Happy New Year!!

Happy 2010 everyone!! I've seen alot of people posting /news articles about how happy they are that 2009 is over and what an awful year it was. But, I have to say that we had a great 2009! Chad kept his job and took on new responsibilities; the boys started kindergarten and preschool and loved it; I had a very successful and fun year racing; we started what I hope to be an annual tradition of spending a week on the Cape; we avoided the swine flu and any other illnesses... a happy, healthy year. I hope we have more of the same in 2010.

We went to a GREAT New Year's Eve party last night. My friend Erin had a few of us gals and our families over for a dinner that actually almost approximated an adult evening. There were eight kids running around, all right around the ages of 5 and 3, and all friends. They had a great time together and totally left the adults alone!! Erin gave them pizza in the kitchen and then once they were fed, the adults actually sat down for a leisurely, multi-course meal! It was so fun and relaxing - great conversation and great food. And we even stayed until almost 9pm, which is high insanity for us!! I would have loved to have stayed even longer, but Parker looked like he was about to fall over at that point, even though he valiantly said, "I don't want to leave!" It was one of the best New Year's Eves I've had in a long, long time.. definitely since we had kids. And the icing on the cake is that Brandon slept until 8am this morning and Parker until 8:45am. So, Chad and I got some serious sleep-in action.

I am so off-schedule with my sleep patterns - I'm going to have a really hard time getting back in the early morning routine this week! I haven't gotten up before 7am in at least a week or so. I was actually setting my alarm clock this week for 7am to make it to the gym at a decent time, but Chad was like, "you are waking me up... turn that thing off!" So, I stopped setting it. The funny thing is that I haven't been going to bed much later than normal - maybe 30 minutes or an hour later, but I've been sleeping at least 2 hours later than normal every morning! Apparently, the moral of this story is that I could sleep at least 9 hours every night if left to my own devices. Yes, 5am is going to feel pretty harsh on Monday.

Big news around here is that Chad and I bought a treadmill this week! He's been having a really hard time getting out for runs because the sidewalks are either icy or covered with snow. Not to mention the extreme cold and crazy winds that are common in the winter around here. He doesn't really have time to make it to the gym, so we decided the best solution was to buy a treadmill. It's been great already - he's back to running every other day, and I can use it if I'm snowed in from driving to the gym or if Chad's out of town or something. On the average morning, I think I would prefer to use the one at the gym though, just because there's a TV there and lots of people to look at to distract me from being on a treadmill for long runs. And I'm paying for the gym, so I guess I'd rather put the wear and tear on their equipment. But, I'm sure there will be a morning when I oversleep or something and that treadmill in the basement comes in quite handy!

Hope everyone has a wonderful new year!