Quitter

Every year before Parent's Night at Hapgood Elementary School, Mrs. Heron asks her second grade class to pick the coloring picture of the job they want to have when they grow up. Coloring pages of Precious Moments are strewn upon the work table. The are boys in over sized firefighter and policemen hats, girls in nursing hats, and boys with stethoscopes around their necks. Little Rebekah picks the picture of the girl with her puppy and a mop; her hair is in a bandanna. Ultimately, it is the picture of a maid. But to Rebekah, it is the only picture that she could find to represent what she wants to be; an at home mommy.

I have always wanted to make a home and raise my babies . . . full-time . . . and nothing else. When Lily was first born we weren't sure this was going to be a reality for our new little family. It is not something that works for every family; both financially or for the sanity of a mommy. But it is something I've always wanted. In fact, on my very first date with Kevin I told him that all I've ever wanted to do was to be at home raising my children to love the Lord.

Through some planning, much prayer, and a wonderfully supportive husband, starting tomorrow I will be home with our Lily Bug.


I'm not going to lie, it was ultimately an easy decision. It was however, not easy to leave CBU. I came to Riverside in 1999 to attend California Baptist University and through a friend and my sister, I got a job as a student worker in the financial aid office. In January 2003, I started full-time as the receptionist, got stuck and somehow became the associate director. It is really the only place I have ever worked; except for the 6 weeks at the Cold Stone in Kihei, Maui. I like financial aid. I liked the technical side. I loved writing reports and sorting and filtering spreadsheets! But I love my husband and my daughter more and I am excited for what is to come.



I gave my notice on January 3rd, and this past Friday the ladies in the office gave me a beautiful send off. There was a small cake reception with a giant cake. Lots of people came by to give their well wishes. I felt so loved and appreciated.


I was given many cards and gifts; daisies with notes attached, calendars with notes on how to raise a God centered family, books, magazines for all my free time (in jest of course), and a basket full of homemaking and baking goodies.

Here is Kevin modeling my new apron and matching spatulas.

CBU is full of wonderful people, many of who I will miss, but the ladies of Financial Aid have been my world. In the past eight years I have finished school, gotten married, travelled the world, bought my first home, and started my family; and these women have celebrated each milestone with me. I love them dearly and will miss them terribly.

But new and exciting things are on their way. I am so excited to see what happens next!

One Week Down

I made it. First week back to work is under my belt. It was nice to work only 30 hours. Unfortunately, I didn't really get a schedule down with Lily until Thursday. She can't really decide if she wants to go 3 or 4 hours between feedings. And just like her mama, she is not a cuddler. This means that she will not eat unless she is hungry. On Wednesday when I came home for lunch, she wasn't ready to eat, so she fought me. Grammie had to do another bottle that day.

She is ready to stretch between feedings, but not ready to drop a feeding. Thus, I have added back in an early morning feeding; 4:00 am to be precise. And then again at 7:00. It's fine though. Kevin gets up around the same time so I get to see him before he leaves. One day I may get up and go for a walk instead of going back to sleep for an hour and a half. But since the weather is getting colder, it's pretty unlikely. She will eventually drop a feeding and we'll be okay.



This week I am off of work so we'll be playing with the schedule a little more to find what works for both of us. My main goal is to be able to feed her on my lunch; it's one less bottle and pumping for the parties involved.

I personally did okay at work. Currently the days goes by pretty quickly. I don't feel the need yet to be around other "grown-ups"; I feel like I get enough adult interaction at the moment. I would prefer to be at home with Lily. But I didn't miss her as much as I thought I would, probably because I knew she was in excellent hands. On top of that I had some vacation time this week that I was looking forward to. We'll have to see how quickly the days and weeks go when I return from Thanksgiving.

Back to the Grind

I went back to work today; sort of.

I was up at 5:45 am to feed her; a full 45 minutes before her typical eating time. But there was no putting her off this morning. She wakes up HUNGRY! So she ate and we played before work. I ate and she cooed. Then she talked to the ceiling fan while I finished getting ready. I put her back down for a nap just before I left for work. I packed my snacks, packed my pump, and grabbed a few snap shots to put in my office and I was out to door at 7:30.

My mom has come down from Sacramento this week to watch Lily for my first week back. Having Mom here is helping make the transition a little smoother. Additionally, I have been allowed to leave at 3:00 pm this week. This meant I was able to go home to feed her on my lunch and was home as she was woke up from her afternoon nap. She did great with her schedule and was an angel for Grandma.

Lily will be twelve weeks on Wednesday and I am grateful that I was able to take this much time. I have been able to learn some of her cues and work on getting her on a schedule that fit my work schedule. We spent time at home. We spent time with friends. We went shopping. We went for walks. We even took a trip up to see Grandma and Grandpa and the whole Sacramento gang.

It has been a glorious time off. But alas, duty calls, and I returned to my dark little office under the stairs with the 3 by 3 window that sits so high I can only see the sky. At least it was blue today. I can't really complain. The privacy of my office makes it convenient to pump. On top of that, I have all of next week off. And Christmas is just around the corner!

Temporarily Relocated

While our carpets in our regular office are being treated for mildew, I have been relocated to the James building. Just two doors down from where I started almost 7 years ago. I have had my own office for about a year and a half, and I got quite comfortable with it. So sharing an office space with my boss for the past two weeks has been an adventure. Unfortunately, we both talk to ourselves. It has been interesting.

New Work Space

I have a little bit of a bug and decided to stay home today. I was home on Wednesday as well, but had to go in yesterday for a meeting. As I am saving my voice and not spreading germs, I decided to use the peace and quiet to get caught up on some work stuff.

Here is my work station today.

Not exactly ergonomically correct, but I needed to spread out my paperwork, and be by a phone jack. Yes, it's true, I have jumped in my DeLorean and I am back to the year 2000 using a dial-up connection. Well, to write this post I am not, but the only way to get into the system at work is by dial-up. Needless to say I don't work very fast, however, I think I am still as productive because I am not being interrupted.

Even the boys have left me alone to do my work.

They have been quite good today despite the trouble they got into last night. Not so much they, as Charlie. We decided to hang out upstairs last night because I was rearranging the bedrooms. Bubba has become quite good at letting me know he needs/wants to go outside. So last night he whined and we headed downstairs. Charlie followed only half-way down and the sat in the middle of the stairs not to be budged. Bubba did his business, number 1 and 2, and we headed back up. Not 10 minutes later I noticed pee. We scolded, put Charlie out, he peed some more, cleaned up the carpet, and went back to moving. I was blaming Charlie for farting when Kevin said he had been smelling it for a while. I looked around to see the biggest pile of poop yet. Needless to say Charlie went out for a while. We had gone several weeks without a real accident, and I thought we were doing so well. Resolve has become my best friend.

But today has been good to me. After all, I have been able to wear these babies all day.

That Kind of Week

The Best Team I Was Ever On

I often give presentations at local high schools to promote and inform students and their parents about the financial aid process. Yesterday was my second presentation of the fall. As I left Chaparral High School in Temecula, I realized that my collegiate speech team may have been the best training for the work force I have ever received.

The first time I had ever heard of competitive speaking, was in 1999, when my freshman roommate left for her first competition. Amanda did well, and brought home some “hardware” or trophies she received for placing in her tournaments. It sounded interesting, but I didn’t really know what else was involved. Then in the spring 2001, I took my required Oral Communications course, and did pretty well. I liked doing the research, and was able to put together a pretty good speech. Unfortunately, I can’t remember what it was on, but my professor thought I was pretty good, and introduced me to John Pate. I signed up for the speech and debate team for my junior year, and even received a scholarship for my participation. And to my surprise, I qualified for the final competition at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois my junior year. The following year, I qualified two pieces for the final competition at The University of Mississippi.

What I learned from being on the team has been more valuable than any plastic trophy I received. I learned basic presentation skills; know your information or at least sound confident, make eye contact, don’t stumble or stutter, and know your time limit. This is great when making a presentation to a crowd, but has also come to be of benefit when answering questions or making a proposal during meetings at work. It has helped with my overal over verball skills. I can communicate clearly so that my audience understands what I am trying to get across. This has even been extended to my phone skills. Until I started listening to other professional phone calls, I didn't realize how many times people use the word "um". The practice with public speaking has helped me not get flustered on the phone, even with speaking with an upset parent. I truely beleive these skills were learned through my participation on the speech team.

I learned how to dress professionally. I had to get a couple of suits while on the team and they were great to have when I started my first job, which 6 years later, I’m still at. I learned you only get one first impression, so make it count. Be it right or wrong, how you look will often determine how people approach and treat you. I was the young one in my office, but I wasn’t going to look like it. This included keeping my hair out of my face. I was so annoyed during one interview with a potential counselor when she continued to toss her hair out of her face every two minutes. Most of my fashion advice came from my teammate and roommate Jaime. It was more of my watching Jaime and the suits she wore. Jaime had been on the team longer, had multiple wins, and a wonderful sense of style. She was always classy without being overly trendy.

Overall, this brief two year training has been invaluable. I wish I could make everyone of the financial aid counselors pass an oral communication course.

Boss's Day

I got flowers for Boss's Day. Made my day. I really do feel appreciated.

So I looked up the "holiday" online to determine if it was Boss's Day or Bosses Day. The web listed both. Hallmark listed Boss's Day. Does anyone know which is correct? I missed that grammer lesson.