Friday, May 28, 2010

In the Good Old Summertime

Today was my last official day of work until September. This, of course, is one of the biggest perks to teaching at a community college. We aren't required to do any work related activities for the entire summer. It's time for me to slip into full-time mommy mode, which is always a bit of an adjustment, even after so many years. Still, though, I think that this flexibility and extended time off would work for anyone, but especially for someone with young kids. Perhaps someday I will pick up a class or two to teach over the summer, but that likely won't happen until Imp is old enough to want to do his own thing in the summer.

For now, I'll count my blessings that my kids are still young enough to want to be around me in the summer and chill out.

Welcome to my world

Welcome to my blog, if you've somehow managed to stumble upon it. I am no stranger to sharing thoughts online, but this is my very first blog. It'll probably contain a little bit of my personal life mixed in with stories of my professional life. The sum of the components of my life span some diverse arenas, and hopefully, any readers will find it interesting and perhaps even occasionally humorous.

So, as I said, despite being a blogging virgin, I am no stranger to this world. In fact, I met my husband Chretien online a decade ago, when meeting anyone, let alone a potential romantic suitor online was still very new and taboo. Turns out he wasn't an axe murderer after all but a pretty good guy. When we met I was just looking to date local folks and wasn't all that interested in the invitation to view his profile, as he was living hundreds of miles away but his profile was creative and requested any visitors to help him complete an anniversary story of a couple married ten years. After one read, I was hooked. I guess he was, too, as he moved from his familiar to be with me.

We have three children--our daughter Trust is 6 going on 16, our older son Earnest is nearly 4 and our little guy Imp just turned two. We live in a suburb in a middle-aged house which can be chaotic and crazy and fun, sometimes all at the same time. Anyone with small children knows how that goes.

As far as work, I can honestly say I have the best of both worlds. I am a science professor at a community college. I have a month off at Christmas, a week off in March for spring break, and 3.5 months off during the summer. Tomorrow is my last day of work until the day after Labor Day. I get to stay at home with the kids for those times, so I've seen both sides of the SAH/WOH coin and will likely have a lot more to say about this as we get going here. It's a good match for me. Prior to my full time teaching gig that I worked for a number of years for our state health department, supervising labs that did clinical testing for viral illnesses. I know a fair amount about viruses and bacteria (probably more than most people really want to know) and I'm a pretty staunch advocate for vaccination (I have also taught a class in vaccine development at another school.) I will likely have more to say about this as well, but for now, I think I will sign off.