Thursday, January 29, 2009
New Header
I've long been envious of those people who have fancy, cool blog headers. I'm just not creative like that. But...I had an incredibly creative gal design my new header--and I love it. Additional changes may be forthcoming in the form of pictures. The same gal has designed an awesome Valentine's Day card for us, which I would post but I don't want to ruin the surprise of sending them out! Hop over to her site if you are in need of invitations, announcements, or blog headers!
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Past, Present and Future
I read this on one of my favorite blogs...thought it was fun and if it makes me cooler, than I'm all for it. :-)
Where were you January 22nd....
5 years ago- 25 yo, had just lost my job at the company where I met my future husband, and was feeling quite bereft. Little did I know, that job loss would open the doors to the rest of my career and move my relationship with my husband along nicely.
10 years ago- In college, since Jan. 22, 2009 was a Friday, I was most likely contemplating my weekend plans and possibly attending class.
15 years ago- Sophomore in high school, I was just beginning my descent into a wicked case of teen angst. Probably fighting with my mother, plotting against my mother and lamenting over all the ways I was convinced she was ruining my life. For the record, lest this sound like I have a terrible relationship with my mother, it was confined to a few years of highschool.
20 years ago- I was 10 yo, sharing a room with my older sister, who was soon to graduate high school and leave me for Yale. I'm sure I was tormenting her in a million ways--such as using her prom dresses for doll outfits, etc. I was, also, quite enamoured with with her teenage coolness.
Where are ya going?
5 years from now- Jack will be almost 6--in kindergarten. Wow! Perhaps he will have a sibling. Jared will be working on his MBA and I will probably still be working for a bank.
10 years from now- Jack will be solidly in elementary school, joined by the possible sibling, and since our careers are still so much in flux, maybe we will be living somewhere else, me still in risk management, Jared in IT management--maybe further along.
15 years from now- Jack in high school, me probably getting back all of the anxiety I doled out to my parents, Jared and I both still plugging away at our careers.
20 years from now- Probably still paying for college educations, kids becoming adults, still working in respective careers.
25 years from now- Maybe looking toward retirement? Possible weddings for our children. Possibly still paying for college educations (likely, actually). :-)
Where were you January 22nd....
5 years ago- 25 yo, had just lost my job at the company where I met my future husband, and was feeling quite bereft. Little did I know, that job loss would open the doors to the rest of my career and move my relationship with my husband along nicely.
10 years ago- In college, since Jan. 22, 2009 was a Friday, I was most likely contemplating my weekend plans and possibly attending class.
15 years ago- Sophomore in high school, I was just beginning my descent into a wicked case of teen angst. Probably fighting with my mother, plotting against my mother and lamenting over all the ways I was convinced she was ruining my life. For the record, lest this sound like I have a terrible relationship with my mother, it was confined to a few years of highschool.
20 years ago- I was 10 yo, sharing a room with my older sister, who was soon to graduate high school and leave me for Yale. I'm sure I was tormenting her in a million ways--such as using her prom dresses for doll outfits, etc. I was, also, quite enamoured with with her teenage coolness.
Where are ya going?
5 years from now- Jack will be almost 6--in kindergarten. Wow! Perhaps he will have a sibling. Jared will be working on his MBA and I will probably still be working for a bank.
10 years from now- Jack will be solidly in elementary school, joined by the possible sibling, and since our careers are still so much in flux, maybe we will be living somewhere else, me still in risk management, Jared in IT management--maybe further along.
15 years from now- Jack in high school, me probably getting back all of the anxiety I doled out to my parents, Jared and I both still plugging away at our careers.
20 years from now- Probably still paying for college educations, kids becoming adults, still working in respective careers.
25 years from now- Maybe looking toward retirement? Possible weddings for our children. Possibly still paying for college educations (likely, actually). :-)
Saturday, January 17, 2009
On the Hunt...
Perhaps the most frustrating, scary parts about working motherhood (well, working parenthood) is finding childcare. In San Diego, we managed to find possibly the best daycare 15 houses away from ours and on the first interview we ever had. It helped that Jared had gone to school with the woman's grown boys, but still...we knew we were lucky, I don't know that we knew how lucky. I dropped my preemie baby boy there when for the first time when he was just about 5 mos old and I never, ever worried once. We miss her terribly.
When we moved up here, we naturally assumed that a home-based daycare would be our best option, based on our experience in San Diego. We found the woman Jack has been going to up here pretty quickly upon moving and, although we know she loves our son and she is a warm, caring woman, it's just not the perfect fit for us. So...off we went in search of new daycare.
Wow--what an experience this has been. I started last week, visiting a woman who lives pretty close to us--another home-based daycare. I really, really liked her but the house was small, dingy, had piles of unwashed dishes in the sink and, as Jared put it, he didn't want to hang out there. So...not sure if we want to leave our son to hang out there, day in and day out.
Friday comes and I am armed with ads for three providers. Two are home-based, one is a Montessori school that has an infant/toddler room. I set off in my brand-new, less than a month-old minivan (this will become relevant shortly). As I pull up to the first place, I start to feel the glimmers of first hope. The house is nice and through the window, I can see the woman is well put together (you wouldn't believe the number of ads I've read where there were misspellings, grammatical errors, etc.--so this was looking good), looks like a normal person. So far, so good. She starts off with a tour of her house, which is clean and nice. Big backyard with lots of play equipment and complete with a chicken coop and baby chicks. (Note: although this looks great for kiddos, I kept my distance given my intense fear of the avian variety.) Then we sit down. First, her two children are ill-behaved. The entire time. She does not do a great job of disciplining or redirecting them. The TV is on the whole time--now, it is the Disney movie, Cars, so I could probably get past that but the provider spends her entire time watching the TV, not looking at me, while she talks. Then, she inquires about my son's eating habits...asking whether he likes to eat, "you know, corndogs?" Corndogs?!?! My son is 10 mos old!!!! Did she really just ask that??? (Aside from age inappropriateness...is this their regular diet?) Now, she doesn't ask me about any other foods, just corndogs. A few minutes later, one of the other children she watches, an 18-mo old girl, shows up. She seats her on the loveseat with her as we continue our conversation. Her 4 year-old then asks for help using the potty. She gets up to help her use the potty and asks me if Jack is good about staying sitting on the couch unattended. Seriously????? We end our conversation when she tells me that her full time rate is $250/week. This is ASTRONOMICALLY EXPENSIVE for an unregistered, home-based day care. We could go to the cadillac of all childcare centers and not pay that much. Sheesh.
Okay--on to the next place. This ad looks good. There are pictures of a bright, sunny yellow room, set up like a nursery school, happy children laughing as they work on an art project. Pictures of the play area show new, nice play equipment. I soon learn her pictures were strategically taken and left out A LOT. My first impression as I drove up the driveway (an long, L-shaped driveway, which will become important soon), was a porch bench that was chained (yes, chained...padlock and all) to the side of the house. No porch. Now, the pictures were not all deceiving...the front room, used for daycare, was bright and sunny and set up nicely for a preschool. However--again, dishes piled in the sink in the kitchen, and breakfast dishes with half-eaten food are still sitting out on the counter where the kids ate breakfast. It's 11:30 am. The breakfast included tater tots. Not exactly the breakfast of the champions. Now...seriously, I would never go to a job interview in jeans. When you have a scheduled visit from a prospective new customer, is it really too hard to make sure the house is clean??? Doesn't give me great hope for what the regular state of these places are. After our interview ends, I head out to my car and begin the process of backing up down this L-shaped driveway. I am focusing intently on navigating out until I hear a big crunch. That's right, I have completely side-swiped the daycare owner's car. I sheepishly make my way back into that bright, sunny room and begin the process of calling insurance. The woman is very gracious and fairly non-plussed by this turn of events. I, on the other hand, am completely embarassed and sheepish, considering I had sat there not ten minutes earlier explaining that I really wasn't comfortable having daycare transporting my child in a car anywhere. Then I proceed to crash into thier car.
After the insurance information is exchanged, I hightail my way out of there, call my best friend in tears and tell her I don't think I want to live here anymore. She talks me down from my ledge (but gives a shameless plug for moving to Texas if I really think I can't make it here) but I determine that home-based daycare is not the best route for us in this town.
Back to square one. Took my now-damaged brand new car and make my way to the Montessori, trying to recover some dignity and feeling like this is my last hope. I am broken down at this point, folks. The Montessori was great. They can take my son. Unfortunately, they will be closing the infant/toddler program in September and we will be back without childcare. Arrrrgh...
They did, however, refer me to Kindercare. I visited there--loved it, but wasn't ready to commit. We saw another big-center daycare this morning and liked that one even better. It's quite a drive, though--so we're going to evaluate a few more options. Hopefully, we will find the right thing.
In closing, I'm leaving you with a picture of my damaged car. :-(
When we moved up here, we naturally assumed that a home-based daycare would be our best option, based on our experience in San Diego. We found the woman Jack has been going to up here pretty quickly upon moving and, although we know she loves our son and she is a warm, caring woman, it's just not the perfect fit for us. So...off we went in search of new daycare.
Wow--what an experience this has been. I started last week, visiting a woman who lives pretty close to us--another home-based daycare. I really, really liked her but the house was small, dingy, had piles of unwashed dishes in the sink and, as Jared put it, he didn't want to hang out there. So...not sure if we want to leave our son to hang out there, day in and day out.
Friday comes and I am armed with ads for three providers. Two are home-based, one is a Montessori school that has an infant/toddler room. I set off in my brand-new, less than a month-old minivan (this will become relevant shortly). As I pull up to the first place, I start to feel the glimmers of first hope. The house is nice and through the window, I can see the woman is well put together (you wouldn't believe the number of ads I've read where there were misspellings, grammatical errors, etc.--so this was looking good), looks like a normal person. So far, so good. She starts off with a tour of her house, which is clean and nice. Big backyard with lots of play equipment and complete with a chicken coop and baby chicks. (Note: although this looks great for kiddos, I kept my distance given my intense fear of the avian variety.) Then we sit down. First, her two children are ill-behaved. The entire time. She does not do a great job of disciplining or redirecting them. The TV is on the whole time--now, it is the Disney movie, Cars, so I could probably get past that but the provider spends her entire time watching the TV, not looking at me, while she talks. Then, she inquires about my son's eating habits...asking whether he likes to eat, "you know, corndogs?" Corndogs?!?! My son is 10 mos old!!!! Did she really just ask that??? (Aside from age inappropriateness...is this their regular diet?) Now, she doesn't ask me about any other foods, just corndogs. A few minutes later, one of the other children she watches, an 18-mo old girl, shows up. She seats her on the loveseat with her as we continue our conversation. Her 4 year-old then asks for help using the potty. She gets up to help her use the potty and asks me if Jack is good about staying sitting on the couch unattended. Seriously????? We end our conversation when she tells me that her full time rate is $250/week. This is ASTRONOMICALLY EXPENSIVE for an unregistered, home-based day care. We could go to the cadillac of all childcare centers and not pay that much. Sheesh.
Okay--on to the next place. This ad looks good. There are pictures of a bright, sunny yellow room, set up like a nursery school, happy children laughing as they work on an art project. Pictures of the play area show new, nice play equipment. I soon learn her pictures were strategically taken and left out A LOT. My first impression as I drove up the driveway (an long, L-shaped driveway, which will become important soon), was a porch bench that was chained (yes, chained...padlock and all) to the side of the house. No porch. Now, the pictures were not all deceiving...the front room, used for daycare, was bright and sunny and set up nicely for a preschool. However--again, dishes piled in the sink in the kitchen, and breakfast dishes with half-eaten food are still sitting out on the counter where the kids ate breakfast. It's 11:30 am. The breakfast included tater tots. Not exactly the breakfast of the champions. Now...seriously, I would never go to a job interview in jeans. When you have a scheduled visit from a prospective new customer, is it really too hard to make sure the house is clean??? Doesn't give me great hope for what the regular state of these places are. After our interview ends, I head out to my car and begin the process of backing up down this L-shaped driveway. I am focusing intently on navigating out until I hear a big crunch. That's right, I have completely side-swiped the daycare owner's car. I sheepishly make my way back into that bright, sunny room and begin the process of calling insurance. The woman is very gracious and fairly non-plussed by this turn of events. I, on the other hand, am completely embarassed and sheepish, considering I had sat there not ten minutes earlier explaining that I really wasn't comfortable having daycare transporting my child in a car anywhere. Then I proceed to crash into thier car.
After the insurance information is exchanged, I hightail my way out of there, call my best friend in tears and tell her I don't think I want to live here anymore. She talks me down from my ledge (but gives a shameless plug for moving to Texas if I really think I can't make it here) but I determine that home-based daycare is not the best route for us in this town.
Back to square one. Took my now-damaged brand new car and make my way to the Montessori, trying to recover some dignity and feeling like this is my last hope. I am broken down at this point, folks. The Montessori was great. They can take my son. Unfortunately, they will be closing the infant/toddler program in September and we will be back without childcare. Arrrrgh...
They did, however, refer me to Kindercare. I visited there--loved it, but wasn't ready to commit. We saw another big-center daycare this morning and liked that one even better. It's quite a drive, though--so we're going to evaluate a few more options. Hopefully, we will find the right thing.
In closing, I'm leaving you with a picture of my damaged car. :-(
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