Obligatory Resolutiony Post

I commented this on the Twitters but I've noticed this year far more "resolutions are nonsense" posts than I have "here are my resolutions" posts.  This doesn't surprise me, since it's true that most people (myself included) tend to forget our resolutions after the first few drinks on New Year's Eve.

But since 2012 is going to be a year of such upheaval in the land of Caitlin and Rob (still waiting for an awesome celebrity-like portmanteau of our names) I thought that creating a few goals, we'll call them, wouldn't be such a horrible idea.  And now they'll be in print, meaning that you all will need to keep me in line.

 

Goals for 2012

1. This move will not get the best of me.  I will not collapse on the floor in heaving, stress-filled sobs (more than once). We will find an apartment or a house and though it may not be perfect, it'll be a place to live.

2. I will not stress about money.  We have plenty of funds to get us through moving and rent-paying, and if something goes wrong we can use our credit cards (not ideal, but we have no other debt aside from student loans) or we have family that could help us in a pinch.

3. Once we are in Santa Fe, I will not let myself become a hermit and hide inside watching 30 Rock and MST3k episodes.  I will join the Crossfit gym, I will find some groups on meetup.com, I will make friends.

4. I will not take out my frustrations and my loneliness on my husband when he leaves for fire assignments. I know that this is how I've reacted in previous occasions but it's not acceptable.

5. I will not let our communication to waver or stop letting my needs known, even if Rob is gone for weeks at a time and we can't talk at all.

Seems like a simple enough list.  What are your goals for 2012? What are you doing for New Year's Eve?

Also, who is super duper excited for the Twilight Zone New Year's Day marathon on SyFy?!

Our Florida Trip: Space Shuttles, Oceans and Beach Villages

Well here you are, the quick run-down of our trip to warm, sunny Florida.

On Friday night we drove to New Hampshire so we could make the early flight in the morning.  I won't go into the entire travel day because it was pretty uneventful; basically, we made it on time and I don't really like Southwest Airlines' "prison rules" seating methodology.

On Saturday we hung around the pool with Rob's mom and later went out to dinner with her, Rob's stepdad, and some of their friends.  We had a lot of fun (and a lot of drinks, whoops!).  It would've been a great night but for the massive gluten attack that hit me when I got home.  One of the worst feelings in the world is throwing up and not feeling better.

The next day Rob and I frolicked about on the beach.  It was too cold for me to go into the beach (yeah yeah, I'm from Maine and I'm a wuss) but we sat for a good 45 minutes just watching the waves and enjoying each other's company.  We went on a goofy little nature walk which was more like a wooden walkway to nowhere, and then ate a delicious homemade meal before going to bed early.

 

On Monday, Rob and I did our first and only tourist-y thing: toured the Kennedy Space Center.  If you are ever in Florida and you are a nerd, you should definitely go to the Kennedy Space Center.  It was nuts, yo. We paid a little extra and got to go inside the Vehicle Assembly Building, where they assemble freaking shuttles.  We even saw the remains of the shuttle Endeavour! WHAT?! I've never been all that into space, unlike my nerd husband, but this tour was freaking amazing.  We also got to see the launch pads from which Apollo 11 and the Challenger took off, got to sit/lay down in models of moon capsule things, went into the shuttle simulator (which was kind of lame, admittedly), and saw the original mission control consoles from the Apollo flights.  Funny story: they told us that there was more computing power in a digital watch than in the entire room of consoles.  Anyway, it was totally worth the money we spent on it and I highly recommend it.

 

The next day (Tuesday) we spent on the beach, and it was finally warm enough to go swimming.  Rob told me that as a child he always built sand "dams" to see if he could stop the waves.  We built a "wall" together, along with our "castle" and "serf houses" to see how well we could protect them.  Spoiler alert: not well.  But it was fun anyway and I love being a total goofy nerd with my husband.  I'm pretty sure everyone walking by thought we were just that. Also, if you're wondering why I'm prancing around like an idiot, it's because Rob wanted to capture a picture of me prancing around like an idiot. Also, appreciate my muffin top.

 

Tuesday was also the day that Rob got the call from Santa Fe confirming that he had the job! It was very exciting and in a way, I think pretty cool that we found out while relaxing and sunning ourselves on the beach.  After that happy little piece of news we drove into Cocoa Beach, where we had lunch with my friend Dorrie.  Dorrie and I have known each other since 4th grade and were always the best of friends.  I hadn't seen her since high school graduation so it was pretty awesome to catch up again.  We also opened our Christmas gifts from Rob's mom and chatted about our beasties.  

On our last day I intentionally bought a later ticket so we could enjoy the day without having to rush to the airport.  We built yet another sand village which was quickly destroyed and scratched ourselves up on some rocks in the ocean.  We tried to go to Orlando early to eat P.F. Chang's, but we couldn't find it in the ridiculous, labyrinthine mall in which is was located, so I ended up dining on potato chips, carrots, and candy. Yay, gluten-free diets.  After lots of flying and driving we got home by 12:30 am or so and totally crashed.

All in all we had a really good time.  When Rob and I go on vacation we tend to do a lot more relaxing than tourist-ing.  Honestly I'm a lot happier just sitting alone with my husband in front of the ocean than riding roller coasters, and I was reminded of this simple joy many times throughout our trip.  I'm a very lucky girl.

Anyway I hope you all had a great week and enjoyed the guest posts!

Things I Love Thursday

I can really relate to this - I Am So Not Sorry About My Vagina, And Other Apologies We Should Retract. What's the silliest thing you've apologized for?

I posted this on Twitter, but this article depressed the crap out of me, and I hope it does you too.

I Like Your Flaws.  The subject of this article sounds a lot like me, so much so that Rob laughed out loud when I read it to him.

Chalkboard wine glasses!

Incredible wildlife photography.

20 Captivating Photos Shot at Exactly the Right Moment.

I really want to buy this book.  Thanks for the heads up on this, Betsey!

The 18 Most Viral Photos of the Next 12 Months.

These cinemagraphs are stunning!

Amazing book carvings.  Though it breaks my heart a little that they're cutting them up.

Can someone buy me a CottonMonster please?

Are you on GoodReads? Because I am.  Find me here!

What I'm Honestly Wearing Wednesday

Want to know what I'm honestly wearing [on] Wednesday?

 

The exact same freaking thing I wore on Tuesday. With a pink sweatshirt.

Don't forget to check out Maryam, whose layering is just too cute for words.

9 Years

 

9 years ago today, Rob and I played a game of online rock-paper-scissors and confessed that we loved one another.  Though so much has changed, in a lot of ways we are still those two awkward, angsty teenagers; madly in love, acting like children together, and feeling so grateful for having found each other.

Rob, back in 2002 at age 16, I thought I knew what love really was and I thought my love for you could grow no stronger.  I was so very, very wrong.  I love you more and more with each passing day and I thank you for being so inexplicably willing to share your life with me. You are my everything.  Happy Anniversary.

CONFESS

Every so often I see "confession" posts (like here and here) and I'm always amused by them.  After all, we each have our own little idiosyncrasies that we are loathe to admit, am I right?  I know I've had a lot of "look at how honest I am" posts but since I feel like I haven't blogged in 8 million years or so I thought I'd share some more weird Caitlin-things.

1. I hate my feet. Hate them. I don't even want to tell you why I hate them. Suffice it to say that I once told Rob that I would rather get a tattoo on my naked buttcheek than my bare foot just because of the embarrassment of having to show my foot to a tattoo artist.

2. Sometimes I pick my lips so badly they bleed.  Rob has tried various techniques to get me to stop this habit, the latest being mockery and shame, but so far nothing's really worked.  He told me a few weeks ago that my lip "looked like the surface of Jupiter." Ah, marriage.

3. One of the things I'm most excited about when we move to New Mexico is being near a Target.  I have never lived in an easy driving distance to Target.

4. I have a serious fear of money. I'm terrified of losing financial security or getting into debt.  In my head if my bank account goes below a certain amount I get stressed and worried.  Yet I still find the ability to make stupid impulse buys.

5. When I get really nervous, I'll grab the extra skin on my ribs and pull at it.

6. I look like a kidnapped 7-year-old hipster today, and if you follow me on Instagram you already knew that:

7. I am terrified of this move.  I'm afraid of completely losing it and not getting everything done in time and spending all of our hard-earned savings. 

8. My husband is hotter than I am.  Why a 9 fell in love with a "normal 6, drunk 7"* I'll never know.

*30 Rock reference, for those of you who didn't catch it.

9. I'm currently dealing with a massive inferiority complex when it comes to my blog.

10. The only reason I created a number 10 was because I didn't want to end on an odd number, especially my least favorite odd number.

Christmasy Things

Hoo boy, Christmas is over! Did it go by far too quickly for anyone else?

After a day of rest following our vacation (post about which is forthcoming), we drove to my sister's place to have Christmas with my mom on Friday.  We bought my 2-year-old niece some of those giant cardboard blocks which was pretty awesome sauce to watch.  My mother bought me a neat piece of photographic art that spells out our last name with beautiful architectural and natural photographs.  Rob and I are always looking for new art pieces to put on our wall and I'm sure it'll look fabulous in our new place.

After Christmas #2, we drove to Rob's parents' house.  Rob got really sick due to a gross buffalo chicken wrap he had eaten earlier in the day, so suffice it to say he has somewhat of an idea what it's like to be Caitlin eating gluten.  My mother-in-law kept feeding Cypress huge bits of ham and then was wondering why she was being followed around all day:

On Christmas Eve I attended mass with Rob's parents and sister, which was a first for me but I enjoyed it regardless.  I'm not religious, nor do I believe in God, but it's interesting to me to watch and listen.  Afterward we watched "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation," which is Rob's family's Christmas tradition. The temperature dropped insanely low, which on a normal day would piss me off.  But Christmas Eve is best suited for winter, am I right?

Christmas morning came and yes, I was the second or third person awake at around 7:30.  I love Christmas morning.  We opened our gifts, which included an awesome camcorder for Robbie and I and some new MST3K episodes.  The harbor was stunning and I'm amazed at how well my iPhone 4S captured it. Also, Cypress is adorable.

After a very successful Christmas morning #3, we drove to my dad's house.  It was great seeing my sisters and dad again, especially since this is one of the last times I'll see them for awhile once we move (sad face).  I got the keyboard for my iPad that I wanted, a new knife set from my younger sister, and an awesome handmade iPhone doc from an amazing book of Russian prison tattoos from my older sister:

How cool is that?  I told her she should sell them. Because she knew we'd love the book as well as the dock, she bought us a pristine version too! Extra win.

Today was Christmas hangover day, one of the roughest days of the year in my humble opinion.  We made the long drive home, and once we got home I opened Robbie's gift to me: a really nice hiking rucksack specifically made with a spot for my camera once I get it fixed.  He's magical. 

I also let him open his gift for our anniversary on Wednesday, the perfect shave kit!  Yes, we are old. 

Anyway reality begins once again tomorrow, as does all the stress of our upcoming move.  I told Rob to expect at least one all-out crying fit but hey, I guess we'll see.  

Was Santa good to you this year?