Dog Days Are Over...

...with a new year comes new beginnings.  Everyone wants to start over and be better, do better.  We are all inspired and make plans and resolutions.  My friend Amy told me about this song playing several months ago and I fell in love with it.  It moves me....literally.  It makes me get up and dance...every time.  However, if I listen to this song at work I have to restrain myself because somehow I don't think it would fly if I got busted with my office door closed so I could shake my booty.  So if you are reading this blog through and e-mail I suggest that you click on the link so that you can here the song.

It's about being happy and not being afraid of being happy.  Leaving the past and darkness behind.  I listen to it every morning in my car, sometimes twice.  And I rock out like there's no one in the other cars around me watching.  If you're not at least tapping your foot or clapping your hands by the end of the song I would be worried about you....seriously.

This is the year that I overcome my past.  I'm letting it go and moving on.  I'm happy and I'm going to allow myself to enjoy being happy.  It's always been hard for me to enjoy being happy...it's almost like I feel like I don't deserve it.  So, (in no particular order) here are some of my resolutions for 2011:

• I will allow myself to relax more because I deserve it.
• I will have a positive outlook because if I do then I will be able to relax more.
• I will try not to cringe every time my daughter picks out Chicka Chicka Boom Boom for her bedtime story.
• I will over come my panic attacks and get off the medicine that supposedly controls them.
• I will get back on a regular work out regiment.
• I will take my dog on regular walks because he deserves it.
• I will make more family time with my husband and daughter that doesn't include any obligations to go somewhere.
• I will try to embrace it when Ivy wants me to lay down next to her sometimes at night even though I really want to go crawl in my own bed instead.
• I will focus more on my brother coming home from Afghanistan instead of him being gone from here.

Now...on to my 2010 recap -

Lots of good things happened 2010...we bought a new house, we took Ivy to Sea World and Disney World, I celebrated 29 years.  We went to the beach and took some of my favorite pictures ever.  Ivy turned 3 and I FINALLY wrote down her birth story.

Some bad things happened too...LOST ended.  Now let us all have a moment of silence.  And for all my fellow LOSTIES out there I know you will smile when you watch this.  One day I'm going to play the lottery and these will be my numbers 4 8 15 16 23 42....just sayin'.  Seriously...does anyone know of a good support group for this, I'm still having withdrawals.

The only REAL problem with this year was the fact that my brother got deployed.  I have not dealt with this well at all.  It has been a burden so heavy on my heart that I haven't been able to really grasp the goodness that goes on around me all day every day.  The title of my blog is "Don't Count the Days, Make the Days Count" and I haven't been able to do that.  I've tried but I haven't succeeded.  It's been very hard not to count the days until my brothers 400 day deployment is over.  It's been toxic to my health and my relationships.  But...it is getting better, slowly.  He's been gone for 6 months now.  That means he has only 6 months left.  I feel really selfish because there are some families that are on there 3rd, 4th, and 5th deployments.  I seriously can't imagine having to deal with that.  You can read more about his deployment here, here, here, and here.

And here are some of my favorite pictures from 2010...

I could post many many more of my favorites but I'll stop here.  Mostly because I've been working on the blog post for 3 days now and I don't want to drag it out any further.  Thanks for reading...now listen to the song again and dance!