Thursday, August 30, 2012

What's going on around here?

I'm grabbing a few minutes to myself to blog and write down what's going on around here.

I re-read my last entry and found myself shaking my head.  I feel like I am a pretty good judge of character, but sometimes even *I* find myself shaking my head at my complete lack of judgment.  That 'job' down there? Yeah, it didn't quite work out.  Seems I was mislead - A LOT - about the position, the state of the company, the opportunity, and the staff.  Sometimes a hot mess is just that, and you need to walk away from the smoldering ashes.

My kids came back from Arizona where they had a blast with their grandparents.  Our good friends Scott and Jason came to visit us and we enjoyed spending the weekend with them.  After that, Chris's brother Eric and his wife Misty came to visit for a few days.  And Monday, my kids went back to school.  Which means mommy has been waking up, making lunches, and getting them out the door.

I've actually been very busy, taking care of errands and small little projects that need to be done but could be put off while the kids were home.

Jordan is getting quite the reality check with her new junior high schedule.  She changes classes, has an elective, and a locker.  Wyatt loves his new teacher.  So much so, that his math has VASTLY improved, over the less than stellar teacher he had last year.  He WANTS to go to school, and she's amazing with him.  It's wonderful what happens when you have a teacher that cares, and doesn't just constantly complain about having 27 students in her class.

And I'm back in the hunt for gainful, SANE employment.  We'll see what happens.

This weekend is the last long weekend we get until October.  So we decided to take the kids to California and head to Magic Mountain and Hurricane Harbor!  We surprised them with it last night and they're very excited.  Chris and I want our children to have the best possible childhood we can give them.  Memories are way more important to us than things.  We don't buy our children a lot of things, but we do a lot to make memories.  We started behind the eight-ball with a very skeptical and cautious 9 (now 11) year old girl, and a shy and reserved 7 (almost 9) year old boy.  They've since come to understand that this is their family, and we are it, like it or not.  So while we missed some of their very formative years, we've been blessed in that we can do these things where we take trips and make memories.  Our most recent proof of the love our children have for our travel bug was when Jordan told us, in no uncertain terms, that she wanted to go to the family reunion in October.  We're most certainly going to try and make that happen.

So that's what's happening here in the Den.  It's a lot, and keeping up with it has been daunting.  So if you've called me, or emailed me, and I haven't responded, I apologize.  It's been a bit crazy.

Friday, August 03, 2012

It's WAY too quiet around here...

I've been throwing out my resume here and there and not really expecting any rapid responses, considering the state of the unemployment rate.  However, Wednesday I received a phone call and two hours after speaking with the recruiter, I was sitting in a conference room with the CEO of the company.  The company is a large-format printer manufacturing company based in Shanghai, and the CEO is a woman.  Which in and of itself is amazing, but when you consider that she is a woman in Shanghai, with a successful company that is about to go IPO in China, that's incredible, and admirable.

During the interview, we hit it off quite well.  It was a little challenging with the language (although her English is great, there's still that accent and the differentiation in inflection that can sometimes throw you off), but I think I did well.  And then it hit me.  She just offered me the job.  Right here, at the interview.  Holy crap!  I let her know I had to talk with my husband.  She asked me to call her that night.  I explained that I had a lot of upcoming commitments and she had no problem with that, or with the fact that I have two children I need to take care of.

Wednesday night we flew the kids to Arizona to drop them off with Memaw and Papaw, and turned around and flew back home in the space of about 4 hours.  We fly for free, and it was cheaper than paying the UM fee.

Yesterday morning, while sitting and drinking my coffee and doing various things around the house, it almost caught me off guard as I thought, 'Gee, my kids are sleeping in really....oh.  Whoops!'  Yep, it had momentarily slipped my mind that they are in Arizona.  We've had them home since December of 2010 and in that time, we haven't had any extended time together alone, without them, since then.  Let me rephrase - Chris and I haven't had any alone adult time outside of a dinner date or two since December of 2010, or roughly 20 months. That's not to say we are resentful, or angry about our choice.  This was our choice, and we embrace it gladly.  It's just that the reality of not having to make lunches, or fix snacks, or approve television shows, or do laundry, or clean up messes, or referee fights, or listen to tweenage drama, or talk about disgusting boy things really hit me yesterday.

My Wyatt is a talker.  He will talk from the time he wakes up until that noggin of his hits the pillow at night.  He will talk about anything.  He will give you a play-by-play of what just happened 2.7 seconds ago, even if it was YOU who was doing it.  He will be in the middle of a conversation with you and then suddenly switch lanes and be off on another tangent.  I've gotten used to it, staying home with them over the past ten months, but my poor husband has not.  And Wyatt LOVES his daddy.  So when he has daddy's undivided (or even sometimes divided) attention, he's off!!  Chris will sometimes look at me and I just laugh.  Welcome to my world, buddy!!

So to sit in an empty house, with just the sounds of the pool filter and the air conditioners running, is weird.  I'm grateful that my kids have this opportunity to spend some time with Memaw and Papaw.  I'm grateful that they are active and willing participants in my children's lives.  I'm grateful that they love them, and always have, without hesitation, since the day we learned we were bringing them home.  Adoption is not only tough on parents, who most certainly struggle with 'what if I don't love them like I would my own biological children', but it can be equally hard on grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and even existing siblings.  I have to say that our families have shown nothing but love for my kids, and for that I'm thankful.

Oh, and that job offer up there? I accepted and signed the official offer yesterday.  My carefree days as an unemployed SAHM are over.  Another thing I am grateful for is children who are old enough to come home after school and hang out for an hour and a half.  And that we live in a neighborhood full of children that my kids have already met and started playing with.  And the bus system.  That's a plus as well!

Staying home with them over the last ten months was great, but it's time for this mama to go back to work.  I'm not going to get into the debate of the SAHM vs. the WOHM, because quite honestly, it's not worth it.  Everyone does what is best for their families.  I did what was best for my family in California, and now I'm doing what is best for our family in Nevada.

Now if I could just convince my in-laws to move up here...