WHERE TO BEGIN!!!??

 Since returning home from our trip to Philadelphia my life has been a whirlwind of fun, exciting, new ventures! Each of the following deserves its own post and I will get there along with many pictures to follow but this week IS TOTALLY INSANE FOR ME so I'm just going to provide a quick synopsis of my big changes! I'm super busy but it's with all my favorite things so none of it actually feels like 'work'! I am loving my place in life!

MY NEW BUSINESS- So this is one of the main reasons I am so busy this week, I have that wedding that I am doing the flowers for tomorrow 9.21.12. I am very excited, a little nervous but I cannot wait to share the pictures with you. There were a few moments where I was feeling overwhelmed- because it's ALL ON ME! But my husband is going to help me set up so that makes me feel much more calm about everything because that's a big help.

MY NEW JOB- Not only is this a life list item but the way it came about was also one of my dreams come true! So I am officially a French Translator...I guess I already was just not in practice- as I actually am a Certified French Translator, I just have never done it professionally. More on that later, translating legal jargon is labor intensive and I am working on a big project right now!

PHILADELPHIA- It's funny that just 2 weeks ago I was writing about my trip to Philadelphia and I said several times that I didn't think I'd ever have the opportunity again to visit Valley Forge or Sesame Street and as much as I wanted to see the Liberty Bell I thought it would be quite a while...well as it turns out I am returning in a few weeks! Which I am crazy excited about, my daughter LOVED that Sesame Place so much she watches the videos we took from the parade and looks at the pictures every day, she is going to be so thrilled to go again, and it will be during their Halloween Spooktacular so it will be a different experience. When my husband said he had to go back I said- we're coming with you! We're staying in the same hotel and I know those ladies who fell in love with my little one are just going to fall apart when she comes flying into the breakfast nook with her arms up in the air yelling "HOLA!" I thought some of them were going to cry when we left, they enjoyed her so dearly!

MY DAUGHTER'S 2ND BIRTHDAY- I'm an over the top person and such my daughter is going to an incredible over the top Sesame Street themed birthday party so I've been very busy planning, organizing, preparing and figuring out how to pay for it all! Of course I will post lots of pictures from this year and from her party last year.

REDOING THE BATHROOM- We are redoing one of our bathrooms-ironically it was the only room in the house I initially thought needed the least amount of work. I guess it still is and that's why we started with it as there are no MAJOR changes to make. There's a TON more to do, we've already done most of the big things like paint, put in a new toilette and vanity. It's kind of moving slowly at the moment, there are just too many other things to pay for right now.

BEING A HOMEOWNER- There is so much to share on this subject but to sum it up right now, I had a very difficult time adjusting to this house for LOTS of reason but now 3 months later I am finally feeling settled in, like this is my home. I look at my house and smile now-in June I would look at my house and cry. Initially I had some very serious discussions with my husband about selling this house but now I feel very happy here and I think we will live in this house a VERY long time...if not forever.

TRIP TO DISNEY- I mentioned a bit ago that we were going to take a grand vacation to Disney in February 2014, I like to plan ahead and start saving so when I called Disney to make the arrangements they said they could only book the packages 8 months in advance so I said 'ok then we're going in 8 months!' It's not going to be the double vacation with the cruise but I am going to pack as many awesome things into this trip as possible so I've been spending loads of time doing research on the area. If you have any advice on 'must dos' in the Orlando area I'm all (Mickey Mouse) ears!

HULA CLASS- I will pick up the DVD from our Hula recital in a few weeks, I am excited to share the pics, video and experience with you. Today was the last day to sign up for the next Hula class that begins in October and I missed it but I'm going to try to schmooze her into letting us enroll late.

BRACES- I have only had the braces for 2 months now and I am so amazed with the results- the bottom is almost totally straight and the top is making quick progress, they don't really bug me any more sometimes I even forget-which I cannot believe-they were appallingly hard to get used to in the beginning and I don't feel so self conscience any longer either.

WEIGHT- It's been a while since I've weighed in but my most recent weight was 163!!!! Which is 98 pounds lost in nearly 2 years!!!! The day I gave birth I weighed 261...

MY BOOK- No news yet from the literary agent, they said it would be a while, it's been 5 months which doesn't really faze me, it took them 5 months just to get back to me the first time, so maybe after things settle down birthday I will contact them to see if they're read my proposal yet.

VOLUNTEERING- Back in February I enrolled in a program to mentor female inmates. I went through the whole process of a background check and everything but every time I thought about going, which would be a long day-close to 8 hours-(there's a lot of security you have to go through once you get to the prison and then to get out, and it's a long drive from my house)-I thought 'why should I leave my family to go visit someone I've never even met' I know that sound a little selfish but right now in this stage of my life it really isn't a good fit for me. I hate leaving my daughter and I do it as little as  possible and usually only for short periods of time. The old me would roll my eyes at someone saying they don't want to spend a few hours away from their kids but as pessimistic as it sounds, you really never know how much time you have and I just feel like my time is best spent with my baby. I know the day will come where she doesn't want to hang out with mommy anymore so I take advantage of my time with her now. I have something else in mind- I won't mention it until I actually follow through though!

Tomorrow's a big day-I'm delivering my flowers and (as usual) praying that nothing catastrophic happens to them tonight! I'm sure I'll be up a zillion times to check on them in the middle of the night if I can even sleep at all...the Bridesmaids bouquets are actually sleeping the bedroom tonight (totally necrotic). Cross your fingers for me that all goes well!