Hmmmmm, where has time gone???

Wow two months since I wrote anything here....what a slacker!!! hehehe...not really just incredibly busy. I thought once the girls were in school life would get a little less hectic but instead now I have two girls who have a "social" life and that means mom is driving all over. :) For all my worrying and stressing over Hayley entering kindergarten, I have to smile at how much she loves her class and new friends. We have had playdates and parties and Daisy girl scout stuff and I am having a great time meeting these new moms in her class. I really believe Hayley's class is going to be a really close fun group! They also needed some help with the Daisy Scouts for Hayley's class and somehow I volunteered to help a "little" and well that grew and now I am the assistant leader! Not sure how that always happens but it's really been fun seeing these cute little girls trying to be new scouts! Yesterday the girls were in a Christmas Parade and we dressed them all up like little Christmas presents....it was very cute.....as you can see above. Most of the girls made it the whole route but a few of the tinier ones were getting tired and restless. Thankfully they saved the melt downs until the end when their mommies came! :)

As for Amy, Volleyball is done and now we are are getting ready for Basketball season.....which agains means more driving all over town for us. Sadly though, we have been having some really terrible issues with her new teacher this year. She is a first time teacher and honestly I don't know how she became one. And I say this sadly because Amy is a very strong student and every night homework and drama has killed any time for me to scrap or rest. I have had already 6 meetings with the teacher, the assistant principal and the principal and nothing has changed. I am at my wit's end because the girls are in Catholic school so I am not sure what the protocal is to elevate this higher if there is a higher. I won't go into details about this teacher because it upsets me so and so much of my time and energy is wasted every day on her that I just beg for time that I don't have to deal with this. I really worry that Amy and her drive to be a good student are going to be lost with all the drama and so I struggle to encourage her to keep studying and reminding her to see past the drama we are experiencing....and we pray very hard for a solution and guidance. I learned yesterday that one of Amy's friends will be leaving the class as the mom cannot handle the teacher anymore.....and I am sad. The child is extremely smart and very gifted - what a shame that the school has let this come to this point.

Work has also been super crazy. We have a hiring freeze right now and our department has many vacant positions. The high ups are only allowing some positions to be filled if there is a GREAT need for it. So the work has been just building up and everyone is asking to help out where they can. Since I am an administrative assistant that means I need to help all the managers, directors and supervisors in our area and that has been quite a challenge. I was used to my one manager and what she wanted and now I have 8 people asking me for help - all with very different quirks and personalities! Since there was a position open for this particular job that paid extremely well - I went ahead and interviewed for it. Believe me it was not that I wanted to the job per se - I just knew this would be the only way I would be compensated for what I was doing. So I did and I got the promotion two weeks ago. Now honestly I am not sure if I am happy or not - happy definitely about the pay but there has been a struggle with trying to make everyone happy and my old manager is the one who is not the happiest. She kind of likes me to herself so the "sharing" part hasn't been exactly easy on her. So I kind of been juggling and balancing stuff to make things work and then she tells me that I am not doing a very good job at it. So I sighed and cried some cuz I am tired from being pulled in all directions. I just hope that I can find a way to manage all the new changes so that I don't see a bad review coming up.

With the work pressure going on, I am finding the balance of working and being a mom extremely demanding. I have to keep taking off to go meet Amy's teacher or go to school events and when I do that I lose time at work. My mom used to be my stand-by to get the girls and things but her job has picked up too so she is not available like she used to be. So I find when the clock hits 4pm at work I am off running to go get the girls before the school closes at 6pm. Sadly California traffic throws me off and I am either caught in a traffic jam or I can find myself falling asleep on the road from exhaustion. David cannot take off to help me because he works for a bunch of nuts too so it's just me if something has to be done. And I will admit I have cried a bit on the way home wishing for a solution. David and I have seriously talked about him going part time and taking the summer off so he can be there for the girls and school stuff. Now mind you I would rather it be me that got this opportunity but I have the job with the awesome pay, wonderful benefits and perks that it would be a hardship for our family if I did it. I just worry if we take that leap that finances will be even tougher for us and I am not sure I want that. So we keep thinking of ways to fix this......and pray.

Whew so with all this going on - you can imagine that not much is being done scrapbook wise. I am very sad about that and have had to quit some teams because I knew in my heart I wasn't doing anything to help out the designer. But on the rosy side, just as all this was happening, Trish Jones asked me to be on her team and because I sooo love her - I couldn't say no. So trying to balance all of this and be some kind of productive ct member to everyone. TDC has been great as always but I haven't had a lot of chances to be there too with all this stuff going on above. I feel bad because it is my home and I haven't had a chance to say "Hey this is what is going on to me" and I just look like a flake to everyone....and I am not. I am just a mom who needs to be with her family right now and feeling a bit uninspired with all the stress around me. Oh I did get an email from Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals - I am going to be the featured scrapper there this month. :) Man I love that site.....if only I could make it work to be on their team too......but I can't. I realize I am at full capacity now.....and I have a lot of apologies I need to get out to all my designers so they know I am really still here.....just a little bogged down offline. :)