Something amazing happened to me this week. My dream job basically fell into my lap. A phone call from out of the blue saying "Hey, we have someone leaving, would you be interested?" and a short interview and few phone calls later, and I'm officially employed by my vet clinic. I've wanted to work at this clinic for the past 11 years and have wanted to work in a vet clinic since I was 6.

As excited as I am to begin this new journey, I'm scared too. I actually like my current job. I've been here for several years, I've got friends here, and freedoms that I'll never see again at another job (such as the ability to leave for a doctor's appointment or to run errands without anyone blinking an eye, unlimited internet usage, etc). When I gave my notice yesterday, I felt like I was breaking up with a long time boyfriend, saying "No no, it's not you, it's me. You've been great, but there's someone else, I never meant to hurt you like this...." It. was. hard.

I'm worried about the changes that this will mean for my family. This job starts earlier and sometimes runs later. This means Mason will no longer be able to sleep until 7:30 in the morning - he'll now already be at daycare by then. There might be days where I'm stuck at work and Grandma might have to pick Mason up. I'll be moving from a sedentary job to a running like crazy all day job, so I imagine I will be exhausted the first few weeks until my body adjusts, which means an earlier bedtime and less time with SuperDad. I'm already dreading the unsaid "wish you would have kept your old job" thoughts while we adjust to something new.

I know once we go through the transition period, this is the right move for our family. I'll be making more money, I'll have more time off options down the road, I'll be in better shape, Mason will get more on-on-one time with his Daddy, and one of my dreams is coming true. Since Mason is stuck with a mother with a full time job, he deserves a mother has a job that is her passion instead of a job that just helps pay the bills.  I'll just have to keep reminding us all of that as we adjust. This opportunity is worth the stress and a few weeks/months of chaos is worth the payoff in the end.

And, even though I feel silly stressing about this blog, I still am.... I currently do 95% of all of my blogging and blog reading during the day while at work and barely touch my computer at home. I'm not sure where or when I will fit these things in once I'm spending my time assisting with surgeries and checking in patients instead of sitting in front of the computer all day. I'm sure I'll figure something out, but if come mid February, this blog goes a bit quiet, you know why.

I'm really looking forward to reading this again in 3 months and seeing how much I worried for nothing. Because that's definitely gonna happen, right??

Linking up with

Mason has officially reached the stage where you have to be really careful what you say around him because he is repeating everything! I've caught myself saying stuff (Such as shouting "Okay!!" down the hall in an annoyed voice) and he immediately parrots it, tone and all, and I realize that it's not only the words I say that I need to watch, but the tone of my voice and the way I express myself. It's a whole new world - here I thought I just needed to avoid the curses!

Mason is so curious and is always asking "Momma doIN?! Daddy doIN?!" "Joe doin?!" and has started asking about people who aren't around - this morning he asked "Grandma doin??" and then when I said Grandma was at home, his next question was "Papa (aka Grandpa) doing?!!?" and then when I say "Papa is working." he sadly repeated "Papa workin..."

We did a random outfit change this weekend and we usually don't change clothes unless we're getting ready for swim class or bed. He instantly said "Simming?? Simming Ray-ray??" (His pronounciation of Aarron sounds like Ray-ray to me) and then when I said we weren't going swimming, he said Simming? Ray-ray doin??" It's a good thing their next swim date is less than a week away!

Anything that isn't like it should be is broken. "Light broken!" "TV Broken!" He also demands "Light on" when he walks into a dark room, but doesn't understand off yet.

We're working hard on please and thank you and for the most part, he will parrot it when you say it or if you say "Can you please say please?" half the time he says "Peeez?" and the other half the time he says "Yah!!" and nods his head like "Duh mom, I can say that!"

Last night we stopped at a sub shop and when he saw the pizza spinning in the warmer, he said "Pizza! Pizza runnin!!" which totally cracked me up.

He has randomly said "Excuse me" after burping and if he bumps into you, he'll pat you nicely and say "Sowwy" which is adorable. Those things must have been learned at daycare, because we haven't worked on them at home.

He loves pointing out things he knows in books. His favorite things to point out are lights (of course), trees, kitties, tractors, and cows.

The other day his computer started playing the ABCs and he sang the "ABC" part right along and I about died from the cute. We tried to encourage him to keep going, but he was off and running with something else.

I really want to start taking better notes about what he's saying because he cracks me up at least once a day, but when I sit down to write about it, I only think about the stuff I hear all the time. He's saying a lot of 3-4 word sentences and I definitely want to share more here, so my goal for the next month is to get more down on paper!

What were some of the cute first things your kids said?

This time last year - Balance (one of my favorite posts)

I always want to do those fun "Day in the Life" photo memes like "10 on 10" where you feature pictures throughout your day, but I never remember to actually take the pictures when I'm suppose to, so I decided I don't need a meme to show you our day.

Here is a fairly typical Sunday for Mason and I.

7:50 am  - Mason wakes me up by crying. I want to cry too, as he usually sleeps until 9 and I stayed up watching TV way too late the night before. I give him a cup of orange juice and crawl back into bed.

7:55 am - Mason starts crying again. I go into his room, raise the shade, and put some toys in his crib with him. Crawl back into bed.

8:30 am - Mason is done playing with his toys and we get up for the day. I change his diaper and since it's Sunday, leaving him in his pajamas. I get his laundry ready and run to the bathroom.

I come back to this. Apparently, I forgot to lock the cupboard.

8:45 am - Mason begins his morning by demanding choo choos. I turn the TV on and he stares intently for a short while and then gets his toys out

9:15 Breakfast time! This morning it's oatmeal with strawberry applesauce and some oranges and blueberries.

10:00 Well into playing, Mason decides it's time to go outside. So, he puts on Daddy's shoes and demands "'Side? 'Side?!"

11:00 We play some more and pause to snap a picture together. Apparently, I take sideways pictures.

11:15 We get dressed and ready for our day

11:30 We decide to run some errands and meet my parents at the cafe for some lunch.

I totally failed at afternoon pictures, so picture us getting home at 12:30, playing and playing until about 1:45, and then Mason took a 2+ hour nap.

4:30 - 5:30 Daddy time! SuperDad wakes up and Mason plays with his daddy while I catch up with a friend.

6:15 I get out the Mega Blocks I scored at Goodwill to distract Mason from his Daddy going to work. Mason thinks this is fantastic and screeches in delight.

6:20 - Mason throws the 3rd Megablock right at my head and I put them away.

6:30 Mason practices climbing his new step stool (which is just an inch too short for it's intended use in the bathroom) and decides his socks make better mittens.

6:45 Mason eats dinner, which includes two bites of tuna noodle hotdish, a banana, and some crackers.

7:15 Mason and I play some more. Toy Story 2 plays in the back ground and he plays with his computer, a broom from the broom closet, and drives his tractors around the house. He also has 230948 temper tantrums, cries, and kicks the cat, which puts me not in the mood for taking pictures.

7:45 Bath time! Refer to Friday's butt picture if you need a visual

8:10 pm Mason gets ready for bed. He loves brushing his teeth.

8:16 Cries errupt from Mason's room and I go in to discover that Mason had ripped those doggy slippers off in his bed and was holding them sobbing. I put them back on

8:19 Doggy slippers off and tears again

8:22 Go in and remove doggy slippers and wish him a goodnight for the 5th time

8:26 Silence. Goodnight my little one.

This time last year - Top 10 Reasons I Blog

This time last year - Breakfast at Perkins

After back-to-back sickness in our house that's taken over for the last three weeks (thankfully more of the cold/upper respiratory variety and not the flu, knock on wood) and the snow and cold temperatures that have finally arrived, we've got a serious case of the winter blahs going on around here.

When we get home in the afternoon, Mason demands two things - crackers and choo choos. If it were up to him, he would sit and do nothing all night long but watch his train video (I'm assuming that Cole's Mom knew that Real Trains for Kids might as well be called "Video Crack for Toddlers" when she gave it to Mason for Christmas LOL)

Zombie child

I intentionally put stuff on TV that he's not interested in (which quite frankly, is everything but trains and Yo Gabba Gabba) so he will do other things. And don't worry, I'm not totally clueless, I would leave the TV OFF entirely if it was an option, but that just results in him standing in front of it going "TV Broken! TV Broken!" and pushing all the buttons. So yeah, I would rather have it playing Food Network in the background than having him crying for hours about it being off. Ugh.

Other than his "puter" and his kitchen, most of his new Christmas toys are already old news and he bores quickly these days. Probably just the age, huh? One thing that remains a favorite activity is to put on Mom & Dad's clothes.

Here, he decided he was ready to go out and play. Note that he's got socks on as mittens, SuperDad's hat, and my snow boots. That was all entirely his doing! He stood like this for 5 minutes waiting to go outside.

All things considered, this is the shortest winter in Wisconsin history (we've barely had any snow this year), but I'm already so sick of it! I can't wait until the snow is gone and we can play outside again. I'm more than ready to run in the grass with this little man and he is too!

This time last year - Happy Boy