Maintenance

Yesterday felt like a "maintenance day."

I worked from home in the afternoon. I went to a dentist apt and saw my chiropractor to adjust my poor back before it decides to cause serious trouble.

I made some phone calls relating to hiring an executive coach. I work in an open office space so everyone can hear your conversations and this wasn't a series of phone calls that I wanted my team listening in on.

Got the chance to putter around the house as well and do some cleaning. Oh if only I had a few clones, one to clean, one to work, one to organize the house, one to volunteer at Emily's school and do fun things, one to workout every day… life would be grand!

School is plugging along for Little One, we're back in a pretty good routine in the mornings. Her fall gymnastics class starts tomorrow evening. She has been obsessed with headstands. She finally got the balance thing down a bit and can hold one for around 5 seconds. She does them ALL.THE.TIME. She calls out to me when she's got a long one going "Come and watch me Mommy!" Cooking dinner is challenging because I'm running back and forth between the kitchen and the living room to watch her latest feat. I gotta say, it looks super uncomfortable and I keep looking at her poor neck hoping it doesn't break. Isn't that a creepy thought? but I can't help it! I need to get a picture of her doing one. Hopefully her weekly gymnastics class will will work with her on technique so I can worry a little less about her hurting herself.

My birthday is on Friday, the big 35. I'm kind of indifferent, kind of not wanting to make a deal out of it because it means I'm half way through my 30's which feels very surreal, and just plain old. My 10 year old nephew has the same birthday so on Sunday I'll head off with Little One to my brother's house to celebrate. Joe doesn't work this weekend so depending on how much school work he needs to tackle this weekend he might come with us. That would be nice. The single parent routine gets old even when you're doing fun stuff. I try not to push him though, because I know he'd rather be with us than studying but sometime you gotta do what you gotta do. It's hard for him to give up an entire day to travel an hour and half to my brothers for a birthday party with so much work he knows he has to get done.

That's it for now!

Thank God for scholarships!

So….yesterday was the official announcement of the scholarship awards from Joe's college. He walked away with almost enough to cover his senior year tuition after his discount for working at the hospital system was applied. Phew. The bread winner of the house wipes her brow. That much less in student loan debt so that when Joe is finally working his entire salary won't be going to pay off the debts! So we'll have made it through 4 years of nursing school with 17,100 in student loans. Not bad for a school that costs $19,000 in tuition each year. Now grad school… who knows if we'll come out as unscathed but we'll certainly do our best. Joe's 2nd job the last few summers has been to apply for scholarships so he's got the drill down pat.

Little One starts 2nd grade tomorrow. We went to an ice cream social at the school last night to meet the teacher and drop off her school supplies. Even though Little One didn't get the teacher she was hoping for she seemed excited after getting a chance to talk to her teacher. She's young, fairly perky and seemed really good with the kids. Got right down on their level, good eye contact, good questions. Also, a buddy of Little One's from the after school program last year is sitting at the same table as her so she was pleased as punch about that. I have an insane desire to volunteer in the classroom, I may need to be talked out of this at a later date. I haven't really been involved in Little One's classroom since she was in Pre-K. I started a new job (my current job) when Little One was in Kindergarten and I just didn't have the flexibility in my schedule to be out of the office when I was trying to learn a new job. But now that I finally feel like I know what I'm doing, and I have a staff that can handle things fairly independently, I think it's time to get involved.

I still have to finalize Little One's activities for the year, looks like she'll be doing a gymnastics class once a week and piano lessons once a week. 2 days a week is the max extra-curriculars I like to get her signed up for. With Joe's classes, clinicals and work schedule this semester he is only home one weekend night before 9pm, so I'm doing most of shuttling to activities. Plus church school on Sunday. And this year is First Communion which means more meetings and rehearsals than usual. Whew.

High Five for Scholarships and Yay to the first day of school tomorrow!

YoYo Doctoring...

Ok, serious parental decision here. 2 years ago we switched our insurance coverage from my employers to my husbands insurance through the hospital system he works for because it is FAB-u-lous coverage at 1/3 the price. BUT, and big but here, we all had to switch dr's because you have to see a Dr. associated with the hospital system. The hospital is self-insured, part of the reason the costs are so low, but it means you have to only use their dr's, their labs, their hospitals etc. It was worth it, but it meant a new pediatrician for Little One, we'll call him Dr. Newbie. While I like Dr. Newbie, I don't necessarily like him MORE than her old ped, let's call him Dr. Smith. And Dr. Newbie's office is a 1/2 hr drive from our home. Dr. Smith's office was in the same town we live in, really convenient when Emily was sick.

Long story short, I just found out that Dr. Smith's practice is now listed as a provider under our insurance. Do I switch her back to Dr. Smith? I want to for the convenience factor of being so close to home, and I really did like the doctor's there. But I feel like that's YoYo doctoring. If I do switch her this will be the 4th Ped she will have had since she was born... and she's only 7! There's just not much consistency in her care. But she really liked Dr. Smith and when we drive by his office she still comments that she wishes she could go to Dr. Smith.

To switch or not to switch. What if I switch and then in a year Dr. Smith is taken off of the list of providers and I have to switch her get AGAIN. I'd really like to stick with a dr. for a while so they would get to know her and have some history, which I feel like will translate into better care.

Sheesh... the things you have to worry about as a parent are just never ending.

Back to School!

Today… some about my husband, we'll call him "Joe".

Joe is in his final year of completing his BSN (Bachelor's of Science, Nursing). He took a full course load this summer to get ahead and will (fingers crossed) be finished in March. Then he will work as an RN for a while before he starts the next chapter in this journey… apply to the graduate program and get a double Master's as a Nurse Practitioner and Nurse Educator. Ambitious much? Yes, Joe has some serious drive. This is a man who back in the days before he went back to college for this new career would create projects around the house to keep himself busy every moment of the day, even after working a 60hr work week. "Down Time" is a dirty word to him. I am in awe, and sometimes annoyed, as I am exactly the opposite. Oh, I should also mention he has a degree in marketing and worked for 12 years at the mgt level. He was extremely successful in the business world. The career switch was to make a change to a career that was more personally fulfilling and in line with his beliefs and desire to serve others.

For his senior year he got the coveted clinical rotation of the ER. Only 5 students out of his class of 150 or so were assigned to the ER. He definitely excels in his studies and it doesn't hurt that he has a pretty tight relationship with the Assistant Dean of the College. So in addition to his full course load and working 2 shifts a week in the hospital he is putting in 2 12-hr shifts in the ER each week for his clinical rotation. Yesterday was his first shift in the ER. He had one pretty exciting case that he assisted with (chain saw injury to the leg, ick) and he came home exhausted but I could tell he was just LOVING what he was doing. He was in the thick of trauma, making quick decisions on the fly, exactly what he was hoping for when he started this process over 3 years ago.

So, surely more interesting stories will come from his clinicals this semester. But for now it's just so great to see him excited about what he's doing. Talk to me in 6 weeks though after I've been basically a single parent for that amount of time and we'll see if the honeymoon stage we go through at the start of every semester is still there.

Little One, as I will call our daughter, starts 2nd grade next Wed., and was super irritated that Daddy got to go back to school before her. The girl LOVES school. In fact, her playroom is basically a mock classroom where she is the teacher and her stuffed animals and dolls are the students. Most Saturdays she puts on her "fancy" clothes first thing in the morning, packs her lunch (no joke) and heads off to teach school in her playroom. Little One can keep herself occupied with this for HOURS!

That's enough info overload for one post I guess! I'll get to myself eventually but honestly find the two of them way more interesting than myself. :)

When a door slams shut a window opens. Or so "they" say.

I feel like in the past 4 years many. many. MANY doors have slammed shut on the life I had so carefully planned out when I was the ripe old age of 21. I have to really pay attention to the opportunities those closed doors opened so I don't entirely loose my mind!

I seem to have an obscene amount of thoughts floating around in my head on a daily basis, and journaling just wasn't cutting it for me. I blogged back when my daughter was little and loved it. That blog was mainly about her. This blog is totally, selfishly, completely about me and my life.

Just a little background before I launch into things...
I'm married, today is our 13th wedding anniversary. Yay!
We have one daughter, who is 7 and starts 2nd grade next week.
I work full-time as a creative project manager for a children's publication, fast tracked to upper-mgt (but not sure that's really what I want).
My husband is a full-time nursing student, studying to be a Nurse Practitioner, and works part-time for the hospital system his school is connected with to pay for his tuition.
We have one cat, Miu-Miu, he drives me crazy/keeps me amused/has separation anxiety.

That covers a basic intro to me and my family. Thanks for reading!