Yep, Back to Work

Well, I got the job offer this morning. It's what I was wanting so I guess I'm going back to work. I will work 32 hours/week (that's the magic number to get benefits). I will work in the office Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays and probably work a partial day from home on Wednesdays... basically whatever it takes to get the hours in. It's going to be a big change for our family so I am a little worried about that. Hopefully there will be enough time to get meals planned and prepared, get the lawn mowed and chores done, and still have enough time to enjoy these little kids that are growing up too fast. I do feel like I need somewhat of a break from kids 24/7 though and I hope that my patience with Kyler improves with this change. He is becoming more and more difficult lately - terrible 3's I guess. It will probably be good for Myelle too. She is quite the Mama's girl. I'm sure going to miss them though!

Now I just need to get some things lined up before heading back to work (my tentative start date is Tuesday). First thing is child care. My mom will be taking care of them most of the time. She has a job at the local library a couple days each week (Mondays and Wednesday afternoons) which is what is dictating my work schedule. We are going to try to get a high school girl or someone else to take care of the kids over the summer so that my mom isn't tied down as much and she can help out at the library and do her own thing. I also need to get the house in order and be sure to have plenty of food around and prepared in advance so it can just be heated up for the kiddos.

The biggest thing I am looking forward to is not having to worry about every penny we spend. We will have enough income to remodel the house as well as buy the things we really want or need. We can start making more charitable contributions the way we used to. And we can once again actively contribute to our retirement rather than doing the bare minimum.

Hopefully I am making the right choice by going back to work. It's one of those things that sort of just happened so I am taking that as it was meant to be.

Back to Work?

In a strange and unexpected sequence of events, I found myself at a job interview this morning. A couple months ago I got a call from a recruiter who works with a former co-worker of mine. He was working on a controller position at a publicly traded company about 30 miles from Seneca. My experience is in tax so I wasn't qualified for that job, but I knew someone who was. A high school friend of mine was an auditor at a big accounting firm in Kansas City and we had talked before about her wanting to move back but there were no good jobs. The dots connected and she was hired. Now, she is in the position to hire someone and asked me if I would be interested.

When I stopped working for GT, I didn't think I would start working for someone else. I wanted to be my own boss and not have to worry about doing "busy work" just to stay chargeable or working certain hours or asking for time off or getting handed work that I wasn't interested in doing. So I started doing tax returns during busy season, hoping to jump start my business. I enjoyed doing the returns but as I started to look into additional services, I found that work to be much less desirable. There were issues with having to buy software, being tied down, and competing with the prices and services of other accountants in the area. The way people are doing business here is not what I'm used to after working for a big firm.

While I love staying home with my kids for the most part, I am finding myself to be a little frustrated. I think it's a combination of not having a lot of adult interaction, having a difficult baby (although she is much better now), not feeling like I am valued for my contributions, not using my brain, and wanting to financially contribute. So if I can work out a part time arrangement and negotiate the salary to my liking, I will probably take this job. Right now we are spending everything Brett is making so we will never be able to get ahead at this rate. It would be nice to have some additional income so that we can maintain the lifestyle we are used to and not worry about buying things we want or going places/doing things we enjoy. We are also remodeling our basement which will eliminate most of our savings so this will help with that and also help us save to remodel the kitchen and bathroom.

I will miss being around the kids all the time. And it will be especially hard for Myelle and I since I have not left her for more than a few hours at a time and she has only taken a couple of bottles (and not willingly). But when I think back working while Kyler was younger, I still feel like I had plenty of time with him and we had and still have a great relationship.

In the end, I still need to see the offer and make a decision. But I think it is a good opportunity. Hopefully the company will grown and allow my career to grow along with it. And if it doesn't pan out, I'm not really out anything. I will just have some more time with the kids. I am still a little shocked that I am even considering going back to work after trying to quit my old job for about 3 years. I need to learn to never say never, because as soon as I get my mind set, something happens to change it.

Try This Oatmeal!

I am not a huge oatmeal fan. When I try to make it, it's always sticky and has a bad texture. And I never had any better luck with the packets. But for some reason, I picked these BetterOats blueberry muffin flavored packets up a couple of weeks ago. And they were awesome! Five pouches come in a box and they run from $1.50 to $2 per box around here. I just microwave them and they turn out great. Super easy and would be perfect to take to work (if I still needed to do that). Anyway, if you're looking for a healthy, yummy, easy, hot, pretty cheap, and light breakfast you gotta pick some of these up!

(Sorry for sounding like a commercial... but this is one of few products I have bought to try and they ended up totally exceeding my expectations. When I got home and unpacked them I sort of wondered why I had bought these, thinking they would eventually end up in the trash.)

The End of an Era

I gave my letter of resignation yesterday and the great thing is I'm not looking back. I think this is finally the right time to quit my job for good. It was a great job in terms of pay, benefits, and flexibility. However, it was a dead end for me in terms of being able to be promoted since I was working remotely and it wasn't what I really wanted to be doing anymore now that we have moved and my life is filled with two littles.

I started applying for jobs in the fall of 2006 as I was wrapping up my final semester of graduate school. I had tons and tons of interviews. Most of them were Kansas City firms since that's where Brett was but I also interviewed for a couple of other places just in case I wasn't marketable in KC. I didn't know if I wanted to do tax or audit, I just knew I wanted to be in public accounting so that I wasn't doing the same thing day after day. I received quite a few offers and had it narrowed down to a couple. GT paid slightly more so I decided to go that route. And I am so glad I did.

The offer from GT was with their tax department. I started January 2007. The first few busy seasons (and many times even not during busy season) were crazy. Lots of hours, challenging work, and learning to work with all different kinds of people. Brett and I got married in May 2008 and I was promoted to senior associate August 2008. The long hours continued but Brett's job was equally busy so we worked hard and played hard. 

In April 2009 I started seeing a fertility doctor so that we could start a family. Unbelievably, my insurance through GT covered infertility which has saved us a lot of money over the years and without it who knows if we would have ever had children. I think God was definitely at work putting everything together just right for our family. In May 2010 Kyler was born. I was pretty undecided about whether I should go back to work or stay home with him. There weren't many flexible work arrangement success stories in my office at that time so I didn't think part-time was a real option. I decided to go in and give my two weeks notice. My boss at that time convinced me to stay on and try working a reduced schedule. I decided to try working three days per week.

Our goal after having Kyler was to move back to Seneca before he started school. Since we both grew up in small towns and in small schools, we thought it just felt right. Since this was the goal, we decided to go back to the fertility doctor in October 2010, just five months after Kyler was born. Our first treatment cycle was in February 2011. Brett was actively searching for jobs in the Seneca area and we decided to go ahead and put our house on the market in case it took a while to sell. It didn't. Our house sold in May 2011, I got pregnant and miscarried that summer while we were living in an apartment, and Brett accepted a position in Sabetha in September 2011. 

So off I went again to give my two weeks notice. This time I thought we were at the end of the road since I would be two hours away from the nearest GT office. I was wrong. My boss offered up the suggestion of working remotely from Seneca so I decided to give it a try. We lived with my parents for a few months until we purchased a small house in October 2011, fixed it up, and moved in around the holidays that year. From September 2011 to March 2012, I traveled to Kansas City several times each month (many months I would have to make three trips in a week) to continue fertility treatment. It was a trying time and I really thought hard about giving up but Brett convinced me to keep at it. Finally, we got pregnant again in March and this time it looked like a viable pregnancy.

We purchased a bigger and much more permanent home in June 2012 and moved in August. We plan to stay in this house until our kids are out of high school, maybe even longer. We found some great renters for our smaller house and are updating our current house little by little. In December 2012, we welcomed Myelle into the world. My current boss has offered to keep me on at GT many times but during my maternity leave I have not missed my job at all. Plus, there are some pretty big changes going on (like using a shared services center in India to prepare the returns) that I'm not entirely sure I'm up to. I sent in my letter of resignation yesterday and am completely at peace with my decision.

So this is goodbye to fertility/OB appointments in Kansas City as well as my job at GT. I have been long awaiting this new lifestyle and can't wait to see what the future holds!