Howdy all! I figured it's about time for another FOG. I have had a great couple of months and am looking forward to sharing with them with you.

I've taken several wonderful vacations since the last time I wrote. I took a week off at spring break and Ethan and headed to CoCo Key as is our tradition. We always have such a blast! It's great to take a couple days off from being "the mom" and just get to be Ethan's playmate. We spent a lot of time on "lazy river" this year, splashing and racing and really enjoying each other. I can't belive I didn't take a single picture but was glad to return home with the image shown here. I also just got back from a long weekend in North Carolina with the book club. One of our members has a winter house in Pinehurst so some of the ladies that I share a love of literature with hopped on a plane and headed out on a road trip. It was a WONDERFUL time! It was great to spend time with the girls, shopping and talking and eating tasty food and (oh yeah) discussing the book. Plus I got to sleep in and didn't have to pack anyone's lunch or schlep anyone to Karate or baseball. The complete and utter selfishness of the weekend felt absolutely decadent and I am a brand new person upon my return.

I also turned 39 on March 6th. Some birthdays have felt like real landmarks but I can't say that this was one of them. It did occur to me that it's the last year in my thirties but I've been feeling like that's a good thing. I'm looking forward to getting older and am starting to really enjoy what I know about myself and what I've learned about life. The best of which is probably that I don't know it all, never will know it all and that I no longer have the desire to pretend either. I also found myself thinking that this is maybe as adult as I will ever feel. I guess I have always assumed that I would get to a day when I actually felt like most adults have always looked. But I'm still just as silly as I have ever been. I like to have pillow fights and give zerberts and make funny faces. I love to laugh until my sides hurt and do it with some frequency. I guess I just thought that being an adult would feel significantly different than being a kid. But I am starting to think that this is it. After 39 years, I think I've realized that is is maybe as grown up as I'm ever going to get. Maybe I'll spend my forties reveling in my lack of maturity!

I realize sitting down to write this that some of you don't really know Ethan - that we left Albuquerque before you got to see him or that we just live in far away enough parts of the country that we just haven't ever been able to connect. So, instead of the usual "what is up with Ethan" section, I thought I'd take this opportunity to tell you a little bit about what you'd find if you spent some time getting to know this adorable, unique and wonderful boy:

Ethan is extremely affectionate and likes lots of physical touching. BEWARE if you're male... he will mostly likely launch himself in your direction to say hi and then give you a most enthusiastic bear hug. David Jordan used to talk about bringing "athletic equiptment" to come visit but Ethan is a little taller now and his full speed hugs are not quite as painful as they used to be.

Ethan likes to understand the "why" of things. I think I probably have more patience for this (and the thousands of questions that it produces) because I'm the exact same way. He will keep asking questions until he can wrap his mind around something and will often not let go of something (kind of like a pitbull!) until he does. That particular quality has served me well, as I hope it does Ethan, but it can be a fairly frustrating trait and I witness his annoyance as he finds, like I do, that the world is not always easy to comprehend.

Ethan is totally terrified of spiders and once ran to the bathroom for a whole day because there was a spider in the hallway he refused to vacuum up.

Ethan's best friend in the whole world is Leia, our 18 lb cat. He loves to pet her, hold her, dance with her. I see him transporting her from one end of the house to the other on a daily basis. She will now come to him when he calls (which, for those of you who have been reading these for a while, is a total 180) and she is almost always lying on top of him when I go to kiss him goodnight.

Ethan is a big fan of watches. Pop Pop (Ethan's paternal grandfather) got him a camoflauge watch with a helicopter for a second hand. I got him a digital watch with a timer for Christmas. He also saved his money earlier this year and bought himself a pocket watch. I don't think I know what it is exactly about watches that he finds so fascinating but I'm pretty sure it's not about telling time. I'll probably need to keep asking questions until I understand it (see above).

Ethan LOVES Runescape. It's an online game that he was introduced to at a game day we attended and he's been addicted ever since. The thing that I find most interesting about it is how many people he has turned onto it. Let's just say if it was an MLM, Ethan would be a very rich little boy.

Ethan loves to bake. We make cookies, banana bread, cakes, you name it. He bakes with both grandmas and is always up for making something new. It's been nice that his intolerance for sugar has subsided some over the years so that he can actually sample some of our wonderful creations without spinning up into "super sugar boy". I find that it's a really nice way to bond with Ethan, a time when we are working towards a common goal, and a great way to demonstrate "acts of service" since most of the time we have to give away the vast majority of our baked goods.

Ethan is going to have a very busy life! He has decided that he will do or be all of the following: a world famous chef, a juggler in the circus, invent a flying car, a professional baseball player and the president of the United States. I'm not totally sure that I have the order correct but I am confident that all of them are current interests.

Two last notes on big happenings in Ethan's world before signing off this section. First, Ethan officially graduates OASIS (the special education curriculum) this year and will attend 2nd grade at our home school, West, next year. He has pretty mixed feelings about leaving the school that he's attended for four years now but I'm doing everything I can to help him make the transition. We had a private guided tour of West this year and he got to meet the social worker, the principal and got to see some of the second grade rooms. Also, most of the boys on his baseball team (opening day Saturday!) and all of our neighbor kids go to West. That means that he will have friends on the first day and I know that will make a big difference in him feeling comfortable. I hope that he will put aside his general tendency to resist change and embrace his new scholastic home. Secondly, Ethan's dad has returned to the Chicagoland area. He is currently living with Grandma F only 20 minutes away which means that Ethan gets lots of good time with him. As always, I don't know what the future holds (and at this point I'm not even sure of Daddy's plans) but am happy that it's been such a positive change for Ethan. He really enjoys the time that they spend together and I am grateful for the time I get to spend doing stuff that I enjoy as an adult.

In other news, I am proud to announce that I received my company's Employee of the Year award for 2008. It came as quite a surprise to me since I didn't even know I'd been nominated! The award entailed the trophy pictured here, announcements in all kinds of company-wide forums and, best of all, CASH! It's great to be acknowledged for my 11 years of work and service to the company. It's been a very challenging time to continue at ProLaw and I really miss the coworkers I've lost. But in the end, my commitment is to my family and to being the best and most available mother I can be. ProLaw - with a flexible schedule, steady paycheck and challenging work - wins out over any feelings I have that it might be time to move on. It's nice that my efforts in my job are recognized as valuable and that my continued employment here seems to work so well for both sides.

Lastly, the man update: As you know, my dating over the last 8 years has been fairly unpredictable. It's been a rollercoaster of getting to know someone new and then things not working out. Or getting to know someone new and things working out for a time and then going south. Or things going well for a long time but just not being a match in the end. But in all cases, it's been hard work finding people to date and then more hard work in putting and keeping a relationship together. Which is why I'm thrilled to tell you that Jim, my boyfriend, doesn't match any of those patterns. He just showed up in my OKCupid quiver one day in early December and we've been in daily contact ever since. He is extremely fun to be with and it's so easy. I can count on one hand the number of awkward or uncomfortable moments we have had. We've happily celebrated Valentine's Day, my birthday and his birthday without a hitch. I still have to pinch myself sometime to believe that he's for real because being in a relationship has never been so effortless before. Needless to say, I'm on cloud nine and loving every minute!! He's slowly meeting my family and friends - we've decided that slow is best and that there's no reason to rush into anything. In the meantime, I'm laughing more, smiling more and feeling better then I have in a very long time. Hooray!

Until next time...