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My life as a working mom was short lived, and now it's over. I worked a total of 4 days before I went crazy missing my baby! There were more reasons than just that for my quitting, but that's the big one.  Fortunately I didn't have to stress about daycare, since my mom, Dave's mom, and two sister-in-laws were watching Logan while I was away. Lack of sleep played into it (I was getting about 5 hours in 3 and 2 hour chunks per night). But the more I got trained on what I would be doing, the more I realized what work wanted me to do wasn't exactly honest.

My job consisted of creating fake jobs/applications for people to fill out. If they "qualified" for the fake job we sold their information to some company looking for people looking for nursing/plumbing/whatever jobs. If they didn't qualify, we sold their information to schools looking for nursing/plumbing/whatever schools. With so many people needing a job right now, I felt really bad wasting their time with this kind of crap.

It was hard to quit, Dave had to give me several pep talks, and we had to go to the temple the night before. But I feel good about the decision now that it's made. It will be best for our family in the long run. So for the first time since I was 14, I don't have a job indefinitely (since I was 11 if you count my paper route). It's a really strange feeling knowing I don't plan to work for a while.

But it's good too. The house will not be constantly a mess (as it was last week). We will have real food on the table at night (not frozen dinners). We will have our laundry washed and put away ever Wednesday. I might even find the time to plant some bulbs in the front of the yard. Crazy, I know. But most of all, I get to spend every day with this guy:

Changes

I started work again on Monday. I thought I was exhausted before? Right. That's nothing compared to this! I have a new respect for the working mom, but more so for the working single mom. I don't know how people can do this for years! I'm completely exhausted.

I've been given a new job with a new boss. I'm sad to no longer work with my Affiliates, but I'm so glad to have a new boss! Two months before my maternity leave I had gotten a "new" boss and he and I didn't work well together. So I'm glad to be working with Dave (not the husband, my boss) and Dal. I mentioned I would like to work part time when we discussed this change, and I'm hoping that will be possible. We'll see how this week goes though.

I'll start my training this afternoon. Right now I'm just biding my time until the girl I'll be taking over for will have time to start teaching me. She's been really nice about this, and will be moving into a position she's been hoping to take over for a little while now. It's strange not having any work to do when I'm used to being so busy. But maybe I'll run to the bank or something to bide my time until I'm needed. I hate not having anything to do.

I'm busy, busy, shockingly busy!

I swear I never have time to blog any more! Logan keeps me pretty busy, and we've just had a lot going on!

Logan was blessed on October 9th and most of our immediate family was able to be there. We didn't get great pictures (we tried, but had a bad case of closed eyes), so this is the best I've got! First is Logan on the blanket I made him dressed in his baby blessing suit. Dave and I bought the duck in the picture the day before Logan was born.

What can I say, Logan was having a fussy afternoon, but we'll take more family pictures later!

The week after Logan's blessing was spring break. So Dave and I took Logan down to Zions for his first vacation! He cried most of the way down, had two diaper explosions and had to eat twice. Needless to say it was the longest drive to the cabin we've ever made!

But once we got there Logan slept better than he does at home! He slept through the night twice (he's only done that twice now at home, once before, and once two nights ago). He didn't love hiking (hates the baby backpack and doesn't nap well while hiking), but we're breaking him in!

Dave & Logan on Hidden Canyon Trail

We only ended up doing 3 hikes with him: Emerald Pools (he did great), The Overlook (cried the whole hike up, but was good hiking back), and Hidden Canyon (WHAT were we thinking!). We did Hidden Canyon when I was about 5 months pregnant, and I remember it being a little strenuous, but nothing impossible.

Observation Point

Well... it was a lot harder with a baby! Not physically, but the trail is narrow and there are three chained place to cross. Nothing as intense as Angels Landing, but still! I had to stop and feed Logan twice, and let's be honest, it was very difficult to find a place to sit down and feed him on that narrow trail! At the end, Dave went on ahead, because I wasn't comfortable crossing the chains with Logan in my arms. He said it wasn't as pretty as the last time we hiked it (the river and waterfalls had dried up). We learned our lesson!

Dave, Amy & Logan on Hidden Canyon Trail

We also got to bring Logan to my grandparents so they (and Aunt Dorris) could meet Logan. Unfortunately it was fussy hour for the little guy, so they didn't get to see him at his best. Grandpa said he'll hold Logan when he's big enough to teach hearts.

Now we're back, and I'm getting everything ready around the house so I can go back to work next week. I'm really not excited; I'll miss Logan like crazy, but unfortunately a necessary evil for a little while. I've got about 5 frozen meals in the freezer (mostly home made) that will help us get through next week, and now I'm working on getting the house spotless! That way I don't have to worry about house work or cooking while adjusting.

Two Months!

Logan had his two month check-up and is now in the 10th percentile! So all that eating is paying off. He's now 9 lbs 12 oz and 21.5 inches. The doctor says he looks perfect! He had to get his immunization shots, which was so sad! They made him drink one; he didn't like that but he didn't start crying yet. But when they gave him three shots in his little legs, he cried like crazy! It was so sad, I had to feed him to calm him down. And then his legs were sore for the next few days.

In other news, I won my first online contest! I thought it was my first contest until I remembered winning a radio contest back in my first year of college. But I don't think that counts since it was a school radio station, my friend was the DJ, and so few people listened to the station that it hardly counts!

One of the blogs I follow had a contest to win a free Martha Stuart book (with crafts for all of the major holidays). All you had to do to enter was share a crafting memory. It could be funny, a disaster, touching, whatever made for a good story. There were five winners and I was one of them!

My prize winning story was when I was in Merry Miss and we were doing a craft for Mother's Day. Tanya Moe was struggling with her craft, and in frustration she turned to me and said "Amy, do this for me or I'll beat you up!"

Now, if you know Tanya, you know she really wouldn't beat me up, intact, she threatened of this several times in our childhood, and not once was I scared she actually would. She was just frustrated by her weakness. But anyway, this  is the prize winning story that won out over all the "When I was young I made xxxxxx with my grandma. Now that she's dead I cherish the reminder of our time together.

October Means Halloween

The past two weeks have been pretty busy for the Plastow household! Logan decided he needed to eat more (30 minutes per side every two hours), but this week he's back down to his normal 20 minutes per side every 3 hours. Which is good, because I couldn't get anything done when he was eating that much!

I did learn to hand sew while nursing, so I've been working on all kinds of hand sewing projects. I was able to finish Heather's baby Brier's crochet blanket this way. It turned out pretty cute! I also designed and finished a Halloween door hanging for the back door.

This project ended up costing $3.33 total. I got most of the felt free from my Grandma Yoder (just had to buy the orange), the ribbon I had left over from our wedding (used it to tie my bouquet), so I just had to buy plastic canvas to make the felt more sturdy and the thick black string. This made me want to create something out of felt for Thanksgiving (if I find the time).

Finishing this decoration made me feel the intense need to decorate for Halloween! I bought some candy corn in honor of my mom and put them in a glass jar on the coffee table. I pulled out our autumn wreath to put on the front door, put out a basket of decoration leaves and fruit I found last year after halloween for $2, and found some cool squash at the grocery store that I suppose you could eat, but let's be honest, these are going to be decorating the house until they rot! They're too cute to eat.

We've also taken to dressing Logan up in a variety of  costumes to practice for the big night. Dave's favorite is putting one of my bandannas on Logan's head and calling him a pirate. My favorite is this glow in the dark skeleton costume

What can I say, we had so much fun that day taking pictures! Logan has started reacting to our smiles, so it's now a lot easier to get cute pictures of him smiling or giggling. He's also started having "conversations" with us. If we're talking to him, he'll coo back when there's a pause in the conversation. It's so cute and we have tons of fun just chatting with him and getting him to smile.

This Sunday is Logan's baby blessing so I've been working on altering his baby blessing outfit to fit him perfectly. He's pretty skinny, so I had to take it in on the sides, and I raised the legs a few inches so he doesn't get his feet caught inside them. It should turn out well, and should be done by Sunday. I think for our next boy I'll just make him a little suit (or maybe a little tux with a bow-tie if I get ambitious). From the alterations on this one, I don't think it would be too hard.