My New Job!

For a while now, I have been waiting to find a happy medium between staying at home with the boys and doing something that is just for me that makes me feel like I am keeping fresh and using my skills. For a while now I wasn't quite sure if that was even going to be possible and in education part-time is a scarce word. I was hoping to stay in the education field as I already have 7.25 years in toward my retirement and I would hate to see that time go to waste, but I was beginning to think that might not be possible. Well I am excited to say it is!

I was recently hired as the director of the Capital Theater Arts Academy. It is an arts outreach program at the Arts Magnet High School nearby working with children of all ages. The classes include dance, drama and visual art and there is the potential that I could grow the program and create new opporunties for the kids. The perks: the pay is great, I work from abut 5 to 8:30 Mon-Thurs evenings and a few hours on Saturday mornings, so I miss very few hours of my kids lives and still am a stay-at-home mom during the day. I still get to see David because I am not out all night which is huge for me as well. I also get my foot in the door at EastConn which looks like it could be a great career stepping stone for me too! I also get a business laptop and phone which I think is pretty cool!

CTAA is run by EastConn which is a regional education center that along with the ACT school and CTAA runs many educational services and magnet schools for our local region. Being part of the EastConn staff opens doors for many opportunities in the future-ways I can be involved in education without being a classroom teacher, yet still accuring my retirement years. This is just music to my ears!

For my birthday David gave my 3 gift cards so I could update my wardrobe for my new job. Yesterday he stayed with the kids and I went on a mini-shopping spree for myself! It was great! The new job "officially" starts tonight (I already did an oopen house for the program on Saturday) and I can't wait to get started!

Jackson's Surgery

Life has been very busy these past few weeks since Jackson's surgery. On December 30th Jackson had his hypospaidius correction which we knew he would have to have since the day he was born. Basically, hypospaidius is a birth defect that is fairly common in boys-1 in 200 boys are both with it. There are varying degrees of severity and Jackson's was moderately severe. It was rough with him in the hospital as he had to lay completely flat for 4 days, not something an active, newly crawling baby was interested in. He hated the "no-nos" that had to be placed on his little arms to prevent him from moving. Due to having a catheder he would get painful bladder spasms, someting that made mommy cry watching her baby scream while waiting for the pain medication to kick in. All in all it was a long 4 days, but fortunately surgery was successful and they were able to accomplish the entire correction in one procedure which was great news. He did look so cute in his baby-sized hopital scrubs outift-I wish I could have taken it home, he could have been a little doctor next Halloween!

When we got home our work was cut out for us, as Jackson was prohibited from his favorite toys for an entire month! No jumperoo, excersaucer or and ride-on toys. Most of all, no rough-housing with big brother, somethin that has proven to be quite a challenge. We were double diapering for a week and only giving sponge baths.

After a weeek, we got a glowing report and are happy to say double diapering is over (no more catheder!) and although J is not yet cleared for regular baths, he can soak in this special iodone bath, so at least he can splash around a bit. He is also down to just regular strength tylenol and motrin! On Wednesday we can start regular baths again which J is sure to love and we go back for another follow-up at CCMC. I am very happy we are almost through this very stressful time as a parent!