Randoms

Just in case you hadn't noticed it's December 22nd!!!  I can not wait until Christmas!  It's actually Micah's birthday so Jace and I are meeting him at the Children's Museum in the morning.  We're excited, because this is our first trip there.  I'm hoping Jace has alot of fun now that he's so sturdy on his feet and loves to run around and explore.

Tonight I went to a cookie exchange at my friend Christin's house.  It was an event for our mom's group and everyone brought cookies to share.  We sat around talking and eating delicious food (buffalo chicken cheese dip, goat cheese wontons, smoked salmon wontons, grape tomato/mozzarella/basil sticks with balsamic dip, pickle rolls, weiners, cheese rolls... ok now I'm drooling).  At the end of the night we did a White Elephant gift exchange and I took home a fun santa bowl, a snowman candle holder, and some chocolate covered pretzels.  I was pretty excited because I hardly have any nice Christmas decor of my own, and this stuff is really cute!  I also took home lots and lots of different holiday cookies and bars.  They all look delicious, and I know I'm going to be asking some of the girls for recipes!  I brought chocolate toffee bars (my all time favorite) and chow mein noodle cookies to share.  I love Christmas!

On the 23rd we are planning to get dinner and drinks with friends for my birthday.  We're going to Washington Square in downtown White Bear Lake.  I specifically picked this location because I'm really going to miss being so close to the cute old area of town.  It will be a nice way to say goodbye to this city that I've grown to love.  I'm hoping no more blizzards come through and ruin my plans!  I can walk there, so I'll be there rain or snow.  :)

We have 5 different Christmas gatherings planned, and I wouldn't have it any other way.  I love Christmas and I love seeing as many different people as we can.  It doesn't get hectic or old for me at all.  I'm super excited to see Jace open gifts this year, I'm hoping he'll actually do some of the unwrapping himself, instead of me doing most of it.  Since we'll be out and about from Christmas Eve morning until late on Christmas Day, without stopping at home, we decided to push back our little family of 3's Christmas plans until the morning of the 26th.  We plan to spend the morning here opening stockings and gifts, and making a nice breakfast together.  Later that afternoon we will be going to my aunts house to see my extended family.

Oh, I should mention that it's currently 1 am and I just posted two other blogs minutes ago.  I can't sleep, I've been having insomnia pretty bad lately.  I think it's a combination of stress and feeling under the weather.  I've had a cough since Thanksgiving, and although it's not that bad, I've just been feeling really run down all day and uncomfortable at night.  Last week Tate actually caught me sleep walking.  I've never done this before, but it happened on two different nights.  I woke Tate up screaming that I couldn't find Jace and was walking all around the apartment trying to find his room.  I think it really scared him until he realized I was asleep.  I tried to google causes for adult sleep walking and all I came up with were: stress, anxiety, being overly tired, changes in sleep patterns... etc etc.  Well, yea, I guess that all makes sense considering we've been traveling, I've been working different hours, and we're planning a life changing move... right around the holidays!  I'm not too worried about the sleep walking thing, I doubt it will happen again, I really just think it was a random thing.  At least, I hope it was.

Today was my last day of work.  It was pretty weird to leave the office and know that I wasn't going to be going back.  I mean, of course I'll be back there at some point before we move since we live on site, but it won't be behind the desk anymore.  It was a pretty low key day, just trying to get some last minute stuff done and tie up some loose ends.  A couple residents stopped by to wish me well and one even dropped off a nice card.  It's very strange to suddenly be unemployed, it hasn't quite hit me yet.  A month ago, I thought I was going to lose my mind trying to juggle Micah and Jace all day, while working in the office in the evening, doing hair after that, and then cleaning the building and shoveling side walks... oh, and I suppose trying to be a full time mother and take care of the house.  Let's just say it's a HUGE change to all of a sudden have... nothing.  I can just focus my time on Jace, and on getting things organized for our move, oh and maybe actually cooking well balanced meals for once!

I knew there were some other things I was going to update about, but I've suddenly lost my train of thought, I must be getting tired finally.  Better head to bed before it passes!  If I don't post again before the Holidays... hope everybody has a fantastic Christmas!