The End Is In Sight

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / Leave a comment

This has been a really long weekend.  Hubby went out of town on Thursday am and it has been me and the kids since.  Hubby gets home tonight.  His plane lands at 7pm so we expect him home around 8 or so.  Let me just say that the kids are crabby and want their daddy.  Noah cried for about an hour yesterday because he wanted daddy.  It’s hard.  I am crabby because I am the only parent and it’s the end of the semester and I have so much school work and work work to do I can’t see straight and I have no time ot do it.  By the time the kids are in bed, I am to tired to think much less do school work.

But it is all almost over for a few weeks and then I start  a job. A job.  I get to get out the house over 20 hours per week and I have a sitter for the kids.  I am jumping with joy.  This coming week is going to be nearly impossible for me to post at all–as I have huge projects due and end of the semester grading.  I’ll be setting up some automatic posts but those will most likely be pictures.  See you all in a week.

Employed

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 3 Comments

I have a job.  I am excited about it.  So very excited about it.  I think I took the best job for me.  I took a graduate assistanship at the university where I am working on my PhD.  I had another interview at a community college and it was for a full-time instructor/coordinator position for their developmental writing and reading program.  Sadly, I cannot commit to this job that is even to say that they would have offered it to me.  It is sad because it would have been the absolute perfect job for me if I wasn’t a student and have 2 small children who need me too.  One of the problems with the job was that it is a new position and would have to be created as I went.  That on top of a teaching load would have required what I imagine would have been at least 45 hours per week plus the one hour commute–EACH WAY. 

The job I took–the graduate assistantship–is much better.  I have to work 20 hours a week but it’s pretty flexible.  I can work at home if there isn’t anything that I have to handle on campus or meetings.  I am working with another GA and our job is to work as the sponsor for the charter schools that UMSL oversees.  Each charter school, in MO, has to have a University sponsor that is responsible for oversight of the charter school.  We basically hold the charter schools accountable and make sure they are doing what they are suppose to be doing.  What I bring to the table that they don’t currently have is someone with a strong teaching background, so part of what I will be responsbile for is visiting the schools to make sure that the instruction and practice is what it should be.  I am really excited about it.  It doesn’t pay much–enough to cover the cost of Noah’s school and it pays for my school tuition and I get a laptop.  Not too bad. 

I am starting June 1–so am searching for a part-time nanny/sitter to watch my kids M-Th from 8:30-2.  So, for those of you in the area if you know anyone looking for some extra money or a college kid looking for a summer job, please let me know. 

I am hoping to still be able to teach one or two classes at the community college I currently teach at to help subsidize the cost of putting Zoë in daycare while I am working.  And I know that I am going to be supervising student teachers as well–I will have four for sure.  I am happy to have the job business out of the way.  One less thing to worry about.  Woo Hoo.

The Good Times Did Roll

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / Leave a comment

Jazzfest was a blast.  It was so nice first off to be “childless” for three days.  New Orleans really is a great place and has an energy about it that is unmatched by any city I have been too.  It was nice to see it so packed and really starting to come back to life.

I will save the stories for later and a less public forum but there was certainly fun had by all.  There is no place like Bourbon street after midnight.

Making Lemonade…Damnit

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 3 Comments

I thought today would never come.  I thought today would never end. 

It started out awesome–went to the gym, worked out.  It went along fine, had a great morning with my mom’s group.  On the way home something happened.  One of those things that makes you evaluate your life and grab your kids and hold onto them until they scream for you to let them go.  My car broke down–that’s not the life altering part.  I called hubby to come pick us up while we waited for AAA. 

That phone call changed my life…a friend of my husbands and a man who had become a friend of mine, lost their oldest son in a house fire over the weekend.  He was 17 and getting ready to graduate from high school.  He had his whole life ahead of him.  And just like that he doesn’t.  He was an amazing young man and touched the lives of many people.  I am grieving and at a loss of words.  I shed tears for the family and wish we were closer to them.  But, we are as close as we can be in our hearts and thoughts.  We love you Jeff, Kristen, Henry and you too Michael–rest in peace.

Going to new orleans tomorrow–back to posting on Monday

Clearing Up Confusion

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 3 Comments

Many of you only know me through my blog–some I have met in person and adore, but for the most part many of you don’t know me and my many idiosyncrasies.  Husband and I are perpetual thinkers and we often think out loud and make pseudo-decisions that we then re-think and make different pseudo-decisions and re-think those before we both really voice what we want and end up making a final decision. 

Just months after were were home with Zoë, I couldn’t imagine not having another baby.  I was certain–at that moment–that I wanted another baby.  We talked about adopting another baby and about IVF.  We “decided” to try IVF in the fall of 09 and then if that didn’t work we would adopt another baby from Ethiopia.  

We have continued to discuss our desire for more children and what that looks like for us.  I long to go back to work and I am busy with my PhD program.  Parenting infants is hard and private school is expensive.  But, I am not willing to say that my family is complete.  It is complete for now. 

I know that my flip-flopping is hard to keep up with sometimes.  I also know it is frustrating–I certainly get frustrated with my conflicting wants and desires.  I also know that just because we decided not to adopt any more babies–that baby who might have been ours will be adopted by the family that was meant to have him/her.  We are so blesssed with the two children we have right now.  They are amazing and fit seamlessly into our family. 

We are complete for now.