Friday, August 15, 2014

Here we Are

It feels like it's been a long journey getting to this point.

A dramatic and traumatic end to a job that I thought I would be at forever.

A solid year and a half working a full time job and a part time job with no vacation breaks.

A prayer and a plan that at the end of the year and a half, things would be infinitely better as I let go of the full time job to work part time and mostly from home during school hours.

Well, here we are.  Today is my last day at the full time job.  I'm being taken out for lunch, and then I'm a free agent.

Things are quite as I imagined them, of course.  Few things ever are.

Firstly and biggestly....  (biggestly?)  You know what I mean.  Do you know what I mean?

I mean, thing that will affect our future plans in the BIGGEST way....

...and that is - we're expecting a new baby!  So that's exciting and life changing in that I'm not going to have quite the amount of free time in the next 5 years that I was hoping for, but at the same time, I am so joyful that I will be at home and not have to worry about childcare for this new little one.  Both Mav and Hope are so excited as well.  Hope started crying when we told them, she was so happy.  She wishes for a little sister, and Mavi wants a brother.  Thing 3 (as we're calling this one) is due at the end of February 2015.

The other thing that is not as we were planning is involving Aven's job and a project that they landed up close to Shuswap.  This is a large project - the timeline is close to two years - and right up Aven's alley, skill set wise.  It will be hard if he ends up going, no doubt about it.  Especially with a new baby in the house.

Fortunately, I have a pretty good support system around me, and though there will be very tough moments, days, even weeks, it is all temporary and with help we'll survive it.

But back to today.

I will put in my four hours this morning, trying to give up every last bit of knowledge of this job that I'm storing to my replacement, we will go out for lunch, and then head home to celebrate the last day of our nanny - a big transition for her, too (and fortunately this comes at a good time for her as well).

Tonight we're heading out to The Keg to celebrate my independence, tomorrow we celebrate my little boy's 5th birthday, Sunday is a big family gathering at the park and then Monday, oh Monday....  my kids head up to my parents for the week and I am left alone at home.  Alone.  As in, by myself.  As in, I can do whatever the hell I feel like.

It has been a really long time since that's happened.  And I can't wait.  And I have to take advantage cause I only get 6 more months of it.

Have a great Friday!!







Thursday, July 17, 2014

My Kids are Gone and I'm Lazy

The post title pretty much sums up this week so far for me.

The kids are off having a blast at family camp with my mom and dad and my brother and his family.

Last week, while they were still here, and I was visioning to myself what this current week would look like, I thought, "With no kids, I'll have so much time!  I'll clean the bathrooms!  I'll vacuum!  I'll have the house so clean and tidy by the time they come home!"

Ha.

I finally unloaded the dishwasher from Monday this morning and loaded all the dishes that were piling up around the sink.  Granted, it's not like I've done much cooking this week, but there were some breakfast dishes and lunch containers hanging around.

I did also try to straighten up a little yesterday evening.

That's about been the extent of it.

Because it's like with no kids around, I'm on vacation when I'm at home.  and then it's very difficult to motivate myself to do anything at home that feels kinda like work.

So there it is.

Today, I might try to finish the job I started cleaning out our little office/den area.  And maybe I can persuade dear hubby to make a run to Salvation Army and drop a bunch of stuff off.  That would be productive.

I'll let you know how it goes.

I am in bit of a dilemmas as to where to put my keyboard.  It's really a full size electric piano.  It's currently in the little office/den, but we want to move it out of there and have that room be entirely office.  The problem is where the heck to put the thing.  There is no space for it anywhere else on the main floor.  That leave upstairs - we have a loft area that it would fit in, or in the basement...somewhere....also not tons of room there.  And I don't like to go down to the basement too, too much.  It's just so... basementy.  Maybe it's a hang-up from when we used to live in basement suites early in our married life.  I just don't like them and try to avoid basements whenever possible.

This makes life interesting as my office is in the basement.  And I expect I will be doing a lot of work down there in the coming months/years.  It is bright and cheery with a nice window.  I just need to get over myself.

Kinda got off topic there... so anyways, I guess we'll figure something out about where to put the keyboard. I'm worried it will just feel weird to have a piano upstairs by the bedrooms.  Do you think it would feel weird?   Like, who has their piano upstairs?  No one.  There's a reason for this.  And it's probably that pianos are super heavy and no one wants to drag them up an extra flight of stairs if they don't have to.

All right, well, have a great day and we'll chat soon!






Friday, July 11, 2014

Big Changes

Well, it has been a while since I put anything out there.

Things have been busy, what with the family, a full time job and a part time job...

BUT.

And this is the exciting part.. (!!!)

All of that is about to change!

I have given my notice at my full time job and starting August 15th, 2014.... (drum roll please)

I will be only working part time and most of it from home!!!

I'm almost a little bit giddy with excitement about that.  My whole working life, since graduation from BCIT way back when, I've been full time.

This, my friends, is a whole new life for me, and I cannot wait.

As things go on in September, I will fill you in more on what I'm doing - since I'll have more time and everything - and give you more specifics.   But for now, suffice to say that my employment status is going for a big change and there's nothing but blue sky ahead!

And in the mean time, I'm still putting in my 8 to 4 and counting the days.  It does feel very good that my employers are sad to see me go and ask me daily if I've reconsidered.  I do love being loved.  :o)


In other news, I was in a car accident a month or so ago, and my little car ended up being declared a total loss.  Fortunately there were no injuries - it was just me in my car and I wasn't even sore the next day.  Like not even a little bit.  But that meant I was on the hunt for a new vehicle.  I had been wanting something a little bigger anyways, so this was the time to make it happen.

I am now the proud owner / driver of a minivan.  It's a minivan.  What  can I say.  I never wanted one. Never in my wildest dreams pictured myself having one.  It's not even a fancy new one.  It's a bit older.  It's pretty plane jane.  But it serves the purpose and I am happy about that.  The kids love it, so there's that.  It's been dubbed 'Mini' although it is anything but.  My daughter thought this was pretty clever, though.

This summer has been off to a good start - we spend three nights in a cottage at Birch Bay which was lovely in that it just wasn't home and we all got a good change of pace and relaxation.

Last weekend we hit Playland with some family and enjoyed zero lines and a fantastic time!

The kids are off to Camp Squeah with my mom and dad and my brother and his family for a week, so they are super excited for that.  I wish I was going, too.  Hopefully next year!

Our little boy has started flag football and I'm not sure who is loving it more - Mav or Aven.  :o)

I haven't seen a practice yet, but I'm taking Mav to his practice tomorrow morning since Aven has to work. Aven warned me - there's strict rules that the players aren't allowed to talk to their parents during practice. No waving or blowing kisses or thumbs up.  I think his warning was more for me than Mav.  It's going to be hard not sneaking a little wave or thumbs up in. But I will do my best.

Aven loves how tough the coaching is for this - they don't tolerate any flak or inattention from the players. And I just keep thinking..."but he's only four!...."   still.  it's probably a good thing for the kids. I concede.

Aven and I celebrated our 13 year Anniversary at the beginning of July.  We're headed out for dinner on Saturday night and then I'm dragging them all in for our 'mugshots' as Aven calls the annual Sears family portrait on Sunday.  He hates the process but loves having the pictures and looking back over the years.

I hope you're doing well, my two readers, and hopefully I'll keep this up a little more regularly in the coming months. I have high hopes for myself.  :o)