Andrea's Dreams of a Dream Light

This is post number 101, can you believe it?  I'm so proud of myself for keeping at least this much of a record of our lives.  All though it's not a typical journal, it's the only one I've got, so that's what keeps me posting. 

I'm sure any parent who has a child between the ages of two and, oh, ten, knows what a Dream Light is.  Andrea has been begging for one ever since she saw the commerical.  For those of you who don't know, the Dream Light is from the makers of Pillow Pets and projects stars on the ceiling in changing colors.  It also has a 20 minute timer for once your child falls asleep.  I'm a sucker when it comes to Andrea and of course, I wanted to give in.  I knew Ryan wouldn't be so eager when he saw the price, so we made her earn it. 

She's been in a major bout of the Terrible Threes lately and we were hoping to improve her obsession with the word "no".  She could earn her Dream Light but saying "Okay Mom" or "Okay Dad".  "Andrea, it's time for bed"... "Andrea, will you put those toys back in your room?"... "Andrea can you be quiet while Mom is on the phone?".  You get the idea, everytime she said "Okay" (and followed through) she got to color a square on her Dream Light chart. By the second week Ryan and I both commented what a difference we had seen in her.  It may be only temporary, but it was worth it!

Today she got her Dream Light and she was thrilled, she kept hugging me all day thanking me and once I even got "Thanks for making my Dream Light chart Mom".  Once Daddy came home from work he got all the same thanks, she really is a grateful girl and always has been. It was so fun to see the joy from her hard work paying off.

New Job, New Office

It's been too long since I've posted, but ever since I've started my new job the thought of typing even more than I have too isn't very appealing.  But I'm biting the bullet, even late at night, and hopefully the future me, years from now will thank me for the sacrifice.  .

The transition to my new job has been a little more difficult than I expected. I was thrilled when I passed my 5-week training period and was allowed to recieve my full workload, but I was a little overwhelmed.  I went from receiving one, 5-10 minute, file each day to receiving 40-60 minutes of audio each day.  Right now that works out to be 4-5 hours of work, but that should decrease as I improve my speed and get comfortable with all the rules. 

You may notice now I leave two spaces after each period, or always put a coma before now, but, or, so, yet, etc.  This is all thanks to my transcription work, and there are many other particulars I'm getting used to. 
One benefit of my new job is that we remodeled the office in our house. We've been meaning to for years and once I got this job we found a killer deal on a desk, so without really planning it, we spent one weekend about a month ago repainting and organizing.  Our office went from this...

 To this...

Yes, that's looking from the same doorway in both pictures, and granted, the first picture was a little messier than usual, but you get the idea.  It really has been so nice to come into a clean, professional looking area to get my work done. 
For those of you who have been ignored, or neglected, as I have started my new job, I do apologize.  I can see the longterm rewards of this job and know this is just a transitional period that I need to push through. Luckily, Ryan has been so supportive and never gives me any grief as he watches Andrea every night after work.  He's taken her to run errands with him, to work in the yard, I think it will be a great bonding experience for the two of them and once Andrea is in school this job will be perfect!