1st night with Sophie

Sophie was fantastic last night. She had a little trouble going to sleep in her crate, but eventually slept all night. We went the first evening and morning with no potty accidents, she is learning where "outside" is and she goes right out there to do her business.

She loves to snuggle it is the funniest thing. The Man and I were sitting on the couch last night watching the OSU game and she kept whimpering and acted very restless, so I pulled her up on the couch with me and she went right to sleep. I eventually had to take her off my lap and put her beside me because she was snoring so loudly, she stretched out and darn near pushed me off the couch. She loves being right next to someone.

She had been very quiet all evening, no barking, not too much whining, nothing really...until The Girl called. I swear Sophie howled 4 different times while The Man was on the phone with The Girl. It was hilarious, it was as if she knew she was a secret and she was trying to let The Girl know.

I can't wait until the kids get to meet her this weekend.

Welcome, Sophie Lowther

Not the best picture, it was taken with my blackberry as my camera is still at the office.  She is super sweet and super sleepy.  She snores...it's great!

She is a 3 month old boxer with white on her chin, chest and paws.  She is amazing.

A quick update

Oh, I know that I need to get on here and post a little bit, but darnit my kids are away...and i'm enjoying my time. We had a great trip back home and got to see everyone, open presents, drink a little, you know...just a good time.

Took a couple of pictures...surprised right?

Made some gingerbread houses...


OH yeah, took some more pictures



















Drove home on Christmas day, went to Billy Bobs for the first time (did the Cha Cha Glide YEAH ME) and went back to work.

OH and we are adopting a sweet baby girl Boxer tonight....I CAN'T WAIT. The kids don't know yet...so shhhhhh. I'll try to post pictures of her tomorrow.

So that's the short and sweet of the last week. Hope you had a wonderful Christmas...maybe i can post a normal post on here soon.

I've been slacking on my blogging lately... I apologize. I am just so darn tired all the time. I mean, really tired. I think I have fallen asleep at my desk twice this week. So sad. Of course it doesn't help that I am in this vicious cycle of drinking energy drinks during the day and taking sleeping pills at night so I can sleep. But WHATEVER one more day and I'm off for 9 days... I can't wait!

We are headed home for the holidays and even though it should be a time to rest and relax...my schedule is going to be just as hectic up there. However, good news is that I do have two family photo shoots up there. That's good. The kids are excited, and what's even better is that when The Man and I come home on Christmas day...it will be sans two kids. WHOO HOOO. They are staying there with the In Laws for the rest of their school break. That means I get some quiet time with no one to fight with. All will be right with the world at that point.

Work is work...nothing great, nothing bad...just work. I'm so ready to be out of here though. My fingers are crossed that I can get all the reviews wrapped up by tomorrow afternoon and get all the salary increases processed. That is MY goal anyway. No one is ever on my time schedule...and that's ok, i can still push for it.

The Boy had his first band concert and he ROCKED the trombone. :) He really did wonderful, even though he will tell you that he messed up a few times. It was amazing to sit and listen to 120 6th grade kids play these Christmas songs...considering none of them had ever played an instrument prior to 4 months ago. It was pretty cool. He really enjoys his teacher too, the guy makes it a lot of fun and he thinks very highly of The Boy. Before the concert I had to go let the teacher know that The Boy was there, however, he forgot his music so The Man was racing home to get it. The teacher stopped me and said that The Boy is doing VERY well in class and he is impressed with how he plays the trombone and overall he is just a really great kid. My heart swelled and tears filled my eyes. I told him "thank you so much, Mommas really like to hear those things". He is an amazing person and I hope he truly knows how proud I am of him and how I think he is going to conquer the world when he gets older.

The Girl is...well she is a GIRL. She is sweet, and loving...and moody and temperamental and REALLY emotional....she is a girl. We are struggling with the "it's not fair" stuff right now.
It's not fair that he gets to go there.
It's not fair that he gets to pick dinner.
It's not fair that I have to sit and listen to his band.
It's not fair that ....

really the list just keeps going. So my constant speech right now is that it's ok that it's not fair. It's not supposed to be. He is older than you and he gets to do things you can't do. When you turn 11 you can do those things. But for now, you get to do what all other 7 year olds get to do. He is always going to get to do more than you, that's just the way it works out - he's older than you.

She has a beautiful little heart and loves to make me happy as well as others, but boy when she's mad or upset WATCH OUT. She is going to be a force to be reckoned with when she gets older.

I officially bought the last two gifts I had to buy today. All the laundry is done and just needs to be put up. Tonight's activities will be pizza for dinner, choir concert for The Boy, and packing for the trip.

Hopefully, I'll be able to blog while I am out of town...but if not....

Merry Christmas - I hope the holidays are good to you and know that I wish you nothing but the best.

Freakin' Freezing

I am trying to get some work today, really I am. But it is so freakin' cold in my office - my whole body hurts. I have turned up the heater because the lady next to me is gone, but I swear it is just not enough. I have on a tank top with a long sleeve shirt, and I just went and got her sweater to put on. I had to close my door so that hopefully it hold some of the heat in here. I HATE to be cold...I mean I really HATE to be cold. Spring cannot get here soon enough...

We are finishing performance reviews this week- so it's fairly quiet for me right now. I kinda thought I would get mine done before British Guy went out of town...but not so much. Whatev! Everyone else's is progressing along nicely...it has been interesting to see how people rate themselves compared to how their supervisors rate them...I have a hard time bragging about myself and actually do produce quite a bit of work...others seem to have NO problem bragging on themselves and we STILL can't figure out what they are doing every day. Hopefully 2009 will be a better year and we can make some good changes to the company and get things on track.

This weekend begins a hectic week for me...I was thinking about it last night and holy moly i have a lot to get done. You know what I wish for?? I wish there was a maid that would walk into my house, as it is right now, and clean it for me. Load all the dishes in the dishwasher, hang up the clothes on the chaise, run a couple of loads of dirty laundry...she could even just put it in piles for me and that would be great. I really need to just get in there and do it, but by the time I can in the evenings, i am so tired i don't want to move and the weekends...well that's just funny. So here is what the schedule looks like:

Friday - The Boy has band rehearsal from 4:00 - 5:30; The Girl has Choir rehearsal from 6:30 -7:00

Saturday - The Girl has her Choir Concert at church and has to be there from 2:00-7:00 then she goes straight to a sleepover

Sunday - Church and then I have an appt to have some pictures done

Monday - The Boy has Band rehearsal from 4:00 - 5:30

Tuesday - The Boy has his Band concert from 6:00 - 7:30

Wednesday - The Boy & The Girl have church and The Man and I have date night

Thursday - The Boy has his Choir concert at school and I have to make chicken and noodles for a luncheon at work on Friday

Friday - We leave for Tulsa

notice there was no days in there to clean the house and pack for the trip...yeah, I noticed that too.

I also need to make cookies and candies for our workplaces.

Maybe i can do something early saturday morning and late sunday evening...


OH - I forgot to tell you...The Man has agreed to let me get a dog, hopefully for Christmas because he tells me that is what my Christmas gift is :)

So I have an application in for this sweet girl... yes Wise One, we have decided against the English Bulldog. I WILL have one at some point, but for now - we decided to go back to what we know. Cross your fingers - I should know something soon.

OK, back to work - maybe i can find some hot tea...

Logo

what do you think of this logo? Simple....yes, but does it "fit" me? When you click on it, it should open up in another window - and I think it looses the blurry thing going on here

OH

and i only have 3 more things to buy and then i am DONE christmas shopping!!!!

Woo Hoo for me!

Wonderful and Exciting day

So my mom...let's call her..... The Glass Lady (unless you have a better suggestion) bought me a super exciting christmas gift. She bought me the lens I have been waiting to buy. It came in the mail today so i rushed home to make sure no one swiped it off of my porch... OH MY GOSH i cannot wait to get it out of the box and use it. Unfortunately it is looking like I won't get to today as it is super overcast and I have no luck of having any daylight left by the time i get home. But I just cannot wait. (note to self: don't tell her what you want next time...she has a shopping sickness)

I also started my myspace for my photography...www.myspace.com/maddiepiecreations

I can't wait to get this business up and running - it is so exciting. I could spend hours just thinking of things to do...next will be the website - but I'm shooting for January 2009 to have that done. One step closer....

I'm almost done....

...with all my Christmas shopping!!

I seriously only have 2 more pairs of pajamas, and the "big" gifts for The Boy and The Girl. Woo freakin hoo...we are in the home stretch now and it's only Dec. 5.

OH..other big news - I might have a "real" paying photography job coming up. I'm emailing the client about it today...maybe I can buy the new lens i want with that money.

Busy Busy Girl

Good grief I have been busy lately. The Man pointed out the other night that I had stopped blogging. It wasn't intentional, life just kind jumped up and swallowed me whole this past week. After The Wise One went home I started in on my candles. It's a fun thing to do, but it can become all consuming if I let it. However, I am happy to report that a week and a 1/2 later I have a little over 100 candles ready to be sold. My goal is to get them sold quickly so that I can go back and buy more supplies to sell more...cross your fingers for me. My poor kitchen is swimming in candles right now - it's really kinda funny.

This past weekend, The Man's best friend and family came down for the weekend. I am so happy they were able to get here - we have tried to get them down here for the whole 4 years we have been here. But alas, they finally made it and it was on a long weekend. For those of you who don't know much about Tulsa...when you come to Texas...you come to go shopping. So on Black Friday (yes, i know we are crazy) we headed out to Grapevine Mills Mall. Now let me explain something to you - this mall is a nightmare on any normal day of the year. I swear there is always a crazy busy crowd there, and Black Friday was insane as expected. But we found some good things and got a little christmas shopping done. Saturday we headed up to Frisco to go to Ikea...let me just say I HEART IKEA!! I mean I am so in love with this place - I swear our next house we are going to furnish it with all things IKEA. But this trip was just for little things - so we got a new wine rack, wine glasses, tuperware and a couple of other things. Our friends went back the next day on their way home. She hearts Ikea too. :)

Sunday after our friends left I had a photo shoot with a couple. It was super crazy windy on Sunday...I mean REALLLY crazy windy. It was pretty tough to get some pictures - there were so many that didn't turn out good, but I had my darn camera on the wrong settings. so frustrating. But overall, I am pretty happy that I was able to capture a couple despite the darn wind.


My Christmas shopping is progressing. The photo books have been ordered and I have gotten a few of the smaller things on the list. I really need to sit down tonight and figure out what else needs to be done. I think mostly it's just shopping for all the kids in the family. I have Little Sister's gift taken care of...well part of it. Other than that...wow there is still a lot to do.

OK, gotta get back to work. This week has been super productive and we have made several steps in the right direction. It's a good feeling to be able to do what you were hired for and see it making a difference. This week's focus is annual performance reviews - next week...who knows.