Looking Back & Really Looking Forward

What a year this has been! Dear Hubs and I feel truly blessed by our beautiful gift from heaven, Dear Bebe.

I was pregnant for most of 2008 and while I did not write about it until the day she was about to arrive...I went through the terrible morning sickness, the aches, the swelling, you name it. But I kept blogging and even started my own website, Bella Rosa Antiques. This was kind of a dream I'd had and I'm so glad I took the plunge.

At the end of each year I like to take a look back and celebrate the good the bad, and the ugly. Mostly all good of course, so, on my New Year's Eve post, the last one of 2008, won't you come along with me? Just a few highlights...

In January the ball began rolling on my new website, Bella Rosa Antiques. How excited I was. I'm still excited.

February soon rolled around and I found out I was pregnant with Dear Bebe on Valentine's day. How cool was that? Oh how I wanted to blab to the whole world about it...but we chose to be cautious as I am an "older" mom. This is obviously not an early ultrasound photo, but I wanted to show you how amazing the technology is. We were always wowed each time we had one done.

Also in February Dear Hubs and I attended a "blues" party at our church. We dressed up in vintage clothing from the 20's flapper era. Since Dear Hubs does not like his photo to be shown on the blog (I have stuck them in here and there but usually those "hard to see" photos) this is a photo of the Pastor's wife and I. Don't laugh at my fake mole.

I was thrilled about starting the Bella Rosa Antiques website and had a giveaway to celebrate the new name by giving away one of our silver word garlands. I enjoy giveaways and haven't had one since summer. Hmmmm....

In May I thought someone was trapped in the attic while watching the finale of "American Idol." Just recently I thought a tree had fallen on our house. My life is starting to sound like James Thurber story. Ever read one of his stories? He's one of my favorite authors. Anyway, this particular night was reminiscent of one of his fun tales... and I had to share it with you.

One of my "crafty" projects was working on a DVD for our assistant pastor. This is not one of the photos I used, but a photo from a different DVD slide show I created last year. I'm artistic but in a different way from many of the bloggers...I create with video and music!

My youngest stepchild graduated from high school! (There are three) I've known Dear Hubby for 7, going on 8 years now and I've watched the kids "grow up." I've been there for some tense moments and for the great ones as well. We were very proud of my stepson and of course, I was tearing up. How handsome he looked! We were very emotional knowing his next step would be Army boot camp.

This next post was fun. Turns out I wasn't the only one having a baby, or two, or three.... this led to the "Bunny News Update."


I was thrilled when I hit 100 posts and decided to have a giveaway. My 2ooth is coming up VERY soon so stay tuned to see what I will do! I love making the little graphic advertisements like the one you see below, so there is my other "crafty" side.

I finally came out of the morning sickness phase (oh it was bad, poor Dear Hubs) and I was motivated to cook again. Food finally looked appealing, which is why all of a sudden I started cooking and putting my recipes or pictures of food on the blog.

Ever year we participate in a family yard sale out in the country which turns out to be enormous because of all of Dear Hubby's siblings.

We even fit in a Billy Joel concert ... this was a highlight of the summer for me. He's still an amazing and talented artist. I was so worried about effect the noise might have on the baby! Who knows, maybe she will be musically inspired???

I couldn't wait to start working on the nursery. I had a scheme in mind and Dear Hubby did a fabulous job on it. My Stepdaughter also helped with painting soft clouds on the aqua ceiling.

Some before...

Some after the polka dots. He painted each one by hand with a shoe polish spongy thingy. I was amazed he did this.

Okay, yes, I was actually being crafty here. I painted an old barn board (Dear Hubby loves to find those) with this French saying "Mon Bebe Doux" which is how Dear Bebe was given her bloggy name!

Maybe I am craftier than I thought. I also whipped up a chain cover or cozy for this chandelier we had in the basement (Dear Hubs can't resist clearance sales and found this one at Lowes two years ago! He has a good eye on what I might like, what a sweetie, I'll have to keep him for sure. Tee hee!)

Then I turned 40. Ewww. This was painful. Very pregnant for the first time and very 40. We didn't do that much to celebrate because well, quite frankly, I was huge and didn't feel like going anywhere. And how cute was Dear Hubby? He had "Jillian" put on the cake, knowing I would take a photo. Jillian is not the name on my birth certificate. I guess you could say it is my nickname. I'll have to post this coming year about how I chose to name my blog.

Being pregnant I was having the "nesting" issues pretty badly... so I kept urging Dear Hubby to get some of the makeover projects done around the house. Remember our little bathroom project? There is the before, below is the after.

September came up rather quickly and My Stepson graduated from Army boot camp. How proud of a moment that was! Unfortunately I was too pregnant to go, but Dear Hubs came back with the pictures and played them for me on our TV. He's about to be deployed somewhere next month and we still don't know the location. We pray it is somewhere safe.

Then I was looking forward to October for the birth of Dear Bebe when SURPRISE! She arrived early...

Here she is still in the hospital, two days old. She was a lightweight at 5 lbs 14 oz. She has tripled in size since!

I'm starting to think her eyes will remain blue while we're not sure of her hair color yet. At first glance it looks light brown but then there are red highlights that pop out in certain lighting. Maybe she will have auburn? Here she is about 2 months.

The first two months were rough, I have to admit. No sleep = grumpy Jillian. Dear Hubs to the rescue! He really pitched in to help and we got through it together. Thank you sweetie! Dear Bebe is the most precious and best gift I have ever received. I am cherishing all of our moments with her as each one happens.

I'd also like to add here a THANK YOU to Dear Mother (er...Gramma, who is known in blog land as Ms. Daisy) for hopping a train three times to come visit her Dear Grand Bebe.

We even made it through an election year. I was so tired of all the advertisements. On a positive note, Dear Hubby happened to snap this photo! It looks like McCain is pointing right at him.

Then for some insane reason we decided to host Thanksgiving, Christmas, and now New Year's Eve get togethers at our house. At least we are keeping the house clean!

And who would have thought we'd end 2008 with a bang? The eArThQuAkE! Yes, we'll refer to it now as EARTHQUAKE '08...

I hope you've enjoyed a look back on a year with Jillian's Pages. One of my goals in '09 is to come up better posts, although as Dear Bebe gets older it will be more and more difficult to handle her, the two blogs and the website. I don't shy away from challenges too often. I'm also really looking forward to each stage of Dear Bebe's growth. Each one is so neat. (I'll check back in with you when she becomes a teenager on that thought!)

Have a wonderful New Year and thanks so much for stopping by, visiting, lurking or whatever may have brought you here. And thank you to the pals I've made through the blog. It has been an honor to get to know you.