The everyday life of a stay at home mom just trying to stay sane.

Thursday, April 07, 2005

Who's Alyssa?

So I had a great dinner last night with Carrie. Yesterday was her due date and we had to celebrate! If you haven't visited Carrie's blog before, you must check her out. Her blog is just fun! Its alway happy and fun and makes me laugh a whole lot!
Anyway, as if I couldn't had made a BIGGER ass out of myself...do you know what I did all night? I called her beautiful GRACE, ALYSSA! Even when I was corrected, later on I would STILL call her Alyssa?!!
A.S.S.
Carrie was so sweet about it, but I'm sure in her head she was thinking, "whats wrong with this chick! Calling my Gracie ALYSSA!"
So Carrie and Aly...err...uh...I mean GRACE, I apologize!
But you never know! Maybe I'm just pyschic and your baby is going to be a girl and you are going to name HER Alyssa? You think? *wink* (Really...I feel like an ass, and I'm sorry!)
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KETHER KETHER KETHER!!
My sweet friend!
This one is for you.
So, if you recall, I had a little moment of, 'am I doing the right thing by staying home' and said I wanted to go back to school.
Let me elaborate...
I think, well, I'm pretty positive I want to become a nurse. If not a nurse then a Medical Assistant. If I were to become a nurse, it would most likely be a LPN and not an RN just because of school time. LPN and Medical Assistant are both a one year program at our technical college.
A Medical Assistant is someone who most likely works only in a doctors office and not a hospital setting etc...its the person who takes you back, writes down your problems, takes your weight/blood pressure/temp...assists doctors when needed for procedures. He/She can draw blood I believe and can become a phelbotomist (sp?) which I would NOT do. He/She mainly works one on one with the doc with paperwork, scheduling procedures for patients outside of the clinic. Taking Triage calls (although they can't give advice. Only take a message and ask the doc and call back)
That all sounds like fun to me!
I'm thinking that route more than an LPN because I don't want to work in a hospital or work hospital hours. I would love an office setting.
You see, in the last 5 yrs starting before my pregnancy with Logan, I've dealt with a lot of doctors. The list is too long to list so we'll hit the main ones...
My pregnancy with Logan
Logan's neurologist and neurosurgeon
All his checkups (there are a million the first year)
My infertility treatment doctors (where I learned waaaay more then the average nurse who would call me back)
This pregnancy where my doc let me take a hands on approach with everything.
My sudden HELLP and recovery
Logans recent illness which had the doctors running tests like crazy to figure it out.
Daves recent emergency appendectomy watching the situation go from stomach flu to emergency surgery
The list goes on and on...and each thing has made me more interested in the medical field.
So much that if I were back in highschool, I'd really buckle down (as in, stop drinking! haha) and really follow a medical field path.
Now that I'm an old 27yr old mom of two my resources aren't so strong. A 4yr degree would take forever, and then the money issue...blah! I wish I would have really tried harder when I was young, or knew what I wanted to try for. (Hillary! Listen to me! ;)
I'd love to get involved somehow...I'd love to be able to get a degree, a four year degree! I'd love to have the time and knowledge to go back and get something more advanced than a Medical Assistant or LPN, but I just don't have that kind of time when I have two children. I know people do it all the time and I give my highest praise to them.
**Talking about the differences of working/at home moms. Not one is better than the other, they're both great**
The thing IS though that I want the best of both worlds. I want a rewarding career AND I want to be a very hands on mom. (Not that you can't have both, Please working moms don't think I'm thinking anything bad here AT ALL!)
I want to be home in the morning to send my children on the school bus, and I want to pick them up from school if they want, OR meet them at the bus stop. I want to go on field trips and volunteer on the PTA.
So, I'm not sure that I'm 100% sold on what I want!
Then that gets me in to the whole issue I have lately.
You know the saying, "you only live once"?
Well, thats hard for me to think about lately because its SO true!
There are so many things I want to do, to TRY with my life. But you know what? Each day that passes is a day less in my life.
I look at all the things I WANT to try and realize that I most likely won't get that chance. That's really sometimes hard to face.(I also definitely see the cup half full and realize that each day that passes is another day full of memories I can't replace with my family)
I think, OK...I'm quitting everything at the moment to be an at home mom. THEN when that's done, I'll do something for myself. But the truth IS, its never done. There are always situations that will come up where they will need me. So, say Miles goes to kindergarten. He'll be almost 6. That's another 5 1/2 yrs away. I'll be 33 yrs old. If I then start going to school I'll be 35ish before I even START my career. And what if I do it to only realize that what I wanted all along WAS to be an at home mom?
Don't I sound like a woman who has no clue? haha! should go back to my highschool counselor for advice...or maybe not!
oy! So Kether, my mind is so far from being made up. Do you have any advice as a professional working mom that I haven't thought of?
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Ok, Miles according to my scale at home (you know the ever so accurate way of weighing yourself and then weighing yourself holding baby and doing the math) is a whopping 16lbs even as of last night.
16lbs, 13 1/2 weeks old.
WHY WHY WHY do you think he's still getting up every 3hrs?
Hunger? Habit?
After my lovely dinner last night I ran to Borders to get this book
.
Anyone read it? Loved it? Hated it?
Dave laughed at the fact that we had to get an owners manual to put him to sleep, but if it works I'll be eternally grateful!
Now trying to find the time to read it!
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Thanks to all of you who missed me while I was gone! I missed you too!

6 Comments:

Blogger Mama Duck said...

Hey there- did you get caught in the rain when leaving Border's as I did (got sidetracked and went to Menard's)?

I often have the same conversation with myself about what I want to be when I grow up. Usually the answer involves a lot of money and a tiara. :)

12:16 PM

 
Blogger Kether said...

Mama Duck made me laugh. I wear a Tiara to work the first week of every semester. I don't get a lot of money, though.
I think that my answer to you Jennifer is tooo long for her, so I'll make it a post on my blog.
So, kiss your sons Logan and Alyssa for me and hop over to my blog later to see what I think about the "working" mom vs. at home mom thing.

1:55 PM

 
Blogger Christine said...

Jenn--go for it! I went back to school at 27 for a two year degree as a Physical Therapist Assistant. I loved it. I love working in the medical field (and that's how I met dh!). It is so fulfilling to work with and take care of people who need to be taken care of. I think that you'd be great!!

I couldn't see the book that you were talking about. I use the Happiest Baby on the Block method--LOVE IT!!

(((Hugs)))

7:00 PM

 
Blogger Elizabeth said...

I wanna go back to school right now but don't really have a reason!

Maybe you could start with just one basic class in the evenings or on a saturday to ease into it and then go from there? I know the community college I went to offered both night and weekend classes. Maybe take a medical terminology class?

9:35 PM

 
Blogger Info for you said...

I read that book too and I love it!! :)

Glad it's working so well for you. :)

7:50 PM

 
Blogger Linda said...

Alyssa is a great name!!! :)

And as another person said, maybe going back slowly might be the key. Then you can see how it feels to be away from your boys (for a shorter amount of time) and also get a start on your degree.

9:20 PM

 

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