I’m back, again!

Hello there!

I’m back again… for now.  Let’s face it, I kind of suck at this whole blogging thing.  I’m still not sure what I want the focus of my blog to me.  I know I definitely don’t want it to be only a place for me to bitch and vent about all the negative things running through my head – what a downer that would be.

This first new post will be a quick catch up since I last decided to blog and then after that who knows.

So, since my last post a lot has happened.  First, our garden was a huge success!  So much so that we plan to do it all over again, trying out new veggies (Brian has plans for a salsa garden) and growing my favorite flower, the sunflower!  Boo and I have already painted some bird houses that will be part of our garden decoration – along with some awesome gnomes my in-laws sent me.

Next up, we bought a house!  We found out in early fall last year that our landlord had plans of returning to his house once our lease was up.  We spent about 2 months hunting (many hours researching online, long days and many Saturdays spent touring houses) and then another 2 1/2 months getting the paperwork and loan information taken care of.  It was right up to the last minute but we were able to buy our house – guess we plan to stick around for a while.  We now live in Newtown, Connecticut – still a small town though a bit larger in terms of space and population than our previous town of Bethel.  What I like most about our new house is our backyard – plenty of trees, deer, and an occasional fox!  It doesn’t hurt that most of the town is beautiful and once spring hits I have every intention of exploring it to the fullest.

The last big change, and reason that I have time to be blogging in the middle of the afternoon on a Wednesday, is that my job was eliminated in January.  I found out two days before we were scheduled to close on the house (talk about pretty horrible timing) and although I was offered a different position within the company – one that was almost exactly like the one I accepted when I first joined the company – it would have come with another substantial pay cut and eventually a (lack of) work/life balance that I just couldn’t wrap my head around.  I can’t say I was happy with my job or even the company at the time that I found out the news, or even for a while prior to, but it still hurt regardless.  I was two months shy of hitting my 10 year mark with this company and had worked hard in each position I held, which ultimately helped me advance when I was still working in the office in Virginia Beach.  Was I bitter – yeah, you could say that.  Was I angry – definitely.  But, surprisingly, I think I’ve handled it well overall.  In the week or two following the news Brian told me that I seemed much happier and was much more agreeable than I had been recently.  So I guess it’s true what they say… everything happens for a reason.  Maybe in my case it was a chance to give me a break from a situation I wasn’t all that happy with anyway and to give me a swift kick in the ass to really get serious about finding something else that would be a good fit for me.  Of course, that remains to be seen… I am feverishly job hunting… every…day.  I’ve had some interviews here and there along with one amazing offer that I had to turn down due to commute time and the excessive daycare hours that would have come with that.

Outside of job hunting and settling in to our new place I am also now a part time stay at home mom – a job description I never thought I would have.  The upside is that it has given me a lot of time with the Boo – most days we have a lot of fun, some days though are draining and frustrating.  The terrible twos may in fact be real – but just like colic I think we refuse to label it that way.  The worst part though is that it’s winter and it has been downright freezing 95% of time while I’ve been unemployed.  That makes it difficult to find things to do – all I want to do is get out of the house and do things that don’t cost a lot of money.  I’ve been trying to be creative.  I always thought I was creative but as I get older I realize that I really just like the idea of being creative and that I don’t necessarily have the skills to make creativity happen.  Oh well… painting birdhouses and making peanut butter and birdseed feeders has been fun nonetheless.

So there ya have it… my update.   A bit longer than I planned, but it’s been a while.  Til next time!

Danielle

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