Here’s to lots of thanking in 2012!
Thanks to all our viewers that keep coming back to read our archives. Especially people that have searched things like, “high end toilet paper,” “male bubble butt,” and “mennonite weddings” and been routed to us. I hope we didn’t disappoint.
Oddly, we are still getting around 50,000 pages views per month without doing a thing. Either we have a serious stalker or new readers are stumbling upon this…or maybe both.
Cheers!
Stacey
Another year!
Hard to believe it’s been MONTHs since I’ve posted, especially since this was once a daily task. I must say, I haven’t missed saying up until 2am pacing the room and wondering about to whom I should send an crazy ass thank you note scrawled in 10-year-old boy script…BUT, I do miss this blog. I guess old habits die hard though, because every time I encounter a funny situation, I always find myself composing a slightly sarcastic, yet truly sincere (is that possible?!) thank you note in my beady little mind.
It could be the random Christmas decorations at Lowe’s (a sparkly blow-up Santa taking a piss in an outhouse? Didja catch that one? Priceless. Or actually 127 bucks.) or maybe it’s the way little Tab burps like a truck driver or Ollie calls bums “those junky people”, but anyway, I definitely miss taking stock in the daily hilariousness. Which I do, still, of course, but I just don’t write about it online, for the world to read, at 1am after drinking too many glasses of pinot grigio. That’s documentation at its finest, I tell ya.
Missing you, Naked Thanks!
XO
Stacey
How could I not be grateful when I spend my days like this?
Hey all — thought I’d update since I haven’t posted in MONTHS! Though I miss writing Naked Thanks, I must say, little Tabitha Drew has kept me very busy (and of course Wild Ollie). And even with the trials and tribulations of daily life (Grey blew out his knee playing lacrosse and is now my 200 pound baby), I’m happy to report things are going well. Even though I haven’t been posting my thanks, I don’t feel like I’ve fallen out of practice writing notes; having a newborn is synonymous with thank you note writing because of all my generous friends and family sending adorable girl-baby gifts still!
Just wanted to check in and give a little update. Naked Thanks lives!
Stacey
One month to go until Karin and my year-long goal of Naked Thanking comes to an end! Because we began writing these notes on November 14, 2009, our last “official” day of thanking is November 13th. Exactly 31 days from now. I really can’t believe it’s been 11 months that I’ve been writing these notes. I literally have HUNDREDS of pages of gratitude squirreled away in Word and Google docs all over my computer. I’ve never written so much in my life. The sheer volume of my notes and explanations (350+ pages single spaced!) astounds me. It’s like the most detailed diary I’ve ever written in my life!
And even though Karin isn’t hitting the “publish” button on her notes anymore, don’t worry, she’s still writing them. I see them every night when I update my blog posts. It’s a shame her work won’t allow her to partake in any outside writing, but I’m still happy I’m not going at this whole 365-days-of-thanks thing alone.
Quite honestly, I’m excited and sad this blog is coming to a close. I’ll still be updating the blog after November 13th, but with this new baby on the way, there’s no way I could write and publish a daily thank you. I’m planning to make much more use of my camera when posting; maybe instead of notes I’ll simply put up pictures of my daily thanks. Plus, we have a great spin-off blog in the works…but more on that later.
What really amazes me, is that I’ve actually done something I said I was going to do for (almost) an entire year. While Karin can easily stick to goals (uh, the girl’s climbed Mount Everest and run like 5 marathons now…), I struggle more with goal-ADD. I start things and never finish them. Books, projects, jobs, relationships — you name it and I’ve stopped short. So the fact that I’m only a month away from doing something for 365 days is a really big accomplishment for me. Here’s to the next month of thanks!
It's amazing how much has changed for both Karin and I in this year of thanks -- all for the better. She got a new job, climbed the world's highest mountain, is learning to not fear children...while I grew another baby in my belly, moved outta the city and to the beach, and actually did something I said I was going to do. See what good things gratitude can bring!
The date is set; I will have my baby no later than November 16th! Today I actually scheduled my c-section after worrying about the choice for months. That being said, this doesn’t actually mean I will definitely have the baby ON the 16th; I could go into labor earlier than that and end up having a c-section on November 9th or the 13th, but in case I don’t go into labor beforehand, I at least have a date set for the procedure on the 16th.
If you’re wondering why I have to have a cesarean, it’s because I had one with Ollie (after 20+ hours of labor), and the hospital here in Delaware won’t let me try for a VBAC. Something that is kind of disappointing and also a relief at the same time. On the bright side, I don’t have to push anything 7+ pounds out my crotch, however, it is surgery, and well, being cut open is never exactly fun. I’m really fine with the C though. I had such an easy recovery last time from my surgery that I think this time will be even better (since I won’t have the stress of labor first).
But you can’t imagine how much this whole pick-the-birthday-thing has been stressing me out. There’s something about choosing the date your child is born that just doesn’t sit right with me. There’s so much pressure! This is a date the kid will celebrate for the rest of his life! And that I will celebrate! Then I started thinking about auspicious days and lucky days and astrology and that REALLY turned up the heat on my scheduling of this surgery.
Luckily, I turned to such reliable sources as random websites for help. I began madly Googling, “auspicious days in 2010″ and “best days to have a baby” and “lucky days in November” and came across ChineseFortuneCalendar.com which told me November 16th is a lucky day. Since my due date is technically the 22nd, they won’t let me schedule before the 15th, and I figured if the 16th is said to be an auspicious day, then it’ll be a good time to bring on a baby, right? And you never know, I could go into labor well before the 16th, but at least I know I won’t be going past then!
Whereas DC had the ballet, the opera, the National Gallery, the Kennedy Center, Delaware has the Monster Mile. Yep, it’s the Dover International Speedway where the likes of um, well, whoever the famous Nascar race car drivers are, race their cars.
This weekend is the opener to the Nascar season (I don’t even know if I’m saying this properly) and people have been camped out by the Speedway for weeks. Literally, even ten days ago when we drove by the track we saw Nascar die-hards in their RVs and campers just biding their time before the race. Seeing this made us wonder what we’re missing. So Grey and I decided what better way to spend a gorgeous Saturday afternoon than to have our eardrums blown out in a stadium with 100,000 men in sleeveless tank tops. It’s Nascar time!
The only problem is that word on the street here in DE is that the Speedway’s alcohol rules were just amended. And people are PISSED. Now, fans may not bring in more than three cases of beer per person into the stands. Yes, ONLY three cases PER person. That’s it! Apparently they’ve really tightened things up with this new strict policy. Before, Nascar junkies could tote in as much beer as their suburned bodies could carry, buy now they’ll have to content themselves with a mere 72 cans per person. Shucks.
Oh please, God, let this man be at the race!
As if I needed more baby gear, my generous friends decided to host a sprinkle (like a shower but on a smaller scale) for my fellow-prego buddy, Kris, and I. Anna and Ingrid – who both are busy wrangling babies themselves – put on a fab spread of food and drink to celebrate our soon-to-be-outside the womb kiddos.
Of course this was a good excuse to come back to DC for the weekend, which was also a good excuse for making a trip to Sephora and Nordstrom to stock up on “essentials” that simply aren’t available in slower lower Delaware, but I digress…
The best part of the sprinkle was seeing all my girlfriends. Even Karin came in for the event, even though seeing all the pregnant bellies was probably the best birth control she’s ever encountered. In fact, she got both Kris and I giant ridable blue dog for our presents that I can safely say is Ollie’s favorite new toy in the world. She said it, “spoke to her” and I can tell you it definitely speaks to him as he’s riding it on the coffee table or trying to ride it bareback down our stairs.
Now it’s officially two months until the baby arrives!
The Sprinklers (with us on the couch) and some of the girls. Thanks, everyone!
Who knew Karin would be such a baby whisperer when it came to picking out baby gifts? Ollie LOVES this thing!!!
Don’t you hate how hard it is to find a good movie these days? I feel like everything out in the theaters is either just dumb, or some overplayed concept, or unnecessarily deep, or plain old boring. That’s why last night, when we rented Hot Tub Time Machine, I had pretty low expectations. However, I loved it.
In case you haven’t seen it yet, please rent this movie. It’s hilarious. And has a neat little ending that they tie right up in a bow for you. I love films like that. It hearkens back to the good old days of movies like Overboard and Mannequin — those which have ridiculously far fetched premise (like a nasty hot tub that actually defies the space/time continuum) and entertains you for 90 mindless minutes. It was perfect.
In my opinion, movies these days just try way too hard. So many films try to be all deep and Quentin Tarrantino-ish. What ever happened to the movies of the 80s where you feel good after watching it, not confused or depressed? Movies where everything is spelled out for you and the ending is satisfying, not ambiguous or purposely sad.
So yay for Hot Tub Time Machine!
I’m not that huge on my own birthday. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I enjoy barking orders at Grey all day long and saying things like, “Celebrate me, damnit!” when my birthday rolls around, but, especially ever since I had Ollie, 8-28 isn’t that big of a deal. Not that it ever was a huge extravaganza; I’ve always gotten way more excited about days like Halloween and Thanksgiving than my own date of birth. (What’s better than costumes or eating massive amounts of stuffing? Cake? I think not).
I think my lack of birthday enthusiasm has something to do with the fact that I never truly like being the center of attention. Yes, I like people paying attention to me, but up to a point. Even on my wedding day, the thought of having everyone’s eyes directly on me made me want to barf on myself (hence all the valium and champagne and then my inevitable inability to recall anything past 11AM). So having people just sit around and party because it is the day I came into existence? That just makes me feel a bit uncomfortable.
That’s part of why I’ve always been fascinated by who else shares my birthday. One of my best friends from Erie, Sarah, was born on August 28th too and we always had fun co-celebrating. Plus, as a pre-teen, the fact that Jason Priestly of the mega-hit Beverly Hills 90210 was popped out of his mother’s womb on the same day as me, well, that was pretty much incomprehensibly cool. I took it to mean that Brandon Walsh and I were soul mates. So even though my parents didn’t let me watch 90210 because they thought there was too much teen sex, I’d secretly catch every episode telling them I was watching Growing Pain reruns.
So happy birthday, to Mr. Jason Priestley. No clue what you’re doing now, but here’s to our day!
Only in the 90s could a pale, pasty dude in his dorky underwear and periwinkle shirt be so hot!
I now realize celebrating my birthday was probably a whole lot more fun for my parents than me. Ollie's birthday is my favorite day of the year -- how can my own date of birth hold a candle?
YAY! Bob Blumer, AKA The Surreal Gourmet found my note to him and acknowledged it! Yay. Haven’t been this excited since I heard from Punxsutawney Phil!!!
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