Happy 4th of July long 4-day weekend...

We took a bite out of this long weekend...

It's Monday. After a 4-day holiday weekend. It could've been a worse day, but I'm not gonna lie, it was rough getting back in the groove and dusting off the old motivation. 

Last Wednesday we were set to get out of work early anyway, but my day was cut shorter when I found out my aunt's boyfriend passed away and they basically insisted I leave early. May he rest in peace. Another life cut too short. Cancer sucks.

Thursday, 4th of July, we got an early-ish start and headed out to Long Island to a BBQ at my husband's brother and his wife's house with friends we hadn't spent time with in quite some time. It was a really nice day filled with family, friends, laughter, food, drinks and time in the (warmish-not hot) hot tub with the kids who can never get enough of it. We couldn't stay over, so we got an early start back so we could maybe catch fireworks back at home. Shockingly, we didn't hit a bit of traffic. That's the first time in the history of EVER we haven't hit Long Island traffic. We did make the fireworks and surprised our friends by arriving at their house/block party. It was so nice to spend time with many different friends in one day.

Friday was a day for me and my husband to have to ourselves, and what did we do? We tackled our house. The kids went to their respective camp/daycare place. I struggle with doing housework at night and on weekends. Being a full time working mom, I cherish the moments I have with my kids. I dislike coming home and brushing them aside to fold laundry or hanging out at home just because there's clutter that needs to be handled on the weekend. I'd rather spend those moments making memories with them and my husband. So we tackled our room and purged, cleaned up and put stuff away. It was a good feeling and yet still so much more to do. A little bit at a time, that's all I can do I guess. It wasn't all work though, after camp my girl and I went to see Despicable Me 2 with our BFFs. A really cute movie, definitely worth seeing again.

Saturday, we paid our respects at the funeral Mass for my "uncle" and if there is a silver lining, it was seeing my cousins and my aunt. Though it wasn't for very long it was really good to see them. Saturday evening we spent at our friend's house for their housewarming BBQ/party. It was a really good time, spent with more amazing friends despite the terrible heat and humidity. My girl really had her heart set on camping out in their backyard, but it was just too hot and there was no wind. We would've been miserable in a tent all night, well I know at least I would've. Sleeping & AC go hand in hand on nights like that.

Sunday, we took our new little kitten to the vet for her free check up that was included in her adoption fee. She's perfectly healthy and I'm not convinced I'll go back to that vet again. I was kind of shocked the vet was suggesting we put a third litter box in our tiny house for our two cats. She said the reason was, stress in cats cause urinary infections and they shouldn't share litter boxes. I've had multiple cats all my life and I've never heard of that. Not to say its not true, but it's a little overly cautious, in my opinion. She also suggested we feed her wet food because cats tend to not drink enough water and can become dehydrated. Not saying that's not true either, again just seems overly cautious. This kitten loves to drink water. If I see she's not peeing, I'll worry.

On Sunday afternoon we were so happy to be part of our friend's baby's baptism. My husband stood in as a stunt double godfather since the real godfather unfortunately became sick and couldn't attend. Such a special ending to a special day/weekenc AND if that wasn't enough, I was introduced to CANOLLI DIP!!! That's right canolli dip. It was served with canolli chips and it was life changing and delicious.

To top it off, my son fell asleep last night at 5 o'clock on the car ride home from the baptism. I figure he'd wake up on the transfer but he wound up falling back asleep on the couch in my arms. I finally took him up to bed at 7:30, got him changed and he stayed asleep except for a short whining moment. He slept until 7:15 this morning. Now THAT was a good nap!!! 14 hours of sleepy baby bliss.

Overall, a fantastic 4-day weekend. Lots of memories made. So thankful it was a safe weekend and everyone had a good time. I love my little family.

Re-entry

It's been a while. It's been a really long while. I'm starting to write this post and it's not feeling like it's going to be a cohesive stream of words, but really a "catch up" post of so many things that have happened over the past 7 months.

I had six months between May and October to write, and mustered up one post. I've come so far since then. Mentally, physically, emotionally...life has evolved.

Today I'm 48 pounds less than I started on May 7th when I was laid off.

I have so much to be thankful for. The summer brought a first experience of summer camp for CJ. She had a blast. She loved her head camp counselor from the UK and camp counselor who doesn't live far from us so we see her often and that makes CJ so happy.

With the arrival of summer and lack of a job for me, we pulled K-man out of daycare to save money there. I thoroughly enjoyed our time together. He and I never had the one-on-one time. Sure we had my maternity leave but never time when he was old enough to interact. It was so much fun to have each other all to ourselves. He kind of became a momma's boy, slightly.

Summer meant trips to grandma's pool and spending time with family and friends. Now, summer feels so far away.

There were times I did despair about searching and searching and not finding a job. I'd put my resume out and no one would call. At one point I had interviews going with 3 different companies, and I thought ONE would come through and yet none of them felt right. One was over an hour away and over a toll bridge. One felt like another toxic environment. And one was a complete change of profession in a politician's office and I was far too beaten down from my previous job to take something on that far outside my box.

I had to let it go. I did let it go. I had to.

And good things happened. On October 22nd as I wrestled with K-man over something he wanted that I didn't want to give him, he screeched as my phone rang. It was a recruiter from a company I sent my resume to. Not the first impression you hope to give a company. Sure enough, I was in for interviews the next day. I came home, feeling good, but not overly confident in my interview. It was what it was. I wouldn't get my hopes up. I took CJ to church for Cherub Choir and said a little prayer. Afterward we went to the grocery store before going home. As we roamed the aisles my phone rang. It was the recruiter offering me freelance for the time being. He asked me when I could start and without hesitation I said, "How about tomorrow?" I didn't know what my exact position was, but neither did they. They needed bodies. It's been a great ride. Shortly after bringing me onboard, they offered me full time and I accepted. I'm 3 months in today, in fact, and I can't say how happy I am. I can honestly say I've never been more happy with a job before. Job posting emails I've been receiving for years and years, in what has felt like the endless search for the perfect job, I've cancelled receiving them. I've waited a long time for this opportunity. So thankful.

And yet, I feel sorta like damaged goods to my company. The mental abuse I endured at my last job, I can't begin to describe. The environment was so toxic. I hoped the six months of unemployment had helped prepare me for starting over. In some ways it did. On my very first day of work at my new job I sat down to write an email and started to cc my boss and others. I paused, "wait, I don't need to cc everyone and their second cousins' uncle, I'm not at my old job anymore." I've made my way through the struggles, mostly, but everyday is a struggle to find my confidence again. I don't want to be broken. I don't want to have to give myself a pep talk every time I want to take on a task. I'm hoping I can break thru the things that are holding me back. It's going to take time.

The holidays were fun this year. The kids had a great time opening gifts on Christmas and we were here, there and everywhere visiting family. New Year's Eve we were fortunate enough to have my niece watch the kids so we could go out and have an adult night out for the first time since becoming parents. It was so much fun. We went to a dinner party at a friend's house and despite the cold we huddled around the fire pit in the back yard and enjoyed each other's company.

As we ushered in the New Year and January, we celebrated CJ's 6th birthday on the 14th. Her choice of party this year was a biuild-a-bear party. But, 6?!?! It seems so crazy to say. How can she be 6? How can she be in kindergarten? Oh, yes, kindergarten. What a fun transition this has been. She's adjusted, but it was challenging. 1/2 day daycare kindergarten, 1/2 day school district kindergarten. A truly antiquated system and injustice to kids these days to have 1/2 day school district kindergarten. No fun. Poor CJ, it's been a rough couple months.

All in all, we've been keeping busy chasing after two kids. They've taken up gymnastics and been having a ball with it. It helps burn off some energy on Saturday mornings. K-man is getting so big and will be two in just less than two short months. I can't believe it. He's got quite the little personality and I love seeing him and his sister interact these days. She's slightly less smothering and he's more tolerant. They are carbon cutouts of each other.

We shall see where 2013 takes us. For now...if you've made it this far, you're a trooper. Thank you for reading (or not) and goodnight from the East Coast.

*Midge*