The Latest

I have had a crazy few weeks with finishing up my day job, and working hard at my side job. I had an insane amount of orders that had to be finished and shipped before Thanksgiving, and somehow it all got done, but not much else did (ie, my housework, laundry, blog posts, etc.). So here's what's up:

1. I am officially done with my job. As bad as I wanted to leave, and as ready as I was to go, I still found myself getting a little choked up at times on my last day. It was a very bittersweet day for me. As much as I had imagined myself skipping away into the sunset with a smile on my face if I ever did leave, that really wasn't the case. I worked there for eight years, and made some very close relationships in that time. You get very close with the people that you work day in and day out with, through good times and bad. I had some very sweet emails and phone-calls that day from people that I hated to say goodbye to, and it all got a little emotional for me. The company I worked for had locations all over the US, so many of the people that were a huge part of my day, I had never even laid eyes on, but they were friends just the same. Some people I will stay very close with, but there are those that I know I won't ever have much contact with anymore. It's hard to say goodbye to all of that. But, all in all, I'm very excited about the change and ready to move on.

2. Little Miss Presley is a force to be reckoned with. The child never slows down, and anyone who has spent any amount of time around her would testify to that. She tears my house apart several times a day, and I find myself so exhausted at the end of the day after I get her in bed. She is MUCH different than Mattie was at that age, and I told my mom today that Presley is the child that I should have had in my 20's and Mattie is the child I should have had in my 30's, not the other way around. I'm too old for this! Not only is she full of energy and into everything, she weighs nearly thirty pounds, so carrying her around wears me out!

3. Mattie is going to be Mary in her class Christmas program and I have never seen her so excited. We have been busy reciting lines, and practicing songs. This child was born for the stage, I think.

4. I think I have accidentally turned Presley into a rocking baby. For the first 12 months of her life, I was able to put her to bed awake, and she'd put herself to sleep. But somewhere around her birthday in October, she got sick and we had several nights of restless sleep where we did lots of rocking in the night, and then it turned into rocking before bed just to get her down, then that went on a week or so, and then here we are two months later, and still rocking every night before bed. She would probably give it up, but it might be me that's hanging on to it. It's such a sweet time, and with a child that goes, goes, goes during the day, it's nice to have some quiet moments. I still lay her down while she's awake most of the time, but first we rock a while and sing a while, drink some milk, and then we call it a night. Sometimes she falls asleep on me, sometimes not. We'll see how long this goes on.

5. I took Mattie to see the new movie "Tangled" the night before Thanksgiving, just she and I. Cute movie! We had a great time of just us, and the movie was a good one for little girls.

6. Our Thanksgiving was great this year! With so much to be thankful for, it would be hard not to enjoy it.

7. We are doing the Elf on the Shelf this year. He showed up the weekend after Thanksgiving. This is a very cute thing to do with your kids if they still believe in Santa. I will admit that he is kinda creepy looking, but Mattie has really loved it! You're supposed to name your elf when he shows up, and Mattie named ours "Coco". Not like the drink, she said...just Coco (like Chanel, I think).

8. I have had the hardest time coming up with what Mattie was going to get for Christmas. Whenever we would ask her, she would say "I will love whatever Santa brings me". Perfect, right? Somewhere around the time our elf showed up, she went from that line of thinking, to suddenly wanting everything she saw. We had a very ugly incident in Walmart last weekend over a Cinderella doll that she not only wanted, she wanted right then! SO, Coco brought a letter to Mattie from Santa this week in an attempt to reign her in a bit. I'll have to post the letter soon, b/c it's pretty cute, and she LOVED it and she seems back on track.

9. That's all I can think of for now, but I hope to post more regularly now that life has slowed down some.