Top 10 of 2010

I've enjoyed reading other friends' lists of their top 10 for 2010.

So, here's mine.

I actually wrote this on New Year's Day. Just an idea of how far I am behind.

Oh well.

Enjoy!

I always like looking back at memories.

1. Moving from Fairfax to Springfield.

By this I mean the actual act of moving, and the fact that we moved. Moving, and having such an outpouring of help from friends to help us move, put in a floor, paint, etc. was incredible. I have never had so much help moving before! I'm really glad we moved, too. It's so nice to be a part of the community where we go to church.

2. The Hot Tub at Brookside Cabins.

We got in! And out. And it was an unforgettable experience. Can't wait to do that again!

3. Girls weekend when I saw my mom and the rest of my family and Ann!

What a whirlwind! This trip was huge on a couple of levels. It was the first time I left Michael since we got married. His mom came to take care of him while I was gone. I felt so free and really enjoyed soaking in the short time with my family and Ann, who was visiting the US from Thailand.

4. White House Correspondents Dinner.

Major life goal, check!

5. White House Christmas Party

Another major life goal, check!

6. Letting the Chesapeake house foreclose.

It wasn't an easy decision. It still isn't easy to talk about. I am a statistic of the economy's demise in 2010. This little house was special because it was my first house, but I had to let it go. I just couldn't hold on, it was killing me. To quote the Fray, "Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same."

7. Emailing Dr. Dorree Lynn. Her book helped me so much. That e-mail led to an important relationship that allowed me to learn so much about myself, and help us to communicate and better serve each other as a couple. Therapy and counseling are good things. Don't shy away from it if you ever need it. Seriously. As Dr. Lynn says, "Life is too hard to do alone."

8. The floor in our new apartment. See photos from #1. After living for concrete for more than a year, I no longer take real flooring for granted. So glad to not have dirt permanently engrained in my heels anymore!

9. Getting a real Christmas tree.

I didn't think it was possible to do this without asking for help from someone else. But we did. And we did it together. Can't wait to do it again next year!

10. Picking my husband up off the bathroom floor. Him falling like that was one of my biggest fears. Now that I've been through picking him up (twice), I know he can fall, and the world can still go on.

I Blinked, And It's Been A Week.

Well, here I am.
Guess I didn't get that much blogging done in that spare 20 minutes I had last Thursday.
Oops.

Now, it's been a full week.
And some of you have been checking this blog, and there haven't been any updates.
Sorry for that.

I really do aspire to be one of those bloggers who blogs as part of her daily routine. It would be fun for me. And it would be nice for you to have a little something to read each day instead of a load of posts every now and then, right? It would probably be more time efficient that way, too.

But, so far, it's just not working out like that. There is so much I want to share with you. Left over stuff from BEFORE just this past week. But it's on this computer, and another computer, and photos are here, and there, and on the camera and on the phone.

All of that, and I just now have time to sit here and sort. My pictures. My thoughts. All of it needs to be sorted. Although, I bet sometimes what you read here doesn't seem like it's all that "sorted," maybe just the photos.

I'm not really a good sorter. I don't even sort laundry. If I have a red shirt and a white towel and I end up with a red shirt and a pink towel, well, that's what I get. Because I don't have time to sort laundry. And, my husband doesn't mind pink towels, thankfully.

Today I talked to my best friend in the world, Ann, on Skype. It was wonderful. There is something so special about that one best friend, isn't there? It's like home. Hi Ann!

Sorry, but it looks like you're going to have some catching up to do around here.
Here I go :)

Blog Stats for 2010

We launched this blog at the very end of 2009, as a goal to blog about our lives for 2010.
What a great project it has been! I love that we have a diary of our lives over the last year. I love looking back at the pictures and remember good meals we had, experiments we tried, good times with friends, etc. So much of normal, everyday life stuff is so easy to forget if you're not intentional about remembering it. And that's sad. Because most of life is normal everyday life stuff. I don't want to forget it!

The blog really got going in January of 2010. I majorly skimped on posting in the early Summer (that was when the depression peaked), and when I really started posting on a regular basis (Fall) we earned quite a happy little following.

My favorite fruits of the blog are the relational ones. First up is the emails, Facebook connections and comments I've received from other people who are either paralyzed or married to someone with a spinal cord injury that write me and tell me what I've written here matters. That they get it. That they were encouraged by it. It's a pretty small world and to know that there are people out there who are encouraged by our struggles actually makes the struggles worth it. You are what I think of when I'm putting the not-so-pretty parts out there.

I've also heard from friends from high school, college, former co-workers, friends of friends who say they've read this blog and like it and like the pictures. Hopefully in 2011, I'll do a better job of taking pictures with my Digital SLR and not rely so much on my iPhone. So you'll have much better pictures! But that iPhone is so stinking convenient! People who have written me to say that they've started cooking again, or baking again, or organizing their house or decorating, because of something they read or saw on this blog. That always makes my day.

Because that's why we do it. We don't just put this stuff out there to put it out there. We do it because we want God to use us, use our story, use our struggles, and even yummy baked goods to make a difference in someone else's day.

Here are some blog stats for the year. Thank you for reading and for caring about us. It really makes my day when I get comments and hear from readers!

The top post of the year, by far, was the White House Christmas Party post. It beat all others by almost double.
Next was Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays
Followed by We're Not Going Home for Christmas
Then Michael's post, Determination and Intimacy
And, rounding out the top five was M Is Back and I'm Not Invisible Just So You Know

Hmm... maybe I need to work on writing better titles? Haha.
Over the year, we've built our monthly average to about 4,000 pageviews! It's fun to see that people from other countries are reading our blog. Not just Thailand, where my best friend Ann lives. But lots of people in the UK, Canada and Germany read our blog.
Pretty cool to track it.
As far as how people get to our blog, most of them just use the blog's URL. Many others get there through links I post on Facebook. Or by Googling my name, or linking from my old blog.

Okay, y'all. It's 9am, time for me to get a certain someone up and going for the day. Can't wait because I'm hungry and when I'm done with him, we eat! :)

It Feels like Saturday

Today, it feels like Saturday, but it's not.
It's Thursday.

It feels like Saturday because I'm the only one up, and I'm snuggled in my comfy white chair with my coffee and my computer. I love this time so much.

I'm supposed to be on vacation this week, but I worked Monday-Wednesday because after being home for a week solid, sick, I just could not spend another day here! I go stir crazy. During that week, I cleaned and organized everything. Down to untangling my jewelry! There isn't really anything to do around here!

Well, actually, now it's been a few days since I was home, so the house could use a cleaning. I'll do that today. And, I have a few things we picked up at Ikea on New Years Day that need to be put together, I can do that too. And I need to go to the store.

I'm such a sick list maker. Bear with me.
I'm also hoping to catch the blog up more.

I have 23 minutes before I have to get M up.
Let's see what we can do.

And now, New Year's!

New Year's Eve was definitely pretty low key around here. I was wrapping up my clean-every-nook-and-cranny around here/make 47 lists/organize everything in the world/get rid of anything you can't absolutely live without phase. So, I ended up at the grocery store at about 9pm. Haha. I tried to take B doggie to Petsmart, for fun, but they were closed.

I came back home with the groceries we needed for the week, and a Stouffer's family size pan of chicken enchiladas. I popped those in the oven, and Michael and I watched a documentary about North Korea.

This probably sounds so painfully awful to most of you that this is how we spent our New Year's Eve. But it wasn't! At all! We thoroughly enjoyed it! We were together, we had food, we were watching something incredibly interesting (and heart breaking, pray for North Koreans!) on TV.

About 2 minutes before midnight, M switched the TV to the Rockin' New Year's Eve program with Ryan Seacrest and Dick Clark (bless his heart!) and we counted down and watched the ball drop. We had a champagne toast and a really, really long kiss. :)

Trying to take self portraits with an iPhone is challenging.

But, we did the best we could. The first kiss pic was a little too much for a family blog, haha!

New Year's Day, we decided we would start our own little New Year's tradition of going to Ikea and browsing/shopping/dreaming and then going to Starbucks and planning our goals/budget/calendar for the next year.

We have several friends from church who have recently taken little marriage retreats/planning getaways to do this kind of thing and we thought it was such a good idea! To intentionally get on the same page. What a good thing! We don't have the means for a getaway to do this right now, so we just had a Starbucks date. But it was very effective. And a trip to Ikea is just super fun anytime!

More about our 2011 goals, next.

I'm Tempted to Skip This Part, But I'm Not Going To

I'm tempted to just skip from Christmas to New Year's and just leave in the smiley, happy parts with pictures.

But, I'm not going to. Because if I'm learning anything right now, it's that it's okay, and good, to not be perfect.

So, I'm going to share with you something I wrote in my journal about a yucky day that unfolded in the middle of that week between Christmas and New Year's.

Here it is: (My journal on 1/1/11)

I spent the couple of days before Christmas sick. And the entire week afterward home from work, sick. I cried and cried because I wanted so badly to be taken care of. I cried because no matter how tired I am, no matter how sick I am, or how drugged up I am, I have to take care of Michael first. Sometimes I feel like my life revolves around his needs.

One day I went to CVS to the Minute Clinic. I was diagnosed with severe Bronchitis and I was given two prescriptions and I was told to take it easy for a week, and not drive while I was on the cough syrup with Coedine. I immediately called my husband when I was done meeting with the doctor. There was no answer. He was supposed to be expecting my call! If he can’t drive me to the doctor when I’m sick, he should at least sit by the phone and wait for my call, right? I tried again, no answer. I called my mom, who had already accurately diagnosed me and prescribed the same medicine my doctor prescribed, from 200 miles away, and after talking to me on the phone only twice in a week or so. How do they do that?

I texted Michael. Emailed him. Wrote on his Facebook wall. Nothing. The time since I left the apartment approached two hours. Still nothing. As I was driving into our apartment complex, crying feeling sorry for myself that my husband doesn’t even care enough about me to answer his phone, I thought to myself, ever-so-slightly, that “he better be on the floor or something.”

(I already know I'm a horrible person, no need to comment here)

Sure enough... I walk into our apartment, and to my left, underneath the Christmas tree, lies my husband. In an awkward position, on his knee and his head, butt up in the air. Wheelchair still upright. “I’m okay,” he says. I took off my coat, set the bag of medicine down on the counter and went over to him. Thought #1: I’m a horrible person. Thought #2: How can he do this to me??? I’m the sick one!!! Do not mess with my title! I am earning this pity party! I’m exhausted, and now I have to muster up the strength to pick you up off the ground!!! He told me to sit with him, on the floor. So I did. We sat facing each other, knees to knees. And I cried. I went on and on about how I just don’t matter, ever, and he doesn’t understand that because he always gets to matter. He probably said some other sweet, wonderful things trying to encourage me, but I wasn’t having it. I was angry. And exhausted. And sick, remember?

I scooted his butt back up against the couch. Stood on the couch and lifted him, from behind, up onto the couch. Then I was about to transfer him from the couch and I said something else, probably self-absorbed and not-nice, and that’s when it happened. We went into full blown fight mode. Oh, it was ON then! I picked his butt up, put him in the chair, and didn’t say another word. I started unloading the dishwasher and he started going down the front hall to the office. He said he was sorry for saying something mean. I knew he was. I was also so angry at that point, I know what it’s like to be so angry you say something you don’t mean.

We cried, together. Me sitting there on his lap. I told him that it’s so hard living with him, waking up next to him and laying down next to him everyday. That the “perspective” I have to face everyday of him being paralyzed and how it just trumps everything and makes it impossible for me to feel like I ever matter, or ever actually have any problems that are significant, because up against THAT, nothing even registers on the Richter scale, ya know? That, at the end of the day, I’m wiping his butt. Literally and figuratively. But, he pointed out, you’re not my butt-wiper. So true! Profound. Like he walks the dog, but I don’t view him as the dog walker. I don’t. Such a good point.

After that day there was another day of me crying like a whiny baby because I just wanted him so badly to just say “good morning” to me or ask if I needed anything. Or ask if I wanted a cup of tea when he was heating one up. There was another day when I was cleaning and organizing and cleaning and organizing while repeating to myself, sometimes silently and sometimes not-so-silently, “shut up, do your job, expect nothing because you deserve nothing.” Feeling all used, and taken advantage of....

Then, I started my period. :)

It’s not completely that simple, really. There’s still so much to process.
But today was a good day. And last night was a good night. And that’s already SUCH an improvement over last New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

I can assure you that 2010 was one of the hardest years of my life. I’m tempted to say it was the “worst” year, but I don’t know, now that all is said and done, that I can actually say that. A lot of seeds were planted in me in 2010. I endured deep pain, mostly emotionally, some physically. I never made it through a week without crying in 2010. That sounds so sad, doesn’t it? It was. It was a really, really sad year. I shed a lot of tears, lost weight, gained it back, lost hair, had anxiety attacks and high blood pressure and found a varicose vein in one of my legs.

First goal for 2011. Be happier and just chill out. Life is short. Sometimes it's sad. Sometimes it's just PMS.

Our Christmas at Home

As you know, we decided to stay home for Christmas this year. I am so glad we did. Because, as you also know, I got really sick!

We did manage to celebrate Christmas, though. And I did manage to take a few pictures.
Mostly of food, of course.


We started the day with a breakfast casserole. I think this one turned out much better than the one I made last year for M's family. I can definitely tell cooking gets better with practice!

I popped this bad boy out of the oven at about Noon. Yeeeaaaahh. I'm pretty sure I slept in THE latest this Christmas than ever before in my life. Pardon my nasty sick/morning hair look.

We ate the casserole, some fruit and our traditional cranberry juice with champagne.
Then it was gift opening time!! :)


We did good. We both definitely went over our initial "spending limits," but not terribly. And we were both happy. So, that's good.


Now, the turkey.
Which, believe it or not, I did have several people ask me about!

Thankfully, it wasn't frozen, so I didn't have to thaw it.

I brined it Christmas Eve. I went with recipes partly from Cooks Illustrated and partly from Wegmans.

I slow roasted it. The time actually flew by because I was so busy making the other sides!

In the end, I wish it had turned out browner, but the internal temperature was right.

And the little thingy popped up! It did not ding, in case you're wondering.

We carved it together and set it out on what was originally going to be my beautiful Christmas table.

But, really it was just a place to set everything. Because we ended up eating in front of the TV on our trays. I was whooped!!

I got almost everything I wanted to make, made. I skipped the cider glazed carrots. I didn't have the energy to knead dough, so I made rolls out of a can, and I didn't make homemade gravy, I used a bag of Wegmans gravy. But it was still very good. As you can see, Brokaw was stoked!

I'm actually really glad I made this huge feast for just the two of us, because over the next full week, when I was sick, I didn't have to cook at all. We ate leftovers from this and leftover breakfast casserole for like 8 days!


Brokaw got to do his part, too. My little pre-rinse.

So, there you have it. Our first Christmas at home. In pictures. It was very nice. I enjoyed cooking. I enjoyed exchanging gifts in front of the tree and opening stockings with my Love.

Where to Even Begin?

Hi y'all.
I haven't posted for like a week and a half, which I understand in interweb land, is like 47 years.

Sorry about that.
I was super sick last week.
Like actually living up to my normal overreacting when I'm sick, sick.
It was not fun.

I've been feeling better for a few days, and I feel a tug at my heart to blog away, but I honestly don't even know where to begin.

Sometimes I wonder if I blog too much "we went here and we did this or that, and here's a picture."
Because, is that really interesting? Probably not. Unless you're me. Or my mother. Both of us are faithful readers of this space, but still. Bleh, right?

Well, I'm afraid we've got to start somewhere, folks.

So, I'll show you how awesome I am at making breakfast burritos.

Because I fry the tortillas in butter. Or I did. This was before the New Year began :)

Butter, eggs, real bacon (not that fake turkey stuff that should not even be allowed to be called bacon, IMHO), green onions, cheese, salsa.
Divine.

I'll show you a picture of my little Christmas kitty/packing helper.

Sometimes I call Katy "Sexy" because she always has this seductive way of laying there and looking at you, like, "Happy Birthday, Mister President" or something.

I'll show you random discoveries I made around the apartment. Like these glass containers for keeping flour and sugar.

I've had these since I moved into my first apartment, I think. My mom handed them down to me. I remember them sitting on top of the fridge when I was a kid. Now they're on top of my fridge. And I'm actually using them now. Which I didn't do for the last 10 years or so, I don't know why.

Christmas Cold

Today is a WONDERFUL day. This year the Ritters are staying home for Christmas. We have been anticipating today for months. So yesterday we were disappointed when Dana started fighting a cold. It isn't just a little sniff-and-cough cold, but a big ol' knock-you-on-your-can cold. With a turkey and fixings in the refrigerator Dana wasn't going to be undone.
Add to the cold a pressure sore on my end that requires extra help from Dana (and extra worry too) and we weren't too happy with how Christmas was shaping up. Neither of us handles disappointment very well. Getting through a rough morning, we enjoyed Dana's breakfast casserole (which we'll be enjoying the next several days) and read the Christmas story from Luke 2.
We then OPENED OUR GIFTS! We each had a stocking and something beside the tree (Note: with a curious puggle, presents go on the table beside, not under the tree). It was great having our surprises from each other (along with the practical things we knew were coming). The big relief was: nowhere to be.
Not to be bested by a cold --even a big ol' one-- Dana went to fixing that Christmas dinner she has been planning. She is coughing and wo' out, but she is pushing through it. Still at it at nearly five o'clock and coughing along, Dana has the house smelling wonderful --yet again-- and even brought be some of her homemade bread from Thursday's cook-fest.
Somebody gets a really good massage and long, relaxing shower tonight and hopefully a restful night sleep.
Thank you for making this a Very Merry Christmas Sweet.

December is a Flash! (Our Life Lately)

My apologies for not keeping up with the blog that well this month! December is always such a flash! I love this season, all of the fun and food and parties and celebrations are so great! But being so busy, the month does seem to go by in like one blink, doesn't it?

Here's a glimpse of what life has been like for us around here for the last couple of weeks...

It snowed. A tad.

I started driving to work. Because being terribly cold is just not for me, I have decided.

President Obama got pretty much everything he wanted for Christmas. Holy "lame duck" session! Work was CRAZY busy.

Late nights are tough for the work/home life balance, but wow is the White House beautiful at night!

There has been a little more of this around here than usual.

We got a package full of Christmas gifts from my Mama!

There was something for all of us.

First, Michael...

Then me :)

I know you've thoroughly enjoyed viewing me opening Christmas presents wearing my long johns. Very Cat Woman, right?

Now, the pets...

Katy got her prize first. For a nanosecond. Then she ran away faster than I could even get a picture.

Then Brokaw. Who opened his present himself. And may have enjoyed the plastic it was wrapped in as much as the tennis balls themselves.

Princess got one, too.

But, she didn't really care. She was off in her own little world, being content, as usual.

So... someone else got her prize. (and Katy's too...)

And, on this particular night we ate Chipotle.

May I also mention that we are both "expanding?" For M, this is a good thing. I consider it an accomplishment that he has some meat on his bones. My bones, however, were already quite meaty.... Oh well.

It snowed, again. This time a little more. Thankful for 4WD!

And there I go driving in it... taking pictures... I know, I'm awful.

One day, when I was in a particularly foul mood, there was a little party in the lobby of my office and there was a chocolate fountain. Turned my frown upside down! (Did I mention, I'm "expanding?"

Somebody was looking particularly handsome at church one Sunday morning, in his new scarf.

I baked some honey oatmeal rolls for our ministry teams Christmas Party. And I *tried* to make a red velvet pound cake in a bundt cake pan but ended up taking this instead....

We call this Red Velvet Cream Cheese Crumble. Sounds legit, right? Yeah.... well.... a little background for you.... Apparently I have much to learn in the how-to-grease-and-flour-a-bundt-cake-pan routine. Half of my cake came out. The other half didn't. I was a pouty mess! Because clearly this was my husband's fault because he happened to be "standing" there watching me during my moment of baking failure! I was just going to throw it way. M said, "Make it a crumble cake!" I was like, "is that even a thing?" Ugh. Pout. Pout. Stomp. Stomp. Then, I decided to give it a shot. I crumbled it all up, smashed it down in a casserole dish, made some cream cheese icing, sprinkled some more crumbles on top and some pecans and sold it as "Red Velvet Cream Cheese Crumble." It was a hit! Score 1 for Michael. I want to remember this because it's a great 'our marriage' kind of story. So typical, it's not perfect so I don't want it and he's all making something beautiful and useful out of nothing. Grr and :) all at the same time.

I spent an entire day this week doing absolutely nothing other than looking up recipes on the internet, reading Real Simple and snuggling with Brokaw. And opening a certain package that came in the mail with MY KINDLE in it!!! Thank you Mommy Claus!!!! :)

Today, I ran out to Trader Joe's for fresh flowers for our Christmas table.

Where, tomorrow, we will be having Roasted Turkey, Herb Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Sweet Potato Casserole, Green Bean Casserole, Collard Greens and Cider Glazed Carrots for dinner. Oh, and Yeast Rolls, of course. And maybe Macaroni and Cheese, maybe.

Hopefully.

Note, there are no bundt pans involved!

Dessert is Carrot Cake I bought from Wegmans!

There, that's the last two weeks or so, in pictures.

Wait! There's one more!

As I was sitting here writing this, a certain someone came in here and took my stocking and brought it back, filled up. :)

I'm *really* looking forward to tomorrow! Our 'Just Us' Christmas is already perfect.

Merry Christmas, Y'all!