Beagle

Confession: While I do not typically like dogs, my favorite breed of dog is the Beagle.Last night I dreamed about going to some sort of store (after time-traveling there, obviously) where they sold used books (mostly those little the novelty books of quotes and lists and things) trinkets, and small animals (like hamsters and...wait for it...) Well I happened upon the cutest thing ever...MINI-BEAGLES! They are absolutely adorable and I wanted one, even after I woke up and was in the shower this morning.

Do mini-beagles really exist? I looked up "beagles" on Wikipedia and totally saw a picture of a beagle-pug mix and it was pretty adorable...but not quite what I saw in my dream...

After some more internet research I am proud to announce (to mostly myself since no one else probably cares)...

THEY DO EXIST!

Hello, Pocket Beagle!

Fall

Yes, Fall.  As in, FALL TV SCHEDULES!  My favorite week of the spring is quickly approaching and I shall be glued to my entertainment news sources for several important announcements such as: will Chuck be renewed, will I be able to DVR everything I desire to watch on Mondays and Thursdays, and what show will I be able to find David Anders on next season?

Welcome to my happy place, aka next week:

Monday, 5/17: NBC and Fox
Tuesday, 5/18: ABC
Wednesday, 5/19: CBS
Thursday, 5/20: The CW

So flippin' excited...it's nice that some things aren't changing in my world now that Baby Bing has arrived.

Piggy

So in my April issue of Parenting Magazine (oh hush!) I came across something in the first few pages that I am absolutely thrilled about and most definitely want to get for Miss LJ someday:

This little piggy bank is from Money Savvy Generation and is available in a variety of colors. It visually demonstrates the important areas of "Save", "Spend", "Donate", and "Invest" in a fun way for the kiddos to understand (well, at least understand that there are four main ways to think of money). I absolutely love it and am almost as excited about this as I am for the new Virginia legislation that is going to require a personal finance class to be completed by all public school kids before they graduate high school.

I'm only a little sad that I didn't think of this piggy bank first as a product available through Bingham Bootcamp: Finance for Kids...

Flop

This made me laugh out loud so hard I woke the baby...

Reading

We're coming down the home stretch and I think it is time to declare my favorite baby readings for the past eight months.

 

#1 - What to Expect When You're Expecting

 

Yes, it's cliche, but this book was extremely helpful (especially the index) in the weeks before my first doctor's appointment and since then for brief weekly updates and a quick reference guide.  I most definitely did not read this the entire way through, but the set-up of the book makes it really easy to skip around to where ever your interests fall during a certain day.

 

#2 - Baby Bargains

 

This book was passed along to us by some friends who had also recently had their first child.  It has been an invaluable resource for all the baby shopping and researching that has happened in the past few months.  It covers everything from maternity clothes, cribs, mattresses, baby clothes, you name it, this book covers it.  It has actually surpassed Consumer Reports as our go-to guide for baby ratings.  The book gets updated on a regular basis and there is an accompanying blog: http://baby411.typepad.com/babybargains/ with updates, recall notices, etc.  If you're my friend and will be having a child in the near future, you will probably get this book as a gift =P

 

#3 - On Becoming Babywise

 

We'll see how effective this book becomes once Baby Bing arrives, but the principles in the book make a lot of sense to us so far!  We have known parents all over the spectrum described in the book and have see the differences in their children so we're optimistic for the effectiveness of the principles we're learning.

 

#4 - What's Going On In There? (Hubby's personal favorite)

 

This book was recommended by my mother-in-law who was a pre-school teacher for many years.  While the length of the book was daunting for Hubby, once he realized this covered brain development from within the womb through age 5, it became more approachable.  It's been great not only for learning what to be doing or not doing, but for the why.  Traditional baby interactions explained in a way that makes you appreciate how God's wired us all when you realize how many "maternal instincts" actually serve a very legitimate purpose in the child's brain development (everything from labor and delivery to rocking/swaying a baby).  This book was a total winner for the engineer in the family ;-)

 

And there you have it.  My reading list has been predominately baby-related over the past few months, but I think in the end it'll be worth it and it has definitely helped combat any first-time-parent anxieties that we were feeling...or at least helped to make a dent in our feelings of inadequacy ;-)

Ten

In 2010 I resolve to:

1. Add one new dinner recipe to my repertoire per month (only "keepers" count, who knows how many new recipes I'll have to try in a month!)
   
   --> Blog through the kitchen adventures of 2010 on the Kitchen Adventures blog I set up and then never updated in 2009.
   
2. Read one book per month (Round 2).
   
3. Reassess the gardening situation in the backyard.
   
4. Limit myself to only 1 flat tire this year (4 was a bit excessive this year) 0=)
   
5. Develop a successful routine that includes Quiet Time, Hubby Time, Baby Time, and maybe even Me Time.
   
6. Come up with a stellar entrepreneurial idea with Mrs. R. that will be amazingly successful and make the hubbies proud ;-)

Decade

So, I'm a moron and just realized that all this "end of the decade" hoopla was because a real "decade" was ending. In my head, a decade was just "ten years" so if I didn't jump on the decade bandwagon this year, I'd just reflect on the past ten years next year. Again, I'm a moron.

What are they calling this decade anyway, the "Double-Os?" 80s, 90s, ???

Anyway, since it's not too late, here are some of my highlights from the past ten years:

2000
This was the pinnacle of my high school education/fun. This was the year Y2K did not crash the universe. This was also the year Party of Five ended.

2001
Graduating high school, heading to Virginia Tech...Independence was the lesson of the year. It was time and it was worth it. Scrubs became my TV obsession.

2002
Hubby (before we were even an item) earned "friendship for life" after watching Newsies with me to celebrate my birthday....mid-July we decided that five years of friendship was sufficient and tried "dating". The move to WVU happened and dorm-life ended.

2003
More WVU, friendships with my gals springing up all over, a mellow but good year I think.

2004
More WVU, my first big step toward moving to the city by way of my summer internship in downtown DC, and the most crazy proposal ever (I said, "yes") pretty much sum up this year. Oh yeah, and LOST happened...

2005
My time at WVU ends (with an amazing year of concerts!) and only a few days later The Wedding, the Big Move, and the Honeymoon. Started my first real job and quickly discovered I was in over my head.

2006
There was a lot of traveling this year, namely for work (both of our jobs actually). Alias ends while Hubby is on travel in Australia (I did not wait for him to watch it, but rather just watched it twice!) Hurricane Cruise to Bermuda happened (and we vowed never to get an inside cabin again!) Kitty makes her way into our family and Tucker (the other one) makes his brief appearance.

2007
Kicked off the new year with a new job and a few months later we purchased our first place. Spent most of the year pretty mellow enjoying our new home...and studying to get my CFE license. I also perfected the chocolate chip cookie this year.

2008
The year of BBQ -- we made two trips to Tennessee during the year and for Christmas were gifted with our own smoker for the backyard. I finally got my CPA license after an intense year of studying.

2009
The year of vacations with two cruises and a trip to the beach (with a mini-North Carolina BBQ tour thrown in there as well) made the year our last big vacation year...especially after we found out during the summer that we were expecting our first child (Baby Girl Bing expected to arrive in February 2010!)

Looking ahead, the next decade is going to be much different than this past one. We've got lots of learn up ahead, but it should be an interesting and wild ride!