Day 23 of 30 Day Gratitude Photo Challenge

Day 23: Energy



My little birthday cutie. Even though her real birthday is next week we are celebrating today with grandparents & cousins. She is my little energizer bunny of activity. It took me 14 tries to get her to stand still to get this one picture! But she's pretty darn cute when I can get her to hold still for a minute.

Confessions of the Day 20

The other day I bribed my daughter not once but TWICE in one day with candy.  I had to bribe her to leave a party so she got a lollipop to get her into the car.  Then I had to run errands and I rather unwisely decided not to put her in a shopping cart in Michael's (I was literally running in for 2 things & I knew exactly where they were) so again I bribed her to listen and behave with another lollipop (although this one was a tiny one at least). 

I was eating M&M's (stolen from the kids candy bag no less) because I needed some chocolate desperately (PMS big time).  Marley caught me eating something and when she asked for some of what I was eating I lied and told her it was my vitamins so she couldn't have any.


I really wish I had my pre-kids brain back.  I used to remember everything and was so on top of things before I had kids.  I know forget things like Noa's baseball practices (one of the first of the season too) and birthdays.  Before I had kids I always, ALWAYS got birthday cards to my family out on time.  Not so much now.  In fact my grandfather's birthday was last week and I still have his card sitting on my kitchen counter needing to be filled out and mailed.

So yeah I am totally in the running for mother of the year.....

Labor Day Weekend, Work, and Potty Training....

So yes it is/was Labor Day weekend.  Yay a 3 day weekend!  Sort of.  I had to work Saturday and Sunday.  Now I grant you I don't work during the week .... umm let me rephrase that I don't work a PAYING job during the week.  In some ways my stay at home mom gig is far more time consuming and frustrating but also the most rewarding but I'm off on a tangent.  Anyway my hubby was home for 4 days which is really nice.  So even though I didn't have a long weekend off it's all good.  Work is good.  I am enjoying it more and more even though Saturday I was mentally and physically spent by 9PM (I literally passed out sometime after 9PM Saturday night).  I did a lot more photography sessions by myself which included doing all the posing of the subjects, the shooting and then the selling.  It was so much to remember by myself.  I will get the hang of it but man just remembering to try and get kids in all these different poses is tough!  Sunday was better because it wasn't as busy and I felt I wasn't as rushed and I had more help from the other employees.  That's the other thing I really like about my new job is the people.  I can honestly say they are all really great people and I like working with them.  Now if I could just wear knee pads (I spend so much time on my knees shooting kids it's ridiculous!) and sneakers to work it would be perfect! 

So the way the schedule at work is done I never know if I am working Sunday until the day before.  So I for some reason didn't think I was working Sunday this week and had planned with James that we would take all day Sunday and Monday to potty train Marley.  She has been peeing on the potty a couple times a day for the last month or so and knows full well when she has to poop because she says she's poopy when she's not then runs to a corner and poops.  So I figured it was about time not to mention diapers are just insanely expensive!  Well when I found out I had to work Sunday that kinda threw a monkey wrench in the potty training plans.  James didn't think (aka want) to do it by himself on Sunday so we started first this morning.  I must say it went a lot better than I expected.  We only had one pee accident (and that was totally mommy & daddy's fault) and one poop accident!!  She pretty much went on command every time we put her on the potty today.  The one poop accident happened while we were outside playing down the street with the neighborhood kids.  I think she was just too excited to stop and tell us not to mention we weren't at home.  And the one pee accident happened while we were all watching a movie before dinner.  I kept asking her if she had to go but of course she said no.  We had been setting a timer all day and making her go when the timer went off but we had forgotten to reset it and we just all got engrossed in the movie....  and of course she was sitting on me.  But all in all she did really well.  Noa wasn't potty trained until he was just weeks shy of 3 and she is still a few months away from being 3.  But she is a girl and girls are supposed to be easier.  But Noa was easy but he was also older so really I have no clue.  The test will be tomorrow when I actually have to go run errands and leave the house with her!!  Wish me luck and dry clothes!

Manic Monday ... Who am I kidding more like manic life

I know last week I said I was going to get around to posting about my family vacation/reunion in Tennessee but it didn't happen.  Shocking right?  No not really....  but I do have a legit excuse!!  Last week was my mom's 60th birthday, my husbands birthday (they have the SAME birthday) and then Sunday was my son's 7th birthday.  So this week was a rush of getting things in order from being gone for a week and then prepping for 3 birthdays!  Throw in on top of that my new job and my existing Etsy stuff and I don't have nearly the time or energy I used to have.  But I swear this post is not going to be me whining about everything.

So I had briefly mentioned that I worked this summer as a home companion.  I started in May and worked my last few days the week before I left for Tennessee.  I worked about 20 hours a week taking a 30 year old guy around to appointments, meetings, and to do some volunteer work.  I don't have permission to go into detail about why he needed a companion.  But it was an enlightening and very interesting job.  Maybe I can get permission so I can talk about it sometime because it was eye opening to say the least.  But it would have been nice to be able to work with him a little longer but his situation changed.  I knew the end was coming so I started looking for other job options.  I saw that a company called Portrait Innovations was hiring, so I sent in my resume just to see what happened.  I originally thought I wasn't even going to get an interview because over 6 weeks passed with no call.  But then I suddenly got a call to go in and interview.  It went well and I was offered the job within 24 hours.  I have now worked two days.  I was hired for weekends only which is ok for now.  I am hoping I can move to full time eventually.  Anyway I am going to be taking pictures.  I haven't yet but I am training.  I like the people I work with and I think it's going to be good!

So that's the job situation as of now.  My hubby started back to work (after vacation) last week but the classes didn't start back up until today.  His work schedule this semester sucks but we need the money.  He will basicly be working 12 hours a day Monday through Thursday becasue he has taken on an extra class for extra money. 

And on a completely different note my baby boy turned 7 yesterday.  I used to get very sad and choked up about birthdays because my baby was getting older and was moving away from being a baby.  I love babies so it was sometimes hard.  But this time as I was watching him open presents and read birthday cards I realized that he was going to get older no matter what and celebrating his accomplishments was better.  And he frankly amazed me with his reading and just how big he has gotten and just what a good kid he is.  And is about 10 days he starts 1st grade!!

In Memorium

On Friday we had to make a very hard decision. We had to have our 16 year old cat Circe put to sleep. She had been having major problems and well we didn't want to see her suffer so we made the hard call.

Circe in our condo circa 1999

I got her back in '97 when she was 3. She was living with some guy who worked for my mom and he was moving and couldn't take her with him. So my mom and my ex-stepfather (who was a sucker for cats) took her in even though they already had 3. I happened to come home from college for the weekend right after they got her. She was used to being an only cat and strictly indoor cat and she was being forced to be an outdoor/indoor cat with 3 other cats. Well she hated it. All of it. The being outside thing and the other cats too. She took a shining to me and stayed in my room with me all weekend. I had just recently moved to a one bedroom apartment by myself and was thinking it would be nice to have pet. So I decided I would take her home with me. I don't even think I asked my mom and ex-stepfather, I think I just told them I was taking her. And so she became part of my family. My husband came along not long after Circe. She moved with us to another apartment, our condo and then finally here to our current house. She even dealt with us getting a puppy and then another kitten.

Circe making it clear that she was really our first not our newborn son

On top of that she went through the toddler phase (well she almost made through ... my daughter is still 2 and still kind of in the toddler stage) with both of my children. She was a very sweet and loving cat but she always made her self and her needs known, sometimes rather loudly I might add. But she was the start of my family and I miss her dearly. Her place on the couch is hard to look at without her there. But she is in a better place. So here's to one of the best cats there ever was .... Circe.