Busy, Busy, Busy...

These past few months have most definitely been a whirlwind!

Granted, I may have overloaded my plate for this year, but I secretly enjoy staying busy.

While I wish that I could say I am staying busy with my social life, let's be honest...that is just downright laughable! Ha, ha!

Since the Summer has ended, and Fall is now upon us, Emma has started THIRD GRADE! 

Seriously, though...WHOA.

Haylee has turned THREE YEARS OLD!

Again...WHOA.

We had to get Em ready for school, since third grade is apparently a huge leap from second grade!

That is no joke by the way. 

She has much more homework, their curriculum is much tougher, and everything seems to be a lot more intense. She was placed in the co-teaching class, with two teachers and 50 students, which I was very unsure about once I found out. But it has actually been very good for her! 

She has an extra set of eyes, and hands to help her, and she is benefitting from having two ways to have a topic explained to her. Two similar, yet different, approaches to each subject. 

Overall, we are loving her teachers and their communication with the parents!

Then we had Haylee's Dinosaur Birthday at the bouncy house place. 

Yup, our girl loves her some Dinos and bouncing! 

We also had a numerous amount of friends' kids birthday parties to attend, so that took up a lot of time during September.

So besides the girls and their overall busy-ness, I have taken over Em's Girl Scout troop as the main leader, and added five extra girls! That brings our troop to a total of 14 GIRLS!

Yup, 14. That makes us an official 'Super Troop', haha! 

Which means that we will get to earn extra money during Cookie Season, so that's cool!

Then there is the all consuming, never-ending task that I took on for Emma's school as their Box Tops Coordinator. Yup, you read that right...Box. Tops. Coordinator.

It is a lot of work. 

Including: advertising at the school, setting up contests, collecting from the school as often as I can, clipping, counting, sorting, mailing, and on and on!

HOWEVER, like I said before, I secretly enjoy it!

It definitely keeps me busy and always thinking.

In fact, I have come up with two new ideas that the school has never done before, so it will be kind of exciting to see how it all goes this year!

In case you were wondering, each Box Tops brings in .10 cents, which adds up pretty damn quick!

Also, with helping out the school as much as I can, I hope to be able to find some sort of para-educating role once Haylee starts Kindergarten...

So with all the school stuff, and Girl Scout stuff, and toddler stuff, and house stuff, I have been kind of M.I.A. the last month or so!

But once everything falls into it's place soon, hopefully I'll be around more!

The funniest part about all of this, is that everything I end up doing, brings in zero income!

It's all volunteer-based work, which is something I can honestly say that I would never have seen myself doing nine years ago!

But again, I enjoy doing it.

And I enjoy helping out where, and when, I can!

Change of the Seasons

Well it's been awhile. A long while, and I do apologize!

And as you can see, I clearly failed with the 30 day blog challenge...oops!

I will just go ahead and blame my busy summer schedule for that. :)

But the summer season has officially come to a close in our home. As it has in many other school-bound families. Emma started 1st grade last week! FIRST GRADE! What the heck happened to my first baby? Where o' where did she go? If you find her, please return her safely! 

Lucky for us {and her} Emma truly loves school! She gets excited about hopping on that bus, and going to her new classroom. With her new teacher, new friends, three recesses, a "real" lunchtime, and a longer-than-usual bus ride home. 

She gets on the bus at 8:40am, and doesn't get home until 4:40pm! That is a full working day {I guess that's what we get for living in the "woods"}! I thought for sure that she would be completely exhausted by the time she gets home, but nope. She fooled me again! I don't know how she does it, but let me tell ya...that girl is wired when she gets home! GEEZ!

And then there's Haylee. We really should have named her Trouble! Or Monster, or Chaos, or...well you get the idea! She is seriously more than a handful! I guess it's true what they say about siblings being opposite, because mine most certainly are! Emma was such a laid-back, chill, and should I say "good" baby. But Haylee on the other hand is into everything, doesn't really care for sleeping that much, and is constantly into all kinds of mischief. Needless to say, she keeps me on my toes. All. The. Time! I am sure that this means she is going to be an absolute terror as a toddler. YAY ME! But she is so stinkin' cute, that it almost makes up for it! Here, let me show you:

Speaking of toddler-hood, it is pretty much upon us! I cannot believe how fast this past year flew by! Haylee's 1st birthday is in just a few short weeks! WHAT?! THIS CANNOT BE TRUE! Oh, but it is. Which means I almost have a toddler again!! But on the other hand, I am looking very forward to this Holiday Season! She will now get more excited about things, like our Christmas tree no doubt. I am sure we only be decorating the top half this year! :) 

Let's just hope she doesn't topple it over...

And Fall is back! Well, almost. My all-time favorite season! Which of course means all things pumpkin, spice, and pretty colors! That alone makes me one happy girl! :) 

Catching Up

It's been a busy week! 

Emma started Pre-K, which is three days per week. And can you believe, that I forgot my camera?! MOM FAIL! 

 

I have started back up at a gym again! There is one right down the street from her school, and I figured it would be the PERFECT way for me to kill time while she's there. I have a personal goal in mind, but I will be leaving that personal for now...And since I have not been to a gym since before Emma was born {yes, it really has been that long!}, I obviously need this - BAD! 

So wish me luck?

Also, I was able to score another Nanny job! At the moment, it is for Friday's only, but may switch to Thursday's & Friday's in a month or so. The best part, is that this time the kiddo comes to MY PLACE! I cannot tell you how nice that is! The pay is just enough to take care of Emma's tuition each month, which is exactly what we needed! PHEW!

Now for some little tid-bits:

Recently on Netflix, I found an older show that I have gotten into. I may be a dork, but it has captured my attention on the nights when I can't fall asleep! Some of you out there may remember it: Felicity. 

 

 

Also, I found this article on the most influential cameras of all time, and I find it interesting! Take a look HERE!

 

OK. Well that's all I have for now! Until next time - ARRIVEDERCI!