Hi ho! Hi ho!

It's off to work I go!

Looks like I'm thrilled about it, based on the exclamation points, but really that was more because my "catchy" title seemed to be incomplete without them. Actually, I'm a little on the fence about my feelings, and to be completely honest, leaning toward fear and loathing. I was hired as an Academic Counselor for Grand Canyon University's education department. Ryan's job, now, is to sell the University's online programs (not a hard sell, considering their reputation, but people will give any excuse to put off school), and he then gets them started and monitors their progress for their first eleven weeks. My job is to assist with anything they need in terms of setting up a schedule, problems with classes, etc. through to graduation. The job description is not the reason for my fear and loathing. Although I've only had a week of training, I feel confident enough in my ability to speak to people and to organize and work hard that I cannot see this job challenging me beyond my capabilities. I have that anxious twitter for the unexpected, but I'm not scared. The fear and loathing come in because my going back to work means I will no longer be able to spend every day with my beautiful children. Just writing these words, letting them out, is bringing tears to my eyes.

I really don't deserve to cry over such a thing. I have been so blessed. I haven't worked a full-time job since just before I delivered Brooklynn. When I worked part-time as a Reading Interventionist it wasn't until Brooklynn was a year and a half and even then it was only four hours a day. This is a full eight hours, plus lunch and a RIDICULOUS drive:

[Mapquest says it's 31 miles. According to them the drive is like 37 minutes. Apparently they don't account for rush hour congestion in huge metropolitan cities.]

I'm going to be gone for close to eleven hours from my children, every day! I can't imagine how that is going to feel. Ugh.



Okay, let me regroup.
Believe it or not, through all my ranting, there is much good in my going back to work. I'm sharing these things more for myself to reread if I need it than for any of you, so feel free to find another post with fun pictures. I won't be offended.

1. The reason I need to go to work and Ryan stay home is that real estate is picking up enough that he needs to devote more time to his clients (but not enough that we can be fully supported on his varying income). It's much easier to do this from home, especially with the occasional help from my mom. Anyway, my point is two-fold good: real estate is picking up, and RYAN will be home with the kids. They get time with their dad that most kids don't, and that's pretty cool - especially considering all the wonderful things Ryan has to offer as a daddy.

2. When Ry was employed with GCU, he could get a free education and my Masters was 50% off - a great deal, except that the other 50% was still too much for us to afford. With me as the employee, his Bachelors is still free, but now finishing my Masters is free as well.

3. Working for GCU allows me the opportunity to make connections within a prestigious University so that, God willing, they might help in acquiring an online teaching job in a few years. Such a position would allow me to work from home while giving me enough time (since the kids will then be in school), to go to PA school. There are a lot of ifs in here, but it's a long-term goal. Those'll be worked out as they come up.

There's probably more reasons that leaving home to work will be a good thing, but it's taken all of my effort to come up with these, so they'll have to suffice.