The year started off with Rob and I being very very sick. We both woke up with a terrible stomach virus on New Years Day and could not get out of bed or keep anything down. So, it was the perfect start to our 21 day fast that we did. It was not a total fast, but we did the "Daniel Fast", basically, you can only have fruits, veggies, and whole grains, no meat, dairy, sugar, caffeine, alcohol, etc. It was really hard, but we were determined to make it to the 21 days and we did it. Rob lost about 15 pounds and I lost 10. Towards the end, I had to start adding back in some things because my clothes were falling off. I stared making protein shakes with soy milk and fruit and that helped.
So, the rest of the winter I was busy with work and I joined in a lot of playdates. I found a group of women my age all with babies Maddie's age and we met once a week and did all kinds of fun stuff together. It was great for Maddie to socialize and I made some good friends. I really miss them alot :(
Easter was really good this year. The last Easter, Maddie was only 5 days old, so she didn't really get to enjoy it. This year, the mom's group that I'm a member of had an Easter egg hunt that was a lot of fun. Then we went to church on Sunday and went to the park after that and Maddie got to spend time with her cousins.
In March, Maddie turned 1. This of course, was a huge milestone. I couldn't believe how fast her first year went by. I guess we were so busy, it was just kind of a blur. We had a great party for her at the house. Tons of people came and mom made her an awesome Hello Kitty cake. I weaned her from the bottle at about 14 months with no problem and she started walking a few weeks after she turned 1. My baby girl had officially become a toddler.
I continued to dance taking ballet and jazz at Dance Etc. in Richardson. I loved taking dance there, I made so many good friends, everyone was almost like family. I miss them so much. I worked really hard that spring and my body was telling me I was over doing it. I got really sick in April with bronchitis and for the first time in my life, they told me I had asthma and I was almost put in the hospital. I had to beg the doctor not to make me go because I had a meeting with my boss that day (she had flown in town from Kansas just for the meeting, I couldn't miss it). My knees were aching on a daily basis, but I was determined this would be the recital I ever did. And it was, it was great. We danced to "Bittersweet Symphony" in ballet, which I have always dreamed about performing to that song, it is so powerful. So it turned out great, but I was sure ready for a break after recital was over.
The summer was long and hot. We spent most of it at the pool. The pool in our back yard wasn't that great for Maddie because there was no shallow area so we spent a lot of time at the public pool in Plano. It was great because they have an area just for toddlers and moms could just chill and get some sun while the babies played. We were hit with some hard times when Rob was laid off from his job in July. With him being in sales, we were kind of used to this and knew that it could happen pretty much any time. Although it was very stressful, it turned out ok because he got a little bit of a severence pay and he found another job pretty quick, which he like much better and he was so much happier.
The most important event in 2008 was that we finally became home owners. We had been talking for a while about making the big move back to Ft. Worth. It was a really tough decision for me and I was really torn. On one hand, I had come to love living in Plano. The neighborhood we lived in was great, we had wonderful neighbors, I had my playgroup friends and my dance studio. But we hated the house we were renting, the high utility bills were killing us, and I hated being so far away from my family. It was so hard and stressful on us, we had no one near by to help us with Maddie, which just added to my stress. We couldn't even go out for a movie or dinner without driving to Ft. Worth so my mom could watch her. So after weighing all the pros and cons we decided that we were definitely ready to buy a house, but we knew we couldn't afford to buy anything in Plano and I knew that I was going to have a nervous breakdown if I didn't get some help with Maddie.
So, we stared house hunting. At first we were going to have a house built, but that didn't work out. But it was ok because we found a great house just the right size and well within our budget and it is only 1 mile from mom and dad. So we made an offer, they accepted and we closed on it in like 3 weeks. It all happened really fast and before I knew it, we were back in Ft. Worth. Maddie had a hard time adjusting at first, but Cowboy was really messed up. It took him a good 2 weeks to adjust. I found a little Mothers Day Out program at the church around the corner from our house and I enrolled Maddie so I could at least have 2 days a week to get some work done.
So soon after we got settled in our house, the holidays were creeping up on us. We had a great Halloween. It was the first year Maddie understood the whole trick-or-treating thing, it was a lot of fun. Lisa had a Halloween party for adults and we got really drunk and had a blast. Then Thanksgiving and Christmas just sort came and went really fast. They were both great and relatively unstressful for the first time ever! 
So, I have to say 2008 was all in all a great year. I am very blessed and cannot wait to make 2009 even better!
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