Time keeps slipping away....

Right now I have 156 unread blog posts in my reader: I've been trying to keep up with ICLW, but I've managed to neglect my regulars. There are quite a few new blogs I found through ICLW, but I'm scared to add them to my reader, because if I did I'd have somewhere near a 1000 posts to read, and that just scares me.

There's so much that I want to say and of course now that I'm sitting down I've forgotten it.

We've been having hellacious nights with A since the contractors arrived. I'm not sure if it's that she's not getting enough sleep during the day and is over tired (the scrapping and banging sometimes wake her up). We had 4 nights in a row in which I slept a combined total of 3 hours: Up at 11pm, up at 1:15am, up at 3am, up at 4:15am, up at 6am (for the day), each time it takes me 30 minutes to get her to go back down.

Saturday night was the last straw. I was just sitting their holding her and crying, begging her to go to sleep...she didn't. I told Matt last night that I couldn't do another night and that we had to, at the very least, split the night. Even if he had to get up and stay up with her a couple of hours, I needed to sleep.

Matt was going to take the wakes up between 11 and 3:30, and I would get 3:30 until the morning. Well, I woke up at 3:30 and she never made a peep (I would have heard her). Of course I didn't fall right back to sleep because I figured she'd be up any minute. I drifted until she woke up at 5:30, took 6 ounces, then went back down until 6:30 when Matt changed her diaper and she went back down until 7:45am. Absolute heaven. I'm hoping for a repeat tonight, but I know that probably won't happen.

BIL, PP, and Niece C came down for a long weekend on Thursday night. On Friday (6/25) we took the girls down to the river to play and I think they enjoyed themselves (BIL hasn't sent me pictures yet).

Saturday I got up early and started setting up for my yard sale. MIL and G-MIL came down to help me with the setup and A...they also donated all their stuff to sell to me :-) It was a much more successful yard sale than the one I had 2 years ago. I managed to clear enough to cover our gas for our trip to NH in July, and to Hershey in Sept, plus a $100 toward my camera (only another $590 needed! Might as well be a million).


Yesterday, Matt and I had to go to Bing. to pick up 47 cases of soda/water for the car show this weekend. Can I just tell you that loading that many cases onto a cart, then into a truck, then off a truck and into a building is a lot of work. We left A with my parents (who don't get to spend much time with her) and managed to sneak in a breakfast date at Cracker Barrel...yum!

I feel like I'm jipping you all with the lack of pictures (it sucks on this end too). Last night we had corn on the cob for dinner. We had A in her highchair on the deck while we ate, giving her pieces of avocado and diced cherries. I decided to hand her a chunk of my ear of corn...OH.MY.GOODNESS! She LOVED IT!

“Faith makes all things possible.... love makes all things easy.”

I got my new glasses last night: WOOHOO! They're definitely taking some getting used to. Not only are they a stronger prescription, but there is also something with an astigmatism in my right eye that makes adjusting to them harder. (excuse the picture...I haven't brushed my hair today).

We also had A's ophthalmologist appt yesterday: Clean bill of health. The doctor didn't see any cause for concern with her pupils/irises. Most likely she will grow out of it.

She's been doing better. Yesterday was bearable and she was acting a bit more like herself. She was on her more regular sleep schedule last night and so far today she seems to be more like herself. Someone had suggested that it was a growth spurt, and then someone on the bump.com boards said their son went through the same thing at 8-10 weeks and chalked it up to a growth spurt and the vaccines. We're thinking it's a mix of a growth spurt, the vaccines, and an upset tummy. I'm beyond glad that she's getting back to her normal self.

We had a meeting this morning with the Child Health Plus people...A's application is submitted and they didn't see any issues with her getting the insurance. Hopefully it will all be through and submitted before her next Well Baby visit in March. I even got the application in the mail for Matt and I for Healthy NY...hopefully that goes through smoothly.

While my ILs are in Egypt my MIL let me borrow her cricut. It's a pretty cool thing, but I'm rather disappointed with it's limitations. I thought for sure that I should be able to cut text out of an overlay and just place it over another piece of paper, but you can't...you have to have the individual letters cutout and glue them to your paper. Oh well. I think I may try and use it for A's Christening invitations. The cartridges are certainly not cheap though for the different fonts and such.

This is what I made for A's room though. I've wanted something like this for a while. It isn't quite this color (I wasn't using the flash), but I'm pleased with how it came out :-) I'm waiting on one thing from Willow Creek Signs and then her room will be DONE!

This just in: Matt was in a car accident. He's fine. Today is the day he does the route, with another guy. The other guy was driving...he has issues, a lot of issues...most of which have been resolved for the past year or so. Matt was putting things into the computer and BAM! I'm not sure of all that happend, but from the sounds of it, the other guy fell asleep while driving and jerked the van off the road.

It's not even funny how many issues there are now because of this: The first being that the van is undriveable and they still have the entire day's worth of deliveries to make. If Matt makes it home before 10 tonight I'll be surprised. The other big issue is getting the van repaired; this isn't a minivan it's a 16' refrigerated van. On top of all this my parents insurance for the trucks/business is going to go through the roof because of this.

The guy told my dad in December that he was going to be moving out of the area in June, but I think my dad might just be firing him before then...he's pretty pissed. There's absolutely no excuse for this guy to not come to work well rested: He lives alone, his girlfriend is in another town, and he has no other responsibilities outside of work. At least Matt is ok (albeit very pissed off).

It's done....I'm officially a "stay at home mom"

Its done! im officially a sahm. i do think my boss was surprised more later


~*~Updated 5:07pm~*~
So I got there, cookies in hand (I took the rest of my Christmas cookies up) and small talked to the two girls in the office while waiting for my boss to finish with something else.

I chatted a few minutes with my boss before dropping the bomb...pretty much just said..."well you probably know why I'm here....I'm not going to be coming back to work...here's my letter of resignation".

She was actually visibly upset, like borderline crying....and she kept saying she doesn't blame me, how she wished she would have done that, she's ready to move on to something different (it's getting worse and worse with corporate), and how she wasn't going to cry. She did say that she's really going to miss me, and that she really trusted me and was pleased with how I did the job over the past 5 years.

Our HR person wasn't surprised. She knows how important it was to me to be a stay at home mom and she did the same thing too (albeit 20 years ago). I was there about an hour and said my goodbyes and left. I'm done! I don't have to go back there...I don't have to come home on the verge of a nervous breakdown because of the PITA (whom I didn't see, thankfully).

I cannot tell you just how happy I am to be done there...and to know I left on good terms. That if I decide to go back to work in a few years or whatever...they probably would take me back in a heartbeat.

Verse of the Day

“In my anguish I cried to the LORD, and he answered by setting me free. The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” (Psalm 118:5-6)


Rather an appropriate verse...I'm leaving now to drive to work for my 1:30appt....I'll try to text something when I'm done....as I have grocery shopping to do afterward and need to get A from my parents'.

Eureka!

We've figured out the health insurance part of operation "stay at home mom (who will really be working part time in our store with A)": Matt and I had pretty much planned on paying OOP for Healthy NY (as individuals) for the 3 of us...which would be around $750/month (insane!).

My mom talked to our accountant and he said that it is in the best interest of the business that we apply for HNY through the store as a small business owner and let the business absorb the cost (to offset income). AWESOME! My parents were cool with this and it's a huge help to us because we can afford to live on just Matt's income (from the other business) if we don't have to pay insurance: SWEET!

The other thing that's great is that we are eligible for Child Health Plus, and actually will not have to pay anything for A to have health insurance via that (yea, we're that poor lol). Matt and I will save about $200 with her being on CHP and us on HNY...and we aren't the ones who will have to even pay for it (other than deducibles/copays).

The health insurance issue is solved...now we just have a boat load of applications to fill out for all of it. Hopefully everything goes smoothly and we'll be getting insurance just as my insurance with work will cease to exist.

Still not sure how to, or when to, inform work. I have typed up my letter of resignation. I just seriously have no idea how to do this. I have decided to wait until after Christmas, but do I tell them right after...or what until two weeks before my scheduled return to work. I know I don't want to wait until right before I am scheduled to return...that just wouldn't be considerate.

I guess, ultimately I know what I have to do...call my boss and ask her if I could come in to talk about my return to work and then go from there. I'm probably going to see her on Monday and half hope she asks me straight out if I'm coming back to work, but if she doesn't I guess I have to follow through on the formalities of it.

I don't think I will owe back any benefit premiums by not returning...as they are OOP while on FMLA. And even if I did owe back something we have it in savings. If you wouldn't mind sending lots of prayer my way I'd greatly appreciate them :-)

Santa Claus is coming to town....

Santa came to The Market Place Saturday to hear from all the good boys and girls (young and old-that's my 90 year old grandpa) as to what they wanted for Christmas.

It was a lot of fun to have the jolly ol' elf himself at the store...the customers all got a kick out of seeing Santa and sneaking in their last minute Christmas wishes.

We asked Santa if he'd be willing to come back next year and he said he would and one of his elves would come with him...I guess there was one in particular that had wanted to come this year, but they're on a tight schedule and a bit behind in the toy department at the North Pole.

Santa did have a message for all the boys and girls, reminding them that Christmas is only 12 days away and he has been checking his list: So far everyone seems to be on the good list...but that can always change.


Click here to see more pictures of Santa's visit.

(don't worry the plastic was still on the candy cane)

"Don't underestimate the value of doing nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering."

Pooh's Little Instruction Book, Inspired by A.A. Milne

Doing nothing is something we have a hard time with around here: I don't think it's possible for us, at least not yet. Saturday Matt worked in the store all day, then came home in the evening and cut some more of the wood pile. I was home most of the day, but spent it getting things done around the house (baby things away, dining/sewing room organized, wall letters etc). In the evening we collapsed on the couch and watched the last 1/2 of a movie (that's right, we watch movies in 1/2s - we can't stay up late enough to watch a whole movie).

Sunday we got up and headed to Albany (2hrs away) to do some returns/exchanges at BRU, find me some clothes, and pick up some things we needed for the nursery.

We were a bit overwhelmed at BRU: HOLY CRAP THAT PLACE IS HUGE! We walked around looking at things (we had planned to buy stuff), but decided we didn't need it yet, so we'd hold off for a while.

At Macy's I managed to find a comfy pair of work pants that actually look really nice. I got some long sleeve tees at Tar.get for $10, and we got some crib sheets, mattress pad cover, and storage carts for the room. It was a lot of walking though.

On the way home from Albany we stopped in C-town at my aunt and uncle's for my uncle's birthday. My aunt wasn't able to make it to the shower, so she had a huge wash basket filled with clothes (all sizes) that she had gotten at different places: There are some cute outfits in there. Of course it's something else I have to put away now....and I thought I was done HA!

Yesterday I had off. I spent literally the WHOLE DAY sewing. I went into the dining room at 8:30 and didn't come out until 9:45 last night....except for a few breaks, but the baby's quilt is done (picture in previous post).

Matt did get home a bit earlier than usual (3:30), but he went straight outside and finished cutting the rest of the wood pile...now we have the fun part to do (splitting) and the even "funner" part (stacking). He's hoping to have a lot of it done before the baby arrives.

As far as me...my back was killing me last night and my belly felt like it had quadrupled in size, just stretched and really uncomfortable. I don't know if it had to do with sitting and sewing all day or what.

There has been some advancement on the work front: I FINALLY! have a tempt to start training to do my job. She's starting tomorrow...so if I'm not posting as much (since I usually post from work), it's because I have a shadow.

She seems like a really great person (an older woman...probably late 50s); put it this way I'm glad she was the one interviewing for my position and not the other way around (she rather intimidated me). I feel like I could leave here in October and know that she would be able to step, fully, into my position if I don't return...which is a good feeling and what I want. Hopefully she works out.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder....

I can't say as I agree with absence making the heart grow fonder: Absence just makes me miss the person like crazy :-(

I miss Matt. I haven't seen him in over a week for more than a few minutes a day (either I'm asleep when he comes home or he's asleep when I leave for work). I haven't been able to talk to him about anything, because when I do talk to him (in person or on the phone) it's only for a minute or two.

I'm ready for the fair to be over and for us to be back on a relatively normal schedule...3 more days....

Friday Night Fun

Just in case you were wondering what we do for fun around here...I thought I'd show you:

Yes, those are swimming goggles; yes, those are bags of chopped onions on the counter; no, my face is not usually that "pig" looking (that actually scared me when I looked at the picture the first time). I chopped about 30lbs of onions, and it's all for the Car Show tomorrow. YAY! Now on to brewing about 20 gallons of ice tea. Wish us good weather for tomorrow and lots of customers!

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Here we go again (on my own...{not really though})! Matt's been propositioned.

Background: When I was growing up my parents had a delicatessen, one of those old-styled pop shops. Showcases filled with different cuts of meats, sausage, cheeses; a counter to order a deli-sandwich; shelves of different foods found only in a butcher shop. It was a lot of work, and it wasn't very profitable.

At the time we all worked (I was 16 when the store opened, brother was 13, and sister was 6) long hours. My mom would get up at 3am every day to make homemade German potato salad and my dad would get up at the same time to hand make all of the sausages for the day. Every weekend was spent waiting counter or clearing tables. Whatever things my dad didn't make (namely cold cuts) we imported from NYC from Karl.Ehmer. Of course, this is where we lost money. Every week my dad would drive to NYC to pick up his weekly order, but being that our orders were for a small shop we paid higher prices, plus the cost of travel. After 2 years, my parents closed the shop.

My dad grew up in the meat business. His father was a butcher from the time he was a teenager. At 17 my dad graduated high school and went to work for the same company as his dad. He started unloading tractor trailers full of hindquarters or whatever else, and eventually worked up to a butcher. At that point he was taken under-wing by a very prominent butcher in their neighborhood. He taught my father everything he knew about meat and sausage making. This business is in his blood and it's what he loves doing. He loves the interaction with customers.

Since they've closed shop my dad has moved onto a different side of being a butcher: Distribution. He now owns a provision route (meaning he sells meats, cheeses etc to delis and restaurants all over). He now is in a position in which a delicatessen would be profitable. (end of background).

My dad has wanted to go back to owning a shop: He loves serving people and he loves food. He's jokingly asked me for several years to quit my job and be manager in a shop. We all remember how much work it was and none of us are too keen to give up our lives, for something that may or may not be profitable.

On Tuesday my dad seriously propositioned Matt to run a delicatessen.

Since Matt went out on disability in Jan08 he's been working 2 days a week with my parents and 3 days a week with his dad in the insurance business. Matt really does not care for the insurance business or the fact that there is no guaranteed paycheck and with the economy the way it is...people are just not looking to purchase insurance.

As he said the other night "This insurance thing...it feels like I'm trying to con people, scam'em out of their money". He really has a hard time selling something intangible and most likely unnecessary to someone, where as with my parents, it's something people need, something they can see, something they can use: Food. Don't get me wrong, he's an awesome salesman...trained by the two best salesmen I know (his dad and mine).

So, once again, we're faced with a choice...Matt can say "no" and keep going with the insurance (however at some point his father will expect him to become a full agent which means the only income Matt will bring in is commission, he wouldn't be able to work for my parents at all) OR Matt can say "yes" and take the risk of a business that may or may not work, but a business that he more thoroughly enjoys. Any prayers to guide us in this would be seriously appreciated. We have no idea what to do.