Let's spend all the money

So in my post from the other day (Happy 6 years!) I told you that I'd totally abused my credit card the next day at Gap...   Instead of writing a blog post with the words: cute, adorable and little said way too many times, I decided that I would instead make a video and post it to YouTube.

I did buy lots of adorable and cute things, you should watch it.  It doesn't have as many cool bloopers as my last video but hey, they can't all be that great!  Haha!

Feel free to check out what I bought and make fun of me as I make fun of myself... just don't be mean... being mean isn't cool.  There are too many mean people in the world we need more nice people who smile a lot.

If you watch this you should definitely turn it into a fun game involving the words: cute, adorable and little.

I'm a glorified...

I'm an Instagram whore.  I mean, even my husband knows that if I'm on my phone 90% of the time I'm on Instagram.  I just can't help it.  I love pictures.  I'm so into pictures that I was a little sad that Instagram upgraded to have videos.  Or maybe just impatient... let's be real, I'm totally impatient and hate to wait for a video to load.

I know that they need to upgrade to compete with things like Vine but sometimes I hate change.  This is one change that I wasn't in love with but that's just me. 

I get so distracted so easily... this whole top rant isn't even about this post.  All you needed to know was I was on IG and there was a post by a person that I follow that asked people what they did.  The person who posted the question also said what she did.  There were a surprising number of nurses. 

What caught my eye were the number of people that started their response with, "I'm a glorified..."  

This statement made me sad.  

I don't care what you do don't just say you are, "a glorified (fill in the blank)"  Every person who said that in response to that post made me think, "but we need you to fill that role."  I mean the people who were saying that were accountants, nannies, secretaries and stay at home moms.  I mean there were more but those are the ones that I can think of right now.  

SAD.

Please don't ever feel like you aren't as valuable as you are.  If you aren't a criminal doing horrible things to people then there is no reason to be ashamed of what you do.  Some times I feel like there so many boasting about what they do and how important it is that people who don't glorify their job feel like they are inadequate. 

Be proud of what you do!  If you aren't proud of what you do, find something that does make you proud and happy.  I mean I don't always wake up happy about what I do but at the end of the day I am definitely no ashamed of what I do.

There are people who understand that without me or someone to fill my position that there would be a gaping hole in business.  I am an accountant.  It is not glamorous but it is important and I never feel ashamed to tell someone that I am a number cruncher.  

I may be an accountant but that is just one component of my life.  Not only am I an accountant, I am a: 

• mom
• wife
• sister
• daughter
• granddaughter
• aunt
• niece
• woman
• college graduate
• misunderstood comedian
• amateur photographer
• dog lover
• happy cook
• an important person

I'm sure I am more than those few things but the point is that I am not just those things.  I am all of those things and more.  There are people who are looking at me knowing that I need to fulfill those roles and expect that I will.

Please be proud of who you are.

If you aren't proud of who you are and what you do... CHANGE.  

how appropriate that my best friend pinned this to my Pinterest as I wrote this post

Change isn't always a fast thing but taking steps, no matter how small towards what you really want is all that matters.

Dear Santa,

What a cute little printable! She's got lots more too!

I've never written a letter to Santa. I've never believed in Santa. My daughter is celebrating her second Christmas I started to wonder about what I'm going to teach my daughter about Christmas.

She's a December baby so she wasn't aware of the festivities on her first Christmas but as she has  grown over the year she has become a sponge of all that is around her.  For the last few years my husband and I didn't even put up a Christmas tree or decorate. It was just the two of us and we were not home to celebrate because as a couple without children we did the running around.

As I considered what we were going to do about decorations and such I started to wonder what am I going to teach my daughter about Christmas. The older I get the more or seems that people are just worried about what they're getting from "Santa". I never believed in "Santa". My older brother did but according to my parents it was short lived. Maybe as my older brother he thought he was helping me with (future) disappointment in life or my parents decided it wasn't worth it.  I always knew he, as in a fat guy who came down the chimney to drop off presents, wasn't real.

http://content.hollywire.com/sites/default/files/Rudolph_and_Santa.jpg

From a fairly early age I was taught why Christmas is celebrated. As an adult it means much more to me now then it ever has. As a kid and even as a teen I was aware of the why but never really took the time to really think about it. My parents were the kind of people who went to church at Easter and Christmas, they didn't push it. They did work hard to make sure we got most of what we wanted.  We always got at least one gift from Santa but I knew that he wasn't real and that my parents had just put "Love, Santa" on a special gift.  

I don't think that my husband and I are going to teach my daughter to believe in Santa but she will know who he is.  To us it is more important that we teach her what Christmas is really about not about what to expect.  I know that we have great a great support group who respects the decisions that we make about what we teach to her.  

So sorry Santa, you probably won't really be getting letters from my child (or other future children).

A cute little cartoon Santa Claus

Not Very Thankful

Today we had a work meeting with my whole office and somehow we got on the topic of Christmas.  Now as much as I love a celebration, I feel like people are not very thankful.  It's like Halloween happens and then we're ready for Christmas.  Since Thanksgiving is nearly smack dab in the middle of the two holidays I feel like it should get the same respect as the other two holidays.  

Thank you The English Room

If you know me you would know that I love Halloween more than any other holiday even if people have turned it into "be as slutty as possible for one day".  I still find the whole idea of taking the time to get dressed up and put together a costume very exciting.  I love it so much I personally sewed my 10.5 month baby a Minnie Mouse costume by hand just so that she would have a unique outfit.  We went out with my nephew trick-or-treating in a small downtown even though we didn't get candy.  For me it is so very fun.  I hope that she will feel the same way when she is older and can make her own decisions (and if not hopefully she'll do it for me *fingers crossed*).

Back to the point of this whole post... once Halloween is over the stores drop the orange and green like a hot potato and are on to red and green.  It always baffles me how much less respect Thanksgiving is given each year.  As I get older I am trying to learn the fine art of enjoying each stage of things as they happen including giving each holiday it's own time and respect.  

I really started to get into this mode of thinking once my daughter was born. I'm not that girl who's really into little babies.  I think they are cute but I don't need to hold a baby when I see one.  When my daughter was born I realized there were going to be stages of her life that I am not going to enjoy as much as others so I made a deal with myself that I would enjoy each stage as it came.  So far this has been one of the greatest things about watching her grow up.  I'm not trying to rush anything but letting each stage grow and bud as it fits her.

I feel the same way about the holidays.  I know that people are really excited for December festivities but there is too much focus on buying stuff and not enough on enjoying what we have and things that we can't purchase.  It really disgusts me that stores in an effort to build up their bottom line are interrupting a holiday meant to be spent with family just to get people to the stores faster.  I know that it won't be changing any time soon but I sure hope that we get back to the days were we really remember things to be thankful for.