Been a long time

It's been a long time since I have posted here or anywhere. I have had a tough time adjusting to balancing being a Mom, wife, and two plus jobs. My down time has gone...well....down. I fully intended to blog this weekend but when I had time to sit down and relax, I did just that. Sat down and relaxed and couldn't bring myself to do it. I guess that means I just wasn't ready to put down on my blog what was going on and how I was feeling.

I have glided into the new school year, this will be my last year in the classroom. There have been many changes on my horizon and I have decided, however hard the decision was to walk away. I love being in the classroom, I love my kids. However I have a child who entered Junior High this year and is inching closer to her college education which we need to step up our saving for. I have decided to go 100% next summer into my marketing job. I have gone into the this school year full of new ideas. I have set up a classroom twitter account for my parents to follow. I wasn't sure how this was going to go over, but it has been embraced by the parents and very well received. All but one of my parents have signed up for twitter just for the classroom follow. They have been interacting with me through the account and have loved the live tweeting with the photos, they can see their child in action and see what we are doing in the classroom. It has been very exciting to watch unfold. I believe it is the way of the future in the classroom. Last year I used email and I just wasn't happy with how it flowed. Twitter seems to be working out nicely so far.

I love the marketing job, it is so many responsibilities in one job. There are so many pros to this job that they far out weigh the cons. I love being able to work in my pj's if I so desire. I love waking up putting my tasks in order and then receiving an email or phone call that switches it all up and gives me new tasks to tackle. That equals never a dull moment with the work. I love the commute, down about 20 steps to my home office. I love my boss. I love being on the ground floor of a start up company. I love the flexibility. I love the design aspect of the job. I love working on the computer. I love that one week I could work 40 hours and the next only 10. In the end it all balances out with the hours. I love that if I have something to tend to during the day, I can start work at 7pm at night. Honestly there really isn't anything I don't like about the job. THAT fact alone to me is amazing. I know I'm very lucky to be able to say that. I have had many jobs that I have HATED.

As many of my readers know my Father was diagnosed with a very rare form of cancer a few months ago. Two weeks ago the doctor from Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center called to tell me that the original diagnoses was wrong. His cancer was in fact benign.

*pause*

*pause*

Excuse me could you repeat that?

Benign?

WOW.JUST.WOW.

We were floored. We were ecstatic. If you think prayers don't work, you are wrong. Miracles do happen. I can't begin to tell you how happy WE all were with that news. I am so glad we went to Sloan-Kettering. Not only because of what they found, but because from the very first phone call I placed to them, they were top notch, went above and beyond what I expected any Cancer Center should have done for their patients. From the first receptionist I talked to on the phone to the greeter at the front desk, to the nurses, to the doctor we met with. EVERYONE there was first rate, top notch, the best of the best. I cannot say enough good things about our experience there. They truly are the BEST Cancer Center. I say this not because of our outcome but because of how we were treated. I had to deal with a lot of doctors, and their offices, while helping my Dad out with this and many of them were not so quick to help. Dealing with all the doctors can be a bit intimidating especially when you are trying to coordinate everything from out of state.

Today is the first day of Autumn. Can you believe that? It has been cool here for the past week. I have watched the trees starting to turn. This is the first autumn with the BIG DADDY. For those of you who don't know Big Daddy is my Nikon D40. I fully intend to capture autumn 100% with Big Daddy this year. I'm very excited about it. I have scouted out a few choice places to get some (hopefully) great shots of the beautiful fall colors. You are welcome to follow along here. The following are a few shots I have taken so far, but I promise the BEST is yet to come it's very early in color season here. I hope you enjoy them!

You can view the rest of my photographs here.

Let me just add how great it feels to blog again and how happy I am to post here. I missed all of you and this so much. It makes me feel like I'm on the right path again if for nothing else, my sanity! Ha ha!