Year half over or a half year left?

July 1st. Half a year has come and gone. It's amazing to me how much times flies when you're older. I remember being a kid and thinking time practically stood still. Now I try desperately to hold onto whatever precious minutes I can.

I thought I'd do a half year recap. This has been a fairly uneventful year, but we'll see what I can come up with as to what's happened so far.

• Took Ella to the circus in January. This was her first time. I didn't really think she enjoyed it much during the show. She didn't seem excited about things and almost acted bored. But when it ended and we broke the news that it was time to go, she bawled. She didn't want it to be over. I have a feeling we'll be back at the circus again next year.

• We took a family vacation to Walt Disney World. There were 10 of us total on the trip and that made for some interesting times. I do not advise going to WDW with that large of a group. Halfway through the first day we ended up splitting up into two groups and going our own way, which lasted pretty much the rest of the week. It's just too hard to do what everyone wants to do and each person has their own idea of what it is they want. All in all it was a wonderful trip, though. Neither Donald nor I had ever been and of course, it was Ella's first time as well. I didn't consider myself a Disney person at all before, but now I can't wait to go back.

• We attended Children's Farm Day at Historic Brattonsville. Historic Brattonsville is a historic site that includes a Revolutionary War battlefield. Donald does a lot of work with this site and really loves it there. For this particular event, they offered hay rides, a magician, pony rides and a petting zoo. My family met up with another family we're friends with and the kids spent the day playing. It was a lot of fun and I look forward to going again.

• Attended two Carolina get togethers with the fabulous women from SC & NC that I've met online. Most of us connected years ago through a wedding message board and have remained friends and in the past couple of years have started meeting up for social gatherings. It's always a great time and I've made some wonderful friendships. One of the gatherings was a wedding, which was lovely. It's always a good time when we get together.

• Ella had her first school field trip (followed by her second). The first trip was to the Colonial Center to see Disney Princesses on Ice. She had such a good time and still talks about it to this day. The second was a trip to Country Adventures, which is a local farm with hay rides and a petting zoo.

• The annual Sparkleberry Country Fair is always a good (cheap!) time. Donald always works on this day, so we headed to the fair with my mom. Ella loves seeing all animals and watching the dance acts that perform on stage. One of these days, I'm sure she'll be up there with her own dance troupe.
  

• And then there was the great pregnancy scare of '08. Condoms are man's best friend, but only if you use them. Lots of money wasted on pregnancy tests this month, but all came up negative.
  

• Last but not least - Pearl Jam!

So that pretty much sums up the last 6 months for me. I have to say it's been a good year.