Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Ours was great. We spent Thanksgiving Day with Dawn's dad and her siblings. It was the first time we have spent the actual holiday with her family. We usually travel to SC to spend it with mine. Guess after 10 years it was about time. It was great being able to be all together with her family. They don't get together very often so I was glad they did.

We spent the rest of the holiday weekend with her mom in Wilmington. We had another Thanksgiving feast with them on Friday and of course we ate way to much which is just par for the course during the holidays. We also braved the crowds and did a little shopping on black Friday. Mason was with us so we didn't go out very early but was still able to get our hands on some good deals.

Mason doesn't sleep well when he has to sleep in the pack n play so Saturday night he woke up at 12:45 and wouldn't go back to sleep until 4:15. I ended up putting him in the pack n play and letting him cry himself back to sleep since he wasn't willing to go while I was holding him. I don't like having to do that but I don't like being up in the middle of the night for no reason either. We survived the rest of the night but boy was Mason tired and cranky the next day. While we had a great time with nana and Glenn, we were both glad to be back at home in our own beds. Mason was so glad he slept from 7:00 until 7:40 the next day. There's no place like home!

Hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Until next time......

Best Birthday Gift Ever!

Dawn gave me an iPad for my 40th birthday and I love, love, love it. Thanks honey. You are the best!

Lordy, Lordy I am 40

Yes that is right on November 16, I turned 40 years old. While that may bother many people, it doesn't bother me. I have the attitude if my 40's are as good as my 30's then I am in for a wonderful decade. So why were my 30's so wonderful. Below is the top 5!

1. I met the most incredible woman in the world a few months after I turned 30 and we now share a fabulous life together. Thanks Dawn for being the best partner in the world. I love you!

2. I purchased my first house. This was a big deal for me. I was able to be involved in the building of the house from the ground up. I learned so much along the way and while I am ready for a bigger house, this one has been a great home!

3. My nephew Joshua was born and besides my son he is the most amazing little boy in the entire world! As a child, he has no idea how much of an impact he has had on me. He kept me grounded during the years of trying to build my own family. I love you more than you will ever know Joshua.

4. I have received 3 promotions within the last 10 years. Moving to Chapel Hill and working for the Chapel Hill - Carrboro YMCA has been a move that has been very fruitful for me and for that I am extremely thankful.

5. Last but certainly not least, my son Mason was born. He was born a few months before I turned 39 and has been the reason that the last year of my 30's have been so incredible. He has changed my life in so many ways. I thank God every day for blessing me with a healthy baby boy. A little boy that has made my heart whole. I love you Mason.

Now can you see why my 30's were so wonderful. I am not sure how the 40's will match up to the 30's but I am excited to find out. Happy Birthday to me!

Until next time......

Mason's 1st Haircut Video

15 Month Doctor Visit and More

Mason had his 15 month well baby check up today. He checked out just great. He weighed 25.5 pounds and is 33 inches tall. That puts him at a little above average for his weight but he is well above average for his height. Perhaps we have a future basketball player in the making!! The doctor said he was doing incredibly well and was right on track! Mason hammed it up for the doctor the entire time we were in there. He kept smiling at him then he would give me lots of kisses. I just love his kisses.

The doctor asked what words Mason is using and I was proud to list off the following: momma, ball, truck, ca (car), flowa (flower), nose, eyes, star, drop, knock knock, tra (trash), nite nite, buh (bus), spida (spider), Josha (Joshua), snack, milk, more, tract (tractor), block, choo choo, birdie, bye bye, wawha (water), off, on, up, no. He has even been putting several words together. He says fire truck, dump truck, big truck, bye bye truck, nite nite momma. The other night he said bye bye fire truck. Dawn and I looked at each other in amazement. Our little guy is so smart.

He knows that the tiger says rawrr, the duck says quack quack, he can go woof woof like the pup pup and mooo like the cow. He can identify a circle, square, triangle and a star. He can point to his eyes, nose and ears. Wow, he is just growing up too fast.

I love him very much. He is the light of my life. I am so thankful he is healthy and he is mine.

Until next time......

Kim

Mason's 1st Haircut

Decision Made

I have decided to not apply for the position. It was a really hard, soul searching decision for me. I so wanted to go for it but after spending a week thinking about it, talking about it, losing sleep over it I came to the conclusion that it just wasn't going to work for me and my family right now. I am not ready to give up my time with Mason and the very real possibility of having to live apart from Dawn just makes my heart ache. While things have been very difficult over the last several months, I have still had the opportunity to leave at 5:00 every day to get home to Mason so I can have a couple hours with him before he goes to bed. My Y allows me to be the mom that I have so long desired to be and that outweighs pretty much all other things right now. I have a wonderful staff that run the Y in my absence allowing me to be with my family. Thinking about the demands of a new position, opening and being responsible for all that comes with a new Y, the pressure I would be under to perform well at work and then have to balance all of that as a single parent for 6 months maybe longer just overwhelmed me.

I strongly considered going through the process just for the experience but after talking to a couple of my HR friends I felt that it would in my best interest to not waste their time as I want to keep the doors to that Association open for any future opportunities. I am thankful for the opportunity to even be asked to apply and have to trust that those opportunities will happen for me again in the future and if the timing is right I will pursue it. My gut tells me that I made the right decision. Only time will tell!

Until next time......

Kim

Greener Pastures

After reading a similiar post from a friend of mine, I decided to steal borrow his title and write my own post about the potential of greener pastures. I have been with the YMCA for almost 15 years and have changed positions 4 times during my tenure with them. I have continued to move up the ladder and have been well taken care of during my time at the CHCYMCA. I have an incredible staff that works extremely hard and will do anything for me at any time. My family is accepted and 99% of the time is allowed to come first regardless of what the case may be. While all of that sounds wonderful, it has been a tough place to be over the past 6 months. There have been conversations of a potential merger in the near future. A merger with an organization that is much, much bigger than ours, that is not very accepting of non-traditional familes and is very evangelical. Our CEO has also been under major scrutiny which has added another level of stress to the work environment. Basically our Y has just been turned upside down over the past several months. With that said, I cannot help but wonder if there are greener pastures ahead. If things would truly be any better than what I have had with my time at the CHCYMCA.

I was recently contacted by a Vice President from another YMCA association asking me to consider applying for their Executive Director positon. He said he had heard lots of great things about me and my leadership and said he wanted me to consider applying for the position. I must admit the position sounds like a great opportunity; however, I have struggled all week whether I should apply or not. I have revised my cover letter and resume, completed a 9 page talent profile for the position and have done my homework on the organization yet I am having a terrible time hitting send on the email. This whole process has caused me to look a lot deeper at myself than I have done in a long time. I have one more day to make my decision. One more night to lose sleep thinking about if this is the right thing to do. Decisions, decisions.

Until next time......

Kim

The Scarecrow Family - Halloween 2010

Mason's second Halloween was a lot of fun. He was the cutest little scarecrow that I have ever seen. This year Dawn decided that we would all dress up like scarecrows. While I could care less whether we dressed up or not, she was really excited about it. She began looking in our closets to see if we had anything that we could put together that would help our scarecrow look. We were both surprised to discover that even between two lesbians in the house, we did not have one plaid, flannel shirt that we could use for our costumes. So, she went out to the local Goodwill store to find the perfect clothes for two more perfect scarecrows! She was unable to find exactly what she wanted so she she bought an extra plaid shirt that she used to cut patches out of and she stayed up until 3:00am sewing the patches on our pants. It was definitely more than I would have ever committed to doing but she did and loved every minute of it. When she was all finishd, we had the best scarecrow costumes eVeR!

We got all dressed and went outside so Mason could run around and play a bit before we had to put him to bed. We were going to keep him up later than his normal 7:30 bedtime but he just couldn't make it. He was getting too cranky and we didn't want him to be miserable. We stayed out long enough to give out candy and to see all of our little neighbors in their costumes. They were all really cute. Mason didn't trick or treat this year since we don't let him eat candy yet and his two mommies don't need to eat candy!! We didn't have as many trick or treaters that we normally have this year. We attributed that to the fact that some of our area did trick or treating on Saturday and some did it on Sunday. We were prepared both nights just in case! I am looking forward to many more Halloweens with my wonderful family. Who knows what we will be next year!

Until next time......

Kim