Just For Me

When I left my job at the end of December it was VERY bittersweet. I'd been there for three years, the longest job I'd ever had, and worked full time at four different branches and filled in at two others (out of nine total branches). I was comfortable with the job and was pretty good at it. And it didn't hurt that I was "in" with some of the VP's! On the other hand, I was really tired and the bigger I got, the more difficult it was to sit in those teller chairs and I was getting more and more impatient with customers coming in with full blown colds and having to handle their germ-y money.
It's kind of a tradition at the bank to send a goodbye email to everyone when you leave, so the day before my last day I sent one and got a lot of nice responses. Being the sentimental person that I am, I saved the email and the responses, but didn't know what to do with them. The obvious answer was to put them in my journal, but I don't keep a regular journal anymore, so this was the next best thing.


Tomorrow is my last day at NBRS *sniff* I wish I could have said goodbye to all of you personally, but I’m sure I’ll be around to visit and show off my new baby when she comes in March!

I just wanted to say I’ve enjoyed working with all of you over the past three years and hope to keep in touch! Have a safe and happy New Year!


*GOOD LUCK CATHERINE!!...AND MAKE SURE THAT YOU BRING YOUR BABY IN TO SEE US!!
(Leah)

*Good luck with everything!! :) Your lucky to get to stay home with your little girl! You better keep me updated on the baby and come show her off so I can get my itty bitty baby fix lol
(Ashley Lee)

*Best of luck to you and your family. It’s very exciting and I can’t wait to meet the baby and see you sometime soon.
(Lisa Drennen)

*Same to you and Congratulations again on the birth of your new Baby.
(Ruth)

*I wish you the best of luck, Lady!! You’re gonna have a great time taking care of the little one J
(Christina)

*Catherine,
It was so nice working with you! I will miss you! (Even though we don’t get to work together anymore LOL) I’ll keep you and your baby in my prayers as you go through the remainder of your pregnancy. I can’t wait to see her!! I’m so glad you are able to not work and be home to enjoy her. You’re going to be a great mother, Catherine! Feel free to call or txt me anytime 410 952 3733.
(Ashley Jones)

*Good Luck
(Tammie)

*Catherine, good luck and please make sure to bring new little one up to Rising Sun when you are up to it!
(Linda)

*Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww It was nice working with you tooo! I want to see her. Make sure that you stop by if possible
(Deb)

*Good Luck Sweetie. Take good care of that bundle of joy
(Crystal)

*Catherine,
It has been a pleasure working with you as well! I wish you a very Happy New Year and would love to see your little girl after she’s born. Best of luck to you and take care!
(Sherry Pistor)

*Awwww Catherine……..I will truly miss you. I wish you the best of luck during the rest of your pregnancy and I pray that everything goes well. PLEASE keep in touch and definitely make a trip to Rising Sun to show off the new baby!!! J
Love ya!
(Carrie)

*Good luck & Best Wishes!
Ann Ferry

*Congratulations and best wishes to your family
Tracey L. Rach

*Catherine,

Good luck with your little angel. I wish you all the luck in the world and I hope you keep in touch! Take care of yourself, we’ll miss you!! ( Tracie Amos)

New Year, New Job

I had grand plans for all of the household organization projects I would be doing in preparation for baby, and just in general, now that I'm done working. Instead, I've taken lots of naps, watched lots of tv and have only gotten a couple of projects done. I'm not sure if I'm actually more tired then before, or if I just feel the need for more naps because I have the time to take them.
The other thing I thought would be cool would be to try and do 100 posts this year. A friend of mine did it last year. But, sadly, I'm already far behind!
So my year has not gotten off to the start I expected, but I'm trying to be less OCD and just go with the flow. The one thing I did expect, and did happen, was that pretty much as soon as January came, my dute date felt MUCH closer than ever! Next week I will be down to single digits of weeks left, which is very scary! Suddenly I feel like it's too soon, like there's no way I'm ready to have a baby in a little over two months! I'm sure most first time moms feel the same way and everyone I know who has kids has managed to survive and even seems to enjoy it! So I'm trying to keep my anxiety in check and just enjoy getting the house ready and enjoy the extra naps I get.
One of the projects I'd been so gung ho about was the 21 days to a clutter free home that I'd found on pinterest. Day One was cleaning out the junk drawer. We have several junk drawer, but I focused on the only designated junk drawer. So here's the before and after pictures of that project:

And that was the only project I accomplished! Part of realizing that March 26 isn't all that far away is realizing I had to focus first on baby related cleaning and organizing. I have made some progress on that front, but it's been slow working between needed resting. Today I finally got through all of the hand me down clothes I've been given so far. The first picture is what I'm keeping, the second picture is what I'm passing on. The seem pretty equal! And that's not counting the new clothes I've bought or have already been given. Chris likes to point out that our daughter already has more clothes than him and she's not even born yet. What can I say? People, including me, love buying baby girl clothes! They're so cute!

Operation Jack In A Box

My youngest brother has been in California since September at his Marine training school. The training is supposed to last until July and he warned us early on that he might not be able to come home for Christmas. About a month ago he called to tell me he got permission to come home! Originally he'd wanted to surprise everyone, but he'd never bought a plane ticket before, so he called our dad to help him, then he was going to surprise me, but I'm always in charge of the sibling gift exchange, so he needed to tell me to include him, so it ended up being only his girlfriend he got to surprise. But it was such a fun surprise! He got some of his other friends in on it to help, and even his girlfriends' mother. He'd told her he couldn't come home and he was really, really sorry, but he was going to send her a big package. So he flew home late on the 22nd and the surprise was arranged for the 23rd. I arranged to leave work early so I could be there. My other brother got a HUGE box from work for him to hide in and then my mom called his girlfriend and told her a box had come to their house for her. She was so confused why he didn't send it to her house, and said she'd been watching for a UPS truck for over a week! She was out with some friends, who knew about the surprise, so they drove her right over to my parents house to get her present. She didn't suspect a thing and was so surprised when he jumped out of the box, it was great!

About to get taped inside the box

So happy!

My New Favorite Website

I sometimes stalk other peoples' blogs, people I'm not really friends with, but am interested to see what they're doing or cute ideas they have. One of the blogs I stalk sometimes posts things she finds from pinterest.com. I finally decided to check it out and have fallen in love! People "pin" up everything from recipes to makeup tips, cool haristyle tips, cool picture ideas, etc., etc. I love it! I'm always looking for interesting ideas as I feel anything but creative a lot of the times. My three favorites from the website (so far):

I love this waterfall braid, I wish I could do it:



Chalkboard paint on the pantry door, perfect for grocery lists:



21 Days to an Organized House:

• Day 1: Junk Drawer
• Day 2: Computer Desk
• Day 3: Tupperware Cabinet
• Day 4: Linen Closet
• Day 5: Under Kitchen Sink
• Day 6: Dresser Drawers
• Day 7: Pantry
• Day 8: Coat Closet
• Day 9: Toy Organization
• Day 10: Laundry Room
• Day 11: Freezer
• Day 12: Spice Cabinet
• Day 13: Medicine Cabinet
• Day 14: Under the Bathroom Sink
• Day 15: Medicine/Vitamin Storage
• Day 16: Fridge
• Day 17: Mail
• Day 18: Keepsakes
• Day 19: Master Closet
• Day 20: Photos
• Day 21: you pick!
  

A Busy, Busy Weekend!

It's that time of year for parties and such, but most of my weekend was filled with non-Christmas related things!
Friday night a friend's mom took a bunch of us out to dinner at Olive Tree. She is having her first girl so her mom thought it would be a great time to have a baby shower and get her lots of cute girly stuff! We had a lot of fun chatting, cooing over the adorbale clothes she get, and eating until we were, or at least I was, ridiculously full.

Saturday was completely nonstop! I worked in the morning, went straight to my mom's house to pick her up for a bridal shower, then we went to a friend of hers house to make some holiday cards, I took a short nap at my mom's house, then picked up Chris from the airport after his week long visit with her parents. I left the house at 8:30 in the morning and we got home about 12:30 at night! It was a crazy long day and I was exhausted, but I had a lot of fun and I was so excited to get my husband back!! Sunday (today) will definitely be our day of rest - and recovering!!!

The bridal shower was really fun, it was for a friend of mine I've known since we were about five, she was one of my bridesmaids and it's been great to see her finally meet someone she wants to settle down with! Another friend of ours from way back in the day was also there, it's been so fun over the years to run into each other! So, my favorite part of the shower was the one game we played - who knew the bride best. And I won! I was really surprised because there were several things I didn't know about her and other people there included roommates of hers from the last couple of years, who have certainly spent more time with her over the last five years and I was sure would know more about her. I guess it goes to show the friend who's known you the longest does know you the best! It was obviously really neat to be able to celebrate her upcoming wedding, and me being pregnant, after all the times we've talked about her wanting to get married and me wanting to have a baby, that we're both finally getting what we've been waiting for!

My Sweet Little Friend

Eight years ago I went to see one of my best friends' new babies and got a fun surprise - she had the same color red hair as me! The rest of her kids have dark hair, so it's been a running joke that this little girl was supposed to be my daughter, but got sent to my friends' family instead! Since then I have treated her as kind of a surrogate daughter and we have a pretty special bond. A lot of times she sits with me at church and over the years we've done lots of special friend dates and a couple sleepovers. Recently she accidentally called my future daughter her sister, and I'm pretty sure that's how she'll treat her, especially if my daughter has the same red hair!

A couple of weeks ago she was baptized and I think I teared up almost as much as my friend, her real mom! It's been amazing to be such a big part of her life and to be there for this important milestone in her life. I'm already looking forward to sharing many more milestons with her.

Playing in the pool

I love kisses!

Watching movies

In a corn maze

One of our sleepovers

Hanging out on my birthday

A trip to the zoo

A "family" picture on the 4th of July

Her baptism day!

The Day After Halloween

I'm so proud of myself, I've never been good at remembering to clearance shop after holidays, but I've been listening to friends talk about costumes for their babies or seeing the ADORABLE baby clothes, so I've been anxiously waiting to hit the sales today! A couple things I wanted are sold out already, so I'll have to figure out something else, but I'm happy with what I got!

I got three bibs, I just forgot when I was taking the picture! The hidden one is my favorite, it says "My first Halloween".  The picture frame I thought was cute and had a great idea for - to display it with the previous years' costume picture.  The banner was just for fun, I never decorate for Halloween, so maybe I'll want to next year! I don't remember the exact prices of everything, but it was all 50% off.

   

This onesie and hat I found from Old Navy, on sale for $6 and $3 and I also ordered some much needed maternity clothes, also on sale, so I got free shipping!  I just have to hope my baby is average sized and not too big or too tiny and will be able to fit into the onesie!  I'll have to find some really cute accessories if I end up having a girl, because the clothes are a little boyish, but I don't think that will be a problem!
Luckily when I shop the Christmas clearances I should know whether the baby is a boy or girl and be able to buy appropriately instead of trying to stick to neutral!