Jacobs' Debriefing

I feel like all we ever do is run anymore. Life with 3 kids, trying to expand my business base, Matt's work and other obligations just have us busy –– all the time. Most nights we do not eat until after 8 pm. I feel like there is never a moment to just sit and relax. Time to sit and reload. When I do find myself sitting, I tend to be thinking about what I should or could be doing instead of just sitting there. So I thought I would give an update since I have been blog MIA lately.

The kids are doing well. As of midterms Emily is pulling straight A's for her first quarter of middle school, and she is busy with gymnastics and other "preteen activities". Chris is busy playing football. I am amazed at how well he is doing and how much he loves it. He can't do or go anywhere without telling "Down, set hike hike!" This morning we had our parent teacher conference and we are extremely proud at where Chris is academically. And Sam... well she is Sam. She is loving preschool and has adjusted well to being away from mom 3 mornings a week. And I think somewhere she has been taking acting classes because her drama-queen status has greatly increased lately.

I am keeping my fingers crossed, but so far some awesome things are happening work wise for me. I am still busy doing work for Caterpillar back in Illinois, and have been asked to come up the first week of December for training. I sent my new client estimates on Monday and they have accepted them. (I was holding my breath for that one.) Now the big client needs to sign off on them. Hopefully we will have approval by Monday or Tuesday next week. Once that happens I will will be busy writing lots of press kit materials, articles and helping plan a press conference for January (I even get to go to Atlanta!). And finally the person I met with on Monday I **think** hired me. The guy was a bit scatterbrained and told me that he needed to gather me a contact list and background information and then I am to send him quotes and get started. This project would be awesome because it is definitely a different market and also because it is a monthly project, so I will have a set amount of money coming in each month.

Matt is swamped at work. And that is saying it lightly. He will be traveling to France in November and then starting in January he will be in Arizona for possibly 4 weeks, Las Vegas for 10 days, Japan and possibly France again. Now you see why we chose to go to Thailand for our anniversary? We have lots of free air miles. Not much budgeting and planning there.

We have gotten the living room, kitchen, hallway and upstairs hallway painted. Matt has closed off the opening between my office and the living room and he is going to paint it sometime this weekend. We are also hoping to get Sam and Chris's room painted in the next week. Then we will start on a big project –– a screened in porch. I cannot wait to be able to take a drink and a book and just sit out there and relax. Well at least try. We are hoping to have that done by Thanksgiving. I am really loving my house. It is amazing what some paint and rearranging can do.