From the couch of Danielle Townley

Honestly.
On friday I picked Anna up from daycare early because she was sick (re: vomitting). Once I got her home she tossed her cookies about 5 more times before bedtime. She was fine by Saturday morning (surprisingly). Apparently it's a quick moving little virus. The daycare said some kind of stomach bug was making it's way through the classrooms. Rob and I were just praying that it wouldn't make it's way through our home (as usual).
Well, I made it all the way to Tuesday.
Did you know daytime tv sucks? Cause it suuuuuucks.

30 = Awesome

Okay, so far being thirty is pretty much the bomb. For my birthday, Rob came home from Africa (not JUST because it was my birthday- also because he lives here) and we went out to Roys for dinner. The great irony was when I ordered a 'big girl' drink and the waitress asked to see my ID...which I did not have. (My "special occasion" purse holds nothing more than a breath of fresh air. it's that small). After explaining this to the waitress, she leaned forward in a consipratory way and asked in a loud whisper if either of us were cops before taking our orders and serving what can only be described as grain alochol in a tall glass with an umbrella. (Glad to see their security system is air tight.) I then proceeded to consume my body weight in gourmet fish and a "chocolate lava" dessert. The ride home consisted of Rob shaking his head from side to side while I lamented the decision to wear anything other than sweatpants. (If I was worried about 30 making me dull and mature, clearly my fears are unfounded.) Either way, it was delicous and an awesome end to the day.

But no, the fun did not stop there.

Saturday night Rob scheduled a "Laser Tag Birthday Party" for me (mainly because I demanded it). We had about 20 of our friends show up- one of which-Damian, is a professional magician and he did magic tricks for us while we all ate at Pizza Hut. (I know, I know...I'm a pony ride and a face painting artist away from being 8 years old all over again). But we had a freaking blast. I think there's something to being "allowed" to have fun that all adults should indulge in every once in a while. Anyway, I won't ruin this post with more sarcasm. The point is I had a GREAT Birthday. (Rob, you are hereby forgiven for the cupcake incident of Mother's Day, 2009). Pictures below.

Everyone at Pizza Hut. The one place you can walk into on a Saturday night at 7pm with 20 people and have NO wait time. I'm pretty sure we're the (only) reason they will make their monthly quota for January.

Damian's first trick. Christa...STUMPED.

BLUE TEAM

RED TEAM

The score sheet says that Rob and I (seperate teams) shot eachother something like 20 times total. Marriage counselors everywhere are praying you don't find out how theraputic this is.

Last day as a 29 year old!

As today is my last day in my 20's, I'm allowing myself a "Me" post.
(It's cool, you can skip this one).

Top 10 Highlights from my 20's

1. Celebrating my 21st b-day in the parking lot in front of CSC with a bottle of champagne, two plastic cups and one great friend
2. Graduating from college
3. Moving to five different states in ONE year (NC, CT, DE, VA, MD) and everything I owned fit in a 2 door sports car
4. Getting my first "real" job
5. Moving to Maryland and knowing no one, having no money, and learning the many ways to eat spaghetti (i.e. with or without spaghetti sauce, depending on if I had an extra $2.50.)
6. Getting married to Rob
7. Buying our first house (and all the fun home owner surprises that came with it)
8. Celebrating Valentine's Day in Africa
9. Having Anna (and surviving pregnancy)
10. Family trip to Italy

My 20's have been great, and I'm looking forward to my 30's being even better... I'd be lying if I said it didn't freak me out...it definitely does. Suddenly I feel like all the commercials about wrinkle cream and hair dye are directed at me - and they're starting to piss me off a little. But I guess that's all part of life. I don't lament not being 22 anymore though - I'm happy where I am, and have no desire to go back to duct taping my work pants because I can't afford to get them hemmed.
I hear a lot that people relax a little in their 30's, spend less time worrying about what impresses everyone else and more time focusing on what really makes them happy.
Also, they eat less Ramen Noodles.
Okay 30's, bring it on.

First Hair Cut!!!

Today Anna had her VERY FIRST hair cut (okay, trim)!! We found this great place, Crew Cuts and Pig Tails, that specializes in kids hair cuts. They do a great job making a big deal out of the first hair cut (for moms too...) and even give you a certificate and lock of their hair... I can't decide if that's endearing or creepy. Although I'm sure years from now I'll be glad I have it. This is Anna's "What is going on?" face.

Although they have toys, animal crackers, movies, games, basically whatever you could possible need for a kid to sit still

And they don't sit in hair dresser chairs. No... they sit in AIRPLANES and FIRE TRUCKS. I thought that was awesome. I think my inner-child came out a little.

Here's Anna with her super nice hair stylist, Ashley.

Proud Mommy Moments

Today my daughter called another one year old a "whiner".

Ironic since my daughter is the one who refuses to wear pants.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given. Happy Birthday, Jesus!

That's about as far as we got into the service before one of us, who shall remain unnamed (re: not Rob...not me) decided to take off running out of the church and down the hall screaming.

I'm sure Jesus understands. We'll try again next year. :-)

I'm sure I'll catch all kinds of crap for dressing her like this in about 12 years when she sees this, but we think she's the cutest little Christmas girl ever.

Merry Christmas!

Snow Day Updates!

Anna and I have severe cabin fever so off we went to play with Pierce and Stacy Adams. We tried like a zillion stores looking for sleds before my boss finally told me his wife heard on the news they're recommending laundry baskets tied with string. Sounds cheesy, but I think we're not even going to buy a sled this year. Laundry baskets were flipping awesome. I didn't get any pictures of the kids in them because I was busy with Anna yelling "PULL!" at me. We had a great time!

Snow storm of the century!

Oh My. So...there isn't too much I can say that you haven't already seen on the news. (Worst snow storm in 71 years), so I am adding pictures instead.

Here's Rob shoveling our steps for what I think was the 4th time yesterday!

We took Anna out for a little while, but the snow was coming down sideways so we came back in...she wasn't happy about that and kept trying to put her boots on to go out with Dad. (This made me feel awful!)

Today we woke up and the sun is shining. But here's the aftermath of yesterday's insanity. (Rob just dug out my truck AGAIN).

To give you people way down south an idea of just how much snow we got, here's my lovely assistant, Anna, standing in front of our deck. She's 33 inches tall.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

The Christmas Tree

Our tree is up. It's somewhere in between the one found in Time Square and Charlie Brown's Christmas Tree...Still...Good luck finding something cuter than this....

Grandma Visit...baby Barrett

I'm running late on the posts (as usual) and I have more where these came from...we'll get there. Anyway, Rob's mom came to visit last weekend after Thanksgiving and I didn't get a chance to post pictures until today. Anna had a great time visiting with her Grandma :-)

And Anna got to meet her newest "little cousin" Barrett Poulos. She was even allowed to hold Barrett (with some help from his Mommy, Sarah and his Grandpa). Now every time we see a baby, Anna walks up and says "BABY!" and holds her arms out expectantly. She's going to be a great baby sitter one day....

That's it for now. Stay tuned for pictures of our Christmas tree (you had to know that was up by now...)

Happy Leftovers Day!

Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving yesterday! We spent this one at home- which is unusual for us. But it's the first one in years where we've had the opportunity to watch the Thanksgiving Day Parade and relax in our PJs. We missed the rest of the fam, but it was nice to bum around.

In other...strangely related news of things I'm thanful for, someone had a successful potty interaction on the day before Thanksgiving. You would have thought we won the lottery for all the celebrating we did! Way to go, Anna! You make me one proud mommy!

Last but NOT least: We're not that far removed from the USMC that we've forgotten about our troops. Thanks to those who are serving over the holiday season. You are in our thoughts.

yeah. That's what I thought.

Don't undermine the Mommy. I know when something is up with my little girl. Turns out she has walking pnemonia. Everything is cool and now she's on antibiotics so in 10 days she's all good. Phew.

Sick little girl, part 2

It seems that Anna is still feeling "blah". She just hasn't been herself, so we're heading back to the doc for a second opinion. (Re: after scouring the internet, psycho mommy wants to make SURE it's not H1N1). It's okay though, we have fuzzy owl pajamas.

Happy Halloween!

This was Anna's first year trick-or-treating! We didn't do too much, Rob took her around the block to the houses of neighbors we knew, while I handed out candy at home. She had a great time!

Our Little Chick!

Waldo stopped by for a visit before heading out to her party

Dad showing Anna what a cute little chick she is.

And last but not least, Kudos to the Pouloses for best pregnant costume we've ever seen.

Grandma is Spook-tacular!

Our poor little grumpy girl's day was made today thanks to Grandma T's surprise care package of crayons, cookies, barrettes, a sweater and purse. We LOVED it!!!

The barretts of people are supposed to be one of me and one of Anna (TOO CUTE). The dog is Scout and the Cat is Fury (Rob's cat when he was a kid).

Anna with her new crayons and halloween pictures (Note the cute halloween barretts)

Thanks Grandma!! Can't wait to see you after Thanksgiving!

Sick Day

Poor Anna has a temp today (she's teething, not sick sick) so I'm home playing hookie with her. My poor little girl!

I don't mind the extra hugs though....

PUCKUMS!

We took Anna to the "puckum" patch today (re: pumpkin) where Anna had her first pony ride (I was in mommy heaven considering I was really into horseback riding growing up)

And we did a maze with bales of hay....

and topped it all off with 'bird watching' with Dad-O.....Okay, looking at ducks through chicken wire. Whatever. Little kids are easy to impress. :-)

.

Were you wondering where we've been?

I have no good excuse... but I'm here today!
Anna and I are chilling out on the couch watching Nick Jr. Rob's out on his boat.... life is good. We have no real updates (which is why I haven't blogged), except to say that now that our house didn't sell, every realtor in the area is dive bombing us with letters DAILY on how they could sell our house, they're SURE of it! We're so over the house (not) selling. The last thing we want is more people walking through it on a daily basis just to 'kick the tires'. Ugh. Okay, so that's really all i have to say. Glad we updated? Yes, we're still alive, no we have nothing interesting to report! Back to nick jr.!

Happy Anniversary.

Four years! Did any of you think we'd actually make it?

So today's our anniversary, and like any old married couple, we're spending it at home watching a movie and making fruit dip for a pot luck at work tomorrow. A far cry from Valentine's day in Ethiopia or dancing a tango at our reception, but after the week in Italy, we're totally cool with low-key. And maybe we're still a bit jet-lagged. Or just getting old.

Here's to four more years (at least) of putting up with (umm..I mean adoring) eachother...love you Honey!

-Rob