January smanuary

Hello, glorious long weekend.  We are only two weeks back to school from Christmas break, but is a welcome day off none the less.

Hello fabulous skinny jeans from Forever 21.  Less than 10 dollars.  And hello to the fabulous scarf my in laws gave me for Christmas.   It complements my Canadian tuxedo nicely (I learned that term from Lena B).

Christmas is over and we are back into swing of things. Meaning, Monday night soccer with the trainer, Wednesday swim lessons, and twice a week basketball practices and games.  It is a lot, especially with Hannah in tow, but the alternative is endless winter days with the TV blaring and Isaac literally kicking the soccer ball against the wall for hours on end.  For everyone's sanity, it is better to pile in the minivan and head out.  

This past week Ryan had a week of training for his new job.  He has already done a week of training in Pittsburgh and starting today will have 2 more weeks there.  It was a good week.  He was home a lot and we found out a lot of encouraging things about his new job.  It seems like it is going to be a great fit for him.  He also found out that there was one position open and it came down to him and an internal candidate. They were sort of obligated to go with the internal person but they were so impressed with his interview that they decided to create a second position just for him.  I am so proud of him.  2014 was a rough year for us, but it already feels like things are going our way in 2015.

Without going into too much detail, I have also felt compelled to update my resume and letters of reference to see what else might be out there for me.  I don't know if anything will come of it but I figure things are more likely to be better anywhere else. A tanking economy has left me sitting at the bottom of the pay scale for longer than I am comfortable with, heading into another round of contract negotiations.  This year I am literally doing the job that was two teachers' job last year.  More work for less pay just isn't making sense anymore.  So we will see what happens.

I worked my last shift at Target.  I was feeling a little bit bad about it and wondering if I should have asked them to stay on, like, one shift a week.  Then I dealt with some really dreadful guests that last night and I thought "yeah, I'm good".  

We have been planning a big trip to Florida.  We will be spending some time with my parents at their timeshare, and visiting with Ryan's family.  I can't wait to have some family fun and meet my nephew Lucas.  Today the roads were very treacherous and church was cancelled.  We all stayed in our pajamas and watched a bunch of travel specials about Disney and Florida which got us pumped up. 

Happy Tuesday!