36 birthday wishes via facebook

5 flower arrangements

4 balloons

2 bottles of wine

chocolate covered strawberries

teddy bear

Elvis DVD box-set

aromatic difuser

personalized note cards

and more memories than I can count.

This weekend, my family & I are traveling to Vegas for what is bound to be an unforgettable birthday celebration. Catch you on the flip side!

This morning, I was riding along in my automobile and noticed a police car was about 3-5 car lengths behind me. I got into the right lane so he could pass because I was 100% certain that I was driving EXTREMELY well. I was not speeding, nor was I going too slow; I was driving at the same pace as everyone else on the road. My lights were on (despite it not being dark), both hands were on the steering wheel and the radio was at a low level. I hadn’t even looked at my blackberry since leaving the house.

The cop car passes me on the left and then gets in front of me and I think he’s going to get off at the next exit. Instead, he slows down and drives into the shoulder on the right. I pass in on his left and I see him pull back onto the road right behind me. It wasn’t 30 seconds before his lights came on. I was dumbfounded! I kept saying out loud, “I am doing NOTHING wrong!!!”

I kept my composure and pulled over to the side of the road. I fumbled in the glove box for my insurance and registration cards and kept going over the last 5 miles in my head–what could I have done wrong???

The police officer was out of his car in a matter of seconds and before I knew it, he was standing by my driver’s side door. I rolled down the window and said good morning and he proceeded to tell me that my tags had expired.

For those of you who do not know, I purchased a new car on Nov 23 and as a result of the DMV taking their sweet ass time in sending me my new plates/tags, I am rocking a great 2009 Nissan Murano with expired tags. Awesome. He proceeded to grill me on when I got the car and I have to admit, I was pretty composed. I was lucky it was a dude and not a chick-cop–those are the worst. How am I supposed to use my smile and girly eyes on a chick!?

The officer told me to call the DMV on Jan 23 to check on the status of the new plates/tags. Just add it to the list of things that I simply do not have time to do!

When I got to work, I took a close look at the dealer paperwork and read the DMV website; I discovered that the DMV states that you need to give them up to 8 weeks to process your registration and send you updated tags. Now I get to drive around for 2 more weeks and chance getting pulled over. Love it.

These days, I leave the house every morning at 7:00am to be to work by 8:30am. If I get out of work on time (6:00pm) then I arrive back at home around 7:00pm. However, I have been working late the past few weeks so I am not getting home until 7:30pm or 7:45pm. Since Aidan starts his nighttime routine with his dinner @ 7:30pm, I rarely have time to play with the little guy before we are busily readying him for dinner-bath-bottle-bed.

I had the past week off from work  between Christmas and New Year’s so my days have been spent primarily with the A-man (when not at the hair salon or massage haven). When Aidan has been going down for his late morning nap, I have been rushing to clean the house, do laundry, paint my nails, watch tivo–anything at all but sleep. And I am pretty honest when talking to my pregnant friends when I tell them that while everyone says you SHOULD nap while your baby naps, it will be hard to actually abide by that rule. Just because you SHOULD doesn’t mean you WILL.

Even now while Aidan snoozes, I was speedily tip-toe-ing around the house to get the laundry put away and the house picked up so that I could watch a movie on TV while eating a giant candy bar my wonderful husband bought me. Then I painted my toe-nails while sitting outside on my balcony, watching the sunset. And now I am squeezing in a few minutes to post on my blog because sadly, that’s one of the last things I find time to do. However, all of it (in my opinion) is of much higher value than an hour or two of sleep mid-day. And it’s moments like these where I have found time to get SO much done that when Aidan does finally stir and call out for me, I am ready to see his smile and watch him try to crawl. Nothing is weighing on my mind while we play with his toys and all of me is in the moment with my son.

Eight maids a-pooping

Seven swans a-pooping

Six geese a-pooping

Five golden poops!

Four calling poops

Three french poops

Two turtle poops

And a patridge in a poop tree

As much as I have enjoyed spending a long weekend at home with my husband, son and dog–I find myself excited to return to work on Monday. It is clearer and clearer to me that having a career is very important to me. I do not think about all the things I am missing while being at work. Instead, I look forward to the time I do get to spend with everyone when I am not at work.

Turkey day was fabulous because we got to dress up and go to the Country Club with Ryan’s parents, his grandmother and a couple family friends of ours. Everyone chipped in and took turns holding the drooling-goobing boy so that Ryan and I could get food from the buffet and I was able to enjoy a couple glasses of wine.

Here is our family photo from Thanksgiving 2011:

In between playing with Aidan and making sure he gets two good naps throughout the day, I was able to put up my Christmas tree. Last year, I felt so icky from the morning-sickness that I lacked the energy to even think about decorating our house for the holidays. I remember Ryan’s mom telling me that that would be the last year I could ever skip Christmas—by way of decorating the tree & house—because when a baby is around, you will always want to do it. And she was right. It wasn’t even a chore to drag out the box with the fake-already-lit-tree. I have gotten so many ornaments as gifts and hand-me-down’s in the past that this year I was able to be very picky for what I wanted to hang on the tree. I decided to hang lots of snowflakes and only a few ornaments, mostly the new ones that Aidan got. My favorite is Alvin the chimpmunk because he is wearing a red sweater with a big yellow “A” on the front, which was the latest gift from Grammy Di. I also put out a couple noise-makers so that he would have fun listening to Christmas songs; one is a guitar that plays Elvis Presley’s “Blue Christmas” and the other is a dog dressed up like Elvis that sings and dances to a couple different Christmas songs. The tree is on an end table right next to Aidan’s pack n’ play so he can enjoy the pretty lights while getting his diaper changed.

The best part about decorating the Christmas tree while Aidan napped was bringing him downstairs from his room to show him the tree for the first time. I held him up close to the twinkling lights and snowflakes and ornaments so that he could take it all in. And that’s just what he did–he stared with his mouth wide open. After a few minutes of just looking, he lifted his hand to caress the branches. He likes to feel more than he likes to grab so I began to sway him back and forth so that he could get really close to it, all the while his arm stretched out and his fingers lightly touching the branches. Then he pulled a snowflake off and smiled! It melted my heart. I told Ryan that next year, Aidan will be scooting his butt down the stairs with his dog close behind him so that he can go see the tree. It’s going to get better and better every year, I can’t wait!

I remember my first day…
You were all surprisingly nice.
I reported to Joe Fasulo…
He gave me the best advice.

I can’t tell you how sad it makes me
To leave you high and dry.
How will you continue living?
Cary will surely die!

I’ve learned so much from all of you
And after four long years,
I hope you won’t forget me
Because that’s my biggest fear.

You’re like my second family
And you’ve made every business day
So much more enjoyable
Than these simple words can say.

Of all the WB discounts
That we can get through work,
Being a part of the Encino team
Was by far the greatest perk.

Copyright © 2011 N.E. Tasker