HOLY CHRISTMAS RUSH BATMAN!!

Wow! I thought I would be busy, but I didn’t expect to be as popular my new business (LifeGoalCharms.com) was this Christmas season! I am EXHAUSTED! Happy but exhausted!! I have now worked 86 – 90.5 hours a week for just over 2 months STRAIGHT! My only “day off” was Christmas day. Which really wasn’t a break because I was too busy visiting with my family and plus I had to drive a long distance.

Today is my last day at my mall kiosk. And I am ready to rest. I haven’t spent time with my husband and I miss him. And I miss my dog Scotty. And I miss our routine. And I miss cooking and eating real meals not always on-the-go. I have made a lot of good leads in the last 8 weeks so I am also looking forward to following up with them as well.

My new business’s website is still under construction because I just literally haven’t had a moment to create it. I have a good template started but I have over 300 charms alone for the build-your-own section to photograph, input and upload.  Them I have over 200 pre-made pieces as well plus all the other bits and pieces. Not to mention the content! So I will be busy working away on that and I am hooooping it will be up and functional mid-January.

(PS – You can sign up HERE to be notified when it is up)

Now I need to get back to work! Its my last day at my kiosk and I plan to make it count!

~with love, ChelseyP

BIG NEWS!

Finally ready to announce my BIG NEWS – I took a leap of faith, resigned from my job and launched a business. Now or never!An unexpected settlement from a business a few years ago just happened to fall into my lap and I decided that if I ever was going to re-launch my old jewelry business, now is the time of year (Christmas) and now is the time in my life (before kids when my only responsibility is keeping my dog fed). It is the right time to take the risk. The jewelry business I had back in the day was successful, but I lacked the capitol to grow and I made a choice to set it aside to go live some other dreams I had at the time (working in Mexico, working on cruise ships). But now, at this point of my life, the money is there, the time of year is right and the point in my life is perfect. I feel like the stars aligned and the universe is screaming at me GO FOR IT! So I am!! Website will be up shortly & I have a kiosk location in Cambridge Mall opening THIS SATURDAY!

I didn’t want to post anything until I was sure it was happening. Now it is! More news and posts and pictures to follow!

~with love, Chelsey P

The 5 Minute Hair Curl – REALLY!!

I can’t believe how well this worked! Granted – it is NOT the same as if I were to curl it the traditional way. There are a few straight pieces here and there. But it blends pretty darn well. If I needed a quick do’ and I was running late for time, I would defiantly use this technique. I will use it for work also. It was an easy way to give a little body and wave to my otherwise straight hair. And it actually didn’t take more than 5 minutes!!! Thumbs up!

~ with love, Chelsey P

Ankle Surgery – A Success! (Warning: Graphic Images)

Whew! It’s done! Surgery was yesterday and it went well. I was worried about having a reaction to the anesthetic and get sick as I usually do. Ironically, I didn’t have a bad reaction to the anesthetic as expected, none at all actually, but I the morphine afterwards hit me really hard. I felt like I had a serious flu and  I was throwing up every 45 minutes and in and out of a fitful sleep. It was awful. But now, at just over 24 hours since waking up from surgery, I am feeling much, much better.

I had my screws and plate removed from my ankle from a serious double fracture earlier this year (and it happened just 4 months before my wedding!).  Some of the screws were sticking out and were giving me daily pain and often swelling. I am very happy to have them out. I will be on crutches for a while, but that’s ok. Its like a forced arm toning workout!

Now I just have to get through one last recovery and I am in the clear. Its is very painful, but if I compare it to the pain of the initial break, it doesn’t compare. Its not as bad as that. I can deal with this. I can get through this. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and it is a bright one.

Looking forward to 2014 being a year of fitness, bike races and obstacle course marathons. 🙂 Life is good.

~with love, Chelsey P

Ankle Surgery Again Today

Here I go again! I go in for my 2nd and last ankle surgery today. In February of this year, 4 months before my wedding, I suffered a double unstable fracture, misaligned joint and a torn ligament. I had messed up my ankle pretty darn severely and needed emergency surgery with 7 screws and a long plate. Since the injury, I feel like I have gotten about 80-85% of my ankle back, but the 4 of the screws constantly stick out and give me a LOT of constant pain. Today I get to have them removed along with the plate! I am going to ask to keep them…creepy or neat??

I think its funny when I tell people my injury and their faces twist and they exclaim How did you do that?? expecting some awesome crazy story.  I fell. Yup. Right on my own driveway. Walking to my car. On some ice. That’s it. For some reason, one of the downspouts at the front of our house empties directly onto the driveway! WTF WHY So in a thaw-and-freeze winter, you can imagine the slick ice patch it creates.

I was just walking across my driveway on my way to work (wearing non-winter shoes though) and I stepped on some slick ice that was hidden by a thin layer of snow. My ankle bent outwards and I ended up sitting on it as well. I guess just  to make sure it was good and broken! I will write about my whole endeavour soon since after my surgery today I won’t be walking and will have a lot of time on my hands.

This is what happened when I was board ( and on pain meds) to my dog Scotty. Like I said, I had a lot of time on my hands……

Wish me luck! 😉

~ with love, ChelseyP

Sunday Funday! ~ wintering the pond fish

The temperature has dropped and it was time to decide what to do with my pond fish over winter. I basically had 2 choices – let them die or not. Obviously, I chose to not let them die. I don’t believe that life, in any shape or form, is disposable. If I am not going to use it for food, I have no reason to kill it. I don’t even harm flies.

Anyway, so my fish had dwindled down to 8 fish out of the original 14 I bought. They were feeder goldfish so I actually ended up with more than I expected. I couldn’t leave them outside in my homemade cattle trough pond because it is above ground and will therefore freeze solid and kill them all. So I got an aquarium kit on sale for $60 and they now have a new home! They’ve gotten so big too! They have more than doubled in size from when I first bought them. It is really relaxing to sit and watch them. Love it!

Happy Thanksgiving weekend!!

Have a great & safe one – don’t drink and drive! 🙂

~ with love, ChelseyP

I need more time before baby makes 3….

 Why can’t your 20s be 20 years?!

My ideal number of children is 3. I don’t know why, but my whole life I have dreamed (literally dreamed) of having 3 children.

But I have a problem – I am running short for time. I am 28, 29 in March (in 5 months). I want the option to have 3 children but do not want to have to have them back to back (eg. 10-12 months apart). I also don’t want to have a newborn or even a toddler in my 40s. I want to look forward to retirement in my early 60s. My husband will be retired at 55. I don’t want for us both to have to work an additional 10 years because we have 19/20 year old children just starting their education. Then comes first house and weddings, which we want to help pay for. So waiting until my early 40s to have a baby will push our retirement to our 70s. No thank you.

So, I am going to get realistic and do the math. If I were to assume 4 months of trying before pregnancy with no complications, my timing would look like this:

• Start trying as soon as I turn 29 (5 months from now), +4 months
• Get pregnant, +9 months
• Have our 1st born at age 30 then wait a year before trying for another, +12 months
• At age 31, start trying for a second child, +4 months
• Get pregnant with second, +9 months
• Have second child at age 32 then wait a year before trying for the third, +12 months
• At age 33, start trying for third, +4 months
• Get pregnant with third, +9 months
• At age 34, have third child
• Raise 3rd child until at least age 3, to age 37.

This means I have to commit about 8 years to my family and being out of the workforce. Oh my god….

OK, at this point you may be thinking I am a CONTROL FREAK. If you are thinking that, then you are correct. I can wing a lot of things but something as important as children, I just can’t relax. I have talked to a few friends, who have children, about how they decided to take the plunge and have children. Most of them said they just went off the pill and just let it happen. Just let nature decide for you. AAAAAAARRRRG! I can’t just do that! I need to plan. And isn’t the decision to stop taking birth control a decision?

One thing I do know, I am not ready and either is my husband. We are really enjoying our life right now. My career is at a pivotal point and I find it really unfair that I have to give up my career for a few years. Why can’t we both (physically) have children? I have seen the movie Junior, it can happen! (OK, obviously I am joking about that.) I just find it unfair the women have to work so hard to be respected in the workplace, then we have to disappear for a few years.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely want to stay home to raise my own children. I will not have day care or other people raise my kids during the pivotal first years of their life. I will do it happily and do it with gusto. But right now, just contemplating this big change, its just hard to think about.

I guess I will be ready when I am at peace with that sacrifice. I wish your 20s were 20 years so I can get my career to the point I want it to be at and then have children. But your 20s are only 10 years and for me, they are coming to a close in a year and a half. I don’t know when I will be “ready”, if anyone really is ever truly ready, but that day is not today. Maybe soon, but not today…..

~with love, ChelseyP

.

Sunday Funday!

Happy Sunday Funday!

This upcoming holiday season, I am actually going to get a head start on it. Every year, we tell ourselves this, and every year we leave most things to the last minute. On my to-do list this week is start to formulate my Christmas card list (it has doubled this year since my wedding in this past June) and to start to plan a Christmas dinner party for our friends! I have always wanted to do that! Got some thoughts and things to post this week, look for those.

Have a great Sunday Funday!

~ with love, ChelseyP

The Missing Piece of My Peace

My husband said something that struck a cord with me on our recent camping trip. We were sitting around the campfire under the stars, enjoying a bevy.  I said something like how we should do this more than once a year (getting away for a vacation). He shrugged and simply replied “Naw. I don’t need more vacations. I don’t have anything to escape from. I like my life.”

Oh.

I wasn’t sure how to feel about this comment. I felt disappointed that he doesn’t share my urge for adventure and vacations but also pretty damn glad and happy for him that he is happy with his life, with our life. Then I actually felt a little jealous! Why do I feel the need to escape? To take a break form my life? Instead of planning more vacations for my husband and I, why don’t I work on my own life so a vacation is a nice punctuation on life, not an escape from it.

I can’t say I am 100% happy with my life yet. I  feel like there is something missing…..but for the last couple years, I have yet to put my finger on it yet. I feel my life is almost complete. So close I can taste it but there is something else I am yearning for. I have been struggling to find out what that is. To find, as Oprah says, my life’s purpose. We will see.

Has anyone ever felt like that? What completed you?

Does anyone currently feel the way I do?

~with love, ChelseyP

Sunday Funday!

Ittsssssssssss Sunday Funday!!

I know I didn’t get around to posting all my hassle-free camping tips this week, but I did have some great DIYs if I do say so myself….aaaaand I do!

How To Etch Glass for a Personalized Gift Basket

DIY Wedding & Anniversary Time Capsule

This week, for sure, I will be finishing my post on hassle-free camping tips. There is a lot of good info that will free up a lot of your setting up time for more sitting around the fire (beer) time!

Happy Sunday Funday!

~with love, ChelseyP