"Musicians paint their pictures on silence." -Leopold Stokowski

For the past few years, my small group of my friends have been putting together a yearly soundtrack, representing our year. And this is mine for 2010. Most of it is terribly cliche and I hope you can forgive me. I've been wildly busy falling in love with my baby and listening to pretty much no new music (if you have recommendations, please send them my way).

January: Canis Lupus by the Aquabats
We added Sadie Jane to our family.


February: You and I By Ingrid Michaelson
Le Hubs and I celebrated 5 years of dating.


March: My Girls by The Temptations
We found out Le Guppy was indeed a she.


April:This Too Shall Pass by Ok Go
So many things in life were in the process of falling apart. Sometimes you just have to remind myself that nothing is forever.


May:Rocket Man by Elton John
I celebrated my 23rd birthday, in New York with my family and spent a lot of time feeling very very alone, learning to embrace the quickly approaching idea of being a mom.


June: Haven't Met You Yet by Michael Buble
June was the last full month that I worked at Starbucks pre-guppy. This a shout out to my fellow baristas. We hear this one on Starbucks radio pretty frequently.



July: In My Life by The Beatles
Harper decided to make her grand entrance early and on July 26th, 2010 at 9:45Pm she was born.


August: Hey Soul Sister by Train
I spent pretty much the entire month of August falling in love with my little soul sister.


September: Mr. Blue Sky By ELO
Harper and I like to dance to this one. Makes us both smile.


October: Orion and Dog by Sea Wolf
I spent October enjoying the muted melancholy of fall.


November: Change of Seasons by Sweet Thing
I think there are some sweet sentiments in regards to letting things happens and lacking any semblance of control over your life in whats to come but embracing that because its an experience.


December:Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas by Judy Garland

"Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us." -Hal Borland

1)What did you do this year that you'd never done before?

Had a baby.


2) Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I kept two of three. I still don't have my driver's license, which has now been recycled to this years New Year's resolution.

3) Did anyone close to you give birth?
My cousin Liz, my cousin Annie and well, me.

4) Did anyone close to you die?
No.

5) What countries did you visit?
I did not leave the country this year. Hopefully next year. We need to get Harper a passport.

6) What would you like to have next year that you lacked this year?
A better job.

7) What date from this year will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
July 26, 2010. My daughter's birthday.

8) What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Incubating and birthing my itty bitty.

9) What was your biggest failure?
Not being as good with money as I could have been.

10) Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nothing serious, thankfully

11) What was the best thing you bought?
Stuff for my kiddo.

12) Whose behavior merited celebration?
My guppy who has been sleeping through the night since the very beginning and making each day better than the prior.

13) Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
The Westboro Baptist Church.

14) Where did most of your money go?
Bills, per usual.

15) What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Le Guppy

16) What song will always remind you of this year?
In My Life by the Beatles.


17) Compared to this time last year, you are:
Happier

18) What do you wish you'd done more of?
Laughing

19) What do you wish you'd done less of?
Crying

20) How will you be spending Christmas?
Hopefully among good friends and family.

21) Did you fall in love this year?
Everyday with the very same boy.

22) What was your favorite TV program?
Top Gear (the British version)

23) Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
I still don’t hate anyone.

24) That was the best book you read?
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

25) What was your greatest musical discovery?
Yael Naim



26) What did you want and get?
A new lens for my camera.

27) What did you want and not get?
A new camera.

29) What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
This year I turned 23. I was in New York and I went to Central Park and out to dinner with my family in Pershing Square.

30) What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Honestly, more money because I would have been able to worry less.

31) How would you describe your personal fashion concept this year?
Preggo Couture?

32) What kept you sane?
My husband.

33) Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Man crush:Nathan Fillion

Girl Crush: Emma Stone


34) What political issue stirred you the most?
Human Rights.

35) Who did you miss?
My grandmother

36) Who was the best new person you met?
Carly (and her daughter Molly who is 2 weeks younger than Harper)

37) Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned this year:
The heart is capable of exponential growth (metaphorically speaking)

"I TRIPLE-dog-dare ya!" -Schwartz

And I triple dog dare you to find this video anything but ridiculous and highly amusing . To those of you who celebrate it...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

To each and every one of you, regardless of religion or creed, I hope today is full of laughter, good food and most of all good company.

"To all that come to this happy place: welcome. Disneyland is your land." -Walt Disney

Cinderella's Castle, December 11, 2010

The day before we left for Anaheim, I spent the day packing and watching Disney commercials on YouTube preparing for a much anticipated trip to Disneyland, Harper's very first.

With each one I found my excitement growing, as I thought of all the time I had spent at Disneyland. My first trip, a consolation prize for moving away from everything I have known for my whole life. I was completely mesmerized.

The night before I graduated from high school, I spent at Disneyland, celebrating graduation, the freedom of college, 4 months of dating with Le Boyfriend (now Le Hubs) and finding my mind straying to the thought of once again leaving home to venture off to somewhere new, scary and exciting.

And then, almost four years ago Le Hubs and I got engaged in front of Cinderella's Castle at Disneyland, California and last week we visited there with our four month old daughter. The legacy continues. We currently have a fund where we are setting aside money to take Harper to Disneyland, Paris for her fifth birthday.

Harper and me with Minnie Mouse

Even now, as an adult, I can't help but find myself swept up in the magic of Disneyland , especially as I watch my little guppy soak in the charm, the music and the lights. You would never believe it is nestled in the the heart of a large So Cal city and just on the other side of the biggest freeway in the state.

1. lights, 2. tiki, 3. balloons, 4. dl2, 5. mask, 6. disneytree

On her first trip at the age of 4 1/2 months Harper was able to experience Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion (which was all decked out for Christmas with the Nightmare Before Christmas stuff), the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, The Jungle Cruise, The Tiki Room, The Golden Horse shoe comedy hour, and Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln which was her very favorite. I can already see we have a little human rights campaigner on our hands.



She also tried banana for the first time and met Mickey, Minnie and Pluto.


Best of all, I got to go with my whole family and spend the weekend with my (not so) baby brother. We hadn't been to Disneyland together in years. I think the last time my parents had gone with us, Spencer was nine. He's now nineteen.


The whole Mickey Mouse club.


Minnie and Harper cashed out after two long and awesome days at Disneyland

I would also like to end this magical post with one point. We love Disneyland even though there are some Disney films that we don't feel send very honest messages to modern boys and girls. While I love all the animated classics, when Harper watches movies like Sleeping Beauty, I want her to know that it could just have easily been Princess Aurora sweeping in and saving Prince Charming . I want her to know that being a girl does not equate to being the damsel in distress and I want any potential and theoretical sons to know that women are strong and intelligent. I also want my kids to know that love and families come in all different shapes and sizes and expressions. With that said, the animation on these films is just amazing and I do adore watching them.

"The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there." -Clement C. Moore

Harper with (a very stoic) Santa, (almost) 5 months

"Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.- "Norman Vincent Peale

We are really gearing up for Christmas, our tree is up. Our lights are strung. Gift buying is in full swing. Gift wrapping is in less than full swing and I'm even thinking of making some cookies tomorrow (which is saying a lot because I am a shite baker). And I love Christmas music, it just makes everything festive. So, I thought I would share some of my holiday spirit, with these, some of my favorites.

"Success isn't a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire." -Arnold H. Glasow

Finally, I turned in my final project for fall semester 2010. I have officially completed one year of graduate school. And now I can clean my house, spend some time reading something other than library theory and do some baking.


Winter Break Goals:
Update my 2011 Moleskine Planner: I love updating my planner with all the fun and exciting plans for the upcoming year. It gets me excited to start anew. Plus it gives me this wonderful (but false) sense of organization.



Get Harper's Birth Certificate: We are going on a trip to Colorado in January and in order for Harper to board the plane with need her birth certificate which we need to somehow obtain but I'm not exactly sure where to start on that.

Get my social security card: I lost my social security card. Yep, I'm admitting it (and monitoring my credit) so before I can really start looking for a new job, I need to go and order a new one.

Finish Harper's Bedroom: Harper's "bedroom" has pretty much been in a state of undoneness since she made her early arrival. I want to have it completed by the time school starts for me again in January.

Clean my house: I've been ignoring it for weeks and now it is time to embrace to power of a nice and through deep clean. I'm talking cupboards organized, carpets steam cleaned, having a garage sale kind of cleaning. I can feel the grand purge coming on and it feels so sweet.

Read: And when I say read I mean something enjoyable. Something I pluck from the shelf willingly and sit in a corner with tea and breathe in the words.

Start Harper's Scrapbook: Before Harper was born I had this grand idea that I was going to make her a scrapbook of her first year so that when she was old enough to care, we could give it to her so she could "re-experience" it. Well, I haven't started it yet because...I suck.

Take some pictures: We've been slacking and I can already tell that our photo albums are going to make it look like she grew three inches overnight because there is some unaccounted for time. In addition I've recently been organizing all our pictures and am beginning to realize there are grand gaps where we just never got any of our digital pictures printed up so I am planning on getting all those printed up and into albums.

Bake some bread: I have never done it and want to give it a try. Plus, I love carbs. (Easy recipes for the bread baking novice are welcome)

Blog reconstruction: I am thinking a blog overhaul is in order. First, I am redoing the tags so they are easier to navigate. I'll be setting up the Harper's First series in the left sidebar, offering a new winter button (which can be found below) and I am thinking about having my blog professionally re-designed ( I need recommendations for this, so if you know anyone who is good at doing custom designs, let me know)

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.DeletingTheAdjectives.com" target="_blank" title="Delete The Adjectives"><img src="http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c64/Kilts_are_awesome/Button-1.jpg" width="150" height="150" alt="Deleting The Adjectives" /></a></div>

"You can hear the footsteps of God when silence reigns in the mind." Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Found this while going through some picture files on my computer. I love this beautiful little soul.

"Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone." -G.B. Stern

And the winner of the $35 CSN gift certificate is..

.

Allison who said "I am thankful for my wonderful husband who just passed the bar, and for my ever supportive and loving family." I will be emailing you with details about your gift certificate tomorrow.

To everyone who participated in the giveaway, thank you. I hope to have another one in the very near future.

"Butts are bad because they wash out to sea, and fish smoke them and become nicotine-dependent." - Max

Mary and Max is the story of what happens when an eight year old girl from Australia and a 44 year old New Yorker with Aspergers Syndrome become unlikely pen pals. Le Hubs tends to pick out really weird, sometimes awful, sometimes awesome stuff to watch off of Netflix and this was one of the kind of awesome ones. I'm not totally in love with how it looks but I do this the chosen medium adds some charm and the story itself is sweet, sad, funny and really quite quirky. There are some surprisingly big names tied to this 2009 Sundance Film Festival opening film. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Toni Collette voice Max and Mary, respectively. This one is not for the kiddos. It has some really heavy subject material that adds a lot of depth to the characters. I love seeing an animated movie that was obviously created for an adult audience. The story is honest and the soundtrack is really well done and adds yet another layer to this feature length claymation movie about friendship found in the least likely of places, a phone book.


*For those of you with Netflix, this film is currently available in the "Watch It Now" option.

In related news, I have been inspired to find a pen pal. If anyone is interested in some good old snail mail correspondence please email me at R.BrandtFisher{@}gmail{.}com with your address.

PS: My $35 CSN Givecard giveaway is going on now until tomorrow as 11:59 Pacific time. Please check it out and enter for your chance to win.