Happy NEW Year! As I mentioned here yesterday, I have re-kicked off my new year beginning today! So, it's only appropriate that I review my goals from last year before setting my sights high for 2011...


Half-way through 2010 I renewed my goals here: 2nd Half of 2010 Goals. Here are those goals along with my personal (and slightly subjective) recap of how I did:


1. Sign up for & run a race: COMPLETE! I ran a 5K with my colleagues in October. It was not pretty, but that's okay.  

2. Find a regular volunteering opportunity at church: Incomplete. I'll need to put this one on my 2011 list. Work + baby + everything else meant not enough time over the past few months. 

3. Establish a monthly date day/night with Dan: Semi-complete. We managed to squeeze a few dates in, but not on a monthly basis; more like on an every other monthly basis. Luckily for Christmas we received a couple of date nights (a cooking class and a gift certificate to our favorite winery!). 

4. Save X amount of $ for our home addition: COMPLETE! We are right on track for our financial goals. 

5. Finish our home addition plans and begin construction: Semi-Complete. The home plans are 95% finished, but because it took a lot longer for the architect to finish them we had to push construction back until spring. 

6. Create and finish our will- Incomplete. Totally my fault with no good excuse. I just haven't taken the time to go get it notarized. 

7. Update our family master plan: Complete!
 
8. Simplify all aspects of our life: Semi-Complete. We made a lot of great progress in this area, but I think this is an ongoing goal that will need to continue into 2011. Some of the improvements made this year were getting rid of cable TV, wireless internet (so that we don't end up sitting on our laptops around the house), giving away a LOT of kitchen appliances and tools that we rarely if ever used, cleaning and organizing the basement (still some to be done there), etc. 


More to come later on 2011 goals. For now JP and I are off to the grocery store. It is one of his favorite places to go because he gets so much attention. That little flirt. He totally eats up all the attention and ignores me the entire time we are shopping...

a new NEW year

I love the New Year. I love the clean slate that comes along with the turning of the calendar- the clean slate that is just waiting for us to pour onto it new dreams, goals and wishes. Just waiting to be painted with LIFE. 


With saying that, I'll say that I did not love this new year. It started off really rough. This first week has included the passing of my Grandma followed by Jackson getting sick which meant a lot of sleepless nights and the return to work post-holidays amidst all the chaos. 


Therefore, I have made the decision to reschedule the new year. So, 2011 kicks off for my little world tomorrow! Time for a fresh (re)start, time to (re)set the tone of this next year. 


My daily devotional contained the following paragraph that I fell in love with- very fitting for the new year!


"...God has put more in you than you can even imagine. You have gifts and talents that nobody else has. God has planted seeds of greatness in you. Why don't you quit looking at what you can't do and start looking at what God can do? It's not where you are that matters; it's where God can take you."


A lovely little thought for a lovely new NEW year. 


And... I wanted to THANK Sarah from Sweet November for re-designing my blog header. I love it! She did such a wonderful job. Thank you, Sarah! Go here to check out Sarah's work. 

Pieces of Grandma

They say that daughters marry their fathers- they marry a man not realizing that he is eerily similar to their dad. I, however, did not. I married a man who has the same name as my father and while I love every thing about my dad I am actually realizing that I married my grandpa in many ways. My grandpa is one of my favorite people. He is funny, entertaining, witty, handsome and in my humble opinion lights up every room he is in. 

He is also a trouble-maker, inappropriate at times and likes to re-tell stories over and over so dare I say that he drove my grandma crazy most days- even if she never fully admitted it. She was too proper to admit such a thing. But, I will admit it, Dan drives me crazy every day. Luckily, in a good way. There is no doubt that both my grandpa and my husband loved to aggravate their wives. But, what I really love most about both of them is their love for life. 


You know how when you were a kid everything was so exciting? And everything made you laugh and smile and you were able to push your worries aside and just soak up life? For some reason, for most people, that magical ability goes away with time, leading to adulthood where you feel the need to solve those worries before you indulge yourself in the fun. Well, Dan and my grandpa found a way to prevent that from happening and that is what I love so much about both of them and that is what I mean when I say that I married my grandpa. 

That is why today was so hard. It was hard because today we laid my grandmother to rest. On New Year's Eve she lost her battle with cancer, putting an end to 74 beautiful years of life. We'll miss her dearly, but I think there is a big piece of all of us who are thankful that she is no longer in pain because these past few months and really these past few years she has been in a lot of pain. So, today we said 'goodbye' for now- and we knew that would be hard. But what made it really hard was seeing my grandpa for the first time in my life look old. It was enough to break my heart in a million pieces. 


So tonight I'll pray hard that he's okay. That he's able to get a good night's rest, knowing that Grandma is in a much better place and that she would only be at peace if she knew his love of life would bound back bigger than ever. And it will, I know it will. 


I didn't mean to make this all about Grandpa, I meant to make this about Grandma and how much I love her and miss her and so here is the eulogy I wrote and said today in church which I call "Pieces of Grandma":

Grandma holding Jackson who was just days old

Seventy-four years ago, on October 23, 1936 Barbara Ann Ecklar was born into this world. As a mom, I can only imagine the dreams that her mother and father held in their hearts that day for their only daughter, but little did they know that Barbara Ann Ecklar would grow up to be Barbara Ann Mosmeier and together with my Grandpa she would bring into this world 3 daughters, 1 son, 4 granddaughters, 5 grandsons, 2 great-granddaughters and 3 great-grandsons.

Together with our spouses, there are now 26 of us who called her wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother- or, as more often heard, Grandma Roy or Another Mamaw.  Twenty-six of us who now have the responsibility, the honor, the privilege, to carry a little piece of Grandma Roy with us wherever we go for the rest of our lives. And in doing so I assure you, not only will we keep her alive, but if we live as she lived, we will make this world a little better along the way.  

There are countless pieces of Grandma Roy that I know we would all like to carry with us. Countless memories she made with us, countless lessons she taught us and feelings of love, warmth and peacefulness that she exuded simply with her presence. But there are a few parts of her that, in my opinion, stand out above the rest, a few things about my grandma that I pray someday, if I dig deeply enough, maybe I will be able to find inside of me and more importantly, pass along to my own children.   

The first of these would have been evident to anyone who knew my Grandma; if you met her even just once you would know that she never wished to be the center of attention. She never wanted to be fussed over or to be put in the spotlight. She preferred to sit back and let Grandpa Roy play that role, forever amused by his jokes and stories, even if she had heard them a million times. I can almost hear her laughing now, quietly sighing, “oh, Roy” as he would tell us all, again, how one time he was on TV. Yes, it is true, my grandpa was on TV… that is until Grandma told him to get off before he broke it.

One reason why Grandma had such a quiet and soft-spoken demeanor was because it was simply a part of her nature. Some of us would also argue that it was to balance out Grandpa, but really, I believe it was because she didn’t need to raise her voice.  She didn’t need to shout or use harsh language. She never needed to dominate a conversation or a room to make a point or to leave an impression because she had the most amazing inner strength and intelligence that gave her unquestionable quiet wisdom. Quiet wisdom that never left anyone doubting where should stood on anything.  Although every once in awhile if she needed to reiterate a point, she would leave us not-so-discreet clues by handing us a magazine or book with a page corner folded down, guiding us to exactly what it is she wanted us to read, thus getting her point across.  

Books in general were another big part of her life. If there is one lesson that she most often taught us, it was to never stop learning, to place prioritized focus on always pushing ourselves to know and understand more. She communicated this best through her example, through her insatiable hunger for knowledge that was most commonly seen through her love of reading.  Personally, I especially enjoyed her tactic of supporting our education by paying us what I recall to be $7.oo for each “A” earned on our report cards as children. I don’t know if it was irony or completely intentional that this far out-weighed the mere $3.00 that I would earn for an entire day of work at the B&G. On any given day she would have been perfectly happy to sit quietly reading. I think this is why she was so supportive of all of Grandpa’s toys, because she knew she could sneak in some reading time while he was outside playing.

They balanced each other out perfectly that way- in so many ways really. I think it is that balance that made their marriage work. It’s that balance that along with their unwavering faith in God allowed them to not only stay married, but stay in love for 54 years. The example that they set with their marriage is, in my opinion, the greatest gift they gave to all of us. They showed us what unconditional love was by loving each other. They showed us what commitment was by committing to their faith and each other. They showed us what God intended marriages to be. This is a piece of her that I know for a fact is already living on.

Maybe you knew my Grandma from here at St. John’s or maybe from camping at Indian Lakes. Maybe you knew her from her years at Hillenbrand’s or perhaps from the time when B&G stood for Barb & Grandpa. Perhaps you were a part of her circle of friends who loved to play cards or maybe you were like me and were fortunate enough to call her family. However you knew her, wherever you knew her, I think you would agree with me when I say that “we will miss her” is beyond an understatement. But we will, we will miss her, but we also know that this is not “goodbye”, this is only “see you later.” Let us take comfort in knowing that there is no doubt that she is in a better place, that there is no doubt that she made it to that place where we all pray we too will go. And finally, let us take comfort in knowing that because she was such a guiding light in our lives we now have what we need to keep her alive in each of us, brining her along with us wherever it is we are to go.

We love you Grandma, we know you are here with us today and will be watching down upon us every day. We just pray that all that we do and all that we say will make you smile.

1.1.11

Happy New Year!

I can honestly say that 2010 was the quickest year of my life. I think having a baby makes time fly by- maybe because they are constantly changing- physically, mentally, intellectually... it makes it feel like time is going faster than what you're used to. Or maybe time really does fly when you're having fun. In any case, 2010 has been the best year of my life, hands down. 

As I think about all that I want to experience in 2011 I can't help but wonder what this will be the "year of." 2006 was the year of graduating college and starting my career, 2007 was the year of getting an even better job, buying our first home and getting engaged, 2008 was the year of getting married, 2009 was the year of being pregnant with Jackson and 2010 was, of course, the year of having Jackson! I can only imagine the plans God has in place for our family this year and all those to follow. I often have to remind myself that while I do dream big, the dreams He has for me are far bigger. 

I definitely will share all of my new goals for 2011in the next couple of days, but I really want to think them through first and to be honest we haven't had a lot of "thinking" time this week. Lets just say that we have had something like 10 Christmas family get-togethers, a wedding and I'm sad to say also a funeral that will happen in a couple of days as well. My grandma went home to The Lord on New Years Eve after fighting a hard fight against Cancer. So, as you can imagine, life is a little "off" right now as we try to wrap our minds around what is going on. 

If this post seems like one big pot full of half-thought-through thoughts that's because it is. I have so much running through my mind right now. So much I want to do. So much I want to say. So much I want to be, but that will all have to be put on hold for a few more days. 

PS: To add to this randomness I also wanted to capture for Jackson's little eyes to read some day all that he has been learning over the past few weeks. My little man now says quite a few words: mama, dada, nanna, ball, no, up, dog, night night, bye bye and more. He also does sign language for "more", waves bye bye, claps his hands, snorts his nose like a piggy, says moo for a cow, shakes his head no (he does this A LOT and says "no" at the same time), gives kisses, shows us where his tongue is and points to ours, dances, jumps (tries to) and tries to throw a ball. He also tries to "sign" the ABCs when I sing the alphabet song but he's really just moving his fingers around, imitating me. And the walking is progressing- he can get about half way across the room before falling and he climbs on everything.