January entry of StepMothers Milk: Kind of annoyed

I have a few close friends my age that married older men with children. Some of their stepkids are young, under 6, and some are older teenagers, like mine. So this is a shout to them...Courtney, Anne, Jenn, and Sheri. The job of stepmommy is not an easy one. I never know where I stand, I rarely get to call the shots, and I am third in line for any relaxation on the sofa. This chapter of stepmommy finds me alone with my stepson for several days while my husband is off getting some "him-time". I like to call it my "annoy-time". I suppose I am one of the lucky ones who has a stepchild who likes me. He wants to stay home with me, follow me around the house, and talk to me for hours about car exhausts, cat behavior, and Family Guy interpretations. He's a curious guy with lots of questions about ...well just about everything. Today, he wanted to know what was worse than a felony and then wanted to know the definition of "irony". What tha?! At one point today, he sat on the couch and watched me paint trim. "Izzy, you better do a good job at that." "Izzy, you are leaving parts of the wood exposed." "Izzy, do you even know what you are doing?"....and that went on and on. (insert internal screaming and hair pulling).
Ok. I am done venting. This is very good training for an infant one day. I am sure I will look back one day and think about how nice it was to have an engaged teenager in our house.

Way back in 2010

Michele...I liked your post! I am going to copy you.

2010 was nuts and I can't believe all that it encompassed. There were so many difficult times and so many wonderful times that I need to write this down so I don't forget. Let's start with the difficult times. My stepson had probably the most emotionally struggling year of his life which created some of the biggest fights, unmeasurable stress, worry, tears shed at home. This really tested the strength of my new marriage. But we stuck together as a family and rode out the storm. We finally have entered the light at the end of his dark tunnel with hope for his future and well-being.

Ok, enough of the bad stuff. The incredible stuff was this....

• I began a new position at my company and celebrated 10 years of employment with 9 weeks of vacation time.
• My husband built our new bedroom and I got to decorate!
• My sister moved an hour from me.
• I fell in love with my new sport, SUP.
• I paid off my car.
• I got hooked on acupuncture and Yin yoga.
• I watched my brother get married.
• I lost weight, gained weight, lost weight again.
• I tried to start a new family (sorry Jace).
• I become an advanced pilates student.
• I saw old friends and made new ones.
• I celebrated a milestone birthday.
• And finally there was all the TRAVEL!!! I went to Georgia 2 times, Virginia, Texas 3 times, California 4 times, Canada 2 times, Idaho, Arizona 2 times, Colorado, Maine like 6 times, Florida, Massachusetts, Illinois 2 times, Hawaii, and Mexico. Yes, I have rediculous amounts of frequent flier miles (which would be useless if my husband wasn't also in love with travelling....I suppose the first class cabin helps, right Eric?).

I am curious to what 2011 will be like.