Happy Halloween!

We have had such a fun Halloween season this year!  All of the kids were old enough to be excited about Trick-or-Treating and the girls have been looking forward to this since October 1st!

K Trip to Pumpkin Patch

3K trip to Pumpkin Patch

Bethany Halloween celebration!

Face Painting - Addie loved her rainbow butterfly and Nora was excited but a little nervous about her "little flower on my cheek"

Admiring the results in the mirror they had nearby!

Oma, Opa, daddy and kids before going home from Bethany's fun event!

Notice how the bottom butterfly wings have streaked - there were tears when it was time to go!

3K Class Party

K Class Party

Ready for Trick-or-Treating!!

Telling Mimi "Hi" before starting the candy collection.

Wyatt's friends came over to visit a little before the night ended.  It was a GREAT HALLOWEEN!  Now on to the other holidays that I love so much more!

Results!

       

The decision to start a new business can feel like this...

But having actually taken the plunge I now feel like I'm running free!  A lot closer to this...

I've dedicated the past 6 years to growing babies and raising kids, and they are my greatest achievement and works-in-progress all wrapped up into one!!  What I haven't been doing a very good job of in that time period is taking care of myself.  Not that I've been completely prohibited from doing fun things for myself and splurging every now and then, but certainly my primary focus hasn't been on myself.  I personally don't think any mom's focus should be entirely on herself (which sadly I see every now and then) but at the same time I think it's NOT a good thing to have virtually no focus on myself (which I see much more often with moms).

Sacrifices in our social calendars are to be expected, and happily are filled with much more fulfilling time with family:-)  But looking back at my pregnancy pictures from 6 years ago and looking in the mirror today, I think, good Lord - have I really changed THAT MUCH!!  My professional career also took a path not originally planned due to kids - which has turned out to be such a blessing!  Instead of working like crazy leading up to trial and traveling all over our great state, I have regular office hours and limited travel and a much less hostile line of work:-)  But I also gave up the potential to "make it big" with that once-in-a-lifetime case.  The amazing feeling of "This could be the one!" doesn't really occur with estate planning, probates and business law.  

I've been blessed though, I've found a way to combine taking time to care for myself with a business that has the financial potential which resoundingly gives me the feeling of "This is the one!"  It's now my "job" to take care of my skin!  My final goal hasn't been reached, but I'm pretty pumped that I have results that I can see after only 3 weeks on Rodan+Fields Reverse and after 1 week of using the Anti-Age Eye Cream! 

Gaining a MONTH of Quality Time with my Kids:-)

My goal is to have an EXTRA MONTH of quality time with my kids.  Am I going by a new calendar?  Am I taking an extended vacation?  Nope, I'm going to use my income from my new business to simply leave my office 2 hours earlier each day and pick up my kids.  Can I do this tomorrow?  Nope.  Will I do this by the end of this school year?  YES!!  

Everyone always says "Kids grow up so fast.  Enjoy them while they are young because it doesn't last."  Over the past 5 years that has become abundantly clear to me.  There's no way to stop time, so what's the answer?  How can we spend more quality time with our kids??  Being a stay-at-home mother is the answer for some people.  Some can't do this because it isn't a viable financial option.  I personally think I'm a better mom to my kids by having my career.  But as my youngest gets closer and closer to two, I realize that I would like to spend more time with them, especially while they still want to spend time with me!  I don't want to put more of the financial earning responsibility on my husband though, I want him to continue to be able to spend time with the kids too.

Moving to a small town was part of the answer to this dilemma for us.  How big of a difference did that make?  Well, the hour that we used to spend commuting to and from work gives us approximately 11 ADDITIONAL DAYS of time with our kids.  This isn't time spent sleeping, it's real time with our kids in the morning and evening that we were missing out on.  (Here's my rough calculation, 5 day work week so 5/7ths of the 365 days in the year - no I didn't calculate holidays - is  260.7 additional hours a year we get just by eliminating the commute.  260.7/24(hrs in a day) = 10.86.  THIS JUST HIT ME TODAY!!  I spent 11 DAYS more with my kids this past year than I did the year before!!

So after this revelation, I thought you know, I could multiply this.  If I just leave at 4:15 instead of 5:15 that total will be 22 days!!  But who wants to pay for extended day care for just 1 hour a day??  Not me, especially if by leaving the office at 3:15 to pick up my kids after school means that I will literally have an extra MONTH of quality time that I will be spending with them after school - AWESOME!!!  And thank God I figured this out before they hit junior high when after school athletics will cut into our together time!

It's like I've just added another month to the calendar, and the month is dedicated TOTALLY to my kids!  What an amazing feeling:-)  I mean, if you could spend more time with these kids, wouldn't you?!

Thanks Rodan+Fields (shameless plug - I know)

Check out the amazing products:  gayles.myrandf.com

Call me if you want more mommy time too!  830-992-1908

Show me the money September!!

Introducing a new beauty product...

Just kidding, no I'm not selling mud masks:-) The kids did have a blast playing after the rain though. It's been SOOOO long since it has rained that on Friday when Wyatt walked out to get in the car and it was drizzling, he pointed out and said "Waz dat?" I laughed - a necessary part of every inner beauty regiment.

     So for the past year, I've actually started to pay attention to my skin. I thought, I'm young, I have two weddings this year (one in February and one in August)so I'll just "fix" my face by getting facials once every 4-6 weeks. It will be phenomenal!! It was a good thought, I stuck to it, and I have done myself a lot of good this past year. The fabulous lady I found in Fredericksburg that has been doing my facials also encouraged me to bring in all my "beauty supplies" (read: free samples from Clinique bonuses and whatever face wash I happened to have at the time)and she wrote out a 4 step regiment for night time, and a two step one for the morning, using only the products I had on hand! I loved that I didn't feel like she was trying to sell me something. One thing she frequently mentioned was that I have sun damage on my face that CAN be REVERSED. I kind of brushed those comments to the side, that is until the lady at the Woodhouse Day Spa (where we went for Courtney's bachelorette party) told me the EXACT same thing about sun damage:( This also coincided with my once rather voluminous supply of Clinique freebies being diminished to almost nothing. I started to look around, I even started trying a few products I actually had to purchase. Long story short, I landed on RODAN + FIELDS!!

I've just started a business with the creators of Proactiv. They are now doing for aging what they did for acne. Their new company is called Rodan + Fields, and was first launched into high end retail stores, where it became a top selling clinical skincare brand in stores like Nordstroms. In an effort to reach more people, they (Dr. Rodan and Dr. Fields - yes, they are real women)decided to successfully leave retail and go into direct sales. I have joined them.

We are looking for dynamic, driven people who want capitalize on joining us in the beginning! My goal when I joined was to make enough money to pay for my skin care products. Now I see I can do so much more!!

 Who do you know? I'm looking for referrals! 

 If you know anyone who is looking for a change- and wants chat and hear about the opportunity in a positive, professional way.....OR if there is anyone you know with a skincare challenge- the Drs can offer them the best skin of their life, and they back it with a 60 day empty bottle guarantee!

Thanks so much for your support! I build my business on referrals, and would appreciate yours! I'm excited to chat and catch up! Here's a quick 5 minute video you can watch before we chat: http://youtu.be/s27SL3xug6w

Gayle's Cell: (830)992-1908

Au Revoir August

How did I miss August?? Let me think, could it be that we had AUNT COURTNEY and UNCLE BRAD'S WEDDING!!

So much fun and such great memories. The girls were amazing flower girls, Wyatt did as good as can be expected as ring bearer, and Almost Uncle Brad is now Uncle Brad (though he prefers to just be called Brad - no way!) We love having them in Fredericksburg and love spending more time with them now that the wedding craze is over!! Then school started and Nora started going to "Addie's School", she was so excited, and Addie was thrilled to start Kinder! Addie started wearing uniforms this year which made me happy - no more morning debate about what she can or can't wear:-) Nora is happy that she still gets to see her old friends when we go pick up Wyatt in the afternoon and Addie was ready to go back to St. Mary's for the school year, but is also looking forward to next summer at Methodist Child Development Center - AMAZING summer program!!

While the wedding was amazing, and the beginning of school was exciting, my favorite part of the month was at the end of the month when Chris and I finally took more than just a weekend to get away together. If you've never been to Big Sky, Montana I HIGHLY recommend it - absolutely breath taking!! We lost the first 1/2 day of our trip due to flight issues but thoroughly enjoyed the trip. We went on a 1/2 day trail ride - the BEST way to see Montana is on horse back:-) We went hiking, zip lining, soaked in the hot tub on multiple occasions, ate a lot, drank some too, slept in, took naps and enjoyed being together!

Summer Break!

I've been enjoying a busy summer, and while I didn't accomplish my personal goal of 1 post a month, I'm ok with that because it's the summer and I needed a break:-) We've had our normal summer activities like the Landcut and my Birthday!

And some NEW activities like... Tubes for Wyatt:

a Broken Arm for Addie:-(

that is now HEALED! (but we are in a splint for 6 more weeks - boo)

Nora's once in a lifetime "Aunt Misty" Build-A-Bear trip

and our own little Merida in the making (Brave)

We've had lots of fun with T-ball, fishing, playing AND GETTING READY FOR AUNT COURTNEY'S WEDDING! That will be the next post, and if yesterday's bridal portraits are any indication, all pictures will be GORGEOUS!! Less than a month away, then "Almost Uncle Brad" becomes Uncle Brad.