a little scrapbooking...

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I stayed up way too late the other night to satisfy my scrapbooking craving...seriously! 

I wanted to participate in this Studio Calico weekly challenge....why not, there are so many layouts to be inspired by on Pinterest.

I really love Kinsey Wilson's work (and her blog) and was inspired by her "ahoy" layout.

So here is what I came up with...the background paper is actually the reverse side of a Christmas paper (ha!) that I hadn't used.  I was happy to use up more of those blue Thickers...I want to deplete my Thicker stock and rely more on my Silhouette for titles and such. 

Happy Labor Day Weekend to you!!

i want wednesday

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Haven't done one of these posts in a while...

i want...this adorable "smitten with the mitten" tshirt - round neck please.

i want...this bracelet!!!

i want...this shirt too!

i (still) want...the iPhone 4s please...primarily for the camera & that it wouldn't be as darn slow as my ancient 3Gs. :)

i want...this adorable moleskin journal....long live Harry Potter!!

i want...this hilarious & adorable greeting card. Perfect to give to O.  hee!!

And lastly...i kinda want: one of these beautiful Nook cases.

randomness

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*if you were wondering why my posts aren't showing up in your reader, I've switched over to private status for a bit...not sure how long I'll be here, but my paranoia is peaked right now, so here we are. my huge reading audience will surely plummet now. haha.

*back in the work routine. it's the pits.

*we had an assembly at school last week. it was free. it involved the use of yo-yos. the "catch" to it being free was that we would offer to sell the yo-yos at school for 5 days after the show. Today is day 5. I have sold $1600 in yo-yos. dang.

*i'm currently 3 weeks behind in Project Life. blaming this on also going back to work. seriously, I do not know how I kept up when I was working earlier this year. 

*speaking of work, yesterday, i almost had a meltdown. i have NO time. i wanted to clobber anyone who dared say stay-at-home-moms have it rough. from the minute i arrive home from work, i am moving non-stop. there is NO tv-time for me. no couch time. no relaxing. none. i'm a single mom all week but the saddest part of that is I'm not sure how much better/easier it would be if O was home. he's not much help. maybe bathing E once in a while but not like it's "his job" or anything (way back when we had agreed it was). this is not a "dump on O" rant, it's an "i'm so sick of rushing to get everything done every single night" rant. I get as much ready at night as possible, clothes out (for me and E), his breakfast bag, my lunch, a load of laundry, dinner: cooking & cleanup, general tidying around the house, water the garden...it's never ending and it's too much. Yes, we went to the Y and didn't get home til 6:20pm or so, but I don't feel like the Y is something I can entirely give up during the week. Without running for the past 4 months, I absolutely cannot skip a day there-thank you added 8lbs-I've transitioned over to swimming hoping for a great calorie burn and some healing time for the foot. ok, vent over. for now. i think.

the perpetual job search

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There was a moment, during my final year of college, when I wigged out (to myself only) about what would happen once I'd be done and would have to go out and get a real job.Scary. Maybe that's why I went to Mexico for a year...which was one of the best years of my life. Another was 2006, but I digress.

It turns out, I had every reason to have been frightened back during that last year of college. To this day, I've yet to identify ONE SINGLE career and say that's what I'd like to do, or let me re-phrase that, I guess I can identify a couple, but it's too late in the game (of life) and I'm not trained or prepared for them.

It also seems like I have a 3 year expiration date when it comes to jobs. Sometimes by my choice, like now. And sometimes by fate, thanks to company reorganization/downsizing etc.

So here I am, beginning year 3 as a School Counselor and completely NOT enjoying it. It started to "get" to me at the end of last school year. Maybe that expiration date is 2 years now? 

My reasons are many but one of the big ones is the shame STILL associated in today's society with seeing a counselor or therapist. The feelings of shame exist in this school too. As a result, most people don't seek out CASUAL conversation with me, I'm left feeling like I have the plague...seriously. I am friendly to EVERY.SINGLE parent and/or co-worker here (unless they've backstabbed me, which only applies to two wacko co-workers). It's not so much that I'm seeking recognition or a "thank you" - although that would be nice once in a while - it's this overbearing feeling of negativity associated with the position/job of School Counselor. Oh hindsight...

The middle schoolers, of course, don't want anyone knowing they've come to see me...granted, this is the majority. There are some kids who are completely fine with it and actually last year I had a couple girls even say that my office is "awesome" or "cozy" etc and they didn't care who knew they came to see me. Because I made them feel better. 

I know a lot of this comes from their parents (or mean-spirited peers) but what it comes down to for me, is that I'm not cut-out to be in a position year after year where no one wants TO BE SEEN talking to me. Or is embarrassed to be seen w/me. etc. You get the point.

There's also other things...like no stipend for being bilingual...because they claim they use their "Hispanic Liaison" person...but just 30 minutes ago I was already asked to make a phone call to a Spanish-speaking parent. And this will continue to happen all.school.year.long.

Another lovely note for this year would be the additional 2 committees I've been assigned to as well as the addition of lunch duty & dismissal duty. FOUR more tasks. NO more money. Fair? I think not.

And the icing on the cake...this year, the shoes we wear MUST have a backstrap..i.e. no flip flop sandals...even nice ones. Of course, all the women are up in arms about this and rightly so...I've purchased two new pair of shoes (not cheap ones either) just so I can go to work. Totally sucks. In fact, the black pair I have are MORE casual then the old black pair I usually wear to work, but since they have no strap on the back, I cannot wear them. Stoopid!! I now have shoes in my closet I don't wear - because they were purchased LAST year for WORK - and I also have clothes in my closet than I can no longer wear to work because I do not have shoes to go with them and I refuse to buy ANOTHER pair JUST for work. Did I mention this is a private school...which translates into LOW salaries. I hate being FORCED to buy something I do NOT NEED!!

I have no solution. No answer. Nothing to make myself feel better about being in this crummy job. I've applied elsewhere but I may be stuck here for the school year. Total drag.

Goodbye Summer!

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I suppose I must accept that technically summer is indeed over.

The calendar may say it is still here, but I'm back at work, so it's over as far as I'm concerned.

I updated our Summer Bucket List...down one post...didn't get everything done.

While I'm sorta bummed about it, I'm also very much OK with it...we have things we can work on next summer or maybe on Christmas or Spring Break of this coming school year. And also, we had a VERY FULL summer. We were always busy...doing something, going somewhere. It absolutely flew by. Much faster than last summer. Unbelievable!!

If someone asked me what my favorite thing about this summer was, it would be hard to pick just one...of course, I loved all that time with Ethan. I also loved the week that he went to Dinosaur Art Camp in the mornings which was very close to the scrapbook store, so I was able to get some scrappin' time in. On top of that, my friend works there and it was fun to be there and hang out with her. 

My other favorite part of summer, was that I really connected with two gals with whom I was in what I would call the "beginning of friendship" stage...both have kids Ethan's age, which of course, made it easier for all us...we got together so much over the summer and had great fun. I feel like I have two new friends and it's fabulous. If only we all didn't have to work (we all work in education) so we could keep hanging out and have girl time while our kiddos have fun together. Now that would be fun!! These relationships really point out the strength in having something in common & how that bonds you...not only that we work in the same field and have kiddos, but that each of us struggle with wanting/needing more time with our kiddos and being able to openly talk about it with each of us COMPLETELY understanding out the other feels. 

And I shouldn't leave out that I definitely loved that I got to read 16 books over the summer. Some amazing ones you should check out are: On The Island and Yellow Crocus. 

Hope you had a great summer too!!