Triumphant return, or just drunk enough to post again?

To say I've been slacking on this whole blog thing is an understatement. I haven't posted since last September...and before that the last post was in July. I started a post in early February, but never finished. My family blog isn't much better. My poor family- if they aren't on facebook or instagram, it's iffy as to whether or not they see any current pictures of my kids.

I'm taking a break from researching a paper for my Techniques of Substance Abuse class because I'm getting too tipsy to continue working on it. The kids are all in bed (and I think asleep!) so I'm now on my second glass of wine. And because I'm a lightweight, two glasses is enough to get me nice and giggly.

Ironically, the paper I'm working on is about effective modalities for treating binge drinking among college students. But since binge drinking is defined as four or more drinks on one occasion for females (and I've only had two), I'm good to go!

So what has been going on since my last September post?

Well, the vegetarian, pescatarian thing didn't work out so well. I caved. It was too hard making so many different meals. I don't mind eating vegetarian, but the husband likes his meat*. I decided to start again after the holidays, and even made a public (read: facebook) announcement about my resolution. Mistake #1: announcing it on facebook. Mistake #2: calling it a resolution. Yeah, failed again. BUT, I think I was being too hard on myself. Going from an omnivore diet to a vegetarian diet cold turkey (hehe, pun intended) isn't really a great idea. So I'm trying to balance it out. The majority of my diet is vegetarian, with some meaty dishes thrown in, primarily on the weekends and the occasional lunch (like when my friend goes to Burger King on our lunch break, and the thought of a Whopper cancels out the healthy salad I packed). Moderation is key, people.

School: I'm officially in my graduation year! Unfortunately, I still have 10 months to go. :( I will finish in December of this year. I'm currently 7 weeks into my year-long free labor stint. In other words, I'm an intern. I'm working alongside a few other classmates at a local counseling center. It's tough. On the plus side, I love the work. I love working with people, and trying to help them. I love when my supervisor asks me to take the lead, and I get to ask probing questions and think of ways to get through to them. On the downside, holy crap it's hard. Balancing internship/school/kids/etc is exhausting. It came to a head a few weeks ago, and I had a major ugly-cry breakdown. Since then I've worked out a new schedule with the husband, so he is helping a lot more with the kids while I work more hours (I have to meet a minimum amount of hours each term). It helps that I'm not taking any crazy hard classes right now, and that I don't have an outside-the-house job. But still, hard as hell. I don't recommend it. 10 more months...

The kids: holy shit, Maddy is almost one. ONE. I will never have a baby again. :( (No, NEVER. Not going to happen.) She is crawling everywhere, getting into everything, and pulling up all the time. Not walking yet, but she's getting close. She can speed-crawl to wherever she wants to go, so she has no need to walk. She is seriously one of the most laid-back, easiest babies ever. (Please don't hurt me, parents of children who still wake up at night/have colic/have teething pains/etc. Something will inevitably bite me in my ass when she gets a little older.)

Ty is four, and everything that goes with it. Super verbal, super smart, super pain in my ass. 70% of the time he is awesome, hilarious, and the best son/brother ever. But that other 30%? Whew, it's hard. I mean, it's nice that he can talk and tell me what he needs, but sometimes I think "Is it really necessary to teach them words?" Because then they use those words to talk back. He is really helpful though, and is a great big brother...mostly to Maddy, because Lily just pisses him off. He has started to have a really hard time when I leave the house to go to work or school. Usually he just says bye, but now he is crying and holding on to me when I leave. Of course, he's fine two minutes later, but it's still heart-breaking.

Lily is two. Surprisingly, the whole "terrible twos" thing isn't so bad with her. If anything, the 12 months between ages 1 and 2 were the worst. She couldn't express herself with words, so she just cried and whined. A LOT. Now she can verbalize more and more, and is becoming more independent. I thought she was potty trained this past summer, and even announced it to the world on the ol' FB (will I ever learn??) Nope, she just psyched me out! Now we're just taking things nice and slow. She likes to wear her "daywear" (underwear), so she does that at home and wears what I call a "just in case" diaper when we're out and for sleep times. She is super loving, and loves to snuggle close. Her favorite show is "Diego," and she watches a minimum of 3 episodes a day. But it's educational, so it's not so bad, right? I mean hell, she now knows what a tapir is.

So that was a really long post about what I've been up to. I blame the wine. Who knows, maybe I'll be inspired to post again sometime in the next 6 months?


*Giggity.