Yep, We're Still Rockin'

I'll bet you thought we fell off the face of the planet, didn't you? Well, we didn't. Not completely at least. There's been a lot going on behind the scenes around here which we just really aren't at liberty to speak about at this time and as a result I, dear friends and family, have not been able to post even remotely regularly; however, I shall try to get back in the habit.

I have quite a few goals for myself in the next few months - I plan to get back into a regular blogging schedule. Not sure what that means right at this moment, but we'll figure it out. We're experiencing something of a new beginning in our family as a result of some of the stuff I can't talk about having transpired. I'll just apologize profusely now for my "teasing." I really don't mean it to be so, but vagueness at the moment is kind of expected and necessary. Should there ever be a time (which I am inclined to say there will not be) that I feel sharing is appropriate, I will, but don't hold your breath!

So, at any rate, I shall be making an effort to post more regularly. I also am quite determined to get myself back up-to-date (which is no small feat, unfortunately) with Nicholas' totsite. Wow, that is going to take some effort...so I may not get it done until Christmas unless I just happen to have some crazy luck. :)

I am, after all, just one big ball of activity. For those who like to keep up with my craziness, I am still helping with Mark's business though I am, thankfully, no longer playing a major role. Accounting-related tasks are mine...everything else has been passed off to a new office manager who I trust implicitly with the success of the business and keeping everyone else in line. Mark is also in a more prominent role with the departure of the previous owner of the business and we're enjoying watching the business grow into a thriving place of health and healing.

In addition to the clinic which has been renamed Springs Family Chiropractic, I am still doing the Scentsy thing. However, that has been moved, to a great extent, to the secondary business slot because at the beginning of May I began a sweet new business with Dove Chocolate Discoveries (tm). I LOVE my new job! Can there be anything better than getting paid to share chocolate (and more specifically, Dove Chocolate!) with the world? I can't think of many....maybe just getting paid to stay home and love on Nicholas. :)

I am still at home with Nicholas as well. He just turned 2 on May 26 if you can believe it. The little tyke is the size of a 4 year old! He is seriously one very tall little man...and he still has his red hair. He is absolutely adorable (not that I'm a little predjudiced, of course). As I write this, he is running through the hallway giggling with glee....so cute! Earlier this evening, he was practicing saying "hiiiiii" and I just really wanted to go get the video camera, but I didn't want to miss anything so no video. Just gotta live in the moment sometimes. :)

Nicholas had a fun birthday party on May 31 (this past Sunday) and did very well in the gift area. Have to admit that I had to be reminded that some of the toys are his and not mine! A popup "play tent" shaped like a school bus, an Elmo that is like a Mr. Potato Head, a Cool Fire Engine, fun puzzles and a weird tribble-like ball as well as always useful gift cards were some of the spoils. Because Nicholas isn't much for opening gifts yet, I have some thank you notes to write. Of course, my dear little boy has made off with the list of gifts and who gave them to him so I now get to prove that my mind is still sharp and can remember such things on its own! :)

To backtrack a little, the chocolate business is quite amusing for me. I now get to feel like someone on the food network everytime I have a party. I get to demonstrate how to make yummy treats and teach entertaining ideas while making people happy. It is way easier to get someone to book a chocolate tasting party, I've learned, than it is to get them to do a candle party. Way easier! I actually served some of our products at Nicholas' birthday party which I should mention we held at Nancy Lewis park here in C/S. A lot less exciting than the zoo for some, but perfect for Nicholas who ran all over the place, enjoyed the swings and managed to get his first mild sunburn. Oops. Thankfully, it was very mild and cooled down quickly.

He's quite a dare devil lately and is getting lots of scrapes and scratches. Kind of annerving for a Mommy, but I'm surviving. Yesterday afternoon was one of the best, he fell down in the kitchen and cut his chin open. Wow. Took Grandma Nina and I close to 10 minutes to calm him down just a little. Thank goodness for the puppy Grandma and Grandpa Allen gave to him!

Speaking of my parents they were able to attend the birthday celebration and also were able to stay with us for a couple of days. That was really nice. Nicholas and I will get to see them again next week when we go down to Lamar where I've scheduled a few little chocolate tasting parties (really need to get a set of invitations out for the party my mother and I are hosting!). I am looking forward to that.

Nicholas is currently seeing a music therapist to help encourage him to vocalize a little more. He isn't talking as much as a kid his age should be apparently, but he certainly is sharp as a tack. He knows what he wants, he knows what we want and when the two are not in congruence, he's pretty frustrated. :) He really seems to enjoy the music sessions whether they'll help him talk more or not. We tend to think he may just be more focused on physical-related stuff. He is certainly all boy and enjoys running, climbing and rough housing. :)

Well, that little boy needs to go to sleep (we're running a bit late tonight since we treated him to some ice cream) so I shall say good-bye and go tuck him in. Hopefully he will fall asleep before I do! Talk to you soon!

I Suppose I Should Write Something...

We have a lot going on so it's taken some doing to get here to write a quickie hello and let you know about some of our fun times lately. I wish I could say I see a slow down soon, but probably not for a few months. Eventually everything will fall into place and things will be easy breezy - I just know it.

So, first, we'll talk Nicholas. He's such a big little boy now. Goodness, it's hard to believe he's going to turn 18 months at the end of this month. He's wearing 2T clothes right now for the most part. His hair has really come in and it is still red, red, red...and gorgeous. Oh he is such a cute little guy!

For Halloween, Nicholas dressed up like a little zebra. When he took his hat off, he resembled an adorable (if that is possible) escaped convict. I need to clean his costume so I can dress him up in it and get some more pictures. I was a bit under the weather on Halloween so I didn't get many and whether any are good is debateable. ;)

Mark is doing well with a new guide dog that joined our family the 1st of October. Her name is Charlotte and she is a cute black lab. She's shedding all over the place and driving me a bit nuts with hair, but I'm dealing.

Nicholas loves Charlotte. Thanks to her, he is now a pro at playing fetch. He gets the ball from either Mark or I, runs to the kitchen, throws it and Charlotte grabs it brings it back to Mark or I and then the process starts again. If you get a chance to watch this, you'll love how happy Nicholas gets.

He's also been perfecting his ability to climb stairs and has also managed to figure out how to open doors and drawers in the house. The drawer opening resulted in a couple of incidents where his changing table and he got up close and personal and so Mark devised what I call the "Macgyver Kiddie Proof System." He's tied rope around three door handles and has fixed up a couple more for drawers in the kitchen. It's pretty ingenius and I figure I better take some pictures so that the rest of the world can adopt our super inexpensive baby-proofing idea. :)

My Scentsy business is doing well. I had a party last weekend that had great sales. :) I also went to Lamar the weekend of Halloween (with the fam) and sold most of my scent bar inventory. Now I'm slowly trying to whittle down my warmer inventory. This weekend will be another opportunity as I'm participating in an Open House I organized with Cookie Lee Jewelry, Mary Kay, Upper Case Living and Bubble Goddess Bath Company. It's sure to be a great time! Please stop by the office (4740 Flintridge Dr.) between 10 and 3 on Saturday if you can and see what we all have to offer...there will be treats!

As for Mark's practice, things are going well. He's been taking steps to ensure the patients become more acquainted with him and we've all been perfecting our ability to use the new software program. It is really pretty nice especially since it seems that I may be able to keep up and not get far behind like I was for a while there with the accounting.

We've had a few changes in our staff and now have a fabulous team that we think will help us make it very successful. Our front desk person is a real go-getter and loves to ensure that the accounting side of things is right. I love her.

We are having a grand opening for Metro Health Services on November 19 if you would like to attend. It will take place from noon to 6 p.m. and we're looking forward to it! Mark has a promotion to do a free exam of some sort (I don't have all the details) for new patients on this day...give the office a call (email me for the number if you need it) - this is the perfect time to get yourself in our doors and on the road to better health! :)

Back again...

I didn' t realize I hadn't posted here for so long. I guess we've been keeping me otherwise occupied. :)

I have been having lots of fun with my business and Nicholas and I've been keeping pretty busy with Mark's practice as well. Hopefully at some point I'll feel like I'm not a chicken with its head cut off. ;)

This weekend was a good one. We went to a party for Mark's networking group in Manitou Springs. It was such fun and even more so since I was able to share my Scentsy products with the ladies in attendance. They were all quite pleased and placed several orders which is great since I have three left before my first 60 days is over and I'm hoping to hit one more level before that is up!

There was so much food at the party since we all brought something to share....kalua pork, salsa, potato salad, etc. We brought what I named the "Dolly Madison Zinger Trifle." If you are a trifle snob, I'll be the first to admit, it is *not* a true trifle...it's probably closer to a mess, but I prefer to call it a trifle and since it isn't likely to be published in a culinary masterpiece, I'm sure you'll go with me on it. It was composed of coconut cake (the same as for Nicholas' birthday cake which, erhem, I was going to recreate, but when the cake comes out in pieces, a trifle it becomes!), raspberry jam, shredded coconut, coconut pudding and whipped cream for good measure. It was really pretty and very tasty...especially the next day after it was able to sit around for a while. I think I might just have to mess up another cake so I can make it a day ahead of time because there weren't many leftovers to enjoy that second day! ;)

Yesterday was a very productive day for me as well. The downstairs office area is now useable space...not a dumping ground as it has been acting. It was a necessary change since the computer I am currently typing on will be taking a little trip to the geeks at Best.Buy to fix its speakers. They are just awful and we've just not taken care of it....laziness for part of the time and then, well, I didn't have another computer out and available so that was an issue, but not anymore! I think it will be nice to have a desk again and I'm hoping it will lead to the kitchen table being nice and organized rather than looking like a desk with tons of in process projects. :)

We're having pictures of Nicholas taken again today. We're doing a few makeups for lighting problems and what not with his 12 month pictures. The pictures will be taken at the Broadmoor so we're sure to have some really lovely ones when all is said and done....hopefully Nicholas will be in a better mood today, too!

Little Bitty Baby Steps...

Nicholas scares me. Well, okay, he doesn't, but his latest attempts at mobility do. We're up to about 8 steps at a time. They're teeny, they're tiny and they foreshadow the end of my concern over whether I'll ever lose those last 6 pounds of pregnancy weight. (I will...it's just a slower process when you're not excercising as much as you'd like).

This all started on Monday night (7/14) in earnest. Prior to this, Nicholas had taken a step here, a step there, and then three steps that morning on his way into the kitchen. He just improved exponentially such that by that evening, as he and I were waiting in the hall where we'd gone as a family to listen to a lecture about the wonders of coconut for diet and healing (we love coconut anything around here!), he did it...5 steps. Wow.

Since then, he tries his "feet" several times per day and I get excited each time and cheer him on while in the back of my mind I think "Don't encourage him!" But, of course, I must though the end result means he's growing up and I'm going to be chasing a toddler around.

But he's not just any toddler. He is an Amazon toddler...just ask all the people who keep asking me if he's two years old. Ugh. No! He's only a little over a year...please don't grow him up faster! He's just so dang tall that people can't believe he's just around 13.5 months. I see three year olds who are shorter than this little guy. Wow.

In other news, I had a great grand opening experience the second time around and this weekend my final one will be in Lamar. I didn't get to publicize it as well as I'd like (and I blame teething again), but I'm sure there will be at least a few visitors to my little show if for no other reason than I mentioned Nicholas would be there on the invitation!

One thing I did learn on Saturday is that our room sprays are PHENOMENAL!!! I never would have guessed they would be so effective and long lasting. I sprayed the stuff upstairs in our office building to help people find their way to the party at 10 a.m. I did not respray it...I didn't have time. And, you know what, I didn't need to. I kid you not, when I came upstairs when it was all over, it smelled just as good as when I'd first sprayed it. That was at 4 p.m. the same day. Now here's the super kicker...I came in on Sunday (ugh...I had to or our sales tax return was not going to get done on time) and I actually decided I better leave the outside door cracked because it STILL smelled just as yummy as it had the morning before and I didn't want to aggravate any of our patients' noses on Monday. That is totally awesome, don't you agree?

Our room sprays come in all the scents we offer for $8 each so if you're looking for a quick way to freshen up a room, they may be for you! Check them out at my website (www.scentsy.com/gotscent).

And with that, I suppose I shall sign off as there is a little boy here who wants to play chase - fun!