Like a Bandit in Staying Connected

It has been A WHILE since I’ve updated considering my usual frequency of updates. I’m happy to report that things have improved tremendously.

Christmas was… impressive. I’m not sure what other word to use. I got literally every single thing on my Amazon wish list except for two pairs of $100+ earrings, which I didn’t really expect to get anyway. (I’m just trying to drop hints to my husband to increase the quality of jewelry purchases, but we had $100 budgets for this holiday.) Still, I feel like I made out like a bandit.

A couple of my favorite things include a new, 18” wall clock for our living room; a massive 22oz bottle of my favorite, expensive face wash (that I could not justify buying for myself); two different kinds of expensive face lotions that feel like heaven on my skin; a bathroom fridge to keep face lotions and rollers in; two sets of bed sheets that match our bedroom décor; two frying pans (life-changing for me, who makes scrambled eggs every morning); a hands free soap dispenser (another item that makes me feel extra fancy); a new pair of boots; three work shirts; and a book about starting small businesses.

If that seems like a lot of shit, you should see how much my kid got. Holy cow. I don’t remember ever getting as much as she got! As I’ve written about, we got her a kitchenette, some pretend play food, a wardrobe, two princess dresses, and stocking stuffers (which included play doh, play doh cutters, and a play doh rolling pin; toddler nail polish; bath toys; and a set of Finding Dory action figures). She also got stuff from my husband’s sister, my sister and my brother, both sets of grandparents, her great grandma, plus three of my husband’s aunts. Christmas rained on this kid. She got nearly everything on her Amazon wish list AND her birthday is still coming next weekend. I won’t even bother listing everything she got. It would take forever.

I’m genuinely surprised that I’ve been able to find homes for all of her new things and I’ve already put all of her stuff (and my stuff) away. At least as much as I can by myself. We have to reorganize our condo again (like we do any time we get any significant new items). I need my husband to help move a rocking chair out of our daughter’s bedroom into the living room and to disassemble some toy shelves to make room for her new things. We’re planning to work on this on New Year’s Eve.

In addition to all that, my pregnancy symptoms are finally starting to let up, which is actually surprising because I’m only at week 12 and I wasn’t expecting any relief until week 13 (what the internet predicted) or 14 (which is when Terra said she felt better). I feel way less sick and tired. Today I was able to get much more done than I’ve been able to get done in a day for weeks. I’m particularly excited about two new canvases of family photos that I ordered to replace a canvas display in my living room.

The last thing I’ll mention is that my husband has totally laid off the whole “we have to buy a house” thing he was on, which is a huge relief to me. I’m thinking of quitting my first job so that I can go full time at my new job since it pays significantly more. I just need to do a little more brainstorming about what that’s going to look like (eg. if I can somehow get my clients to legally come with me to my new job) before I do anything rash. We shall see.

Hope you all had a pleasant holiday and that you all have a wonderful new year <3