Recovering from October
It’s the second week of November, and I finally feel like I’m recovered from October.
I don’t travel a ton, and I REALLY never travel without my children, and in a one-month period, I went on three trips without my girls and one trip as a family.
First, there was the New York City extravaganza trip. It was delightful, but being gone for four full days required a lot of pre-planning on my part (especially since the beginning of the month is the busiest time for me as far as Disney Baby and Spoonful are concerned).
Then, I got invited to be a member of the Pampers Baby Board, which was only about the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me. Part of this included a two day trip to Cincinnati to visit the P&G headquarters and get to know the Pampers team (I took exactly one photo with my nice camera and just used my phone’s camera the rest of the time – you can see the photos on Instagram, including this one where my hair looks the best it ever will for the rest of my life. It lasted all of ten hours, then looked like this the next morning).
When I’d gone to New York, Bart was able to stay with the girls for all but a couple of hours, but this trip landed smack in the middle of his finals (Duke’s MBA runs on quarter terms, so he has finals in October AND December, that lucky guy), and so I was extremely super grateful for a few friends who watched my girls.
Then, just after I got home from Cincinnati, Bart had a week off of school for fall break, and we went down to visit my friend Meghan in South Carolina.
And finally, I won a ticket to the first Brand Market Workshop, hosted by Anna from In Honor of Design in Atlanta.
I drove down on a Friday evening, spent the night in a hotel, then drove straight back home after the (very excellent) workshop was over.
And then I vowed never to leave my home again.
I feel, of course, really lucky that I was able to do all these amazing things, and the actual GOING was pretty much all fun and games (minus having to drag along my breast pump on every trip), but the in-between at home was extremely stressful. I was trying to get all my work assignments done on a much shorter time-line, do laundry between these trips, work on a couple of extra projects, and be some sort of semi-decent parent to my sweet girls. I could just feel my reserves of patience (which, let’s be honest, are not large or deep to begin with) getting smaller and smaller with every passing moment.
Plus, October is a pretty crazy month on its own, what with all the Halloween stuff (remember how, when we were kids, Halloween was one night? And now it’s an entire month?).
It’s been so nice to finally be somewhat back to normal. We’ve gone to the library, we actually have food in the pantry again, and my girls are starting to remember what I look like (Ani developed an obvious preference for Bart after my Pampers trip. Four weeks later, I think I’m back in her good graces).
Shirt: Gap (Grace sent this along with the clothes for Ella) // Plaid top: Target (about four years ago)
Pants: Forever 21 // Shoes: DSW
I love the pants! They all sound like great trips, but trips are trips and I hope everything is normal and quiet for a bit for you.
I'm so curious whether these shoes are really comfortable without socks?? They're so cute but the also look like they could be painful…
They are surprisingly comfortable (my goal is to never wear anything on my blog I don't wear for real that day). In fact, I'm wearing them now. I'm not sure I'd wear them for a day of sightseeing, but for regular grocery-store/library/mailbox days, they are perfect.
It certainly sounds like a fun, but super crazy, month. Hopefully you can get some down time now. P.S. I also think the tousled bed-head looks good.
I love cobalt jeans! I borrowed some from my sister a couple years ago, but then she made me give them back. 🙁 Your princess hair looked amazing, and I'm sure you could have rocked the next-day messy-head-blogger look! Haha!
I felt like October swept past me, too, and look, it's practically mid-November already.
October flew by! Glad you were able to enjoy plenty of trips. I can't believe next week is November 15 already (not to mention the fact that this week is week 37 of my pregnancy…where did 2013 go?!?!)
Oh, and by the way, I think your hair looks awesome in these photos as well. May not be bonafide Disney princess "I'm going to the ball" hair, but it's definitely "Disney princess on a casual day, strolling around town" hair 😉
I'll think of it as my "Disney Princess sweeping with the help of woodland animals" hair.
I thought my two trips in October was a lot! Five days for the Blathering and four days for MOPS convention. The month certainly did fly by. I hope our Novembers slow down a little:)
Traveling is so much fun but yes, so exhausting at the same time! And girl, what is so fascinating about that sidewalk?? 😉
Have YOU ever seen such a beautiful sidewalk? 🙂
Hah! It is quite nice and smooth, good point.
🙂 You didn't tell me you were in Atlanta! That's where I'm from. Granted, I was in Southeast Asia the whole month of October but … I'd love to show you around next time you come out.
Whoa, you made me tired.
Runt
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http://www.runtspickins.wordpress.com
I was about to say how much I love your shirt/sweater, until I read that Grace sent it to you. That Grace is sure a keeper.
And man, your October sounded very BUSY. Hope you get a little bit of rest before the Thanksgiving and Holiday festivities start up soon!
Holy jet setter! That makes me tired just reading about all of your adventures! It's always fun leaving home though, because then you can appreciate it more when you're back :).
Verrrrry cute! And I totally get how awesome trips can also be awesomely exhausting.