So this is it! My last week of work before maternity leave. I will be gone until June, and am both excited and scared to be out of the office for such a long time! I am lucky enough to say with 100% honesty that I really like my job, and love my co-workers...my family. I am sure they will visit, and that I will bring our new addition into the office to say hi, but I will miss them and the day to day banter.

My other concern about being out of the office, is missing out on all of the new Spring/Summer products that get introduced. I will have to catch up on all of the new promotional products we offer so that I can better assist my customers for their events. From beach balls to bags, I will need to be updated on all of our new exciting items! Luckily I know my sales team will help me get caught up.

So this is the last blog for some time. I will be back in time to help place those 4th of July orders! 

I know I sound old, but where does the time go? I can remember being in freshman orientation where I met one of my best friends, Kristen, who also works here at Motivators. I can recall my wedding day as if it just happened. And I can vividly remember being in the hospital having Abby, and now she is 2!

While I happen to have a good memory, I also love to keep track of all the exciting happenings in life. I have a Shutterfly account for Abby, I have albums from our wedding, and I enjoy scrapbooking photos that are important to me. Being that Kristen knows me so very well, when I was pregnant with Abby she bought me a very special custom wall calendar that records the baby's first year! Needless to say I loved it and filled up every month. I was able to keep track of her progress day to day, month to month, and am now able to look back on her milestones.

So if you are anything like me, nostalgic and in awe of how fast time goes by, the baby's first year calendar is a fantastic promotional gift. (Ahem Kristen...baby 2 is due very soon and I do not have a new calendar). 

This Saturday we had a family birthday party for Abby. She turned the big two on the 20th, and had been looking forward to seeing all of her family for her special day. She had an amazing time running around with my niece, getting sung to, opening a ton of presents, and of course eating chocolate cake!

I was pleased that I made the right amount of food (appetizers, ziti, salad, chicken Marsala, dessert), and everyone seemed to have a good time. And even though it was just family, I really wanted to give away a goody bag. It meant a lot to me that people drove in from all over the island and further, (Aunt Lauren from DC) to celebrate with us. Instead of a traditional bag, I ordered customized tumblers with twisty straws, and stuffed them with candy. Everyone loved them, especially her aunt who said "oh perfect for iced coffee!" All in all the weekend was great and our little girl is now an amazing two-year-old! 

I am not one to complain, especially because of how lucky I was when Hurricane Sandy came through. Then came Nor' Easter Athena which was just annoying. And now NY has welcomed Nemo to the weather party. Once again, we got lucky and only got about 10 inches, (compared to other towns with up to 30 inches) however I do feel bad for New Yorkers as a whole now. 

Being that Nemo has been our 3rd storm since October, we have become very prepared. We have flashlights, full tanks of gas, food, and our custom ice scrapers ready. Even with all of our supplies ready, it gets exhausting having to clean up after storms, feeling anxious about gas, and fearing that you will lose power for days. Again...we got lucky, but I am scared that our luck will run out!

This weekend I went to pick out fabrics for baby 2's quilt. My Mom happens to be an extremely talented and generous Grandma who offers to make quilts for her new Grandchildren. So we went to the quilting store with the pattern in hand to pick out 7 fabrics of my choice. Abby's blanket came out beautifully in pink and greens, but his time I wanted something a little different.  I decided to look more in the purples and hope that I could find enough material to match my vision.

Luckily I had an easy time picking out my fabrics. The next step was then picking out what color thread I needed which was easy enough. I also then remembered how I needed a custom sewing kit for my house. I needed some additional thread colors, stitch ripper, and needles that all came in a nice case. By no means am I considered a good sewer, but I can hold my own;  and having a sewing kit at home does come in handy.

So with a month and a half till baby 2 comes, my Mom better start cutting her materials and sewing! The image below might not look like much yet, but I am sure the quilt will be stunning!

Once you have kids, your weekends are forever changed. Brunch, football, and shopping have since been replaced with laundry, grocery food shopping, and play dates for kids. Luckily we happen to have great friends that also have children the same age as Abby, so the play dates are for both the kids and parents.

Most recently we had a football/snacks/pizza party with friends from college, and their little boy Jake. The kids are only 6 weeks apart in age, so they had a great time playing, running around, and making pizza for us! Our friends buy the dough from their local pizzeria, and then put the sauce, cheese and toppings on that they like. The only thing they were missing was a custom imprinted pizza cutter!

Needless to say, our childen made amazing pizzas and we had a great time! 

This Saturday was one of my best friend's wedding. We have been friends since college, and the 19th was her "big day!" She is from Staten Island, one of us lives in Bermuda, one resides in Texas, and the rest of us are from Long Island... but we all came together to celebrate! 

The bride was stunning, the venue was beautiful, the food was delicious, and everyone had an amazing time. I love everything about weddings. From the ceremony, to the cutting of the cake, I think it is such an honor to be invited/included in someone's very special day. And of course, one of my favorite parts of the wedding is seeing what wedding favors the bride and groom decide to hand out. My friends decided on delicious cookies in a custom heart shaped box. YUM!

Next wedding is Kristen's (works here at Motivators in the IT department)!!! I cannot wait to get together with all of my closest friends again, and see what Kristen decides on for her wedding favors! 

For the most part, Motivators sells in high bullk with the imprint the same on every item. However, we do offer personalization on some of our items, and they come out beautifully.

For the holidays this year, I had 5 guys and 13 girls to shop for in the sales department. I try and get somthing thoughtful, practical, and personal for all 18 of them. So for the ladies I landed on personalized clutches, and for the guys, personalized vacuum mugs filled with candy.

The girls loved the bags with their innitials debossed into the front, and the guys have been using their mugs non stop. Personalizing the items made the gifts more special. Plus, they look high-end. And lets face it, everyone likes to see their names on products!

When I first met Bill, he had a ridiculous hookup to National Amusement Theatres. All he had to do was a make a call, drop a name, and boom...free movie tickets. Since 2006, a lot has changed: our connection has retired, we bought a house, we had a baby and now we have another on the way. All of this combined means very little time for movies.

We have evolved into Netflix people with a TV that has internet and enjoy popcorn at home. However, when a movie comes out that we really want to see, we do make an effort to get out and watch it on the big screen.

Thanks to Bill's co-workers, we were given a gift card for the movies this holiday season. So this weekend Bill, my brother, and I went to see "The Hobbit" (we're all big fans of "Lord of the Rings"). We opted for the early showing of 9:30am-12:30pm. I was extremely pleased that 1. I lasted all three hours without having to get up to pee and 2. the movie was really good! We heard some mixed reviews, but all of us really enjoyed the film and agreed that it didn't feel long.

Who knows when we will make it to the movies again, but The Hobbit was a great start to 2013!  

This Friday, Motivators along with Santa and some elves will visit Winthrop Hospital's pediatric center to hand out toys and spread some cheer!

The Motivators staff has been participating in the toy drive for many years, and is a great way to end the holiday season. Everyone in the company brings in presents for kids ages newborn through teen.

Being that I am a parent, and my brother happens to work at Winthrop Hospital, this is my favorite event that Motivators participates in. Making kids smile that are not able to be at home during the holidays is an amazing thing to be a part of.

So while the hustle and bustle is still in full swing for the next week, on December 21st, you can find Motivators at Winthrop Hospital with some very special kids!