Happy New Year!

As my friend Anne and I toasted glasses tonight, declaring "Happy New Year!", it occurred to us that this was the best New Year's we'd had. Ever. And it was only 5:30.

My college room-mate, Anne, came up from San Francisco to visit us and stay for a few days. Jeremy is working a double shift at the fire station and has the pleasure of working both New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. The kids and I kissed him goodbye on December 30th and said we'd see him back on January 2nd to ring in 2012.

Anne and I were on our own with the kids, so we celebrated the best way we know how. We played with the kids in the morning and then got a babysitter for the afternoon. We drank coffee, window shopped some sales, went out for dinner and were home by 7pm. Perfect. We'd already toasted, celebrated, put the kids in bed, and watch a rerun of Parks and Rec and fell asleep on the couch by 10pm. It was the best New Year's Eve I've ever had.

Before the kids went to bed, we had a mini celebration with the kiddos. Anne brought Martinelli's for them and we lit some sparklers. They thoroughly enjoyed some toasting, but weren't too sure about the cider. Everly thought it was very "ficey!" and Parker just thought it tasted "weird!". More happy toasting and on to the sparklers. Two happy kiddos in bed. Happy New Year!

This morning Everly's little feet padded down the hallway and into our room way too early and at 6:20 am I declared that she will need a nap "no matter what". I also had a list of 5 must do things that also needed to happen "no matter what". Twelve hours later and one thing has been accomplished. On the upside, we will have food in the house tomorrow because Jeremy is off doing a mad-dash for groceries. The one thing we accomplished was the only absolutely necessary thing.

This day turned out nothing like I had planned. I didn't get done the few things I needed to and I have a very tired two year old on my hands. However, these unexpected days often bring with them fun, frivolity and a good reminder that life with kids is a little (a lot) uncontrollable. Sometimes it's best to just sit back and let the morning/afternoon/day run it's course.

After playing, frigid winds at the park, a morning play-date that turned into a full day of fun, house clean up, house mess making, dance parties, snacks, lunch, and more snacks, we wrapped up with some play-dough before dinner. Just as I was thinking how adorable and well behaved those two were playing, I overheard their playdough game.



Parks: "Uh, oh Everly. I've got another bad animal for you."

Everly: "Oh no!"

Parks: "Here you go. Here's the naughty cat."

Everly: "Naughty cats get rolled."

Parks: "That's right, Everly. Roll 'em hard."

Nothing like ending a good day with a game of Bad Animals. Roll 'em hard.

The Beginning

I'm a big fan of to-do lists. I always have 3-7 of them laying around in various forms (post-its, backs of receipts, on my "all important" cue cards). To-do lists keep me sane. And on track. They help me plan out my goals, big and small, daily and weekly. I've had "start a blog" on my to-do lists for about two years. It's been transferred from post-it to paper, from in-box to file folders.


My biggest hesitation in starting a blog was what to name it. I wanted it to be quirky and fun and the epitome of our family. That's a tall order when it also needed to be short, sweet and still available in the .com realm. I took a year to come up with my first inspiration and was quite pleased when I decided on "Then What Happened?". I could picture the fun header I wanted to design and those three words seemed to be the phrase that Jeremy and I often threw back and forth when catching up on our day and telling stories of our precocious children. I finally sat down to sign up for my new blog account - my new adventure - and it was taken. That was a year ago.


I tossed around a few more ideas since then in my head. None of them were very great. I asked Jeremy for ideas. His big suggestion was "Save the Drama for Your Llama". At that point I decided I needed some help. I asked my friend Kamille for her input. She's smart, a beautiful writer and perhaps my most insightful friend when it comes to personalities and description. One facebook post later and she had 4-5 great suggestions. Rain Boots in July was the first on her list.


I could not think of a more perfect description of our family. Both in the literal sense of the description (Parker and Everly rock their rain boots with every outfit, for every occasion, in every kind of weather), to the more thoughtful meaning behind it. The way I see it, those rain boots have become a marker for us - that we are ready for anything at any time. Whether it's muddy, rainy or a sunny day perfect for seeing how far one can walk into the Puget Sound before water spills over the tops of the boots and fills them up. Those rain boots are worn to church with our finest attire, squeezed on over footed pajamas when the morning dew on the grass looks too good to waste time changing into clothes, and during our proudest moments (learning to ride a bike!). Those boots are with us through thick and thin, rain and snow, good times and bad. In our family, rain boots are year-round. And especially in July, when the berry pickin' is good.