Visit my store at http://www.monkeyinspired.com to see custom leotards and more for your little monkey!





Saturday, August 14, 2010

Summer 2010

So much has happened in the last month I’m not even sure where to begin! I hosted my 3rd consignment event last week. The growth was astonishing! The number of items more than doubled and the dollar amount sold was more than 70% from the spring sale. We literally got our booty’s kicked!! We worked 14, 16, and 18 hours per day and sleeping very little. I’m still trying to recuperate! The live news cast on KAKE was great, the kids did an awesome job and it ended up being very humorous. I ordered the DVD yesterday so hopefully I can figure out a way to get it posted on the blog when it comes in. I think showing up to the news station on 3 hours of sleep was helpful for my nerves; I was too tired to be nervous this time. Friends, family and shoppers that saw it all said it was a great interview and the kids were hilarious to watch.
So, at this growth rate I’m expecting to be as big as the sales here in central Arkansas in just a few more years. I can’t imagine how awesome it’s going to be to only be 35-36 years old, staying home with my baby, being my own boss working for 6-8 weeks two times a year, all while making more money than I do right now. It sounds surreal, but the day will come. I certainly don’t know what I did to be so blessed with the present and the future, but I am crazy blessed and never do I let a day go by without thanking HIM for it!

To my unselfish, awesome and loving friends and family….THANK YOU from the very bottom of my heart for all that you do in order to help me succeed.

As for Monkey Inspired….I’m currently building a website for the leotards, a FB fan page and having my own clothing labels printed. Hopefully it will be launched just in time for football season. I can’t believe how crazy people go over items with a razorback, power cat, or longhorns on it!!! More so I can’t believe what this accidental business has turned into!! When Brynlie outgrows the original leotard that started all this I think I’m going to have it framed and hang it in my home office/sewing room.

I informed Merrill Lynch about a month ago that I would not be continuing a career with them and would have to turn down the new position I had been training for. Once I explained why, I had full support from the management team and it has made me so much happier now that everything is out on the table, again I am very blessed to be able to keep my job until I am ready to quit.

I finally upgraded to Nikon D40 with lots of extra’s….let me tell you it’s the best money I’ve ever spent. I’m IN LOVE with that camera. There is such a huge difference in the pictures I take of Bryn and the leotards now. I don’t know why I felt compelled to post that on the blog but I did, probably because that’s how much I love it!!! Besides my baby girl, it’s the best thing I’ve ever held in my hands!! Ok, I’m done.

For there being next to no marketing for the house I’ve had good traffic looking at it, more than I would of liked this last month honestly. Since I’m still not certain of what the next step for me and my daughter is I’m not in a hurry to sell. I’ve learned to cross bridges when I actually approach them, not before. I love the crazy looks I get when people ask me where I’m moving and my answer is “I don’t know, I’ll figure that out when the house actually sells.”

And onto Monkey…..I’ve posted the few pictures I’ve taken in the last month. We had Luau theme at gymnastics; of course she looked like a doll.
While she’s still a pretty good kid her behavior has not exactly been up to par lately. She used to be such a sweet sweet baby and don’t get me wrong she still has her sweet moments, but oh my are we approaching the terrible 3’s. She wants her way when she wants it and how she wants it. Do not mess with her trying to pick out her own clothes or dress herself. She will test and test and test me some more.
For example, she’s in a bad habit of getting out of her car seat straps. I’ll tell her over and over to get the shoulder belts back on and she’ll just look at me like I’m singing her a lullaby or something until I get out of my seat belt and start towards her (I’m describing the times I’m not driving of course) before she’ll quickly start moving to put them back on and saying “I do it, I do it.” She has bitten me and Gigi a couple times over the past several weeks; this is in addition to the hitting! That girl wouldn’t stay in time out for me if I gave her a mound of candy! Gena has been trying to show her how to calm down when she gets into her fits of anger by showing her how to take deep breaths and gently saying calm down. The other day when I was getting a little frustrated with her she put her hand on my arm and said “calm down, Mommy…it’s going to be ok.” I couldn’t do anything but sit there and shake my head while trying to hold back the laughter!
We’ve had a hard time keeping her clothed lately, she just prefers to be naked or in her panties while at home…well mostly at home we’ve had one public incident of her stripping down and refusing to put her clothes back on! During the sale she was laying in the back room on her mat watching a movie, I guess she had stripped down to her panties (thank goodness she stopped there) this was while we had a maintenance man there working on the automatic doors, he went into the back room to the breaker box where Bryn was….everyone was busy working and shoppers were busy shopping when all the sudden you see Brynlie come running out of the back room as fast as she could run in ONLY her little rocker panties screaming Mommy and crying. The maintenance guy scared her to death when he went back there. Everyone in the store was laughing, but it took me forever to get her calmed down all while in panties only and the last place she was going to let me take her was back to that backroom she was in!
I’ve been saying I’m the only parent who will have to ask the question “did you keep your clothes on today” when picking her up from school!!!
She said her first cuss word. I don’t, Papa, know where, Papa, she picked up, Papa, that word from!!!! She was having a hard time unwrapping a piece of gum when I heard “Oh, Da**it!”
I calmly asked her what she just said and she repeated it clear as day. Then I had the typical, we don’t talk like that chat.
This week she was sticking her tongue out at everyone at gymnastics.
As soon as we return to a normal schedule she will be returned to her bed, oh wait I guess she can’t be returned if she’s not yet slept in her full size bed!!! Ok, so she’s going to start sleeping in her own bed in her own room. I don’t know how I’m going to get this accomplished but I’m determined to. I’ve never in my life seen a child sleep the way this one does!! I don’t know how she gets any sleep as restless as she sleeps! She’ll fall asleep in there if I sit with her, but she won’t stay in there for the duration of the night, she gets up and gets in bed with me.
Dad and Janet were telling me about her sleeping with them over the weekend and all I could say was “welcome to my nightly world!” Now that summer is coming to an end and she’ll be going back to school 2 days a week, I’m hoping we can all get back on a better schedule.
I’m on the hunt for 2 time out chairs exactly alike, one for my house and one for Gigi’s, that way she knows what it is and what we expect when she’s sat there! I let you know how this great plan of mine pans out!
One last sweet and funny thing. During the stormy season when she didn't like the thunder and lightening I took her out on the back porch and explained to her when it thunders its Jesus playing the drums and when it lightnings it's God taking a picture and she needed to look up and say cheese. When we came in I set her up with finger paints so I could cook us dinner. She said she was going to paint a picture for Jesus and he was going to love it! It's hanging on my fridge and I don't think I'm ever going to be able to take it down. Both of us love to marvel at that finger painting picture. We were out running a furry of errands getting ready to leave for the sale all during a horrible storm. She had Ava with us, her favorite baby doll. As the storm was roaring I heard her telling Ava everything was going to be okay, then she got upset and started saying "Ava don't like Jesus, Ava don't like Jesus" It was hilarious!! I said "Ava doesn't like his drums but Ava loves Jesus just like we do." Speaking of Jesus, Brynlie knows how to say the whole prayer before we eat, sing the whole song of Jesus loves me and we are now working on our nite nite prayer. She joined us for a bible study last month and said the whole prayer for all the ladies before we ate....I was a proud Mama!!!



This is Natalie White, last seasons Survivor winner.  Yes, that's right a MILLIONAIRE is holding my daughter!