What an enormous relief it is to finally finish a translation project! I love having the freedom to take my time translating, take unscheduled (and frequent!) cappuccino breaks, work in my jammies in the warmest spot in the house, etc. The list of benefits just goes on and on......but my absolute favorite part of this job is *finally* finishing an assignment and hitting the "Enter" key, sending my completed project on to its final destination (usually Russia). It is an overwhelming feeling of relief....a feeling that I never tire of! This latest project of mine was sent to me right before Thanksgiving. It was relatively short, but took nearly a week to complete due to my refusal to work on Thanksgiving....ummm, and the excessively large number of cappuccino breaks that I ended up taking this time! :-) I absolutely *LOVE* my job, but I wouldn't mind getting more projects, though. I don't get as many as I'd like, but I'm so grateful and feel so blessed with the few jobs that do end up trickling through my inbox.
Because of this job, we were unable to get our Christmas tree up this weekend, so we'll shoot for next weekend instead. I'm so excited about Annabelle's first Christmas! I'm trying to find a "special" Christmas stocking for her. I'm not sure what it looks like yet, but I'll know it when I see it. :-) I'm going to try to take some special photos of her with the Christmas tree, maybe try to find an extra large box that I can gift wrap and set my little Princess in. She is the 2nd best Christmas gift (Jesus being the first!) that I have ever received. Hmmmmmm, I remember many years ago somebody gave my older daughter an enormous stocking, some 3 or 4 feet long. Perhaps I can find another one somewhere and take a picture of Annabelle in it. Wearing a Santa hat! Oooooh, the ideas are flowing now! :-) I've been dropping very obvious hints that I'd like a digital SLR camera for Christmas this year. I'm certain that nobody is listening to me, though. I'll probably have to take Annabelle's Christmas photos with my "old fashioned" (i.e. non-digital) camera, which means I won't be able to post any of the pics to my blog.....unless I get a scanner for Christmas. Maybe I should start dropping those hints pretty soon! :-) My old-fashioned camera takes outstanding pictures, it's just frustrating that I won't be able to see what they look like until I get them developed. I remember when, only 2 short years ago, I swore up and down I would NEVER use a digital camera! I hated the very thought of them and SWORE that nothing would ever take the place of my awesome camera with the incredible telephoto lens. Now I'll be lucky if I can even find that camera by Christmas! Well, in any event, I do have an appointment to get her Christmas portraits professionally done so even if I can't take my own this year, I'll still have some beautiful pictures to remember this year by.
Annabelle is getting so big! I can't believe how much she is growing and changing! She is so attentive and intelligent, it amazes me. She is inquisitive and will just stare at somebody if that person happens to be doing something unusual (i.e. eating, typing, preparing food, etc.) She loves to watch the motion of people moving around and she also loves to stare at pictures in books. And she's just so darned cute! My heart melts when she stares up at me from her crib and breaks into that enormous grin that I absolutely adore! She is getting better at taking naps (thank you Lord!) and I am planning on starting her on solid food very shortly.
Annabelle loves playing in her exersaucer and I *FINALLY* got a picture of her teeny tiny pearly whites that are peeking through her gums.
We haven't gotten any reading done over the long holiday break. I'll have to make up for that this week. I'm eager to finish "James and the Giant Peach" and move on to the next book, which I haven't picked out yet. Annabelle really loves books...I'm going to see if I can find some tiny board books that she can hold and play with herself. I'm still trying to get her bedroom finished. I'm doing a fairy princess theme, but can't seem to find the time to get in there and finish it up.
UGH! I just figured out why I'm so tired. It's almost 2am! I really need to get to bed, as Annabelle will be waking up at 6am.....if I'm lucky! :-)
6 comments:
Thanks for the comment- no one ever leaves me comments (my family aren't all that computer savvy) but I wanted to visit your blog and meet you in the world of the web. Your daughter is a little sweetheart with such beautiful eyes. Enjoy the holidays- they go by so fast and I hope you get your camera (I recommend the canon xti dsl- it's what I use and I love it) :-)
Awesome! Thanks for the tip on the camera! I am going to research that one and see if I can find some pictures of it that I can print out and leave in conspicuous places all over the house! I am a big fan of Canon and with the exception of one Vivitar camera, Canon is all I've ever owned. They seem to last forever too! :-)
Oh, and don't feel bad that your family doesn't ever leave you comments on your blog.....my family doesn't even READ mine! :-)
Congrats on finishing your translation project! Just curious...when do you make time to do your work? I've been working part-time since January, and I started off working a lot of hours (well, they were a lot for me...20 hours a week mostly in the evenings or at naptimes), and then I got burned out, and now, I only work 10 to 20 hours a month! Just wondering how you discipline yourself to sit down and get the work done...I haven't figured that out yet.
I hope you get your camera for Christmas! We have the Canon 30D, and we love it!
Cute ideas on the photo ops for Christmas. I saw a picture done last year with a baby about 4-6 weeks old laying on a present that was wrapped and it said "Open First." I thought that was a cute idea. Of course, there are a lot of cute websites with ideas for photography too. I think twopeasinabucket.kaboose.com has some cute ideas. It is a scrapbooking website, but you could get some ideas from there.
Good luck with starting the solid food! I started my Annabelle right around six months because I was adamant about waiting until the 6 month mark...but, I won't follow the 6 month mark again. I'll follow the baby's lead. I didn't realize that Annabelle was ready for solids sooner. She had been spitting up this nasty smelling stuff for a month, and my mom kept telling me I needed to start her on solids, but I didn't listen. I insisted she wait until she was 6 months old. As soon as I started her on the rice cereal, she loved it, and the smelly spit up went away. Of course, then we were left with potty problems that will not go away!
The only time I have to work is at night. I stay up *very* late on a *very* regular basis. It's horrible for my health and I'm trying to quit (sounds like I'm trying to kick a smoking habit or something!) but I just don't get anything done during the day, so I attempt to get it all done at night instead. On the *VERY* rare occasions when Annabelle will nap, I can get housework and/or translating done, and on those days I go to bed a little bit earlier. My translation jobs come in phases....I'll get one really big project that lasts for months, then I won't get anything for another couple of months....then I'll get an assignment here.....and then another one there.....it all tends to work out, although I am praying for more assignments as the one-income living is starting to get a bit tight!
I understand! My Annabelle has never been a really good napper either, although, she has gotten better. I used to try and do work (for pay) during naptimes early on, but at the time, the naps were only lasting 45 minutes, so it wasn't enough time to get anything done, so instead, I decided to just work in the evenings. As a result, I stayed up late as well, and I think that is why I got burned out with it. I know some people will work during the day when their babies are playing, but I personally feel horrible doing that. I feel like I should be interacting with her then.
It is tight living on one income though! On that note though, I have always been pretty frugal, and there is a website I like that you may want to check out if you use coupons. It is cutouthunger.com. This "Coupon Mom" helps you use the weekly coupons from the newspaper along with the sales ads from the grocery stores to come up with the best deals every week on groceries. She did this as a way to stay home (if I'm recalling correctly), but she also recommends that you purchase and donate to food banks if there are items for free or next to nothing (after the coupons). So, check it out if you already use coupons.
I couldn't work while Annabelle was playing, mainly for the same reasons you stated....I'd want to play with her. But also because Annabelle doesn't like to be ignored, and if I started working she would let me know (with those powerful vocal chords of hers!) that I wasn't paying enough attention to her! :-)
When I quit my job to stay at home, we had to cut out a *LOT* of "extras" like cable TV, our home phone (we use cell phones now), magazine subscriptions, etc. We also had to cncel our newspaper subscription, so I no longer get coupons. When I did get the coupons, I frequently lost them, or simply forgot to bring them with me. I did get some tips from a book I'm reading...apparently if you call your favorite companies and ask them for coupons they'll send them to you! At least most of them will. I'm gonna try it, it certainly can't hurt. I'd love for companies to send me coupons for all the products I use! A lot of the coupons are for a free product, too.
As hard as I am trying to be frugal and cut corners anyway I can, I'm afraid I'm going to have to get a holiday job...just a temporary Christmas job to get us through the holidays. My husband's job pays the bills, but nothing more. It would be nice to be able to buy Christmas presents this year, plus my dog needs to go to the vet & I don't have the money to take him. This whole situation is breaking my heart, but I can't figure any other way. I am praying for more translating jobs, but they just aren't coming yet. They way I figure it, a seasonal holiday job will last until mid-January. I can handle one month of anything, and this will get us out of the financial crunch we are in. Plus, my husband is talking to his boss about a possible promotion, which would help us out TREMENDOUSLY! I am really praying for that one as well. It's just been so stressful this Christmas. :-(
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