the story of my life...

...in 250 words or less

I follow the blog Story of My Life and Jenni, the blogger had a post early this week sharing her life in 250 words.  It was the first post in her series of blog every day in May challenge. Needless to say I failed this challenge since today is May 3rd! I thought I would share a little about my life though, and try to keep it to 250 words or less.

I was born in a suburb of Chicago in the mid 70's. I have two brothers (one older and one younger). I lived in a small town until I was 15 and then moved to an even smaller one.  I was obsessed with Anne of Green Gables (still kind of am). I wanted to be a photojournalist, so I went to a small liberal arts college and majored in Journalism/Communications with a double concentration in Advertising/PR and Graphic Design. I played soccer in college until I got hurt. Met my husband my freshman year and we got engaged my junior year. My first job after college was at a small ad agency in Chicago. Got married in June of 1999.  Moved a lot. Lived in Hilton Head, SC for two years. Got homesick. Moved back to IL and bought our condo. Got a job doing marketing for a park district. Finally got pregnant in 2009 and delivered a healthy baby girl in January 2010. Quit my job at the end of 2011 to stay home. Started doing freelance photography and graphic design last summer and went back to work part time at the park district doing graphic design.  I am so thankful that my career path has afforded me the ability to stay home with my daughter and still do what I love.  Along the way we have acquired two cats, a dog and two hermit crabs! I give thanks every day for the life I have been given.

249 words! Considering I ramble a lot, I am amazed! 

Have a great rest of your day!
Nikki

I Won!

I am so excited!  I enter online giveaways all the time, but never win.  So when I logged on to Facebook and saw that I won, I had to keep checking to make sure it really was me!!

This is what I won!

An amazing bracelet from Kiel James Patrick

I can't wait to get it! 

Have a great rest of your day!

Nikki

Changes

The last four months have held a lot of changes for us.  The two biggest changes are - Gwen is now pacifier free and completely potty trained! We are so proud of our big girl.  Both things happened rather quickly.

Two days before Christmas, Gwen announces she needs to give all her pacis to Santa.  Joe and I were completely in shock.  We thought for sure she would be taking them to college with her :) We went shopping and bought her a little treasure box to put them in and then on Christmas Eve we left them on the counter with a letter to Santa.  Santa was to give all Gwen's pacis to other little children who needed them.  On Christmas morning, in place of the pacis, there were all kinds of big girl presents - nail polish and lip gloss as well as all kinds of princess items. As of that moment we have been pacifier free!

The second big, big change is that Gwen is completely potty trained!  I do owe some of this to my mom.  Gwen spent the last weekend in January at my parent's house and my mom got Gwen to try and use the potty.  I had been trying since her second birthday, the January before, but to no avail.  I was hoping this was the start and she would be potty trained by the time we went on vacation the second week of April.

So on February 1 Gwen and I started potty training full force.  It was definitely frustrating the few days, for both of us, but we made it!  I moved her little potty into the living and set an egg timer for ever 15 minutes. She would hear the timer go off and sit on the potty. We did this for about a week. Next step was just urging her to try every 30 minutes.  We were doing really well.  The other key was to have her wear her big girl undies.  If I put a pull up on her, she would just wet the pull up. We also used dum-dum suckers for her rewards.  I know some people use m&m's, but Gwen doesn't like chocolate. A side note too, Gwen had been waking up dry in the morning for months, so night wetting thankfully has not been an issue.

Week three we moved the potty back into the bathroom and she was doing very well with that. We were still having a few accidents here and there, but on the whole she was doing well, even with pooping on the potty!

We made a deal with her, when she was having no more accidents, she could get a hermit crab when we got back from vacation!

Two months after we started, we are completely potty trained and we have two new additions - Nick and Sally the hermit crabs!

Sally

Very Happy Big Girl!

My baby is now a big girl.  This fall she starts preschool. I am not going to think about that today, though!  Today is suppose to be beautiful. Time to get outside and play.

Have a great rest of your day!

Nikki

Mini Fashionista

My little fashionista posing in her nautical inspired ensemble. 

Gwen's outifit:

Top -  Old Navy

Jeans -  Target

Shoes -  Nine West (mommy's and really old!)

These would look so cute though!

Have a great rest of your day!

Nikki

Sunny Day

Sweepin' the clouds away
On my way to where the air is sweet :)

Last week was a long week.  The first week back after a vacation is always difficult - trying to get back on schedule and back to a routine. Then add a pesky little virus to the mix and now we all need another vacation.

Gwen was running a fever for a couple of days and was just not herself. She built herself a little nest and just snuggled up in the big blue chair. She is a really good sharer and now I am not feeling fabulous.

Today is sunny and finally warm enough to open all the windows and air out the house. Hopefully all the pesky little germs will fly away on the breeze!

I am so ready for summer.  This winter and spring have been so cold and miserable.  I want to get rid of the sweaters and boots and break out the cute sundresses and sandals.  I got a pedicure from my husband as one of my birthday presents while we were on vacation.  Now that we are home, my pretty toes are hiding beneath socks and closed toe shoes :(

So in honor of the nice weather I put together an April wish/want/bought list. Some of the items I did get already, some are in transit as we speak (I am a bit of an amazon.com junkie!) and others are just things I really, really want!

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

I am hoping to post a recap and some of the photos from our recent trip to Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana later this week.  We are still sorting all the photos out!

Hope you have a great rest of your day!

Nikki

Finding Purpose

The older I get, the more I try to live my life with purpose. I just celebrated another birthday and it has me really looking hard at my life. I have been pondering the same questions I think we all do as we get older.

What have I done?

What have I learned?

How have I made a difference?

Life has not turned out the way I had imagined it would when I went off to college almost 20 years ago.  Somethings have surpassed my expectations and others have fallen extremely short.  I had such grand plans for my life. When I graduated, I was either going to work for a big newspaper as a photojournalist or be an advertising executive.

Upon graduating, which I did in 3 1/2 years, I took a job in advertising.  It was amazing and taught me so much.  One of the biggest things it taught me though, was I was not meant to work in advertising!

In the last 16 years I have had several jobs, all in the graphic design and marketing field. Three years ago though,  I began the best job - being a mom. I am so blessed to be able to stay home with my daughter (I still work part-time from home and do freelance photography and graphic design on the side). My daughter has brought me so much joy and fulfillment. Fulfillment which I never felt in any job position I have ever had.

My husband and I waited to have our daughter. We were not always sure we wanted children. We love to travel and do things on whims, which with having children is not as easy. We both agree though, that we feel complete now that we have her. All the sacrifices are so worth it. We give thanks every day for the gift of her.

So to answer my questions:

What have I done? I have a college degree. I have worked continuously in my field of study, in one way or another.  I may not have done anything ground breaking, I didn't win a Pulitzer for any of my photos or Clio for any advertising campaign I designed.  My career path has afforded me the ability to work from home and take a lot of pictures of the cutest model ever :).

What have I learned? I have learned that above awards do not even compare to my greatest accomplishment, being a mom. I never thought being a mom was what I was meant to be when I grew up. I have learned that the most important thing is family. I work to live. I do not live to work.  I want to enjoy what I do, but I don't want my job to be my life, except for the job I have now!

How have I made a difference?  This one I am still pondering.  I hope I have made a difference in the lives of my family.  I guess for now though, that is all that really matters.

If at the end of it all, my sole purpose in life was to be a good mother, daughter, wife, sister, granddaughter, niece and friend, I am completely fine with that.

Each morning upon waking, I say my prayers and thank God for the life I do have, for the new day I have been given and for all the possibilities that the day holds.

Nikki

Recapitulate

or a recap of my week.  I can't believe it is Friday nor can I believe we are already in November.  This week was a busy one.  Gwen and I went into the office on Tuesday and Thursday, Wednesday was Halloween and today was gymnastics.

Halloween was so much fun this year! We went to my mother-in-law's house for trick-or-treating. Gwen was so cute.  She would go up to the door and say "treat," and then unprompted, she would say "thank you!"  I was so proud of her.  She had a really good time.

Getting Gwen on a schedule is going to prove to be difficult.  Our schedule changes every day.  We are going to start with an evening routine - dinner, bath and bedtime.

Yesterday was a really good day.  She had no meltdowns at all, which was amazing, considering it was a long day.  We went shopping and then we were at my office for over three hours.  When we got home she helped me do the dishes and make dinner.

She actually went down pretty easy last night and a reasonable time.  Unfortunately she had a night terror and work up at about 11:30pm.  It took me sometime to calm her down and get her back to sleep. She woke up this morning with the sniffles and by this afternoon it has turned into a full-blown cold.

Today we had gymnastics and they had a Halloween party.  Gwen was so excited to wear her costume again.

She was a really good girl again today. Day two with no meltdown!  I hope she keeps this streak going.  She is now on the couch asleep.  My poor little love :(

Joe is sick too, so this should be a quiet weekend.  I hope they both are feeling a little better in the morning so we can run a few errands. Other then that, we are planning on sticking close to home and getting some projects done - finally!  We may or may not be slight procrastinators!

Well I think it is time for a glass wine to start the weekend!

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Cheers
Nikki