Over the River and Through the Woods....

I have to begin this blog with an apology. I'm sorry to everyone that reads for not updating in so long. As a family we have been super busy recently. Personally, I feel like I have been in a rut of sorts. I feel frustrated on so many levels at various things and I feel helpless in these certain situations. The past several weeks feel so complicated to describe, yet so simple at the same time.

Something that did happen a few weeks ago was Avery's first overnight trip to her grandma's (my Mom, whom lives 80 miles from us). At the time, we had only every spent one night away from Avery for our anniversary. It started off with feelings of relief almost. I felt like I could tackle, and complete, my mile-long to-do list. Then my feelings changed to, "Shane and I rarely have an entire evening, night, and day to ourselves, we should go on a date." We went to a hispanic store in West Asheville in search of authentic tacos. You know, the ones you typically buy from a truck with corn tortillas and no cheese. The attendants didn't speak english, so thank the Lord my wonderfully amazing and talented husband is fluent in espanol and was able to order our meal with ease. So we ate our meal and rented a movie (which I was delighted it turned out to be good, because Shane dislikes most "comedies," but really liked this one). The next day we awake bored and lost without Av bossing us around and getting into everything. My Mom called later that day and asked if she could stay another night. GASP! We decided she could. Avery doesn't get to see my family all that much because of the distance (although my grandparents visit regularly). By this time we are LOST! It lead me to think of the days before Avery when we would veg out and watch Sopranos for hours on end and go and do as we pleased.

As like other parents, sometimes I long for the times I can take Avery to Shane's grandmother's and get a few hours to myself, whether I shop or come home and clean the house, but each time she isn't with me I can't wait for her to come back. My life isn't nearly as fun or exciting without her. So while the past few weeks have been stressful at times to say the least, Shane and I always have her to look at and be thankful for, even when changing her diaper seems more difficult than changing one on an octopus.

Purely Ranting!

Looking back on the past few weeks, it seems like a lot has happened while at the same time it seems like nothing as well. I want to start off with the autism/vaccination hoax. One word to get a debate going among several moms is Vaccination! Before the latest release of the info, I felt like we were in the minority in Asheville because we DO vaccinate. While pregnant with Avery, I read articles and we decided that vaccinated according to the American Academy of Pediatrics schedule was/is right for us. Now that the doctor who started it all says it was a hoax, more local parents are discussing how they did and do vaccinate, while those that do not vaccinate feel the need to overly-defend their positions by saying the reason they didn't vaccinate has always been other reasons, never the fear of autism. I can't say what other folk's reasons are, but I can't help but feel like that was an easy way to cop out. I get seriously offended and upset when another mother says that I am poisoning my child by having her vaccinated. I became more than furious by a mother whom wrote in her blog, "The chances of my child getting polio are slim to none. The chances of my child getting hepatitis are slim to none." I want to scream at her, "THAT'S BECAUSE OF VACCINES YOU DUMMY! POLIO DID NOT JUST GO AWAY!!!" She later goes on to say that one can live through a sickness because it is treatable. I have someone close to me who was not born with hepatitis and by the time they gave the Hep B vaccination to her in middle school, she had contracted Hep B (with no drug-use or sexual encounters). The doctor told her that HepB can stay alive in blood for some time and she could have gotten it from something at school, etc. While she can have a happy, normal life, she will most likely have HepB FOREVER! So yes, we'll take some protection from that and polio, too! Proof of this is in the rising cases of whooping cough.  I trust my doctor. We exercise our own judgement in regards to advice she gives, but in the end, she went to medical school while we did not.

Gosh, that felt great to vent! I've told all this to Shane. God bless him. He listened, but couldn't really understand what all the commotion was about.

Avery had her very first sickness last week. She had a fever for 3 days. They doctor said it could've been the stomach virus going around (I had it), but because of her Rotavirus vaccine, she had an increased GI protection and didn't have the vomiting or diarrhea (Wow! A vaccine that helped?! Who would've known?!).

A dear friend of mine starts his first round of aggressive chemo tomorrow. He has stage 3 lymphoma. He's scared and I'm scared for him. I can't imagine how it would be to hear that kind of news. He just found out right before Christmas. They haven't given him a timeline. Whether you pray, meditate, or dance to whomever, do it for him this week. Life is so precious. I find it all to easy to go on day in and day out not realizing all the awesome stuff you have in your life until something bad happens. So although I may get worked-out about what may seem to you to be minute, I am blessed beyond measure and am so thankful everyday for everything and everyone in my life.

Avery waiting to get her flu shot!

New Year, New Lear

Well, not literally (we don't plan on it anyway), but figuratively we are new Lears this year. Our New Year's celebration itself was non-existent as Shane and I both worked. By the time I got home at 11:45 p.m. he was in the bed, along with Avery, so I jumped in with them and fell sleep before midnight. Woohoo! Really, I didn't mind so much. I rang in the new year sleeping (which I love to do) with the people I love the most.

Before getting pregnant with Avery, Shane and I were both really into working-out. This definitely warrants a couple pics of us when we first got together.

 For some reason we stopped and have decided to start again with the new year. I have to give major props to my hubs because he bought some fitness equipment and put it in our basement and has plans to buy more in hopes that having the stuff here will allow us a better chance to actually us it.

In addition to renewed fitness attitudes, Shane lost his iPhone last week and despite our offer of a reward, it is still m.i.a. So we switched from iPhones to Droids. I sort of feel like a traitor, but Shane is super excited about the change. It's taking a little getting used to for me. I remember the days before my iPhone when I had no desire to have a smartphone and Shane went and ruined it all for me by buying me an iPhone and each new version the day it would come out (except for the iPhone 4, which I didn't want).

I guess you could say we did add a new Lear, our miniature schnauzer puppy, Gretel. She is so sweet, tiny, and absolutely wonderful!!! We had a pitbull before Gretel and I loved our Spike, but Gretel is the bee's knees when it comes to dogs. She's spunky and chill and she loves Avery (although, frankly Avery isn't so pleased with Gretel). I love seeing Gretel try to play with Avery. The scene goes a little like this: Gretel frolics to Avery and starts licking/nibbling on a random body part. Avery scowls at Gretel and either slaps her and pulls her hair and slings her away. Ah, it was love at first sight for both of them. Lol.

HoHohOVER

That's right. Another Christmas has come and gone. This was an ectra exciting holiday season for us as we celebrated Avery's first Christmas and our first in our new home. I managed to get several days off (and an unexpected extra day due to snow). We visited Shane's grandparents and favorite cousin, Stacy, in Sevierville, went to my grandparents' on Friday and back home for Christmas morning at our house.

While I absolutely love Dolly Parton, she isn't the only reason I like going to Servierville. I love visiting Stacy and Granny Helen and Granddaddy Bill. This trip we rode around and Granny Helen shared some family history and other local stories. She has traced her ancestry back to the signing of the Magna Carter. Granddaddy doesn't say much, but he is the sweetest man and Stacy is a hoot. Shane, Granny, and Stacy took me to downtown Sevierville to see the statue of Dolly! I had no idea it was there, so it was a pleasant surprise. I was even told a story of how when Dolly's daddy was alive he would sneak down each night and wash the bird poop off of Dolly's statue. Shane and I went to Dollywood and really enjoyed the Christmas lights, but it was freezing and after a while all the lights look the same so we didn't stay long.

Shane let me open a few gifts early and we went to my grandmother's with most of my family on Friday. I always enjoy seeing them because it has been almost a year since we've seen most of them. I made a new buddy in my cousin's little boy, Jaxon. Really makes me want a little boy, but we'll wait on that ;-)

I really miss living near my family at times, but it usually doesn't take long for me to remember the benefits of living away. Lol. And Avery liked the paper more than the gifts. Our living room is full of new toys and old, and the ones getting the most attention are the old ones.

We hosted my grandparents, mom and boyfriend, Shane's mom and husband, and his other grandmother, Mummy, on Saturday for lunch. It was my first time hosting an "event" at my house and needless to say I forgot some things. I forgot to make the mashed potatoes (the only food I was responsible for as the guests brought everything else), I didn't have a platter for the turkey, or enough pot holders. I almost ran out of cups, but my mom bought us new wine glasses for Christmas so that saved us. Other than that, things went rather smooth. It snowed a lot, but everyone got up here and back home safe and I later took down my tree that same day. Call me scrooge or whatever, but I hadn't watered the poor thing in weeks and the branches were hanging low all melancholy-like and needles were falling all over the place. Good thing we don't smoke because if we did, I envision an occurence similar to the Christmas Vacation where Aunt Bethany's husband lights his cigar by the tree and catches the tree, and himself, on fire.

Now it's back to the daily grind. I'm trying to organize and get my life under control before the new school semester starts in 2 weeks and wrecks havoc on whatever sanity I can muster up between now and then. :-)

Fancy Blogger!

Well, here I am. I've decided to join the blogosphere. My first mission was trying to think of a clever name for my blog. I googled, "Rhymes with Lear," and got some sites with poems by a guy with the last name "Lear." A problem we often have with our last name is having to spell it all the time as people want to spell it "Leer," when it's "Lear." So I typed, "rhymes with Leer," and got a list of words that rhymed with "dear." Gosh, that's a long explanation. Sorry. Anyway, I came up with sheer lear as sheer can mean to vear off course. In my life before Shane, and in our married life, we have swerved off course a bit, but not necessarily "bad" swerving. I planned on things being a little different, but I love life how it is now and wouldn't trade it for anything. Then, I realized I put in my address as ShearLeer. This is cool, too, because I'm in cosmetology school and I use shears. Lol....

Last week, Shane and I went to the Biltmore House. We were given tickets for our anniversary from his Uncle Bud and Aunt Chris (Yay!). We had a grand ole time even if it was 40 below (not really, but it was cold). We went to the winery and sampled lots of wine (I guess "tasted" is the correct terminology). I found it interesting how you have to stand around the tasting bar because there aren't any seats. I concluded the reason is probably because people would never leave if they could sit and drink free wine all day.

This week is full of activity as we travel to Sevierville, TN and Lenoir, NC for family festivities. We'll cap it off by hosting some family at our house for lunch on Christmas Day (Avery's 1st Christmas and our 1st in our new house). I'm so happy about Avery's 1st Christmas. I can't wait to see how she reacts, although I'm sure she'll love the paper more than anything. I'm also really excited for everyone else to open their gifts we bought for them and I'm super excited about Shane's gifts (I even tried to get him to open one a couple hours ago and he said no).

Deep down I'm ecstatic about all the delicious food I'll be consuming. If you know me, you know I don't do much cooking. I'm happy to say that last week I made homemade meatloaf that turned out well (next time I'll try a different recipe, though, because I wish it had more flavor), and today I whipped up stuffed porkchops right before I went to work. I'm no Betty Crocker, but I'm getting there.