1. Coolest Moments: Marin learned to write her name plus a bunch of other words, riding the Sea-doo with my daredevil daughter, she went snow skiing for the first time, and this summer put an end to diapers forever.
2. Worst Moment: Potty training Marin. That kid has incredible will power, not to mention a strong bladder.
3. What I'm Most Proud Of: Losing 18 pounds and keeping it off.
4. Greatest Disappointment: Susan's was finishing the last David Sedaris book. Now I have to wait until he comes out with a new one. Jon's is that we didn't go camping enough, that we didn't practically live out of the camper.
5. Most Joyful Moment: Getting the phone call from my dad that his chemo/radiation was successful.
6. Best Way to Describe This Last Year: Turmoil. It's made us weird.
7. Something On Which Jon and I Don't See Eye to Eye: The coolness of the pop-up camper.
8. Dumbest Purchase: A 50 inch Plasma HDTV. And the Blu-Ray.
9. Best $$$$ Spent: My trainer.
10. Most Shameful Moment: Backing out of the garage and ripping the side mirror off of the car. Then, after Jon fixed it, I did it again the next week. The parking ticket at the end of the month capped it all off nicely.
11. Greatest Embarassment: Susan's is - when, in a crowded public restaurant bathroom, Marin complimented me on my very nice pee-pee and then said (loudly) "I will push on your bladder for you so you can feel your pee-pee. Now do you want me to wipe your bottom for you, Mommy?" It was made worse by all the quiet laughter coming from outside the stall. Jon's is having me tell the "Daddy has a tail!" story over and over again.
12. Greatest Loss: Jonah died. Marin says he's in heaven stealing God's cereal.
13. Best TV Show: Lost, of course. It's the most innovative show I've ever seen.
14. Celebrities We're Most Tired Of: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.
15. We Wish For: Paris, London, and all of Italy.
16. Places We Traveled to This Year: Canada, Lake of the Woods, Vail 2x, Keystone, Dallas, Kansas City, Phoenix, The Great Sand Dunes, Meeker, Poncha Springs, The Broadmoor
17. Greatest Waste of Time: Jon - work. Susan - This, probably.
18. Greatest Frustration: Jon has many: they are - going to Vegas without Susan, the crowded beer festival in Keystone when we had Marin with us, when I ripped the mirror off my car twice. Susan's is Marin's iron-clad will that reveals itself daily.
19. Best CD That Came Out This Year: Coldplay
20. Most Refreshing Moment: Spending time with Brittany when I was in KC.
21. Friend I Appreciate and Adore: Wendi
22. Friend I Love Wasting The Day Away With: Amy C.
23. Something We'll Never Do Again: Jon says - go to North Dakota in the winter. It's freakishly cold. Nor will we go to North Dakota in the summer. It's sickly humid with heinous amounts of bugs. Nor will we go in the spring or fall. It's too windy. Susan will never be honest with insurance companies again.
24. Best Movie of the Year: The Dark Knight
25. Best Book: Naked by David Sedaris. Or: Me Talk Pretty One Day, Dress Your Family in Curduroy and Denim, or When You Are Engulfed In Flames. All David Sedaris.
26. Other Favorite Book That Is Nothing Like David Sedaris: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.
27. Phrases We Hated Hearing the Most: Susan's is "It doesn't have to be perfect" (do you not know me?) or WHY? Marin is knee deep in the why phase. Jon's is "Daddy says lig, not leg."
28. Least Favorite Quality in People: People who are always right, who KNOW they know best, who only see ONE viewpoint (their own).
29. Least Favorite Question People Asked Us (which only turned into an platform for their unsolicited opinion): "You're not having any more children? Oh, that's so selfish. Marin's going to be a selfish child, too."
30. Sweetest Things Marin Said: Jon asked Marin if she knew how much he loved her, to which she replied "You love me more than you love you." And "Mommy, you are a really beautiful mommy."
31. The Greatest Moment of Irony: When Lewis backed his rental car into our rock/tree, no one knows for sure. It does, however, bring back our teenage years when Happy Honda had a mysterious dent in the bumper...
32. Most Anti-American Place in America: Wal-Mart
33. Most True Thing That I Read This Year: (from David Sedaris, of course) That there seems to be some correlation between God and a misguided zeal for marshmallows." Apparently the more deeply embedded one is in the church, the more marshmallows one will find on top of sweet potatoes, mixed in syrupy-sweet canned fruit concoctions etc. It is a bizarre and disgusting thing to do to food.
34. Something Really Amazing to Watch: Marin writing her letters with all the diligence and effort that a 3 1/2 year old can muster up. She was so precise, so interested in it. The only downside was watching her fall on the floor in despair when she couldn't get one exactly right. She's a perfectionist, that one.
35. Moment I Don't Care to Relive: Getting hit by the crazy driver who drove across TWO lanes to make an illegal left turn. The rental company gave us a truck, of all humiliating things.
36. What We Want Most for 2009: Jon - to go camping as often as possible. Susan - to go to Paris. Marin would like a scooter and a pogo stick.
