I am such a liar! When I last posted (September!!), I believe I pledged to be more present here. Obviously, that didn’t happen. I should have known better. The fourth quarter of the year is always fast and furious: birthdays (me, Bear, Hunter), wedding anniversary(#19!) Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. Football (aside from watching , we took Hunter to a Patriots home game for his 18th), cross country season, and many, many visits from family and friends. I think our guestroom was empty one weekend in November and December.

I really have not a damn thing to complain about. Busy with good stuff.

Blogging, and really any writing, sans Christmas letter, has fallen by the wayside. I’m also not making any promises to change. We will just wait and see what happens.

We got a puppy! He’s the LOVE of my life (currently♥). I’m obsessed with him, and he’s obsessed with me. Seriously. No one, and I do mean NO ONE, has ever loved me the way that dog does. As Rich said, I am his human. I’ve become that dog lady, going as far as sneaking him into places I shouldn’t, sshh. I’ll spare you all my gushing, (but of course share some pictures).

I had a great reading year, and will post about my 2018 favorites soon, not next September. But, I haven’t been reading very much since Christmas, which makes me anxious.

Work has been busy, which is good.

Barrett is doing very well, and now is officially ours forever. He turned 18 in December, and we had to hire a lawyer (as did Barrett, haha) and petition the court for guardianship. This is for his protection, as there are all sorts of variables that make him (and his social security number) vulnerable to predators. The court signed off, and now we need to figure out next steps, involving SSI, medical, etc. We just had his IEP last week and it was very encouraging.

Hunter is a Senior and mother and son are not seeing eye-to-eye on much of anything. It’s bee a rough couple weeks. He’s testing his 18 year-old boundaries. He hasn’t broken the law or gone to the wild side, but he does seem to think he can make his own decisions. For instance, he quit the track team with out consulting us, or informing us. Yeah, stuff like that. As for college, he’s been accepted at one, rejected by another, and wait-listed by a third. Lots of decisions to make, and it’s all stressful. Ugh…

Audrey is agnsty, emotional and fourteen. It breaks my heart, because I honestly can’t do much about it, but bite my lip. There’s been some shocking drama at her school (not involving Aud) that has forced me to have some conversations with her that I was unprepared to have so early. I’ll let your imagination run with that one. But she’s really doing fine, I just wish she believed that.

Cammy’s a mess. He really is. Still cute and quotable, but seriously needs to get his freaking act together. I will own a big part of it, we babied him, we did. He’s also the only one of the four who didn’t have me full time in elementary school. Woulda, coulda, shoulda, not going to dwell. We’re just activating the Smith Family Middle School Boot Camp (he goes in the fall), with some tough love. We’re working on maturity, focus, and task completion!

That’s the skinny for now. Hope y’all are doing well. Don’t give up on me♥. I’m always a work-in-progress.

Some pics, in no particular order:

A good day at a XC Meet

Annual pilgrimage to Bert’s Pumpkin Patch

Nineteen Years

Crafting date night with my girl

Patriots game with my other girl

More of my girls at my annual Ladies Christmas Party

Santa sighting at Gillette (we asked him for one more trip to the Super Bowl♥)

This picture is CONFIDENTIAL! I’m not saying it’s my daughter, just a pretty girl I love to watch dance.

Cookies for Santa

After our court hearing

Going to bed early on NYE, with my heart, while everyone else partied on.

Christmas Eve with the Tommys and Dallys

The Bear

With my party co-hosts. Bandit is the first male permitted at our party.

When Hunter found out he was going to Foxboro!

Thanksgiving

18 year tradition♥

Visiting Autie Kelly in New Hampshire

Halloween, and only one trick-or-treater. Ouch.

XOXO

♥