suziebeezieland 2008 retrospective

Here is a little retrospective of suziebeezieland this past year. :) Do you know how much I'm looking forward to the new year with you? I am, sweet ladies! xxoo

JANUARY

In January we said goodbye to the old, password-protected suziebeezieland, and greeted the new, open-to-the-world suziebeezieland. We also packed Santa away, and promised to see him next year. And we did! :)

FEBRUARY

In February I finally hung some things on our living room walls. We stated our design styles for 2008, Claire turned five, my family recovered from the stomach flu, and I looked forward to spring and gardening. I told you about my love for Jim Henson, took you on a walk around my neighborhood with Claire and me, made asparagus, saw a lunar eclipse, and started a bunch of projects I still haven't finished. 

We used the words "trolley" and "unbudges" in a sentence, talked about our favorite television shows, found out our Mindi was moving to Iowa, and waited for new babies to arrive. We saluted the Canadians.

MARCH

In March I sprouted marigolds; went to preschool open house; saluted oranges, lemons, and avocados; suggested activities for St. Patricks' Day; put a Pottery Barn wire organizer in my craft room; painted the front porch; celebrated Easter; made a felted wool cupcake; and decorated the hamster cage.

We discussed what we'd do if we had to join a circus ("Of course, I would be very kind to the elephants I trained; we would have a very special bond," said our Tanya); saw Horton Hears a Who; welcomed our J.J.'s Fisher and our Marie's Charlie to the world; recommended good kids' books to each other; and were all impressed that our Deb built a doghouse! We celebrated March Madness. We saluted the Canadians.

APRIL

In April I visited the Butterfly Pavilion at the San Diego Wild Animal Park, enjoyed reading I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, and got excited about Catherine Thursby's Red Shoes blog and designer Carrie Raphael's website. I did lots of gardening and let some ladybugs loose; made a kitchen tablecloth from Cath Kidston oilcloth; put a vinyl "C" monogram in Claire's room; ate Ina's Chicken Salad Veronique; released a butterfly; inherited a new Ikea bench from my sister; and kept an eye on wildfires in Sierra Madre nearby.

We talked about the music we got married to, ("I can't remember what it was . . . I think Trumpets whatever...," said our Laura), our Tanya decided to turn down a full time O.T. position, the DC suziebeezieland girls had breakfast together, our Chrissy tried to kill a rat, we discussed our dream jobs, and we interviewed our Elizabeth D. and found out how she survived an unusually busy and creative year in her life. The new moms were all tired. We saluted the Canadians.

MAY

In May, I made guacamole, celebrated Claire's two-wheel-bike-riding, embroidered a hamster, opened the suziebeezieland bookshop, went to Yosemite, discovered cocoa mulch, gardened, celebrated Memorial Day, and hit Ikea.

We laughed at the SNL Mom Jeans video, our Susanna T. went to England, our Cathy crocheted to help work through her grief with Tejan returned to Africa, and we rejoiced when our Nadine got her first teaching position. Our Jody ran a Mother's Day Fun Run, our Marie showed her house (again and again!), and we discussed what kind of non-profits we would create if we could, and what our favorite Elton John songs were, if we had one. :)  We also talked about ways to use cute Ikea lampshades other than as lampshades. We saluted the Canadians.

JUNE

In June, Claire tried coconut milk and graduated from preschool; my garden bloomed; I got excited about Rosemary Verey, Jill McDonald, and Erin Condren; I bought a new laundry basket; and I cursed Amish Friendship Bread. I also started a bunch of projects I still haven't finished, including our 1 Corinthians Bible Study (which will continue starting next week).

We welcomed Missy M's Alaina, our Susie went to Europe, our Emily was in grad school, we designed a car (our Mindi said, "i also want a way to change the paint color frequently without actually having to paint it or pay for it. like push a button and you've got a green apple color"), our Mi'Chelle's Owen put ModPodge in Brie's hair, and we developed a summer reading list with the following criteria:

• fluffy
• not smutty or dumb
• well-written
• love
• veterinarians
• pie
• nobody named "Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin" or similar

We also listened to the Muppaphones. We saluted the Canadians.

JULY

In July I painted the back wall green, took Claire to swim lessons, planted a small secret garden, worried about my pets, had a few dinner parties, started signups for the suziebeezieland newsletter, continued my summer reading, and apparently goofed around on the Internet quite a bit.

We talked about Goodreads, continued our Bible study, discussed our feelings about coffee, voted on enjoyable occupations, wished Beatrix Potter a happy birthday, and enjoyed Bud Luckey videos. Our Jenny L.'s Audrey had hives, our Erin's husband Michael broke his leg, our Linda went to Lake Tahoe, our Tara battled Japanese Beetles, our Shannon got a new fridge and dishwasher, and our Marie went to Virginia to visit the Dillows, and accidentally kept signing onto the computer as Elizabeth.  We saluted the Canadians.

AUGUST

In August I cleaned my refrigerator; posted Flickr color mosaics; got excited about Allyson Felix and the Avett Brothers; put out the first suziebeezieland newsletter; made a tomato-zucchini tart; celebrated my parents' 49th anniversary; used more chalkboard paint around the house; and watched the morning glories bloom. Claire lost her first tooth the day before kindergarten started.

We chose our favorite Disney princesses, watched the Olympics and voted for our degrees of olympic fever (our Mindi said, "i guess i'm medium, although i was lower than medium before i saw Phelps swim. i had no plans to watch the Olympics before that, and now I'm highly committed to men's swimming"), and laughed at the Charlie Bit My Finger video. Our Katy recuperated from knee surgery, and the Ohio suziebeezieland girls got together. We saluted the Canadians.

 

SEPTEMBER

In September I sent Claire to kindergarten, met our Jody in Santa Monica (yay!), discovered Facebook, discovered Mabel's Labels, got excited about my new planner, discovered the yummy sandwiches at the Roadhouse Cafe, and accidentally talked like a pirate the entire day before International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Our girls in Texas hunkered down during the hurricane, the kids went back to school, we found out our Lisa D. is expecting, our Chrissy got settled in Illinois, we welcomed our first guy to suziebeezieland (Resident Dude Mark), we discussed the season opener of The Office ("I apologize for creating a ruse which forced you to exercise"), and we were sad together about Paul Newman. We saluted the Canadians.

OCTOBER

In October I made a bracelet at church, bought a Trader Joe's ivy topiary, got excited about Jane Cumberbatch's blog and Jennifer Murphy's holiday decorations, decorated for Hallowe'en and listened to lots of Hallowe'en music, started taking the Quick and Simple Clutter Control class at Simplify 101, burnt the chips for the buffalo chicken chili, organized my spice cupboard, got excited about the Côté Maison website, and made spiders out of Ding Dongs and Pocky.

We welcomed our Mark and our Valeria's sweet wee little Luke. We discussed weekly spaghetti night, mediocre yet beloved poetry, and discovered we love blogs.  Our Marlene's Lily turned two, our Jessi's family recovered from pneumonia, our Lisa D's Rachel turned nine, and our J.J. found out about Fisher's food allergies. Our Tanya lost her beloved dog, and our Sheri moved into her new house. We saluted the Canadians.

NOVEMBER

In November I cleaned my house a whole lot, watched HGTV, wondered about The Tomato Bank, gave you a tour of my mom's kitchen, discovered Georgette Heyer, bought a big pile of novels on Amazon, cleaned up the garden, celebrated Thanksgiving, and left on our trip to Germany and Austria.

We voted, wished Prince Charles a happy sixtieth birthday, answered some little questionnaires, found out our Lisa SP and our Rachel would both like to have coffee with Jon Stewart, and discussed abelskiver, which brought out all the Danes. We also found out that our Linda likes Gustave Dudamel's curly hair. We saluted the Canadians.

DECEMBER

In December I posted vacation photos and wore green glitter on my lips.

We looked at vacation photos. We saluted the Canadians.