A New Chapter, Complete with a Fancy Letter

Today was my first day in my new career. My first day in the world of for-profit work. My first full day in the field of education.  Today was the start of a new chapter in my life. Last night a friend sent me a message and said that she imagine this new chapter to start with a big, fancy letter just like you were reading a beautiful story.  I think she was right. Scratch that, I know she is right.
I started the morning off at 8:30 in my cute new aqua blazer, white camisole, a black skirt, nylons, a long string of pearls and black heels.  I felt in my element.  I have enjoyed dressing business casual, but I think I actually like dressing up.  I knew no matter where I went or who I saw today, it didn't matter, I looked great! I walked in to my new office for the first time. We started the day by setting up my computer, then moved to a classroom for some one-on-one time where we went over the big picture. 
One of the highlights was that the owners of the company are involved...they have an open door, for real. I can walk in and give suggestions any time.  This is such a change from feeling like I have to go through one person who is a gate keeper.  They also mentioned that if I want to talk to someone, I can. I can directly talk to whoever I want to. They believe in transparency. It hit me at some point that I should not be surprised by these gesture. These are all based in common respect and decency.
Next, we went to lunch.  I got to pick. So, I offered three places and my boss thought sushi sounded good. That was an extra win! It was great to get to know her over lunch and spend some time not talking shop as much. 
After lunch I got to do a little bit of my new job. I ENJOYED every second of it! The work I am doing is the type of thing I would do for a friend or do for fun.  I researched job leads for a student, then talked to the student about what they thought would work.  That shifted the research I was doing, but we were able to narrow it down and zero in on a few options.  The afternoon just kind of flew by.  I listened in on a meeting with another campus.  It was nice to hear my supervisor interact with the staff. She gave praise and when she had feedback, she was direct and explained the importance of the process. They told me I could leave at 3:30, but I stayed and chatted with another member of my team for a little bit. 
They want me to be able to absorb what I am learning, so have me working 9 to 4 for the next two weeks.  Next Thursday I might do my first "late day".  On late nights, I will work until 6:30 or 7:00.  They also emphasized that even though I am salary, they want me to just work 40 hours.  They don't want employee burn out and encouraged me to leave when I could.  Also, if I work over 40 hours...they will still bump up my paycheck for overtime! What salary employee gets overtime?! I do have to get it approved in advance, but still...just knowing there is that option if I really need it, speaks volumes to me.  Gone are the 60-80 hour work weeks.
Life is good. This chapter is good. I can't help but think about all the opportunities that didn't work out.  They led me to where I am suppose to be in this moment. I am suppose to be right where I am, right now.

Elizabeth, Mary, and N

It has been a while since I last posted.  Let's see...what has been going on...Well, I have been teaching. Lots. I love teaching! I have also been unseasonably busy at work.  It feels like what January normally feels like, so I don't know what to expect the rest of this month.  I had shared with a few of you that we were preparing for another round of IVF the end of this month. I have since taken my name off the calendar. Even though the doctor donated his professional fees, we still had to come up with $10k in lab fees. Uff da. We don't have quite that much saved up.  We were at a crossroads of what to do next and just decided to take a break.
What has been incredible through this whole experience is that I feel like God is still whispering to me. When I hear the incredible stories of Elizabeth and Mary in the Bible I am awe struck.  I know my faith in the Lord continually evolves, but recently I find that I have more faith than ever before.  This break from IVF will allow me to continue on my weight loss journey, save money, and just put all of our faith in whatever the Lord has planned for us.
What else to update you all on? Let's see...my sister has been here for almost two weeks! Such fun!!! We have gone shopping, gone through my closet, gone to a comedy club, played games, and just relaxed. My friend S asked me to a reader and bridesmaid in her wedding in April! We are so excited for S to marry K! We also had a nice little milk and cookies party with our friends over recently.  It was quite delightful. That's all for now...maybe more in the near future!

Abundantly Blessed

This morning when I got to work, my friend D had a surprise for me. We walked out to her car where she carefully got out a candle she made just for us! It is a tall, white, pillar candle that they added gems and blue butterflies to. She gave it to me today, because it is Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness Day. I was so incredibly touched by her thoughtful gesture of love.  We are going to burn the candle tonight and have our moment of peace.  I was so touched!
I was at work for just a few minutes when I got the call to schedule our next round of IVF. I was so happy to share with the clinic that I'm on track with weight loss and excited for round 2.
Fast forward a couple more hours and I got a phone call for a phone interview!
Soon after, we were able to book tickets for a family member to come visit for Christmas.
Life is good. We are so blessed. I am so at peace and I am so happy. Thank God.

That awkward moment where...

This evening was the last night of my first class.  For the last five weeks I have enjoyed teaching, getting back into academia, and getting to know the people around me.  In fact, I have been eating dinner with another instructor.  We usually chat, laugh, and he tells me about his wife and kids.  In exchange of course I tell him about my wonderful life.  Jerry has been very nice to me and kind of filled me in on important pieces of information that everyone else forgot to tell me...like the code to get into the faculty work room and the fact I don't need a parking pass.  Needless to say, we have gotten to know each other. This evening I walked in to our work room to sit at my cubicle and my hubby called me at the same time. Of course I answered the phone (he has been so sweet to call and talk to me before I teach every class, which helps since we don't see each other on Mondays and Wednesdays). I'm talking to my hubby, but Jerry, who has headphones on, keeps answering.  Finally, he looks over and realizes I'm on the phone. Haha, he let out a big laugh and went back to work.  After I hung up with Jason, I looked over and Jerry was working hard, so I got back to work.
A few minutes later, Melissa walks in. She has also been very nice to me and has talked to me every Monday and Wednesday for the past five weeks. She is telling this story to anyone who will listen about how her treat for her class shattered and as she was telling another staff, they randomly walked away.  She tells this story about three times in ten minutes.  She was clearly flustered.  Finally, Melissa sits down and starts signing a stack of cards. She flips through them and says loudly, "I don't even know who some of these people are...like who is N?"  Jerry now says, "I don't know who that is either."  I pause for a moment stunned.  Then I turn my head and say, "Did you just say you don't know who N is?" Melissa says, "Yeah." I of course say, "I'm N!" Melissa's face turns red and she begins apologizing. At this point Jerry is now laughing again.  I point out to Jerry that we have had dinner together every Monday and Wednesday for the last five weeks and he didn't even know my name!  Melissa is still apologizing, but it gets better.  She says, "Wow, I just shoved my foot right into my mouth. I'm so sorry Amy."  I giggle.  Clearly, my name is not Amy.  Jerry and I both correct her.  Fast forward two minutes.  Melissa, "I am so sorry Amy." She called me Amy no less than three times in ten minutes.  Finally, I said, "Should I put my name badge on to help you learn my name?" 
It was really awkward and really funny.  Good news, I'm getting a birthday card. Bad news? Apparently, there are only like four staff who know who I am.  Previously, just two knew my name. Now we are up to four. At that rate, I'm really making friends. At the end of the night Melissa went to say good-bye to me, she made sure my name was still N.  I said it was and just for fun replied, "Good Night Jamie." Haha.  Before I left for the night she smiled and said good night Amy, I replied with a good night Jamie.

Updates Galore

I'm ever amazed by how life can march on, then in a matter of days or even seconds change.  I realized tonight that I felt like I had lots of updates and they were all from like the past couple weeks. So, here they are...
1.) As a result of a co-worker going back to earn his MA, a promotion came available. I took a leap and applied. It would mean more nights and weekends, but I would become a director. It's a natural career progression and would set me up for larger roles in the future. That being said, I'm hesitant to get my hopes too high.
2.) Two other jobs opened up and I applied for them too. I of course didn't share this with my supervisor.
3.) I started teaching two nights a week at a local college! I'm enjoying it so far.  The students have complained I give them too much homework, but I gave them an hour of homework and they had 5 days to get it done.  I was also relieved that after grading their first test, they all passed.  I think I was almost as nervous about it as they were!
4.) I interviewed for a job here in Greeley (over the phone) while I was in Wyoming visiting my friends T&T and their baby J! I turned the job down due to pay. I had so much fun visiting T&T and the little pork chop (that's my special nickname for baby J). It was also relaxing to get away for a week and do something totally different.  I'll always treasure the time I spent with the little pork chop while he was two months old and of course the time with my friends!
5.) We went to Montana to visit my mom and sisters! We had a fabulous vacation. It was difficult to come back, because we just had such a nice trip.  We also got to see W&K and their kiddos! We spent time in Glacier Park, at the Electric City Water Park, and had a nice bbq.
6.) A co-worker resigned on Monday morning...so my event season feels like it has started over. Mentoring events, covering for staff, etc.
7.) I visited Dr.Bachus today! My insurance covers more than my old plan, so I decided I needed to make use of the additional coverage. I specifically wanted to know if he thought I should pursue a surgical procedure to have my tubes unblocked.  I'm not quite ready for IVF...I want to lose at least 30-35 more pounds minimum. With the difference in insurance he suggested I have some testing repeated. Specifically, the HSG. That test was the one that stands out as a day in my life that was one of the most challenging. I don't remember the whole day, but I remember a few parts. I remember prepping to go back in for the procedure.  Next, I remember the moment where I watched the screen as the doctor injected dye into my uterus and the dye stayed there in a triangle like shape instead of passing through my fallopian tubes.  I remember feeling like every emotion was drained from my body.  Finally, I remember going back to the recovery room where my hubby was waiting and sharing the news.  Dr. Bachus came in within moments.  I'm sure we grieved the rest of the day, but I know the grieving lasted longer.  In some strange way, I'm looking forward to re-doing the test. I already know what my worst case scenario feels like, so at this point, I can only be pleasantly surprised.  The doctor was happy with my continued weight loss, but obviously I still need to go farther.  He came back to suggesting bariatric surgery and suggested the name of a doctor he trusts. 
I have pretty mixed feelings about bariatric surgery...I've already shared that on here. I'm losing 1-2 pounds per week all on my own. Keeping track of what I eat is just a part of my life.  If I opted for lap-band, I would still lose 1-2 pounds per week, but have side effects. I'm not sure I'm ready to sign up for that, but on the other hand I know how easy it is to regress.  I also don't think insurance will cover it. I've checked in to it before. Dr. Bachus offered to read my insurance policy and see if there were any loop holes.  I'm not going to really worry/think about it until I know about insurance. Besides, I adore my little Weight Watchers plan.

See, I told you I had a ton of updates. I'm sure I will hear about the jobs slowly over time. One of the three said I wouldn't even hear about an interview until the week of the 27th of July.  The HR department sent me a personality assessment for the one that would be a promotion. It was DIFFICULT!  The e-mail thanking me for taking the assessment said I might not hear anything for two more weeks. So, I'm just going to wait. I won't have the HSG done again until my cycle starts over...so that is a few weeks out as well.  For now we are in a holding pattern and I'm okay with that!

Remodel Photos

I've been so slow at posting these! Here they are...

The grand remodel begins...

Good evening! As I have been taking pictures of our remodeling project and seeing our progress, I have decided I don't want to give everything away! I want to keep the grand finale as a surprise to share on here and on Facebook for our far away friends, but for our friends in the area...or those who want to come take a Colorado vacation, we are going to have a basement unveiling party! I also think it is more fun to to be surprised all at once. With that said, I will share a few things. Like our before pictures. I want you all to see what we are working with! If you haven't been to our home before, you will see below why I am so excited about this project. I also decided to share what style our furniture is and some of the accent pieces.

This is before.  Although, we have already taken out the old furniture, our TV, games, movies, other home gym pieces, etc.  Notice the banister, pretty wood paneling, and the shutters! Not to mention the floor. We had already replaced the light fixtures in this room about a year ago.  So, those are updated.

This is after J started doing some demo work, like taking out the banister.  It is a gorgeous piece, originally from the University of Northern Colorado, but difficult to decorate around! Not sure what to do with it yet. Also, my weight machine is very difficult to get out of this room, it will happen, but has to be taken apart and as one may guess, it is heavy! You can also see the "creepy" room.  Actually, there is a window to it that they used to use to do projection through.  There is a screen built in at the other end of our basement. It's warped, but I dream that some day I will use it for something fabulous.

The shutters are also gone and I believe the trim is also gone in this picture. Below is the guest bedroom. What you don't see is the burlap like wall in the other corner, hope I got pictures of that for later! We (really I say we, this whole project is thanks to an amazing husband who is doing ALL of the work, seriously!) also took down shutters in this room and took out the queen size bed and captain's bed, for now anyway.

Here is a sneak peak of the carpet we chose! We got two different bids. The first one was a different carpet, but twice as expensive. The second bid was half the price of the first.  We offered the competition a shot at doing a second bid for us and it was still higher! So, we went with Lowes!  Below you get a sneak peek at the furniture we chose. Yes, I went with red! Okay, so the color scheme is gray and white with black and red accents.  I've always wanted a really fun piece of furniture, like a cool chair.  Purchasing a whole set in red, is mind blowing...and so much fun!!!

Conveniently for me, target happened to be selling some home decor in the proper color scheme.  By the way, if you have ever done a full remodel that did not include beige carpet, it is a difficult decision of where to start...do you buy furniture first? Carpet first? Pick your colors first? Ahhh, where to start. We started with furniture, then filled in the rest.  I bought the two canvas you see pictured above. I wanted the accent pillows really bad, but they are EXPENSIVE! So, I will make my own! That's kind of fun anyway. Below is the last sneak peek.  The windows in the basement hadn't been washed the whole time I lived here. Partially because they had shutters over them, partially because they are in the basement, and partially because I have never felt compelled to wash them.  For fun I did a before and after.  Pretty drastic in the amount of light that can come in when you wash a window that we figured hadn't been washed in 8 years!  Well, that's all for tonight. Stay tuned for more in the very near future! Carpet should be laid this week and painting is nearing completion!