Getting to know you

There are many of you blog friends that I have never met and don't know much about other than aspects of your baby so I thought it'd be nice to get to know a few new things about you!

{1} When and how did you and your husband/significant other meet?

{2} What do you and your husband/significant other do for work?

{3} What kind of car do you drive?

{4} If you had a few hours to yourself {baby free}, what would you do?

{5} What is a strong trait of yours?

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~Me~

{1}
It is on my blog profile but...My husband and I met in 2007. I went into AT&T to buy a Blackberry. He sold me one and a few hours later, he texted me and asked me how my phone was and that if I had any questions to contact him. His 2nd text was asking me out to dinner. At that time, I wasn't interested in dating anyone and I don't why I agreed to go out to dinner with him but we ended up going to the movies that weekend. We were actually "on" and "off" a handful of times because I couldn't make up my mind if I wanted a serious relationship with him. I guess I did.

{2}
My husband works as as Store Manager for AT&T.
I'm currently a Property Manager but my last day is at the end of this month!

{3}
I drive a dark sandstone 2007 Jeep Liberty.

{4}
Sleeping and grocery shopping came to mind first but I'd have to say that I'd go get a pedicure and sit in a coffee shop and enjoy a latte.

{5}
There's a few prominent traits that stand out. One being my OCD over things. I am a very particular person and I tend to get uncomfortable if things aren't done in a certain way or if our house is too messy. My husband says I never sit still and am always picking up or cleaning. He's also told me that I need to leave him alone and allow him to do things his way. I've gotten better with that. :p

Monday!

Monday, Monday, Monday! I love Mondays. It's the day everyone trudges back into work from a weekend full of fun but for me, I'm allowed just one more day of doing whatever my heart pleases with Everett. I typically use this day to get out of the house but I'm not so sure I have the energy to today. My little rascal was awake from 1:30-4:30am this morning. He wasn't fussy nor seemed bothered by anything and was full of smiles, giggles, and toot noises. I can't sleep when knowing that Everett isn't asleep so I spent most of the time rocking him, in hopes that he'd go back to sleep. No such luck. Glancing at the clock and seeing that it was 4:30am, I realized that I needed to get some rest or I would otherwise have a Monday lacking patience, energy, and motivation so with Everett still wide awake, I set him in his crib and hopped back into bed. I laid there for about 10 minutes and having not heard a peep out of him, I assumed he was asleep and I myself fell asleep. I'm still pretty tired today but I forced myself to get Everett bundled up and we went for a swift morning stroll. I needed to snap out of it.

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Everett News: This past Saturday, he started feeding himself. Just like that. I know he's known how to do it because he did a few times when we very first starting feeding him finger foods months ago, but since Saturday, he's been feeding himself everything I give him with such ease and with this look of "It's no big deal, I've been doing this for months" look on his face. It does come with a price though. I can't watch. He will only do it if he thinks I'm not watching. Of course, when I became a mom, I grew eyes in the back and sides of my head so I'm definitely watching and he'll go on and feed himself piece after piece. As soon as I direct any attention to him, he stops, picks up the food, and proceeds to drop it on the floor. I set my focus elsewhere and he continues feeding himself. It's quite entertaining, I must say.

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"Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step."

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

"Life's most urgent question is, what are you doing for others?"

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

Bitter Beer Face

Do you remember that classic, old man, bitter beer face photo that made it's popularity a handful of years ago? I couldn't find a photo of it on Google (since when can you not find something on Google?!) but did come across several others but they were a bit tasteless and somewhat disturbing in a very ugly way so I decided not to post them. Anyway, Everett has been making this face quite consistently for the past week and every single time, it reminds me of that face. But of course, his face is quite cute, unlike the face of the toothless, old man.

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We move in 6 more days!! I'm really excited. Moving can be stressful in many ways but honestly, I'm really not stressed at the thought of it nor am I dreading it. This move has so many positive reasons to it and all I am is anxious and thankful!

Sickies and Spaghetti

The cold has had a long overdue visit in the Connors' household. Everett was sick 2 weeks ago, I was sick last week, and now Dale has inevitably came down with it. We have told Mr. Cold that he is no longer welcome here but he has decided that he will stay with us for another week. We normally like visitors but not this one. We very much look forward to when he'll leave us this week. Once he packs his things and goes, we will shut the door without turning back. We are moving next weekend so we hope that he will leave before then so we can get ourselves packed and outta here! He's definitely not welcome at our new home, that's for sure. We've made that very clear to him.

Everett loves spaghetti (as long as we feed it to him) and enjoyed a table full the other night. He refuses to touch it though. I think it's the wet, slimy feeling between his fingers that gets him.

He touched it a few times and you could tell he wanted some so he communicated this to me by looking at it and leaning in towards it with his mouth open and looking up at me with his big, brown eyes as if, "Mom, I really want some but I don't wanna touch it so please just put some in my mouth, okay? Thank you." It was really cute.

Eww. It's so cold and slimy, Mom!

How about I just sit here and give you the cutest smile possible and bribe you into feeding it to me?

Daddy was being silly and trying to get Everett all excited and pumped up to pick up his spaghetti. Oh dear.

And this is what Everett thought of Daddy's silliness.

Dinner's are so much fun at our house. Since Everett has turned into quite the big boy and is eating big people food, we're all able to sit down together and eat the same meal. The best part is seeing how he reacts to new things. Aren't our boys growing up so fast?! Rene recently mentioned that she's been referring to the babies as "kids" and I agree that I have found myself referring to Everett as a "big boy" more often than a "baby." I think our boys are growing up much too fast. I think they should slow down a bit. ;) But like I have always said, Everett will always be my little baby!

Changes

My first blog of 2011 talked about changes for this new year and I took a big step yesterday and gave my notice for my job. I'd been going back and forth for over 2 months debating to continue and struggle with maintaining a full time job while juggling caring for Everett. For those of you that may not know what I do, I work for Peak Development as a property manager. I work for a wonderful man who owns two beautiful multi-use highrises in Gresham.

The Beranger is located in Historic Downtown Gresham with 24 high-end condominiums and several commercial spaces including Gloss Salon, Edward Jones, and Hillcrest Chiropractic.

The Crossings is a larger building consisting of 81 units and commercial spaces including Big Town Hero, Gresham Integrated Care, Edward Jones, and NW Counseling Services. This is where we live and are graciously compensated with a beautiful 2 bedroom loft.


This building is where the grunt end of my work is. With a much higher turnover rate and a higher demand for management, it has consumed much of my time, stress, and in many ways (in which I guess I have allowed) affected my personal life. It's really the entire job as a whole, but I have finally realized that it has been overriding the undivided time I should be giving to Everett. I work and live onsite and am required to answer the phone (not failing to mention that my cell phone is off the hook!), show apartments at the drop of a hat, office work, posting of notices to the tenants, and in the scope of things, handle all tenant, perspective tenant, vendor, and city-related aspects. With Everett becoming so active, it's been difficult to haul him down the elevator to the main lobby to meet with people (and on top of that, keep my fingers crossed that he'll behave) and to have him hanging on my leg begging for attention while I do a work email or talk on the phone. Somewhat equal to Everett deserving my attention, I also feel that the owner deserves the same as well for his buildings and it finally came to a head that I couldn't give both my efforts. Each required me full time and I finally made the decision of what was most important to me. And that was being a full time mother, not a full time property manager.

I've been working in property management going on 10 years now and it's always been a job that I have enjoyed and I will truly miss having my foot in this line of work and mostly, I will truly miss working for probably the best boss I've ever had. He is one of the most genuine types of business men that you could ever encounter. And with his supportive, understanding, and kind personality, I guess I can only pray that should I ever choose to go back to work, I would have the opportunity to work for him again or even have the chance to work for someone like him.

It's been a very emotional decision and I actually get a little teary-eyed at the thought of not only being able to not have this job and work for a great boss, but at the thought of letting go of years and years of schooling and training to have such a job and to finally let my license expire. The Oregon Real Estate Agency allows any license to stay in an "inactive" state and with this, I just imagine my license just sitting there, disintegrating, and my decade of hard work disappearing. I know, this analogy sounds a bit pathetic but this is a big step for me and while I know that the job God has given me is to raise my child with His love, I am letting go of the last bit of my adult individual that doesn't involve baby snot on my shirt or baby food in my hair or a puff stuck to my butt. I'm not sure if any of you other moms understand this struggling concept (because I'm kind of having a difficult time putting it into blog words) but I have known a few who voluntarily made the decision to quit their job to become a stay-at-home mom but yet, took a bit of time to adjust.

But don't get me wrong! I very much look forward to dedicating all my time to Everett and having the opportunity to get out and explore everything with him. Everett absolutely loves getting out of the house and I was beginning to tell when he was getting a little stir-crazy with having myself as the only form of interaction but yet, I wasn't really able to get out during the week. I'm so glad that my job won't be holding him/us back anymore and I am so excited to get him involved in things.

Well, at the beginning of this new year, I did say that I was looking forward to some changes and here's one big one I can definitely look forward to!

Wordless Wednesday {Playing with Cousin Preston}

Mmmm...mmm!

We've had some difficulty in the past getting Everett to eat solids so a few months ago, I began expressing to him that food is yummy by saying "mmm mmm!" after each bite. He's caught on pretty well and while he doesn't fight his feedings as much anymore, he still refuses to feed himself finger foods. He's definitely improving more and more with the new and different kinds of foods though.

2011, here we come!

I love a clean slate. I love new beginnings and an opportunity to anticipate what a new year will bring. 2010 was the most challenging year of my life. My patience was pushed further than ever, my body functioned on the most minimal amounts of sleep, I worked (and still working) from home full time while watching Everett, I lost a bit of my adult freedom, and struggled with losing my pregnancy weight. Even so, it was yet the best, most rewarding year.

2011 will be a perfect continuation of 2010 but with new hopes, new dreams, and new plans. I can't wait.

Here are a few last photos of Everett from 2010.

Wordless Wednesday {Under Toys}

Christmas 2010

Wow. Christmas is over. It sure came and went pretty fast. We had a wonderful Christmas this year but I feel like I can take a deep breath right now. All the crazy, busy running around is over with and I'm looking forward to getting back on schedule.

Christmas last year. This kid slept ALL through the Christmas celebrations and was awake ALL night.

My favorite family photo from last year.

Some photos from this year.

I hope you all had a wonderful and blessed Christmas this year!