New chapter and big changes

This week has been pretty emotional for me.  Those of you that know me personally know that the hubby and I have been married for over eight years; it will be nine years in November (married in 2003).  Once we got married, I relocated from my hometown to a city two hours away.  Within a month, I had interviewed, accepted, and began working for a consulting firm.  The thing I really loved about the company is that the owner was a Christian with views similar to mine.  That felt safe to me.  And, I knew that business would be conducted with integrity.

Fast forward to 2006.  I was finishing my clinical hours to become a surgical technologist - I was so excited to be in the operating room.  I absolutely LOVED school - everything about the OR was exciting to me.  During this time, I also became pregnant with my sweet little boy, and continued to work for the same company (they were great about working around my school hours).  When I became pregnant, I couldn't imagine leaving my son every day to work outside of the home.  I knew that although I loved surgical technology, it wasn't part of the plan for my life at that moment. So, my boss developed a plan to allow me to work from home once my son was born.  How amazing is that?!

For the past five years, I've been working from home while caring for my children.  It hasn't always been easy, but it's been wonderful to be with my children every day.  It's been wonderful to be there for each and every milestone.  I've loved the opportunities that this position provided for my family.  Now, my sweet boy is five and will begin elementary school this fall.  As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, we've decided that homeschooling will be the best way to educate him.  I'm very excited for this fall, however, it has become increasingly apparent that I won't be able to work (even from home) and homeschool.  I feel like both my son and my work would suffer from less than adequate attention. 

So, I talked to my boss and decided that it was best for me to quit.  It has been one of the most difficult decisions.  I cried while talking to him (and talking to my coworkers) since this isn't something that I'm particularly excited about.  Don't get me wrong, I'm ECSTATIC that I get to homeschool my child, I'm just not thrilled that I'm leaving a great company and wonderful coworkers.  And my boss was great.  He totally understands why I'm leaving and was so kind to me, which made it even harder.  I've been working there for over eight years, so in a way, it feels like a break up.  On good terms, but still, it's a huge change.  He even asked how he could help me with this transition and offered to get in touch with one of his old neighbors who homeschools so that I can learn more about their co-op group!   

I know what an amazing opportunity it has been for me to work from home, and I am forever grateful for the opportunity.  My last day of work will be June 30; this will give me some time to enjoy summer with the little ones, volunteer at summer camp, spend some time with the youth at church, and just relax.  I'm looking forward to it.  I'm looking forward to having time that's 100% devoted to my hubby and children.  We'll be (obviously) bringing in less money after June, but I know God will provide for us regardless.  I'm excited to see what God has in store for us.

Thank you!

Hey friends! 

I wanted to thank you all for reading my blog posts.  In less than a month, I've had over 350 views!  This is more than double my previous record for any 30 day period!  I really do appreciate you taking a moment out of your day to hear about mine.  Please, keep reading.  And if you don't mind, leave me a comment - I want to know what you would like my next post to be about.

Thanks for reading :)

April Fools!

It's April 1st, which just so happens to be one of my favorite days of the year.  People sometimes talk about their love languages, for some it's gifts, or affection, or acts of service.  My love language is pulling pranks on those I love.  I love that there is an entire day devoted to one of my favorite past times.

In the past, I've put change in my hubby's shoes, or 'short-sheeted' the bed, or made a drink that looked like sweet tea but wasn't.  I also (at least once a week) like to hide somewhere in the house and jump out at him when he's not expecting it. This year, rather than focus on pranking my husband (besides the scary leprechaun that was anxiously waiting for him in the bathroom this morning), I decided to focus my efforts on the little ones.

They're still pretty young, so I didn't want to do anything too mean; I decided to mess with their food.  For breakfast, they had gummy worms in their cereal.  I thought I was so clever.  That is, until church this morning when they were VERY loud and hyper.  Note to self: gummy worms are NOT an ideal breakfast food.

For lunch, I made them peanut butter and jelly and placed gummy worms in their sandwiches (I obviously learned my lesson from breakfast).  It was so funny to watch their faces as they unexpectedly bit into something rubbery in their sandwich.  We also finely chopped some cookies to make 'dirt' for their yogurt.  X-Man thought this was so cool!  Little Lou, on the other hand, threw a complete tantrum and cried under the table while yelling "We don't eat dirt!  Dirt is NOT yummy!".  She eventually came around.  I also gave them an apple with a gummy worm inside, and grape jell-o that looked like grape juice.  It was hilarious watching them try to drink out of their straws!

I've also enjoyed reading my friend's pranks on Facebook.  And several businesses (Google, Coffee-Mate, International Delight, Old Navy) have also had fantastic jokes today.  I sure would hate to have big news to share on April 1st.  I think you'd have to wait a day or else no one would believe you.

Anyways, I'm hoping to get a few more gags in today - especially for my sweet, unsuspecting hubby.  (Or, I could just be saying this so that he worries all day about my evil schemes...)  I hope you have a great April Fool's Day filled with great memories!

Thanks for reading!