Friday, October 31, 2008

Week in Review

So, here's an update on our past week:

Me
I have been working a whole lot of crazy hours and it's going to get worse before it gets better, but it really will get better. I've decided to hang up my consultant hat and take a permanent position as a Vice President at the client I have been assigned to this past year. This is going to give me a lot more stability personally and financially and help achieve some of the long term goals we have for the family and for myself. I expect to be working fewer hours in the end, but I have to get through this year first. I am not able to relinquish the reins of my current role so I need to fulfill my current role in addition to taking on this new role. This dual role will continue until the end of the year. After that, I hope I really will be getting back to achieving some work-life balance and work on some personal goals for myself (like getting healthy and losing weight).

To keep the family from going to utter chaos, we decided to hire a housekeeper to help us keep things organized and in balance. I hate to use the word housekeeper, I'd rather call her Wonder Woman Wendy, because that's what she is to us. She's basically doing everything from cleaning, laundry, cooking, helping get the girls ready in the morning, errands, you name it. She's only been with us a few short weeks and I can't remember how we ever got by without her. She's such a blessing to the family. Reagan gets so excited when she hears the door open in the morning and "Miss Wendy" comes through the door.

Reagan
Reagan's school has about 15 auxiliary options for two year olds. They offer soccer, tennis, tumbling, karate, ballet, and many other things. While it is convenient that they offer these things during school time and you don't have to shuttle your child all over the place in the evenings, these options can really add to an already pricey monthly bill. So we had decided to let Reagan do tumbling since she's shown a lot of interest in that and let the other things go for now. We learned that every week when it was time for ballet and the girls got dressed in their leotards and tutus to go dance, she pitched a fit because she wanted to go so badly. She's such a girly girl, it makes sense that she would want to dress up and dance.

So being the suckers that we are, we went and bought her a tutu, leotard and little pink leather ballet shoes and signed her up for ballet. She was beyond excited and kept saying, "now I'm going to go to ballet and go dance with...(names of girls in her class)." Reagan didn't disappoint. Her teacher tells us that even at her first lesson she was actually the best student in the class. She was very disciplined and coordinated and did everything very well.

I've also heard that she's really good at soccer when they've let them go to free demos. Sadly, I find myself being a bit sexist and not taking that as seriously as I did the ballet. I don't like soccer. I find it boring, and can't put out of my mind that more injuries occur in soccer than in any other sport. I'm happy to support the perpetuation of her girly side, but for some reason when it comes to soccer I just let it go. Maybe if she was older and said that was something she really wanted to do I could support it more, but as long as we are choosing what she is doing, it won't be soccer.

Bailey
Bailey had a short lived career as a baby model. She did the one modeling gig a few weeks back and then this week had a casting call. When I picked her up from daycare to take her, she had a terrible rash on her cheeks. I was wishing I had time to stop to get some makeup to try to cover it up, but I had to let it go. There must have been 20 other (mostly) adorable babies and they were running them in 10 minute appointments all day long.

The first time Bailey had her gig, they plunked her in an exersaucer to play and be adorable and she performed on cue. She did awesome. This time, I just had to set her on the floor and let her play with a few toys while they took pictures. She would have none of it. She screamed and reached for me and would not cooperate. I told them "Wow! This is so unlike her. She never does this. She was great last time." They basically went, "Yeah, yeah sure lady....NEXT."

So between the screaming and the rash, I'm pretty sure we won't be getting a call back.

Bailey was also supposed to transition to the next infant class this week. Only her previous teachers are having Bailey withdrawal. They are spreading out her transition longer than the usual one week as they keep snatching her up and taking her back to the old class. One of the old teachers even said she had a dream that she kept moving classes as Bailey did so that she remained her teacher all the way through. I think it's sweet that they are so attached to her and we don't mind them holding on to her a while longer. She's happy and well taken care of in either side so it's all good. Although I'm starting to wonder if Bailey might actually walk before Kindergarten because I'm suspicious as to whether that baby's feet ever touch the floor.

Bill
Bill rarely has a work emergency and makes sure he keeps his schedule so that he can take the girls to and from daycare everyday. But over the weekend there was work emergency. I found myself being quite hypocritical when he said he needed to go into the office. I didn't want him to go and said stuff like, "Don't you have people that you manage that can do that for you?" This is coming from the person that had to be forced off the computer and phone and out the door to take the kids trick-or-treating tonight because an issue crept up right at the end of the day. I'm really hoping my next role will be more like Bill's, but I won't hold my breath.

We are really hoping Bill's Dad moves out this summer. It's already been two years in the making and we really, really want the girls to grow up with some family around. But he and his fiance keep putting things off. Bill talked to his dad a few months ago and his dad said, "We're putting the house on the market next week." We were pretty excited about that as it seemed like the wheels had finally been set in motion. His Dad called last night. We were hoping with news that the house had sold. Turns out he still hasn't put it on the market. Figures.


So, that was our week in review. How was your week?

4 comments:

Michelle said...

Wow have you had a busy week! And congrats on the new role. I get the consultant transition to industry. It's an odd transition, and I hope it goes well for you. Is it wrong that there are days that I miss consulting and want to go back?

And ummm I laughed at the toilet issue. Totally cracked me up. Partly because I can see my husband doing that ... were I to allow him to have an iPhone.

And yay to Reagan loving ballet. That's the one thing I'm a bit disappointed by -- neither of the wee ones have an activity right now. With the school year starting up again (five days a week of preschool for both), daycare again, and naps for Little Miss, I have no gymnastics, piano, Language Stars, soccer, swimming, or anything right now. And they love those things. And I want to do that for them, but they need playtime, too. I wish we were at a center that had all those add-ons. Except for the price part ;)

Good luck next week!

M said...

They really have that kind of stuff for two year olds? Really?

That is pretty cool though that she can get that stuff at the daycare.

Anonymous said...

Hi Bridget,

I really enjoy your blog. I watched an author named Christopher Flett on the Today Show, he wrote a book called "What Men Don't Tell Women About Business" and it shares secrets for women working in business. I thought you might enjoy hearing about him. There could be some great content in their for future posts.

Keep up the great work.

Sincerely,

Bihter

Anonymous said...

Hi Bridget,

I've been doing some additional research on the author, Chris Flett, that I talked about on my last comment. His company is "GhostCEO" (www.GhostCEO.com) and his book is a bestseller. I found it on Amazon here. Anyway, he was in the NY Times last Sunday under the "Career Couch" and he makes reference to women's blogs like yours so I thought you might like to connect. I'd like to see you interview him and see what he's all about. I saw on another blog he was a guest blogger. His email is: chris@ghostceo.com

Best wishes,

Bihter.