pic., here's one of Colie-Coco giving a big smoochy to the cutest baby in the world). ;-)




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Wordless Wednesday

The family...


{That's a Snow Owl in the background. Can you see him?}

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Bun Bun

Even though yesterday was Colie's birthday, we still got a little something for Bun Bun.



Aren't they cute?!



I think she likes them: especially when they're filled up with food.

I love watching Bun Bun eat. She is so cute.

Who would want to eat a rabbit?


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One.

So today is my baby's first birthday. One year ago today, at 2:25 pm, they pulled this little angel from my tummy. As I lay there on the operating table, arms stretched out to the sides, with my view obstructed by the sterile hospital greens hung in front of my face, they pulled her out, and then up into the air, so I could see her. Finally. The little girl who, just moments earlier, was performing more of her daily pirouettes inside of my tummy.

"She's so CUTE!" were my very first words upon seeing her. I'll never, ever, forget that moment.

All the moments since have flown by. It seems like just yesterday she was a little peanut, tucked into the bed between her daddy and me. So comfy cozy there and right at home. We thought it would be impossible to move her to her own crib and, to be honest, we took our time doing that because we liked having her with us. But, she eventually did go to her bed and she did just fine. Now I wish I could have her back.

Did I mention she began walking at 9 months? Walking!! I don't even know if we got any video of her crawling before she got up on her own two feet...and took off running. Never looking back.

And now she is one. No longer "zero", as her big sisters would say. She is one. A toddler, not a baby. And I'm not a spring chicken, myself, anymore. No more babies for me. No more peanuts in the bed.

I'm so proud of my little Coco and I'm so grateful for the fact that she continues to meet her healthy milestones with pizzazz. But, to be honest with you, I wasn't very eager to get out of bed this morning. I didn't really want this day to come.

One.

{I love you Colie-Coco}.

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Thursday THROWDOWN: Photo Backup!

It's time for another THROWDOWN THURSDAY!

Okay, WidneyWoman cracked on the last throwdown (and after all that smack talk, too!) and while The Fairy Blogmother says she kicked butt...I have yet to see the evidence. Okay, she was getting ready for her little baby's 4th birthday party...so I guess we can cut her some slack. But, now, it is time for a brand new THROWDOWN!

Operation PHOTO BACKUP!!

If you are anything like me you have literally hundreds and hundreds of photos on your computer. You may even have hundreds on your smart-phone. There may even be a few hundred more on an old computer. Well, take it from me, you do not want to wait until something all of a sudden goes wrong and you lose all those precious photos. And it isn't enough to just back them up to one place. This is what happened to me. I ran out of room on the old computer for storing photos. The computer would not let me download one single photo more. So, we finally went out and did what we should have done ages ago and we got an external hard drive. I backed up all the photos onto the hard drive and then...deleted them off the computer. Then I went to use that hard drive to back up some more photos off the laptop. Of course, little Jamie James came running over to see me while I was doing this and ran right into the cord and sent the hard drive flying. The clunking noise it started to make after that was not a good sign. We took it to the computer store and they were not able to save any of the information on the drive. They said we could send it out to a "specialist" but there was no guarantee he would be able to get the photos and, if he could, it would cost about $700.

:-0

We did save the old hard drive from that (really old) computer before we had a new one put in, so we were able to get a "shell" put around it and turn it into an external hard drive. But, still, there is a very important gap of about 1 and a half years, now, for which we have no photos.

I just don't even think about this too much because I will have a mini-emotional break-down if I do.

So, to make a long story a bit shorter...
let that be a lesson to all you kids out there. BACK-UP your precious photos to not one, but at least two places. Now. Really.

An external hard drive is good...but as we have learned...accidents happen. Make sure you have all your photos somewhere else as well. Put them on some DVD's and/or back them up to an online photo storage site. It is even better if you can have your photos stored in two different locations (your home and not your home..just in case).

This is a big job, I know, but it is an important one.




And, if you need any help with some FANTASTIC photo storage and organization ideas. Ideas that will allow you to quickly retrieve all your photos and use them in scrapbooking projects...well, then, I cannot recommend the book, "Photo Freedom" by Stacy Julian enough. After reading her book I had a whole new way of looking at my organization strategy (or the one I thought in my head that I would probably use if, you know, I had been organized. At all. Which I wasn't).

Better STILL, maybe you can join me in the class that Stacy Julian teaches online! I was lucky enough to win a spot in her class (I still can't believe it, or get over it, Eeeee!!!!), but there is still time for you to sign up. The class starts on February 4th. Head on over HERE to read all about it.

And, I'll be back next Thursday to let you know how I've done with my Photo Backup!
If you are getting your photos organized, as well, please head back here next Thursday to let me know how you did....and how you did it!

Okay...
Punk?

Wordless Wednesday.

Just a LINK.

{How cool is that?!}.

The Wind in Katie.

We picked Jamie up from school today. She was all excited and as soon as she got in the truck she had this little conversation with her Dad.



Jamie: "Dad! Dad! You have to put money in my backpack on thursday!"

Dave: "Oh? Why is that?"

Jamie: "It's because of the wind in Katie."

Dave {puzzled}: "What do you mean?"

Jamie: "You know, for the people who got hurt...in Katie..."

Dave: "Oh, Haiti. Yes, sure, we can send in some money, sweetie".







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Meatless Monday: Seitan

maddie cookt this wondurful dich for the famaley!yay for maddie. (Hahahaha! I had to leave the computer for a little bit, and when I came back the above text was there. Very funny, Maddie) This week's recipe idea for Meatless Monday is Seitan. That is pronounced "Say-tahn", by the way. This is a high protein, meat substitute that you can make yourself at home. It is denser, and chewier, than tofu and my hubby, for one, prefers it's texture. I also find that it is easy on my tummy (I guess I'm not a celiac!) and it doesn't turn me into a "bloat-goat" like tofu does.  So, how on earth do you make this stuff? Well, it's super-duper complicated... Get yourself some Vital Wheat Gluten or HIGH, 80%, gluten flour (around here you can get this at the "Horn of Plenty" or at the "Bulk Barn"). Take one cup of the flour and mix it with 1 cup of water.  Yep, that's it for step one! You need to knead your dough (which will come together very sticky, very fast...because of all that gluten) well in order to produce a nice, dense, seitan (vs. a puffy, light version). So, if you are hand kneading...work away on it for about 5 minutes.  Once you've got your dough ready, roll it into a bit of a log and cut off 1 inch chunks to throw into your awaiting broth...  As for the broth...well, most that I have seen call for about 4-5 cups of liquid along with flavour agents. The one I just used was from the book "How it all Vegan" and it used mostly water with a 1/4 cup soy sauce and some spices. If you use soy sauce make sure it is low sodium and very good quality!! The seitan is going to soak up the flavours of your broth like crazy and me, not being a huge soy sauce fan, well, I didn't love how this turned out...so I will be trying out different versions of a broth for mine. I think I'll also try out adding some spices to the flour right at the beginning. I'll let you know how that goes (if you have a great broth recipe you'd like to share...please do!!!).  Anyway...once you've got your seitan dough cooking away in the broth you just have to stir it every 10 minutes or so until the broth has reduced. This will take about an hour.  Now you can go ahead and use your seitan as a (already cooked) meat subsitute in many recipes. Just cover it in whatever sauce you like, serve it with some veggies, and/or some rice or pasta, etc. It will be great! As long as you like the flavour of your broth! :0) 

Happy Meatless Monday!  
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Saturday Snapshot

By: Jamie, age 5.





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Thursday THROWDOWN

Okay, ladies...how did it go? Did you make a dent in your laundry mountains? Or, did you get trapped in the avalanche?




I am happy to report that I did pretty darn good. It took about 3 loads a day to get caught up (crazy, huh? But, keep in mind I have three little girls. Girls! The laundry is just incredible). But, I AM caught up! Woot!




If it weren't for this challenge and the blattant intimidation tactics from you, my dear friends (sniff), I don't think it would have ever gotten done.




So, thank-you.




And, uh, how did you do...
Huh?
Punk?
;-)

{Look for a brand new THROWDOWN here next week}.

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Wordless Wednesday

See my girls? See their hair? Ya, that's Grandma M. there - over for a visit.

'Nuff said.

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Meatless Monday: Sweet Potato Badi

It's Meatless Monday, Everyone!

Today's recipe is from a great vegetarian cookbook by Didi Emmons, "Entertaining For a Veggie Planet". This is a follow-up cookbook to her "Vegetarian Planet". I got the "Entertaining" one first, for some reason, and I liked it so much that I just picked up the "Planet" one at Chapters last week.

I've tweaked her recipe just a bit to suit my tastes (I think I like things with a little more kick than she does...so I add in way more spices. I also add more lentils, more tomatoes, and more peas. Oh, and some onion and garlic, too! I even put in a few splashes of tabasco because after tasting, my dish still didn't have enough kick. That is one of the great things about veggie cooking: it's all good! Just add in more of what ya' like!!)

So here it is...

Sweet Potato Badi: MP-Style.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup dried, unsweetened coconut

1/4 cup canola oil

3/4 cup raw red lentils

1 small white onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbsp ground cumin

1 tbsp curry powder

1 med. "white" potato (cut into 1/2 inch cubes)

1 large sweet potato (cut into 3/4 inch cubes)

2 small zucchini (cut into 1/4 inch rounds)

1 can plum tomatoes (take out the tomatoes and chop them up then throw them in along with the juice)

1 cup frozen baby peas

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1-2 small, skinny chile peppers, minced (mine weren't hot enough so I added about 5 or 6 dashes of Tobasco sauce)

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

In a small, dry, skillet toast the coconut over medium heat, shaking the pan regularly, until it is uniformly brown (watch carefully it goes from white to brown suddenly! At least it does on my stove!). Set aside.

In another *big* saute pan, heat the canola oil over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and heat until the onions have softened. Add in the lentils and saute until they begin to brown (this also comes on suddenly...so watch carefully! At least it does on my, stupid, stove). Stir in the spices and add the potatoes. Add in your tomatoes and sauce and about 1 cup of water (you want enough liquid in there to cook the potatoes), and bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer, cover, and cook for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add in the zucchini and peas and cook until all the veggies are fork-tender (about 10 minutes more).

Put aside about 2 tablespoons of the toasted coconut (for garnish) and mix the rest into a bowl with the yogurt, chiles, and about 1 teaspoon of kosher (big grain) salt. Remove your pan from the heat when all your veggies are ready and stir in the yogurt mixture.

Done!

Now you can serve over your favourite rice (mine is Basmati! yum! I think I may have to start lovin' brown, though...) with the reserved cocunut sprinkled on top for the fancy-schmancy factor.

Totally Yummy. Totally Meatless.

Who would want to eat a pig???

Happy Meatless Monday!

See ya' next week!

Knowing You, Knowing Me

Time once again for the monthly interview project started by The Fairy Blogmother.
1. Showers or baths?

Baths. It's easier for me to shave in the tub and it is also the only time I get to myself. It is a time suck, though-so I may have to start giving them up during the week.

2. What's your favourite thing for breakfast?

Coffee. I am trying to get better about my whole "never eat breakfast" thing, but I just don't have much of an appetite in the morning. I have been eating oatmeal lately, though. Hola!!

3. What is your favourite George Clooney movie?

We just watched "Burn After Reading" (I think that was the name of it) and I KILLED myself laughing when George shot Brad in the head. I know that wasn't supposed to be funny but thinking about Brad's big smile...and how the two of them probably killed themselves laughing filming that...well...I just had tears rolling down my cheeks. I prefer "Goofy George" to "Suave George". I like my men goofy... ;-)

4. American Idol starts on Tuesday folks, how do you feel about Ellen joining the judges table?

With Dexter off the air, I'm just glad that there will be something to watch on t.v. again. Not that I'm comparing Dexter and Idol. :) I'm interested to see how Ellen does.

5. Lets say you've got a gift card to Michaels... what would you spend it on?

I do?! Where is it?! Woo-hoo! I'm so excited!!!

...oh.

I see.

Okay. Um, I think I would spend it on a labeller. Or some albums. I am hoping to do some scrapbook pages this year. But, I'm back to thinking it may have to be digital. I SO wanted to take Cathe Zielske's course but it was too much money for right now. I wonder when she'll have it again...



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Saturday Snapshot: By Jamie

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It's A THROW DOWN!

Oh dear! I just had this great idea and I came to my laptop to post it (a bit easier to type on the actual computer sometimes - plus it let's me do linkies) when I saw that Tales From A Doggy Project has loaded about 4 new posts! So much reading to catch-up on...so I started getting sidetracked! Here's the thing - I came up with this idea while I was reading Tales From the Fairy Blogmother today. It's a combination of The FlyLady and that old meme Tackle It Tuesday...a little something I'm gonna call...

Throw Down Thursday!!

(Yes. I know it is Friday. But I just thought of this 2 minutes ago and, let's face it, Throw Down Thursday sounds so much cooler than Throw Down, uh, Friday. That, plus I was just listening to the commercial for Bobby Flay's show on the Food Network. I LOVE that commercial.)

Anyway...
Here's how it works....
I'm gonna' smack down the challenge on Thursdays. I'm gonna' post how I did on the previous week's challenge also on Thursday. If you like, you can play along...but ya' don't have to. No matter what, I know that this is going to help me empty out at least 52 tasks in my huge To-Do Jar!!

This week's challenge (and this is the part that was inspired by Shan) is LAUNDRY!!!
I CHALLENGE YOU (and, well, ME) to catch up on ALL your laundry this week. The Throw-Down is done on Thursday so that gives you the weekend as well as most of the week to get 'er done!

Good Luck!

(Oh, and bonus points for BEFORE and AFTER photos next Thursday, ladies).

And ask yourself this...
are you woman enough for...

The THROW DOWN...
well, are ya'
punk?
;-)

Snow Days.

This is the first day we've had enough snow around here for hubs to actually have to go out. Maybe just 2-3 inches, so nothing too bad, which is nice. We had SO much snow last year and it was always the horrible, deep, heavy kind. I really hope we don't get too much of that this year. But, just in case, the hubs took out a potential new employee to see if she has what it takes...





She started off really strong. It was looking promising!





She works well with others. Also great!





But just a few minutes in she claimed she was just going to grab some mittens.





Then she took off in her truck! I think she high-tailed it to Tim Hortons for an extended Hot Chocolate break.

Hmmm. Maybe send in your application again next season, Sweetie.

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Wordless Wednesday

{Wii Are Family}





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Meatless Monday: Curry Marinated Tofu.

I haven't had a chance to do a blog post about my New Year's Resolutions, yet...

but one of them is to eat more Meatless Meals. The "goal" is to switch over to a healthy vegetarian diet (the key word being healthy), but if I make that a resolution I know that I will find myself starving and then just wolfing down a bag of potato chips to fill the void. So, all I'm resolving to do is to try out more meatless recipes, figure out some things to do with tofu to make it taste good, work on my homemade seitan, and discover what to do with the package of tempeh that is sitting in my fridge. I'm going to try to post a Meatless Monday recipe idea every week, but don't hold me to that, either. If I learned anything from last year's "Pie a Week" resolution it's that...I tend to change my mind about doing stuff. Sometimes with (very) good reason!

So, let me just tell ya' that I actually have been eating a LOT of Meatless Meals over the past couple of weeks. Since Christmas I have only had chicken once! The rest of the time I have been eating beans, and lentils, and tofu! The hubs has even made a few tofu dishes that have been really good! He made a vegan soup with lentils and a vegan stir-fry with crumbled tofu. If you are a tofu hater because of the texture...then you should definitely try it crumbled. Even helps more if you freeze it first, then thaw, then crumble (into your stir-fry or...whatever). Then the "rubbery" texture is completely gone!


My absolute favourite new discovery when it comes to cooking with tofu is....

MARINADE!!!


Of course, tofu is just chalk full of water - so, if you press all that water out (between some paper towel with, say, a plate and some cans stacked on top...for about half an hour) you can then put your tofu into a marinade and it will just soak all those yummy flavours up like a sponge. I have read about this technique before, but I never actually tried it. Until now.



I got my Curry Tofu marinade recipe from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's and Terry Hope Romero's book, "Veganomicon" (pg. 127), which is really simple--consisting of just some veg. broth, rice vinegar, olive oil, soy sauce, and spices. I cut my tofu up into eight equal pieces and let it marinade for the afternoon.




I then heated up my grill-pan to about medium high and cooked the pieces on top for about 5 minutes on one side and a couple more minutes on the other -- making a nice cross-hatch pattern on the first side (fancy shmancy!). I also took the reserved marinade and heated it up with an equal amount of veg. broth to make a delicious sauce for my tofu steaks and served it all on a bed of basmati rice.




Let me tell you...it was DELICIOUS!! My hubby even loved it. He said if meat was an "8 or 9" (he is a carnivore) then the tofu was a "7 or an 8". That is really, really, good...because he isn't a tofu fan.




I will make this one regularly from now on (in fact, I'm having it for lunch again today...so good!!), but I'm going to keep experimenting with other veggie dishes so I can bring you another episode of Meatless Monday next week. ;-)


Stay tuned!!
;-)

*painting by Rachel Maguire (www.rayarray.com)

Bye Bye 2009

Haven't had a chance to do this until now, but here it is -- the little year ending meme that my friend, Shan (aka The Fairy Blogmother) likes to do...

1. What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before?
I took pictures of babies that were in no way related to me.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
No. I wanted to make a pie every week. I soon discovered that was a very unhealthy plan. Chalk that one up to the fact I was very pregnant when I made that resolution (a.k.a. Crazy). I do have lots of new ones for this year. They are all much healthier, too.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
I did!! Also, a bunch of girls from work did, as well.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No. Thank goodness.

5. What countries did you visit?
Are you kidding?

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
Oodles and oodles of confidence would be peachy.

7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
January 23 - the birth of my third baby girl.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I had another healthy baby despite some pretty serious medical issues (and I think that was partly because I put our lives ahead of work. That sounds completely ridiculous to type it now...but it was something that was strangely, wrongly, foolishly hard to do at the time).

9. What was your biggest failure?
Organizing photos and getting them all backed up. I lost a lot of very important, personal, photographs (including our wedding trip to Jamaica, Jamie's first day of kindergarten, photos of the girls with me the night before the baby was born...etc...) because of my lack of photo organization.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nope. Thank goodness.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
OH!! That is hard! I got a lot of great "stuff" last year. Photography related, I'd say "off-camera flash" was a big one. Personally, I am still in love with my iPhone and now I'm obsessed with the Wii (Fit Plus, and EA Sport Active).

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
My two older girls for being the best big sisters a baby could ever, ever, ask for. They LOVE her. She is so lucky.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Jon Gosselin.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Mortgage payments, truck payments, groceries, and Rogers.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
My baby...and photography.

16. What song will always remind you of 2009?
"Poker Face". The girls used to sing this and do her little dance moves all the time. I know, completely inappropriate.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? 
b) thinner or fatter? 
c) richer or poorer?
Happier (everyone is here and well), Thinner (I've lost all the baby weight), Poorer (Mat. benefits are no longer topped up by my work).

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Napping with the baby.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Getting stressed about things that were not organized. Not that I don't want to get stressed about it this year...but that I want EVERYTHING to BE organized this year.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
With my little family in the morning, and with my extended family in the afternoon.

21. Did you fall in love in 2009?
Yes. With a little girl I met.

22. How many one-night stands?
Well, I never had to spend a whole night standing, but I did spend a few sitting up in a chair...holding the baby...

23. What was your favorite TV program?
Dexter. No contest.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
I don't hate anyone. But, I'm not a big fan of Jon Gosselin, Tiger Woods, or the Balloon Boy's Dad...that's for sure.

25. What was the best book you read?
"Photo Freedom" by Stacy Julian...I plan to use her organization plan this year and then start scrapbooking!!! Gawd! How long have I been wanting to start Scrapbooking?!?!?! It's just getting annoying at this point, really.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
The ukulele. ;-)

27. What did you want and get?
A healthy baby, an iPhone, off-camera flash, a Wii, back into my old pants.

28. What did you want and not get?
Kelly Ripa's body from ordering Physique 57 DVD's.

29. What was your favorite film of this year?
Oh! Step Brothers! Hahahaha. Funny...I liked that movie so much more than Dave did. It's just full of great lines! And, now that I've seen it...I can do so many more activities!!!!

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I'm pretty sure Davey brought me home some flowers and some Thai food and I spent the evening with my newly expanded little family. It wasn't the big bash that all my friend's had...but it was perfect for me. I turned the big 4-0.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
I'd say "more sleep" but, you know, missing sleep because you are up in the middle of the night with your newborn little baby is actually pretty darn fantastic. I miss those middle of the night feedings already. (sniff).

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2006?
"I refuse to buy fat clothes!! I will just wear my scrubs until I can pull my other pants up past my knees!!!"
"They will go up past my knees again one day, right? Right???"

33. What kept you sane?
There wasn't much to go insane about.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Anderson. Hayes. Cooper.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
Honestly, I don't think much ever changes...no matter who is elected...but I was very happy with the outcome of the U.S. election.

36. Who did you miss?
I had a good year.

37. Who was the best new person you met?
My baby.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009.
The little problems will pass. Don't lose sight of what is really important.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
"And how you've, how you've grown my little bird...
I'm regretting letting you fly"
-Ingrid Michaelson.