I started 2009 eleven weeks pregnant with seriously NO idea what I had in store. This year has been monumental in both my blogging and personal life. There were new jobs, new babies, moving to a new state – new cars, new accomplishments, new blog layouts, new NEWNESS!

Here are some of the monumental moments of 2009…

• 2009 came in like a lion with the stomach bug of OH MY GOD. First MM got it, then the minute he got better Dan and I got it, too. In retrospect I suppose I should be glad that I didn’t get sick until MM got better – that could have made what seems like the worst stomach bug ever, even worse.
• My pregnancy was one of the highlights of the first half of 2009. I’m sure I bored you all to tears a few times with my thoughts, fears, and cravings. I was not a glowy, optimistic expectant momma, that’s for sure. I was, however, extremely committed to not gaining extra weight that I’d never be able to lose.
• With the help of my husband, blogging motivation and sheer determination I managed to gain almost no weight at all in my second pregnancy and the weight came off very quickly after BB was born – one of my proudest accomplishments of late for sure.
• In 2009 we also inaugurated our first African American U.S. President. I think in the beginning of 2009, I thought that and having a new baby would be the biggest changes in my life. Oh mylanta, was I ever wrong.
• The spring of 2009 found Dan and I checking out a local Unitarian Universalist church which we quickly fell in love with – we went weekly and loved spending time with a group of Big Thinkers who questioned life and inspired us to question our beliefs. This was the first time in my life that I felt at home in a church. It was unfortunate that we didn’t find a congregation we felt comfortable with here in Madison, although to be honest I didn’t give it much of a fair shot. With so many other new things in my life, I decided to take a break from big thinking and social commitments. I still stand by this decision but we might check out some local congregations again someday.
• It has been a big year for birthdays. In March of 2009 I actually forgot how old I was. Convinced I was still 25 it took me awhile to do the math and then I got an extra birthday cake out of the deal. It was pretty awesome. March was also the month my little blog turned ONE – I had quite the shindig to celebrate. And of course the following month, my son turned three years old. We celebrated his birthday not once, not twice but three times. It was awesome and there was a lot of cake. And I learned something pretty monumental about cake decorating – chocolate cake with chocolate frosting hides all imperfections.
• It wasn’t all fun and celebrations though. In March my husband was laid off from his job when they could no longer afford to keep him on payroll. In the middle of my second trimester – in the worst economic crisis of my lifetime. It wasn’t an easy time to be scared and uncertain of the future. It was discouraging to see so few companies contacting Dan for interviews (seriously brutal economy).
• And in the end, one of the first companies my husband applied to, on a whim at that, turned out to be the first to offer him a job after two months of unemployment. It was a long and trying interview process – they really made him work for it and jump through some hoops and then sit around and wait a lot – we never knew if the interview or exam he was doing would be the last step before an answer but eventually it came. He got the job. In Wisconsin, halfway across the country in a state where we knew nobody. It was surreal to say the least.
• After months of waiting, our move to Wisconsin seemed to happen in the blink of an eye. It was really two weeks but that hardly seems like a sufficient amount of time to move your entire life somewhere new. But we did. We knew we would miss our old life a lot, but we were looking forward to a new life, too. We decided to drive there as I was sick of planes already in my pregnant condition and wanted the ability to get out of the vehicle when I wanted to pee or MM got fussy. Also it would be sort of like a vacation. And before we knew it, the drive was over and we had arrived.
• While we loved our new home and apartment in Wisconsin, it hasn’t all been sunshine and roses. The playground on our apartment complex in particular has caused me a lot of grief.
• One month before BB was born I wrote this post about the things I want to teach her. It’s still one of my alltime favorite posts. With one month until the birth of BB you can imagine it was mostly all I could think about. When I wasn’t thinking about how hot it was, anyway.
• and then she was born…
• I was so blessed that my grandmother came to help watch MM while I was in the hospital and help me get acclimated to being the mother of two. I loved sharing those first days with her and having a helping hand was invaluable.
• My second child brought a lot of new changes. Having a new baby in the house was exhausting and the mother guilt got huge for awhile. But there were some pretty great moments, too, and eventually my hormones settled down (thank goodness).
• We decided to cloth diaper Miss BB which I was so excited for all throughout my pregnancy but when we finally started I was pretty much ready to bail after two days. To my surprise though, my husband loved it and encouraged me to keep going with it. I am mostly glad that I agreed.
• In August Dan and I celebrated our three year anniversary. And at the end of the month, Dan’s parents came to visit and meet the baby!
• In September my husband and I bought our first car together – by that I mean it was the first car we bought as a couple. It was not the car I imagined buying but I have to say, three months later, I love our Buick something fierce.
• We went apple picking and had a mostly good time. It was HOT and we were all a little grumpy but the apples were delicious.
• There have been a lot of mood swings and temper tantrums this year and not all from the three year old. Luckily there has been a lot of cuteness, too.
• In October my dad and stepmom came up to meet the baby – I’d missed my family so much, especially my dad and it was really nice to see them again.
• We took MM and BB to see Where The Wild Things Are at a fun movie theatre / cafe a couple towns over, where you can watch movies from a private table with swivel chairs while eating pizza. MM loved the movie (I even saw him crying at one point and was amazed to see him empathizing with the characters!), we loved the whole trip and yeah it was just awesome.
• We had a great Halloween, trick or treating at the Zoo and the Mall but mostly just enjoying the cuteness.
• At the end of October I started to get seriously p.o.ed with the meat industry. And a few weeks later I decided to go Vegetarian. Or pescetarian actually (meaning we’re still eating fish right now). In November, we had our first Thanksgiving by ourselves and as pescetarians and it was delicious.
• And I joined a blogging pageant…
• I shared with you the weight loss secret that helped my husband lose 90 pounds in one year (and helped me lose 40 pounds in one year, while being pregnant for most of the year).
• We survived our first Wisconsin snow storm.
• And now I’m surviving another week without Dan as he takes a weeklong business trip in NYC.

Seriously – it’s been a crazy year and it’s not even OVER yet – next week I’ll turn twenty seven years old and BB will celebrate her very first Christmas. And then… 2010.

Top 12 Posts from 2009 (so far):

1. Crazy, Pregnant Woman Cravings: The 12 Step Downward Spiral
2. Bump Report: Week Fourteen (in which I confess my innermost fears)
3. There Really Should Be a Separate Rating System For That
4. What I Believe
5. Happy Birthday Dear BLOG, Happy Birthday To You!
6. It’s Real Now, When Did That Happen?
7. The Things I Want To Teach Her
8. Now Without The Sunshine and Roses
9. The SKY is FALLING!
10. I Seriously Don’t Even Know What To Call This Post
11. So Now You Don’t Eat Meat?
12. How To Lose Weight