I lied.

I made an emphatic promise that I would blog more and I dropped the ball.  Since I've been working full time, I've managed to accomplish very little in my personal life...  My house is a wreck, the finances have been neglected, and all my pictures are in camera purgatory.  The latter is probably the source of my poor blogging habits.  And if I think about it, we aren't much better off financially considering the cost of gas and vending machines...  Hmmm.  So why don't I hate my job??  Why am I applying for a permanent position here??  First of all, it's nice to get out of the house.  While I miss my days with Allison terribly, I think it has been very beneficial to have a part of my life that is just mine...  with adults.  And even if it is only temporary, I have stopped singing the Wheels on the Bus 14 hours a day.  It's also been a great opportunity for Matt to spend more time with Allison.  I think we both have a greater appreciation for each other and our responsibilities.  And I'm sure that the extra money will eventually makes its presence known.  So, I'm leaving the future of my career with AEIS up to fate, trusting that everything will work out as it's meant to be.  In the meantime, I won't make any additional promises, however, I will at least attempt to save my pictures from an empty life on my camera's memory card and post some for your viewing pleasure.  (Allison looked so cute on Thanksgiving and it would be waste not to share them!)

Bad blogger! Bad, bad blogger!

Ahhh.... I remember the days before Facebook when I used to check the blogs everyday... Now I'm lucky if I remember to check them every other week! But I'm making a promise that I will be better about updating, especially since I have quite a bit of free time at my temp job. After a month of being employed at AEIS (American Express Incentive Services) I feel comfortable taking orders, but am still learning all the specifics on routing different client inquiries. Being a temp, training is based on a need to know basis so I get quite frustrated when I encounter a question I can't answer. I am used to assisting customers with all their inquiries, so this is very different for me to be so limited in my capabilities. Not to say that I don't like it here, because I do. But I'm hesitant to put down any roots since I will only be here for another 7ish weeks. It does make me miss my old job. But I know that my goal is to ultimately stay home with Allison, so that keeps me looking forward!

Allison is doing great... She is sitting up completely unassisted with only the occaisional fall and is trying to crawl. Just in the last few days she has gotten on her knees and began to rock. I'd be willing to bet that she is crawling by 8 months! Sometimes I think she struggles with me leaving her, especially at the beginning of the week, but I'm very glad that Grandma can make the drive to our house so that she can maintain some kind of stability. And I know that the extra daddy-daughter time has been good for both her and Matt.

Other than that, we've been staying busy the last month with Katie and Ian's wedding festivities, our Halloween party, and Team Challenge events. Training was tough last month since the last thing I wanted to do on my time off was leave Allison to go walk, but November is a little quieter, so it shouldn't be so hard. And if the beautiful weather continues, she can keep me company! We were able to complete 6 miles on Sunday and my speed was better than what I need to finish the 13.1 miles in Vegas within 4 hours. The other exciting news is that I have almost hit my $2600 fundraising goal!!! I'd like to reach the $3600 mark, so please consider contributing. Even $5 or $10 would be greatly appreciated!

I think that's all for now, but I'll try to post some pics of Allison when I get home, but since most of you are on FB, you can also see them there...

Ba

Allie's first word?? She said it very clearly this morning while eating her oatmeal, so I'm wondering if she was trying to tell me she was ready for her ba-ba (bottle)?? Matt doesn't think it counts but I bet if it had been Da, he would've been all over it!!