I'm sorry I'm new here...

Can you believe it? Two blogs in one week! I know, I am pretty amazed myself. This has been a pretty good week. I began my new job at the scrapbook store, Memories in Bloom, and I officially feel really dumb. This retail business is entirely new to me. I have never worked in retail or with a cash register before so I feel totally lost. My first day was Tuesday. I worked from 9 am to almost 6 and boy was my brain tired. My boss crammed so much info into our day it was crazy. I am pretty excited though. I have so much to learn. I thought I knew a bit about paper crafting and scrapbooking, but wow! There are so many products and designer labels to know about. We also carry a line of die cutters called QuicKutz and I will need to know them forward and backward. Today was our store yard sale where people could sign up to sell their gently used items for store credit. I had to be at our store around 6:30 in order to pack up and load all of the boxes and help take them to the hotel conference room where we had the actual sale. We opened the doors at 10 am and you would not have believed how many people were lined up outside the door more than an hour in advance. Scrapbookers are serious about these kinds of things. We did have a perk of working the sale and that was first dibs! I got to put back anything I wanted to buy as we were setting everything out. I got some great deals! Hopefully next week I will feel more confident about using the register...so many ins and outs of the program to remember!

Jack and Jill...

Okay, I know it has been a while. What can I say? I'll try harder!

We have been pretty busy over the past several weeks. I think we finally feel settled. It feels like we have been here for a while now and we know our way around. I even feel like I can navigate around post a bit too.

Joe's rotations are in full swing as he just finished up four weeks of OB/GYN and began Neurology today. I think he was surprised at how much he did not mind the OB rotation and I enjoyed hearing his stories every day. He has now delivered several babies and one of the midwives said he was the best PA student she has ever worked with. He also got along really well with most of the Doctors. All in all it was a decent rotation he said. Today was his first day in Neurology. He was not too enthused when he got home. Good thing he only has four days left! Next week he begins his two week rotation in Opthomology. I hope we can get a blog out of him soon!!!

I too have managed to find a few things besides cooking dinner and doing laundry to keep me busy. Now that our house is finally settled in I have had more time to begin organizing a "crafty" space for me. We are fortunate enough to have a bonus room in our house and when we chose this house we planned on making this space a space for me to house my creative supplies. The plan is to purchase a new desk for me to use so that I do not have to clutter up the kitchen table. Right now I have a nice little card table where I can leave my latest project out and not have to worry about getting dinner all over it! And...it looks like I will need more space for my supplies because I just got a new job at a local scrapbook store!!! I am pretty excited! The store is called Memories in Bloom, and I had gone there several times. I am on their email list and saw they were hiring. I decided that a little extra cash couldn't hurt and decided to apply. I will be learning all sorts of new things, and assisting others in creating projects as well as selling scrapbook supplies. I have really been apprehensive about any retail type jobs, but I decided that this one was a little different. I don't feel like it will really be work or a job where I have to "push" products. I get to start tomorrow so wish me luck!

I have also been spending quite a bit of time with the one, the only...Jack Butler! Jack is the son of one of my oldest (since 3rd grade!) and bestest friends, Amber. She is like a sister to me, and Jack is pretty much like a nephew to us. I am referred to as Auntie Jill (Amber came up with that one when he was born), and I fondly call him Jack-a-roo! Amber and her husband Chris live about an hour from Clarksville in Paris, TN. We have been keeping the road hot as we have not lived this close to each other in like nine years!!! Jack is now 14 months old and is such a cutie! Over the past two weeks I have been watching Jack a couple of days while Amber is substituting for a teacher friend while she had surgery. He is all boy and busy! We have had so much fun together. I have taken him to his Kindermusik class, and I have to say this was a lot of fun. I would love to do this with my kids someday. It is a class that incorporates music and movement to encourage cognitive thinking and development in babies and young children. There is an instructor that leads the class and most of the class you are interacting with your child and the music. She also tells you what each activity is teaching them and how it affects brain development. Jack loves this class! He loves music and has blast. I loved it too because it went right along with many of the things I have studied as an educator about early childhood development. It made me feel a bit smart, and I also have confidence in this program because I know they know what they are talking about. Anyway it was quite an enjoyable experience! Jack and I have also watched a little Diego together, ate some mac and cheese, and climbed everything in the house! I have learned that everything is climb-able. He loves to sit in the middle of the coffee table. I get to watch him two more days this week and then Amber is finished. I am a little sad because I have enjoyed our time together so much. It has been fun while it lasted! I have put a couple of pictures him on here from a couple of weeks ago. He came to stay with us while Chris and Amber had a date night. He'll melt your heart!!! (Don't be fooled though, he is a MESS!!)