Good morning and Happy New Year!
Wow… it has been a bit since I have been around here. Eek.
My plan when I had Jack was to take a bit of a maternity leave, and pop back when I could. Um… yeah, that didn’t go as I expected.
Jack is now 2 and a half! He is amazing. A handful at the moment, but still totally amazing. My husband and I are so lucky to have such a sweet, spirited, smart little man! Well, we can do without the “terrible twos” tantrums, but we deal lol
Christmas this year was fantastic with him. He has the grasp of Santa, all he asked Santa for was two cookies. Literally. So Santa brought him a whole tin of yummy Christmas cookies, along with a TON of other fun things. Jack might be a bit spoiled between mama and daddy and the rest of the family!
I went back to work in September of ’17 after 11 weeks of glorious maternity leave. It was tough. I worked about an hour away from home, so that was two extra hours a day I was away from Jack. My work environment had become toxic while I was gone and I was miserable there. I was sad, I was at the company almost 10 years, but it was time to move on.
January of ’18 I started a seriously wonderful job that is about 20 minutes from home. I love what I do, who I work for, and what the company stands for. It is such a world of difference from where I came from. A huge plus is that I have the ability to work from home when I wish. Love that so much!
In September of ’18, we lost our sweet Opie. He was only 4. It came out of the blue, a few issues but most devastating was the sudden liver failure for no apparent reason. We took him to the vet on a Monday and by Friday we had to make the horrible decision to let him go.
In October of ’18 we had a puppy fall into our laps. Bowie came into our lives at 14 weeks old. We love him to death, but people… word of advice! Do NOT get a puppy when you have a 1 year old! It was rough going for a few months. But Bowie has nuzzled his way into our family and fits perfectly. He is almost as nuts as Jack! Jack and Bowie are best friends, I love watching them together.
Bowie is a whole mess of a mutt. We actually did DNA testing on him because we couldn’t figure out what he looked like, other than a German Shepard. Turns out he is GSD, Boxer, Chow, Pitt, Lab, and 5 or 6 other things. Seriously. He is the best of good boys though!
We got back from Disney World 5 days before Christmas. We had SUCH a wonderful time! We were there 9 days, with my mom. It was so much fun seeing Disney magic through Jack’s eyes!
This is the face you get from Jack when you tell him to smile lol
He got to meet all of his favorites- Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, Daisy… also Darth Vader (his favorite!!!!!), Chewbacca, BB-8, and Jack “Sandy Claws” Skellington and Sally! This kid loves The Nightmare Before Christmas!
We are already planning another trip there when he is 5 or 6. He was tall enough to go on a lot, but still missed out on a ton, especially while we were at Universal. So this way he will be tall enough to go on whatever rides he wants, plus we will have 4 years to save lol
As far as stamping… I have not had near as much time as I hoped! My poor beautiful craft room that my husband created for me is lonely. I do go down there with Jack on occasion. He has his own craft desk where he draws and plays while I try to work. It is tough though. The craft room is VERY difficult to childproof.
I try to stamp while Jack is in bed, but that is usually the last thing on my schedule after laundry, cleaning, etc. I have started crocheting since it is so easy to pick up and put down quickly and requires very little “stuff”. I so miss stamping and being creative though!
That leads me to my news. I am stepping down as a Stampin’ Up demonstrator. I do not have the time at all to grow, or even maintain, my business as I did before Jack was born. I let my downline know yesterday. It breaks my heart to make that decision. I truly love Stampin’ Up and all of the friends that I have made while being a demonstrator.
My husband is working 2nd shift, but will be switching to 1st shift sometime in the next few months. When that happens and our family gets settled with the new schedule, I am hoping that I will have more free time to be able to be creative. When that happens, I fully intend on returning to Stampin’ Up!
My plans for the blog? Not neglect it as I have for the past two years. When I am able to be creative I want to be able to share with you all! Share ideas, products, sales, etc. So be on the lookout for a fun, new blog! I can’t promise it will be this month, but it will be soon.
Have a wonderful day!!
InkItAll 