My Family as we know it...

In The Beginning...

My name is Elora, and I've been married to my wonderful husband for three and a half years. We had our beautiful baby girl Marlee last year in July. After we had miss Marlee, things were very typical. Hubby went off to work, I stayed home with the baby. My husband is a very hard worker, but I don't know exactly how hard it is to go work 16 hour days to provide for my family. Although I do know that I did a lot of other things to contribute by being a stay at home mom. I got the "privilege" to do laundry, dishes, meals, vacuuming, dusting, wiping, bath-time, bed-time, nap-time, feeding-time, finances, oil changes, car registrations, paperwork, medical bills, medical appointments, exercising, eating healthy, safety, and my personal favorite, the "NO SLEEP" time.

 Now, for an entire year I was a stay at home mom, which was something my husband and I spoke about. I wanted to nurse my baby for an entire year before I decided to ween her off. (Benefit from nursing: #1: CHEAPER! #2: The bond Marlee and I received from that was irreplaceable.) Now, things were tough at the beginning, I would get up with her at night, and only me. I would make sure that not only was Marlee taken care of but my sweet husband as well. Things started going south for me and this "Getting the baby fat off" goal I had. I started not taking care of myself, and soon just wasn't confident in myself. So I decided, enough was enough! I turned myself around and made myself a better beautiful person. I may not look perfect, I may not feel perfect, heck I'm far from perfect, but I LOVE me and who I AM. That's all that really matters. Back to the point, I wasn't working as an employee for an entire year. So after I weened Marlee off, I started the job hunt to help contribute to our income. I searched and searched and finally got a call to come in and interview for a "Para-Professional" position over at an Elementary School. Now a Para-Professional is someone who deals with children with Special Needs. Someone who gets the wonderful blessing of working with such amazing kids. I was extremely excited because I already had two and a half years of experience in that category, and was confident going into my interview. A few days after the interview I received a phone call from the Principal. I was so excited, but then quickly realized it wasn't a call back for the job I interviewed for. Instead, he asked if I wanted to be the Art Specialist. I was floored!! My dad is an art teacher, and I've loved art my whole life. This was my chance!!! I jumped for it and got it!! I have my own classroom, and an amazing staff to work with!! I feel so blessed and lucky to get this job opportunity! Now, circumstances put us into my family's home to save money for our home and so I sort of had built-in babysitters. My sister Ashlin, was so awesome to agree to watch miss Marlee while I go off to work 3 times a week. I was thrilled. 

It has been a month and a half since I started being an Art Specialist, and I love it! Of course the first two weeks I was fine tuning and it was hard, but I couldn't be more happy!! There's something about feeling accomplished and part of something that boosts your confidence. I love knowing that I am making a difference. I also love that being the "Art Specialist" means I'm the "cool" teacher and don't have to give out grades. One of the perks to my job is that I get my own room! And it's no ordinary small closet art room, it's GINORMOUS! I'm loving my job, I'm loving my life...it's been great!!!