Here’s the abbreviated version:

Me

• Same job: Lived through the annual “OMG! Do we have funding or don’t we” period… new projects, same maternal & child health topics.  About to get booted out of my office, but that’s ok because I get to work from home…Yoga Pants Today!  Yoga Pants Tomorrow!  Yoga Pants Forever!!
• Rheumatoid Arthritis diagnosis: Kind of a bummer to get the RA label, but also not unexpected… Started on plaquenil – it doesn’t fix everything, but at least my hands don’t look like baseball mitts everyday after work.  Plus, I’m learning how to do neat tricks like open doors with my forearms!
• Girl Scout Leader: On second and fourth Sundays of each month, I’m entrusted with the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of 14 five to seven year old girls (you there – stop snickering).  The girls are half nuts, I’m starting to hate cookies (IT’S COOKIE TIME!), and the parents can be a PITA, but the other half of the time the girls are awesome, we get to make a lot of crafts, and I get to choose the color of our bandanas for when we go camping (they’re lavender, and I’ve embroidered each of the girls’ names on theirs…I may be overcompensating for something)

K (the husband)

• Good guy: Still a mensch – takes out the trash, deals with the dogs, does at least his fair share of the laundry & dishes…  Only grumbles a little when I make him do girl scout stuff.  As of today, we’ve been married exactly 9 and 1/2 years.  It sounds gooey, but I think I love him a lot more today than I did on our wedding day.
  
• New job: Same (good) boss, but new job that he loves.  Came with the added bonus of a hefty pay raise and an office with a door and a window.

M (the daughter)

• Kindergarten (!): My baby (I should really say it, “MEH BAABEEE!!!”) is in el-e-men-tary schooool  (like Roosevelt Franklin on Sesame).  She’s had a pretty good year so far.  She’s a middle of the road kid – gets in a little trouble, but nothing serious; Likes school work, as long as it’s in moderation; has friends, although she hasn’t got a best (school) friend yet.  She’s holding out until she checks out her 1st grade options…
• Best Friend: She and H are still best (non-school) friends, and they even ride the bus home together to H’s house.
• The Bus: OMG! MEH BAABEEE RIDES THE BUS!!!
• Horses: M has a horseback riding lesson every Friday afternoon.  She is so in love.  She loves everything about it.  If I asked her, “Do you want to go to a movie, or do you want to shovel horse poop?” she’d pick horse poop, hands down.  We are so screwed.

Adoption

• We are homestudied and have been “live” or “in the books” since June.  We had a rough autumn with a situation that didn’t work out and then another promising contact that fell through.  Our rose-colored glasses about the routine support available from our agency have been removed.  We’ve got our legs back under us though, we know how to better advocate for ourselves and what we need from the agency, and we’ve opened up our profile even more. We’re still committed to openness – maybe even more than before – even though we know it can come with a mountain of heartache.   Here’s hoping 2012 is our year!