whoa nellie...

Life is going by fast and furiously. We need to slow down.

Working is crazy. It's making our lives a bit more hectic but I LOVE it! I love it. I am in charge of the babysitting service and a few other programs at our local Y. I can make up my own hours. Go in whenever I feel like it. I can come and go as I please. Go get lunch, take Ellie to school, go to a fitness class, swim laps, walk the track, or whatever I feel like doing then come back to work. It is AWESOME! And best of all I can bring my kids. I can also work at home!

It is such a family oriented place. I am just so blessed to have been chosen for this job and it couldn't have come at a better time. Next week I am starting Ellie in a one morning a week swim lesson class for little ones who are a bit leery about the water... for FREE! I have signed her up for preschool there... they have an on site preschool... she will be in class there 2 days a week while I'm there working! How convenient is that!!

This job is very challenging... supervising a staff of mixed ages from 16-40+... teenagers are a hard group to manage and train to do as you wish. But it's fun and will be rewarding. I can't get over the flexibility and the benefits I get. Cooper was sick on Monday so I needed to stay home... I had no one to call in to. I just called to let one of the other supervisors know I wouldn't be there. I felt NO GUILT! That was a wonderful feeling. I could stay home and take care of my baby (my priority) without feeling like I was making someone else's life inconvenient for the day. On Tuesday I felt I should go in for a few hours so I put Ellie in the babysitting service (for free might I add!) and took Cooper into the office with me. He just played/slept in his car seat and I worked for 3 hours. I could go on and on... but you get the jist. I feel so lucky, so blessed.

We had a bit of good news yesterday. Our second mortgage is going to let us just continue to pay it off rather than having to also foreclose on that amount on top of our regular mortgage. This is a GREAT thing. For one we will remain in good standing with our small hometown bank and for two it will hopefully allow us to avoid filing for bankruptcy. We have rec'd a letter from our mortgage co's attorneys and the sale of our home will be in May and we will need to leave by November. I go back and forth between being ok with all this one moment then crying the next. I am so sad because this is my home. Where I brought my babies home. Where Greg and I shared the beginning of our lives together. Where our memories are. We have beautiful flowers that will be coming up in the spring, a lilac bush planted in honor of Ellie's birth... these seem like such silly things... but they are OUR things. Our things that are sentimental to me. Every time I pull in the drive way I look at the house and start to tear up because this is our little home, our little home that we've had so much fun in. Ugh. I need to stop talking about this.

I have to remember what is important. My family is healthy. We are strong. We will be fine. While I feel right now like this is my "home", we will make wherever we end up "home".

Going to go have a bowl of cereal. But before I go here are a few new pics! Oh and Ellie never ceases to amaze me... last night when I put her to bed she says, "mommy, ya know, sometimes I feed my baby with my booby at night." Love her. :)

*** EDITED ***

I forgot! Absentminded that I am... It is Cooper's 6 month birthday today!! Where did those last 6 months go? Wow. Also a post to come... I am working on getting a stash of items needed for making my own baby food. So far I've scored a free food processor (thanks Katie and Scott!) and I've ordered 24 individual 2 oz cups with lids that are freezer, dishwasher and microwave safe. Has anyone out there used a manual food mill? KidCo has one that I'm kinda interested in but I'd like to hear your thoughts. I blended a banana for Coop last week and he ate it up like it was the best thing he'd tasted. I'm feeling the need to give him a more natural food, not all that processed crap from Gerber. I should follow that rule too, eh? Eat better myself... I type that as I have a Coke and a package of girl scout cookies next to me. Lovely.